Choose a topic from Part 3a:
1. The Blessed Virgin was sanctified before her birth. Shewho was to be the Mother of God was privileged above all others,and we know from the angel's salutation (Luke 1:28) that shewas "full of grace." Scripture testifies that bothJeremias and St. John the Baptist were sanctified before theirbirth; Mary's place was higher than theirs in God's economyof redemption, and her privileges, therefore, cannot have been lessthan theirs. Therefore, Mary was sanctified before her birth.{-Mary was sanctified not only before her birth, butfrom the very beginning of her existence; she was preservedimmaculate by God's gift and grace, and thereby sanctified,from the first moment of her conception in the womb of her mother.St. John and Jeremias had original sin removed from them beforetheir birth; Mary never had the original sin at all; it was notremoved from her; she was preserved from its taint.-}
2. The Blessed Virgin was sanctified when her spiritualsoul had animated her body. {-See note above. Seealso the note at the beginning of this treatise.-}
3. There is, as we have seen, a readiness in fallen humannature, a kind of flammability of the flesh by which a movement ofsense-appetency is almost at once a strong and driving desire. Thisis called the forties of sin. It is not sinful in itself,but, if unresisted, it sweeps a man on to sin. Now, in thesanctified (and immaculate) Mother of God, there was nofomes. This defect and blemish of fallen nature had noplace in one of her high dignity and stainless birth (andconception).
4. The Blessed Virgin was, by her sanctification, fittedfor the most exalted office of Mother of God. There was no sin inher, either original or actual, either mortal or venial. In her isfulfilled the prophecy (Cant. 4:7): "Thou are all fair, O mylove, and there is not a spot in thee."
5. By her sanctification, the Blessed Mother received thefullness of grace; for Mary was nearest of all to Christ throughwhom all grace comes. Hence, her fullness of grace was greater thanthat of any other receiver.
6. It is fitting that the Blessed Mother should besanctified from the first. As noted above, Jeremias and St. Johnthe Baptist were sanctified before their birth. Of Jeremias it iswritten (Jer. 1:5): "Before thou camest forth out of the womb,I sanctified thee." And of St. John the Baptist scripture says(Luke 1:15): "He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, evenfrom his mother's womb."
"For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God?"
Thomas á Kempis
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"The essence of perfection is to embrace the will of God in all things, prosperous or adverse. In prosperity, even sinners find it easy to unite themselves to the divine will; but it takes saints to unite themselves to God's will when things go wrong and are painful to self-love. Our conduct in such instances is the measure of our love of God."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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"Try to turn your heart from the love of things visible and bring yourself to things invisible. For they who follow their own evil passions stain their consciences and lose the grace of God.
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Thomas á Kempis
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