Choose a topic from Part 3 Suppl:
1. When the blessed, or the saints-for the names mean thesame here-are brought to the glory of heaven, they are dowered withsuitable gifts.
2. These endowments do not constitute beatitude. Beatitudeis perfect happiness in the beatific vision; this happiness orbeatitude is what the soul has merited through Christ and by hisgrace. But endowments are gifts that are not merited in anysense.
3. Christ our Lord as man has all possible perfections andevery gift and endowment, for his humanity is united to Godhead.Still, strictly speaking, it is not proper to say that Christ asman is adorned with gifts and endowments. For Christ is God as wellas man; endowments are his to give, not to receive.
4. Now, an endowment is a dowry, and a dowry suggests awedding and a bride. Human nature is wedded to the divine nature inChrist; Christ himself is wedded to the Church. Hence, whenspeaking of human beings, we may use the term dowry or endowmentwith propriety to indicate the perfections of the blessed. But thisis not the case when we speak of angels, for the metaphor ofmarriage and bride does not apply in their case. Of course, angelshave all the perfections that can adorn a rational being in heaven.The point we make here is merely that the term dowry or the termendowment is not suitably employed to express angelicperfection.
5. The dowries or endowments of the blessed are: vision,love, and fruition. These gifts may be said to correspond,respectively, to the theological virtues of faith, hope, andcharity. Faith is fulfilled in vision; hope, in loving possession;charity, in the fruition or full enjoyment of what is loved.
"When the devil has failed in making a man fall, he puts forward all his energies to create distrust between the penitent and the confessor, and so by little and little he gains his end at last."
St Philip Neri
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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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"Whom do you seek, friend, if you seek not God? Seek him, find him, cleave to him; bind your will to his with bands of steel and you will live always at peace in this life and in the next."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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