Choose a topic from Part 1:
1. Where there is will there is love, for love is the fundamental act of will. Since God is will, God is love.
2. God loves all existing things, that is, things that have positive being. For these things exist by God's will, that is, by his love. To love a thing is to will the thing and to will good to it. God wills the existence, essence, and perfections of existing things; hence he loves these things. God's love is not like human love which is attracted to things by the good it finds in them; God's love causes the good in things.
3. God loves some things more than others inasmuch as he confers more perfection on some things than on others. A plant has more perfection than a lifeless body; an animal has more perfection than a plant; a human being has more perfection than an animal. In each case, greater perfection means greater love of God for that reality.
4. God wills or loves the better things more than others inasmuch as these better things have more good from the divine will.
"Though the path is plain and smooth for people of good will, those who walk it will not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty if they do not have good feet, courage, and tenacity of spirit.
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St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
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"He who wishes to be perfectly obeyed, should give but few orders."
St Philip Neri
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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.
"
Thomas á Kempis
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