Untitled - Saints' Books

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2O2 Material for Sermons. [PART i.
principally on embracing the state to which God has
called us. The reason is evident: for it is God that
destines, according to the order of his Providence, his
state of life for each individual, and according to the
state to which he calls him, prepares for him abundant
graces and suitable helps. In the distribution of graces,"
says St. Cyprian, the Holy Spirit takes into considera
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tion his own plan and not our caprices."
And accord
ing to the Apostle: And whom He predestinated, them He
also called. And whom He called, them He also justified?
Thus to vocation succeeds justification, and to justifica
tion, glory; that is, the attainment of eternal life. He,
then, who does not obey the call of God shall neither be
justified nor glorified. Father Granada justly said that
vocation is the main wheel of our entire life. As in a
clock, if the main wheel be spoiled
the entire clock is
injured, so, says St. Gregory Nazianzen, if a person err
in his vocation his whole life will be full of errors; for
in the state to which God has not called him he will
deprived of the helps by which he can with facility lead
a good life.
Every one, says St. Paul, hath his proper gift from God;
one after this manner, and another after that.* The mean
ing of this passage, according to St. Thomas and other
commentators, is, that the Lord gives to each one graces
to fulfil with ease the obligations of the state to which
he calls him.
"God," says the angelic Doctor, "gives
to every man not only certain aptitudes, but also all that
is necessary to exercise them." And in another place
be
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"A
vocatione pendet aeternitas."
2 "Ordine suo, non nostro arbitrio, Sancti Spiritus virtus ministratur.
De Sing. clcr.
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Quos "
praedestinavit, hos et vocavit;
et quos vocavit, hos et justificavit;
quos autem justificavit, illos et glorificavit." Rom. viii. 30.
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Unusquisque proprium donum habet ex Deo: "
alius quidem sic,
alius vero sic." i Cor. vii. 7,
5 "
Cuicumque datur
potentia aliqua divinitus, dantur etiam ea per
quae executio illius poientiae possit congrue fieri." Suppl. q. 35, a. i.