The Devil's Greatest Achievement

Dan Burke: "The greatest achievement of the devil is keeping people from authentic Catholic spirituality, which is mental prayer." If the enemy can keep you distracted, busy, and prayerless, he doesn't need to tempt you to dramatic sins — spiritual drift does the work for him. The Tiffany lamp analogy: your soul is a priceless work of art meant to be illuminated from within by God's grace. Without prayer, the light stays dim. (Ep 77, 9)

Catechism sources (PD) teaches:

"I congratulate you on the good which it is likely to do." Most Rev. William Henry Elder, D.D., Archbishop of Cincinnati: "I think the work will be a very serviceable one. I hope it will meet with great success."

(Source: baltimore_catechism.txt)

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches:

But you say, the Father is called God with the addition of the article, the Son without it. What say you then, when the Apostle writes, The great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; and again, Who is over all, God; and Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father; without the article?

(Source: catena_aurea_john.txt)

Doctrinal Foundation

T4.G.010 (Sententia communis (common teaching)): Prayer is a necessary means of salvation for adults. God grants the grace of perseverance to those who pray for it perseveringly. Without prayer, the necessary graces for salvation will not ordinarily be received.

• Scripture: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.

• Fathers: He who prays well, lives well. He who lives well, dies well. He who dies well, all is well.

T4.G.011 (sententia_certa): God truly gives grace to those who pray for it. Prayer is infallibly efficacious when the conditions of perseverance, humility, and conformity to God's will are met.

• Scripture: Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you.
• Aquinas: Prayer is meritorious inasmuch as it proceeds from charity, and is directed to the good of the one who prays and of others.

T4.G.017 (De fide (defined dogma)): Through sanctifying grace, the Holy Trinity dwells in the soul of the just person in a special manner. The justified soul becomes a living temple of the Holy Spirit, and this indwelling is a real, not merely metaphorical, divine presence.

• Scripture: Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
• Aquinas: The Divine Persons are said to be sent inasmuch as they come to dwell in the soul by grace. Now the invisible mission takes place as regards the gifts of sanctifying grace.
• Fathers: What then shall they say who maintain that the Holy Spirit is a creature? For if He were a creature, He would not be said to dwell in us.

From the Sources

St. Thomas Aquinas (catena_aurea_john.txt):

But you say, the Father is called God with the addition of the article, the Son without it. What say you then, when the Apostle writes, The great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; and again, Who is over all, God; and Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father; without the article? Besides, too, it were superfluous here, to affix what had been affixed just before. So that it does not follow, though the article is not affixed to the Son, that He is therefore an inferior God.

St. Thomas Aquinas (catena_aurea_john.txt):

As Esaias was sent on his commission, not from any place out of the world, but from where he saw the Lord sitting upon His high and lofty throne; in like manner John was sent from the desert to baptize; for he says, He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said to me, Upon Whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. AUG. What was he called? whose name was John?

St. Teresa of Avila (book_of_foundations.txt):

Teresa. The seeds of discord are sown between the old friars and the reformed. In May S. John of the Cross made confessor to the nuns of the Incarnation. Great graces bestowed on the Saint while in the monastery of the Incarnation: the mystical betrothal : and the ecstasy in the parlour while speaking to S. John of the Cross. The spiritual challenge from the friars of Pastrana.

St. Teresa of Avila (book_of_foundations.txt):

It may be held for certain that everything will be truly told, without any exaggeration whatever, to the.

Extended Doctrinal Analysis

T4.G.026 (sententia_certa): The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit — wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord — are infused into the soul together with sanctifying grace. They perfect the virtues and render the soul docile to the movements of the Holy Spirit.

Additional Sources

St. John of the Cross (ascent_of_mount_carmel.txt):

How joy in them is to be directed unto God ., . .

CHAPTER XXX. The evils resulting from the will’s rejoicing in this kind of goods, - 334 CHAPTER XXXI. The benefits of self-denial in the joy of supernatural graces

• 329

° . . 349

x CONTENTS,

PAG CHAPTER XXXII. o

The sixth kind of goods in which the will ae Their nature. The first division ofthem . : . ee + 342 CHAPTER XXXIII. Of the spiritual goods distinctly cognisable by the understanding and the

St. John of the Cross (ascent_of_mount_carmel.txt):

The ‘Ascent’ deals with the active purgation of the senses, the intellect and the will, that is with the need for, and the manner of, the complete mortification of these, as far as under the grace of God it depends on the power of man. The ‘Obscure Night’ treats of the passive purgation of the same faculties, brought about by Divine intervention which steps in where human endeavours fail.

St. Francis de Sales (03_catholic_controversy.txt):

The notes are the special feature, the special disgrace, of this edition.

St. Francis de Sales (03_catholic_controversy.txt):

What he did for a part we have done, in an English version, for the whole.

xvi Translator s Preface.

printed and which had the grace to omit the Gallican notes, but otherwise the text remained the same as in the previous editions, no serious attempt apparently being made to follow up Blaise's discovery. Even

St. Ignatius of Loyola (autobiography_oconor_1900.txt):

Ignatius, as he lay wounded in his brother's house, read the lives of the saints to while away the time. Touched by grace, he cried, "What St. Francis and St. Dominic have done, that, by God's grace, I will do." May this little book, in like manner, inspire its readers with the desire of imitating St.

St. Ignatius of Loyola (autobiography_oconor_1900.txt):

Ignatius, as he lay wounded in his brother's house, read the lives of the saints to while away the time. Touched by grace, he cried, "What St. Francis and St. Dominic have done, that, by God's grace, I will do." May this little book, in like manner, inspire its readers with the desire of imitating St.

Church Fathers (Confessiones_english.txt):

To shake and rob this some of us wanton young fellows went, late one night (having, according to our disgraceful habit, prolonged our games in the streets until then), and carried away great loads, not to eat ourselves, but to fling to the very swine, having only eaten some of them; and to do this pleased us all the more because it was not permitted.

Catechism sources (PD) (baltimore_catechism.txt):

"I congratulate you on the good which it is likely to do." Most Rev. William Henry Elder, D.D., Archbishop of Cincinnati: "I think the work will be a very serviceable one. I hope it will meet with great success." Most Rev. Thomas L. Grace, D.D., Archbishop of Siunia: "Your book entitled An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism supplies a want which is generally felt by the clergy and others engaged in teaching Catechism.

CONTENTS

PRAYERS

The Lord's Prayer The Angelical Salutation The Apostles' Creed The Confiteor An Act of Faith An Act of Hope An Act of Love An Act of Contrition The Blessing before Meals Grace after Meals The Manner in Which a Lay Person Is to Baptize in Case of Necessity

CATECHISM

Lesson 1--On the End of Man Lesson 2--On God and His Perfections Lesson 3--On the Unity and Trinity of God