§257"O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!"93 God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the "plan of his loving kindness", conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: "He destined us in love to be his sons" and "t…

§501Jesus is Mary's only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save: "The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, that is, the faithful in whose generation and formation she co-operates with a mother's love."160 Mary's virginal motherhood in God's plan

§1161All the signs in the liturgical celebrations are related to Christ: as are sacred images of the holy Mother of God and of the saints as well. They truly signify Christ, who is glorified in them. They make manifest the "cloud of witnesses"29 who continue to participate in the salvation of the world and to whom we are united, above all in sacramental celebrations. Through their i…

Source. Translated by J. Walker, J. Sheppard and H. Browne, and revised by George B. Stevens. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 11. Edited by Philip Schaff. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1889.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210215.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Adven…

Chapter 23.—What We are to Understand by the Animal and Spiritual Body; Or of Those Who Die in Adam, And of Those Who are Made Alive in Christ. For as those bodies of ours, that have a living soul, though not as yet a quickening spirit, are called soul-informed bodies, and yet are not souls but bodies, so also those bodies are called spiritual,—yet God forbid we should therefor…

Chapter 51.—That the Catholic Faith May Be Confirmed Even by the Dissensions of the Heretics. But the devil, seeing the temples of the demons deserted, and the human race running to the name of the liberating Mediator, has moved the heretics under the Christian name to resist the Christian doctrine, as if they could be kept in the city of God indifferently without any correctio…

Chapter 12.—Against the Calumnies with Which Unbelievers Throw Ridicule Upon the Christian Faith in the Resurrection of the Flesh. But their way is to feign a scrupulous anxiety in investigating this question, and to cast ridicule on our faith in the resurrection of the body, by asking, Whether abortions shall rise? And as the Lord says, “Verily I say unto you, not a hair of yo…

§46We begin with the similarity which we see existing between Head and body, in that they have the same nature; and in this connection it must be observed that our nature, although inferior to that of the angels, nevertheless through God's goodness has risen above it: "For Christ," as Aquinas says, "is Head of the angels; for even in His humanity He is superior to angels... Even a…

Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. This is the pinnacle of the epistle. Calvin shows the golden chain of salvation: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification. The Spirit of adoption enables believers to cry Abba, Father. All things work together for good to them that love God. If God be for us, who can be against…

1. Concerning Those Who Asked Him to Show Them a Sign from Heaven. And the Sadducees and Pharisees came, and tempting Him kept asking Him to show them a sign from heaven. Matthew 16:1 The Sadducees and Pharisees who disagreed with each other in regard to the most essential truths, — for the Pharisees champion the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, hoping that there will …

1. Relation of the Baptist to Elijah. The Theory of Transmigration Considered. The disciples asked Him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come? Matthew 17:10 The disciples indeed who went up with Jesus remembered the traditions of the scribes concerning Elijah, that before the advent of Christ, Elijah would come and prepare for Him the souls of those who w…

63. Not then because He was from the Father was He called 'First-born,' but because in Him the creation came to be; and as before the creation He was the Son, through whom was the creation, so also before He was called the First-born of the whole creation, not the less was the Word Himself with God and the Word was God. But this also not understanding, these irreligious men go …

Is the image of God in man? Is the image of God in irrational creatures? Is the image of God in the angels more than in man? Is the image of God in every man? Is the image of God in man by comparison with the Essence, or with all the Divine Persons, or with one of them? Is the image of God in man, as to his mind only? Is the image of God in man's power or in his habits and acts…

Should wisdom be reckoned among the gifts of the Holy Ghost? What is its subject? Is wisdom only speculative or also practical? Is the wisdom that is a gift compatible with mortal sin? Is it in all those who have sanctifying grace? Which beatitude corresponds to it? Article 1. Whether wisdom should be reckoned among the gifts of the Holy Ghost? Objection 1. It would seem that w…

Is it befitting to a Divine Person to assume? Is it befitting to the Divine nature? Can the nature abstracted from the Personality assume? Can one Person assume without another? Can each Person assume? Can several Persons assume one individual nature? Can one Person assume two individual natures? Was it more fitting for the Person of the Son of God to assume human nature than f…

If God certainly foreknows all things, then all things are certainly determined. For to say that God foreknows a thing and yet that thing is not certain, is a contradiction. Foreknowledge proves certainty, and certainty proves some ground of certainty, which is what we mean by necessity. This does not destroy moral agency, for moral agency consists in intelligent, voluntary act…

Q. What do you believe concerning the holy catholic church? A. I believe that the Son of God through his Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this community I am and always will be a living member.

Election is God's unchangeable purpose by which he did the following: Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free good pleasure of his will, God chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen were neither …

We believe that—all Adam's descendants having thus fallen into perdition and ruin by the sin of Adam—God showed himself to be as he is: merciful and just. God is merciful in withdrawing and saving from this perdition those who, in the eternal and unchangeable divine counsel, have been elected and chosen in Jesus Christ our Lord by his pure goodness, without any consideration of…

He who is first begotten is called first-born , whether he is only-begotten or the first of a number of brothers. If then the Son of God was called first-born, but was not called Only-begotten, we could imagine that He was the first-born of creatures, as being a creature. But since He is called both first-born and Only-begotten, both senses must be preserved in His case. We say…

To the saints honour must be paid as friends of Christ, as sons and heirs of God: in the words of John the theologian and evangelist, As many as received Him, to them gave He power to became sons of God. John 1:12 So that they are no longer servants, but sons: and if sons, also heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ : and the Lord in the holy Gospels says to His apostl…

We believe the most good God to have from eternity predestinated unto glory those whom He hath chosen, and to have consigned unto condemnation those whom He hath rejected; but not so that He would justify the one, and consign and condemn the other without cause. For that would be contrary to the nature of God, who is the common Father of all, and no respecter of persons, and wo…

The Formula affirms that God has from eternity chosen, predestined, and ordained to salvation those whom He foreknew would believe, and that this election is the cause of their salvation, faith, and perseverance. Election is in Christ and is revealed through the means of grace. It denies both a decree of reprobation (that God predestines anyone to damnation) and the idea that e…

We must now see in what way we become possessed of the blessings which God has bestowed on His only-begotten Son — not for private use, but to enrich the poor and needy. And the first thing to be attended to is, that so long as we are without Christ and separated from Him, nothing which He suffered and did for the salvation of the human race is of the least benefit to us. To co…

The covenant of life is not preached equally to all, and among those to whom it is preached it does not always meet with the same reception. This diversity displays the unsearchable depth of the divine judgment, and is without doubt subordinate to God's purpose of eternal election. But if it is plainly owing to the mere pleasure of God that salvation is spontaneously offered to…