God, Grace and His Goodness

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For Thomas, God is not the supreme being (ens summum in his Latin), but rather ipsum esse subsistens, which means “the sheer act of to be itself.” In a word, God is not one more instance of the genus “being,” one thing, however exalted, among others; instead, he is the self-explaining source of existence as such, that great font of being in and through which all finite things subsist and act. Therefore, God does not compete for space, so to speak, on the same ontological grid as creatures; a zero-sum game does not obtain in regard to God’s activity and creaturely activity—the more we ascribe to one, the less we have to ascribe to the other. - Bishop Robert Barron
If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men. - Saint Rose of Lima (born Isabel Flores de Oliva)
“Listen, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Very important — what does that mean? What Jesus is saying there is that for us to believe in him it is necessary for God to pour out his grace upon us. In other words, even our active faith in believing Jesus is divine is a gift from God. So, if you believe that Jesus is God, if you believe that Jesus is divine, you need to take a little time tonight, say a prayer and thank God for the gift of faith because the very fact that you believe is the result of God's grace acting in your mind and in your heart. - Dr. Brant Pitre, 19th Sunday Tempus per Annum
Know that the greatest service that man can offer to God is to help convert souls. - Saint Rose of Lima
The Truth of the filial adoption in Christ, which is intrinsically supernatural, constitutes the synthesis of the entire Divine Revelation. Being adopted by God as sons is always a gratuitous gift of grace, the most sublime gift of God to mankind. One obtains it, however, only through a personal faith in Christ and through the reception of baptism, as the Lord himself taught: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.” (John 3: 5-7). - Bishop Athanasius Schneider
Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases. - Saint Rose of Lima

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