Lessons on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans

Lessons on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans

Cover page, 2nd edition, CEV, 2019
Work Details
Author	Maria Valtorta
Writing period	from January 2, 1948 to November 16, 1950
Pages	312
First Italian Edition
Title	Lezioni sull'Epistola di Paolo ai Romani
Publication	1977
Publisher	Tipografia editrice M. Pisani
French Translation 1st Edition
Title	Lessons on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans
Translator	Giovanni Liani extensively revised by the Centro Editoriale Valtortiano
Publication	1999
Publisher	Centro Editoriale Valtortiano
French Translation 2nd Edition
Translator	Yves d'Horrer
Publication	November 2019
Publisher	Centro Editoriale Valtortiano
ISBN	978-8879873482

The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans is often described as one of the most important books of the New Testament due to its exceptional theological depth, systematically exposing the foundations of Christian faith, particularly the Doctrine of justification by faith and the Grace of Christ. Written by the Apostle Paul around the year 57, this letter addresses central questions such as the role of Mosaic law, original sin, redemption through Christ, and the unity between Jews and Gentiles, deeply influencing Christian theology through the centuries. This is why Maria Valtorta’s commentary has always aroused very keen interest. Mgr René Laurentin considered that “ Maria Valtorta’s Lessons on Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Romans are of a deeply moving exegetical depth”.

This commentary, given by The Holy Spirit, is composed of 48 lessons and preceded by the complete biblical text.

Lesson No. 1

Comments on Romans 1:3-4. 

Summary of themes covered : The Son of God does not cease to be God by having assumed a human nature.  The Virgin Mary entered into God to Homelir God and beget the Son of God.  The Will of the Father was above his free will.  Jesus was tempted in his human nature but did not sin because he did not want to.  Holy by his divine nature, he wanted to be holy also according to human nature.

Friday, January 2, 1948.

"The Most Holy Author says: “Declared Son of God by His own virtue.” Which one? Unique? Multiple? Of what nature? I will tell you.

Firstly: divine nature.

The Son of the Father is God like the Father, and the fact that He took on human flesh did not destroy or suspend His union with the Father from whom He is begotten. In Him, the Father delights. Thus, the Son of God does not cease to be God by having assumed a human nature. Begotten by the Father, by the natural outflow of perfect Love who by nature needs to love, and by dignity needs to love an infinite Perfection equal to His own – every other love of God, except for that of the most Blessed, our love, is a Benevolence of God – He alone, with His love as Son, and Son of God, satisfies God with a love worthy of Him.

I anticipate your objection by telling you that in loving Mary, God loves Himself again, because He formed her full of Grace, by a thought of Grace, so that she bears Grace to the world. Mary can be defined as: the bosom of God, because she has borne the Son of God, the Grace with which she was filled, and gave to the Earth a Man worthy of paternal Love.

Like a basin in which waters circulate without ever flowing to the mouth, so Mary, very pure water from a sealed fountain, was born from the burning ardor of eternal thought, and passed by the shores of Peace, carrying with her purity and Peace. She entered into God to Homelir God and beget the Son of God. She returned to the wild arenas to bring Light, Truth and Life to the deserts of Hearts. Once her Mission was accomplished, like water drawn up by the sun, she rose again into the mystical womb that conceived her and gave her to you so that she might bring you Salvation. There she is: Untouched Fountain of purity, unique mirror truly worthy of Perfection. And this Perfection, looking at the Immaculate, forgets all that is offense.

The Word does not cease to be God simply because He became Man. His divinity, His eternal Nature, is not degraded by the Humanity He assumed. Rather, Humanity, by Grace of its union with Divinity, is elevated to perfection without losing its nature. The miracles performed by Christ prove it. The Father always with the Son. The Son always God like the Father. For Divinity cannot be divided, nor change nature due to a lowering into a nature inferior to the divine nature. This division is only apparent."'"

Jesus Christ is therefore Son of God by His divine Nature, being the Word begotten by the Father, the Word incarnate by the work of The Holy Spirit for the salvation of humanity.

Secondly: Jesus Christ also declared Himself Son of God in His human nature, virtuous in a perfect way.

Jesus Christ, the Son begotten of the Father in the line of David, had a free will, both as God and as man. His Acts bear witness to this free will, for he accomplished them according to His will, when He willed, and on whom He willed. Neither the elements nor creatures could oppose His will which was perfect, belonging to the freedom proper to God.

They could not. Only once was this possible. But then it happened because the Son of God did not betray His Mission. He did not abuse His free and powerful will to flee the death of the cross. Had He done so, He would have stolen, abused, transgressed His infinite power as Son of God. And He would have become like Lucifer, even more rebellious than Lucifer.

But Christ was never rebellious. Nothing made Him so, not even the human and natural repugnance to suffering. The Will of the Father was above His free will. The very perfect divine Son did not take advantage of His Nature equal to the Father but with reverential love He always said to Him who begot Him: “Let Your will be done”. Sweet and obedient, He stretched out His wrists to the ropes to be dragged to sacrifice.

He therefore had a free will. But He used it to be perfect as a man, as He was perfect as God.

It is said: “Christ could not sin.” That would be true if Christ had been only God. Being the perfection, God cannot sin. But His second nature is subject to Temptations. If they are not repulsed, Temptations lead to sin. And against Man were launched severe Temptations. Complete hate was against Him. All enmity, all fear, all jealousy of Hell and men were against Him, against the Mighty One whom they felt would be Victorious even though He had the gentleness of the lamb.

But Jesus "did not want" to sin. Give the Strong One due recognition of His strength. "He did not sin because He did not want to sin." Thus, against every snare and every event, He still testified to being Son of God by this perfection of His justice.

Is it not also said to you: "Be gods and sons of the Most High"? He was, because in his humanity, like yours, He was God and son of the Most High by the righteousness of each of His acts.

O men, Wisdom tells you that the statement establishing the divine sonship of Jesus, born of Mary from the line of David, besides being proven by the word of the Father, miracles, the word of the Master, and by His resurrection, is also proven by His mastery over man's passions and over the Temptations delivered against Man. Holy by His divine nature, He wanted to be holy also according to human nature, true Firstborn of the eternal Family of God's sons coheirs of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Finally, He revealed Himself Son of God by His spontaneous resurrection. God: He, to Himself, God-Man, put to death by men for their salvation, once the sacrifice was consummated, and after having given certain proof of being dead, restored life to Himself. He restored it by Himself, without waiting and without judgment. He thus glorified His Body, conqueror of all miseries consequent to original sin."

Lesson No. 23

Comments on Romans 7:14-25.

Summary of themes covered : Original sin - "I am fleshly" - There was no autogenesis - Man is not the result of evolution - Diversity justifies the Creator and is explained differently - After the Flood - The earthly paradise - The tree and the apple - Adam and Eve driven out from the Garden of Eden - Consequences of original sin - Redemption - You know Christ.

May 21–28, 1948.

"The Gentle Guest tells me:

“To fully understand Paul's words, one must carefully consider Original Sin.

This lesson has been given many times, but it is never too often, because the painful reality of original sin and its consequences is often denied or doubted by many, by too many people. Among them, there are some who should be more convinced than others of the reality of original sin and its consequences. Indeed, their studies, and especially the experiences of their ministry, continually provide them with tangible proof of man's decadence, who, from being a perfect creature, because of original sin became a weak and imperfect creature exposed to the assaults of Satan and the external and internal dangers. Man is a wonderful work of creation that the Enemy of God disturbed out of jealousy.

Some will say: "Hundred times repeated lesson, so useless." It is always useful, since at the moment of need, you never know it enough, neither for yourselves nor for others.

Satan is extremely interested that you do not know this lesson. So he darkens in you the exact knowledge of this episode: Yet it is an episode that did not end the day it was fulfilled, and whose consequences have not stopped with the persons who fulfilled it. Just as all men inherited life (existence) from the blood and seed of Adam and Eve, so this fatal heritage has been and continues to be passed down from generation to generation, from Adam, first progenitor, to the last human to be begotten. For the last man to be born on Earth will still be of the descent of your First Parents.

Paul’s statement expresses the regret of all those who despite their truly good will, find themselves unable to do the good with the desired perfection. To fully understand this Confession, one must look at the consequences of the first Sin, and therefore at the first Sin itself, so as not to find unjust the condemnation and its consequences.

Here is Paul’s Confession: “I am fleshly, sold under sin.” He continues: “I do not understand what I do. I do not do the good I want, but the evil I hate. Even if I do what I do not want to do, I also recognize that the law is good (in forbidding or commanding what it forbids or commands). But (when I do the evil I hate with my better part, while I do not do the good I would like to do) at that moment, it is not I who act, but sin that dwells in me (...). In my flesh dwells no good (...). I have the desire to do it, but I cannot perform it (...). When I want to do good, evil is already present, beside me (...). In my inner being, I delight in the Law of God, but in my members I find another law opposed to the law of my reason, and makes me a slave of the law of sin which is in my members (...)”.

“I am fleshly”.

"Adam too was made of flesh besides being made of spirit. But he was not fleshly, because his spirit and reason dominated matter. His innocent and grace-filled spirit reflected the wonderful traits of his Creator, being intelligent enough to understand what lies beyond the natural world. His intelligence, already very extensive because of the preternatural gift of infused knowledge which made him capable of understanding all natural realities, was elevated by Grace to the supernatural level, making him capable of understanding the incomprehensible, something impossible for those not prepared for it by a supernatural gift; capable of understanding God and, proportionally, to be the faithful image of God, for order, justice, charity, wisdom and freedom from all degrading slavery.

Oh! The splendid liberty of the man full of Grace! God Himself respected it, and it was threatened neither by external forces nor by internal appetites. Sublime royalty of the deified man, son of God and heir of Heaven, royalty of dominion over all creatures! Which also allowed you to dominate what now tyrannizes you most: yourselves, where the poisons of the great wound relentlessly ferment! When one says: “Man, king of visible creation, was created with power to exercise his dominion over all creatures,” one should reflect on what that means. It is that Grace and the other gifts received by man from the first moment of his existence made him capable of exercising his royalty as well on himself as on his lower part. Indeed, he had knowledge of his ultimate end, he had love that naturally drove him toward this end, he had control over matter, and control over the senses that function within this matter. United as he was to Order, and in love with Love, he knew how to give God what belonged to Him, and to his own self what was permitted to give it, without allowing disorder of passions or excess of instincts. The spirit, intelligence and matter formed in him a global harmony with which he had been endowed from the first moment of his existence, and which he had received as a whole already constituted, not by successive stages as some claim.

There was no autogenesis, there was no evolution. There was simply Creation willed by the Creator. Your reason, of which you are so proud, should suffice to convince you that from nothing one cannot form an initial something, and that from a single initial thing, one cannot form the whole.

Only God can bring order to chaos and fill it with countless creatures forming Creation. This very powerful Creator had no limits in His creative acts, which were multiple. No limits either in the creation of already perfect creatures, perfect according to the purpose for which each was conceived. It is folly to Believe that God, after deciding to give Himself a Creation, could make shapeless or incomplete things and wait to be glorified only at the end of the evolutionary cycle, when each creature, and all creatures together, would have reached the perfection of their nature, finally becoming able to satisfy the natural or supernatural purpose for which they were created.

Just as such a theory cannot apply to lower creatures, whose natural purpose is situated within a limited space of time, so much more it cannot apply to man, created for a supernatural purpose and destined for the glory of Heaven. Could one even imagine a Paradise whose legions of Saints glorifying God around His throne were the ultimate product of a long evolution from wild beasts? The current man is not the result of an upward evolution, but the painful result of a downward evolution, because Adam’s fault permanently impaired man's physical, moral and spiritual perfection. The wound was so severe that even the Passion of Jesus Christ, who nevertheless restores the life of Grace to all baptized, cannot erase the residue of the fault, the scars of the great wound, i.e. the evil appetites which are the ruin of those who love God little or not at all, and which torment the righteous who would not want to feel drawn by the voice of these appetites, and who struggle heroically their whole life to win this battle and remain faithful to the Lord.

Man is not the result of an evolution, just as Creation is not the product of autogenesis. Evolution always presupposes a first creative source. Moreover, to think that the innumerable existing species derive from a single self-generated cell is pure absurdity.

For life, the cell needs a fertile medium, equipped with elements that allow and sustain life. If the cell self-generated from nothing, where did it find the elements to form, live and reproduce? If it did not exist yet when it began to exist, how did it find the vital elements: air, light, heat, water? What does not yet exist cannot create. So how could the cell have found the four elements ready to receive it at the moment of its formation? Who would have given it the germ called "life"? Which source? Even if, by hypothesis, one wanted to admit that this non-existent formed from nothing, how from its unity and unique species could it have produced all the species varieties found in visible Creation? Stars and planets, clumps of earth, rocks, minerals, the multiple and different qualities of the plant kingdom, the different species and Families of the animal kingdom even more numerous and varied than those of the plant kingdom… From invertebrates to vertebrates, mammals to oviparous, quadrupeds to quadrumana, amphibians and reptiles to fish, fierce carnivores to gentle sheep, animals armed with formidable weapons of attack or defense to insects easily destroyed, giants dwelling in virgin forests that no other animal can surpass except their own kind, to all categories of arthropods, to protozoa and bacilli: all coming from a single cell? And by spontaneous generation?

If that were the case, the cell would be greater than the Infinite. Why then did the Infinite, He whose attributes have no measure, take six days, six sidereal stages, to make visible Creation, dividing the work of this creation into six orders of ascending creation which indeed evolved toward ever higher perfections? Not because He needed to learn to create better, but because of the order which governs all His divine operations. This order would have been violated – since it would have prevented the survival of the last creature to be created: man – if man had been created at the very beginning, before the Earth was constituted in all its parts, ready to receive him thanks to the order established in its waters and continents; before this same Earth was made comfortable by the creation of the firmament; before it was made luminous, beautiful, fertile by the beneficial sun, shining moon and countless stars; before it became the home, reservoir, garden of man thanks to the plant and animal creatures that cover and populate it.

Man was made on the sixth day. In him are summarized the three kingdoms of sensible Creation and, wonderful truth, within him is also the proof of his divine origin: the spiritual Soul that God infused into man’s matter.

Man: true link between Earth and Heaven, true union between the spiritual and material worlds, being where matter serves as tabernacle to the spirit, being where the spirit vivifies matter not only for mortal life, which is limited, but also for immortal life which must come after final resurrection.

Man: creature in whom the Creative Spirit shines and dwells.

Man: marvel of the power of God who by His breath, part of His infinite Being, penetrates and transforms dust into the power of man, raising it to the supernatural creature condition, son of God by participation of nature, made capable of relating directly to God and understanding the Incomprehensible. Man made capable of loving and entitled to love the One who surpasses all other beings, to such a degree that this man, blocked by overwhelming respect, would not even be able to desire to love Him without the gift of divine support.

Man: the created triangle whose base of matter touches the Earth from which he was drawn; with intellectual faculties tending to rise toward the knowledge of the One to whom he resembles; and with his highest part, the spirit of the spirit, the choicest part of the Soul, touching Heaven and lost in contemplation of God Charity, while Grace, freely received, associates him with God, and charity kindled by this union with God divinizes him. For “he who loves is born of God”, and the son’s privilege is to participate in the nature of his father. Thus, man is the image of God because of his Soul divinized by Grace, and resembles God because of charity made possible by this same Grace.

Man therefore was created on the sixth day. He was created complete, perfect in each of his material and spiritual parts, made according to Divine Thought and the purpose for which he was created: to love and serve his God during earthly life, to know Him in His Truth, and finally to enjoy Him in the afterlife, eternally.

The unique Man was created, the one from whom all Humanity was to be born, starting with Woman, companion of Man, made for him, who with him would have populated the whole Earth and dominated other inferior creatures. The unique Man was created, the one who as father would transmit to his descendants all he had received: life, senses, material faculties, as well as immunity from all suffering, reason, intelligence, knowledge, integrity, immortality, and finally, the gift of gifts: Grace.

The evolutionary theory based on skeleton conformation, as well as on the diversity of skin and face colors, and purporting to prove erroneous points of origin of man, is not a theory Against the truth of man’s origins – a creature created by God – it is in its confession wrong. For what proves the existence of a Creator is precisely the diversity of colors and structures in the different species of creatures that He, the Almighty, called into existence.

If this applies to lower creatures, it applies all the more so to man. To man created by God, even if some life circumstances, climates, and also corruption – that which provoked the flood, and also, but much later, in the prescriptions of Sinai and in Moses' curses very severe orders and threats – cause him to show different aspects and colors according to different races.

Everyone knows, and experience proves and confirms this continuously, that violent impression can cause unexpected reactions in the embryo of a gestating mother, to the point that she gives birth to a little monster resembling in its form the object that troubled the mother. It is also recognized that the long insertion of an Aryan race person within a non-Aryan people causes more or less marked changes in facial traits. The latter ends up borrowing certain characteristic traits of the race that impregnated her. Similarly, it is proven that particular climates, or the special characteristics of an ambient environment, influence the growth and development of the limbs of the human body and the color of the skin.

All this to say that the chimera on which evolutionists want to build the edifice of their presumption do not support their edifice but rather favor its collapse.

In the flood perished the corrupted branches of humanity wandering in Darkness due to sin. A single ray of the lost star – memory of God and His promise – still managed to make its way, as though through a thick fog, to the small number of the just.

Once the monsters were destroyed, the preserved Humanity multiplied from the race God had recognized as just, the race of Noah. Humanity was thus restored to its original state, that of the first man, whose nature still constituted of matter and spirit, and remained so even after sin had stripped the spirit of divine Grace and innocence.

If man had been the final product of an evolution having brutes for ancestors, when and how would he have received his Soul? Is it possible that brutes received with their animal life the spiritual Soul? The immortal Soul? The intelligent Soul? The free Soul? This simple thought is a blasphemy. And how could they have transmitted what they did not have? And would God have gone as far as to dishonor Himself by placing the spiritual Soul, His divine breath, in an animal? An animal so evolved as imagined, remains an animal? Descendant of a long line of animals? Even this supposition offends the Lord.

To give Himself a people of sons and thereby express the love from which He overflows and receive the love of which He is thirsty, God created man directly by a perfect act of His will, in one act that took place on the sixth day of creation. God then took dust and transformed it into living and perfect flesh. Then He breathed into it the Soul, a Soul adapted to man's special condition, adopted son of God and heir of Heaven. This is not the "Soul that even animals have in their nostrils," which vanishes with the death of the animal. It is the spiritual Soul which is immortal, survives the death of the body and will revive this body at the trumpet call of Judgment – at the triumph of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. He will revive this same body. For the two natures that lived together on Earth must be united again for eternity, in joy or pain, according to the merits they have gained together.

That is the truth. Whether you accept it or refuse it. And even if many want to steadfastly refuse it, the day will come when you will know it perfectly, when your spirit will be convinced instantly, and you will realize that by following Pride and lies you will have lost good eternally.

It goes without saying that those who do not admit that man was created by God do not grasp the exact nature of Sin, the reason for condemnation, the inherent consequences. Man needs to Believe in creation as described. This is necessary for guiding oneself and directing all actions toward the goal for which man was created; immediate goal: to love and serve God on earth; ultimate goal: to rejoice in His Presence in Heaven.

But follow me. My word is clear and simple because I am God. And God, infinite Wisdom, knows how to adapt to the ignorance and relativity of His little ones. I love the little ones, provided they are humble. I tell them: "Come to me, you who are little, and I will teach you Wisdom".

The Trial.

"When man awoke from his first sleep and found near him the companion of his life, he felt that God had made his happiness complete.

Adam's happiness was already very great, even before. For everything in him, outside and inside, was made to allow him to enjoy full happiness, made of health and holiness. The delights, that is Eden, were not only around Adam, but also within him. Adam was surrounded by a garden populated with vegetal, animal and marine wonders, but a garden of spiritual goods also blossomed inside him. It was a garden full of Virtues of all kinds, ready to mature into Fruits of perfect holiness. There was the tree of knowledge, a knowledge proportionate to his state, and there was that of supernatural life: Grace. There was also the divine source of precious waters which branched in four streams and constantly watered the virtues of man, abundantly nourishing them toward their glorious growth so that man becomes an ever more faithful mirror of God.

As a natural creature, Adam knew what he saw: the goodness of a virgin world, barely emerged from the creative power of God. He knew what he could: his rule over all inferior creatures. God had arranged everything so that man was well served. From the sun to the smallest insect, everything was designed so that everything was delight to him.

As a supernatural creature, he knew – this was a very sweet Ecstasy of reason – the understanding of God's Essence, which is Love. He knew the loving relations between the Immense who gave Himself and His creature who loved Him in a state of ADoration. This capacity accorded to man to communicate with his Creator is described in Genesis, in a veiled way, in the phrase: “Having heard the Voice of God walking in the garden of Eden, in the evening breeze”.

Even if adopted sons of God were already endowed with knowledge proportionate to their state, the Father still taught them things, for God’s love is infinite: after giving, God the Father desires to give again and again. And all the more since the creature is more a daughter to Him. God always gives Himself to the one who gives oneself generously.

So when man, upon waking, saw the Woman who resembled him, he felt that his happiness as a creature was complete: he possessed the whole human and the whole superhuman, Love having given itself to human love.

The only limit God had set to man’s immense possessions was the prohibition to pick the Fruits of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. To want to pick this useless fruit was unreasonable, since man already had the knowledge he needed, and a measure greater than that established by God could only harm him.

Notice well: God does not forbid picking the Fruits of the Tree of Life. Man needed it to live a healthy and prolonged natural life, until God, driven by a stronger desire to reveal Himself fully to His adopted son, would say the words: “My son, come to my dwelling; plunge into your God”; which would have allowed Adam to ascend to the celestial Paradise without the pain of death.

The Tree of Life mentioned at the beginning and end of the Book of Great Revelation, the Bible, represents the Incarnate Word – whose fruit, Redemption, was hung on the wood of the cross – this Jesus Christ who is Bread of Life, Source of Living Water, Grace, and who restored Life with His Death. You can always eat and drink from this Fruit to live the life of the just and reach Eternal Life.

God does not forbid Adam to touch the Fruits of the Tree of Life. He forbids touching the useless Fruits of the Tree of Knowledge. Indeed, an excess of knowledge would have awakened Pride in man, who with the new acquired knowledge would believe himself equal to God. He would become foolish enough to Believe capable of having this knowledge without danger, which would lead to an abusive right to self-censorship of his own actions, and the conviction of being able to act against his filial obedience duty toward his Creator – given the supposed equality now acquired on the knowledge level with his Creator – with his God who had lovingly explained either directly or by Grace and infused knowledge what is permitted and what is forbidden.

The measure given by God is always the right one. He who wants more lacks prudence, is intemperate, imprudent, irreverent. He wounds love. He who arrogates to himself the right to take what is not offered is a thief and a violent. He wounds love. He who acts independently of any supernatural and natural Law is a rebel. He wounds love.

Faced with the order given by God, the First Parents should have obeyed without asking too many “whys”, the result of which is always the shipwreck of love, faith and hope. When God gives an order or acts, one must obey and do His will without asking why this or that. Everything that God does is well done, even if the creature, limited in knowledge, cannot believe it.

Why should they not have approached this tree, picked its Fruits and eaten? It is useless to know. What is useful is to obey, nothing else. Be content with the plenty received. Obedience is love and respect, it is the measure of love and respect. The more one loves and venerates a person, the more one obeys.

Here, in this case, the orders came from God – the infinitely Great, the infinitely Good, the very generous Creator of man, – he should have, as a sign of gratitude, given him not only “plenty” of love, but “all” the love and all the ADoration of which he was capable. He should have given all his obedience without thinking of the reasons for divine prohibition.

Discussions presuppose the right to judge by oneself and to criticize the orders or actions of others. Judging is not easy, and rarely is judgment just. It is never just when one declares divine order useless, erroneous or unjust.

Man had to obey. The trial would prove in him this capacity for obedience. The measure of his love and reverence consisted in how well he could or could not obey.

The Means.

"The tree and the apple. Two small, insignificant things compared to the wealth of every kind that God had granted man.

And so what? God had given Himself and would He want to prevent one from touching a fruit? So what? He had given dust natural and supernatural life, He had transmitted to man His own breath, and now He would forbid him to pick a fruit? So what? He had created man king of all creatures, had granted him the status of son rather than that of his subject, and now He forbids him to eat a fruit? To those who cannot think wisely, this episode may seem inexplicable, like the capricious stubbornness of a Creator who, after covering a beggar with all sorts of riches, forbids him to pick up a little stone lost in the dust. But it is not like that.

The apple was not only the reality: that of a fruit. The apple was also a symbol. The symbol of divine right and human duty.

Thus, when God calls beings and grants them extraordinary gifts, the privileged persons should always remember that He is God, and that man should never abuse the privileges granted to him, even if he realizes that God loves him extraordinarily. Yet, few of the chosen overcome this trial. Many of them want more compared to what they have already received, and go to pick what is not given to them. This is how they find the Serpent and his poisoned Fruits.

Pay attention, oh you the chosen! Remember that in your garden, so full of the gifts of the Most High, there will always be a tree to test you. It is around this tree that the Adversary of God, who is also yours, constantly tries to coil. He is there to try to snatch from God one of His instruments by seducing you by Pride, greed, rebellion. Do not touch the rights of God. Do not trample on the law of your duty. Never.

God’s instruments seem numerous. According to some of you, these “voices” [these messengers] would even be too many. Oh well, believe, all of you, theologians or simple faithful, that these instruments would be even more numerous, hundreds of times more numerous, if all those called by God to this kind of particular ministry could overcome the Temptation to take even more, if they knew how to refrain from picking what God has not given.

For all the faithful, the Decalogue, tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, is a test to verify their faith, love, obedience. For the “voices” and extraordinary instruments, this tree is even more attractive, even more and better trapped by Satan. The greater the gift, the easier pride, greed, the presumption of being able to do whatever happens, arise. But I tell you, I, that he who receives much has the duty to be more perfect than others if he wants to avoid a greater condemnation. He who received little will have the mitigating circumstance of having received little. His condemnation cannot be as severe as that reserved for he who has received much.

Here is a question I would like to anticipate: did the tree in question bear both good Fruits and bad? It was not different from others. It bore the same Fruits. But it was the tree of Good and evil. It became so according to man’s behavior, not so much regarding the tree itself, as regarding divine order. Obedience is good. Disobedience is evil.

God knew that Satan would approach this tree with the aim to seduce. God knows everything. The bad fruit was Satan’s word swallowed by Eve. The danger in approaching this tree was in disobedience. To the pure knowledge God gave, Satan injected his impure malice, malice which soon fermented even in the flesh. But Satan, at first, corrupted the spirit: He made it rebellious. In a second time, He corrupted intelligence: He made it deceitful.

Oh, Yes! They did know it well, after the fact, the knowledge of Good and Evil, because all, even their new look, which made them aware of being naked, warned them of having lost the gift of Grace and the consequent disappearance of supernatural life which until then made them happy in their innocent knowledge.

Naked! Stripped less of bodily clothes than of the gifts of God. Poor! Poor for having wanted to be like God. Dead! Dead for being afraid to disappear with their species unless they took the initiative to act directly.

The first act Against love was committed by Pride, disobedience, mistrust, Doubt, rebellion and spiritual concupiscence. Lastly, it was completed by concupiscence of the flesh. I said well: Lastly. Many think otherwise: that the act of concupiscence of the flesh was the first. No. God is order in all things.

Even in his relations with divine law, man first sinned Against God. He wanted to be like God. He wanted to be “God” in knowledge of Good and Evil. He wanted the freedom to act absolutely, hence illicitly. He wanted freedom to act according to his own will and pleasure, Against every divine counsel or prescription. Secondly, he sinned Against love. He loved himself abusively, denying God the reverential love due Him, putting his own self in God’s place, and showing hatred to his future Neighbor: to his own race he transmitted the heritage of fault and condemnation. Lastly, he sinned Against his dignity as royal creature, a creature who had received the gift of perfect mastery over his own senses.

The sin of the flesh could not take place as long as the state of Grace and other consequent states were present and active. As long as innocence persisted, and so the domination of reason over the senses, sensual Temptation could arise, but man would not have committed sensual fault.

The Punishment.

"It was not disproportionate, but just.

To understand this punishment, one must take into account the perfection of Adam and Eve. If one considers the summit where Adam and Eve stood, one can measure the depth of the abyss into which they fell.

If some of you were taken and placed by God in a new Eden, as you are in your current state, but having received the same commands as Adam received, do you think that, becoming guilty of his sin, you would be treated with the same rigor given to Adam? No. God is just. He knows the terrible heritage that is in you.

The consequences of original sin have been repaired by Christ as for Grace. But the weakness of the wound inflicted on your original perfection remains. This weakness consists in the Presence in you of evil appetites, or inclinations, which as latent infection germs, but present, are always ready to Revolt in you and overwhelm your person. They are present even in saints. At bottom, holiness is nothing other than the fruit of the continual Struggle that the Soul and reason of the just lead Against the assaults of their evil inclinations, and the fruit of the victory they gain in the effort to remain faithful to Love.

Today, God, who is infinitely just, would not be inexorable with any of you as He was with Adam.

With Adam, Yes, He was severe, for Adam had everything to overcome Temptation, and to easily overcome it. But in the very punishment, where one sees that if the transgressing man did not respect the limits set by God, God respected the limits He set for man.

God did not violate man's free will. Man, on the other hand, violated God's rights. God did not violate man's freedom of action, neither before nor after the fault. He had subjected man to a trial. Being God, He knew man would not overcome it. But it was just that man was subjected to it to be confirmed in Grace. The Angels, for the same reasons, underwent their trial, and God confirmed in Grace those who came out victorious. By subjecting man to the trial, God, for the same purpose, left him free to act as he wished.

If God had wanted to violate man's free will of choosing a destiny, He would not have subjected him to the trial, or He would have bound the powers of the will so as to prevent wrongdoing. Likewise, if He had wanted to Reward at any cost, He would have pardoned him in advance, or to have a pretext for pardoning him, He would have aroused in his Heart perfect contrition, or at least a form of attrition, a regret for goods lost. Then, with a ray of His love, He would have helped man to pass from this imperfect attrition, designed for goods lost in the present and Future, to a form of perfect contrition, designed for the offense made to God and the loss of His Grace and Charity.

In all these cases, however, there would have been injustice against the Angels, who were subjected to trial without their will's power being bound, without anticipatory pardon, and without any movement of contrition or attrition being produced by God to justify divine forgiveness. It must be said that for Angels it was much easier to avoid sin than for men, due to their gifts of Grace and nature (spirits without bodies, free from the weight of senses), and also because they were exempt from internal pressures caused by the senses, and external pressures (caused by the Serpent). Moreover, they had knowledge of God. Yet they sinned, without the slightest mitigating circumstance due to ignorance or sensual stimulations, out of pure malice and sacrilegious will to sin. In any event, none of this occurred, neither on God’s side nor on man’s side.

God respected human will. Man persisted in his state of Revolt against his divine Creator. It is with Pride that Adam left the garden of Eden, after having lied – his pact with Lies having already come – and after trying to justify his sin with poor excuses. It is not because they were naked and not out of shame to appear thus before the One who created and clothed them only with Grace and innocence, that they made themselves belts of fig leaves. But it is because, feeling guilty, they were afraid to appear before God.

Fear, Yes. Repentance, no. That is why, after driving them out of Eden, God “placed two cherubim at the gate of this paradise,” to prevent the two transgressors from entering again by trickery, to unlawfully enjoy the Fruits of the tree of life, which would have rendered vain part of God’s just punishment, and deprived God of His right: that of giving life or taking it after having kept it healthy, happy and long with the good Fruits of the tree of life.

Thus the punishment was just. Deprivation of what man had spontaneously despised: Grace, integrity, immortality, immunity, knowledge. Subsequent loss of God’s paternal charity and powerful support; weakness of the wounded Soul; fever of flesh awakened that raves; silenced reason; fear of God; loss of Eden where life flowed without pain or suffering; without fatigue, death, subjection of Woman to man, enmity among men, brothers, sons of the same mother; without offenses, abuses; all evils that torment humanity since; fear of death and fear of judgment; grief of having begotten pain and grief of transmitting it with life to the dearest beings.

Consequences.

"Original sin, besides the immediate condemnation it caused on Adam and Eve persons, had consequences that weigh on all Humanity, and will last until the end of time. As the first father of the human Family, Adam transmitted his infirmity to all his descendants.

The same happens when a defective man begets children. The germs of his defect are transferred from one generation to the next. Even if, with appropriate medicines, the virulence of this hereditary germ is reduced and changed so as to diminish its ravages, it remains that descendants of this lineage cannot be as perfect as those begotten by a perfectly healthy constitution.

“By the work of one man sin entered the world.” This is written, and it is the truth.

This pain, even before being proclaimed by Paul, was proclaimed by Wisdom, by the teaching of the Word, and by the Psalmists. It is always the Voice of God, for these persons were inspired by Him.

This pain fills the world and is passed down from generation to generation. It will continue to do so until the end of the world. It covered with its howling the places where Adam, laboriously, by the sweat of his brow, drew from the earth the bread of his subsistence. And this cry spread over the whole earth. Horizons, valleys, forests, animals heard it and repeated it trembling. This cry showed Adam and Eve, as in a blazing light, the immensity of their sin, committed not only Against God but also Against their own flesh and blood.

Until then, God’s verdict had not yet broken man’s rebellion. Man, with the adaptation spirit of the animal – for man deprived of Grace is nothing other than the most perfect animal – quickly adapted to his new destiny. Even if this new destiny was not as easy and joyful as the first, it was not devoid of human joys compensating for the pains.

Libido was satisfied in the union of two bodies uniting to form one. Fusion, Yes, but not holy fusion as God wanted, and as innocent and knowledgeable man had understood in the garden of Eden. Now it was the joy of creating new lives by oneself – oh! the persistent Pride! – and believing oneself for that like God Creator. It was the joy of dominating animals. It was the satisfaction of harvests and being self-sufficient, without feeling obliged to thank anyone. Sensual joys, but joys nonetheless.

Oh! How much darkness from the smoke of Pride of these two insolents! How much darkness in the fog of their furious concupiscences! How much obstinacy! Maternity was realized in pain, but the joy of children made up for this pain.

Food was not easy to procure, but the belly was filled anyway, and with satisfaction, since the Earth was full of good things.

Disease and death were very far, since bodies, created perfect, enjoyed health and virility that made the two arrogant believe that life was long, if not eternal.

And fermenting Pride gave rise to the mocking thought: “God’s punishment? Where is it? We are happy even without God.”

But one day, the green grass of the fields, sprinkled with the flowers God created, appeared stained with the crimson of the first blood shed on Earth. The mother screamed over the inert body of sweet Abel, and the father understood that it was not a vain threat that God had announced him: “You will return to the earth from which you were taken, for you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Thus Adam died twice, the first at the death of his son – for a father dies in the death of his son – and the second at his own death. As for Eve, she gave birth with tearing pain returning to the earth the lifeless body of her beloved son. That is when she understood what it is to give birth in sin.

But at the very moment when God’s punishment struck like lightning – it was still mercy – Pride died, and in its place began to sprout repentance. It was new life. It allowed the two Guilty to climb the steep path of Justice, and to merit, after good expiation and long waiting, God’s forgiveness by the merits of Christ.

And of Mary. Oh! Let me celebrate here this truth about the Immaculate, who was and still is mine. Through our joint love, she gave the world the Word made Flesh: Emmanuel.

Through the unfaithfulness of Woman, the human race knew sin, pain, death. Through the faithfulness of Woman, the human race was reborn to Grace, and therefore to forgiveness, pure joy, Life.

Through concupiscence came death, all deaths. Through purity of a triple virginity – body, thought, spirit – came Life, true Life, in the just resurrected to eternal life. Not only the life of the flesh, but also that of thought finally open to Truth, and that of spirit finally resurrected to Grace.

Through the marriage with Satan entered fratricidal and deicidal hatred. Through the marriage with God entered brotherly and spiritual love: two loves embracing Humanity and Divinity, pouring over one and the other, lavishing on one and the other. The incarnate Love and virgin Love were both offered voluntarily and totally. Both were consummated so that God be consoled, and man be saved.

The death of Abel broke Adam’s Pride and made Eve expert in the atrocity of giving birth to Darkness. The death of Christ crushed Sin and showed Humanity what childbirth to Grace costs. Eve’s howl corresponds to the cry uttered by Mary at the death of her Most Holy Son.

To those who believe Mary was above pain because full of Grace, I say that Eve, the guilty one, did not suffer the desolation that Mary suffered in her innocence. If Eve’s roar marked the birth of repentance, Mary’s cry marked the birth of the new era. And if the hour marked by the shedding of the first human blood, spilled by criminal Violence which caused the Earth to be cursed twice, was the beginning of a return to Justice, likewise was the hour of none marking the shedding of the last drop of Blood of the Son of God. From this descended Redemption from Heaven, like a river of salvation, coming from the two innocent and wounded Hearts of the Son and the Mother.

The Life you have, you have not only by the merits of Jesus, but also by the merits of Mary. The Mother of Life, the Virgin Mother, pure and innocent, who in giving birth to her Jesus did not know the pains of childbirth – according to the law of fallen flesh – knew, and well knew, the sufferings of the most painful birth, yours, of the one who has allowed sinful Humanity to be reborn to the new Life of Grace.

Because of one man humanity knew death. Thanks to one Man she now knows Life. By Adam, Humanity inherited Sin and its consequences. By Jesus, Son of God and Mary, Humanity inherits again Grace and its consequences.

This Grace does not, it is true, suppress earthly consequences of original fault – because pain, death sadden you and the appetites of the flesh persist within you, disturb you, frighten you, keep you in Struggle – but it powerfully helps you to bear your present pains, in hope of coming Heaven. This same Grace helps you confront the fear of death, through knowledge of divine Mercy. It also helps you oppose the flesh, to tame its appetites with supernatural help obtained through Christ’s merits and the Sacraments He instituted.

I had said: “Grace does not suppress earthly consequences of Sin…”. This is precisely the point that causes rebellion in many, who exclaim: “Where is justice in all this? Could the Redeemer not restore our perfection as a whole?”.

It was right that it be so. Everything God does is just.

Man was not wounded in a clash with God, so that God is obliged to repair the damage caused voluntarily or involuntarily. Man wounded himself, consciously and voluntarily. When in everyday life a man injures himself so severely that he remains mutilated, defective, or at least marked by serious scars, not even the best doctor can repair everything or reconstruct everything, especially in case of amputation.

Adam amputated himself, and by himself, of Grace, supernatural life, innocence, integrity, immunity, immortality and knowledge. As leader of the whole human Family, he transmitted his painful heritage to all his descendants.

But Humanity, luckier than the individual man, could obtain healing by the merits of Jesus, Redeemer and Savior. She received even more: "re-creation" in Grace, which is the life of the Soul. Through the Sacraments Jesus instituted, and the Virtues transmitted by these Sacraments, through my gifts as well, He has obtained for you the means to grow ever more in perfection. This perfection reaches its culmination with “super-creation,” that is, holiness.

However, even the Sacrifice of the God-Man, who nevertheless restored the gifts lost and raised you again to the supernatural order – that is, to the capacity to know, love and serve God in this life, so as to then possess and rejoice in His Presence in Paradise for eternity – not even this Sacrifice, I say, erased the scars of the great wounds that man voluntarily inflicted on himself. Especially the scar of the triple concupiscence, which is always ready to open and get infected again if the spirit does not watch to keep passions under control.

I had also said: “Knowledge of divine Mercy.” Yes. The heritage of Sin brought you the Redeemer, but also the revelation of God’s Mercy, the disclosure of His charity, wisdom and divine power.

Man, generated again as a son of God thanks to Jesus, knows what Adam did not know. He knows the immensity of the Father’s love, able to give His only Son so that He wipes out with His Blood humanity’s condemnation decree, fallen in its Head.

Adam knew a lot about the love God had for him. He knew it through his infused knowledge, but above all by Grace, which by raising him to the supernatural order, made him capable of it. Everything around and inside him spoke of divine love. Being elected to the supernatural order, Adam knew how to love much. He knew how to love according to the right measure, that which God judged sufficient to prepare him during life for the beatific vision planned after his passage from Earth to Heaven. However, never, not even in his most ardent transports of love, could Adam the innocent reach by his Thirst to know and love the center of truth. He never could immerse himself in this burning furnace of Love which is also Truth. He never possessed the total knowledge of this truth called Infinite Love.

The man who lives on Earth cannot see God as He is. The Man-Adam who had just been created, rich of all kinds of gifts, neither could see God as He is. Everything made him think of God. Everything spoke to him of God. Everything attracted him to God. Man was tenderly loved and covered with gifts that helped him love. But between man and God there is always an abyss. In fact, there are two abysses facing each other, where the Greater attracts the lesser. The major abyss attracts the spirit of the minor abyss, a spark before him and enriches him with his fire of light. God shoots His lights on man’s spirit as for a continuous infusion of wisdom.

For man, divine Love is a gesture of invitation: the gesture of two arms and a breast that open and offer themselves for the beatifying embrace. Human love gives him wings to forget the Earth and jump toward Heaven, toward God who calls him. But a law of justice requires that the total enfolding, the fusion, happen only after the trial confirming the man in Grace.

So the more man climbs toward God, the more God withdraws and flees into His endless abyss. This is not cruelty on God’s part, but to keep active the will that man has to reach Him, and thus deepen in him a greater capacity to be filled with Fruits of Grace, namely God Himself. Indeed, the more man actively, tirelessly, intensely advances toward God, the more he becomes capable to receive and possess God and His very holy Grace.

Now I have spoken in the present tense. For such is always man’s condition facing the divine immensity, incomprehensible by creature’s intelligence. Even the greatest contemplatives have not attained knowledge of the Unknowable during life. Here the names of John and Paul, two Apostles already redeemed by Christ, for whom Heaven opened to the third and to the seventh degree. Also Moses, Ezekiel, Daniel, who respectively saw “the back of God”, “the light left by the Infinite Light”, “the Being of human appearance” but who was “Electrum fire” and “voice heard above the firmament”, “the Ancient of days, whose Face was veiled by the river of Fire flowing rapidly before Him” and who showed only his Hair and clothes. As long as John and Paul lived among mortals, they were not admitted to knowledge of the Unknowable. The other three had to wait until Redemption was accomplished before they could access it.

But such was especially Adam’s condition, elevated to the supernatural order. Adam was endowed, as you, returned and faithful to Grace, with a spiritual intelligence capable of closely approaching God’s Truth, but not to know God’s Mystery.

Only through Jesus could man penetrate further – oh, How much further! – cross distances, raise veils, approach the ardor of the One and Triune Hearth, and know the immensity of Love with a depth unknown to Adam.

Unknown by measure of Protection. God wanted to prevent Adam from the risk of repeating Lucifer’s sin, who became Satan by denying ADoration to Love made flesh. He avoided making him ask to adore the Word, incarnate by love and by the work of Love. If God had offered the future Christ to Adam, Adam might have refused also to adore the future Christ, true Synthesis of Trinitarian Love. For Lucifer pridefully claimed to be able to redeem man himself, asserting that his own resemblance to God was not a participation of nature, but – he believed – substantial, thus making him equal to God in knowledge, power and goodness. He thus seriously offended the Holy Spirit, dispenser of lights, truths and wisdom found in God. Now sins Against the Holy Spirit, committed by Lucifer and his rebellious companions, as they still are by many men, these sins are not forgiven.

God wanted to forgive man. This is why He offered him the test of obedience. But He spared him the trial of ADoration of the Word made Man, to avoid the unforgivable sin. Also the sin of jealousy of Christ, as well as that of presuming to be able to Save and to Save without passing through Christ. Or finally to reject as impossible the truth known to you, that the Uncreated could become “created” by being born of Woman, that the very Pure Spirit, who is God, could become man by assuming human flesh.

But you, no. You who were redeemed by Christ, who came after Christ’s coming, and especially after Christ’s sacrifice, you know everything about God’s love. You know all this, because Christ revealed this infinite love to you. He unveiled and explained it through His own Person, as well as with His word, example and actions.

You look at the baby Christ who cries in a cave, and you are not frightened. His very destitution attracts your spiritual weakness, which feels neither discouraged nor afraid before the God Child. This God who humbled Himself so much, He the Immense, in His little limbs, He, the Almighty, in limbs needing all help because incapable of taking care of His organism.

You look at the child Christ, and you are not frightened. His wisdom is gentle. In a few words, He indicates the way to safely reach the Father’s Home: “Concern yourself with what God wants, what belongs to Him.” The whole Law is condensed in this brief but so rich in wisdom sentence. He tells you, addressing those representing chosen humanity, so dear to the Lord: “Do you not know that you must do this, only this, this above all else, that you must put this love above all other love, to have a place in Heaven?”

Christ the Master is already fully present in the brief words He addresses to Martha: “You are busy with many things; one thing is necessary,” and when He says to the disciple still too attached to worldly things: “Let the dead bury the dead,” and also: “Whoever puts hand to the Plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

Christ who perfectly loves His Mother does not put her before His Mission. He clearly says that “His mother and His Family are those who do the will of God,” and gives the example to be the first, for love of God is, as it should be, always the greatest compared to other loves, all of them, including that of the most holy Mother.

Christ, it is He who pushes Peter away, calling him “Satan” because he tempts Him not to do the Father’s will. And then the Christ of the Beatitudes. Present in the last one: “Blessed are those who put into practice the word of God.” It is still the Law.

Christ, here He is teaching Nicodemus how the old man, the man fallen by Adam inheritance, can know regeneration and see the Kingdom of God “by being born anew of Water and the Holy Spirit.” Water is given by Christ Himself, the Holy Spirit comes from love. Love means doing God’s will: for all, it is obedience to His Law; for each one, it is obedience to particular decrees.

Christ is there, teaching the true Religion, the one that deserves the reward of divine Justice: “I seek not my will, but the will of Him who sent me.”

Christ gives you God so that you can love Him according to your sensitive way: “Until now, you have never heard the Voice of God, nor seen His Face. So here I am. I am He on whom God has impressed His seal. He who sees me sees Him who sent me. He who listens to me listens to the Father. I have not spoken in my own name. I have said what the Father told me to say to you.” He unveils the Father’s love, the Father who, starting from Adam’s fault, finds means to encourage you to greater love, more exact knowledge of Him, closer union: “My Father’s will is that you know me for who I am: God.”

Christ, hear Him proclaim: “I do nothing on my own. I say and do what my Father wants. I always do what pleases Him.”

See the Good Shepherd Christ when He reveals the real reason for the great love the Father has for Him: “The Father loves me because I give my life willingly so that you are saved. That is my Father’s desire, that you be saved.”

Hear Christ when He says, on the eve of His Passion: “My Father sent me and commanded me what to say and do. I know that His command is eternal life.”

Christ, it is He who absolves Pilate when He says to Him: “You would have no power over me if this power had not been given you from above. For this reason, He who handed me over to your hands is more guilty of my death than you.” But in reality, the one He abandoned into the authorities’ hands, in a divine madness of love for man, was His Father, the infinite God before whom the Son says His perfect prayer: “Let Your Will be done, and not mine. Let Your Will be done on Earth as in Heaven.” It is God the Father who allows the earthly authorities to play their role the necessary time; after which neither the power of arms nor any other force can keep them in command.

Oh! The Christ who obeys from His birth until His death! The Christ who says “Yes” with His first cry, and “Yes” with His last word on the summit of Golgotha. He is the Word of eternal “Yes” to His Father. He never frightens, He does not scare with His law, He gives you the example showing that this law can be followed by man, since He – Man – followed it before showing it to you. This God-Man who delivers Himself to death, to Enemies, insults, fatigue, poverty, flesh – it is no accident I placed death first and flesh last, but because it was easier for the Savior to accept death, than for the God-Word to accept being enclosed in a flesh – gives you, O men, the knowledge of what God-Love is.

This very divine Father, who sacrifices His Beloved Son, gives you the measure of God’s love for you.

It is said: “There is no greater love than that of one who gives his life for his friends.” But it should be said: There is an even greater love: It is the love of the Father who sacrifices His true and only Son to Save the life of His adoptive children who, like true prodigal children, willingly abandoned the paternal home, made themselves unhappy and made the Father suffer.

That is how much God loved you. He sacrificed His Only Son to Save guilty Humanity, this Humanity which, just as at the beginning of days, when it enjoyed the plenty it had received from God freely, did not know how to show Him either gratitude, obedience or love. Similarly today it shows Him neither gratitude, nor obedience, nor love, even if for twenty centuries it has received more than plenty, for it receives the Everything, the Immense, God having given Himself in His Second Person.

Having reflected on all this, it is sweet to conclude that even if the punishment was great, without being unjust, mercy was even greater, infinitely greater than punishment. Besides giving you back the gifts Adam frauded from you, at the price of His Pain, His Blood and Death on the cross, this Mercy gives Itself to you in the Holy Eucharist. It puts at your disposal the Waters of Life whose source It is, a source that springs up and rises to Heaven. It gives you Its sweet Law of love, Its example, Its Humanity, Its Divinity, Its Holy Spirit. Its Humanity is given to you so that, thanks to it, it is easier for your humanity to love Him. Its Divinity is given to you so that, thanks to it, His Father hears your prayers as if they came from the very mouth of His Beloved Son who dwells in you. Its Holy Spirit is given to you so that, thanks to His gifts, the Virtues infused at Baptism are powerfully helped to grow and perfect. These gifts powerfully help the Christian to live his Christian life, i.e., his divinized life, his life as son of God. Even if these gifts do not erase your evil inclinations, they nevertheless transmit you the strength to control them, so that for you these inclinations which are evil, become a “Good.” That is heroism, means of victory, crown and garment of glory.

Like Paul, each of your lives is an inner Struggle between the flesh and spirit, between the desire of Good and the not always perfectly good action. A Struggle in which God helps and comforts you. That said, let no one be scandalized if one of his brothers confesses in words or actions to be like Paul: “Fleshly, subject to the flesh.” And let no one be discouraged if he discovers himself subject to the flesh. Let Paul’s example be your guide and support.”

Second part of the Bible, from the coming of Jesus Christ until the Apocalypse.

In-depth research on God, faith, religious Doctrine.

In a Christian sense, study concerning God and divine things in the light of Revelation.

Analysis of the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.