[69] This teaching is based on the definition that prayer is essentially "an elevation of the soul to God."
[72] Remission may be obtained in this way of the fault in the case of venial sins, of the punishment due in all sins.
[76] St. Thomas explains as follows both the possibility and the correctness of this opinion of ourselves: "A man can, without falsehood, believe and declare himself viler than all others, both on account of the secret faults which he knows to exist within him, and on account of the gifts of God hidden in the souls of others."
St. Augustine, in his work "De Virginit.," ch. lii., says: "Believe that others are better than you in the depths of their souls, although outwardly you may appear better than they."
In the same way one may truthfully both say and believe that one is altogether useless and unworthy in his own strength. The Apostle says (2 Cor. iii. 5): "Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God" ("Sum.," 2, 2{ ae}, q. 161, a. 6, 1{ m}).
[86] The teaching of Albert the Great on Divine Providence is truly admirable. It is based upon the axiom that the actions of the creature do not depend partly upon itself and partly upon God, but wholly upon itself and wholly upon God (_cf._ St. Thomas "Cont. Gent.," iii. 70).
Human causality is not parallel with the Divine, but subordinate to it, as the scholastics teach. This doctrine alone safeguards the action of God and of that of the creature. The doctrine of parallelism derogates from both, and leads to fatalism by attributing to God things which He has not done, and suppressing for man the necessary principle of all good, especially that of liberty.
It is the doctrine of subordinated causes also which explains how things decreed by God are determined by the supreme authority, and infallibly come to pass, without prejudice to the freedom of action of secondary causes. All this belongs to the highest theology. Unhappily, certain modern authors have forgotten it.
Authorized Translations of Standard Foreign Works, Original Works, and Selections
=ON KINDNESS.= By Very Rev. J. GUIBERT, S.S. _20,000 Copies sold in France._
=ON CHARACTER.= By Very Rev. J. GUIBERT, S.S. _18,000 Copies sold in France._