This insightful book expounds the Church's traditional teaching on that full flowering of Sanctifying Grace in the soul which is known as the mystical life. Contrary to some "modern" authors, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange explains here the Church's traditional teaching - from Scripture, Tradition, St. Thomas Aquinas and other Saints - that the mystical life is not something essentially extraordinary (like prophecy and miracles), but something to which God wants to raise all souls of good will, so that they may reach Christian perfection, which is the fullness of charity and the perfect development of the Sanctifying Grace that was received at Baptism. This perfection requires the gift of mystical prayer - or infused contemplation - which God wills to give to all who are receptive. Thus, this book inspires in us great hope of attaining a closer union with God and a more divine or supernatural mode of action than is possible through our ordinary good efforts aided by grace. Although infused contemplation is a special gift of God and not something that one can just kneel down and "do," it is something which we should all prepare for by prayer and practice of the virtues so that we pose no obstacle to God's raising us to this level of holiness, charity and supernatural fruitfulness - if and when He chooses.
Christian Perfection and Contemplation is an entire treatise on the operation of grace in the spiritual life that clearly and skillfully explains the great principles of the spiritual life according to St. Thomas Aquinas and other sterling Catholic sources. In fact, the author's fascinating and extremely informative footnotes are themselves worth the price of the book. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange shows us that the mystical life, which is true life - and, again, simply the full flowering of the Sanctifying Grace received at Baptism - is something abundantly spoken of in Scripture, especially in the Epistles of St. Paul and St. John, as well as in the traditional Liturgy of the Church.
Here he explains:
The clear distinction between nature and grace.
How efficacious grace works.
The meaning of infused contemplation.
The universality of the call to infused contemplation.
The increased activity of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the soul after it has entered the mystical life.
The apostolic fruitfulness of the mystical life.
The absolutely infallible certitude of faith, even in the spiritual darkness of the passive purifications.
The anti-mystical views of spiritual guides who consider the mystical life to be an extraordinary phenomenon intended for the very few, and who thus keep souls in mediocrity.
The extraordinary graces that sometimes do accompany infused contemplation.
This is a book to encourage all souls of good will to persevere in prayer and virtue, in the hope that God will bring them to that state of close union with Himself known as the mystical life, which results in the purifying and inflaming of their own souls by charity and in much greater fruitfulness in their efforts for the salvation of others. This book gives hope to the struggling, helping them to see that their spiritual trials do not indicate retrogression, but are in face the "narrow gate" leading to true life. (Page 156) This true life - which is actually the beginning of eternal life - is something to which all Catholics should aspire (page 461), an insight that is paramount in the thinking and writing of the learned, lucid and incomparable Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange.
Angelic Doctor;
Doctor Angelicus;
Doctor Communis;
Great Synthesizer;
The Dumb Ox;
The Universal Teacher
Profile Son of the Count of Aquino, born in the family castle in Lombardy near Naples. Educated by Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino, and at the University of Naples. He secretly joined the mendicant Dominican friars in 1244. His noble family kidnapped and imprisoned him for a year to keep him out of sight, and deprogram him, but he rejoined his order in 1245.
He studied in Paris from 1245-1248 under Saint Albert the Great, then accompanied Albertus to Cologne. Ordained in 1250, then returned to Paris to teach. Taught theology at University of Paris. He wrote defenses of the mendicant orders, commentaries on Aristotle and Lombard's Sentences, and some bible-related works, usually by dictating to secretaries. He won his doctorate, and taught in several Italian cities. Recalled by king and university to Paris in 1269, then recalled to Naples in 1272 where he was appointed regent of studies while working on the Summa Theologica.
On 6 December 1273 he experienced a divine revelation which so enraptured him that he abandoned the Summa, saying that it and his other writing were so much straw in the wind compared to the reality of the divine glory. He died four months later while en route to the Council of Lyons, overweight and with his health broken by overwork.
His works have been seminal to the thinking of the Church ever since. They systematized her great thoughts and teaching, and combined Greek wisdom and scholarship methods with the truth of Christianity. Pope Leo VIII commanded that his teachings be studied by all theology students. He was proclaimed Doctor of the Church in 1567.
Born c.1225 at Roccasecca, Aquino, Naples, Italy
Died 7 March 1274 at Fossanuova near Terracina of apparent natural causes; relics interred at Saint-Servin, Toulouse, France; relics translated to the Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse on 22 October 1974
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