Purity in Garrigou

Christ the Saviour

Thomas, "is said to have merited to bear the Lord of all; not that
she merited His incarnation, but because by the grace bestowed upon
her she merited that grade of purity and holiness which fitted her to
be the Mother of God.

Thomas denies that the Blessed Virgin Mary merited the Incarnation,
for he writes: "The Blessed Virgin is said to have merited to bear
the Lord of all, not that she merited His incarnation, but because by
the grace bestowed upon her she merited that grade of purity and
holiness which fitted her to be the Mother of God.

Christ's innocence is the more wonderful in this, that, although He

assumed His nature from a mass tainted by sin, it was endowed with
such purity.

Thomas says that sanctity is steadfast union with God, which implies
"stainless purity.

Thus snow is perfectly white; it has whiteness in all its intensity

or purity, containing no element that is not white.

In the first period, which was from 1253 to 1254, he affirmed the
privilege, for he wrote: "Such was the purity of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, who was exempt from both original and actual sin.

Providence

In other words, it is an uncreated luminous knowledge, penetrating

God's entire being and from these heights extending eternally in all
its purity and without contamination of any kind to everything
possible as well as to everything that is or has been or will be,
however lowly, however evil, and all this in a single glance and from
the loftiest standpoint conceivable.

The characteristics of this love In the first place, it is

supremely holy, or rather it is holiness itself; that is to say, it is
absolutely pure, and in its purity unchangeable.

And in its purity it is unchangeable.

We must love the Lord for His own sake, with a purity of intention
rising above the promptings of vainglory and pride and that
self-seeking which is induced by jealousy and the desire for the
esteem of men.

Our destiny is to contemplate in God this transcendent simplicity of

His, absolute in its purity and holiness; to behold the infinite
fecundity of the divine nature flowering in three Persons; to
contemplate the eternal generation of the Word, the brightness of the
Father's glory and the figure of His substance (Heb.

Reality

What we do mean is this: By the grace given her she merited that
degree of purity and sanctity which was demanded by her dignity as
Mother of God.

A fourth text, [] written in his last year of life, [] has the

following words: Mary excels the angels in purity, because she is not
only in herself pure, but begets purity in others.

" Further, the intellect knows what is within it better than it knows
what is in the will, since we can always have some doubt on the
purity of our intentions, which may be inspired by secret selfishness
or pride.

Grace

The passive purifications of the spirit are often made according to

the same order, inasmuch as God, through the illumination of the gifts
of intellect, purifies from all imperfection faith, hope, and charity,
that the formal motive of these virtues may appear in all its purity
and move the soul; and on the part of God, the purification of these
virtues precedes, at least by a priority of nature, the more intense
contrition.

by what other principle it should be balanced so as to maintain in all

their purity and elevation the great mysteries of faith, particularly
those of predestination and the will for universal salvation.

Three Ways of the Spiritual Life

We are destined to contemplate the eminent simplicity of God, His

absolute purity and sanctity; to see the infinite fecundity of the
divine nature in the procession of the Three Persons: to con template
the eternal generation of the Word, the ' brightness of (the Father's)
glory and the figure of his substance, ' [] to see the ineffable
breathing of the Holy Spirit, the issue of the common Love of the
Father and the Son, which unites them in the most complete outpouring
of themselves.
We rightly lament certain blots, but let us not forget that if there
is sometimes mud in the valley at the foot of the mountains, on the
summits there is always snow of dazzling whiteness, air of great
purity, and a wonderful view that ever leads the eye to God.

The soul experiences more and more, without seeing it, the infinite
purity and greatness of God, who transcends all the ideas that we can
form of Him; it experiences likewise all the supernatural riches of
the holy soul of Christ, which here on earth contained the fulness of
grace, ' all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Purity of intention, true recollection, perfect straightforwardness,

are often lacking; there is something of a lie in his life.

[] What conclusion follows regarding the purgation of the depth of

the soul, which is necessary to exclude all egoism and secret pride ?
A recent study on this question contains the following: ' I admit
that the passive purgations (which are of the mystical order) are
necessary in order to arrive at the purity required for mystical
union; and it is in this sense that St.

But I deny that the passive purgations are necessary for the purity
required in the union of love by conformity of wills.

For the mystical union, which involves infused contemplation and love,
active purgation is not sufficient, precisely because the purity of
the will is not sufficient.

It is necessary that there should be added to it a sort of

psychological purity of the substance and the powers of the soul,
which consists in rendering them adapted to the mode of being of the
divine infusion.

John of the Cross, not necessary for the profound purity of the will ?
Are they not necessary in order to exclude that more or less conscious
egoism, and those indirectly voluntary faults which are incompatible
with the full perfection of charity, incompatible also with the full
perfection of the infused virtues and gifts, which develop together
with charity like so many functions of the same spiritual organism ?
The answer to this extremely important question, for our part, is not
for a moment in doubt.

Here are, not faults opposed to the sort of psychological purity of

which our author speaks, but faults which are contrary to the moral
purity of the sensibility and of the will.

In a word, the depth of the soul is lacking, not only in

psychological purity, but in the moral purity that is required.
Hence it is our opinion that the passive purgations are necessary for
this profound moral purity.

The Trinity

That the patience of the just might be manifested in persecution and

that the purity of their intentions might be made known, as in the
case of Job.

Everlasting Life

God's mercy hides certain consequences of sin until they are

destroyed, that the soul may understand the divine action which has
restored its purity.

They contemplate this pre- eminent simplicity, this purity and

absolute sanctity, this quintessence of all perfection.