Choose a topic from Part 1:
1. Fate in the sense of a rigid controlling powerover human actions, with its focus or seat in the stars, is notonly nonexistent, but impossible.
2. But sometimes the word fate is used for divineprovidence.
3. Fate as divine providence is a changeless rule, butthis does not mean fixity and mechanical necessity of events. As wehave noted elsewhere, providence does not interfere with free willitself, nor does it render meaningless the notion of contingenthappenings.
4. Fate as providence has reference to creatures andcreatural effects; it has no reference to the divine operations inthemselves.
"What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. "
Thomas á Kempis
* * *
"Before a man chooses his confessor, he ought to think well about it, and pray about it also; but when he has once chosen, he ought not to change, except for most urgent reasons, but put the utmost confidence in his director."
St Philip Neri
* * *
"Every man naturally desires knowledge; but what good is knowledge without fear of God? Indeed a humble rustic who serves God is better than a proud intellectual who neglects his soul to study the course of the stars."
Thomas á Kempis
* * *