Choose a topic from Part 1:
1. Only God is necessarily eternal. Now, absolutelyspeaking, God could create from eternity, so that creatures shouldexist without a beginning. But God does not need to create frometernity, nor, for that matter, does God need to create at all. Andin creatures we discover no reason for supposing that God hascreated from eternity.
2. By revelation (Gen. 1:1) we know that God's eternal will and decree to create are a will and decree to create in time.For, "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.. . ." But apart from revelation and our faith, we cannot prove that the world did not always exist; that is, that God did not create from eternity. But we can prove that even a beginningless world is a created world, a caused world. For eternal matter, if it existed, would not be causeless matter; it would still have being by participation and not by necessity.
3. God created in the beginning of time. Time itself came into existence with the creation of things.
"God gives us some things, as the beginning of faith, even when we do not pray. Other things, such as perseverance, he has only provided for those who pray."
St Augustine
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"A man should keep himself down, and not busy himself in mirabilibus super se."
St Philip Neri
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"Obedience is a short cut to perfection."
St Philip Neri
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