Choose a topic from Part 1:
1. The name paradise means a garden. Some havethought that the Paradise in which our first parents were placedwas their spiritual state, enriched as it was with supernaturalgraces and gifts. Others maintain that Paradise was a place. St.Augustine thinks that Paradise means both the spiritual conditionand the local habitation of our first parents.
2. Paradise must have been a place perfectly suitable forman, a dwelling place in exquisite accord with his state ofinnocence. It is reasonable to suppose that Paradise was a place ofgreat beauty, a bright place, temperate in climate, and with purestatmosphere.
3. Man was placed in Paradise to work therein and to keepit (Gen. 2:15). Man's labor there would have been a mostpleasing activity, not burdensome nor fatiguing. This task wasgiven to man as a blessing. It was to engage his attention, to keephim from idleness which might engender pride and sin. Laboring inParadise, man would have been increasingly aware of its beauty andprecious character; he would have been moved to love and thank Godfor it, and would thus have tended to continual watchfulness lestby sin he should lose so great a treasure.
4. Adam was placed in Paradise after he had been created(Gen. 2:15). But Eve was created in Paradise itself. Had these tworemained faithful and innocent, their children would have been bornin Paradise.
"Though the path is plain and smooth for people of good will, those who walk it will not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty if they do not have good feet, courage, and tenacity of spirit.
"
St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
* * *
"It is not God's will that we should abound in spiritual delights, but that in all things we should submit to his holy will."
Blessed Henry Suso
* * *
"For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God?"
Thomas á Kempis
* * *