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.
"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
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"The greatest glory we can give to God is to do his will in everything."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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"The name of Jesus, pronounced with reverence and affection, has a kind of power to soften the heart. "
St Philip Neri
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