Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. To be wise is to know the deepest causes in thatdepartment of knowledge and conduct in which one is said to bewise. A wise physician must know the fundamental principles ofmedicine. The term wisdom, taken simply, means theknowledge of the highest cause of all, that is, God. Out of thisknowledge comes clear judgment about all things, judgment made inthe divine light of the knowledge. Now, man attains this judgmentthrough the Holy Ghost. Wisdom is, therefore, a gift of the HolyGhost.
2. Wisdom, notwithstanding it has the power to directman's life according to the charity which resides in his will,is itself in the intellect as in its proper subject.
3. Wisdom is in the practical intellect as well as in thespeculative intellect. For it is not merely abstractknowing; it is a directing of human conduct, and hence isa doing.
4. Wisdom, as a gift of the Holy Ghost, enables a personto judge rightly of divine things, and to judge of other thingsaccording to the divine law of charity which is in him. Wisdompresupposes charity. Since charity is expelled by mortal sin, soalso is wisdom.
5. Whoever is free from mortal sin and is in the state ofsanctifying grace has charity, and also has wisdom.
6. St. Augustine says that there is a special agreement orcorrespondence of wisdom with peacemakers. For he says (DeSerm. Dom. in Mont., i): "Wisdom is becoming topeacemakers, in whom there is no movement of rebellion, but onlyobedience to reason." Hence the seventh beatitude,"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called thechildren of God," corresponds to the gift of wisdom.
"It is well to choose some one good devotion, and to stick to it, and never to abandon it."
St Philip Neri
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"This is the greatest wisdom -- to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world. "
Thomas á Kempis
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"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
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