Gratia perfecit naturam

In his last sermon at the Catholic University Church Newman spoke of St Paul as the shining example of those,

‘in whom the supernatural combines with nature, instead of superseding it, − invigorating it, elevating it, ennobling it; and who are not the less men, because they are saints. They do not put away their natural endowments, but use them to the glory of the Giver; […] Thus they have the same thoughts feelings, frames of mind, attractions, sympathies, antipathies of other men, so far as these are not sinful; only they have these properties of human nature purified, sanctified, and exalted; and they are made more eloquent, more poetical, more profound, more intellectual, by reason of their being more holy.’ (‘St Paul’s characteristic gift’, sermon preached at the Catholic University Church, 1857)

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