We are called to be friends of God. There are three marks of friendship: benevolence and actively seeking the other person's good, reciprocity, and mutual indwelling. God created us to enter into intimate union with him. The saints are known as the "friends of God" because they share in this special intimacy with the divine. We are all called to be saints. The way to holiness involves a process of purgation, illumination, and transforming union.

Life in the Spirit is the mystical life. It involves an intimate sharing in the divine life. The creative, redemptive, and sanctifying action of God comes to fruition in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the human soul. "Paradise for God," St. Alphonsus says, "is to dwell in the human heart." This intimacy with God manifests itself in one's openness to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, which guide one along the path of wisdom, understanding, counsel,...

We know the good by means of our conscience, which according to the Second Vatican Council is the voice of God written in our hearts that enables us to discern the principles of the natural law. Conscience is a capacity, a process, and a judgment. Conscience helps us discern the natural law, the fundamental principle of which is, "Do and pursue good, and avoid evil."

The Beatitudes are intimately related to the life of discipleship. They have been interpreted in many ways, but can best be described as actions manifesting the attitudes of the Kingdom. They cannot be lived, however, apart from the grace of God and the movement of the Spirit in our lives. In his Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, St. Augustine draws various connections between the Beatitudes, the gifts of the Spirit, and the petitions of the...

We were created in God's image. Our human makeup has physical, mental, spiritual, and social dimensions. Because of the humanity's primeval sin, our human makeup has become disfigured and out of sync with itself. Christ redeems us to sanctify us through the grace of his Spirit. With Christ, and in his Spirit, we are able to live virtuous lives that give glory to the Father. The theological cardinal virtues renew the soul and transform it.

Jesus says he is the way, the truth, and the life. He shows us the way to the Father and divinizes our humanity. He guides us, protects us, and nourishes us. As St. Athanasius reminds us, "God became man so that man might become divine." This process of theosis or divinization takes place during our lifetime and beyond through a process of purgation, illumination, and transforming union. The threefold way, as it is called, is not a linear but an upward...