Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/65

Rh those which are general, and leave the special means, merely naming them, for a future chapter.

The general means are three: first, the sacramental grace of priesthood; secondly, the exercise of the priesthood; and thirdly, the exercise of the pastoral office.

1. The first means to sacerdotal perfection is the sacramental grace of the priesthood. Sometimes it is said to be attached to the character; sometimes to flow from it. Every Sacrament confers sanctifying grace; but as each is ordained for a distinct end, a special grace is given by each for the distinct end of each. S. Thomas describes it as follows: "As the virtues and gifts add, beyond the grace commonly so called, a certain perfection ordained determinately to the acts proper to the powers (of the soul); so the sacramental grace adds, beyond the grace commonly so called, and beyond the virtues and gifts, a divine help, auxilium divinum, for the attainment of the end of the Sacrament." But this divine help is not given once for all, but initially, as the opening of a spring from which a stream flows and multiplies itself into manifold auxilia or helps in time of need, trial, danger, or temptation.

It is, therefore, of faith not only that in ordina-