Here is a description of the conflict between grace and corruption in the heart, between the law of God and the law of sin.

The law may discover sin, and convince of sin, but it cannot conquer and subdue sin, witness the predominancy of sin in many that are under very strong legal convictions. It discovers the defilement, but will not wash it off. It makes a man weary and heavy laden (Matt. 11:28), burdens him with his sin; and yet, if rested in, it yields no help towards the shaking off of that burden; this is to be had only in Christ. The law may make a man cry out, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? and yet leave him thus fettered and captivated, as being too weak to deliver him (Rom. 8:3), give him a spirit of bondage to fear, Rom. 8:15. Now a soul advanced thus far by the law is in a fair way towards a state of liberty by Christ, though many rest here and go no further. Felix trembled, but never came to Christ. It is possible for a man to go to hell with his eyes open (Num. 24:3–4), illuminated with common convictions, and to carry about with him a self-accusing conscience, even in the service of the devil. He may consent to the law that it is good, delight to know God’s ways (as they, Isa. 58:2), may have that within him that witnesses against sin and for holiness; and yet all this overpowered by the reigning love of sin.

God’s choice to predestine a specific people for glory is not why any man is condemned. Rather, man is solely under condemnation for his willful rebellion against God and his refusal to believe in the Son, who shed His blood so they may receive forgiveness and eternal life.

“All sodomites, men & women, died all over the earth, as St. Jerome said commenting on the verse  "The light was born for the just" (Ps 96:11). This was to make it clear that Jesus Christ was born to reform nature and to promote chastity.”

St. Bonaventure (Sermon 21, In Nativitate Domini, apud Catolicismo)

Happy Father’s Day

As the sun makes brilliant the darkest clouds, so does Christ, by the splendour of His grace, convert desolation into consolation, temptations into victories, war into triumph.

-St. Ambrose

Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that having died to sin, we might live to righteousness; by His WOUNDS YOU WERE HEALED.

1 Peter 2:24

For as it is said to the Elect, Act like men, and He shall comfort your heart; [Ps. 31, 24. Vulg.] so the minds of carnal men, which serve God with a yielding purpose, are not undeservedly called ‘women.’

What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? As though he said, ‘If we are bent upon eternal blessings, what wonder if we meet with temporal evils?’ Now these blessings Paul had his eye fixed on with earnest interest, when he submitted with a composed mind to the ills that fell upon him, saying, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. [Rom. 8, 18]

- Gregory The Dialogist

For it is meet that the holy mind restrain by spiritual correction whatever of a carnal nature within it utters rebellious muttering, that the flesh whether by speaking severe things may not draw it into impatience, nor yet by speaking smooth ones melt it to the looseness of lust.

Therefore let manly censure, reproving the dictates of unlawful imaginations, hold hard the dissolute softness of what is base in us, by saying, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.

And, on the other hand, let the consideration of the gifts repress the discontent of bitter thought, saying, Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? And whoever desires to get the mastery of his vices, and goes forward to the eternal heights of inward recompense [retributionis] with the steps of a true purpose, the more he sees himself to be on every hand beset with the war of the vices, the more resolutely he arrays himself with the armour of the virtues, and fears the darts the less, in proportion as he defends his breast bravely against their assault.

- Gregory The Dialogist

Our blessed Lord did not bring a cheap peace. As a matter of fact, God hates peace in those who are destined for war.

-Bp. Sheen

To dogs, therefore, is given the ability to bark in defense of their masters and their homes. Thus you should learn to use your voice for the sake of Christ, when ravening wolves attack his sheepfold.

- St. Ambrose

God sends us friends to be our firm support in the whirlpool of struggle. In the company of friends we will find strength to attain our sublime ideal.

-St. Maximilian Kolbe

Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

-St. Francis De Sales

What grace is meant to do is to help good people, not to escape their sufferings, but to bear them with a stout heart, with a fortitude that finds its strength in faith.

-St. Augustine

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

—Saint Augustine