Through the Church Father: September 30

Theme: Spirit, counsel, and rightly ordered seeking prepare a soul to receive faith. Tertullian warns that idle curiosity beyond the rule of faith breeds heresy; true inquiry must remain inside the apostolic deposit rather than follow perpetual seekers who never rest. Augustine asks why the Spirit is mentioned over the waters only after the formless creation, and in that ordering he shows how the Spirit’s presence grounds revelation and the making of shape out of chaos — a theological anchor that orients legitimate searching. Aquinas explains how counsel precedes faith as a proximate instrument: good counsel informs the intellect, removes obstacles, and disposes the will so that God may give the supernatural assent; bad counsel hardens and misleads. Taken together they call pastors and neighbors to offer sober, charitable instruction, and call seekers to test counsel by the apostolic rule and by the presence of the Spirit who teaches. (John 14:26; Romans 10:17; James 1:5; Matthew 7:7–8)

• Readings: Tertullian, De Praescriptione Haereticorum, Chapters 13–16

Augustine, The Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 6 (Why the Spirit is mentioned)

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 14 (Of Counsel which precedes Faith)

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