MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #357

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing." (Luke 15:4-5)

GRACE: We learn from this parable the important doctrine that it is God who gives the first impulse to the conversion or justification of a sinner, moving him to be converted by His preventing grace (conveyed either by inward inspirations, or by the warning words of parents or pastors, or else by misfortune, sickness, etc.), and who then supports him by His grace on the road of penance, until he is once more restored to a state of justification in the holy Sacrament of Penance.

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)