nd what Beatitude means is, with many, a source of much dispute.
But why should we appeal to the many and their many opinions? For
pithily and truly it is said in God's Scripture: _Happy is that people
whose God is the Lord!_[352] Oh, that we may be counted amongst _that
people_! Oh, that we may be enabled to contemplate Him, and may come one
day to live with Him unendingly! _The end of the commandment is charity
from a pure heart and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith._[353]
And among these three, hope stands for _a good conscience_. Faith,
therefore, with hope and charity, leads to God the man who prays--that
is, the man who believes, who hopes, and who desires, and who in the
_Lord's Prayer_ meditates what he should ask from the Lord (_Ep._ cxxx.
_ad probam_).

"For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been
changed: and I am brought to nothing, and I knew not. I am
become as a beast before Thee; and I am always with Thee. Thou
hast held me by my right hand; and by Thy will Thou hast
conducted me; and with glory Thou hast received me. For what
have I in Heaven? and besides Thee what do I desire upon earth?
For Thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away; Thou art the
God of my heart; and the God that is my portion for ever. For
behold they that go far from Thee shall perish; Thou hast
destroyed all them that are disloyal to Thee. But it is good for
me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God: that I
may declare all Thy praises, in the gates of the daughter of
Sion."[354]

IV

Does the Contemplative Life consist solely in the Contemplation of God,
or in the Consideration of other Truths as well?

S. Gregory says[355]: "In contemplation it is the Principle--namely,
God--which is sought."

A thing may come under the contemplative life in two ways: either
primarily, or secondarily--that is, dispositively. Now primarily the
contemplation of Divine Truth belongs to the contemplative life, since
such contemplation is the goal of all human life. Hence S. Augustine
says[356]: "The contemplation of God is promised to us as the goal of
all our acts and the eternal consummation of all our joys." And this
will be perfect in the future life when we shall see God face to
face--when, consequently, it will render us perfectly blessed. But in
our present state the contemplation of Divine Truth belongs to us only
imperfectly--namely, _through a gla