As long as we predominantly rely on the virtues, which we exercise ourselves, we are consciously looking for the way out, the way to go, the way to travel… We remain, to a considerable but not absolute degree, in control.

On the other hand, when we reach a point at which we must rely on God’s action and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are stable dispositions in us but which are only like the sails of a ship that is carried by the Divine Wind, we are abandoned, totally and utterly, to Divine Providence. We cannot control the course, except barely and with small flashes of the activity of the virtues, only rarely seen without providence and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

There is a profound link between the Gifts, Providence ordering all things in all places, and being transformed in Christ.

It’s hard to put a finger on exactly how it all fits together. But as one realization in our life gets deeper – the regime of the Gifts, abandonment to Providence, transfiguration in Christ – the others are bound to deepen also.