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...required: that is the movement of free will toward God. The second, I say, is not a matter of chronological time but of nature The author distinguishes between things happening "in time" (one after another) and "in nature" (happening simultaneously, but with one being the logical cause of the other). For at the same moment grace is poured into the soul, the free will is suddenly and instantaneously moved toward God. And from that very union of the soul with God, charity charity: from the Latin "charitas," referring to the divine love that connects the soul to God is born. For where God and the soul are joined by the "glue of love," there God simultaneously pours the light of grace into the soul beyond the constraints of time.

And the soul, by the power of that infused light, is suddenly—and in an instant—moved toward God; and from the meeting of both (namely, of God and the soul), charity is generated, which is the bond and the knot of love between them. From this charity is born the third thing which we said was required for supernatural vision: namely, the cleansing of the conscience, which is achieved through the movement of free will against sin.

For these three concur in justification justification: the process by which a person is moved from a state of sin to a state of grace or "rightness" with God in such a way that neither the first nor the second—nor indeed the third—allows itself to be absent for even a single moment. For charity, generated from the two (as we said before), allows no stain of sin to remain in the conscience. By its existence alone, it "covers a multitude of sins" and transforms unformed attrition into contrition attrition vs. contrition: attrition is sorrow for sin born of fear of punishment; contrition is "perfect" sorrow born of love for God. Charity is the "form" that turns the former into the latter through itself—that is, through charity having been formed.

This, therefore, is the order of the justification of the sinful soul: first (as we said), in an order of nature rather than time, grace is infused; through its mediation, free will is moved toward God; from that union, charity is born; and from that, finally, perfect contrition is generated.

Once contrition is born, it soon pours tears and sorrow into the bilge-water sentinam: literally the "bilge" or "sink" of a ship; used here as a metaphor for the accumulated filth and dregs of sin within the human conscience of the conscience; and with a hatred of sin and a firm purpose to do good, the soul hastens to vomit out the poison of its vices through a naked, simple, and sincere confession, and to wipe away the stains of its guilt through voluntary satisfaction. In this way, the justified sinner soon sings: "I am ready and I am not troubled" original: "paratus sum et non sum turbatus," a quote from Psalm 118:60 (Vulgate) so that...