FRIENDS OF GOD - Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

There is a much greater distance between the nature of man, or even between the nature of the highest of the angels, and grace, than there is between grace itself and glory. No created nature, however perfect, is the germ of grace, whereas grace is indeed the germ or the seed of eternal life, semen gloriae. Hence when the sinner is absolved in the confessional, an event occurs which is proportionately of greater importance than the entrance of a just soul into heaven.   --Father Garrigou-Lagrange