Providence

I'm currently engaged in discussion with a Protestant chap about all the usual stuff - Scripture and Tradition, mostly - which is quite interesting though rather frustrating. (Pray for both of us!) Last week I was trying to remember the various parables which show that the Church on earth includes both the elect and the reprobate (if I may use such terminology without Calvinist implications). For entirely unconnected, work-related reasons I also happened to be reading the Common for a Virgin-not-martyred in the Aberdeen Breviary (1510; basically Sarum Use, and in that instance very similar to the post-Trent Roman Rite). The Gospel for the Mass is about the wise and the foolish virgins, and three of the lectiones for Matins are from a homily by Gregory the Great... about why this parable shows that both the elect and the reprobate are included in the Church on earth...

Laudetur Jesus Christus!!