The following excerpt that mentions Venerable Matt
Talbot is from Christ the Savior, Based on the Writings of the Summa of St.
Thomas Aquinas, for the Confraternity of the Precious Blood by Frs. Walter
Farrell and Martin Healy. This chapter can be read online at http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/christ1-8.htm and the entire book at http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/christ.htm.
“AS THERE ARE MANY and
different members in a living human body, so, too, Christ and the Holy Spirit
have placed numerous and diverse members in the Church. As we have just said,
some members of the Church are placed in positions of authority, and they are
endowed with the graces necessary for teaching, ruling and sanctifying. To the
others are given the graces required for obeying and serving the Church. But in
all the members of the Church, whether they be rulers or ruled, God produces an
astonishing variety of graces which gives the Church the great beauty that is to
be found in any living body. In the Church there are humble missioners with the
gift of tongues or of persuasive preaching. We can find, also, intellectual
geniuses such as St. Thomas or St. Bonaventure. In the Church God produces the
zeal of St. Paul, the charity of St. John the Evangelist, the fortitude of Pope
Gregory VII or of St. Arnbrose, the temperance of Matt Talbot, the
humility of the Cure of Ars, the purity of St. Agnes, the crusading spirit of
St. Louis of France, the martyrdom of St. Maria Goretti.”