What is predestination? – Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P.
The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute
4.8 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Fr. Dominic Legge explains predestination as a profoundly hopeful Catholic doctrine rooted in God’s eternal, loving plan to give grace and lead rational creatures freely to the supernatural end of the beatific vision, drawing especially on Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine.
This lecture was given on September 5th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.
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About the Speakers:
Fr. Dominic Legge is the President of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception and Associate Professor in Systematic Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He is an Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.L. from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001, after having practiced constitutional law for several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. He has also taught at The Catholic University of America Law School and at Providence College. He is the author of The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinas (Oxford University Press, 2017).
Keywords: Actual Grace, Augustine On the Predestination of the Saints, Divine Providence, Exitus Reditus and Final End, Grace and Human Free Will, Human Freedom, Predestination and Eternal Life, Problem of Evil, Rational Creatures and Beatific Vision, Saint Catherine of Siena
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | College students are struggling to find Christ in a culture that rejects God. |
| 0:04.4 | They need the Christmas message of hope and truth now more than ever. |
| 0:08.0 | Thanks to a generous matching gift, every dollar you give to the Thomistic Institute before December 31st will be doubled, so your gift will touch twice as many souls. |
| 0:17.6 | You can give the greatest of all gifts by sending the light of Christ to students aching |
| 0:22.1 | for truth. Please use the link below or go to to mystic institute.org slash donate to give today. |
| 0:31.6 | Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast. Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual |
| 0:36.8 | tradition in the university, the church, |
| 0:38.8 | and the wider public square. The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students |
| 0:44.2 | at Thomistic Institute chapters around the world. To learn more and to attend these events, visit us |
| 0:50.0 | at to mystic institute.org. What is predestination? |
| 0:56.2 | In her dialogue, St. Catherine of Siena presents, in her distinctively beautiful and moving way, |
| 1:02.8 | the profound teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas on the love of God as the foundation for the entire order of providence and of salvation. |
| 1:13.0 | St. Catherine herself was set aflame with divine love, |
| 1:18.7 | and she prays fervently for the salvation of sinners. |
| 1:21.8 | And in response, God the Father says to her in the dialogue, |
| 1:25.6 | and this is the first text on your handout, |
| 1:30.1 | quote, the I cannot see, |
| 1:36.4 | nor the tongue relate, nor the heart think, how many are the roads and ways which I use through love alone to lead them back to grace so that my truth may be fulfilled in them. I am |
| 1:43.5 | constrained to do so by that inestimable love of mine, |
| 1:47.7 | by which I created them, |
| 1:49.6 | and by the love, desire, and grief of my servants, |
| 1:52.5 | since I am no despisor of their tears and sweat and humble prayers. |
... |
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