“To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace” (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
The Saints mention seven things, which they call the signs of predestination. This means something more than that they are symptoms of our being at present in a state of grace and on the way of holiness. It means that they are to a certain extent prophecies of the future, not infallibly true but supernaturally hopeful. It means that they are the sort of things to be expected in the elect, and not to be expected in others; things essential to the elect, and which through all the centuries of the Church have distinguished the elect. Hence if we find all, many, or a few of them in ourselves, we are legitimately entitled to proportionate consolation.
Seven signs of predestination
1. The imitation of Christ
2. Devotion to our Blessed Lady
3. Works of mercy
4. Love of prayer
5. Self-distrust
6. The gift of faith
7. Past mercies from God
We must also bear in mind of all these things that it is not the [full] possession of them which counts with God, and so is a sign of predestination, but the earnest desire of them and the sincere endeavor after them.”
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