"Commenting on Saint Paul's words, “the Spirit [also] helpeth our infirmity...” [Rom 8:26], the great Carmelitan theologian Thomas of Jesus writes: “These words clearly refer to the particular motion or aid of the Holy Spirit, and point to the need we have of it. ... It is the gifts of the Holy Spirit which make the soul promptly docile, entirely free, capable of overcoming difficulties, and wholly occupied with God in prayer and contemplation. This effect can not be produced even by the infused virtue of religion, nor by the theological virtues by themselves." This is as much to say that the life of perfection is an inspired life, and therefore a life which—perhaps in secret—infused contemplation nourishes and sustains."