Friend, I have read the entire Douay-Rheims Bible, all 72 books, word-for-word, aloud. I did this as a private devotion and it took me 3 1/2 years. I have read large parts of it many times over, and have also read the entire King James New Testament, as well as many books of the KJV OT. I am well aware that Our Lord can and does use men of varying degrees of sanctity — and sometimes not much of it — to do His Will.
I don’t know if it’s a contemporary Catholic thing, or a post-Vatican II thing, or an American thing, or a generational thing, or what have you, but I have noticed in recent years that mixed motives, or doing the right thing for less than totally virtuous reasons, has become frowned upon and has fallen out of favor. I managed to inspire some respectful disagreement on this forum a few months back, when I suggested that a person who has a massive failure, “falls flat on their face” in secular life, might, just might, be called to the priesthood or religious life instead. “Oh, no, it has to be a free decision, uninfluenced by anything else”. Really? Is life really that clear-cut? Are motives always pure? Is life not messy from time to time? Mine is. I can’t speak for others.
Many times, the Lord works in mysterious ways, and accomplishes His ends through imperfect people who act imperfectly and from all kinds of motives.
