Well we know that God is good, we can also say the goodness comes from God because he is good. So if we have no God, can we have goodness? If we have an absence of God do we also have an absence of goodness?
N.B. I am sure the Doctors of the Church have a better argument.

This is the only surviving Pentecost Sequence, so one presumes the Church agrees with this stanza. So the two questions I posed above have an answer, Without God we have no goodness.

At the beginning of this talk, the late great Fr. Pritzl breaks down some of St. Thomas Aquinas' reasons for our need for the Holy Spirit, having to do especially with the will. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2LYCik0tu40

Nihil,

You raise an interesting point, but I don't think the text means that there is no good in man, full stop.

What did you mean by TULIP Catholicism?

TULIP is a commonly used acronym for central beliefs of Calvinism.

Total depravity
Unconditional election
Limited atonement
Irresistible grace
Preservation of the saints

I think the question about the Sequence concerns "total depravity." How devastating was the Fall to our human nature? Are we capable of doing any good, without sacramental grace?

I thought I would look this up in the Summa T just to be clear on how St. Thomas sees the problem of fallen human nature.

The intellect remains in pretty good shape, but has limits regarding divine things without special grace.

The human understanding has a form, viz. intelligible light, which of itself is sufficient for knowing certain intelligible things, viz. those we can come to know through the senses. Higher intelligible things of the human intellect cannot know, unless it be perfected by a stronger light, viz. the light of faith or prophecy which is called the "light of grace," inasmuch as it is added to nature. Hence we must say that for the knowledge of any truth whatsoever man needs Divine help, that the intellect may be moved by God to its act. But he does not need a new light added to his natural light, in order to know the truth in all things, but only in some that surpass his natural knowledge.

The will, however, is seriously weakened. It can accomplish basic human functions like building houses and planting vineyards, but without grace it can't do good.

in the state of corrupt nature, man falls short of what he could do by his nature, so that he is unable to fulfil it by his own natural powers. Yet because human nature is not altogether corrupted by sin, so as to be shorn of every natural good, even in the state of corrupted nature it can, by virtue of its natural endowments, work some particular good, as to build dwellings, plant vineyards, and the like; yet it cannot do all the good natural to it, so as to fall short in nothing; just as a sick man can of himself make some movements, yet he cannot be perfectly moved with the movements of one in health, unless by the help of medicine he be cured.

According to Aquinas, the will after the Fall needs both healing and elevation, whereas the intellect needs elevation simply.

Decades ago, on one of my travels (I was regretfully returning to Houston after having spent some days at the restored colonial city of Williamsburg, Virginia) I visited some ruins of the Mississippi mound builders along the banks of the Mississippi River, the remains of a now vanished culture of at least a thousand years ago. The highest 'mound' was around sixty feet high, neither the pyramids nor Teotihuacan, nor Angkor Wat, but impressive enough. I climbed with some effort to the top and looked out over the plaza below, viewing smaller mounds and imagining the priests. shamans. or 'medicine men' who likely stood where I was standing. These people suddenly became real and present to me, and I began to weep in deep sorrow for them because they had not known of Jesus and had not had the opportunity to share the Christian Faith and its Lord, and therefore did not have 'the means of grace and the hope of glory' (to quote the BCP) which are necessary for salvation. I viewed mothers carrying their and their husband's infants, children and youth scampering about, men being quite human with one another, business being transacted and friendships being nurtured and enjoyed - all dressed in their colourful native attire. They were real people. I was so disturbed about this that upon returning to Houston I reported it all to my very good friend, Fr Moore (who was to become the first pastor of Walsingham). He explained to me, with confidence and assurance that all will meet Jesus when they die and it is he who will bid them well or ill. There are countless billions of people and cultures, both present and historic, who had not known of our Lord, nor have not, nor will not, who live the lives of loving fathers, loving mothers, who practice the virtues and loves that are hallmarks of the holy life. They do this because these qualities represent the best of humanity. While most by far of Catholics and others who share the Christian Faith display these qualities, we do not have a monopoly on Christian virtues and faith in the life to come. Of course, it is God who has endowed all of mankind with such good qualities, and where they are absent it is due to a simple ignorance or willful rejection. God's mind is inscrutable and he will apply his mercy and righteous judgment as he will - and woe be to any who presume to judge the eternal fate of anyone.

The above post should be well-heeded by those who would deem a particular work "un-Catholic" or "inappropriate" based on a single line taken out of context!

Schoenbergian,

You're quite right, of course, but may I add to the list of things which persons should watch with care?

Since even the Devil himself can quote Scripture, the fact of Scriptural quotations doesn't render something fit for liturgical use, just by that fact alone.

"What I like" or, worse, "What I grew up with" isn't actually a liturgical qualifier, however much there are those who believe otherwise.