Flannery O'Connor observed in a letter to a nonbelieving friend, dated December 9, 1958.
"To have the Church be what you want it to be would require the continuous miraculous meddling of God in human affairs, whereas it is our dignity that we are allowed more or less to get on with those graces that come through faith and the sacraments and which work through our human nature.
God has chosen to operate in this manner. We can't understand this but we can't reject it without rejecting life."