Bede the Venerable: God Loves Voluntarily

For he begot us willingly by the word of truth. The Lord says also in the Gospel, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you (John 15:16); and in the prophet Hosea, I shall love them voluntarily (Hosea 14:5). Consequently he expands what he had said, therefore, that every best gift and every perfect gift comes down from God by adding that he has changed us from sons of darkness into sons of light through the water of regeneration, not because of our merits but because of the generosity of his will. Bede the Venerable, Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles, at James 1:18 (Cisterian Studies Series, #82, pp. 16-17), translated by Dom David Hurst, O.S.B.

Bede the Venerable: All Saving Wisdom Must be Begged from God

If anyone of you, however, stands in need of wisdom, let him beg it from God, who gives to all abundantly and does not reproach, and it will be given to him. All saving wisdom, indeed, must be begged from the Lord, because, as the wise man says, All wisdom is from the Lord God and was always with him (Sirach 1:1), and no one is able to understand be wise of his own free will without the help of divine grace ... . Bede the Venerable, Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles, at James 1:5 (Cisterian Studies Series, #82, p. 9), translated by Dom David Hurst, O.S.B.