1:3 spiritual blessings: Our blessing that takes place in God is only the acknowledgement of those good things He has bestowed on us. For our blessing that takes place by God is completed in us by what we do, in return for which He lifts us up by His graces and shows us worthy administration. (Theodore of Mopsuestia)  heavenly places: Some commentators understand these latter words to refer to heavenly things; but this seems to be an improbable meaning, since it was sufficiently expressed already by spiritual blessings. Hence, the words refer to heavenly places, or heaven, where these blessings are to be fully completed, unlike the blessings and earthly inheritance conferred on the Jews, to which he would appear to allude by way of contrast. (Bishop John McEvilly) 

1:4 The Elect People of God, upon their election, are bestowed, as on a body, the gifts of justification, holiness, and final salvation. The perfections of Christ are shed around them; His image is reflected from them; so that they receive His name as being in Him, and beloved of God in the Beloved. Thus in their election are sealed up, to be unrolled and enjoyed in due season, the successive privileges of the heirs of light. In God's purpose—according to His grace—in the tendency and ultimate effects of his dispensation—to be called and chosen is to be saved. "Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate; whom He did predestinate, them He also called; whom He called, them He also justified; whom He justified, them He also glorified." Rom. 8:29, 30. Observe, the whole scheme is spoken of as of a thing past; for in His deep counsel He contemplated from everlasting the one entire work, and, having decreed it, it is but a matter of time, of sooner or later, when it will be realized. As the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, so also were His redeemed gathered in from the first according to His foreknowledge; and it is not more inconsistent with the solemn announcement of the text just cited, that some once elected should fall away (as we know they do), than that an event should be spoken of in it as past and perfect, which is incomplete and future. All accidents are excluded, when He speaks; the present and the to come, delays and failures, vanish before the thought of His perfect work. And hence it happens that the word "elect" in Scripture has two senses, standing both for those who are called in order to salvation, and for those who at the last day shall be the actually resulting fruit of that holy call. For God's Providence moves by great and comprehensive laws; and His word is the mirror of His designs, not of man's partial success in thwarting His gracious will. (John Henry Cardinal Newman)

1:5 What the Apostle says, therefore, about his predestinating us unto the adoption of children can refer to the imperfect assimilation to the Son of God possessed in this life through grace. But it is more probable that it refers to the perfect assimilation to the Son of God which will exist in the fatherland. In reference to this adoption Romans 8:23 asserts: “Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God.” (St. Thomas Aquinas)  Predestination, then, is the preparation of grace which cannot be without foreknowledge. But God foreknew also what he was not going to make, that is, evil. Because while there are certain things that are sins in such a way they may also be punishments of sin, according to the words, ‘God handed them over’ (Rom 1:24,26), nevertheless this is not God’s sin but his judgment. Grace is the effect of this predestination. But it should be known that God has also prepared eternal fire for the wicked. Yet surely he did not prepare for the predestined to perform sins whose punishments he justly prepared to take away. For God has prepared what divine justice would render, not what human injustice would commit. For he has not prepared saints for receiving justice in the same way as he has prepared the wicked for losing justice, because he was never a preparer of depravity. This rule, then, must be commonly held, sinners were foreknown, not prepared, to be in sin, but their punishment was prepared according to which they were known before. (Glossa Ordinaria on Romans 8:29)

1:6 Now when he said ‘he graced’, he wanted to indicate that he filled us with all grace… For it is because Paul hopes in this way to share with him in the resurrection and incorruption, and to dwell with him in the heavens, and because he is showing the greatness of the gifts, that he said he graced us. (Theodore of Mopsuestia)