339. Grace in action

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 339

Ave Maria series

339  What does God’s grace do to us?

God’s grace brings us into the inner life of the Holy Trinity, into the exchange of love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It makes us capable of living in God’s love and acting on the basis of this love.  [1999-2000, 2003-2004, 2023-2024]

Fr. Chet Artysiewicz, president of the Glenmary Home Missioners, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

“Joy is numbered among the fruits of the Holy Spirit.”--St. Thomas Aquinas…..339

Grace is infused in us from above and cannot be explained in terms of natural causes (supernatural grace). It makes us—especially through Baptism—children of God and heirs of heaven (sanctifying or deifying grace). It bestows on us a permanent disposition to do good (habitual grace). Grace helps us to know, to will, and to do everything that leads us to what is good, to God, and to heaven (actual grace). Grace comes about in a special way in the sacraments, which according to the will of our Savior are the preeminent places for our encounter with God (sacramental grace).  Grace is manifested also in special gifts of grace that are granted to individual Christians (charism) or in special powers that are promised to those in the state of marriage, the ordained state, or the religious state (graces of state).

“What have you that you did not receive?”  1 Corinthians 4:7

“Everything is grace.”  St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)

“My past no longer concerns me.  It belongs to divine mercy.  My future does not yet concern me.  It belongs to divine providence.  What concerns me and what challenges me is today, which belong to God’s grace and to the devotion of my heart and my good will.”  St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

[1999-2000, 2003-2004, 2023-2024]

GRACE

1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification(Compare John 4:14; Jn 7:38-39.)⁴⁸ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.(2 Corinthians 5:17-18.)⁴⁹–CCC

2000 Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God's call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.–CCC

2003 Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit."(Compare Lumen Gentes 12.)⁵³ Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church.(Compare 1 Corinthians 12.)⁵⁴ –CCC

2004 Among the special graces ought to be mentioned the graces of state that accompany the exercise of the responsibilities of the Christian life and of the ministries within the Church: –CCC

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.(Romans 12:6-8.)⁵⁵  –CCC

IN BRIEF

2023 Sanctifying grace is the gratuitous gift of his life that God makes to us; it is infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. –CCC

2024 Sanctifying grace makes us "pleasing to God." Charisms, special graces of the Holy Spirit, are oriented to sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. God also acts through many actual graces, to be distinguished from habitual grace which is permanent in us.–CCC

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