Grace and grace...

[Maple]

I am a bit confused on the notion of "grace". I thought that "grace" was a state of being in communion with God. That when we receive God's grace we have reached that point of communion.

In discussions with Protestants, I read the term grace as a force being applied to us by God.

This becomes a chicken or the egg senerio. The way I interpret Catholic Doctrine is that is by application of our own free will we seek God's grace, he doesn't force it on us.

Is this a good interpretation?

 

[TRIBULATOR]

No, if you read the very beginning of the catholic Catechism you will see that it teaches that God is seeking all of His children so that they may be brought into communion with Him.....God is seeking us all! That is Grace from above period; grace is that the Almighty Creator even attempts to interact with us at all, let alone desires us to be with Him and loves us as His children......how mcuh more grace would one look for or need?

 

[Michelina]

Grace is a complex subject, Maple, because there are different types of Grace. Generically, the term means a supernatural gift from God.

I am a bit confused on the notion of "grace". I thought that "grace" was a state of being in communion with God.

Sanctifying grace is the indwelling of God within us, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That when we receive God's grace we have reached that point of communion.

Actually, there are 'graces' from God that move us toward that point.

In discussions with Protestants, I read the term grace as a force being applied to us by God.

Yes, although the notion varies from denomination to denomination, some represent Grace in the way you say.

This becomes a chicken or the egg senerio. The way I interpret Catholic Doctrine is that is by application of our own free will we seek God's grace, he doesn't force it on us.Is this a good interpretation?

God never violates human freedom, Maple. But a deeper theological discussion of this would be very complex. Suffice it to say that sanctifying grace is as you understand it. There are also 'actual' graces that assist us in living in accordance with Sanctifying grace and move us in charity to do God's will. Also: sacramental graces which help us accomplish the purposes of the Sacraments. E.g.: married people receive sacramental graces to fulfill the purposes of the Sacrament. Priests likewise from their Sacrament.

 

[Michelina]

Maple, check out the CCC # 1996-2029.

http://www.nccbuscc.com/catechism/text/pt3sect1chpt3art2.htm

Here are a few paragraphs:

1996:Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.

1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an "adopted son" he can henceforth call God "Father," in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.

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.

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.

2001 The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, "since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it:"

Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing.51

2002God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. The promises of "eternal life" respond, beyond all hope, to this desire