DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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Sanctifying grace is often compared to a
garment. We hear the expression that our
first parents were created, clothed with the
garments of sanctifying grace — or that in
Baptism we receive the garment of innocence.

To indicate this the priest lays a
white garment, on the child when he baptizes.
This is a figure of speech ; it does
not mean that the soul is only clothed externally
with innocence, and that inwardly
the sin might still remain ; no, it means that
just as a white garment is an ornament which
makes the body beautiful, so the soul is made
beautiful by grace, that by grace the soul is
adorned as the bride of Jesus Christ.
There
can be no covering up of inward ugliness,
so that the all-seeing eye of God should not
see it. That a soul be beautiful in the eyes
of God, it must be all beautiful, not merely
dressed in a beautiful garment.


To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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We will, then, believe with the Catholic
Church that by sanctifying grace man is
really sanctified and justified,
i.e. that by
sanctifying grace sin is truly blotted out, and
that the soul is interiorly sanctified,
so that
" there is now, therefore, no condemnation to
them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
according to the flesh."
1 Through
sanctifying grace they have been " renewed in
the spirit of their mind, and put on the new
man, who according to God is created in
justice and holiness of truth."
2 Born of God
they are the children of God and heirs of
the heavenly kingdom. "Behold what manner
of charity the Father hath bestowed on
us, that we should be called and should be the
sons of God.
Therefore the world knoweth
not us, because it knew not Him.
Dearly
beloved, we are now the sons of God, and it
hath not yet appeared what we shall be.
We know that, when He shall appear, we
shall be like to Him, because we shall see
Him as He is."
3


1 Rom. 8. I.
2 Eph. 4. 23.
3 John 3. 1.


Coming up... HOW JUSTIFICATION IS OBTAINED
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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IV - HOW JUSTIFICATION IS OBTAINED


Before the sin of our first parents the
most perfect order existed in the world ; in
nature one thing was subject to the other,
one order of beings to the other, and all lower
nature was subject to man, who was the lord
of creation. In man himself the same perfect
order existed:
the lower faculties were
subject to the higher.
All creation with
man at its head was subject to God, the
Maker of all things,
but when sin came
all this was changed ; sin brought disorder.

The disorder caused by sin is especially seen
in the human soul;
the image of the Creator
is not as clear as it was when the soul was
created; sin has blurred it.
This sad condition
of the soul must not last, the soul in
that condition cannot be pleasing to God,

the former happy relation with its Maker
must be reestablished. The soul must be
justified.
To obtain justification and to retain it
is the most necessary and most important task of man in this life;

it is his life's work.


Coming up... How can man obtain justification?
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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How can man obtain justification? No
one can be justified except through grace
obtained through the merits of Jesus Christ.

This we have already seen, but the question
still remains, How are the merits of Christ
applied to our soul that we may be justified
through them?
Before the institution
of the Old Law men were justified by the
belief and hope in the promised Redeemer,
joined to a good life. In the Old Law the
Israelites were justified through their belief
and hope in the Redeemer to come, and by
the observance of the Law of God and the
reception of the Old Testament sacraments.

The children who had not yet obtained the
use of reason must have been justified by
belonging to the chosen people of God without
any act on their part

In the New Law children are justified
by Baptism without any act of their own.
They are baptized in the faith of the Church.
Their duties as regards Baptism begin when
they receive the use of their reason,
and so
become able to do good.
With grown persons
it is quite different.
Grace does the
greater part in the work of justification, but
man must also do his part ; he must cooperate
with the grace of God. God and man
work together, and so the work of justification
is performed.
Let us now briefly consider
how this work of sanctification is
brought about.

TBC...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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The work of justification is begun by God.
He gives man the gratuitous gift of preventing grace,
which is no other than actual grace.
Actual grace
has various names; when it is given to us to begin a good work
it is called preventing grace, that is, that goes before the good work,
for this is the meaning of "preventing," from the Latin
word "praevenire," to go before ;
when it is
given us to help us perform a good work already begun,
it is called concomitant grace or accompanying grace ;
and when it is given to help us complete a good work, it is called
subsequent or following grace.
We need
God's help to begin, continue, and finish
every good and salutary work; we need
therefore for every good work God's preventing,
concomitant, and subsequent grace.


The work of justification, which is the greatest
of all,
must therefore be begun by the
grace of God.
God so acts on our intellect
and free will that, through the light of His
actual grace we recognize our helpless condition,
and so moves our will that we turn to
Him and seek help from Him.


To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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This merciful action of God on the
understanding and will of man is often joined to
some external event.
Let us see an example.
We read in the life of St. Norbert 1 that in
his youth he had been very careless, that he
had fallen in with bad companions, and was
on the broad road that leads to perdition.

One day as he was riding on horseback to
meet some of these bad companions, the
lightning struck the ground before his horse,
and he heard a voice upbraiding him for his
bad life. Norbert, like St. Paul, asked, " Lord,
what wilt Thou have me do ? "
2 And he
received the answer to leave sin and to do
good.
From that day on Norbert was a
changed man. He left his evil companions,
became a priest, and converted many sinners
and heretics to Christ. He also founded the
order of the Praemonstratensians. In this
way God dealt with this young man, and
called him by His grace to become one of His
most faithful servants.
The internal grace,
which God gave Norbert to see his deplorable
condition and to move him to repentance,
was joined to some external sign, — a
stroke of lightning. Had God not given
him His grace,
Norbert, instead of becoming
a saint and leading a great multitude of
people to God,
would have been lost himself,
and in all probability would have been
the cause of the damnation of many others.



1 Bollandists', Acta Sanct. Junii 6.
2 Acts 9. 6.


To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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At times the grace of conversion is
occasioned by the hearing of the word
of God, the advice of a friend, or some other
external means,
to turn the mind and heart
to God.
These external things only accompany
the grace of God ; grace itself is internal ;

it is an illumination of the mind and a
moving of the heart.
It is not necessary
that it should always be joined to something
external, and, in fact, the ordinary way in
which God calls the sinner is not through
these extraordinary outer helps.
How often
it happens that the thought comes to one,
What would become of me if I should die
now ?
I know that I am in great danger of
being lost forever if I remain in sin. I will
make all things right; I will go to confession.

These thoughts are from the grace of God,
which is calling the sinner to repentance ;
they are the effect of the preventing grace of God.


To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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God is " Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end."
1 From Him the beginning
of justification must come. He makes that
beginning,
for every one receives sufficient
grace to be saved.
He loved us first,
and even while we are sinners He loves
us and seeks us; He wishes to bring
us back to Him; He goes out to seek
the sheep that was lost; He calls us to
repentance.
God gives every sinner His
grace,
but the sinner cannot be idle; he,
too, must do something ;
he must accept the
grace of God and cooperate with it.
How
must man cooperate with the grace of God ?
He must believe in God, hope in Him, and
begin to love him as the fountain of all
justice, receive the sacrament of Baptism,
or, if he be already baptized, the sacrament
of Penance.
2


We will first consider justification through the sacrament of Baptism.
Children receive sanctifying grace without
any act of their own, as we have already
mentioned ; the question is, therefore, entirely
concerning those that have the use
of reason. Of these St. Augustine says,
"He who has created thee without thee,
will not justify thee without thee."
3


We must bear in mind that without the
grace of God we can do nothing for our
salvation,
and that if certain acts are required
by which we dispose ourselves for justification,

even in these acts we are dependent on the grace of God.
God it is who worketh in us the willing and the doing
of every good work. The grace of God
must move us to every good work, and must
assist us in the doing of it.



1 Apoc. I. 8.
2 Con. Trid. Sess. 6, c. 6.
3 Serm. 15, de Verb. Apost. c II.


To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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With the grace of God, therefore, the
sinner must believe, hope, and begin to love
God and repent of his sins. By faith, hope,
and love or charity, as a preparation for Baptism,
are not understood the divine virtues
of faith, hope, and charity; these are only
infused into the soul of man through Baptism ;
but they are acts performed under
the influence of actual grace. An example
of how men must prepare themselves for
Baptism we have in the manner in which
the people of Jerusalem received the first
sermon of St. Peter, 1 and were converted by
it. God made the beginning by enlightening
them through the words of St. Peter
and by the internal light of His grace
which He gave them. What did they do on
their part ? They believed the words of the
Apostle; they believed that Jesus, whom
they had put to death, was the promised
Messias. In their hearts arose the desire
that the promises made by God, through
the prophets, might be fulfilled in them, that
is, they hoped for supernatural benefits. By
asking, " What shall we do ? " they expressed
their willingness to do the will of God, that is,

they began to love God. " If thou wilt enter
into life, keep the commandments."
2 We
read further that three thousand were baptized
and did penance. To do penance means to
be sorry for one's sins, to propose not to sin
any more, to lead a good life, and
to make satisfaction for the sins committed.


1 Acts. 2.
2 Matt. 19. 17.


To be continued...
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Re: DIVINE GRACE (in English)

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The necessity of these acts of faith, hope,
love, and repentance we learn
from the teaching
of the Catholic Church. As regards
faith our Lord teaches us its necessity in the
instruction He gave His apostles : " Go ye
into the whole world and preach the gospel
to every creature. He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth
not shall be condemned."
1 Our Lord says
that we must first believe and then be
baptized ; he that believeth not shall be
condemned, even if he be baptized. This belief
must be from the heart;
the mere outward
profession is not sufficient.
This we see
from the example of the eunuch of the
Queen of Ethiopia whom St. Philip instructed.
After he had been instructed he
said to Philip, "See, here is water, what
doth hinder me from being baptized ? And
Philip said, If thou believest with all thy
heart thou mayest."
2 After the eunuch had
answered that he believed that Jesus is
the Son of God, Philip baptized him. Faith
is, therefore, the first reguisite for justification ;

it is the ground and root of justification.


1 Mark 16. 16.
2 Acts 8. 36, 37.


To be continued...
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