Catholics Believe in Sanctifying Grace -- What Is It?

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. ". . . and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. amen"

Hello dear friends in Christ,
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How many of us can remember all of the teachings that were presented to us when we were younger regarding our Catholic faith? I know that I simply cannot pull it all out of my brain, even though what I learned didn't even scratch the surface of the depths of our Catholic Faith! I can't explain why; I just can't remember it all! My mother said it's because only so much could have been taught to us as children because our little minds could not grasp it all. I don't think that we as adults can grasp it all either; but it is such joy to learn more and more each day!
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I remember that I was taught with the Baltimore Cathecism and I cannot forget the words that my classmates and I (in parochial school) would continually say:

"God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven. To save our souls, we must worship God by faith, hope, and charity; that is, we must believe in Him, hope in Him, and love Him with all our heart. We shall know the things which we are to believe from the Catholic Church, through which God speaks to us."
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But without that being constantly spoken or heard, those words set aside years ago. I'm so glad that they have been brought to my attention once again. The new Catechism states the same, but in different words. Yet as children, in the Baltimore, we MEMORIZED those words.
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I've been thinking about 'sanctifying grace' lately, what it is and why we need it so very much. Sanctifying grace:

• is a free gift from God, through Christ's death;


• is supernatural;


• we need it for our salvation (to return to God as mentioned above);


• we cannot enter Heaven without it;


• it 'confers in our souls' a new life; a supernatural life that allows us to share in God's life;


• we are not born with it because we are born with original sin;


• we receive it freely through the Holy Spirit;


• when we are Baptised in the Catholic Church, through which our souls become holy and pleasing to God;


• and we become adopted sons and daughters of God;


• God lives in our soul through the Holy Spirit;


• we lose it through mortal sin (1-an act of grievous nature, 2-which we fully know to be mortally sinful, and yet 3-we commit anyway, with full consent of our will);


• without it God is lost from our souls and the devil gains our souls;


• without it we are enemies of God and cannot enter His kingdom of Heaven;


• without mortal sin, we are in a state of grace, necessary to enter Heaven;


• the Holy Spirit lives within us in the state of sanctifying grace and we have a new nature;


• and we become temples of God;


• yet due to original sin, we will still have the tendency to sin, through human imperfection;


• yet it strengthens our will to avoid further sin;


• which then, in turn, expands our heart and influences us to do more good,


• which brings us increased merit for heaven; without sanctifying grace, we can gain no merits;


• by doing so we are increasingly attracted to God;


• we increasingly know and love God;


• if we lose it, we can only regain it through the Sacrament of Penance (Confession) by confessing our sins to a Catholic priest with true contrition, sorrow and a firm resolve and commitment not to repeat the sin; and finally, by making an act of perfect contrition (a prayer of sorrow for offending God because He is infinitely good and worthy of all our love.)


• if in the state of mortal sin, we cannot receive Christ in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (Communion), even if we made an act of perfect contrition);

These points are just a few of note on the ever-important concept of sanctifying grace and should give each Catholic serious pause in thinking about what state our souls are in at each moment in our lives.

Blessings,

~ bella

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Admonishing a Sinner

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Dear Friends in Christ,

When I started this blog last fall, I never imagined that I would ever encounter another Catholic blogger's harassment. Lately, the level of negativity she has directed towards me has reached a point that I had no other choice but to engage in one of the "SPIRITUAL ACTS OF MERCY" - - - to admonish the sinner (see complete list of Spiritual Acts of Mercy in the sidebar).

However, the devil knows the weaknesses of humans and takes over in those areas ..... he is working amidst us through this particular blogger who has harassed me twice in just 24 hours directly through my personal e-mail address!

So what does the Catholic Church teach us regarding the "admonishment of sinners"?

Quoted directly from "The Catholic Community Forum" by Father Albright, he states that "admonishing a sinner" is:

". . . the most loving thing we can do is tell people the truth, and try to save their soul. . . in certain situations, there comes a point when nothing we say or do will help. Some conversions are not intellectual. Our words and thought processes will not convince. Once you have clearly made your point in charity and sincerity, all that is left is to pray (and fast) for his (the sinner's) conversion . . . . If we lose someone in our life, we lose also the chance to help them grow and to grow ourselves because of them. . . It is true that, as we grow close to God and stand firm in faith, people we know and encounter - even friends - will be turned off. If they are living sinfully or inauthentically, they will shy away from "too much religion. . . "

As I said before and will always say, THE DEVIL CANNOT STEAL MY JOY nor THE LIGHT OF CHRIST IN MY LIFE!

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One final note that I was so profoundly reminded by Father Corapi in his CD "Consecration to Our Lord Through Mary", . . . in which he reminds us of what Jesus said in His Beatitudes "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE PERSECUTED". Father Corapi also says to PRAISE GOD for those that persecute you as a disciple of Christ.

Much love and blessings to my beautiful friends in blog-land,
~Bella

I'll pray the following prayer to St. Michael as much as I have to:

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Prayer to St. Michael

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Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

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Amen.

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Knowing My Demons: My Weaknesses and Temptations

Hello Dear Friends in Christ,

It is a constant struggle, but I am continually trying to improve areas of my life that really need some help . . . so that I can live with a higher quality of life and one that is more pleasing to Christ.

This weekend's Mass homily was very pertinent to me regarding HAVING THE FAITH to believe that I really CAN eliminate some of the demons in my life that continually take over me. Our parish priest said that there is a difference between POWER and AUTHORITY. Jesus had both the power and the authority to call demons out of others and He demonstrated it during His life. Yet people doubted this. His response to them was that they did not have faith. Jesus was teaching us that we FIRST must HAVE FAITH. Therefore, I KNOW, (but sadly need to keep remind myself), that if I strengthen my faith with the help of the Holy Spirit, I have the ability to overcome my demons, my weaknesses, my temptations.

Often I've just given up and thought, "I just can't change this bad habit", but I realize that my failure has largely been due to the fact that I am trying to change a life-long habit without the assistance of God.

Nothing is too much to conquer for Jesus. NOTHING! He can handle my petitions for help regarding work, family, personal bad habits and behaviors, as well as my finances. By the way, each of us needs to have FAITH that He can help us handle getting through this recession.

I need to keep acting and asking in faith, never doubting that I CAN overcome any negative behaviors (weaknesses and temptations). Father Corapi (on EWTN) has said in his numerous messages that the devil KNOWS our weaknesses and our temptations and will continually attack us in these areas. Without Christ, we cannot help ourselves, but continue to engage in the negative behavior or habit due to our human WEAKNESS. These are OUR OWN DEMONS! With our strengthened Faith and conviction, we DO have the power and authority to cast out those demons.

Jesus taught us "You have great faith! Your wish will come to pass!" (Mt. 15:28)

The key thing is that all things are possible with Christ and that FAITH in Him and what He can do for us is absolutely necessary!

Today, I pray for the strength to battle my bad habits and behaviors, and to overcome my weaknesses and temptations, with the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Blessings,
~ Bella

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Catholic Beliefs About Sin: The Seven Deadly Sins PLUS The NEW Seven Deadly Sins

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Hello Dear Friends,

A few days ago, I posted on Catholic's belief in living a virtuous life. And as we all know, we are imperfect human beings born with the original sin of our first parents. Despite our Baptism, we continue to sin and offend our Lord each and every day. We just do! Even St. Paul said that he does what he knows he should not do . . . it's the power of evil and of the flesh. There are some people who don't even know what is considered sin against God . . . so here are some basics. Thankfully, Catholics have a special Sacrament, a treasure of the Catholic Church, that we have that will help us return to a better state of grace with God. Catholics also believe that before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, we must have repented our sins to a priest. Catholics are not to be in a state of mortal sin when receiving Holy Communion.

Not only are we to obey The Ten Commandments (which include the serious sins that we should avoid, such as "Thou Shalt Not Kill"), these are considered to be mimimum requirements for our salvation.

The Catholic Church believes that sin is any willful thought, desire, word, action or ommission forbidden by the law of God.


THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

PRIDE: Unrestrained appreciation of our own worth.
GREED: Immoderate desire for earthly goods.
LUST: Desiring for impure pleasures.
ANGER: Inordinate desire for revenge.
GLUTTONY: Unrestrained use of food and drink.
ENVY: Sorrow over another's good fortune.
SLOTH: Laxity in keeping the Faith and the practice of virtue, due to the effort involved.

Each of the 7 deadly sins have virtue that act as remedies against the deadly sins and helps us conquer them. Therefore we should do everything that we can to make the virtues an integral part of our life.

Pride is conquered by Humility and Modesty
Envy is overcome by Kindness and Charity
Lust is conquered by Chastity and Purity
Wrath is avoided by Patience and Meekness
Gluttony is overcome by Abstinence and Moderation
Greed is conquered by Generosity
Sloth is avoided by Diligence and Zeal


THE FOUR SINS CRYING TO HEAVEN FOR VENGEANCE

Willful murder (including abortion)
The sin of Sodom.
Oppression of the poor.
Defrauding laborers of their wages.


THE SIX SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT

Presumption of God's mercy.
Despair.
Impugning the known truth.
Envy at another's spiritual good.
Obstinacy in sin.
Final impenitence.


NINE WAYS OF BEING ACCESSORY TO ANOTHER'S SIN

By counsel.
By command.
By consent.
By provocation.
By praise or flattery.
By concealment.
By partaking.
By silence.
By defense of the ill done

And here are the NEWLY declared Seven Deadly Sins recently proclaimed by Pope Benedict:

These sins makes Catholics consider more seriously than before the results and consequences of their actions on a GLOBAL scale, as our world has become globalized in interaction and connectivity, and as a result there is a global communal impact of our sins. These newly added sins do not eliminate the original seven deadly sins (made famous by Dante in the Purgatorial sufferings of the Divine Comeday) , but rather adds to them. These new sins are:

Genetic modification
Human experimentations
Polluting the environment
Social injustice
Causing poverty
Financial gluttony
Taking drugs

Acknowledgment and avoidance of committing these new deadly sins calls us to consider the communal effect of our sins on others in humanity. The recognition of these sins clearly demonstrates the development of our beautiful Catholic faith as we, Her sheep, practice and spread our Catholic spiritual, moral, and ethical principles into a society, global in scope, with global implications and consequences. One goal of Catholicism is unity and the return of all of our fallen away brothers and sisters; therefore, the avoidance of these sins will help us prevent further division among the world's peoples.

I don't know about you, my friends, but I think that today is a perfect day to conduct an examination of conscience and get to Confession!

Blessings,
~Bella

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