Despar, Presumption, and Christian Living; how do knowledge and hope coexist?

[Ziggamafu]

1. 
   *]The Church commands us never to despair of Hell. To do so may be mortal sin.
   ]
   ]The Church commands us never to presume of Heaven. To do so may be mortal sin.
   
   My question: Can we ever know we are in a state of grace? Conversely, can we ever know we are in a state of mortal sin? How? Where does objective discernment end and subjective discernment begin in our spiritual life? And how do reason & knowledge coexist within a spiritual life oriented by hope & faith?

 

[Ziggamafu]

Would this have been a better thread for the Apologetics section? If so, could somebody move it there?

Otherwise, please consider this a bump

 

[Durendin]

I’ve got to admit, it’s a good question and very similar to the other thread which asks whether or not man has overly complicated Christianity.

I hunger for a simple faith and truth, not thousands of volumes of leather bound retoric.

 

[chipshane]

My first post i think did this thread get continued elsewhere?

 

[LilyM]

No we can’t know whether we’re saved or not, and it would do us no good to know in any event, since with every new breath comes a new chance either to lose salvation or to repent and gain it.

The best I can do is say along with St Joan of Arc ‘if I am not in a state of grace may God please to bring me to it, if I am in a state of grace may God please to keep me in it’