How do people accept/reject graces from God?

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Nelka

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When we pray for someone, not talking about conversion and God gives that person grace to be loving, kind, humble etc. How does that person reject that grace poured out on them? Is it something they feel and then reject or do they not feel anything?

Is it like a sudden feeling of remorse or happiness which they then choose to reject or not?

Do the demons attempt to stop the person accepting the graces?

Thanks.
 
I spent a lot of years rejecting Grace due to pride. Now I do my best to accept it with gratitude and humility. Satan is always trying to put a wedge between us and God. Getting us to reject Grace is a great way to accomplish this.
 
CFaith is not a feeling and we cannot rely on our feelings to guide us through our spiritual journey. The lack of good feelings, aka. consolations, is not an indicator that you have not been given grace nor are bad feelings. Feelings come and go. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says it quite well:

2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved. However, according to the Lord’s words “Thus you will know them by their fruits” - reflection on God’s blessings in our life and in the lives of the saints offers us a guarantee that grace is at work in us and spurs us on to an ever greater faith and an attitude of trustful poverty.

A pleasing illustration of this attitude is found in the reply of St. Joan of Arc to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: “Asked if she knew that she was in God’s grace, she replied: ‘If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep me there.’”

Sanctifying grace is given us through the sacrament of Baptism and is received ex opere operato (by the very fact of the action’s being performed) unless consciously rejected by the recipient. Sacramental graces are given us through the other sacraments, again ex opere operato, but can be blocked if the recipient is not in a state of grace.

There are special graces or charisms which God gives us for the good of the whole Church and graces of state which help us fulfill our duties or ministries within the Church and the world.

Receipt of God’s free gift of grace can be rejected or blocked by our conscious will or by our not being in a state of grace (state of mortal sin). Sure, demons can tempt us to block grace or commit sin but most often it is our conscious decisions that do this.
 
Receipt of God’s free gift of grace can be rejected or blocked by our conscious will or by our not being in a state of grace (state of mortal sin). Sure, demons can tempt us to block grace or commit sin but most often it is our conscious decisions that do this.
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And this is why the old saw, “The devil made me do it!” is nonsense. We have free will. We can accept God’s grace or we can reject it, freely. We do it through our God-given free will.

Think back to the Gospel, where Jesus had fasted for 40 days in the desert, and was then tempted by Satan. Jesus freely rejected Satan’s suggestion (command) to turn stones to bread. Was Jesus hungry after His 40-day fast? Certainly! Did He have the power to turn stones to bread? Sure He did. After all, He turned water into wine at Cana, so turning stones to bread would be little more than a “parlor trick” for our Lord. But Jesus didn’t do magic tricks, nor did He do what Satan told Him to do, no matter how hungry He was! Nor should we.

Grace is freely given by God. And it ought to be freely accepted by us, His people. So how do we accept grace? We ask for it, and we accept it. We “just do it”, by living a life free of mortal sin, by confessing to those mortal sins that we imperfect humans sometimes commit (and sin is a free-will action… if it isn’t free-will, it, by definition, cannot be a mortal sin), and by resolving, with the help of His grace, “to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin” (from the Act of Contrition).
 
saellis said:
I spent a lot of years rejecting Grace due to pride. Now I do my best to accept it with gratitude and humility. Satan is always trying to put a wedge between us and God. Getting us to reject Grace is a great way to accomplish this.
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Well said!

If you are a grace seeking Catholic and feel as though something is not working I have 2 personal methods. First, push yourself to go to numerous confessions, throughout the week, contimplate the sins you will confess and go. Do this between 10-25 times, and if you realize you have discovered enough sins for 2 confessions in 1 week, visit multiple churches to confess. Sin is replaced with grace. I can guarantee you a life changing and noticeable effect. Second, trust in not only Jesus, but our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary and her special graces. Locate a miraculous medal and a Carmelite Scapular, combining both, enroll in the Carmelite order with a priest. Her graces are deep and powerful, trust in her. And, the sacred heart of Jesus is also enscribed on the miraculous medal.

I hope you find all the grace and if you do, pass this on to those who need it.
 
Unlike a previous poster I would not recommend going to different churches if confessing multiple times a week - that makes it seem like you are trying to hide the frequency of your confessions. There may be a problem with those who confess too frequently, a spiritual ‘disease’ called scrupulosity. Most of the time I go weekly. If I committed a mortal sin and need to receive Communion before my next regular Confession, only then would I shorten the time between confessions.

Sticking with one church or one priest is a wise and safe practice.
 
I would think that rejection is rejection. We do have free will. We can chose right from wrong, good from bad or even not be aware of what grace is. It is certainly about choice, hopefully one knows what the choices are. I guess asking your priest would be the best way to get the best answer. Peace…3
 
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