Merit

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briankarman

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I hear, and it’s not often, about the teaching of merit and I don’t know much about the concept and was hoping others could help out.

From what I can gather, merit is the heavenly reward that is given to you by God for your faithfulness, love, good works, etc. What happens when you commit a serious or mortal sin. Is all merit lost and you have to start over when you’ve had a sacramental confession and have been granted absolution.

Thanks for your help.
 
It is probable that the good merit you had before you fell into mortal sin will be reinstated upon a good confession. There is no dogma that I know of in this regard. However, as I understand it, you would not have those merits while in the state of mortal sin.

Is it bugging you, or are you just curious? Even someone with very little “merit” will have a full experience of heaven. I’ve heard it explained that a small glass and a big glass can both be full. Don’t worry if you and I are just going to be little shot glasses and Mary will be a lake.:o We’ll sit on the shore and enjoy the view. (okay, I’ve gone a bit looney here). I mean, it will all be for the glory of God, so no worries.
 
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Pug:
It is probable that the good merit you had before you fell into mortal sin will be reinstated upon a good confession. There is no dogma that I know of in this regard. However, as I understand it, you would not have those merits while in the state of mortal sin.

Is it bugging you, or are you just curious?
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It’s not bugging me, just curious. I have heard the big glass small glass analogy before, too, and thank you for reminding me of it. I am somewhat of a perfectionist and I want to be the best child of God I can be and that means giving our Lord as much glory as possible.

By that I mean I want to love him as much as I possibly can because I am so thankful for all he has blessed me with. I wasn’t looking at merit in a selfish way, or at least I hope I wasn’t, because if you try to gain merit in a selfish way, namely trying to get more pleasure instead of doing it with the motive of trying to please God and give him greater glory I would think your merit would become less or you wouldn’t gain any in the first place.

To make a long post short, if that’s possible at this point, I was just curious about the teaching on merit because I very rarely hear it discussed.

Peace!
 
Pius XI in the bull Infinita Dei Misericordia says, “the fullness of the merits and the gifts which they lost through sin are restored and given back” in regard to penance.

I looked that up in Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma pg 437, and I am just passing it on so that you can see that somewhere, someone has talked about it!

All Glory to God!
 
I know this is an ancient thread, but how can we grow (gain) merit?

Thanks!
 
mommyof4 said:
I know this is an ancient thread, but how can we grow (gain) merit?

Thanks!
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  1. Start in a state of sanctifying grace. (go to confession if needed)
  2. Pray and ask God to give you grace to be more holy and to do his will and to love others, and that you may cooperate with grace.
  3. Wait for your opportunity (it won’t be long!).
  4. Cooperate with the grace God gives you and do what he would have you do.
  5. Voila! Merit! 😃
  6. Keep on praying some more!
In other words, follow the path of prayer, self-denial, holiness and sanctification. 🙂 I just felt like making a numbered list, for fun. But I thought it might help some, too.
 
Pug said:
  1. Start in a state of sanctifying grace. (go to confession if needed)
  2. Pray and ask God to give you grace to be more holy and to do his will and to love others, and that you may cooperate with grace.
  3. Wait for your opportunity (it won’t be long!).
  4. Cooperate with the grace God gives you and do what he would have you do.
  5. Voila! Merit! 😃
  6. Keep on praying some more!
In other words, follow the path of prayer, self-denial, holiness and sanctification. 🙂 I just felt like making a numbered list, for fun. But I thought it might help some, too.
Click to expand...
Thank you, friend!🙂
 
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