Plan for Salvation?

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Zenkai

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Can someone tell me the Catholic view of Salvation and how to achieve it?

-Thank you
 
Zenkai said:
Can someone tell me the Catholic view of Salvation and how to achieve it?

-Thank you
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If it wasn’t so late I could give you more of an answer. But for starters, Catholics are saved by the grace of God, through the work of His Son on the cross and our cooperation with His love. It is known as faith and works. James spells it out quite clearly in the second chapter of his letter. We also follow Jesus’ commands in Matthew 25. Anyhow, I am sure that there will be much more to be posted on this one. God bless you and you are in my prayers for your eventual journey home.
 
teachccd said:
If it wasn’t so late I could give you more of an answer. But for starters, Catholics are saved by the grace of God, through the work of His Son on the cross and our cooperation with His love. It is known as faith and works. James spells it out quite clearly in the second chapter of his letter. We also follow Jesus’ commands in Matthew 25. Anyhow, I am sure that there will be much more to be posted on this one. God bless you and you are in my prayers for your eventual journey home.
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Just to add a thought to this excellent post, both faith and works come from God’s free gift of grace, so Catholics do not “earn” their salvation. Rather, as teachccd has indicated, we cooperate with God’s grace thereby gaining salvation by taking advantage of the sacraments Christ established within his Church, as well as its prayer life and acts of charity towards others.

I too would go more into it, but am also posting late at night–up with insomnia, I’m afraid.
 
As you probably know, Mary plays a major role in salvation in the Catholic faith. I have been reading “The Secret of Mary” by St. Louis De Momfort. God chose her to bring Jesus to the world and that is how He still chooses to bring Jesus to the world. There are other ways to Jesus, but Mary is the shortest and easiest route. Her will is conformed wholly and perfectly to Jesus. She is the most Christlike person ever, therefore she is the best Christian to emulate and to ask for intercession. She takes nothing away from the glory of Jesus but rather in humility gives all glory to Him. The veneration of Mary is a means to an end, and that end is the worship of Jesus.
 
Catholics regard the state of a person’s soul at the moment of his death as the determining factor as to whether he ultimately enjoys eternal life in heaven or suffers eternal damnation in hell. If his soul is in what Catholics call a state of grace at the moment of his death, then he ultimately enjoys eternal life in heaven but, if his soul is not in a state of grace at the moment of his death, then he will suffer eternal damnation in hell.

A person’s soul enters a state of grace when he receives baptismal graces, ordinarily in the sacrament of Baptism. Afterwards, he maintains his soul in a state of grace by avoiding mortal sin.
 
Just to add to some of the other comments:
Catholics are to *do the right thing-*summed up by the greatest commandments-to love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself. Getting to that point is another thing altogether-and this is where the Church comes in. Our journey begins with hearing the Word-hearing about God and the things He’s revealed. Our response begins with faith, the first aspect of justice lost at the fall. Without faith in God we remain the way we were born-separated from Him. But then also included in our becoming just are hope and confidence in Gods promises, contrition for sin, repentance, working in some capacity for good in our world, and ultimately and most importantly, love of God and neighbor, in which all the other dispositions are contained or fulfilled. The Church, through her proclamation of the gospel and her Sacraments, helps us on this journey back home to the Father.

We can’t even begin to accomplish any of this without grace. The New Covenant promises, as set forth in Jer 31, tells us this:

33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”

This is the New Covenant instituted by Jesus and put into effect by His blood when the time was ripe in human history. He won reconciliation of man with God, so that now, if we’re willing to cooperate, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Phil 1:16
 
So, Salvation through “works of mercy” or the Sacraments? This is something which I have not come to understand fully; some say works toward your fellow man, others say ‘works’ as in Baptism and the Eucharist/sacraments.
 
Be a good person, regardless of your religion a good righteous person with good intentions and does what God wants even if they don’t know about God is who God saves, accepts and watches over.
 
Zeldarocks said:
So, Salvation through “works of mercy” or the Sacraments?
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Both. Neither one is sufficient without the other because both are the work of the Holy Spirit within that is demonstrated by outward acts.
This is something which I have not come to understand fully; some say works toward your fellow man, others say ‘works’ as in Baptism and the Eucharist/sacraments.
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The sacraments are not “works” but gifts meant to impart saving grace. Works towards our fellow man are necessary, as well, as St. James makes clear.
 
Simply, salvation comes to those that do the will of God. Not an easy thing, but something all can do.
 
Zenkai said:
Can someone tell me the Catholic view of Salvation and how to achieve it?

-Thank you
Click to expand...
Thisis a summary of the Catholic view of salvation.’
’
God calls to every man. Those that answer affirmatively are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is the sacrament that defines the convenential relationship with God that was instituted by Jesus when he died for our sins. You don’t need any credentials to be baptized, nor do you have to do anything good works prior to baptism. You only need the desire to do God’s will for us. When we are baptized, we are reborn as Catholic Christians, freed of all previous sin and given the necessary grace to do the works we are called for. . Our end of the convenent relationship is to stay in the state of grace by doing God’s will for us, loving Him and our neighbors as ourselves. If we die in the state of grace, we will go to heaven. Although if we still have a tendency to sin, we will be purged of that tendency in Purgatory prior to entering heaven.

If we fall from the state of grace through sin, we will be condemned to hell, unless we reconcile with God through the sacrament of reconciliation ( sorrow for our sins, confession to a priest, promise to repent and do a suitable penance). Because of God’s great mercy, we can be forgiven our sins and reenter the state of grace as often as we are willing to repent and confess our sins.
 
one of the best looking non-biased books I could find was the Salvation Controversy by James Akins,

he is a Calvinist turned Catholic, but the reviews sounded good for both sides. I haven’t read it but plan to as this is a touchy subject between Protastants and Catholics.🙂
 
Zeldarocks said:
So, Salvation through “works of mercy” or the Sacraments? This is something which I have not come to understand fully; some say works toward your fellow man, others say ‘works’ as in Baptism and the Eucharist/sacraments.
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As in much of the Catholic faith , this is another case of our beliefs being a both/and instead of an either/or.
God’s peace,
 
**Catholics regard the state of a person’s soul at the moment of his death as the determining factor as to whether he ultimately enjoys eternal life in heaven or suffers eternal damnation in hell. **

May I ask where you got this from, thank you.
 
Luvtosew said:
**Catholics regard the state of a person’s soul at the moment of his death as the determining factor as to whether he ultimately enjoys eternal life in heaven or suffers eternal damnation in hell. **

May I ask where you got this from, thank you.
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This is completely true. if we die in the state of grace, we go to heaven. If we are not in the state of grace, we go to hell. : Read this in the catechism:

scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a12.htm
 
Ok so one lives a very pure life, and oh say one day instead of going to Mass on Sunday , they decdide they are going to the casino, have an accident on the way home, and die, so they go right to hell? am I getting this right?

also read
**
Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they “see him as he is,” face to face:598 **

We are like God for ever Who writes this stuff.

We will never be like God!
 
Luvtosew said:
Ok so one lives a very pure life, and oh say one day instead of going to Mass on Sunday , they decdide they are going to the casino, have an accident on the way home, and die, so they go right to hell? am I getting this right?
Click to expand...
Luvtosew,
Lets put this in perspective with an analogy. Lets say that your spouse and your spouse loves you but you only see that spouse once per week for an hour. Would you ever think of giving up that hour to go to the casino? And if you did, wouldn’t you expect your spouse to be hurt by you choice? Wouldn’t you be in trouble?

Now, the mass is an expression of our love of God, who has done everything for us and who loves us more completely than a spouse ever would. Isn’t it a betrayal to miss that hour with HIM, every bit as much as it is when you skip out on your spouse. Its all about what is in our heart. We either love or we don’t. and those that are faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones and those that are unfaithful in small matters will also be unfaithful in large ones.

You might be of the opinion that mass doesn’t matter or that other sins don’t matter, but they do. When we are born again in baptism, we (or our proxies, in the case of infant baptism), we agree to do God’s will for us. If we fail to do that will, then we will be condemned. EXCEPT, that God in his mercy has given us the ability to reconcile with him through the sacrament of reconciliation.
Luvtosew said:
also read
**
Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they “see him as he is,” face to face:598 **
We will never be like God!
Click to expand...
We are like God for ever Who writes this stuff. Have you never read Genesis, where man was created in the image and likeness of God? You can be “like God” without being the equivalent of God. We will be like God because we will no longer be subject to sin. We will be different from God in that we won’t be all powerful or omnipotent…
 
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