State Of Grace Question

[CatholicRoseGrl]

I understand what the state of Grace means & is but what i don’t understand is how to you prepare yourself to be in the state of Grace and how do you know that you are in the state of grace when you need to ask for repentance for a sin.

Thanks
Rose

 

[Monica4316]

Hi, as Christians we are called to share in God’s life. That is what a state of grace is. When you’re in a state of grace, God indwells your soul. This is distinct from His presence everywhere. Being in a state of grace at the moment of death is necessary to get to Heaven OR Purgatory first. Its necessary for salvation. We should try and always live in a state of grace.

To be in a state of grace all that’s required is to have no mortal sins in your soul. (However, since venial sins lead to mortal sins, and because God wants us to be saints, we should strive to fight little sins too. We should always intend not to sin especially as this intention could be malicious towards God).

There is Original sin (how we were born and lived before Baptism) and that prevents being in a state of grace. There is also personal sin, those are sins we actually commit, mortal or venial. Venial sins weaken us and mortal sins put us out of a state of grace.

Baptism takes away all the types of sin. If you were baptized as an infant, you only had original sin and it was washed away and after it you were in a state of grace. (If you were baptized as an adult then original and all personal sin was washed away)

This state lasts after baptism until the person’s first mortal sin. There are Saints and others who actually kept their baptismal innocence and only did venial sins. But let’s say a person did a mortal sin.

Then they are not in a state of grace anymore and the way to get back is through Confession.

So the simple answer is that to get in a state of grace you need for mortal sins to be forgiven, and since baptism the ordinary way of that is through Confession to a priest, ie: Sacrament of Reconciliation

(The extraordinary way is if a person has something called perfect contrition, that is being sorry ONLY out of love for God, that is a special gift and is rare, and such a person, though forgiven, actually needs to go and confess to a priest anyway, if they are able. That is because we might be mistaken about having perfect contrition and to show our repentance. Perfect contrition in Sacramental Confession is good but not necessary. Imperfect contrition, which is fear of hell is enough).

Hope that makes sense!

 

[Monica4316]

If my explanation about contrition is confusing, here is the relevant part in the Catechism:

"Contrition
1451 Among the penitent’s acts contrition occupies first place. Contrition is "sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again."50
1452 When it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else, contrition is called “perfect” (contrition of charity). Such contrition remits venial sins; it also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible.51
1453 The contrition called “imperfect” (or “attrition”) is also a gift of God, a prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is born of the consideration of sin’s ugliness or the fear of eternal damnation and the other penalties threatening the sinner (contrition of fear). Such a stirring of conscience can initiate an interior process which, under the prompting of grace, will be brought to completion by sacramental absolution. By itself however, imperfect contrition cannot obtain the forgiveness of grave sins, but it disposes one to obtain forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance.52

vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c2a4.htm

So imperfect contrition is all we need for Confession, though its a very good idea to strive for perfect contrition. If God grants us perfect contrition, any mortal.sins can be forgiven even before Confession but we still need to confess them to a priest as soon as we can and have that intent. Also, we can’t receive Communion until after Confession even in the case of perfect contrition IF we had mortal sins. That’s because we might be mistaken. But if we only had venial sins, we can receive. Hope that makes sense!

As for whether we can know if we are in a state of grace, actually we can’t have absolute certain knowledge of that, but we can have conjectural knowledge which means a conclusion we reach because of some good indications. If you have confessed your sins that is one. In addition to them the theologian Fr Garrigou Lagrange lists " But man has three signs of the state of grace so far as “he perceives 1. that he takes delight in God, * 2. that he despises earthly things, and 3. that he is not conscious within himself of any sin.” ewtn.com/library/theology/grace9.htm

So if you are loving God, repenting of sin and confessing it, you are likely in a state of grace we are not meant to agonize over this though, just try our best, hope, and trust God to help us be in His grace…*

 

[Boy_Wonder]

Unless we’re aware of having committed an unconfessed mortal sin, we can never be absolutely certain of the state of our soul. If we have a healthy and well formed conscience (neither too lax nor too scrupulous), we may have the grace and sensitivity to be reasonably certain, but that’s about as far as we can take it. I’m reminded of Joan of Arc who, when asked if she was in a state of grace, could only reply “if I am in a state of grace, may God keep me there, and if I’m not, may God put me there.”

 

[Roseeurekacross]

I understand what the state of Grace means & is but what i don’t understand is how to you prepare yourself to be in the state of Grace and how do you know that you are in the state of grace when you need to ask for repentance for a sin.

Thanks
Rose

Easiest answer is frequent Sacrament of Reconcilliation, and keep those 10 Commandments.

It’s not too difficult.