The Holy Spirit and Grace

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Is it safe to say that Grace is The Holy Spirit? Is there a distinction between the two, or are they the same? It seems to me that they are the same.
 
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jimmy:
Is it safe to say that Grace is The Holy Spirit? Is there a distinction between the two, or are they the same? It seems to me that they are the same.
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I’ll bite. I’ve never thought much about the word “grace.”

By grace are we saved?

One possible distinction is that the Holy Spirit is an actual person of God and Grace might be a characteristic of the product delivered by the Spirit.

Is a spirit “full of grace” one which has conformed to the Holy Spirit?

I’m not really going anywhere with this, just trying to kick it around. I’m interested to hear more about your theory. Whether it is theologically correct or not, I am always fascinated to hear revelations people have about the Holy Spirit, which may very well originate from the Spirit.

Alan
 
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jimmy:
Is it safe to say that Grace is The Holy Spirit? Is there a distinction between the two, or are they the same? It seems to me that they are the same.
Click to expand...
From the Glossary of the Catechism:

**GRACE: **The free and undeserved gift that God gives us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted children. As sanctifying grace, God shares his divine life and friendship with us in a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables the soul to live with God, to act by his love. As actual grace, God gives us the help to conform our lives to his will. Sacramental grace and special graces (charisms, the grace of one’s state of life) are gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us live out our Christian vocation (1996, 2000; cf. 654).

Futher reading:
newadvent.org/cathen/06689a.htm

I don’t see how the influence of God or the gifts of God can be considered identical to God, and I don’t recall the Church teaching that idea.

As a test: if you wouldn’t worship grace, then you shouldn’t consider it to be God.
 
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DeFide:
From the Glossary of the Catechism:

**GRACE: **The free and undeserved gift that God gives us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted children. As sanctifying grace, God shares his divine life and friendship with us in a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables the soul to live with God, to act by his love. As actual grace, God gives us the help to conform our lives to his will. Sacramental grace and special graces (charisms, the grace of one’s state of life) are gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us live out our Christian vocation (1996, 2000; cf. 654).

Futher reading:
newadvent.org/cathen/06689a.htm

I don’t see how the influence of God or the gifts of God can be considered identical to God, and I don’t recall the Church teaching that idea.

As a test: if you wouldn’t worship grace, then you shouldn’t consider it to be God.
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The Holy Spirit is also considered to be a gift in a way. I think it is mentioned in the clarification of the filioque. I think that Eastern Christians, namely Eastern Catholics and Orthodox, do look at grace as just being the Holy Spirit.

In the bible it talks about people being filled with The Holy Spirit. It also talks about being filled with grace. Being filled with The Holy Spirit helps us to live the life God wants us to live, grace does the same.
 
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DeFide:
From the Glossary of the Catechism:

**GRACE: **The free and undeserved gift that God gives us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted children. As sanctifying grace, God shares his divine life and friendship with us in a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables the soul to live with God, to act by his love. As actual grace, God gives us the help to conform our lives to his will. Sacramental grace and special graces (charisms, the grace of one’s state of life) are gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us live out our Christian vocation (1996, 2000; cf. 654).

Futher reading:
newadvent.org/cathen/06689a.htm

I don’t see how the influence of God or the gifts of God can be considered identical to God, and I don’t recall the Church teaching that idea.

As a test: if you wouldn’t worship grace, then you shouldn’t consider it to be God.
Click to expand...
Here’s a specific section from the Catholic Encyclopedia (above link on Sanctifying Grace) that addresses this question:

Is this grace of condition or state, as Peter Lombard (Sent., I, dist. xvii, 18) held, identical with the Holy Spirit, whom we may call the permanent, uncreated grace (gratia increata)? It is quite impossible. For **the person of the Holy Ghost cannot be poured out into our hearts **(Rom., v, 5), nor does it cleave to the soul as inherent justice (Trent, sess. VI, can. xi), nor can it be increased by good works (loc. cit., can. xxiv), and all this is apart from the fact that the justifying grace in Holy Writ is expressly termed a “gift [or grace] of the Holy Ghost” (Acts, ii, 38; x, 45), and as the abiding seed of God (I John, iii, 9). From this it follows that the grace must be as distinct from the Holy Ghost as the gift from the giver and the seed from the sower; consequently the Holy Spirit is our holiness, not by the holiness by which He Himself is holy, but by that holiness by which He makes us holy. He is not, therefore, the causa formalis, but merely the causa efficiens, of our holiness.
 
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DeFide:
Here’s a specific section from the Catholic Encyclopedia (above link on Sanctifying Grace) that addresses this question:

Is this grace of condition or state, as Peter Lombard (Sent., I, dist. xvii, 18) held, identical with the Holy Spirit, whom we may call the permanent, uncreated grace (gratia increata)? It is quite impossible. For **the person of the Holy Ghost cannot be poured out into our hearts **(Rom., v, 5), nor does it cleave to the soul as inherent justice (Trent, sess. VI, can. xi), nor can it be increased by good works (loc. cit., can. xxiv), and all this is apart from the fact that the justifying grace in Holy Writ is expressly termed a “gift [or grace] of the Holy Ghost” (Acts, ii, 38; x, 45), and as the abiding seed of God (I John, iii, 9). From this it follows that the grace must be as distinct from the Holy Ghost as the gift from the giver and the seed from the sower; consequently the Holy Spirit is our holiness, not by the holiness by which He Himself is holy, but by that holiness by which He makes us holy. He is not, therefore, the causa formalis, but merely the causa efficiens, of our holiness.
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Thankyou, that is very helpfull.
 
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jimmy:
Is it safe to say that Grace is The Holy Spirit? Is there a distinction between the two, or are they the same? It seems to me that they are the same.
Click to expand...
Hi Jimmy!

I’d say grace is distinct from the Holy Spirit and that it is a gift of the Holy Trinity. How many times have I heard “Ask God for the grace to overcome this or that”?

I think the Holy Spirit bestows grace on us if we but ask him for a particular grace. (ex, the grace to deal with tense situations or the like)

By the way, great posts by the previous posters!

God Bless,
Jade.
 
So if grace is the water, the Holy Ghost is the server thereof?
 
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jimmy:
Is it safe to say that Grace is The Holy Spirit? Is there a distinction between the two, or are they the same? It seems to me that they are the same.
Click to expand...
No, they aren’t the same. The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity. As a person, He has an intellect and intentions. Grace is the concept of receiving an unmerited gift or favor.

While it is true that the Holy Spirit indwells us as a result of grace, they are not one and the same. Our relationship with the the Father and Son are also a result of grace, but neither are they to be equated with the concept of grace.
 
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