Exiit qui seminat

We read this weekend from St. Paul and his first letter to the Corinthians, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me." As Catholic Christians we hear about grace all the time and hopefully we realize the importance of the God's grace. But do we actually know what grace is and how is it a part of our lives? The Baltimore Catechism defines grace as a "supernatural gift of God bestowed on us through the merits of Jesus Christ for our salvation." Grace, therefore, is a gift from God to help us get to heaven. Grace adds to our strengths and helps us overcome our own weaknesses so we can live out the life of faith. There are two types of grace: Actual and sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is the easier of the two to explain. It's the supernatural aid that we receive every time we receive the sacraments and through our life of prayer. Every sacrament confers grace. Baptism, for example, gives us the gift of faith, removes the mark of Original Sin, makes us official members of the Church and opens us up to receive the rest of the other sacraments. Every time we pray, we also open ourselves up to sanctifying grace. When we pray we tell the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit how much we love them, how sorry we are for our sins, to say thank you and to ask God for help. Every prayer is answered by Him and grace - that supernatural help - is given. Actual grace is based off our actions and good works. Just as every sin effects the whole Body of Christ in a negative way (more on that in a future column), every good deed we do in the Lord's name is meritorious and helps lift up the whole Body of Christ. Acts of charity, acts of love, acts of kindness, reading this column (just kidding) - all these things open us up to gift of actual grace. So when we do good and avoid evil, when we pray and receive the sacraments, we can be vessels of God's actual and sanctifying grace and have them strengthen us on our journey to heaven. Fill 'er up! 

Sincerely Yours in Christ, 

Fr. Rob Sinatra