Grace

Grace is supernatural gift from God bestowed on us through the merits of Jesus Christ for our salvation. "[Grace is] a supernatural gift of God to an intellectual creature, bestowed with a view to eternal life... Sometimes, broadly, any gift freely given by God irrespective of a relation to man's supernatural end." "Sanctifying grace is that grace which makes the soul holy and pleasing to God." "Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love" "Sanctifying grace is a supernatural gift inherent in our soul, and rendering us just, adopted children of God and heirs to Paradise." Sanctifying grace is also called habitual grace. "Actual grace is that help of God which enlightens our mind and moves our will to shun or persistently avoid, ignore or reject evil and do good." "[Actual graces] refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification" "Actual grace is a supernatural gift which enlightens the mind, moves and strengthens the will in order to enable us to do good and avoid evil." "Sacramental grace is a special help which God gives, to attain the end for which He instituted each Sacrament." "The sacramental grace...aids us in attaining the end for which each Sacrament was instituted and for which we receive it." "Sacramental grace consists in the right acquired in the reception of a sacrament, to have at the proper time the actual graces necessary to fulfill the obligations arising from the sacrament received. Thus when we were baptized we received the right to have the grace to live a Christian life." "Grace is necessary to salvation, because without grace we can do nothing to merit heaven." "We can and unfortunately often do resist the grace of God." "[W]e can resist the grace of God because it does not destroy our free will." "The sacraments which confer first sanctifying grace, and render us friends of God, are two: Baptism and Penance." "The sacraments which increase grace in those who already possess it are the other five: Confirmation, Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders and Matrimony" "Jesus Christ by His passion and death gave to the sacraments the power of conferring grace." "The Sacraments always give grace, if we receive them with the right dispositions." "The sacraments always confer grace provided they are received with the necessary dispositions." Although "grace is given us by God chiefly through the sacraments", note that "there is another means of obtaining God's grace, and it is prayer."