For the Spiritual Moms: Grace

We praise you, Holy Trinity, for the gift of grace!

What is grace? What are the two kinds of grace? Catholic Answers gives us what we need to understand grace; it also serves as a good review. The reading is easy; it is great for ages 10 to 110 so, yes, you can send this site to friends and family. 

I will be posting "lessons" such as this one to remind us of the rich teachings of our Church. We are and have been equipped with an abundance of teachings to learn from and be reminded of, so that we may truly learn from them and live in holiness. 

Dear Spiritual Moms, we pray that priests may live in holiness -- a noble task! -- but we ourselves should remain holy, or do our best to become holy and live in holiness as best we can. (Which grace do we need to live this kind of holiness?) Read Catholic Answers that tells us about grace.

Let us pray for one another. "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:16). We are encouraged to pray for one another because "the prayer of a righteous mans is powerful and effective" (James 5:16b).

"Do not confirm yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" (Romans 12:2). 

Happy Reading!

Catholic Church Teachings on Communion of Saints

Catechism of the Catholic Church
Communion of Saints

957
Communion with the saints. "It is not merely by the title of example that we cherish the memory of those in heaven; we seek, rather, that by this devotion to the exercise of fraternal charity the union of the whole Church in the Spirit may be strengthened. Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People of God itself"498:

We worship Christ as God's Son; we love the martyrs as the Lord's disciples and imitators, and rightly so because of their matchless devotion towards their king and master. May we also be their companions and fellow disciples!499


958
Communion with the dead. "In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and ‘because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins' she offers her suffrages for them."500 Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.

959
In the one family of God. "For if we continue to love one another and to join in praising the Most Holy Trinity—all of us who are sons of God and form one family in Christ—we will be faithful to the deepest vocation of the Church."501

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Let us, therefore, love one another in the spirit of prayer by continuing to pray for one another.

We pray for our priests: the deceased, the living who continue to minister to God's people, those in formation or sabbatical leave, and those who are sick or dying.