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How Are Sanctifying and Actual Grace Different?

Question:

What is the difference between sanctifying grace and actual grace?

Answer:

The Catechism gives a great synopsis in paragraph 2000. It defines sanctifying grace as an habitual supernatural gift that “perfects the soul itself enabling it to live with God” and to “act by his love.” It’s the grace that justifies or saves us. What the Catechism means by “habitual” is that the gift is stable and permanent—that is, on condition one doesn’t forfeit the gift by committing a mortal sin.

Sanctifying grace is distinguished from actual grace, which the Catechism identifies as “God’s interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.”

So, in short, sanctifying grace is God’s permanent gift residing in the soul that properly disposes us to love God and neighbor, and actual grace is God’s temporary interventions that prompts us to collaborate with him as we continue to grow in holiness.

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