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How Does My Free Will Square with God’s Plan for My Life?

Question:

Does God have a perfect, predestined plan for my life? What about free will?

Answer:

The short answer is yes. God does have a predestined plan for your life, but it involves your free will. The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it succinctly:

To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination,” he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: “In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness (CCC 600; emphasis added).

For more information on how to square the doctrine of predestination and free will, see Predestination: The Meaning of Predestination in Scripture and the Church by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange, O.P.

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