Catholic belief

I am Roman Catholic myself yes....and it's a great discussion to get into if it fits into this group ok. And rix already expanded on the doctinesthat Christians share regardless of rite or denomination. Protestant, Roman Catholic, Greek and Russian Orthodox make up Christianity. Christianity is a religion of salvation. Our foundation is that Christ conquered death which becomes subject to life through Him. Jesus Christ is our Savior, and though His act of salvation, we are saved.


Typically these discussions become uncharitable...but it seems people here are a bit different than on most discussion boards. One key point is that in order to have a good discussion you have to recognize that there are areas where mutually exclusive views are ok....and can be proven by scripture equally. And as long as you don't try to get into the percentage of rightness one view has over the other it remains a great conversation.


Ithink your Catholic friend was a bit too broad so it makes things harder to understand.Luther began the process by which grace needed to be identified and further broken down into what seems like very different meanings. And this is why we deal with terms like sanctifying grace and actual grace in theology after that period in history.


So I'll use a couple quotes from the early Church.Athanasius said “God has not only made us out of nothing; but He gave us freely, by the grace of the Word, a life in correspondence with God" --- Catholics would think of this as sanctifying grace. St Ambrose said “every holy thought is the gift of God, the inspiration of God, the grace of God.” -- Catholics would think of this as actual grace


So what is grace from a Catholic view?- It's a gift from God, freely given to us. God dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ. His death on the cross served a very specific purpose....that we would experience the supernatural when we die...the Beatific Vision. This is not our experience of God here on this earth but the intimate knowledge of the Trinity. The point at which we no longer see Him in a clouded mirror, but are blinded by the light of God reflected in our soul.No matter how holy we are on earth we cannot know God in this manner norcan weachieve this on our own through any act ofintellect or merit -only through the supernatural itself. This supernatural gift is what we call grace


Sanctifying grace - The opposite of sin and injustice is sanctifying grace and justice. And justification is the basis for salvation. So essentiallya soul infused with sanctifying grace will,at the instant of death , experience the Beatific Vision. This type of grace is the absolute essence of the soul. Sanctifying grace resides in our souls in a state of permanence so to speak. Baptism for instance wipes out all sin and sanctifying grace fills the soul


Actual grace - Again this comes from God.In addition to our soul we have a human mind and a will.God calls us to Himself in many ways and we choose to accept, ignore, or reject Him. God may give us a supernatural thought to prayor be sorry for a sin for instance...this is an actual grace that we can choose to act on and accept. Unlike sanctifying gracewe move with God in the gracesHe offers. God calls us to comfort the sick, weexperience a tragedy in our lives and God calls us to prayer, we have a sudden thought to volunteer in a natural disaster effort. We accomplish the act through our yes to the grace that God initiated. Actual grace is internal to our mind and will


External graces - I think this is what your Catholic friend was trying to convey. External graces draw us tointernal actual grace. attending Mass, praying the rosary, these things draw us closer to God and in accepting the graces he sends. If you think of Jesus and His mission on earth, His cross, His words and examples - this is what Catholics would call external graces.


I'll come back and tie this into the way Luther viewed justification compared to the Catholic view and also offer thoughts about your questions on specific scripture.