I don't know this syndicated columnist, Fr. Catoir, from Adam; he's located someplace in Paterson, NJ and writes for Catholic News Service.
I clipped and cropped and stashed his recent article, Religion is more than theology, on a private web server for you to read.
Catoir distinguishes religion from theology as faith's experiential side, intimate and personal, and explains how religion and theology complement each other to inform a life lived by faith.
To my mind, Fr. Catoir's article covers all the bases, from the importance of having a personal relationship with God, to the experience of God living in us, to our universal need for forgiveness, to God's grace that enables us to say yes. And he quotes my namesake, Teresa of Avila, so that's cool.
8 comments:
Theresa,
Thank you for posting this article. It was very interesting and I agree with a lot of what he wrote. The only thing I might 'add' is that the definition of grace that the LORD shows on his is 'unmerited,undeserving, favor'. The father viewed grace as a supernatural feeling. I believe he is confusing this with the work of the Holy Spirit.
While the Holy Spirit works in us it draws us closer to GOD and our desire to seek and understand him begins.
God's GRACE is shown on us. We are sinners in need of a Savior. We are sinners who deserve Hell. We are sinners who by GOD's Grace are saved. As John 3:16 states, 'For God so loved the World, that we gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.'
Grace alone saves. Amen.
I'm not sure that I understand your concern and I hope we don't reach a place where we are talking past each other because that's no fun.
Please forgive me, but did you call the Holy Spirit "it" in your post above?
Grace is supernatural, do we agree on that?
Here's something from Thomas Merton’s autobiography, pps. 187-8:
There is a paradox that lies in the very heart of human existence. It must be apprehended before any lasting happiness is possible in the soul of a man. The paradox is this: man's nature, by itself, can do little or nothing to settle his most important problems. If we follow nothing but our natures, our own philosophies, our own level of ethics, we will end up in hell. [...]
He (God) created man with a soul that was made not to bring itself to perfection in its own order, but to be perfected by Him in an order infinitely beyond the reach of human powers. We were never destined to lead purely natural lives, and therefore we were never destined in God's plan for a purely natural beatitude (“happiness”). Our nature, which is a free gift of God, was given to us to be perfected and enhanced by another free gift that is not due it.
This free gift is "sanctifying grace." It perfects our nature with the gift of a life, an intellection, a love, a mode of existence infinitely above its own level. If a man were to arrive even at the abstract pinnacle of natural perfection, God's work would not even be half done: it would be only about to begin, for the real work is the work of grace and the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
What is "grace"? It is God's own life, shared by us. God's life is Love. Deus caritas est. By grace we are able to share in the infinitely self-less love of Him Who is such pure actuality that He needs nothing and therefore cannot conceivably exploit anything for selfish ends. [...]
When a ray of light strikes a crystal, it gives a new quality to the crystal. And when God's infinitely disinterested love plays upon a human soul, the same kind of thing takes place. And that is the life called sanctifying grace.
I found this link on monergism.com
http://www.freechurch.org/douglas/douglas2.htm
It is a wonderful article as well.
I wish that you had not deleted your previous comment.
The theology of grace presented in this article is not as impoverished as I generally find among evangelicals. By that, I mean that the article goes beyond your working definition of "unmerited, undeserving favor", particularly in recognizing that grace is supernatural or, at least, "belongs to an order all its own".
Much of the article deals with justification as understood from a Reformed perspective, and, as I would like to address your repeated invocation of John 3:16 in greater detail, I shall here simply note that I read the article and was taught by my mother that if I can't say anything nice ...
Call me ignorant, but I don't quite understand your last post. What was so bad in the article that I sent to you that you felt you couldn't say anything nice?
Obviously, we are not going to change each other's alliance toward our denomination so let's leave it at that.
I deleted my previouis comment because I didn't feel that what I was trying to say was conveyed properly, so I found that article via Michele's link (www.monergism.com)
Best of luck to you in your study of God's Word.
Are we done? Please, tell me what you like about the article. What would you have had me draw from it?
When I read the article, a few passages that stand out are:
"To experience grace is to experience an utterly undeserved kindness from an unexpected source and this attitude is so alien to our sinful, selfish natures and our modem lifestyle that it is difficult for us to understand it, or accept it."
"How amazing and how wonderful is God's grace in its freeness. Had that freeness not involved the pure, inherent, moral right not to be gracious towards sinners, then grace would not be the totally free and spontaneous love which the Bible proclaims it to be and of which Calvary is the ultimate proof (Rom. 5:8)."
For me, I am amazed and in awe of the wonder of God's word. I am not the type of person that will analyze a topic to the point of death. I like to meditate on his word and the words of important theologians/people who have something important to share.
I felt the article on Grace was a very well developed and great analysis of what Grace is. The author applied scripture verses to support his findings.
One last question for you: Do you believe Grace alone saves...or do you also subscribe to a Works Gospel? Just curious, as that was how I was raised to believe.
My family still believes it (my dad & sister) - they have no concept of Grace or the fact that Jesus desires a personal relationship with them.
I pray for their salvation every day. I believe in HELL and if people are not going to make a profession of faith and turn toward Christ and seek him, they will perish in the Lake of Fire.
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