Day 262: Habitual and Actual Grace (2026)
episode
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
19 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 18 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the Catechism’s definition of grace and why is it essential for salvation?
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sure goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension in three hundred and sixty. Five days we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 262. We're reading paragraphs 1996 to 2001. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith Approach. But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
You can also download your own Catechism in a Year Reading plan by visiting Ascension Press.com/slash CIY and You can on day 262. You can be the one person on day 262 who subscribes or follows your podcast app for daily updates, daily notifications. Think about that. Maybe you're that one person who got all the way to day 262 and still hasn't subscribed. You know, some people subscribe on day 365, and I think that's wonderful, but maybe you'll be the only one. Think about it. Pray about it. Today, as we read paragraphs nineteen ninety six to two thousand and one, we're gonna talk about grace. You know, yesterday we talked about justification. This incredible. Remember paragraph nineteen ninety four yesterday?
It says, Justification is the most excellent work of God's love made manifest in Christ Jesus and granted by the Holy Spirit. So incredible. In fact, we talked about this and highlighted it kinda at the end, how Saint Augustine had said his opinion was That the justification of the wicked is a greater work than the creation of the heaven and earth, because heaven and earth will pass away, but the salvation and justification of the elect will not pass away. This incredible, incredible work of God's love. Grace today. We talk about this. How does justification happen, right? Well, justification, the most excellent work of God's love. How does justification come about? Well, our justification in paragraph 1996, our justification comes from the grace of God.
And grace is favor, it's free and undeserved help that God gives to help us respond to his call, become children of God, his adopted children, partakers of the divine nature, eternal life. Incredible. That's what we're talking about today. Grace. And so as you're listening to this today, Sometimes the perspective is that Catholics do not pay as close attention to grace as other Christians. That might be the case for individual Catholics, but that is not the case when it comes to the church's teaching. We recognize that we absolutely are indebted to the Lord for this free and undeserved gift, this free and undeserved help that none of us, none of us could ever merit this. And yet is still given to us by a God who loves us, by the God who loves us.
And so we're going to talk about there's two kinds of grace we're going to talk about.
How does the Catechism distinguish between habitual (sanctifying) grace and actual grace?
One is habitual grace or sanctifying grace, and the other is actual graces. We talk about that. Also, we're actually maybe even a third kind of the way God gives grace, which is prevenient grace in that last paragraph, paragraph 2001. Before we launch into that, let's launch into our Father's heart by calling upon the name of his son Jesus. We pray. Father in heaven, we do pray in the name of your son Jesus. We pray that you receive our gifts, you receive our talents, that you receive our time, that you receive our attention. Oh God, how how great of a gift it is that you give us this world. And fill it with so much life. So much goodness. The least that we can give you right now is our attention. The least that we can give you is when we look at this world you've created, when we look at these lives that we're surrounded by, we look at our life, the life you gave us.
The least we can do is be attentive to it. The least we can do is notice. Our God help us to notice. What you've done in our lives.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the Catechism’s definition of grace and why is it essential for salvation?
0:05–2:35
2
How does the Catechism distinguish between habitual (sanctifying) grace and actual grace?
2:35–5:04
3
What is prevenient grace and how does it prepare us before we say ‘yes’ to God?
5:04–7:35
4
Why can sanctifying grace be lost, and what role does mortal sin play in that loss?
7:35–9:45
5
How does Father Mike illustrate the relationship between grace and our supernatural vocation to eternal life?
9:45–12:24
6
What are some everyday examples of actual graces or charisms that help us grow in holiness?
12:24–14:31
7
How does God’s initiating initiative shape our response to prayer, sacraments, and good works?
14:31–17:19
8
What will be explored in the upcoming episodes about merit, sacramental grace, and other types of grace?
17:19–19:32