Tag Archives: christianity

Prevenient Grace

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This time of year the OCIA meetings are well into the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. There are a lot of discussions and questions about grace and the terms the Church uses to describe grace: sanctifying, actual, sacramental, charismatic and prevenient. It is the last one that people are least likely to be familiar with.

Prevenient (from the Latin: comes before) grace is a concept that refers to the grace of God that comes before any human action. It is the grace that enables a person to respond to God’s call and to choose to follow Him.  It has been described as God’s safety net placed beneath everyone, giving them a chance to choose whether to grab onto it or fall. It’s God’s ongoing, prior work in every life, making salvation a real possibility for all, not just a few.

St. Augustine of Hippo developed the concept of prevenient grace (Latin: gratia praeveniens, “grace that precedes”) as God’s divine initiative, a grace that comes before any human action, drawing people toward faith by overcoming the bondage of sin, enabling a desire for God, and preparing the soul for conversion. Prevenient grace can be understood as God’s initial help that allows us to respond to Him and make good choices. It’s about God reaching out to us first, even before we realize it or take any steps toward Him.

St. Basil Great has a wonderful description of prevenient grace in his Detailed Rules for Monks:

Love of God is not something that we can be taught.  We did not learn from someone else how to rejoice in light or want to live, or to love our parents or guardians.  It is the same, perhaps even more so, with our love for God:  it does not come by another’s teaching.  As soon as the living creature (that is, man) comes to be, a power of reason is implanted in us like a seed, containing within it the ability and the need to love.  When the school of God’s law admits this power of reason, it cultivates it diligently, skillfully nurtures it, and with God’s help brings it to perfection.

God desires that all be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4) and before our first moment of being is already at work in our lives.

What lays ahead?

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Today, January 6th is the traditional day for the celebration of the Epiphany. It is a word taken from the Greek epiphaneia meaning “manifestation, striking appearance; from epiphanes meaning “manifest, conspicuous,” and from epiphainein “to manifest, display, show off; come suddenly into view.” In a post earlier today, I asked “What is revealed this day.” It was a small reflection, but what came to mind when I thought about all that the Epiphany might reveal.

January 6th a year ago today was an epiphany of another sort. Continue reading →

Pentecost Sunday

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ImageThe description of the first Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles tells us that when devout Jews from many different nations heard the Spirit-inspired proclamation of the gospel by the disciples, “each one heard them speaking in his own language.” The outpouring of the Spirit of God united this very diverse group of people in a powerful moment of God’s self-revelation.  Such is the power of Spirit. Continue reading →

…what is being taught

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Chatting today with a parish staff member today, she was reminded of an older conversation when the diocesan faith formation director said that we always need to be conscious of what is being taught by our words and actions.  With that intro, I leave you to this NY Times article:  TBN Fight Offers Glimpse Inside Lavish TV Ministry – NYTimes.com.

As a Franciscan, one is reminded of the words often associated with St. Francis of Assisi:  preach the Gospel at all times, use words if necessary.  My religious formation must have been lacking, I am not familiar with the TBN gospel.