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23.04.2021 16:02:17
Dictionary entry overview: What does state of grace mean?
See full version: STATE OF GRACE
Dictionary entry overview: What does state of grace mean?
Familiarity information: STATE OF GRACE used as a noun is very rare. here
• STATE OF GRACE (noun)
The noun STATE OF GRACE has 1 sense:
In Roman Catholic doctrine, when Jesus died and rose again, he won a storehouse of grace for his people. This storehouse of grace is distributed to believers through the ministry of the priests. As you take part in the sacraments, you receive grace from the storehouse Jesus won. more
Yet words can sometimes mean entirely different things to different people. The word “grace”, when heard by someone who has grown up in the Roman Catholic Church, is understood to mean something entirely different, and rather more complicated, than when it is heard by someone used to the kind of definition I gave in the last paragraph.
Now, that’s quite different from the simple Biblical description of grace. That’s because this doctrine is not only derived from the Bible, but it is the result of various scholars and Popes over the centuries adding to the simple Biblical teaching. more
The word ‘grace’ is a simple word; it means getting something good that you don’t deserve. You experience grace when someone gives you a gift. Grace is not something you earnt or worked for; it was simply given to you by someone who loves and cares for you. The concept of grace is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian.
noun. ['ˈsteɪt'] the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation.
noun. ['ˈsteɪt'] the way something is with respect to its main attributes. here
verb. ['ˈsteɪt'] express in words.
noun. ['ˈsteɪt'] the group of people comprising the government of a sovereign state. more
Nevertheless, St. Augustine also sharply chastised the minister not properly disposed to perform the sacrament: "As for the proud minister, he is to be ranked with the devil. Christ's gift is not thereby profaned: what flows through him keeps its purity, and what passes through him remains clear and reaches the fertile earth. The spiritual power of the sacrament is indeed comparable to light: those to be enlightened receive it in its purity, and if it should pass through defiled beings, it is not itself defiled." ("In Ioannis evangelium tractatus," 5, 15). here
Actually, this problem of the minister being in a state of grace and the efficacy of the sacrament emerged early in the Church. Beginning in the year 311 in northern Africa, a dispute arose whether Bishop Caecilian of Carthage had been duly consecrated. Allegedly, his consecrators had showed weakness during the time of persecution, thereby supposedly making them unworthy and unable to consecrate. Donatus (270-355), heading the dissenting party, argued that Caecilian's consecration as a bishop was invalid. Moreover, this party's platform, officially labeled the heresy of Donatism, asserted that the validity of a sacrament depends upon the minister's holiness. more
If a priest is in the state of mortal sin, can he still offer the Mass and perform the other sacraments? Do the sacraments he performs still give grace? One has to wonder about certain priests who do not live as they should.
In all, the Church's teaching is really spiritual common sense. Christ who instituted the sacraments must be the one who actually works the sacrament, thereby giving us the assurance that the sacrament has indeed worked and conveyed the grace it signifies. If the efficacy depended upon the human minister, how could anyone of us be assured that the sacrament worked and we received the promised grace? Such assurance is not humanly obtainable. Nevertheless, priests must strive always to be worthy ministers of the sacraments they celebrate, acting in a state of grace and reflecting the Christ in whose person they act. [links]
Therefore, the Church has taught that the sacraments act "ex opere operato," that is "by the very fact of the action's being performed." The efficacy of the sacrament does not depend upon the human minister — whether a bishop, priest, deacon or layperson — being free of mortal sin and thereby in a state of grace. Here then is the distinction between Christ who instituted the sacraments and acts through them to communicate His grace, and the human person who acts as Christ's minister in performing the sacrament.