Means of Grace

Previously we established: 

 

   

 

 

 Lecture 1

 Grace is a free gift from God  

 Any blessing in our lives is considered a grace from God  

 God created man and surrounded him by His grace  

 Man lost that grace as a result of sin and corruption  

 Man became uncapable of attaining righteousness on his own  

 The law could not help man attain righteousness  

 Man needed divine intervention to be able to attain righteousness  

 God graced man with the economy of salvation (Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, etc.) 

 In order to attain salvation, we must have faith (God's grace) and works  

 Man cannot attain salvation without the work of God's grace  

 

 Lecture 2

 Visitations of Grace: 

 Who gets visited by God's grace?  

 When do get visited by God's grace? 

 Reasons for visitations of grace:  

 What should be our response towards visitations of grace? 

 What prevents God's grace from us? (Resisting God's grace)  

 How to benefit from the visitations of grace? 

 Growing in the grace 

 

 Introduction 

 Now that we learned how wonderful God's grace is and how we should respond to it 

 Where and how can we acquire God's grace? 

 This is what is called means of grace 

 Means of grace 

 Faith

 In God's love 

 In God's economy of salvation  

 In the effectiveness of the sacraments  

 In the power of the spiritual means  

 

 Church Sacraments

 They are the means by which the believers receive God's grace  

 

 Spiritual means

 Means to strengthens my spiritual life, tune my ears to listen to God's voice and aid me in my spiritual struggle 

 

 Where do we receive grace? 

 We receive grace on a personal level and on a church level  

 On a Church level:

 "The Love of God the Father, and the grace of His only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and the gift and communions of the Holy Spirit be with you all"  

 Everything that happens in the Church (storage of grace)  is a source of grace in our life 

 The church has the authority to dispense to us God's grace to the whole world 

 That is why the fathers said there is no salvation outside of the church  

 

 On a personal level:

 God gives according to the needs of each one

 "My grace is sufficient to you" 

 

 

 I didn't do anything to deserve any of these graces but my role is to use them and to bring fruit  

 Both levels require:

 Faith in God's grace and unlimited love 

 Prayer 

 Humility  

 

 Church sacraments  

 For every sacrament in the Church there is a visible sign and a hidden grace 

 Discuss the hidden grace of each sacrament  

 The grace of each sacrament takes us to the the following sacrament

 In baptism, our sins are washed away (including the Original Sin). The grace of baptism takes us to the grace of Myron where we receive the receive the grace of the Holy Spirit and we are confirmed as children of God, etc. 

 

 Each person's response to the sacrament is different 

 Spiritual means 

 The points under this title can be found in this link: The Spiritual Means