What Is Grace? The Difference Between Sanctifying and Actual Grace
A Word We Hear Constantly
Catholics hear about grace all the time. We say “Hail Mary, full of grace.” We speak of being “in a state of grace.” We are told the sacraments give grace. But ask most people what grace actually is, and the answer is usually vague: something good from God, a kind of spiritual blessing.
That is not wrong, but it is not nearly enough. Grace is at the heart of the Christian life. Without it, no one can be saved. So it is worth understanding properly (CCC 1996–2005).
Grace Is a Free Gift
The word “grace” comes from the Latin gratia, meaning a favour or a gift freely given. The same root gives us “gratis” and “gratitude.”
The Catechism defines grace as favour, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His call to become His children and share in His own life (CCC 1996).
Two things stand out. First, grace is free. We cannot earn it, buy it, or deserve it. Even the very first movement of the soul towards God is already the work of grace (CCC 2010). Second, grace is not just help to be good people. It is a share in God’s own life. St Peter says that through it we “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
Two Main Kinds of Grace
The Church distinguishes between two main kinds of grace (CCC 2000).
Sanctifying Grace
Sanctifying grace is a permanent gift, a stable disposition that God places in the soul. It makes us holy, makes us children of God, and makes us pleasing to Him. It is sometimes called habitual grace because, once received, it remains in the soul unless we drive it out by mortal sin.
We first receive sanctifying grace at Baptism. In that moment, original sin is washed away and God comes to dwell in the soul. This is what Catholics mean by being “in a state of grace.”
A helpful comparison: sanctifying grace is to the soul what life is to the body. A body without life is dead, however good it looks. A soul without sanctifying grace is spiritually dead, however good a person may seem.
Actual Grace
Actual graces are temporary helps that God gives us at particular moments. They light up the mind and move the will to know and do what is good.
They are called “actual” because they relate to acts. A sudden desire to pray, the strength to resist a temptation, the push to go to Confession after many years away, a moment of clarity about a decision: these are actual graces.
Actual graces come to everyone, including people who are not in a state of grace. Indeed, it is by actual grace that a sinner is moved to repent and return to God.
Other Graces
The Catechism also mentions some special graces (CCC 2003–2004).
Sacramental graces are the particular gifts proper to each sacrament. For instance, the grace of Marriage helps husband and wife to love each other faithfully.
Charisms are special gifts given to some people for the good of the Church, such as the gift of healing or of preaching.
Graces of state are the helps God gives to fulfil the duties of our particular role in life, as a parent, a priest, a teacher or a nurse.
How We Receive Grace
God can give grace however He wishes, but He has given us ordinary channels through which it reliably flows.
The sacraments are the main ones. Baptism gives us sanctifying grace in the first place. The other sacraments, above all the Eucharist, increase it.
Prayer opens us to receive grace and obtains actual graces for ourselves and others.
Good works done in a state of grace increase sanctifying grace in the soul.
How Grace Is Lost and Regained
Sanctifying grace is lost by mortal sin. That is why it is called “mortal,” meaning deadly: it kills the life of grace in the soul (CCC 1861).
Venial sin does not destroy sanctifying grace, though it weakens our love and makes it easier to fall into more serious sin.
If sanctifying grace is lost, it can be regained through the Sacrament of Confession. This is one of the great mercies of God. No matter how many times we fall, His grace is always offered again to the repentant sinner.
Can I Feel Grace?
No, not reliably. Grace is supernatural, and it lies beneath the level of our feelings. A person in a state of grace may feel spiritually dry and far from God. A person in mortal sin may feel perfectly at peace.
The Church teaches that we cannot know with certainty by our own experience that we are in a state of grace (CCC 2005). We can, however, have a well-founded confidence. If we have been baptised, have confessed any mortal sins, and are trying to live faithfully, we may trust that God is with us. We know a tree by its fruits.
Grace and Freedom
Grace does not turn us into puppets. God’s grace works with our freedom, not against it. He offers, and we respond. St Augustine put it this way: the God who created us without us will not save us without us.
At the same time, even our free response is itself a gift of grace. This is a mystery, but not a contradiction. A child learning to walk really does walk, even though his father holds his hands the whole time.
Everything Is Grace
Grace is the reason the Christian life is possible at all. We do not climb up to God by our own effort. He comes down to us, lifts us up, and gives us a share in His own life.
That is why the saints are so grateful. They know that everything good in them is a gift.
See also What Are Mortal and Venial Sins — What Is the Difference? and Who Is the Holy Spirit?
Go deeper: What Is Grace? Nature, the Supernatural and the Share in God’s Life and What Is Merit, and Can Catholics Earn Heaven?