sussidio December 2019

   “THE GIFT OF GRACE: the dynamic foundation of the Christian life”

From the WORD of GOD

And you were dead, through the crimes and the sins 2 which used to make up your way of life when you were living by the principles of this world, obeying the ruler who dominates the air, the spirit who is at work in those who rebel. 3 We too were all among them once, living only by our natural inclinations, obeying the demands of human self-indulgence and our own whim; our nature made us no less liable to God’s retribution than the rest of the world. 4 But God, being rich in faithful love, through the great love with which he loved us,5 even when we were dead in our sins, brought us to life with Christ — it is through grace that you have been saved- 6 and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.7 This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how extraordinarily rich he is in grace.8 Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God;9 not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. 10 We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life. 19 So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow-citizens with the holy people of God and part of God’s household.20 You are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.
21 Every structure knit together in him grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 and you too, in him, are being built up into a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit.(Eph 2: 1-10.19-22)

From the DOCUMENTS of the CHURCH
Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favour, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life (1996). Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an “adopted son” he can henceforth call God “Father,” in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church (1997). This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God’s gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature (1998). The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification (cf 2 Cor 5,17-18)(1999).
Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God’s call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God’s interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification (2000).
It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral balance. Christ’s gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow his calls to love what is good and shun evil (1811).
(Catechism of the Catholic Church)

From the WRITINGS of Blessed A. ROSMINI

While the just and the impious are equally present to God, God will be more present to the just than to the impious, even in the natural order. We now consider the person who enjoys supernatural enlightenment and is just by virtue of divine grace, as are all the faithful disciples of Christ, who are incorporated in him and in communion with him by means of the Sacraments. The one who is just in this infinitely more sublime way, not only knows God more perfectly, but possesses and rejoices in him. To this person, God not only gives existence, as to the inanimate and the brute kind, plus intelligence and self-knowledge, as other men, but more than that, he gives himself, so that soul is not only present to God, but is united with him. He experiences God in his infinite greatness, is nurtured by him, possesses him and embraces him intimately.

God, his supreme good, diffuses himself in him, justifies him, purifies him daily with his grace, enables him for all virtue, enriches him with precious gifts, as those of the Holy Spirit, fills him with his peace, surrounds him with a certain interior glory not visible in life, but that will be revealed in the next, as a hidden fire that suddenly bursts into flames that is eternal beatitude. With this richness, and this manifestation and communication of himself, God indwells only in just and holy persons and is not found thus in any other creature. This is what Christ promised when he said, “He who has my precepts and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And who loves me will be loved by the father and I will love him and make myself known in him.” And again, “If anyone loves me, he will follow my teaching and my Father will love him and we will come to him and dwell in him.” And elsewhere, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, I live in the Father and he who eats me lives in me.” Note well, the words: “the living Father sent me.” In Scripture, we never find a divine person sent to a natural work, but only to that of Grace. Why? Because, in the work of grace, as in the souls of the just, he communicates himself, shows himself and makes it evident that the just live in the life of God, that is, in the life of Christ, because he lives in the life of the Father, he calls „living‟. He means by this, that God not only has life, but communicates that life to him. Christ, in turn, communicates it to us. Hence, St Paul says that the Spirit of God becomes one with the just.
(AL. Vol VII; let. 112, pp. 125-126-127;
to Sr. M. Felix Stedile at Borgomanero, Stresa, 12 January 1852)

LET US PRAY

How precious, God, is your faithful love!
In you is the source of life, by your light we see the light.
1Maintain your faithful love to those who acknowledge you, and your saving justice to the honest of heart. (Ps 36)

PASTORAL YEAR 2019 – 2020; ON-GOING FORMATION
INSTITUTE OF CHARITY
ROSMINIAN SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE

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