Actual Grace

Actual grace is a help that God grants the soul to accomplish a good act: it enlightens the intellect and strengthens the will toward an action that leads to salvation. Like all grace, it is given freely and offered to every man; what is proper to it is to act in the moment, the time of a choice or a movement of the heart, then to renew itself according to need. God is its source and acts first: “It is God who works in you both to will and to act, according to his good purpose.” Philippians 2:13

A help to act

Actual grace makes possible the act that leads to God, and first of all the very first: the movement by which man turns toward Christ does not come from himself alone, but from the grace that goes before him: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:3

Prevenient and cooperating

Actual grace precedes the act and accompanies it. Prevenient, it goes before man to awaken in him the desire for good; cooperating, it sustains him while he acts, so that he accomplishes with it what it has begun in him. Man then truly acts, carried by God, and his work is at once a gift of God and an act of man: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:10

Renewed until completion

God does not give this help once for all: he renews it at every step, sustaining man through time and carrying him to the end. The work begun in him, God himself brings to completion: “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

Asked for in prayer

Man calls for this help in prayer, when he asks for the strength to hold fast in trial and not to give way: “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

Received in freedom

This help respects the freedom it moves. God touches the soul without forcing it, and man can consent to grace or withdraw from it: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Hebrews 3:15 Received and followed, actual grace leads the sinner to conversion and disposes him to receive or to recover sanctifying grace, which makes him a child of God.