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[–]soundsituation 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Do you think it's possible to translate the state of grace into secular terms?

[–]FlippyKing[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Wow, first I have to thank you for reading it and then also thank you for asking.

It is a term used by Catholics. I think an analogous term would be to "have standing" in a legal sense, or to be barking up the right tree as opposed to the wrong tree.

So, what state we are in is very open-ended. It is very open-ended both in the most general senses and in this specific sense with regard to "grace". Being in a state of grace requires us to be honest with God about where we are in life with regard to our actions in the past (as best as we can really recall them), and with regard to our actions in the present which include our habits and patterns of behavior. It requires us to 'fess up our sins and to come to terms with their impact on ourselves and those around us and its impact on our relationship with God. We do not do this to come to God as an equal and look him in the eye or anything like we would with people around us. I think it is safe to say we should be humbled by it, and in humility seek forgiveness and help righting the ship to move in the right direction.

To the Catholics and to the Orthodox, and perhaps other denominations (I'm not up all the various protestant denominations), this requires going to confession with a priest, and if given a penance then doing that. Generally the penance is some prayers or specific things to meditate on-- but I understand in the past it was much tougher.

This is similar to the need to be honest when one is in therapy with the therapist. We can't expect to make progress in therapy if we're shifting blame for everything on to others with the therapist and never wondering why we keep putting ourselves in stupid situations. Similarly if one is a 12 step program, you have to be honest about what your triggers are and when you have a sponsor to be honest with them and do what they say (hoping they are a good sponsor). In a 12 step program you also have to try to make amends with those you hurt. This is not always asked of you by a priest, and sometimes is impossible for a number of reasons.

So, being in a state of grace would be the Catholic or Orthodox Christian version of being honest and working towards progress with a therapist in that situation or being honest and "working the program" in a 12 step program. A priest is not a therapist, and does not try to be one at least as far as I know. Instead the prayers and meditation and need to be honest with God might spur on the kind of change inside ourselves that could be analogous to what one hopes for with a therapist, and with the help and guidance of a priest (really the reassurances that God loves you, the Mother of God loves you, the Holy Trinity loves you, and they've cried along with you and felt the pains you felt along with you), you can feel assured of being in a state of grace.

My own opinion is, and since much of my perspective is coming from the simple fact that Mary at Fatima told us to pray the Rosary and I do not think she really cares what denomination one is when the start doing this, is if you are put off by going to a priest, then put it off. You have to want to do it. It is separate from doing what Mary wants us to do, I think anyway. Not being willing to own up to our own errors and sins and things we've done to hurt others either by doing or not doing something we should have done, that is a bigger obstacle to being in a state of grace than going through the motions. IF we do those things she asked us to do sincerely, we will go in the direction best for us I suspect.

Did that help? I hope it did.

[–]soundsituation 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Incredible, thank you. I wasn't expecting much when I asked but your analogies really connected, particularly the one about therapy. Are you a priest or some other officer of the church?

[–]FlippyKing[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm just a dude who has been thinking about philosophy, spirituality, morality, science, society, culture and theology for along time. I'm really glad it connected.