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V e r s e B y V e r s e
Infused Grace
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 12
 December 1994 
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INFUSED grace is a term often used by
Catholic theologians to describe in metaphorical terms how
God "pours" grace into our souls or, to put it another way,
"fills" us with his grace. The word "infused" denotes the
idea of something being "poured into" and is seen most
commonly in the Latin formula gratia infusia. This
language is symbolic, of course, but it is certainly
biblical. Some Protestant critics of the Catholic Church
criticize the concept of infused grace as being
"unbiblical," but as the following verses show, the concept
is completely biblical.
"You are the fairest of the
sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God
has blessed you for ever" (Psalm 45:2).
"For the palace will be
forsaken . . . until the Spirit is poured upon us from on
high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the
fruitful field is deemed a forest" (Isaiah 32:14-15).
"And in the last days it
shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon
all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall
dream dreams; yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall
prophesy" (Acts 2:17-18).
"And Stephen, full of grace
and power, did great wonders and signs among the people"
(Acts 6:8).
"And when they had prayed,
the place in which they were gathered together was shaken;
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the
word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31).
"And the believers from
among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed,
because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even
on the Gentiles" (Acts 10:45).
"When he came and saw the
grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to
remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose; for he
was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith" (Acts
11:23-24).
"And hope does not
disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us"
(Romans 5:5).
"And do not get drunk with
wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit"
(Eph. 5:18).
"He saved us, not because
of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his
own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the
Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through
Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by
his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:5-7)
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Catholic Answers
