Tangible Experiences of Grace: A Qualitative Investigation of Divine Grace in Roman Catholics

Abstract

According to Catholic theology, God offers a gift of love, known as divine grace, to all of humanity. This gift of divine grace is the gift of redemption and forgiveness of sins from God that is offered to everyone who decides to acknowledge and accept it. Grace is central to the lived experience of many Christians. This qualitative study examined how Catholics perceive and experience divine grace using interviews that assessed perceptions of divine grace in 29 practicing adult Catholics. A grounded theory analysis resulted in themes indicating that these Catholics view God’s divine grace as a tangible gift that is undeserved though continuously offered. The participants’ experience of God’s grace is not just an abstract theological concept but an embodied aspect of religious life with which believers can interact in many powerful ways. Three characteristics of God’s divine grace (i.e., salvific grace, cooperation through free will, primacy of conscience and the afterlife) and three mechanisms to experiencing God’s grace (i.e., sacraments, prayer and meditation, saints) are presented.

“There is ‘Plenty’ of Grace—it is Not a Limited Commodity!:” Experiences of Grace in Australian Faith Communities During the Pandemic

“…Rather, participants experienced grace through the activity of being of service to others, either in their families or in their faith communities. While grace is experienced through sacraments, prayer and meditation, and the saints (Harwood et al, 2021), our findings reflect a closer understanding of Berryman's (2009) idea of the presence of grace and of working with it. Berryman gives the example of St. Paul's chapel in New York on 11 September 2001 as a place in which grace was experienced in the activity of service, when "Holy commu-nion was celebrated amidst people who were eating, coming and going, massaging aching bodies, treating sore and injured feet, murmuring words of counsel and care, and sleeping in the pews with teddy bears to soften the tragedy and tears" (p. 215).…”

“…Only when grace is recognized does it have the capacity to profoundly enhance and elevate human flourishing (Emmons et al, 2017). In this way, people experience God's grace in many powerful ways (Harwood et al, 2021) that build resilience to manage new and challenging life events that impact wellbeing.…”

The experience of, and beliefs about, divine grace in mainline protestant Christianity: A consensual qualitative approach

“…These studies utilized the same interview protocol to explore experiences of Divine Grace within various Christian denominations. These studies focused on experiences of, and beliefs about, grace in older Protestants (Baker et al, 2020), Evangelical Christians (Snow, 2020), Roman Catholics (Harwood et al, 2021), LDS (Rush et al, 2022), LGBTQ Christians (Schollars et al, 2021), and Christian Friends (Quakers; Webster et al, 2022). Whereas there were many similarities between these studies, there were also unique distinctions (e.g., many Christian Friends expressed concerns about grace being overly focused on being saved from hell whereas Evangelical protestants saw grace as being very connected to salvation).…”

An Undeserved Gift from God: Conservative Christian Experiences of Divine Grace

“…Although there is a central core to conceptions of divine grace, research has begun to describe aspects of divine grace that are emphasized in particular subgroups through qualitative inquiry. For example, Harwood et al (2022) found in a sample of Catholics that grace is experienced as a tangible gift, embodied in sacraments, prayer and meditation, and through saints. Rush et al (2022) studied divine grace in members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and concluded that grace in this group is seen as simultaneously granted freely and merit based.…”