Understanding Grace

Here's a summary of the concept of Grace from Wikipedia In Western Christianity, and especially in the view of the Catholic Church, grace is God’s benevolence toward humanity. The essence of grace is that it is a freely offered gift. We do not earn or deserve or merit grace. We cannot claim it as our right. Grace in general, is a supernatural gift of God to humanity and angels for their eternal salvation. Eternal salvation itself consists in heavenly bliss resulting from being in the presence of God. Christian grace is a fundamental idea of the Christian religion, the pillar on which, by a special ordination of God, the edifice of Christianity rests in its entirety. Among the three fundamental ideas -- sin, redemption, and grace -- grace plays the part of the means, indispensable and Divinely ordained, to effect the redemption from sin through Christ and to lead men to their eternal destiny in heaven.
First and foremost, grace is God’s supernatural gift of all that we need to reach eternal salvation, including sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and actual grace, all of which we need to be in the Divine prescience. Second, grace includes miraculous gifts of healing or prophecy. Grace is divided into two forms, Actual Grace and Sanctifying Grace.
Actual Grace is God’s temporary enlightenment of our mind or strengthening of our will to perform supernatural actions that help us obtain, retain, or grow in sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is a supernatural state of being infused by God into our soul that gives us participation in the divine life. The participation in the divine life is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
Sanctifying grace is a permanent part of our soul as long as we cooperate with its beatific effects. When we have sanctifying grace in our soul we are said to be in the state of grace. When we commit a mortal sin, the Holy Spirit departs from us and we lose our sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is sometimes called habitual grace or justifying grace. There is a whole lot more at their web site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_grace t