It’s time to put what we’ve learned into practice. Sanctification is a beautiful gift from God. Use everything you’ve learned in this lesson to grow in thanksgiving for the gift of salvation. The activity has 4 steps:
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Look up the date of your Baptism (if you don’t have it already memorized). Spend some time in quiet prayer thanking God for that day and for the grace of continual sanctification that he is working in you right at this moment.
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Choose a short excerpt from the writing of a Saint on salvation. Meditate upon it and write down your thoughts or prayerful response to God. Here is a recommended selection from Saint Augustine:
Who will grant me to find peace in you? Who will grant me this grace, that you would come into my heart and inebriate it, enabling me to forget the evils that beset me and embrace you, my only good? What are you to me? Have mercy on me, so that I may tell. What indeed am I to you, that you should command me to love you, and grow angry with me if I do not, and threaten me with enormous woes? Is not the failure to love you woe enough in itself? Alas for me! Through your own merciful dealings with me, O Lord my God, tell me what you are to me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Say it so that I can hear it. My heart is listening, Lord; open the ears of my heart and say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let me run toward this voice and seize hold of you. Do not hide your face from me: let me die so that I may see it, for not to see it would be death to me indeed.
The house of my soul is too small for you to enter: make it more spacious by your coming. It lies in ruins: rebuild it. Some things are to be found there which will offend your gaze; I confess this to be so and know it well. But who will clean my house? To whom but yourself can I cry, Cleanse me of my hidden sins, O Lord, and for those incurred through others pardon your servant. I believe, and so I will speak.
You know everything, Lord. Have I not laid my own transgressions bare before you to my own condemnation, my God, and have you not forgiven the wickedness of my heart? I do not argue my case before you, for you are truth itself; nor do I wish to deceive myself, lest my iniquity be caught in its own lies. No, I do not argue the case with you, because if you, Lord, keep the score of our iniquities, then who, Lord, can bear it? (St Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions, Book 1, 5.5-6).
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Make a small act of daily commitment to be more appreciative of this gift of Salvation. An example of this would be to commit to a short time of daily prayer, thanking God for the gift of salvation.
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When you are ready, please post in the Community Forums about your experience doing this practical activity. There is a specific topic created for this. Also, give a constructive question or comment about the lesson, or somebody else’s post on their experience doing the practical activity. All of this is required for your Theology of Evangelization certificate of completion!