Stage 1
Fear of the Lord
- Hardness of Heart
- Pride
- Love of self
- Arrogance
- Lust
- Criticism of Church Doctrine or Authority
Leaks in your path to holiness
Where grace is lost.
The grace of God continually draws the soul toward holiness and perfect union with Him. Yet at every stage, sin, pride, error, attachment, or resistance can obstruct that grace and prevent the soul from progressing. These leaks do not represent a comprehensive list, but common ways the soul loses, rejects, or fails to cooperate fully with the grace it has received.
Stage 2
Repentance
- No good examination of conscience
- Lack of contrition
- Confession without repentance
- Unwilling to confess to a priest
- Pride: "I'm a good person" according to your standards vs. God's
- Unwilling to examine conscience due to fear, pride, and attachment to sin
Stage 3
Belief in Your Heart
- Performative faith
- Intellectual belief alone
- Pharisaical Hypocrisy
Stage 4
Know and Obey
- Creating God in our own image: "I don't think God cares about xyz sin in my life because I am a good person"
- Ignorance—willfully refusing to learn about who God is via the Bible, history, Saints, and the Catechism
Stage 5
Deepening Prayer Life
- No routine
- Over or under reacting to distraction in prayer
- Falling back into unrepentant sin (Go to confession)
- Never progressing beyond vocal prayer
Stage 6
Abandonment and Trust in His Mercy
- Self-reliance
- Loving the world, people, or things more than God
Stage 7
Transforming Union
- Not letting go and allowing God to take over
The major leak at every stage
Failing to recognize that the goal is perfection: freedom from mortal sin, venial sin, and every imperfection, culminating in perfect love of God.
When we fully recognize that, apart from God, we are capable of only one thing—sin—we learn to rely completely on Jesus to save us. When we recognize that every good thing we do is possible only through God's grace, we can say with complete confidence: all glory belongs to God.
Pray the Chaplet