Our saving grace

Alphonsus gave us much, but perhaps the greatest gift was his fight against the Jansenist heresy, encapsulated in his 1748 volume Moral Theology. Thanks to Alphonsus, Catholicism has been able to steer a middle path between a darkly pessimistic view of human worth on the one hand and moral laxity on the other. Jansenists held an extreme view of original sin, believing only some are pre-ordained for salvation, saying grace had little chance of saving the rest—even through the sacrament of Reconciliation. Alphonsus encourages us to trust and use the sacrament, but also to “acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends.” MEMORIAL OF ALPHONSUS LIGUORI, BISHOP, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH