Hi, Dale —

Your question deals with a defining issue of the Christian faith.

As Christians, we believe that grace precedes everything, including faith. We can not summon faith on our own. It is a gift from God. St. Paul tells us this over and over again throughout his epistles.

Once we come to faith, we continue to respond to grace by faith and thus obey God but in every circumstance, any good work we do is a response to grace which requires an exercise of our free will and, of course, free will, itself, is granted to man by grace.

John

Dale,

Great questions. Ditto on John's answer.

Faith is one of the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity), which means it needs to be given from above. Nevertheless, we need to be receptive to it, which is also enabled by grace.

I think there are different measures of religious faith, but I wouldn't know how you would measure it. It corresponds to an openness of the heart to God and the quality of cooperation with His grace.

Paul

Hi, Dale —

Some people have more faith than others because:

1. some people receive more grace; and
2. some people cooperate more with God's grace.
   

Eric

Dale —

Supernatural faith is a gift of God received at Baptism. It is an effect of God's indwelling that gives us the power to believe God and in all that He has revealed. Faith, in this sense, is equal for all who receive it, but then we have to nourish it and exercise it, by learning what God has revealed, and by believing in His Word as we learn it progressively throughout life through the fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church.

The more you exercise a power (and faith is a virtue, and virtue means power), the stronger it becomes. Nevertheless, the gift is from God, and it is exercised in response to God.

Mary Ann