Page "Grace (Christianity)" Paragraph 15

Rather than God's property to be offered at His sole discretion, in Medieval Western Christianity at least, grace became a sort of spiritual currency, and the Church was its banker.

Believers acquired grace by participating in the Church's sacraments.

The sacraments were effective in conferring God's grace by virtue of their being performed, provided that the liturgist was authorized by the Church to perform them.

The grace offered through the sacraments enabled Christians to lead better lives and to deepen their faith.

In addition to sanctifying grace, merit was earned by good works ; by this merit, believers can earn the right to rewards from God.

This included the declaration by Trent that the faithful could be " accounted to have, by those very works which have been done in God, fully satisfied the divine law according to the state of this life, and to have truly merited eternal life.