ACT YET PROCESS Faith is a particular act of the will. Faith can come in the form of the initial act of saying yes to one’s ultimate reality. Take the case of baptism, for Christians. However, it may also come in the form of conversion experiences. A good example is St. Ignatius and his cannonball experience, which led to a period of convalescence that would prove to be life-changing. ACT YET PROCESS However, as explained by Pope Francis: “faith is not a fixed standpoint, but rather a path on which every person, as well as the church as a whole, is on the way.” It is an enduring way of life. GIFT YET TASK “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until all of it was leavened” (Matthew 13:33).For those who believe in a transcendent God, faith can be understood as a gift of God—grace while at the same time a human activity of responding to that grace. Therefore, faith is both grace, and the Tesponse to grace. All that allows faith to exist— human will, human intellect, human freedom, among many others—are all gratuitously given by God. Saint Augustine explains this as capax dei—the capacity which makes possible for human beings to respond in grace to God's self-disclosure and relationship with us GIFT YET TASK For those who believe in a transcendent God, faith can be understood as a gift of God—grace—while at the same time a human activity of responding to that grace. Therefore, faith is both grace, and the response to grace. All that allows faith to exist— human will, human intellect, human freedom, among many others—are all gratuitously given by God. Saint Augustine explains this as capax dei—the capacity which makes possible for human beings to respond in grace to God's self-disclosure and relationship with us PERSONAL Faith is an encounter, it is a personal act. God meets us where we are, in our unique situation and context in life, The human person, then, responds to a personal God. At the same time, faith is a personalizing act. According to theologian Jean Moroux: “The grace given by God is at once personal and personalizing: personal because it is directed to an individual soul in its own determined situation, personalizing, because it is destined to make the individual soul realize its own unique vocation.”ECCLESIAL Faith is ecclesial because it is done as a community. The ecclesial community, is based on the Greek ekkiesia, “those who are called out.” This refers both to the local community, but also to the world. From a Catholic perspective, for instance, this is understood as the Church. SOCIAL Faith is social because it calls us to respond to society, through justice. In today’s world, faith must have a social character, pertaining to an orientation of social justice. We find this invitation to the social character of faith in Jesus, who shared life with everyone, but gave special care and concern for the poor, disenfranchised and marginalized in society. THESIS #1 Faith is the relationship between one and the irreducible energizing source of meaning and center of value in one's life. As a total personal commitment, faith embraces believing, doing, and trusting, with all its accompanying paradoxical qualities: a) certain yet obscure; b) free yet morally obliging; c) supernatural yet reasonable; d) an act yet a process; e) a gift yet a task; and f) personal yet social and ecclesial.