Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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STATE OF BEING

The way in which a thing manifests its existence or the condition in which people find themselves under given circumstances. As such, state merely indicates a form of existence that has little or no relation to space or time. Thus the state of a person in divine grace, or in grave sin or, after death, in heaven, hell, or purgatory identifies the spiritual condition of the soul independent of matter or external factors.