Rousing and assisting grace: Bellarmine and the Jesuits
Thesis XXXII. The grace of special help, or actual grace as others call it, is usually divided into rousing grace and assisting grace, or in Bellarmine's terms into rousing help and assisting help. The theologians of the Roman School do not all explain this distinction the same way.
Bellarmine and all the Jesuits with him, and very many others, say that rousing grace, which they also call calling grace, covers the divine enlightenings and inspirations by which God knocks at our heart to wake us from the sleep of sin or of slackness in good works.
Assisting grace, or the grace of assisting help, they say, covers God's cooperation, guidance and protection, by which we are helped both to choose and to do what God, going before us, has inspired. So Revelation 3: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice, I will come in to him', and so on. These are Bellarmine's words (book 1, On Free Choice, chapter 2).
Latin
XXXII. Praeterea gratia auxilii specialis, sive, ut aliis dicitur, actualis, dividi solet in gratiam excitantem, & gratiam adjuvantem; seu, ut loquitur Bellarminus, in auxilium excitans, & auxilium adjuvans. Quae distinctio non eodem modo a Theologis Scholae Romanae exponitur. Bellarminus, & omnes cum eo Jesuitae, aliique plurimi, ad gratiam excitantem, quam vocantem etiam appellant, dicunt pertinere divinas illustrationes, & inspirationes, quibus Deus cor nostrum pulsat, ut a somno peccati, vel negligentiae in bonis operibus excitemur. Ad gratiam autem adjuvantem, seu auxilii adjuvantis, spectare divinam cooperationem, directionem, & protectionem, quibus juvamur, tum ut eligamus, tum ut faciamus quod Deus praeveniens inspiravit. Juxta illud Apoc. 3. Ecce sto ad ostium & pulso, si quis audierit vocem meam, intrabo ad illum, &c. Quae sunt verba Bellarmini lib. 1. de lib. Arbitrio cap. 2.