I still believe that it is you who doesn't understand grace and to assure you, I most definitely understand works and the role they play in the Christian's life. You seem to be going on an assumption that I am the kind of person who thinks works have NO place in my faith. I get the impression that you, along with many other Roman Catholics - based on repetitive comments - that sola fide means we have a license to live in sin with no need for a changed life for the better. That once we are saved, we are always saved, so "let the good times roll!". Please! How many times have you been told that that is simply not the case, yet it gets repeated over and over again, much like what you accuse "Protestants" of doing when they insist Catholics worship Mary.
Let me build a narrative for you - almost like a challenge - for you and anyone else game to try it. How about for one month, you live like you believe you are really going to Heaven when you die. That Jesus Christ really did pay for all your sin upon the cross and, by his sacrifice, you have been justified, sanctified and made righteous in Him. You really accept that you are saved by God's grace through your faith and that your good deeds or way of life are because of the new nature within you that desires to please God out of love for him and in gratitude for his unspeakable gift. When you do slip up and "sin", which is human, you are remorseful and you confess your sins to God and then, as Scripture assures us, you are forgiven and clean of all unrighteousness and your walk with Christ is back on track. When you go to bed at night, in your prayers you thank your Heavenly Father for his love and mercy and the grace that reminds you every day that you are his child and that you are never going to be cast out, he will never lose you and you are safe and secure held in his hands.
During this experiment, you should continue going to whatever church you feel God is leading you to. When you sing praises to God with others during the worship service, you let yourself be open to the blessings God pours down and you bask in his love and the serenity that comes from knowing he is yours and you are his for all eternity. You rest in his love, you fall upon his mercy, you rejoice in his abundant grace.
After this month, you can go back to the way you always looked at your walk with Christ. Go back to thinking that God is keeping score of all your deeds and sins. Return to the belief that your good works along with your faith are what can get you into heaven when you die. Go back to pleading with God, Mary, the saints to help get you into heaven. Try not to think about what it felt like to be really free, to know you had eternal life, to do your works simply because you were a changed person and you loved God so much you hated offending him. Go back to worrying every moment that you may not make it and that all your efforts were wasted because you slipped up.
Maybe then you will understand what I mean about GRACE. It is undeserved, unmerited favor. It means God loves us so much that he will not give us what we rightfully deserve and he lavishes on us what we do not deserve or could ever merit - grace.
No, I do not think that. I know that Protestants in actuality live out their faith in good works much like any other Christians. I understand that to a believer good works come naturally. What I do say is that the doctrine of "faith alone" is false and harmful and it does not advance the salvation of anyone. It was really invented by Luther to avoid sacramental life of the Church, not to give people license to sin. Your natural faith is often good; the acquired reflexes of "faith alone" damage your natural faith. Some survive that; others lose their faith altogether.
Go back to worrying every moment that you may not make it
Why should I worry? I am secure in the lap of the Church as any man can be.