Salvation

Many Catholics wonder what the Church really teaches about salvation. Well to begin with the Catholic Church has always taught that we are saved by grace through faith. The only difference in catholic and protestant teaching is in their respective formulations of what faith really is and what grace is and how it comes to us.
The Catholic Church teaches that faith is the belief in the whole of Divine Revelation and not just a minimalist acceptance of Jesus as Lord of one's life. It also teaches that faith stirs in a person the desire for the Sacraments which finally act as God's instruments by giving or increasing grace in one's soul. The sacraments are divinely instituted signs which are necessary for salvation, having been instituted by Jesus Himself either implicitly or explicitly. These sacraments give sacramental grace to the soul. Sacraments like Baptism, Confirmation and Ordination also produce a character in the soul and so cannot be repeated. The grace received both sanctifies and justifies the individual actually transforming the individual into the image of Christ.
Salvation,according to the church is a process of growth and transformation (so that the man of God may be full of every good deed) and not just a decision taken once which binds forever.