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Roman Catechism
The Kingdom Of Glory
By the words kingdom of God is also meant that kingdom of His glory, of which Christ our Lord says in St. Matthew: Come ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world. This kingdom the thief, when he had admirably acknowledged his crimes, begged of Christ in the words related by St. Luke: Lord, remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom. Of this kingdom St. John speaks when he says: Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God; and of it the Apostle says to the Ephesians: No fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols) hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. To it also refer some of the parables made use of by Christ the Lord when speaking of the kingdom of heaven.
But the kingdom of grace must precede that of glory; for God’s glory cannot reign in anyone in whom His grace does not already reign. Grace, according to the Redeemer, is a fountain of water springing up to eternal life; while as regards glory, what can we call it except a certain perfect and absolute grace? As long as we are clothed with this frail mortal flesh, as long as we wander in this gloomy pilgrimage and exile, weak and far away from God, we often stumble and fall, because we rejected the aid of the kingdom of grace, by which we were supported. But when the light of the kingdom of glory, which is perfect, shall have shone upon us, we shall stand forever firm and secure. Then shall all that is defective and unsuitable be utterly removed; then shall every infirmity be strengthened and invigorated; in a word, God Himself will then reign in our souls and bodies. But on this subject we have dealt already at greater length in the exposition of the Creed, when speaking of the resurrection of the flesh.