From the Rector, Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 9/13/2020

Baltimore Catechism: Lesson 1: The end of man (the purpose for which the human person was created).

Diocesan Outline: Lesson  1: God Made Us.

CCC :  Prologue Life of Man (to know and love God)

1. Q. Who made the world?

                 A. God made the world.

2. Q. Who is God?

                 A. God is the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things.

3. Q. What is man?

A. Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and made to the image and likeness of God.

4. Q. Why did God make you?

A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.

5. Q. What must we do to save our souls?

A. To save our souls, we must worship God by faith, hope, and charity; that is, we must believe in Him, hope in

Him, and love Him with all our heart.

6. Q. How shall we know the things which we are to believe?

A. We shall know the things which we are to believe from the Catholic Church, through which God speaks to us.

7. Q. Where shall we find the chief truths which the Church teaches?

A. We shall find the chief truths which the Church teaches in the Apostles’ Creed.

8. Say the Apostles’ Creed.

Definitions:

Truths

Covenant: God’s promise to be faithful to us forever and our promise to be faithful in return.

Creed: The formal statement of beliefs.  Credo = I believe.

Faith: The theological virtue and gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to respond to God and to believe the truths He has revealed.

Magisterium: The teaching authority and responsibility of the Church to interpret authentically the

faith contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition.

Revelation: God’s free gift of making Himself known and giving Himself to us by gradually

                     communicating His own mystery in deeds and words.

Sacred Scripture:  The written inspired Word of God consisting of the 46 books of the Old Testament 

                             and the 26 books of the New Testament.

Sacred Tradition: The living transmission of the Faith by the Church through the power of the Holy

                             Spirit.  “The Church in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to

                             every generation all that She herself is, and that She believes. “

Errors

Atheism: The denial that God exists

Agnosticism: The claim that no one can know with certainty if God exists or not.

Secular Humanism: glorification of human achievement to the exclusion of God. 

                             (practical atheism)

Hedonism:  living for the sinful pursuit of pleasure, power, and possessions with no thought of God.

Secularism: a view of the world that focuses exclusively on the natural world and holds that the only

                     means of knowing truth is through the natural sciences.