Catechism Corner

The man on the island who never heard the Gospel Message.... How could a good and loving God condemn to hell someone who's never heard of him?

Lesson 1 Part 1 This lesson will lead you to be able to accurately answer the following important questions and can totally revolutionize your appreciation for the Bible. How did God go about revealing His thoughts and truths to man? What evidence do we have that the Bible is God's words to us? Why do we call the Bible by that name?

Because the Father is one He is the source of the entire Trinity He is unbegotten. There is no source of the Father's existence other than Himself. As some of the early Christians put it He is divine. He is unbegotten and His origin is in Himself....

Actual sin is the sin we commit ourselves. In the Baltimore Catechism it says that actual sin is any willful thought, desire, word, action, or omission forbidden by the law of God.

Every fruit of the redemption won by Christ, every grace from on high comes through our lady. In fact, all of us are co redeemers in some way, when we bring our children to be baptized, or we help a soul convert to the true faith, or when we give instruction to a soul in error. We can call down and apply the fruits of the redemption through our prayers and sacrifices.

Today, we look at Genesis chapter three and the fall of man and the resulting punishment that comes to all of us through that original sin.

The creation accounts are foundational for our Catholic faith, and for us to understand the history of our salvation.

Angels are a host of beings so numerous they can't be counted. We see an awesome picture of this in Daniel's description of God on the throne as Judge: "A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him, thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him" (Daniel 7:10)

Angels are pure spirit, but that doesn't mean they are just floating apparitions. Angels are personal beings, and likewise, the evil angels did not lose their person-hood, when they became demons.

The beautiful thing that we're really going to notice is this; how ordered the creation of God really is. How it all fits together. That there's a hierarchal order both in the spiritual and the material universes

Hello and welcome to lesson three where we are unlocking the truths that we find in the Baltimore Catechism. In particularly we will be studying the subject, The unity, and Trinity of God. Many of us adults try to wrap our brain around this great mystery of our faith, this supernatural divine mystery.

Now the overarching theme in this lesson will be how can you and I know about God? There are two ways that we can come to know about God. Actually, there are many, but we're going to start with just these first two. The first one is through faith, and the second way is through reason....

The Baltimore Catechism says that He's an infinitely perfect spirit and that there's no limit to his perfections or attributes or good qualities. When we say that God is pure spirit, what are we saying?

So the title of our lesson is the purpose of man's existence. And I really think that this is both a fitting and necessary lesson to start with. Now it's a good lesson to start out with for two reasons first because the end of the thing is the purpose for which it was made. And the second reason why this lesson is important is because of the state of the world right now, with all the division, the confusion, fear, anxiety.

This lesson is going to serve as an introduction to the Baltimore catechism number two. I want you to stay with me here, because I know that some of your eyes might've just glazed over, because if you're anything like me, when we hear the word catechism, we might think of school. But remember, the more that we know someone, the more that we can love them, and this is even more true for God. The more that we know God, the more that we love him. And by loving him, we can better serve Him who made us.

The Love Of God The foundation for our catholic faith is God's unchanging love for us. "Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us." (1 John 4:19). Our faith needs to be founded firmly upon the fact - that all of God's dealings with us are based upon His love.

Faith in the most simplistic and basic terms means reaching out our hand and receiving what God is offering us. What is faith? Faith is our hand reaching up to take that help that forgiveness, that strength and those blessings from God's hands.

It has been observed that the home is the foundational stone upon which is built the Church, the community and the nation. It is also true the husband/father's heart has a profound influence on the quality of the home. Thus ultimately, all institutions are influenced by how men walk with God. When a husband chooses to bring the Word and the mysteries of the rosary consistently into everyday life, God changes lives.

Taking care of a responsibility in bread winning and homemaking without succumbing to materialism and greed.

I want to focus on the word "redeemed." That is part of the heart and soul of Catholicism, redemption. The Churches message is a message of redemption. When we present the gospel, we should present it with redemption being the center of our presentation. It's one of the great words, it's one of the great titles of Christ, Christ our Redeemer. The question is whether or not we really understand the fullness of the word redemption.

The word believe does not mean to think, to suppose, to be of opinion: but as the Sacred Scriptures teach, it expresses the deepest conviction, by which the mind gives a firm and unhesitating assent to God revealing His mysterious truths. As far, therefore as regards the use of the word here, he who firmly without hesitation is convinced of anything is said to believe.- Catechism of the Council of Trent

Speech is a gift given to humans but basically denied to all the rest of the natural world. It is the tangible part of us that is also common among the spirit beings. (Angels, devils, and all heavenly beings.) Present studies report we all say about 16,000 words in a day, some more and some less. Regardless, we do take talking for granted, it comes so natural. The question is not whether or not we talk, the question is if we communicate.

A wedding day does not cure human nature. Often times the first offenses begin innocently. What is normal in one family is very different from what is normal in another family. After a while and after enough hurts, it is easy for couples to slip into a frustrated mode of reacting from a hurt with a hurt. When sharp words are said, sharp words are returned. Rebukes meet retorts. Anger may turn into wrath. Sometimes men learn their superior strength can be used to force their will on a weaker woman. The woman may learn how to push her man over the edge through a nagging tongue. Is there any hope for a marriage that has jagged tears through its fabric? Some failures go deep causing lifetime consequences. Forgiveness means one chooses to be okay with broken dreams, the consequences of another’s sin and all the reaping they are forced to endure. This is impossible for human nature on its own.

God’s plan for the wife in the home is that the wife is to take a subordinate role in leadership issues and/or when decisions need to be made. This is a general principle and each couple needs to find their way in working with the personality and gifts of both husband and wife. When we find ourselves fitting into the plan our Creator has for us, we will have the greatest fulfillment possible for any created being.

The greatest Bible commands arise out of our most common human needs. As strange as it sounds to courting couples, husbands failing to treasure their wives is the most common problem of marriages. Sadly, as too many a married woman learns, the opposite of love is not always hate; sometimes it is simply neglect.

Every married person needs to come to that place in his life; the place where he or she realizes that God has created their spouse especially for each other. This will give them the vision to fill his or her place in the marriage relationship. In the first marriage, the Sacred record is careful to note, “And God blessed them...” There was a Divine Being who superintended Adam and Eve’s marriage. There is a Divine Being who superintends our marriages today as well. We are not alone needing to grope for answers. We have a God who made us, led us together and blesses us for His glory even when we do not fully understand what we are going through.

What is the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony? What does this Sacrament do? First we must define what is a sacrament. A Sacrament is an outward sign of inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification. Or in other words, A Sacrament, in this case Marriage by a man and a woman who have been sacramentaly baptized, is an outward sign of inward grace, (grace being God's enabling power to live out the sacrament of Marriage), instituted by Christ for our sanctification ( the two being set apart to grow in grace and in charity toward each other).

St. Paul, an apostle, wrote vividly about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  Paul talks about the Eucharist in 1 Corinthians 10:16-21 and 1 Corinthians 11:27-30. These passages show that Paul was Catholic in his belief.

Do you believe that Jesus can transform bread and wine into His Body and Blood? To answer this question, we must turn to chapter six in the Gospel of John. In John 6 we encounter Jesus’ famous Bread of Life Discourse, where He firmly establishes His teaching on the Eucharist. But in order to understand this teaching we first have to look at the two passages that precede the discourse. These two passages serve as the interpretive key for the Bread of Life Discourse, because in them Jesus manifests a power over nature and an ability to feed God’s people that is greater than Moses.

Jesus asks a number of different questions in the Gospels, but one in particular always stood out to me, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?”(Mathew 9:28). Originally posed to two blind men, this question like all of Scripture, transcends its initial audience and can be applied to us as well. For this reason, I often propose this question about the Eucharist – do you believe that Jesus can transform bread and wine into His Body and Blood? To answer this question, we must turn to chapter six in the Gospel of John. In John 6 we encounter Jesus’ famous Bread of Life Discourse, where He firmly establishes His teaching on the Eucharist. But in order to understand this teaching we first have to look at the two passages that precede the discourse. These two passages serve as the interpretive key for the Bread of Life Discourse,

Throughout the Bible, many promises are given to those who fear the Lord, such as Proverbs 22:4: “The fruit of humility is the fear of the Lord, riches and glory and life.” It is wise to be governed by a healthy fear of God! The following disciplines will help you comprehend more of His greatness and more of your dependence on Him, thereby learning the fear of the Lord.

The rewards of developing the fear of the Lord are emphasized throughout Scripture. In fact, all the things a person would hope to find in the proverbial pot of gold come with humility and the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 22:4 states that “The fruit of humility and the fear of the Lord, are riches (honor) and glory and life.” Let us look at the abundant promises and rich reward for those who fear the Lord.

If we knew that all of our secret thoughts, words, and actions would be displayed publicly so that everyone could watch them and evaluate them, it would make a profound difference in the way we live! We have an instinctive concern about what others think of us and how they will judge the things we do. If we have this much concern over what other men and women think of us and our actions, how much more should we be concerned about God’s evaluation of our thoughts, words, actions, attitudes, and motives?

What is Piety?   Put simply, piety is living a fruitful, obedient Christian life. It is one of the seven fold gifts of the Holy Spirit that, initially, is magnified in us at our confirmation. There are sixteen references to piety, (or godliness depending on which translation is being read), in Scripture. All of them are in the New Testament, and most of them occur in 1 Timothy and 2 Peter. Let’s examine what it is, what it’s not, its prerequisites, its barriers, and its potential influence in our lives. Then we’ll consider how to grow in godliness through personal application.

Fortitude is the inward strength to withstand stress to accomplish God’s best. Fortitude is associated with the physical stamina required for a race. However, the character quality of Fortitude is much deeper than physical stamina. It includes the strength that comes by rejoicing in the reproaches that come as we follow the ways of God. It is described as, “to undergo hardship, to hold oneself up against, to put up with to endure with patience.” To have fortitude is to tenaciously hold on until a goal is accomplished. Jacob clung to the angel and declared, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” God not only blessed him but affirmed, “Thy name shall not be called Jacob, but Israel: for if thou hast been strong against God, how much more shalt thou prevail against men?” (Genesis 32:28).

What is the seven fold grace of the Holy Ghost? And what are they used for in our Christian life? The seven fold grace of the Holy Spirit that, initially, are magnified in us at our confirmation and are unique skills and abilities given by the Holy Spirit to faithful followers of Christ to serve God for the common benefit of his people, the Church. And for reaching others, out side of the Church, for Christ. The seven fold grace, referred to by the Catechism, is described in Isaiah 11:1-3, where it mentions wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, and Piety and the fear of the Lord. The seven fold grace of the Spirit, mentioned in Isaiah, are simply God empowering faithful Christians to do what He has called us to do. The Catholic Church list them as: WisdomUnderstandingCounselFortitudeKnowledgePiety -GodlinessFear of the Lord

What is the seven fold grace of the Holy Ghost? And what are they used for in our Christian life? The seven fold grace of the Holy Spirit that, initially, are magnified in us at our confirmation and are unique skills and abilities given by the Holy Spirit to faithful followers of Christ to serve God for the common benefit of his people, the Church. And for reaching others, out side of the Church, for Christ. The seven fold grace, referred to by the Catechism, is described in Isaiah 11:1-3, where it mentions wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, and Piety and the fear of the Lord. The seven fold grace of the Spirit, mentioned in Isaiah, are simply God empowering faithful Christians to do what He has called us to do. The Catholic Church list them as: WisdomUnderstandingCounselFortitudeKnowledgePiety -GodlinessFear of the Lord

The Catechism Of The Council Of Trent says, To begin with the name (Confirmation), it should be taught that this Sacrament is called by the Church Confirmation because, if there is no obstacle to the efficacy of the Sacrament, a baptized person, when anointed with the sacred chrism by the Bishop...becomes stronger with the strength of a new power, and thus begins to be a perfect soldier of Christ.

There are many people who insist that infant baptism is not baptism at all. This is because they have a different understanding of baptism. In their view, baptism is principally a testimony given by the person baptized, first in word and then symbolically in water. Since an infant cannot give a testimony, a genuine infant baptism is an impossibility.

Some people are convinced that Sunday, the first day of the week, is the Biblical Sabbath. Others believe that Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is the Sabbath. So which day is it?

We were created for work, but we were also made to rest. It’s interesting that even secular studies have embraced the idea that we need to take a break and relax regularly.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain. (Exodus 20:7) What does the word "vain" mean?

t doesn’t matter too much who is in what position in our lives until we settle the matter of who is on first. In other words, we need to know who is in first place in our lives.

In recent years it has become popular amongst the Christian world out side of the Church to ask the question, “What would Jesus do?” And as often happens with catchphrases, it has been taken to extremes—everything from “What would Jesus eat?” to “What kind of SUV would Jesus drive?”

You may not know all of the Ten Commandments. It is good to know all of them. The Ten Commandments is only a small part of the Mosaic Covenant. I want to point something out to you in those Ten Commandments which you may have not noticed up until now.

Why is it that so many Christians don't respond to the call of God in their life to be what God wants them to be, to surrender their lives to him?It's because they feel that if they do their own will, and please themselves, and respond just to the desires of their own body, they can live a happier life. This is the great deception of Satan. He's portrayed God as someone who's come to spoil our lives like a spoilsport who doesn't want us to have any fun or enjoyment. Which is not true

Man was to be special, more important than everything else that God had created because he was going to be made in the image of God, which even the angels in heaven do not have that privilege. So we read here in Genesis 1:26"And God said, Let us make man to our image and likeness:" And when man lives according to that, reflecting God's image, he has authority. "Let him have dominion". Think of that phrase. "Let him," that is man, was created by God to be kings, to rule, to rule over their passions, to rule over everything on this earth. They were to be kings. But see what happens in Genesis chapter three when man sins, he immediately becomes a slave.

God desires from us the obedience of faith. Such obedience is not based upon our understanding of why we are to act as God requires, but simply because it is God who requires it.

If you deny that the first man was created before the first woman, and if you deny that the first woman came from the man (not from an existing animal or human-like creature), you undermine the biblical doctrine of marriage and ultimately the authority of the Old and New Testaments.

If we want to understand creation, if we want to understand origins, if we want to understand how the universe came into existence and everything that is in it, we have to look at theology, not science.

All three Persons of the Trinity are one God because, they are all the same essence. “Essence” means the same thing as “being.” So what is the difference between "Essence and "Person"?