Let It Be Done To Me According To Your Word
494 At the announcement that she would give birth to “the Son of the Most High” without knowing man, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary responded with the obedience of faith, certain that “with God nothing will be impossible”: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord let it be to me according to your word.” Thus, giving her consent to God’s word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus. Espousing the divine will for salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her Son she did so in order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and dependent on him, by God’s grace:
As St. Irenaeus says, “Being obedient she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.” Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert : “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith.”Comparing her with Eve, they call Mary “the Mother of the living” and frequently claim: “Death through Eve, life through Mary.”
Catechism Of The Catholic Church
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ARTICLE 1: THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth you shall not bow down to them or serve them. 3It is written: “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” 4
Devotion To The Blessed Virgin
971“All generations will call me blessed”: “The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.” The Church rightly honors “the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,’ to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs . This very special devotion differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration.” The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an “epitome of the whole Gospel,” express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.
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What Is The Catechism Of The Catholic Church
When we talk about the catechism today we are most likely referring to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
For more than a decade bishops, theologians, and other experts worked on a compendium of all Catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals. The fruit of their work was the catechism, an organized presentation of the essential teachings of the Catholic Church in regards to both faith and morals, in the light of the Second Vatican Council and the whole of the churchs tradition.
The creation of an official, authoritative, and authentic reference text for teaching and transmitting Catholic doctrine was not new, however. In 1566 the so-called Roman Catechism was published in response to the request issued three years earlier by the Council of Trent. Used until 1978, it inspired, as intended, the creation of many national catechisms.
Often these national catechisms were in a question-and-answer format, bringing to life the very meaning of the word catechism, derived from the Greek verb to echo. Students would, for centuries to come, repeat or echo the answers to the questions back to their teachers, who maybe hoped that the pupils would not only learn Catholic doctrine but echo the faith in their own lives.
This article appeared in the July 2011 issue of U.S. Catholic .
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United States Catholic Catechism For Adults
In 2006, the Bishops of the United States published the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. This is the official inculturated presentation of the Catholic faith for adults in the United States. Each chapter in the Catechism for Adults includes stories, doctrine, reflection, quotations, discussion questions, and prayer, designed to lead the reader to a deepening faith.
Why Catholic? is a program of RENEW International.
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Three Decades Later: The Catechism Of The Catholic Church
I declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the Faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion.
With those words, Pope St. John Paul II presented the Catechism of the Catholic Church to the faithful and the world nearly 30 years ago. Observances of various kinds next October will no doubt mark the anniversary. For, three decades later, the Catechism remains a gift of lasting importance in the life of the Church.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the first compendium or catechism of Catholic Doctrine in more than 600 years. And like its predecessor, the famous Roman Catechism otherwise known as the Catechism of the Council of Trent the CCC, as it is familiarly called, is linked to an ecumenical council.
In early 1985, Pope John Paul convened a special session of the Synod of Bishops to assess the implementation of the Second Vatican Council 20 years after its close. Among the synods suggestions to the pope was the preparation of a new universal catechism reflecting Vatican II and setting out all Catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church consists of 2,865 numbered paragraphs. There is extensive cross-referencing to show readers where in the text the same topic or theme is treated. Scripture is cited repeatedly along with other authoritative sources. In Brief segments throughout provide summaries.
Russell Shaw is a contributing editor for Our Sunday Visitor.
Full Table Of Contents
- God Comes Close to Man in Jesus
- Catechesis – The Making of Disciples
- Previous Catechisms
- Presenting an Organic Synthesis
- The Four Pillars
- PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
- PART TWO: THE SACRAMENTS OF FAITH
- PART THREE: THE LIFE OF FAITH
- PART FOUR: PRAYER IN THE LIFE OF FAITH
- Practical Directions for Using This Simplified Version
- Need for Adaptations
- Inhibiting Factors
- Proofs for God’s Existence
- Proofs from within the Person
- The Power of Reason
- Reason’s Power and Limits
- The Limits of Human Language
- God Wants Man to Come Near in Jesus
- Revelation Not Destroyed by Sin
- Salvation to People Groups
- Gathered Together in Abraham
- From Moses to the Prophets
- God’s Final and Complete Word
- Private Revelations
- The Bishops and Tradition
- Same Source and Goal
- Two Modes – Scripture and Tradition
- What the Apostles Learned
- Faithful to the Teaching
- An Authentic in terpretation
- Dogmas – Proposed Truths
- Ways of Growing in Faith
- God Uses Words to Speak
- Attentiveness and Study Needed
- Permanent Value of Old Testament
- Gospels – The Heart of the New Testament
- Three Stages of Formation
- Old and New – Light for Each Other
- Life in God’s Word
- A Unique, Personal Adherence
- To the Beloved Son
- And to the Spirit
- Intellect Assenting to Truth
- God Supplies Motives
- Greater Than Human Light
- Seeking to Understand
- Freely Chosen Yet Required
- Receiving Faith from Others
- The Church’s Faith
- The Need for Formulas
- Transmitting the One Faith
- The Need for Creeds
- God’s Motive is Love
- Faith in the Trinity
- The Central Mystery
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Wholly United With Her Son
964 Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. “This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death” it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:
Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: “Woman, behold your son.”
965 After her Son’s Ascension, Mary “aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers.” In her association with the apostles and several women, “we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation.”
Journey Through The Catechism
RENEW International presents Why Catholic? Journey through the Catechism as a vehicle for adult disciples to explore the richness of the Catholic faith and apply it to their lives. Solidly based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, and Sacred Scripture, Why Catholic? is a dynamic adult faith formation program for the renewal of parish life.
In the United Sates, we now have two official Catechisms there is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published by the Vatican, for Catholics throughout the world there is also the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, as an authoritative presentation of the faith for Catholics in the United States.
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The New Catechism Of The Catholic Church
The New Catchism of the Catholic Church
Fabian W. Bruskewitz, S.T.D.
In 1985, our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, summoned an extraordinary session of the International Synod of Bishops. This was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, which concluded in 1965. The purpose of this extraordinary assembly was to see what effect the Council had on the Universal Church in the twenty years that had passed since its closing. In the course of that extraordinary assembly of the International Synod of bishops, a proposal was made by Bernard Cardinal Law, the Archbishop of Boston, to issue a universal catechism, a compendium of the Catholic Faith.
In his remarks, His Eminence, Cardinal Law, pointed out that young people in Boston, St. Petersburg and Santiago in Chile, all enjoyed the same culture. They wore blue jeans and listened to the same kind of music. There was no reason then, the Cardinal pointed out, why they could not also have a certain uniformity in their appreciation and acceptance of Catholic doctrine.
On June 22, 1994, the English-speaking world began to enjoy the fruit of the intervention of Cardinal Law in 1985, and of the far-sighted and fore-sighted speeches of Cardinal Ratzinger in 1983.
Pope John Paul II, in issuing the Catechism stated:
Catechisms and the Catechism
Catechesis in Church History
The Catechetical Renewal
The Structure of the Catechism
Characteristics of the Catechism
The Catechism also states:
Also In Her Assumption
966 “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:
In giving birth you kept your virginity in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.
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What Is The Catechism
The Church defines a catechism as “a popular summary or compendium of Catholic doctrine about faith and morals and designed for use in Catechesis.” Catechesis is the passing along of Catholic teachings to adults and children. As Catholics, we are called to have a knowlege of our faith, and ultimately of our Creator. God has revealed Himself to us fully in the person of Jesus Christ, who desires for us to get to know Him! We get to know “about” Him through study, and we come to know Him personally through prayer and the Sacraments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a great way to begin to study the faith. There are many Catechisms that have been given to us by the Church over her history. The most recent is linked below.