Sacraments
The first Sacrament of Initiation, which makes us members of the Church, forgives sins, and gives new life in Christ. This celebration involves being immersed in water, or having water poured over one’s head three times, in the name of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
What is Baptism?
The written record of God’s revelation of Himself contained in the Old and New Testaments. It was composed by human authors inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Word of God
What is the Bible?
The season that begins the liturgical year. It is a time when we reflect on the Incarnation, and prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of Jesus, our King, on Christmas Day. We also prepare for His Second Coming at the end of time. This season is represented by the color violet, or purple, which represents penance and humility.
What is Advent?
A brief blessing in word and action in which a person marks themselves with a symbolic gesture of the cross. It is made by first touching the forehead with one’s hand, then touching the lower chest or stomach, and then, starting with the left, touching both shoulders.
What is the Sign of the Cross?
A gift from God and a human act by which a person comes to know God and conform their minds, hearts, and wills to Him and the Truth He has revealed.
What is Faith?
The Sacrament in which we receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread and wine. Not merely a symbol, it is Jesus’ true Flesh and Blood.
What is the Eucharist?
One of the first four books of the New Testament. They are the heart of the Scriptures and proclaim the Good News of salvation won for us by the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Gospels are our primary source of knowledge of the life of Jesus Christ. The word Gospel means “Good News."
What is the Gospel?
The dogma that professes that from the beginning of her life, the Virgin Mary was preserved from Original Sin so that she could bear the Son of God within her. Mary was prepared by God to be a holy vessel for our salvation
What is the Immaculate Conception?
The public prayer of the Church which sanctifies the whole course of the day and night. It consists of a variety of prayers, Scripture readings, most especially the Psalms, and writings of the saints, divided into “hours,” which are prescribed to be prayed at specific times of day.
What is the Liturgy of the Hours?
The fact that the Son of God assumed human nature and became man in order to accomplish our salvation. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, is both true God and true man.
What is Incarnation?
The Sacrament in which the gift of the Holy Spirit received at Baptism is confirmed, strengthened, and perfected for living the Christian life and spreading the faith to others.
What is Confirmation?
The teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount on the meaning and way to true happiness or fulfillment
What is the Beatitudes?
The last meal, at Passover, Jesus ate with His Apostles on the night before He died, during which He instituted the Eucharist.
What is the Last Supper?
The Profession of Faith set forth by the Councils of Nicaea (AD 325) and Constantinople (AD 381), and typically recited at Sunday Mass, which affirms the essential tenets of the Christian Faith and belief in the Holy Trinity.
What is Nicene Creed?
Of the same substance. This word is used to describe how God the Father and God the Son are both fully God, or of the same divine substance. This teaching was definitively set forth in the Nicene Creed to combat false teachings about Jesus and affirm the Truth of His human and divine natures
What is Consubstantial?
The Sacrament in which a baptized man and a baptized woman form with each other a lifelong covenantal communion of life and love that signifies the union of Christ and the Church and through which they are given the grace to live out this union.
What is Marriage?
Jesus’ teaching that “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
What are the Great Commandments?
A feast day during which we remember and pray for the holy souls being purified in purgatory.
What is All Souls Day?
The full content of divine revelation communicated by Christ, contained in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, handed on in the Church from the time of the Apostles, and from which the Magisterium draws all that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed.
What is the Deposit of Faith?
The name given to Jesus’ explicit teaching about the Eucharist in John 6:22–58
What is Bread of Discourse?
The Sacrament which gives spiritual healing and strength to a person seriously ill and sometimes also physical recovery.
What is the Anointing of the Sick?
The living teaching authority of the Catholic Church whose task it is to give authentic interpretation of the Word of God found in Scripture and Tradition, and to ensure the faithfulness of the Church to the teachings of the Apostles in matters of faith and morals. This authority is exercised by all of the world’s bishops in union with the pope, and by the pope alone when he defines infallibly a doctrine of faith or morals
What is the Magisterium?
In the Gospel of Luke the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce that she would be the Mother of God. Mary responded by giving her fiat, or her “yes”. The Church celebrates this feast every year on March 25th
What is Annunciation?
The liturgical celebration and memorial of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross and Resurrection from the dead. At every Mass, the priest changes the bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist. The Mass is divided into two sections: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
What is mass?
A meeting of all the world’s bishops together in union with the pope.
What is Ecumenical Council?