All
What does Father mean in the Hebrew Language?
Abba
A term used by modern theologians (see John Macquarrie, Keenan Osborne) in response to the notion of Jesus as the primordial sacrament stating that Jesus is “supersacrament” in that he is a unique manifestation in the visible form of the authentic life of Jesus. As such Jesus the “supersacrament” is the true minister of all 7 sacraments (the human minister being a proxy for Jesus) and is also the composition of the 7 sacraments themselves – he is the spiritual grace, sanctifying grace which acts within the life of the recipient of the sacrament. Thusly, when one hears the term baptism, one should not think immediately of water, but of Jesus, or when one hears the word eucharist one should not think of bread or wine, but of Jesus and so forth through the 7 sacraments.
Jesus as a “supersacrament”
Objects or gestures that express one specific message or meaning (e.g., a stop sign means stop and nothing else)
Sign
For Christians this is the day of the Lord, the day that Jesus rose from the dead – the resurrection being the central revelation of God, the revelation of Jesus as the Lord and Christ. As such Catholics gather every Sunday to celebrate the memorial of Jesus in the Mass, and every Sunday mass is like a “mini-Easter”.
Sunday
Catholic dogma states that we firmly believe and confess that there is only one God who is eternal, infinite, unchanging, incomprehensible and almighty; a single God who is at the same time three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Trinity
An attitude or habit that makes us more likely to choose what is good even when we don’t stop to think first.
Virtue
Rooted in humility, prayer is the lifting of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.
Prayer
Is the discipline that keeps us from acting as if we were the center of the universe, it is naturally community focussed. The Greek word for obey comes from the word for ‘listening’. The same word was also used for ‘answering the door’. Obedience is not necessarily about doing exactly what someone tells you to do; it is about listening to those in legitimate authority and opening the door of your heart to recognize the good that may come from doing as they ask, or doing what is asked in trust of their authority that you will one day recognize that goodness.
Obedience
A teaching device Jesus used to glimpse into the mystery of the kingdom of God. They are stories drawn from ordinary life that convey religious truth by comparing something we do know (from ordinary life) to something we have yet to understand (a religious truth).
Parable
Formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas, this law states that God created the universe and gave it a natural order. We are part of that order, having been given intelligence to determine and uphold the laws of the natural order. All things in nature operate according to the laws implanted in them by God. Through the use of reason, we can study and come to understand the way God wants us to live through the natural order of the world. All Catholic social justice teachings are based on the natural law theory, as any action or situation that comes into conflict with natural law is seen as an injustice either to people, or to earth’s natural resources, which sustain our existence.
Natural Law
Redemption from sin brought about by Christ’s Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension. The Paschal Mystery is celebrated in the liturgy of the Church as Christ’s saving work is made present via the sacrament of Eucharist.
Paschal Mystery
A term used to describe what is seen as fundamental truths of Revelation to be held by all Catholics.
Dogma
The celebration of Christ’s victory over death through the Resurrection. Easter is the foundation of the Christian faith and the most important holiday in the liturgical year.
Easter
The Name given to a follower of/adherent to a certain discipline or teaching. In the New Testament, it is the term used to identify all those men and women who followed Jesus and were taught by him while he was alive, and who (following the death, Resurrection, and Ascension) formed the Church with the apostles and helped to spread the Good News. Contemporary members of the Church/followers of Christ are referred to as disciples of Jesus.
Disciple
The power of God’s love working through us. This love incorporates action on behalf of the needy.
Charity
The title was traditionally given to the 12 specially chosen by Jesus to preach the Gospel and to whom he entrusted responsibility for guiding the early Church.
Apostle
Forgiving does not mean that a transgression is now acceptable or “okay”. Forgiving is not to be equated with forgetting, ignoring, or pretending that an offense did not cause harm. Nor does forgiving mean the offending person(s) need not do/say anything to repair the damage they have caused. Rather, to forgive is to desire what is best for the offending person in spite of what has been done. In forgiving, the desire for revenge is replaced with a desire for positive change. Forgiveness then, is rooted in human dignity.
Forgiveness
it Is not simply to teach a doctrine but to proclaim Jesus Christ by one’s words and actions. Evangelization may involve humility and/or zeal and is differentiated from proselytization in that it is carried out in fashion aligned with the spirit of the Gospels respecting the dignity and freedom of others.
Evangelization
It's like a treaty or an alliance but is more as God serves as its guarantor. Covenants have conditions, are sealed with a ceremony, and are celebrated with both parties present. God’s covenant is a bond of love that calls to us in our freedom to respond in love. The term covenant is used in sacred scripture to express the relationship between God and the Chosen People and is best expressed by the phrase in Jer. 31: 33: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Covenant
A point of view that holds that human behavior is a product, not of free will, but of a complex array of physical, social, cultural, psychological and historical causes. In such a theory, morality does not exist because the choice does not exist.
Determinism
What is a word used to describe the time after receiving a sacrament; the word means“living with the mystery”.
Mystagogy
What is the core identity of God which we are called to abide in and emulate?
Love
A term used to describe a theorized, but unfound, source for passages common to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but not found in the Gospel of Mark.
Q-Source
Being morally accountable for one’s actions. Responsibility presumes knowledge, freedom, and the ability to choose to act.
Responsibility
What is the term for being comprised of both a physical (bodily) component as well as a verbal (spoken) one, rituals pass on traditions and aid in the formation of the community?
Ritual