Viewpoint

The Church teaches: “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God (thanking him) or requesting good things from him.” When we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or “out of the depths” of a humble and contrite heart? ‘He who humbles himself will be exalted’; humility is the foundation of prayer, Only when we humbly acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought” are we ready to receive freely the gift (or understanding) of prayer. “Man is a beggar before God.” Continue reading →

The Church teaches by recalling the commandment, “You shall not kill,”our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral. Anger is a desire for revenge. “To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit,” but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution “to correct vices and maintain justice.” If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, “Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.” Matt 5:22 Continue reading →

The Church teaches that “God himself is the author of marriage.” The vocation to marry is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. “The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life.” (CCC1603) Continue reading →

The Church teaches that: “No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” Now God’s Spirit, who reveals God, makes known to us Jesus Christ, his Word, his living Utterance, but the Spirit does not speak of himself. The Spirit who “has spoken through the prophets” makes us hear the Father’s Word, but we do not hear the Spirit himself. Continue reading →

The Church teaches that the Scriptural expression “heaven and earth” means all that exists, creation in its entirety. It also indicates the bond, deep within creation, that both unites heaven and earth and distinguishes the one from the other: “the earth” is the world of men, while “heaven” or “the heavens” can designate both the firmament and God’s own “place”-“our Father in heaven” and consequently the “heaven” too which is eschatological glory. Finally, “heaven” refers to the saints and the “place” of the spiritual creatures, the angels, who surround God.186 (CCC 326) Continue reading →

The Church teaches that Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful, first in a primal sense and over time by being taught. It formulates its judgments according to reason in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator for humanity. Continue reading →

VIEWPOINT XVII

The Church teaches that a virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself or herself in all circumstances. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all the sensory and spiritual powers available, pursuing the good and choosing it in concrete actions. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Article 7: 1803)

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The Church teaches that the astonishing petition “forgive us our trespasses” can never be without the equivalent phrase “as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The daunting thought is that an outpouring of God’s mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have hurt us or trespassed against us. Love is not divisible; how can we love God whom we do not see and not love our neighbor whom we do see? The very reason we are able to love at all is because we have been given the grace and the faith to understand the meaning of love in the love of God. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2838-2845) Continue reading →

The Church teaches that Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call … it is participation in the life of God. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1996, p. 483-486) Continue reading →

The Church teaches that: Anger is a desire for revenge. “To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit,” but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution to correct vices and maintain justice. The Lord says, “Everyone who is angry with his brother (or sister) shall be liable to judgement.” Continue reading →

The Church teaches that … human life must be protected absolutely from the moment of conception (fertilization). From the first moment of his (or her) existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. (Catechism, 2270 p 547) Continue reading →

The Church teaches that . . . The revelation of the ineffable name “I Am who Am” contains then the truth that God alone is.  The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and following the Church’s Tradition, understood the divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of Being and every perfection, without origin and without end.  All creatures receive all that they are and have from him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is. Catechism (203, p58) Continue reading →

The Church teaches that . . . Works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities. Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are the spiritual works of mercy. as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God. (Catechism, 2447, p. 588) Continue reading →

The Church teaches that “Grace is favor, the free undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call and become his adopted children; partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life…Grace is the participation in the life of God. (Catechism, 1996, 1997; p 483) Continue reading →

The Church teaches that the unity of body and soul is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the ‘form’ of the body. It is because of its spiritual soul that the body, made of matter, becomes a living human body. Spirit and matter in man are not two natures united but rather their union forms a single nature – one that it is immortal. (Catechism: 366, p 93) Continue reading →

The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God. It is not “produced” by the parents. The soul is immortal. The term “immediate” can only have meaning within the idea of time. What does immediate mean to God, who is eternal? Continue reading →