class notes Matrimony Formation Class #2 overview of the faith

Overview of the Faith

Why Review the Faith now? 

                   All our life is to be united with God. We are meant to live with Him. Marriage is an important part of life, and an important moment to unite to God and to ensure that we are doing this in Him and with Him. We are remembering what it means to be Catholic, so that Holy Matrimony strengthens and increases our happiness here, our growth in love, and leads to Heaven.

How connected to Marriage

                    For individuals: can’t be what we should be if not living the Faith. “

                    For couple: Could not love thee, dear, so much”; putting God and Faith first makes for a better, happier, and holier Marriage. This is because it is given a greater purpose, a greater union, a firmer foundation, and will lead to an eternal friendship in Heaven, even though certain aspects of Marriage will be no longer (all Sacraments are transitory, no Baptism, or Communion in Heaven either, but effects and point remain)

        For future children: need to teach the Faith- give them Truth and help them to be holy and happy forever; not just here

             

Twelve Articles of the Creed (so divided because of legend of the Twelve Apostles at Pentecost)

• (1) I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth;
• The meaning of the above words is this: I believe with certainty, and without a shadow of doubt profess my belief in God the Father, the First Person of the Trinity, who by His omnipotence created from nothing and preserves and governs the heavens and the earth and all things which they contain; and not only do I believe in Him from my heart and profess this belief with my lips, but with the greatest ardour and piety I tend towards Him, as the supreme and most perfect good.
• Faith is necessary, Faith is a gift from God, about trusting in His Word, all that He has revealed: requires profession of life and in speech
• One God
• Father because 
• Creator
• Adopts Christians through Grace
• Blessed Trinity
• God is Almighty and deserves our trust, our adoration, our service, and our love
• Trinity makes all things, we say the Father to teach us something about Who the Father is; God cares for all Creation, and for each of us

• (2) And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord;
• That wonderful and superabundant are the blessings which flow to the human race from the belief and profession of this Article we learn from these words of St. John: Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God; and also from the words of Christ the Lord, proclaiming the Prince of the Apostles blessed for the confession of this truth: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. For this Article is the most firm basis of our salvation and redemption.
• Recall need for a Savior, promise of Savior, and promise fulfilled
• Savior Who Is 
• Priest
• Prophet
• King
• By Divinity
• By descent of David
• By perfection of humanity
• By Conquest of the devil
• By Head of the Church and New Adam
• Jesus is truly God: He is also truly a man. He is one Divine Person, Who took to Himself a human nature through the yes of the Virgin Mary. Always God, He entered into time and was born a true child of Mary, 2000 years ago, in Israel, with true human body and soul, true family, true ancestry, like us in all things except sin
• Humbled Himself to Redeem us, and so is Lord because He is God and Lord as the One Who cares for us, and Who died to save us
• At Baptism we declared that we renounced the devil and the world, and gave ourselves unreservedly to Jesus Christ.
• We owe Him love and adoration because He is God and because He loves us and saved us

• (3) Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary;

This is the plan and means by which God decided to save us. It is a reminder that there is nothing more glorious or magnificent than this divine goodness and beneficence towards us.

• we believe and confess that the same Jesus Christ, our only Lord, the Son of God, when He assumed human flesh for us in the womb of the Virgin, was not conceived like other men, from the seed of man, but in a manner transcending the order of nature, that is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; so that the same Person, remaining God as He was from eternity, became man, what He was not before… as Pope St. Leo the Great said: The lowliness of the inferior nature was not consumed in the glory of the superior, nor did the assumption of the inferior lessen the glory of the superior.
• Each Person of the Trinity worked in the Incarnation, but attributed to Holy Ghost because shows love of God for us
• As soon as the Blessed Virgin assented to the announcement of the Angel in these words, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word, the most sacred body of Christ was immediately formed, and to it was united a rational soul enjoying the use of reason; and thus in the same instant of time He was perfect God and perfect man. 
• Again -- and this should overwhelm us with astonishment -- as soon as the soul of Christ was united to His body, the Divinity became united to both; and thus at the same time His body was formed and animated, and the Divinity united to body and soul.
• Hence, at the same instant He was perfect God and perfect man, and the most Holy Virgin, having at the same moment conceived God and man, is truly and properly called Mother of God and man. This the Angel signified to her when he said: Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High. The event verified the prophecy of Isaias: Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son. Elizabeth also declared the same truth when" being filled with the Holy Ghost, she understood the Conception of the Son of God, and said: Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
• As the body of Christ was formed of the pure blood of the immaculate Virgin without the aid of man, as we have already said, and by the sole operation of the Holy Ghost, so also, at the moment of His Conception, His soul was enriched with an overflowing fullness of the Spirit of God, and a superabundance of all graces. For God gave not to Him, as to others adorned with holiness and grace, His Spirit by measure, as St. John testifies but poured into His soul the plenitude of all graces so abundantly that of his fullness we all have received.
• Jesus truly came to earth and lived among us. This should give us great joy and hope. 
• Mary is the New Eve, who cooperates in our Salvation by her Fiat, by raising Christ, by assenting, and by participating in everything that Jesus did to save us
• Remember:
• The humility of God
• How God has elevated the human person
• How we must make sure there is room for Him in our hearts

• (4) Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
• Recall frequently because of what St. Paul said: that he knows nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified.' We should give themselves entirely to the contemplation of the goodness and love of God towards us.
• He had a real human nature, blessed, elevated and entered into Time
• He fulfilled all prophecies in the OT (Isaiah 53) and His own
• Christ really died, and died freely to save us
• Christ was buried: but did not corrupt because He is God (death did not conquer Him, He conquered death)
• Should anyone inquire why the Son of God underwent His most bitter Passion, he will find that besides the guilt inherited from our first parents the principal causes were the vice's and crimes which have been perpetrated from the beginning of the world to the present day and those which will be committed to the end of time. In His Passion and death the Son of God, our Saviour, intended to atone for and blot out the sins of all ages, to offer for them to his Father a full and abundant satisfaction.
• Besides, to increase the dignity of this mystery, Christ not only suffered for sinners, but even for those who were the very authors and ministers of all the torments He endured. Of this the Apostle reminds us in these words addressed to the Hebrews: Think diligently upon him that endured such opposition from sinners against himself; that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds. In this guilt are involved all those who fall frequently into sin; for, as our sins consigned Christ the Lord to the death of the cross, most certainly those who wallow in sin and iniquity crucify to themselves again the Son of God, as far as in them lies, and make a mockery of Him. This guilt seems more enormous in us than in the Jews, since according to the testimony of the same Apostle: If they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory; while we, on the contrary, professing to know Him, yet denying Him by our actions, seem in some sort to lay violent hands on him.
• By His Passion Jesus:
• Delivered us from sin
• Rescued us from the devil
• Discharged us from the punishment of sin
• Opened up Heaven
• We should remember these things that God has done for us

• (5) He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead;
• Soul and body separate from each other, but each united to the Divinity
• Went to purgatory and to Limbo:
• He might liberate from prison those holy Fathers and the other just souls, and might bring them into heaven with Himself. 
• He might proclaim His power and authority, and that every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.

And here, who is not filled with admiration and astonishment when he contemplates the infinite love of God for man! Not satisfied with having undergone for our sake a most cruel death, He penetrates the inmost recesses of the earth to transport into bliss the souls whom He so dearly loved and whose liberation from thence He had achieved.

• He rose by His own power, re-united soul and body never separate from Divinity
• Third day:
• To show that He is God
• Waited to show He was truly dead
• Not fourth day, because not corrupted 
• Resurrection shows the Justice of God, Who glorified His Son after His Sufferings, and will do the same for us
• Helps us acknowledge the Power and Glory of God, is a promise of our Resurrection; and teaches us to reject and rise from sin
• We should live in the Hope of the Resurrection and focused on Heaven

• (6) He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty;
• As God, He never left Heaven; now His humanity is raised up to the Godhead and Glorified and adored 
• He has ultimate power and authority, even as a man: He is God. All things are under His feet and subject to Him. 
• He Ascended because:
• Heaven is His rightful place
• To Prove that His Kingdom is not an earthly one
• To urge us to follow with heart and will
• And to prepare our own Salvation; e.g. the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus in His Humanity and He wishes to bring us, too, into the highest realms of Heaven
• He, as Head, is there already, if we are united to Him, we will be where He is now. 
• Helps increase Faith (believe in Him), Hope (He will save us), and Charity (gratitude and love for His gifts, gratitude and love because He is God)

• (7) From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
• He is our Savior, but He, Who Is Just, will also judge us
• Judged on how well we followed Him
• Trinity judges, but attributed because He is God and Man, and Head of the Human race
• Particular  at death
• General  at end of the world
• General will unite our soul and bodies, and we will be rewarded or punished as complete human persons, body and soul
• Good will be in Heaven
• Evil will be in Hell
• Warning, and a promise full of consolation

• (8) I believe in the Holy Ghost;
• Truly God, equal in Power and Majesty with the Father and the Son: we are Baptized in His Name, blessed in His Name; Scripture shows Him doing Divine things
• Teaches us about God
• Guides the Church
• Allows us to know, love, and confess Jesus
• Unites us to Jesus
• Causes us to be Holy
• Called the Holy Spirit because no analogous human relationship, as there is with the Father and the Son
• Truly a different Person, but the same God
• he Holy Ghost proceeds by an eternal procession from the Father and the Son, as from one principle
• there are certain admirable effects, certain excellent gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are said to originate and emanate from Him, as from a perennial fountain of goodness. Although the intrinsic works of the most Holy Trinity are common to the Three Persons, yet many of them are attributed specially to the Holy Ghost, to signify that they arise from the boundless charity of God towards us. For as the Holy Ghost proceeds from the divine will, inflamed, as it were, with love, we can perceive that these effects which are referred particularly to the Holy Ghost, are the result of God's supreme love for us.
• Creation, love, life
• 7 Gifts
• Justifying Grace

• (9) The Holy Catholic Church; the Communion of Saints;
• Hold to the Church to be protected against errors and to follow Jesus, Who founded the Church for our Salvation, to be the means we are united to Him
• Three classes
• Church Militant
• Church Penitent/Suffering
• Church Triumphant
• Four Marks
• One
• In government
• Sacraments
• Faith
• Unity of Spirit
• Holy
• Founded by God
• Dedicated to God
• United to God
• Where true Worship of God and sanctification of men occurs
• Catholic/ Universal
• For all men: all classes, countries, and times (cf. Mt. 28:20)
• Contains all who are saved (but some might be invisibly members until the Resurrection)
• Teaches us all the Truth
• Apostolic
• Founded on the Apostles
• Teaches and believes what was taught and believed by the Apostles
• Ruled by the Successors of the Apostles 
• We say we believe in her because we are saying that we believe that God gave her to us, that she has the True Faith, and that we will strive to be her children
• Communion of Saints: The Evangelist St. John, writing to the faithful on the divine mysteries, explains as follows why he undertook to instruct them in these truths: That you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his son Jesus Christ. This fellowship consists in the Communion of Saints, the subject of the present Article. It is a sort of explanation of the preceding part which regards the unity, sanctity and catholicity of the Church.
• Communion of Sacraments, binding us to Jesus and each other
• Communion of Good Works: truly a mystical body, where good of each one benefits all
• True Society of Worship 

• (10) The forgiveness of sins;
• The Church has the power to take away sins, 
• In Baptism all sins before
• By Confession afterwards
• All sins for which we are sorry
• But limited to certain persons: priests and Bishops
• Sins are only forgiven by the power of God: it is to Him we owe debt, and becoming Righteous is beyond all human power since it means union with Him, and recreation
• Jesus the source of all forgiveness, through the shedding of His Blood
• Trust in God’s Mercy and make use of it, without despising His Love and presuming on it

• (11) The resurrection of the body;
• Not just Jesus, but every human person will rise again. God will resurrect them, and reunite their bodies to their souls
• Pointing to by the raising to life by Elias and by Jesus
• Analogies in nature of wheat, winter and spring, and the new day
• We know that soul is meant for the body, that God made us to be whole and died to save us and make us whole
• Really the same body, same nature, whole and entire
• But the just to Heaven and in glory, the damned to Hell and suffering
• The Saints will have bodies that 
• Will be beyond pain, suffering, decay or death
• Will shine with the glory of God
• Completely under the power and will of the soul, all will be easy 
• Think about this because Hell is a warning and help to avoid sin; because we owe God gratitude for this promise; have hope for those who die; help us to live good lives and to bear sufferings with patience

• (12) And life everlasting. Amen.
• Not just for a short time, but everlasting life, and perfect, everlasting happiness in Heaven
• What God made us for, what God wants
• Seek Heaven, not simply earthly happiness
• No more evil, perfect union with God
• Elevated to be with Jesus, elevated to see God as He Is, which means we become like Him in manner greater than we can imagine
• e sure way of obtaining it is to possess the virtues of faith and charity, to persevere in prayer and the use of the Sacraments, and to discharge all the duties of kindness towards their neighbour.
• Thus, through the mercy of God, who has prepared that blessed glory for those who love Him, shall be one day fulfilled the words of the Prophet: My people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacle of confidence, and in wealthy rest.

Six Precepts of the Church:

2041 The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life. the obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor:

2042 The first precept (“You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.") requires the faithful to participate in the Eucharistic celebration when the Christian community gathers together on the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord.⁸²

The second precept (“You shall confess your sins at least once a year.") ensures preparation for the Eucharist by the reception of the sacrament of reconciliation, which continues Baptism's work of conversion and forgiveness.⁸³

The third precept (“You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season.") guarantees as a minimum the reception of the Lord's Body and Blood in connection with the Paschal feasts, the origin and center of the Christian liturgy.⁸⁴

2043 The fourth precept (“You shall keep holy the holy days of obligation.") completes the Sunday observance by participation in the principal liturgical feasts which honor the mysteries of the Lord, the Virgin Mary, and the saints.⁸⁵

The fifth precept (“You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence.") ensures the times of ascesis and penance which prepare us for the liturgical feasts; they help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.⁸⁶

The faithful also have the duty of providing for the material needs of the Church, each according to his abilities.