Catechism

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HAIL MARY: The prayer known in Latin as the Ave Maria. The first part of the prayer praises God for the gifts he gave to Mary as Mother of the Redeemer; the second part seeks her maternal intercession for the members of the Body of Christ, the Church, of which she is the Mother (2676).

HAPPINESS: Joy and beatitude over receiving the fulfillment of our vocation as creatures: a sharing in the divine nature and the vision of God. God put us into the world to know, love, and serve him, and so come to the happiness of paradise (1720).

HEAVEN: Eternal life with God; communion of life and love with the Trinity and all the blessed. Heaven is the state of supreme and definitive happiness, the goal of the deepest longings of humanity (1023).

HELL: The state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed, reserved for those who refuse by their own free choice to believe and be converted from sin, even to the end of their lives (1033).

HERESY: The obstinate denial after Baptism of a truth which must be believed with divine and Catholic faith (2089; cf. 465).

HERMIT: One who lives the eremitical life. Through silence and solitude, in prayer and penance, the hermit or anchorite vows, although not necessarily publicly, to follow the evangelical counsels out of love for God and desire for the salvation of the world (920).

HIERARCHY: The Apostles and their successors, the college of bishops, to whom Christ gave the authority to teach, sanctify, and rule the Church in his name (873).

HIERARCHY OF TRUTHS: The order (hierarchy) of the truths in Catholic doctrine, insofar as they vary in their relation to the central mystery and foundation of Christian faith, the mystery of the Holy Trinity (90, 234).

HOLY DAYS OF OBLIGATION: Principal feast days on which, in addition to Sundays, Catholics are obliged by Church law to participate in the Eucharist; a precept of the Church (2043, 2180).

HOLY ORDERS: See Orders, Holy

HOLY SEE: The seat of the central administration of the worldwide Catholic Church; the name is taken from the seat or diocese of the Pope, Bishop of Rome and successor of St. Peter as Vicar of Christ and pastor of the universal Church (cf. 882).

HOLY SPIRIT: The third divine Person of the Blessed Trinity, the personal love of Father and Son for each other. Also called the Paraclete (Advocate) and Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the divine plan for our salvation (685; cf. 152, 243).

HOLY WATER: Blessed water, a sacramental whose sprinkling or use is a reminder of Baptism and a means of sanctification (1668).

HOLY WEEK: The week preceding Easter, beginning with Palm (Passion) Sunday, called the "Great Week" in the liturgies of the Eastern Churches. It marks the Church's annual celebration of the events of Christ's Passion, death, and Resurrection, culminating in the Paschal Mystery (1169).

HOMILY: Preaching by an ordained minister to explain the Scriptures proclaimed in the liturgy and to exhort the people to accept them as the Word of God (132, 1100, 1349).

HOMOSEXUALITY: Sexual attraction or orientation toward persons of the same sex and/or sexual acts between persons of the same sex. Homosexual acts are morally wrong because they violate God's purpose for human sexual activity (2357).

HOPE: The theological virtue by which we desire and expect from God both eternal life and the grace we need to attain it (1817).

HUMILITY: The virtue by which a Christian acknowledges that God is the author of all good. Humility avoids inordinate ambition or pride, and provides the foundation for turning to God in prayer (2559). Voluntary humility can be described as "poverty of spirit" (2546).

HYMN: Sacred poetry set to music and meant to raise the hearts of Christian people to God, especially during liturgical services (1156).

HYPOSTATIC UNION: The union of the divine and human natures in the one divine Person (Greek: hypostasis) of the Son of God, Jesus Christ (252, 468).

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ICON: Religious painting traditional among many Eastern Christians. Christian iconography expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by words (1160).

ICONOCLASM: A heresy which maintained that veneration of religious images is unlawful. Iconoclasm was condemned as unfaithful to Christian tradition at the Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 787 A.D. (2131).

IDOLATRY: The divinization of a creature in place of God; the substitution of some one (or thing) for God; worshiping a creature (even money, pleasure, or power) instead of the Creator (2112).

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: The dogma proclaimed in Christian Tradition and defined in 1854, that from the first moment of her conception, Mary--by the singular grace of God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ--was preserved immune from original sin (491).

IMMORTALITY: The quality of the spiritual human soul whereby it survives the death of the body and remains in existence without end, to be reunited with the body at the final resurrection (366).

IMPEDIMENT: An obstacle that makes a person ineligible for performing an act or receiving a sacrament, e.g., Holy Orders or Matrimony (cf. 1635).

INCARNATION: The fact that the Son of God assumed human nature and became man in order to accomplish our salvation in that same human nature. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, is both true God and true man, not part God and part man (461, 464).

INCREDULITY: The willful refusal to assent to revealed truth, or even the neglect of this truth (2089).

INDULGENCE: The remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sin whose guilt has already been forgiven. A properly disposed member of the Christian faithful can obtain an indulgence under prescribed conditions through the help of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints. An indulgence is partial if it removes part of the temporal punishment due to sin, or plenary if it removes all punishment (1471).

INERRANCY: The attribute of the books of Scripture whereby they faithfully and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to have confided through the Sacred Scriptures (107).

INFALLIBILITY: The gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church whereby the pastors of the Church, the pope and bishops in union with him, can definitively proclaim a doctrine of faith or morals for the belief of the faithful (891). This gift is related to the inability of the whole body of the faithful to err in matters of faith and morals (92).

INITIATION, CHRISTIAN: The foundations of every Christian life laid by the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. The process by which a non-baptized person is prepared to become a full member of the Church is called the catechumenate, which was restored in the Latin Church by the Second Vatican Council, and whose distinct stages and rites are found in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (1212, 1230).

INSPIRATION: See Biblical Inspiration.

INSTITUTE, RELIGIOUS: A society whose members, in accord with Church law, live a life consecrated to Christ and shared with one another by the public profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience (925). See Consecrated Life.

INSTITUTE, SECULAR: A form of consecrated life in which the Christian faithful living in the world strive for the perfection of charity and work for the sanctification of the world especially from within (928).

INTERCESSION: A form of prayer of petition on behalf of others. The prayer of intercession leads us to pray as Christ, our unique Intercessor, prayed (2634).

INTERCOMMUNION: Participation or sharing in the reception of the Eucharist or Holy Communion by Christians who are not fully united to or in full communion with the Catholic Church (1398).

IRRELIGION: A vice contrary by defect to the virtue of religion. Irreligion directs us away from rendering to God what we as creatures owe him in justice (2095, 2110).

ISRAEL: The Jewish people, chosen by God to be his people and named after Israel (Jacob), from whose twelve sons the tribes of Israel descend. God formed Israel into his priestly people in their exodus from the slavery of Egypt, when he made the first or Old Covenant with them and gave them his Law through Moses (62).

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JESUS CHRIST: The eternal Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered crucifixion and death, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. "Jesus," which means "God saves" in Hebrew, was the name given to him at the Annunciation; "Christ" is a title which comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah and means "anointed" (184 f.; 430, 436; cf. 727).

JOHN THE BAPTIST: The immediate precursor or herald of Jesus. John identified Jesus as the Messianic Lamb of God and baptized him in the Jordan River. With prophetic power, John gave witness to Jesus by his preaching, by the baptism of conversion he announced, and finally by his martyrdom (523, 720).

JUDGMENT: The eternal retribution received by each soul at the moment of death, in accordance with that person's faith and works ("the particular judgment") (1021-1022). The "Last Judgment" is God's triumph over the revolt of evil, after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world. Preceded by the resurrection of the dead, it will coincide with the second coming of Christ in glory at the end of time, disclose good and evil, and reveal the meaning of salvation history and the providence of God by which justice has triumphed over evil (677-679, 1021, 1038).

JUDGMENT, RASH: A fault against the eighth commandment committed by one who assumes the moral fault of the neighbor to be true without sufficient foundation (2477).

JUSTICE: The cardinal moral virtue which consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and to neighbor (1807). Original justice refers to the state of holiness in which God created our first parents (375). Commutative justice, which obliges respect for the rights of the other, is required by the seventh commandment; it is distinguished from legal justice, which concerns what the citizen owes to the community, and distributive justice, which regulates what the community owes its citizens in proportion to their contributions and needs (2411). See Social Justice.

JUSTIFICATION: The gracious action of God which frees us from sin and communicates "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ" (Rom 3:22). Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man (1987-1989).

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KINGDOM OF GOD (OF HEAVEN): The reign or rule of God: "the kingdom of God is . . . righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom 14:17). The Kingdom of God draws near in the coming of the Incarnate Word; it is announced in the Gospel; it is the messianic King- dom, present in the person of Jesus, the Messiah; it remains in our midst in the Eucharist. Christ gave to his Apostles the work of proclaiming the Kingdom, and through the Holy Spirit forms his people into a priestly kingdom, the Church, in which the Kingdom of God is mysteriously present, for she is the seed and beginning of the Kingdom on earth. In the Lord's Prayer ("Thy Kingdom come") we pray for its final glorious appearance, when Christ will hand over the Kingdom to his Father (541-554, 709, 763, 2816, 2819).

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LAITY: The faithful who, having been incorporated into Christ through Baptism, are made part of the people of God, the Church. The laity participate in their own way in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly functions of Christ. Laity are distinguished from clergy (who have received Holy Orders) and those in consecrated life (897).

LAST JUDGMENT: See Judgment.

LAST SUPPER: The last meal, a Passover supper, which Jesus ate with his disciples the night before he died. Jesus' passing over to his Father by his death and Resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Last Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the kingdom. Hence the Eucharist is called "the Lord's Supper" (610-611, 1329, 1340).

LATIN RITE: The traditions of liturgy, laws, and practice in the Church in the West, as distinct from the rites and practices of the churches of the East (1203).

LAW, MORAL: A rule of conduct established by competent authority for the common good. In biblical terms, the moral law is the fatherly instruction of God, setting forth the ways which lead to happiness and proscribing those which lead to evil. The divine or eternal law can be either natural or revealed (positive). Natural moral law is inscribed in the heart, and known by human reason. Revealed law is found in the ancient law (Old Testament), notably the ten commandments, and in the new law (Law of the Gospel), the teaching of Christ, notably the Sermon on the Mount, which perfects the ancient law (1950-1974).

LECTIONARY/LECTOR: The official, liturgical book (lectionary) from which the reader (lector) proclaims the Scripture readings used in the Liturgy of the Word (1154).

LENT: The liturgical season of forty days which begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with the celebration of the Paschal Mystery (Easter Triduum). Lent is the primary penitential season in the Church's liturgical year, reflecting the forty days Jesus spent in the desert in fasting and prayer (540, 1095, 1438).

LIFE: Both God's gift of created human life and His divine life given to us as sanctifying grace. Beyond its ordinary meaning of human life, Jesus used "life" to signify a share in his own divine Trinitarian existence, which becomes possible for those who respond to his invitation to turn away from sin and open their hearts to God's abiding love. Eternal life signifies that this gift will last forever in the blessedness of heaven. This gift of God begins with the "life" of faith and "new life" of Baptism (1225), is communicated in sanctifying grace (1997), and reaches perfection in the communion of life and love with the Holy Trinity in heaven (1023).

LITURGICAL YEAR: The celebration throughout the year of the mysteries of the Lord's birth, life, death, and Resurrection in such a way that the entire year becomes a "year of the Lord's grace." Thus the cycle of the liturgical year and the great feasts constitute the basic rhythm of the Christian's life of prayer, with its focal point at Easter (1168).

LITURGY: In its original meaning, a "public work" or service done in the name of or on behalf of the people. Through the liturgy Christ our High Priest continues the work of our redemption through the Church's celebration of the Paschal Mystery by which he accomplished our salvation (1067-1069).

LORD: The Old Testament title for God that in speaking or reading aloud was always substituted for the name that was revealed to Moses and that was too holy to be pronounced: Yahweh. The New Testament uses this title both of God the Father and--in a new way--of Jesus, the incarnate Word (209, 446).

LORD'S PRAYER: The title early Christians gave to the prayer which Jesus entrusted to his disciples and to the Church (Mt 6:9-13). This fundamental Christian prayer is also called the "Our Father," which are its first words (2759).

LOVE: See Charity.

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MAGI: The wise men who came from the East to pay homage to the newborn Savior (528).

MAGISTERIUM: The living, teaching office of the Church, whose task it is to give as authentic interpretation of the word of God, whether in its written form (Sacred Scripture), or in the form of Tradition. The Magisterium ensures the Church's fidelity to the teaching of the Apostles in matters of faith and morals (85, 890, 2033).

MARKS (NOTES) OF THE CHURCH: The four attributes (marks or notes) of the Church mentioned in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed: "We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church" (811).

MARRIAGE: A covenant or partnership of life between a man and woman, which is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of children. When validly contracted between two baptized people, marriage is a sacrament (Matrimony) (1601).

MARTYR: A witness to the truth of the faith, in which the martyr endures even death to be faithful to Christ. Those who die for the faith before having received Baptism are said to have received a "baptism of blood," by which their sins are forgiven and they share in the death and Resurrection of Christ (1258, 2473).

MARY: The mother of Jesus. Because she is the mother of Jesus--Son of God and second Person of the Blessed Trinity--according to the flesh, she is rightly called the Mother of God (Theotokos) (148, 495). Mary is also called "full of grace," and "Mother of the Church," and in Christian prayer and devotion, "Our Lady," the "Blessed Virgin Mary," and the "New Eve" (722, 726, 963). See Virgin Mary.

MASS: The Eucharist or principal sacramental celebration of the Church, established by Jesus at the Last Supper, in which the mystery of our salvation through participation in the sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of Christ is renewed and accomplished. The Mass renews the paschal sacrifice of Christ as the sacrifice offered by the Church. It is called "Mass" (from the Latin missa) because of the "mission" or "sending" with which the liturgical celebration concludes (Latin: "Ite, Missa est.") (1332; cf. 1088, 1382, 2192). See Eucharist; Paschal Mystery/Sacrifice.

MATRIMONY: See Marriage.

MEDIATOR/MEDIATRIX: One who links or reconciles separate or opposing parties. Thus Jesus Christ is the "one mediator between God and the human race" (1 Tm 2:5). Through his sacrificial offering he has become high priest and unique mediator who has gained for us access to God's saving grace for humanity. Moreover, Mary too is sometimes called Mediatrix in virtue of her cooperation in the saving mission of Christ, who alone is the unique mediator between God and humanity (618, 1544; cf. 970).

MEDITATION: An exercise and a form of prayer in which we try to understand God's revelation of the truths of faith and the purpose of the Christian life, and how it should be lived, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking (2705).

MERCY: The loving kindness, compassion, or forbearance shown to one who offends (e.g., the mercy of God to us sinners) (1422, 1829). See Works of Mercy.

MERIT: The reward which God promises and gives to those who love him and by his grace perform good works. One cannot "merit" justification or eternal life, which are the free gift of God; the source of any merit we have before God is due to the grace of Christ in us (2006).

MESSIAH: A Hebrew word meaning "anointed" (436). See Christ; Jesus Christ.

MINISTRY: The service or work of sanctification performed by the preaching of the word and the celebration of the sacraments by those in Holy Orders (893, 1536), or in determined circumstances, by laity (903). The New Testament speaks of a variety of ministries in the Church; Christ himself is the source of ministry in the Church (873-874). Bishops, priests, and deacons are ordained ministers in the Church (1548).

MIRACLE: A sign or wonder, such as a healing or the control of nature, which can only be attributed to divine power. The miracles of Jesus were messianic signs of the presence of God's kingdom (547).

MISSION: (1) Trinitarian missions: To accomplish the divine plan of the triune God for the redemption of humanity, the Son and the Holy Spirit were "sent" into the world: hence the Trinitarian "missions" (Latin missus means "sent") (257, 689). (2) Apostolic mission: Just as he was sent by the Father, Jesus sent his Apostles into the world to continue his own saving mission (858). (3) Church as mission: Thus the Church is missionary by its very nature, continuing the mission or work of Christ through the Holy Spirit, according to the plan of God. This apostolic mission of the Church is fulfilled according to their different states of life by the clergy, laity, and religious (849, 863, 913). Missionary activity is sometimes given in a more specific sense as the work of initial evangelization and establishment of the Church in non-Christian lands.

MONASTIC LIFE: Consecrated life marked by the public profession of religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and by a stable community life (in a monastery) with the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours in choir (cf. 927).

MORALITY: Referring to the goodness or evil of human acts. Human freedom makes a person a "moral subject" or agent, able to judge the morality (goodness or evil) of the acts which are chosen. The morality of human acts depends on the object (or nature) of the action, the intention or end foreseen, and the circumstances of the action (1749; cf. 407).

MORTAL SIN: A grave infraction of the law of God that destroys the divine life in the soul of the sinner (sanctifying grace), constituting a turn away from God. For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must be present: grave matter, full knowledge of the evil of the act, and full consent of the will (1855, 1857).

MOSES: The leader chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of their exile in Egypt. To him God revealed the divine name (Yahweh) and the law on Mount Sinai (including the Decalogue), by which he sealed the covenant with his people Israel (62, 204). As lawgiver, Moses was a type of Christ, the lawgiver of the New Law.

MYSTAGOGY: A liturgical catechesis which aims to initiate people into the mystery of Christ. In a more specific sense, the catechetical period following immediately after the reception of Baptism by adults (1075).

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NATURE: The created order (34l). Human nature, though wounded and weakened by the effects of original sin, continues to participate in the goodness of God's creative work (405). Through the Incarnation the second Person of the Trinity assumed our human nature, taking flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary (456). The divine nature refers to the one divine substance or essence; each of the three distinct Persons of the Trinity is entirely God, who is one by the divine nature (253).

NEW COVENANT: The new "dispensation," order or Covenant, established by God in Jesus Christ, to succeed and perfect the Old Covenant (cf. 612, 839). The New Law or Law of the Gospel is the perfection here on earth of the divine law, natural and revealed; this law of the New Covenant is called a law of love, grace, and freedom (1965-1972). See Covenant; Gospel, Law of the.

NEW TESTAMENT: The twenty-seven books of the Bible written by the sacred authors in apostolic times, which have Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God--his life, teachings, Passion and glorification, and the beginnings of his Church--as their central theme. The promises and mighty deeds of God in the old alliance or covenant, reported in the Old Testament, prefigure and are fulfilled in the New Covenant established by Jesus Christ, reported in the sacred writings of the New Testament (124, 128). See Bible; Covenant.

NICENE CREED: The profession of faith, common to the churches of East and West, which came from the first two ecumenical councils (Nicaea and Constantinople: 325 and 381 a.d.) (195-196). See Creed.

NUPTIAL BLESSING: Prayers for the blessing of a couple being married, especially of the bride (1624).

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