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Home , Charity (virtue), Hope (virtue)

NURTURING OUR CATHOLIC COMMUNITY

through , & 2012 – 2015

Year of Faith 2012-2013 Year of Hope 2013-2014 Year of Charity 2014-2015

Faith, hope and Charity are theological . The Catechism of the explains as follows:

What are the theological virtues?

1812 The theological virtues relate directly to . They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object.

1813 The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate in and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being.

What is the of faith?

1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is Truth itself. By Faith “man freely commits his entire self to God.” For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will. “The righteous shall live by faith.” Living faith works through charity.

1815 The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But “faith apart from works is dead” when it is deprived of hope and , faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.

1816 The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it…Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for .

1842 Summary: By faith, we believe in God and believe all that he has revealed to us and that Holy Church proposes for our belief.

386. Therefore, the believer seeks to know and do the will of God because “faith works through charity” (Galatians 5:6) Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

What is the virtue of hope?

1817 Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

1820 Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of ’ preaching in the proclamation of the beatitudes. The beatitudes raise our hope toward heaven as the new Promised Land; they trace the path that leads through the trials that await the disciples of Jesus.

1843 Summary: By hope, we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life and the graces to merit it.

What is virtue of charity?

1822 Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.

1823 Jesus makes charity the new commandment. By loving his own “to the end,” he makes manifest the Father’s love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive.

1827 The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which “binds everything together in perfect harmony”

388. “It is the bond of ” (Colossians 3:4) and the foundation of the other virtues to which it gives life, inspiration, and order. Without charity “I am nothing” and “I gain nothing” (:1-3) Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Sacred Scripture - Writings on Faith: () (This is Our Faith, p47)

 The Gospels are faith testimonies proclaiming salvation through Jesus Christ.

 The Acts of the Apostles deals with the early history of the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. “When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.” (Acts 14:27)

 The Pauline Epistles, the earliest New Testament writings, take up particular problems faced by the early churches and continually proclaim the centrality of faith in Jesus.

 The Seven Catholic Epistles (James, 1 and 2; Peter, 1, 2 and 3; John; Jude) were written to encourage the universal church to keep the true faith and to remind Christians to live Christ- filled lives.

Faith is a free gift of God.

Although faith is a gift from God by which the Holy Spirit empowers us to live and believe divine , our response is only human if it is free. No one can be forced to embrace faith against his or her will. Faith involves a free human act where our minds and our hearts cooperate with divine grace. (This is Our Faith, p26)

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life… (John 3:36)

If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Luke 17:6)

Act of Faith O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because you have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. Amen.

THE CATHOLIC SOURCE BOOK, p8)

Bibliography

Cathechism of the Catholic Church: 1992. Doubleday, Toronto.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2005. CCCB Publication Service, Toronto.

Pacwa, S.J., Fr. Mitch. The Year of FAITH – A BIBLE STUDY GUIDE FOR CATHOLICS: 2012. Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. Huntington, Indiana.

Pennock, Michael. This is Our FAITH: 1998. Ava Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN. THE CATHOLIC SOURCE BOOK: 2007. Harcourt Religion Publishers, Washington, DC.