- Chap. 7 "

Theological Virtues

Faith, hope and charity; the foundation of the Christian moral life; relate us to God and help us participate in God's own life.

faith

Theological virtue that enables us to believe in God, what he has said and revealed to us, and what the Church proposes for our belief.

hope

Theological virtue that leads us to desire heaven and eternal life, not through out own strength, but through trust in Christ and the graces of the Holy Spirit.

charity

The greatest of all theological virtues, enables us to "love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God."

convenant

The strongest possible pledge and agreement bewteen two parties.

The Decalogue

A term used for The Ten Commandments; literally means "ten words"; found in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy.

1st Commandment

I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me.

2nd Commandment

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

3rd Commandment

Remember to keep holy the Lord's Day.

4th Commandment

Honor your father and your mother.

5th Commandment

You shall not kill.

6th Commandment

You shall not commit adultery.

7th Commandment

You shall not steal.

8th Commandment

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

9th Commandment

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

10th Commandment

You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.

The Ten Commandments

Engraved on our hearts and discoverable by the natural law, these express our fundamental duties in love to God and the basic requirements of love to neighbor.

What is the Sinai covenant that God established with the Jews after removing them from slavery and leading them to the Promised Land?

God declared the Israelites to be his chosen people and that he was their one, true God. He would give them peace, prosperity, protection and their own land. The Ten Commandments outlined the way the Israelites were to respond to God's gracious love.

Mary

The mother of Jesus, the Son of God; her entire life was an obedient surrender to God's Will.

Strengthen the virtue of faith with these practices . . .

Prayer, read the Bible, celebrate the sacraments, study your faith, associate with and listen to people of faith, put your faith into action, and avoid temptations and sins that threaten or destroy the gift of faith.

voluntary doubt

the decision to ignore or a refusal to believe what God has revealed or what the Church teaches

incredulity

a mental disposition that either neglects revealed truth or willfully refuses to asent to it.

heresy

outright denial by a baptized person of some essential truth about God and faith that we must believe.

apostasy

the total rejection of Jesus Christ (and hte Christian faith) by a baptized Christian.

schism

refusal to submit to the pope's authority or remain in union with members of the Catholic Church.

agape

a selfless, giving love

St. Monica

The mother of St. Augustine, who prayed for years for the conversion of her brilliant son; eventually became a priest, a bishop, and Christianity's greatest theologians.

Two ways to violate the virtue of hope. . .

Despair and presumption

Despair

losing hope that God can save us, give us help to attain heaven, or forgive our sins.

Presumption

takes for granted that we can save ourselves without God's help; expects that God will automatically be merciful even if one does not repent.

Five concrete way to exercise the virtue of charity.

Obedience, reverence, sacrifice, beginning, rooting out sin.

Rooting out sin includes . . .

Indifference, ingratitude, lukewarmness or spiritual laziness, hatred of God.

idolatry

the worship of false gods.

divination

attempts to unveil what God wants hidden by calling up demonic power; consulting horoscopes, the stars, or mediums; palm reading, etc.

sacrilege

Profane or unworthy treatment of the sacraments; other liturgical actions; and persons, places, and things consecrated to God.

simony

The buying or selling of spiritual goods.

humanism

A belief that deifies humanity and human potential to the exclusion of any belief in or reliance on God.

materialism

A belief that the physical, material world is the only reality, and that spiritual existence, values, and faith are illusions.

atheism

Denies God's existence.

agnosticism

Claims ignorance about God's existence, saying it cannot be proved.

blasphemy

Hateful, defiant, reproachful thoughts, words, or acts against God, Jesus, his Church, the saints, or holy things.

perjury

when one fails to keep a promise sworn under oath or when one takes an oath with no intention of keeping it.