Theology Vocab

Love

The giving of oneself in some way (time, energy, resources talents, existence etc) for the sake of what is good for the other and for the sake of community. Love includes truth, beauty, and goodness. There are different kinds of love, such as the love between spouses, between parents and children, between friends, between citizens. God’s love is glimpsed in all relationships of authentic love, as they all participate in God’s love. God knows and loves us beyond our wildest expectation, to the point that God is willing to die for us on the Cross. God seeks our eternal salvation, to be in eternal community with God.

Grace

The free and undeserved gift of God’s loving and active presence in the universe and in the lives of people. Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive children, partakers of the divine nature and eternal life. Grace is a participation in the life of God. Catechism 1996

Sacrament

A fruitful and created meditation of God’s grace. The sacramental understanding of creation sees that all things express God in limited ways ( truth, beauty, goodness, love). The 7 sacraments are special, super-charged ways that Christ mediates his Grace to us.

Paschal Mystery

The work of salvation was accomplished by Jesus Christ mainly through his life, Passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. All sacraments participate in the Grace of the Paschal Mystery, which is the essence of the Christian life. In the PM, Christ gives himself absolutely to the Father in the HS, for our sake, that we might enter the eternal community of the Trinity.