Religion Final Vocab

Disciple

A follower of Jesus. The word means "learner."

Emmanuel

A name for Jesus that means "God is with us." This is the name given to Jesus as foretold in the Old Testament and recounted to Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, in a dream.

Epiphany

The feast that celebrates the mystery of Christ's manifestation as the Savior of the world.

Jesus

The origins of the name are from the Hebrew word Yehoshua (Joshua), meaning "God saves," "God is Salvation," or simply "Savior."

Kingdom (or reign) of God

The process of the Father's reconciling and renewing all
things through his Son; the fact of his will being done on earth as it is in Heaven. The Kingdom of God was proclaimed by Jesus and began in his Life, Death, and Resurrection. The process will be perfectly completed at the end of time.

Magi

Priests of the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism who paid special attention to the stars.

Nativity

The story of the Savior's birth in Bethlehem. Two different accounts of the Nativity are given in the New Testament: one in the Gospel of Matthew, the other in the Gospel of Luke.

Omnipotence

An attribute of God meaning that he is all-powerful. His power is universal, loving, and mysterious.

Paschal Mystery

Christ's work of Redemption, accomplished principally by his
Passion, Death, Resurrection, and glorious Ascension. This mystery is commemorated and made present through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.

Synoptic Gospels

The synoptic Gospels are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They can be looked at together because they shared some, but not all, of the same sources.

Transfiguration

The mystery from Christ's life in which God's glory shone through and transformed Jesus' physical appearance while he was in the company of the Old Testament prophets Moses and Elijah. Peter, James, and John witnessed this event.

Beatitudes

A key portion of the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5, in which Jesus reveals to his listeners how to fulfill their desires for happiness and achieve the Kingdom of God.

Golden Rule

Described by Jesus and recorded in Matthew 7:12: "Do unto others whatever you would have them do to you."

Hell

The eternal separation from God that occurs when a person dies after freely and deliberately acting against God's will, not repenting of a mortal sin.

Judea

The southern region of the Holy Land, occupied by Jews who returned from the Babylonian Captivity. Its principal city was Jerusalem.

Parable

From the Greek parabole, meaning "placing two things side by side in order to compare them"; a short story that illustrates a moral or spiritual lesson.

Repentance

A feeling of sorrow for one's actions or "changing one's mind" (from the Greek metanoia); a turning away from sin and toward the amendment of one's life.

Sermon on the Mount

A section from Matthew's Gospel (Mt 5:1-7:29) in which Jesus delivers the first of five discourses.

Absolution

Forgiveness of sins; remission of guilt; also, the statement by which a priest, speaking as the official minister of Christ's Church, declares forgiveness of sins to a repentant sinner in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. The formula of absolution reads: "I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

Blasphemy

Any thought, word, or act that expresses hatred or contempt for God, Christ, the Church, saints, or holy things.

Concupiscence

An inclination to commit sin that arises from a disordered human desire or appetite. It is one of the temporal consequences of Original Sin that remains even after the Sacrament of Baptism.

Exorcism

A public and authoritative act, by Christ or in his name, to liberate a person from the devil.

False prophet

A person who claims to speak in the name of God without being inspired by him.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit

An outpouring of God's gifts at Confirmation to help a person
lead a Christian life. The traditional seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Graces

Free and undeserved gifts that God gives people to respond to their vocation to become his adopted children.

Justified

To be justified is to receive remission for sins, sanctification, and inner renewal through the gracious action of God.

Miracle

A powerful sign of God's Kingdom worked by Jesus.

Parousia

A Greek term for the Second Coming of Christ, when the Lord will judge the living and the dead.

Reparation

Repairing a relationship by making amends for a personal wrong or injury. A secular meaning of reparation is to take financial responsibility for damaging someone's property.

Sacrament

A sign and source of grace instituted by Jesus Christ and entrusted to the Church by which divine life is bestowed on us through the Holy Spirit.

Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick

The sacrament administered by a priest through prayer and the anointing of the body with the oil of the sick to a baptized person who is ill or in danger of dying. The sacrament's effects are a special grace of healing and comfort to the person suffering.

Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist

The sacrament commemorating the Last Supper, at which Jesus gave his Apostles his Body and Blood in the form of bread and wine. The source and summit of Christian life, the Eucharist is one of the Sacraments of Initiation. It re-presents, or makes present, the Lord's sacrificial Death on the Cross. The word
eucharist means "thanksgiving."

Sanhedrin

The seventy-one-member supreme legislative and judicial body of the Jewish people during Jesus' life on earth. Many of its members were Sadducees.

Christology

The study of Jesus Christ; the academic effort to understand who he is.

Day of Atonement

The Day of Atonement, also called Yom Kippur, is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people, its central themes being atonement and repentance.

Intercessory prayer

Prayer in which you ask for something on behalf of another person or group of people.

Paraclete

A name for the Holy Spirit that means "Advocate." In John 14:26, Jesus promised to send an Advocate, a Helper, who would continue to guide, lead, and strengthen the disciples.

Adequate Anthropology

John Paul II's presentation of the "full story" of what it means to be human as men and women created in God's image. In the first half of the Theology of the Body, he explores three main eras of our story: Original Man (life before the Fall), Historical Man (from the Fall to the end of time; the time we are in right now), and Eschatological Man (our destiny in heaven).

Communion of persons

The union of love between persons who make a gift of
themselves to each other. The unity of Adam and Eve was an image of the communion of persons found in the Holy Trinity.

dignity

The inherent and unchanging value of all persons as a direct result of their being created by God in his image and likeness.

love

A decision to "will the good of another" person. John Paul II echoes this same definition in much of his writing on love and adds that love involves a sincere gift of oneself to others.

lust

Sexual desire apart from God's love—a selfish desire that seeks one's own pleasure at the expense of another. It is "disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure"

Original Solitude

The original state when Adam (and by extention, all mankind)
realized he was alone in the visible world as a person. As someone fundamentally different from the animals and without a human companion, Adam knew that he was made first for relationship with God.

Sacrament

A sacrament is an outward sign "instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life [grace] is dispensed to us" (CCC 1131). It makes an invisible spiritual reality visible.

Sacramentality of the body

The ability of the body to reveal the person and make God's invisible love visible.

Theology

The study of God, or "faith seeking understanding" (St. Anselm). The word comes from the Greek words Theos (God) and logos (word). Theology is also the science of seeking to understand God's Word.

Theology of the Body

A study of God, the purpose of our existence, and the call
to love like God loves, as discovered and revealed through our bodies.

Concupiscence

The inclination to sin that is present in all humans, inherited
through the sin of Adam and Eve, and against which we must struggle to resist by the grace of Jesus Christ (CCC 1264). While it inclines us to sin and comes from sin, concupiscence itself is not a sin.

historical man

The period that begins with original sin and ends when Christ
returns. Historical men and women are simultaneously fallen and redeemed in Christ.

Naked without shame

Nakedness that exists within the context of innocence and
pure freedom, apart from lust. This is what Adam and Eve experienced before the Fall

original happiness

The joy that Adam and Eve experienced prior to the Fall. This
happiness was a result of their purity of heart, which enabled them to understand God's love for them and their ability to love like him.

Original Innocence

The state of Adam and Eve prior to their knowledge of sin,
when their minds, hearts, and bodies were perfectly innocent.

original man

The period of man's existence as God created him (lived by Adam and Eve) prior to original sin. The original experiences of Adam and Eve in purity and happiness "echo" in the heart of every man and woman and are always "at the root of every human experience"

Original Nakedness

The first experience of Adam and Eve when they were naked
without shame. Before original sin, lust did not exist, and all sexual desires were pure.

original sin

The first sin of Adam and Eve, when they distrusted God's plan and choose their own will over the will of God.

original unity

The initial experience of perfect unity between man and woman as they lived in perfect communion with each other and gave themselves to each other through the mutual gift of their bodies.

pride

The tendency within Adam and Eve (and all of us) to prefer our wills to the will of God. This is the root of all moral evil in the world.

second creation account

The second telling of the creation of the world in the book of Genesis. The first account focuses on the grand scale of the creation of the world, while the second account focuses on the creation of man and woman as the pinnacle of all creation.

shame

The tendency to conceal one's sexual value in order to help others see their personal value. It reminds us of our dignity that must be protected.

shameless

Flaunting the body without inhibitions or conscience. Acting shamelessly reflects a false notion of sexual freedom and of the truth of the body.

spousal meaning of the body

This is the call that God has stamped into our bodies as male and female to love as he loves, through a sincere and total gift of self; the marital meaning of the body. It is "the power to express love: precisely that love in which the human person becomes a gift and—through this gift—fulfills the very meaning of his being and existence"

abstinence

The action of self-control that avoids (or "abstains" from) something. In this case, abstinence means not engaging in sexual intercourse.

agape

The Greek term for divine, unconditional love; the manner in which God loves us.

chastity

The virtue that frees us from the selfish attitude of using others, thus making us capable of love. It includes purity of mind, heart, and body, and helps us to order our sexual desires according to our own dignity and the dignity of others.

eros

The Greek work for desire, or passion. It is the inner power that draws us toward all that is good, true, and beautiful.

Love and Responsibility

A book by St. John Paul II that explains the importance of living a life that accepts responsibility and, therefore, results in loving others in a responsible manner.

Love as attraction

Recognizing the good of another person; seeing the inner and
outer beauty of another person.

love as desire

Wanting a good for yourself through desiring union with the
beloved.

love as goodwill

Willing (or desiring) the good of another person.

personalistic norm

The principle that recognizes that the only proper and adequate attitude toward human persons is love. The opposite of love is to use a person as a means to an end.

sexual repression

The unhealthy attempt to ignore (or bury) sexual desires,
rather than embracing them and allowing God to reorder what is disordered in them for the good of oneself and others.

spousal love

Giving yourself completely to the other person.

temperance

The virtue that enables us to take pleasure in the good gifts of God in the balanced way that he intends; one of the four cardinal virtues from which all other virtues come.

total self-donation

The total giving of oneself for the good of another.

Utilitarianism

While there are several varieties of this philosophy, here we mean a maximizing of pleasure and a minimizing of pain, often at the expense of others. When applied in relationships, one can end up using a person for one's own gain. If one's only
goal for sexual encounters is pleasure, the other person becomes a means to that end.

virtue

A firm habit of doing what is good. In its fullest sense, it is not only doing, but delighting in and desiring what is true, good, and beautiful.

absolution

The action of a priest as a mediator of grace, standing "in the person of Christ," concluding the sacrament of reconciliation. Absolution cleanses us from our sins through Christ's loving mercy and gives us strength to start anew.

Communinon of Saints

We already enjoy this communion here on earth with each
other (the Church militant). In spirit, we are connected with those who have died and are still being purified in purgatory (the Church suffering). In prayer, we have communion with the saints in heaven (the Church triumphant), who intercede for us
before God (see Revelation 5:8). In the resurrection, we will experience a fullness of communion as members of the Church, sharing eternity together as persons perfectly integrated in bodies and souls.

Eschatological man

The final stage of our perfection, achieved in the resurrection at the end of time, where we will be freed from any tensions between the flesh and the spirit within ourselves. We will be perfectly united with God and with one another in the communion of saints.

eschaton

The final moment of man's earthly existence, when Christ returns and our bodies are raised.

ethos

One's entire way of living, rooted in the interior world of a person's desires and attraction; based on one's inner perception of values.

glorified body

The perfected state of the resurrected body as it will be at the end of time; it will radiate the glory of God.

hope of every day

The daily hope of victory over sin, which is available to us
through Christ, who helps us overcome "evil with good" (Romans 12:21).

spousal

Another word for "marriage-like" or "marital."

Redemtion

The ransom of humanity from the slavery of sin to a new life of freedom through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

ressurection of the body

The joining, at the end of time, of the bodies of the saved with their souls in heaven, at which point they will participate bodily in a face-to-face encounter with God within the marriage of Christ and the Church.

sexual addiction

A compulsive, frequent, and disordered habit of seeking sexual
pleasures, including fornication/intercourse, pornography, cybersex, sexting, masturbation, and other sexual activities

deprived

Humanity's loss of the grace of original innocence. Through original sin, we were deprived of the perfect integration of our bodies and our wills. Though human nature is still good, we struggle to choose God's will over our own.

External constraints

The laws of God or society that protect us from abusing our free will and hurting ourselves or others.

freedom

The ability to desire and to choose the good.

free will

The gift given to us by God that allows us to choose between good and evil. This God-given freedom allows us to be the authors of our own choices, thus allowing us to determine our own destiny.

Internal constraints

Distractions or disordered desires within us that steer us away from choosing the good.

objective truth

Reality as it is, apart from what we think or feel about it.

Contraception

Every action before, during, or after sexual intercourse that
deliberately attempts to impede its procreative potential. These acts are intrinsically evil and are always morally unacceptable (CCC 2370).

"faithful" love

Love that is committed. The commitment that guides all other
actions. You keep your promises once you have made them, no matter how your feelings may change.

"free" love

Love that is not controlled or manipulated by another person or by a disordered desire. No one is forcing you to love. You love freely because you want to.

"fruitful" love

Love that is life-giving, because it is free, total, and faithful. It is
ordered toward procreation in the physical realm and is life-giving in the spiritual and emotional realm as well.

Homosexual (Same-Sex) Attraction

The sexual attraction that a person experiences toward a member of the same sex. Such attractions are not sinful because they are not chosen. However, sexual acts between members of the same sex are contrary to God's design for human sexuality and can never be approved. (what.)

humane vitae

Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical on human life. It is most famous for its clear and definitive teaching on why contraception is immoral, explaining that it separates the sexual act from one of its intrinsic purposes: procreation.

In Persona Christi Capitis

A Latin phrase meaning "in the person of Christ the Head"; describes the special role of a priest, conferred upon him in ordination, by which he acts with the authority of Christ in celebrating the sacraments and teaching the faithful.