THEOLOGY

• Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary
• The word was made flesh. The Church calls this mystery the Incarnation.
• The Incarnation refers to the mystery of the Word that became flesh. This doctrine is called hypostatic union
• The annunciation to Mary inaugurates the fullness of time, the time of the fulfillment of God’s promises and preparations. 
• Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
• The name Jesus comes from the Hebrew name “Yeshua” which means “God saves” or “God delivers”. This name given to the Son of God, indicates his mission to deliver all peoples from the slavery of sin and death.
• The name Jesus signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of His Son, made human for the universal and definitive redemption from sins. It is the divine name that alone brings salvation and henceforth all can invoke His name.
• Messiah is a Hebrew term for Christ . In saying that Jesus is the Messiah, Peter showed not just his deep personal knowledge of Jesus, but more importantly, his profound faith in the Lord.
• To understand Jesus as the Christ , the Messiah, is the core of our Christian faith.
• The word “Christ” comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah which means anointed. It became the name proper to Jesus because He accomplished perfectly the divine mission  that the name “Christ” signifies.
• Jesus’ messianic consecration reveals his divine mission, “for the name, Christ implies he who anointed, he who was anointed and the very anointing  with which he was anointed.
• John was called the herald or the forerunner because his mission was to prepare people for the coming of the Messiah. He was also called the Baptist or the Baptizer because he called people to repent for their sins by baptizing them.
• The First Commandment embraces faith, hope and charity. When we say “God” we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same, faithful, and just without any evil. It follows that we must necessarily accept his words and have complete faith in Him
• Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals His love to us. “ St. Paul speaks of the “Obedience of faith” as our first obligation. Our duty toward God is to believe in Him and to bear witness to Him.
• Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation  in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated, doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.
• Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief.
• Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth of the willfull refusal to assent to it.
• Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same.
• Apostasy is the total denial of the Christian faith
• Schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the church subject to him
• Hope is the confident  expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God.
• Despair is contrary to God’s  goodness, to his justice --- for the Lord is faithful to his promises--- and to his mercy.
• Indifference  neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power.
• Ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to return him love for love.
• lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love, it can imply refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity.
• acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness.
• hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary  to love of God, whose goodness it denies and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and inflicts punishments.
• ADORATION is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, as the creator and savior, the Lord and master of everything that exists as infinite and merciful love.
• A vow is a deliberate and free promise made to God concerning a possible and better good which must be fulfilled by reason of the virtue of religion is an act of devotion in which the Christian dedicates himself to God or promises him some good work
• Sacrilege consists in performing or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things or places consecrated to God.  
• Atheism  covers many different phenomena. One common form is the practical materialism  which restricts its needs and aspirations to space and time. humanism falsely considers man to be “an end to himself, and the sole maker  with supreme control of his own history.
• Agnosticism  can sometimes include  a certain search for God , but it can equally  express indifferentism , a flight for the ultimate question of existence and a sluggish  moral conscience. Atheism is all too often equivalent to practical atheism
• God’s action is the model of human action.
• The Lord’s Day - the day of the resurrection : the new creation.
• Sunday- fulfillment of the sabbath. It is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows
• Sunday worship fulfills  the moral command of Old covenant.
• The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate  in the Eucharist on days of obligation unless excuse for a serious reason (ex. illness, the care of infants)
• The fourth commandment is addressed expressly to children in their relationship to their father and mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It likewise concerns the ties of kinship between members of the extended family. It requires honor, affection and gratitude toward elders and ancestors.
• Human Life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole and God alone is the lord of life from its beginning until its end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end : no one can , under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly  to destroy an innocent human being.
• The covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God’s gift of human life and man’s murderous violence