how to be a true catholic

“All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.”¹ “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.^”2 God wants us to be holy. Each Christian must try to sanctify himself in his place within the Church of Christ.

In particular, the laity “by their very vocation, seek the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations.”³

“Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit—indeed even the hardships of life if patiently born—all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshiping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives.”⁴

“[Lay Christians] live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel, they may work for the sanctification of the world from within, as a leaven.”⁵

This universal call to holiness “pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are so closely associated that these may be effected and grow according to Christ and may be to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer.”⁶

“Let us listen to Our Lord: ‘He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little thing is dishonest also in much.’ It is as if he were saying to us: ‘Fight continuously in the apparently unimportant things which are to my mind important; fulfill your duty punctually; smile at whoever needs cheering up even though there is sorrow in your soul; devote the necessary time to prayer, without haggling; go to the help of anyone who looks for you; practice justice and go beyond it with the grace of charity.’”⁷

In order to sanctify ourselves in the ordinary circumstances of our life, we need to grow in our spiritual life, especially through prayer, self-denial and work.

Life of Prayer

“We learn to pray at certain moments by hearing the Word of the Lord and sharing in his Paschal mystery, but his Spirit is offered us at all times, in the events of each day, to make prayer spring up from us.”⁸

“Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to ‘little children’, to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom.”⁹

“But do not imagine that prayer is an action to be carried out and then forgotten. The just man ‘delights in the law of the Lord, and meditates on his law day and night. Through the night, I meditate on you’ and ‘my prayer comes to you like incense in the evening.’ Our whole day can be a time of prayer—from night to morning and from morning to night.”¹⁰

Life of Self-Denial

“The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes.”¹¹ “Without mortification there is no happiness on earth.”¹²

Life of Work

“Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. Hence work is a duty: ’If any one will not work, let him not eat.’

Work honors the Creator’s gifts and the talents received from him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish.

Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.”¹³ “In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work. Everyone should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his family, and of serving the human community.”¹⁴

Do you want to be a better Christian? The first of your battles will be entering into and remaining in the state of grace, avoiding any mortal sin; and, since you want to love God above all things you will also try not to commit venial sins.

The practice of some acts of piety throughout the day will help you to have a contemplative life in the midst of your daily routine. The most important thing is to be consistent in your daily schedule in your spiritual game plan so you will live as a child of God.

Daily

• Get up at a fixed time, as early as possible. Eight hours of sleep are enough. Usually, more than this or less than six hours of sleep may not be good.

• Offer your day to God through the intercession of Our Lady.

• Work with order and intensity during the day as a way of serving God. Set goals and establish priorities in order to develop a practical schedule. Sanctifying ordinary work is the goal of our life.

• Try to attend Mass, receiving Holy Communion, as often as possible. This is the best sacrifice we can offer to God. Prepare yourself for the Mass by spending some time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

• Before Holy Mass, and as a preparation, spend some time (15 minutes if possible) in mental prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

• Pray the Angelus at noontime. (During Eastertide, we say the Regina Cæli instead.)

• Pray the Rosary, if possible, with your family, offering each decade for a specific intention.

• Do some spiritual reading. Start with the New Testament or some well known spiritual books. Ten to fifteen minutes is sufficient.

• Make a short examination of conscience at the end of the day before going to bed. Two or three minutes is enough. Follow these steps: Humble yourself in the presence of God. Tell Him, “Lord, if you will, You can make me clean.” Ask for light to acknowledge your defects and virtues, and to see the dangers and opportunities of the day. Ask for repentance, amendment and encouragement.

Weekly

• Sunday is the Lord’s Day. Center all activities on the Holy Mass. It is also a family day—for rest and spiritual growth.

• If you do not receive Holy Communion every day, receive at least on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.

• Saturday is traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Honor her and say some special prayer such as the Hail Holy Queen.

Monthly

• Go to Confession at least once a month. It is the sacrament of joy. Pope John Paul II says: “God is always the one who is principally offended by sin—’I have sinned against You’—and God alone can forgive. He does so through the ministry of the priest in the sacrament of Penance which is the ordinary way of obtaining forgiveness and remission of mortal sins. Every mortal sin must always be stated with its determining circumstances in an individual confession.

• Have spiritual guidance with a wise prudent and knowledgeable priest.

• Spend a few hours in recollection. Better before the Blessed Sacrament. Consider how you are directing your life toward God.

Yearly

• A few days of retreat are necessary for the soul in the same way that the body needs a vacation. Spend three days within the year in silence, talking only to God. A retreat is a yearly opportunity for conversion.

Always

• Stay in the presence of God. Try to please Him in everything as a child tries to please his father.

• Thank God for the graces he constantly gives us.

• Do everything for the love of God: this is purity of intention. Always purify your intention. Make acts of contrition and atonement for yours sins and sins of others.

• Try to live as you would like to die. We shall die as we have lived.

A. We are required to know and to believe:

• The Apostles’ Creed. Especially:

— That there is one supreme, eternal, infinite God, the Creator of heaven and earth.

— That the good will be rewarded by him for ever in heaven, and the wicked, who die unrepentant, will be punished for ever in hell.

— That heaven and hell equally on the simple word of Christ.

— That in the Holy Trinity there are three Persons, co-eternal, co-equal: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

— That God the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, became man, and died on the cross to save us.

• The Commandments of God and of the Church.

• The seven Sacraments; especially of the necessity of Baptism and that the Eucharist is a pledge of our future glory.

• That Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, which form one sacred deposit of the Word of God, is committed to the Church.

• Whatever God teaches us by his holy Church, who in her teaching cannot deceive us nor be deceived.

“The sole Church of Christ [is that] which Our Savior, after his resurrection, entrusted to Peter's pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to extend and rule it. . . . This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him.”¹⁵

“The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys [this] infallibility in virtue of his office, when as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful—he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. . . . The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium, above all in an Ecumenical Council. When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine ‘for belief as being divinely revealed,’ and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions ‘must be adhered to with the obedience of faith.’ This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.“¹⁶

B. We are required to know the basic prayers: Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.

“The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.”¹⁷

Baptism¹⁸

By which we are born to the divine life: made heirs of heaven

The fruit of Baptism, or baptismal grace, includes:

• Forgiveness of original sin.

• Birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit.

• Incorporation into the Church, the Body of Christ, and participation in the priesthood of Christ.

• The imprint on the soul an indelible spiritual sign, the character, which consecrates the baptized person for Christian worship. Because of the character Baptism cannot be repeated.

Confirmation¹⁹

By which the divine life is fostered and increased, to make us soldiers of Christ.

The fruits of Confirmation are:

• Perfects Baptismal grace.

• Gives the Holy Spirit to root us more deeply in the divine filiation.

• Incorporates us more firmly into Christ.

• Strengthens our bond with the Church and associates us more closely with her mission.

• Helps us bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds.

• Imprints, like Baptism, a spiritual mark or indelible character on the Christian’s soul; for this reason one can receive this sacrament only once in one’s life.

The Holy Eucharist²⁰

By which the divine life is nurtured

The fruits of the Eucharist are:

• Increases the communicant’s union with the Lord.

• Forgives venial sins.

• Preserves him from grave sins.

• Strengthens the bonds of charity between the communicant and Christ.

• Reinforces the unity of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.

The Holy Eucharist is really, truly and substantially the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, of Jesus Christ, under the appearances of bread and wine. The Holy Eucharist is not only a Sacrament; it is also a sacrifice—the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Church warmly recommends that the faithful receive Holy Communion each time they participate in the celebration of the Eucharist; she obliges them to do so at least once a year.

Reconciliation or Penance²¹

By which we recover the divine life lost by sin

The fruits of Penance are:

• Reconciliation with God: the penitent recovers grace;

• Reconciliation with the Church;

• Remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins;

• Remission, at least in part, of temporal punishments resulting from sin;

• Peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation;

• Increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle.

Individual and integral confession of grave sins followed by absolution remains the only ordinary means of reconciliation with God and with the Church.

Anointing of the Sick²²

By which the divine life is strengthened during grave illness or old age

The fruits of the Anointing of the Sick are:

• Uniting of the sick person to the passion of Christ, for his own good and that of the whole Church;

• Strengthening, peace, and courage to endure in a Christian manner the sufferings of illness or old age;

• Forgiveness of sins, if the sick person was not able to obtain it through the sacrament of Penance;

• Restoration of health, if it is conducive to the salvation of his soul;

• Preparation for passing over to eternal life.

Holy Orders²³

By which the apostolic ministry is perpetuated: making possible the transmission of the divine life

The effects of the Holy Orders are:

• Gives the mission and faculty (“the sacred power”) to act in persona Christi;

• Configures to Christ as Priest, Teacher and Pastor;

• Imprints, like Baptism, an indelible character that cannot be repeated or conferred temporarily.

It is bishops who confer the sacrament of Holy Orders in the three degrees: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate. In the Latin Church the sacrament of Holy Orders for the presbyterate is normally conferred only on candidates who are ready to embrace celibacy freely and who publicly manifest their intention of staying celibate for the love of God’s kingdom and the service of men.

Matrimony²⁴

By which human love of the spouses is perfected, leading them to the divine life

The fruits of Matrimony are:

• Union of Christ and the Church.

• Gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church;

• Perfects the human love of the spouses;

• Strengthens their indissoluble unity;

• Sanctifies them on the way to eternal life.

• Integrates the spouses into God’s covenant with man: “Authentic married love is caught up into divine love.’’

“The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of children. Christ the Lord raised marriage between the baptized to the dignity of a sacrament.”

The marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never be dissolved.

“What good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” —“If you would enter into life, keep the commandments” (Mt 19:16-17).

By the life of Christ and by his preaching he attested to the permanent validity of the Ten Commandments.

The Decalogue contains a privileged expression of the natural law. It is made known to us by divine revelation and by human reason.

1. I am the Lord thy God.

Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing; nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them.

2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.

4. Honor thy father and thy mother.

5. Thou shalt not kill.

6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

7. Thou shalt not steal.

8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.

The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life. The obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor:

1. “You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.”

It requires the faithful to participate in the Eucharistic celebration when the Christian community gathers together on the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord.

2. “You shall confess your sins at least once a year.”

It ensures preparation for the Eucharist by the reception of the sacrament of reconciliation, which continues Baptism’s work of conversion and forgiveness.

3. “You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season.”

It guarantees as a minimum the reception of the Lord’s Body and Blood in connection with the Paschal feasts, the origin and center of the Christian liturgy.

4. “You shall keep holy the holy days of obligation.”

It completes the Sunday observance by participation in the principal liturgical feasts which honors the mysteries of the Lord, the Virgin Mary and the saints.

It also requires to abstain from those labors and business concerns which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord’s Day, or the proper relaxation of mind and body.

5. “You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence.”

It ensures the times of sacrifice and penance which prepares us for the liturgical feasts: they help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.

6. To observe the laws of the Church concerning marriage.

“Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right, by the admission of faults to one’s brethren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one’s cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance. The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord.”²⁸

All members of the Christian faithful are, in their own way, bound to do penance in virtue of divine law; in order that all may be joined in a common observance of penance, penitential days are prescribed in which the Christian faithful in a special way pray, exercise works of piety and charity, and deny themselves by fulfilling their responsibilities more faithfully, and especially by observing fast and abstinence according to the norm of the following canons:

• All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the universal Church, which are especially appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving.

• Abstinence from eating meat or some other food or another penitential practice, according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops, is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities. Abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday.

• All persons who have completed their fourteenth year are bound by the law of abstinence. All adults are bound by the law of fast up to the beginning of their sixtieth year. Nevertheless, pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.

• It is for the conference of bishops to determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence and to substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety and missionary works.

• Diocesan bishops can proclaim special days of penance for their own diocese or territories, but only for individual occasions (per modum actus).

Matrimony is defined as the marriage covenant by which a man and woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life is by its nature ordered towards the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring. For a baptized couple, this covenant has been raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament.

Since Christ instituted this sacrament, he also gives a man and woman their vocation to marriage. The covenant thus involves not only a man and woman, but also Christ. In establishing marriage as a vocation in life, God gave it the characteristics that enable human love to achieve its perfection, and allow family life to be full and fruitful. Outside marriage, or without a proper realization of its nature, the right conditions for the fruitfulness of human love and for a successful family life do not exist.

The Catholic Church has the right to establish laws regarding the validity of marriages since marriage for the baptized is both a covenant and a sacrament. And it is only the Catholic Church that has jurisdiction over those marriages, with due regard for the competence of civil authority concerning the merely civil effects. No one else has the power or authority to change ecclesiastical laws.

Unity and Indissolubility

Unity of marriage signifies that the covenant established is between one man and one woman: the husband cannot marry another woman during the lifetime of his wife, nor can the wife marry another man during the lifetime of her husband. Polygamy—having more than one husband/wife at the same time—is contrary to the equal personal dignity of men and women who in Matrimony give themselves with a love that is total, and therefore, unique and exclusive.

Indissolubility means that the bond of sacramental marriage cannot be broken except by death of either husband or wife.

Consent

Matrimonial consent is an act of the will by which a man and a woman, in an irrevocable covenant, mutually give and accept each other, declaring their willingness to welcome children and to educate them. Consent must be a free act of the will of each of the contracting parties, without coercion or serious fear arising from external circumstances. To be free means:

• Not to be acting under constraint.

• Not impeded by natural or ecclesiastical law.

Only those capable of giving valid matrimonial consent can get married: Matrimony is created through the consent of the parties, legitimately manifested between persons who, according to law, are capable of giving consent.

Conditions for a valid marriage

1The contracting parties must be capable, according to Church law, of giving matrimonial consent. Before Matrimony is celebrated, it must be evident that no impediment stands in the way of its valid and licit celebration.

2The consent given by the parties must be deliberate, fully voluntary, free, mutual, and public. Therefore, the following are incapable of contracting marriage:

• Persons who lack sufficient use of reason.

• Persons who suffer from grave lack of discretion of judgment concerning essential matrimonial rights and duties which are to be mutually given and accepted.

• Persons who, due to serious psychic illness, cannot assume the essential obligations of Matrimony.

3The consent must be legitimately manifested in canonical form, with the presence of an authorized priest or deacon and in the presence of two witnesses. Canonical form does not oblige non-Catholics when they marry between themselves, but only Catholics—even if only one of the two parties is Catholic—who have not left the Church by a formal act. The bishop, priest, or deacon who assists at the celebration of a marriage receives the consent of the spouses in the name of the Church and gives them the blessing of the Church. The presence of the Church’s minister and also of the witnesses visibly expresses the fact that marriage is an ecclesial reality.

Valid Age

To be married the Church requires that men have completed their sixteenth year (one completes one’s sixteenth year the day after one reaches sixteen years of age) and that women have completed their fourteenth year of age (one completes her fourteenth year of age the day after she reaches fourteen years of age). These ages are the minimum for validity. There may also be civil laws regulating the minimum age for each state and country, but these do not invalidate marriage in the eyes of the Church.

Invalid marriages

Marriage is permanent because God established it so from the very beginning. The indissolubility of marriage is for the good of husband and wife, their children and human society as a whole. The civil government has no power to dissolve a valid marriage—even if the marriage is between non-Catholics.

The government can only dissolve the civil aspects of marriage, such as ownership of property, custody of the children, etc. Even when civil divorce is allowed by the country’s law, marriage, in God’s eyes, still exists.

The Church does not have the power to dissolve a valid, sacramental marriage which has been consummated. She may only declare a marriage null and void upon investigation and evidence that the marriage did not exist from the very beginning. The reasons could be one of the following:

• Lack of a fully voluntary and free consent.

• Some deficiency in the form of the marriage celebration.

• The presence of impediments that make marriage invalid.

The declaration of nullity (so-called annulment) is a very important decision of an ecclesiastical court. A very careful investigation has to be made by the court before that conclusion is reached, insuring that no valid marriage is declared null and void by mistake.

Mixed Marriages

Marriages between a Catholic and a baptized Christian who is not in full communion with the Catholic Church are called mixed marriages. For mixed marriages permission from the local Ordinary, not dispensation, is required for validity. Marriages between Catholics and unbaptized persons (disparity of cult) are invalid unless a dispensation from the local Ordinary is granted.

All of this presupposes that these marriages are celebrated with all other necessary conditions.

The local bishop may grant permission or dispensation for such marriages on the following conditions:

• The Catholic party declares that he or she is prepared to remove dangers of falling away from the faith and makes a sincere promise to do all in his or her power to have all the children baptized and brought up in the Catholic Church.

• The other party is to be informed at an appropriate time of these promises which the Catholic person has to make. It is important that the other person be truly aware of the commitments and obligations of the Catholic spouse.

• Both persons are to be instructed on the essential ends and properties of marriage, which are not to be excluded by either party.

• They should marry in the Catholic Church. The canonical form (Church ceremony with an authorized Catholic priest or deacon and at least two other witnesses) is to be followed. When there are serious difficulties the local bishop may give a dispensation and allow a form which is public to be followed. However, it is never allowed to have the Catholic priest or deacon and a non-Catholic minister, rabbi or public official, each performing his own rite, asking for the consent of the parties. Likewise, it is forbidden to have another religious marriage ceremony before or after the Catholic ceremony for giving or receiving the matrimonial consent. Marriage consent is given only once.

Worthy reception of the Sacrament of Matrimony

Once the requirements for a valid marriage are fulfilled, some other conditions are needed for the worthy reception of the sacrament of Matrimony:

• Both parties must be baptized persons.

• Rectitude of intention. Thoughtfulness and prudence are always necessary for the choice of a future spouse. Being carried away by emotions or momentary passions should be avoided. Premarital pregnancy is not a sufficient motive to marry someone since that could involve an added mistake.

• Spiritual preparation. One should be in the state of grace. The sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist are strongly recommended as immediate preparation. A general confession would be advisable in the case of someone who has been away from the sacrament of Reconciliation for a long time.

• Having previously received the sacrament of Confirmation. Otherwise one should receive this sacrament unless grave difficulties arise.

• Knowledge of the duties of married life. Such duties include mutual fidelity of the spouses until death and care for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the children sent by God.

• Obedience to the marriage laws of the Church.

Definition

“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.’’

Explanation

• Through indulgences the faithful can obtain the remission of temporal punishment resulting from sin for themselves and also for the souls in Purgatory.

• An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin.

• Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead.

• An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity.

• Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted.

Requirements

To gain an indulgence one must:

• Be baptized, not excommunicated and in the state of grace at least at the completion of the prescribed works.

• Have at least the intention of receiving the indulgence and fulfill the enjoined works at the stated time and according to the tenor of the grant.

The usual conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence are in addition to the good work to which it is attached:⁷

• Confession on the day itself, or within some days before or after the performance of the good work.

• Holy Communion on the day itself, or within some days before or after the performance of the good work.

• Prayer for the intention of the Pope. For this, recitation of one Our Father and one Hail Mary suffices, though the faithful may say any other prayer according to their personal devotion.

• Exclusion of all attachment to sin, even the slightest venial sin.

• It is recommended that reception of Holy Communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions take place on the same day as the good work.

• Only one plenary indulgence may be gained on any one day with the exception of the plenary indulgence applicable at the moment of death. Several plenary indulgences may be gained on the basis of a single sacramental confession; only one may be gained, however, on the basis of a single communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions.

• If we are not properly disposed to receive a plenary indulgence when it is granted to us, we receive only a partial indulgence according to the perfection of our dispositions.

Plenary Indulgence

A plenary indulgence called “Portiuncula” may be gained by visiting any parish church on two days of the year; the titular feast of the church and either on August 2, the day of the “Portiuncula” indulgence, or on another suitable day to be fixed by the Ordinary. Another plenary indulgence applicable only to the dead may be gained in all churches on November 2. On these visits the faithful should recite the Our Father and the Creed, and fulfill the three requirements (Confession, Communion, and prayer for the Pope).

A plenary indulgence may also be gained by:

• Visiting the Blessed Sacrament for half an hour at least;

• Reading the Bible for at least half an hour;

• Making the Stations of the Cross;

• Praying the Rosary (five decades) in a church or with the family;

• Receiving the apostolic blessing at the hour of death.

Partial Indulgence

Any of the faithful who, being at least inwardly contrite, performs a work carrying with it a partial indulgence, receives through the Church the remission of temporal punishment equivalent to what their own act already receives. A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who:

• In the performance of their duties and in bearing the trials of life, raise their mind with humble confidence to God, adding—even if only mentally—some pious invocation. This first grant is intended to serve as an incentive to the faithful to put into practice the commandment of Christ that “they must always pray and not lose heart” and at the same time as a reminder so to perform their respective duties as to preserve and strengthen their union with Christ.

• In a spirit of faith and mercy give of themselves or of their goods to serve their brothers in need. This second grant is intended to serve as an incentive to the faithful to perform more frequent acts of charity and mercy, thus following the example and obeying the command of Christ Jesus.

• In a spirit of penance voluntarily deprive themselves of what is licit and pleasing to them. This third grant is intended to move the faithful to bridle their passions and thus learn to bring their bodies into subjection and to conform themselves to Christ in his poverty and suffering.

• Devoutly use religious articles (crucifixes, crosses, rosaries, scapulars, medals) properly blessed by a priest.

But self-denial will be more precious if it is united to charity according to the teaching of St. Leo the Great: “Let us give to virtue what we refuse to self-indulgence. Let what we deny ourselves by fast—be the refreshment of the poor.”

The theological virtues dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have God for their origin, their motive, and their object—God known by faith, God hoped in and loved for his own sake. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.

Faith

• 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 through charity.

• 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 love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.

• 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 salvation.

Hope

• Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

• The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity.

• Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of Jesus’ Preaching in the proclamation of the beatitudes.

• Hope is the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul . . . that enters . . . where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.”

• Hope is also a weapon that protects us in the struggle of salvation: “Let us . . . put on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

• It affords us joy even under trial: “Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation.”

Charity

• 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.

The human virtues are stable dispositions of the intellect and the will that govern our acts, order our passions, and guide our conduct in accordance with reason and faith. They can be grouped around the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

• Prudence disposes the practical reason to discern in every circumstance, our true good and to choose the right means for achieving it.

• Justice consists in the firm and constant will to give God and neighbor their due.

• Fortitude ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good.

• Temperance moderates the attraction of the pleasures of the senses and provides balance in the use of created goods.

They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.

• Wisdom.

• Understanding.

• Counsel.

• Fortitude.

• Knowledge.

• Piety.

• Fear of the Lord.

The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them.

• Charity. • Generosity.

• Joy. • Gentleness.

• Peace. • Faithfulness.

• Patience. • Modesty.

• Kindness. • Self-control.

• Goodness. • Chastity.

The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.

Spiritual

• To feed the hungry.

• Give drink to the thirsty.

• Clothe the naked.

• Shelter the homeless.

• Visit the sick.

• Visit the imprisoned.

• Bury the dead.

Corporal

• To counsel the doubtful.

• Instruct the ignorant.

• Admonish sinners.

• Comfort the afflicted.

• Forgive offenses

• Bear wrongs patiently.

• Pray for the living and the dead.

For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.’’

• Grave matter is specified by the (Decalogue), the Ten Commandments.

• Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God’s law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.

• Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man. The promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.

Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished, following St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great. They are called “capitals ” because they engender other sins, other vices.

Capital Sins

• Pride.

• Covetousness.

• Lust.

• Anger.

• Gluttony.

• Envy.

• Sloth.

Virtues Opposed to Capital Sins

• Humility.

• Liberality.

• Chastity.

• Meekness.

• Temperance

• Brotherly Love.

• Diligence.

“Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence.”

This sin blocks the person's route to Christ, who is the only one who can take away the sin of the world, and the sinner puts himself outside the range of God's forgiveness. In this sense, the sins against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven.

The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are “sins that cry to heaven”: the blood of Abel, the sin of the Sodomites, the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt, the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan, injustice to the wage earner.

Sacramentals are sacred signs instituted by the Church. They prepare men to receive the fruit of the sacraments and sanctify different circumstances of life. Among the sacramentals blessing operate an important place. They include both praise of God for his works and gifts, and the Church's intercession for men that they may be able to use God's gifts according to the spirit of the Gospel.

The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it. They teach us the final end to which God calls us: the Kingdom, the vision of God, participation in the divine nature, eternal life, filiation, rest in God.

The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus’ preaching. They take up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. They also fulfill the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven.

• Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

• Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

• Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

• Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

• Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

• Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

• Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

• Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

• Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.

Prayer and Christian life are inseparable, for they concern the same love and the same renunciation, proceeding from love.

The Battle of Prayer

• The principal difficulties in the practice of prayer are:

— Distraction.

— Dryness.

• The remedy lies in faith, conversion, and vigilance of heart.

• Two frequent temptations threaten prayer:

— Lack of faith

— Acedia—a form of depression stemming from lax ascetical practice—that leads to discouragement.

The Church invites the faithful to regular prayer: daily prayers, the Liturgy of the Hours, Sunday Eucharist, and the feasts of the liturgical year.

The Christian tradition points out to three major expressions of the life of prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. They have in common the recollection of the heart.

Vocal prayer, founded on the union of body and soul in human nature, associates the body with the interior prayer of the heart, following Christ’s example of praying to his Father and teaching the Our Father to his disciples.

Meditation is a prayerful quest engaging thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. Its goal is to make our own in faith the subject considered, by confronting it with the reality of our own life.

Contemplative prayer is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in his mystery.

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the “Mother of Mercy,” the All-Holy One.

Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to “little children,” to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom. Prayer presupposes an effort, a fight against ourselves and the wiles of the Tempter. The battle of prayer is inseparable from the necessary “spiritual battle” to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ: we pray as we live, because we live as we pray.

In the Our Father, the object of the first three petitions is the glory of the Father: the sanctification of his name, the coming of the kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. The four others present our wants to him: they ask that our lives be nourished, healed of sin, and made victorious in the struggle of good over evil.

1Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium (=LG) 31.

2John

3Lumen Gentium, 31.

4CCC 901; cf. LG 10, 34; I Peter 2:5.

5LG 31.

6Ibidem.

7Saint Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By (=CPB) 77.

8CCC 2659; Cf. Matthew 6:11, 34.

9CCC 2660; Cf. Luke 13:20-21.

10CPB 119.

11CCC 2015; Cf. 2 Timothy 4.

12Saint Josemaría Escrivá, Furrow (=FW) 983.

13CCC 2427.

14CCC 2428; cf. LE 27.

15CCC 816.

16CCC 891.

17CCC 1131

18CCC 1279

19CCC 1316

20CCC 1416.

21CCC 1497.

22CCC 1527, 1532.

23CCC 1536, 1598.

24CCC 1638, 1641, 1660, 1664.

25CCC 2075, 2076, 2080.

26CCC 2041

27Extracted from the Code of Canon Law.

28CCC 1435, 1438

29Extracted from Code of Canon Law.

30CCC 1471-1479.

31CCC 1814-1829, 1842, 1843, 1844.

32CCC 1805-1807, 1835-1837.

33CCC 768, 798-801, 1830.

34CCC 1832.

35CCC 2447

36CCC 1857-1860.

37CCC 1866-1867.

38CCC 1864; cf. John 1:29..

39CCC 1867.

40Cf. CCC 1677-1678.

41CCC 1716, 1718, 1726.