ADVENT:

The season that begins the liturgical year. It is a time when we reflect on the Incarnation, and prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of Jesus, our King, on Christmas Day. We also prepare for His Second Coming at the end of time. This season is represented by the color violet, or purple, which represents penance and humility.

ANALOGY OF FAITH:

The coherence of the truths of the Faith among themselves and within the whole plan of revelation.

BAPTISM:

The Sacrament which is the birth of the baptized into new life in Christ. In Baptism, original sin is forgiven along with all personal sins. By it we become adoptive children of the Father, members of Christ, and temples of the Holy Spirit; it also incorporates us into the Church and makes us sharers in the priesthood of Christ.

CANON OF SCRIPTURE:

The official list of inspired books that make up the Bible.

CAPITAL SINS:

Title given to the vices which are the source of all other sins, and called deadly because their repetition corrupts the soul. The alternate title capital sin comes from the Latin caput, meaning head. They are pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth.

CARDINAL VIRTUES:

Four virtues acquired through our own effort that play a pivotal role in the exercise of other virtues. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts and help prepare the powers of human beings for communion with God’s love. They are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING:

A subdiscipline of moral theology, which outlines a holistic Catholic vision, based on both revelation and reason, of a good human society. It arises from faith and the commands to love God and neighbor, and proposes principles for reflection, provides criteria for judgment, and gives guidelines for action in social, economic, and cultural spheres.

CONCUPISCENCE:

The inclination or tendency toward sin that is a result of our wounded human nature.

CONFIRMATION:

The Sacrament in which the gift of the Holy Spirit received at Baptism is confirmed, strengthened, and perfected for living the Christian life and spreading the faith to others.

CONTEMPLATION:

A type of prayer in which we simply be in God’s presence. It is a simple expression of the mystery of prayer: a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love.

EUCHARIST:

The Sacrament in which we receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread and wine. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Christian life and spiritual food for the soul. Not merely a symbol, it is Jesus’ true Flesh and Blood.

EX NIHILO:

Latin for “out of nothing.” This is the doctrine of creation, that God created all things out of nothing with only His Word. This fact teaches us that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and goes beyond His creation.

FOUR LAST THINGS:

The name given to the collective events and states of being of death and the afterlife. They are: death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell.

FORTITUDE:

A cardinal virtue that helps us persevere in the face of adversity and temptation.

GRACE:

The free and undeserved gift of His own divine life that God gives us to human persons.

HOLY TRINITY:

The Christian mystery revealed to us by God that He is three Persons in One God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

INCARNATION:

The fact that the Son of God assumed human nature and became man in order to accomplish our salvation. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, is both true God and true man

INDELIBLE:

Permanent; unable to be erased or removed.

INTERCESSION:

Prayer for the needs of others.

KEYS OF THE KINGDOM:

Sacred authority given by Jesus to St. Peter to make decisions that would be binding on earth as well as in Heaven (cf. Matt. 16:19).

LECTIO DIVINA:

An ancient form of praying with Scripture that is a slow and thoughtful encounter with the Word of God. Latin for “divine reading.”

LENT:

The liturgical season in which we focus on the Paschal Mystery by reflecting upon Jesus’ life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and how He redeemed us of our sins. During Lent we do penance and prepare our hearts to receive the salvation won for us by Christ. The color of this season is violet, or purple for penance and humility.

LITURGY:

The public work or worship of the Church. It is the participation of the people of God in the “work of God,” which is our salvation from sin.

LITURGY OF THE HOURS:

The public prayer of the Church which sanctifies the whole course of the day and night. It consists of a variety of prayers, Scripture readings, most especially the Psalms, and writings of the saints, divided into “hours,” which are prescribed to be prayed at specific times of day.

OUR FATHER:

The prayer that Christ taught His disciples in the Gospels. In this prayer of seven petitions, Jesus shows us how to come to God and ask Him for our needs and wants. Also known as the Lord’s Prayer.

MORTAL SIN:

Serious sin we choose to commit even though we know it is wrong. Mortal sin completely separates us from God, destroys His divine life within us, and rejects His love for us.

NICENE CREED:

The Profession of Faith set forth by the Councils of Nicaea (AD 325) and Constantinople (AD 381), and typically recited at Sunday Mass, which affirms the essential tenets of the Christian Faith and belief in the Holy Trinity.

ORIGINAL SIN:

The state of human nature deprived of the original holiness and justice Adam and Eve enjoyed before the Fall.

PENTECOST:

The day when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles and the Church was born. Fifty days after Jesus’ Resurrection (10 days after His Ascension into Heaven), Mary and the Apostles gathered in the Upper Room and were filled with the Holy Spirit, who came in a rush of wind and appeared as tongues of fire over their heads.

PURGATORY:

The state of being after death in which those who “die in God’s grace and friendship, but [are] still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of Heaven” (CCC 1030).

RATIONAL SOUL:

The philosophical name for the human soul, referring to the human powers of intellect or reason, and free will.

REAL PRESENCE:

Christ’s true Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity contained in the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine.

SLOTH:

The capital sin that is a sadness or carelessness experienced when one encounters a spiritual good that requires work to achieve, as in the practice of virtue, for example. Also called acedia.

SOCIAL SIN:

The effect of sin over time, which can affect society and its institutions to create structures of sin.

SUBSIDIARITY:

The organizing principle that matters are best handled by the smallest, lowest, or least centralized authority. A community of a higher order should not interfere with the inner life of a community of a lower order, depriving it of its functions, but should support it in case of need and help integrate it into the larger society, with a view to the common good.

SYNOD:

A meeting of bishops of a particular region, of the whole world, or of bishops and priests and other members of the faithful within a particular diocese to address the doctrinal and pastoral needs of the Church.

SYNOPTIC GOSPELS:

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which present the story of Christ’s life in a similar way and even borrow stories and the structure of their Gospels from each other. The word synoptic comes from the Greek for “viewed together.”

TEMPERANCE:

The moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods.

THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES:

Gifts infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as His children and of meriting eternal life. They are faith, hope, and charity (or love).

VIRTUE:

An habitual and firm disposition to do the good. Moral virtues are acquired through human effort. The infused moral virtues and the Theological Virtues are gifts from God.