WHAT WE BELIEVE
When we pray or recite the Creed, we are reminded that Catholicism is a revealed religion. God is the author of our faith. All that we are expected to believe is summed up in the revelation of Jesus Christ. God has spoken all that is necessary for our Salvation in Jesus, the Word made flesh. God also gives us the gift of faith that enables us to respond, accept and live out the implications of Divine Revelation.
Various aspects of OUR FAITH PROFESSED, as outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) can be explored below.
My Soul is Yearning for You, My God (CCC 27-43)
The Human Quest for God To be human is to search for God. Throughout history, to the present moment, religious beliefs and practices express the human search for God. As creatures made in God’s image and likeness, each one of us has been given a mind to search for the truth and a heart that longs ...
God Comes to Meet Us (CCC 50-67)
God Reveals a Plan of Loving Goodness By natural reason, we can know God exists with certainty on the basis of the created world. Revelation is the love and knowledge of God that we cannot possibly arrive at by our own powers of reason. Out of divine love, God has chosen to reveal himself to the ...
Proclaim the Gospel to All Creation (CCC 74-133)
The Transmission of Divine Revelation Christianity is a religion of the ‘Word of God’, a living and Incarnate Word. In Apostolic Tradition and in the books of Sacred Scripture, God speaks to humanity in human words that are the ‘speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the ...
Bring About the Obedience of Faith (CCC 142-196)
Faith as the Human Response to God’s Revelation God’s revelation of love in Christ Jesus – in the power of the Holy Spirit – for our salvation, offers the possibility of a human response. Faith is the human response to God, who reveals. For Christians, faith is a free response of assent to the ...
I Believe in God (CCC 199-349)Â
Faith in God as Mystery and Trinity; Belief in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth We begin the Christian Creed by professing belief in God, the ‘Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth’. This is the starting point for the whole symphony of Christian belief – in God, who is ...
Man and Woman in the Beginning (CCC 355-421)Â
The Creation of Man and Woman, the Fall and the Promise The Bible opens with these words: ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth’ (Gn 1:1). The first three chapters of the first book of the Bible focus on creation: its origins and destiny in God, its beauty and order, the creation of human ...
The Good News: God Has Sent His Son (CCC 422-570)Â
Son of God, Son of Mary, Mysteries of Christ’s Life ‘For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’ (Jn 3:16). The heart of Christian belief is the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ, who we ...
The Saving Death and Resurrection of Christ (CCC 571-664)Â
Paschal Mystery, Unity of the Saving Deeds The Paschal Mystery is the saving death and resurrection of Jesus for the redemption of the world. It is a core Christian belief that by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, Jesus overcame death and sin. The Paschal Mystery of Christ ...
Receive the Holy Spirit  (CCC 683-747)Â
The Revelation of the Spirit, Joint Mission of Son and Spirit The Holy Spirit is God, the third divine Person of the Trinity, sometimes called the Paraclete, an Advocate and Comforter, the Lord and Giver of Life. At the Last Supper, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit: ‘I will send him to you’ ...
The Church: Reflecting the Light of Christ (CCC 748-810) Â
The Images and Mission of the Church The word ‘Church’ (Latin ecclesia) originally meant a gathering or assembly. In Christian usage, the word ‘church’ refers to the worshipping community, the local community (or ‘parish’) and the entire universal community of believers (CCC, nos. 751â€). ...
The Four Marks of the Church (CCC 811-962)
 The Church is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic In the words of the Creed, we profess ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church’. These four characteristics, or ‘marks,’ affirm the essential features of the Catholic Church, her origin and her mission in the world. The Church does not possess ...
Mary: The Church’s First and Most Perfect Member (CCC 424-507, 963-972, 2673-2677)Â
Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mother of God, Mother of the Church Catholic beliefs about Mary and the saints are based on what is believed about Jesus Christ and the Church. Christ Jesus, as the Son of God, is fully human and fully divine. And Mary, the Mother of the Son of God, occupies a special and ...
Our Eternal Destiny (CCC 988-1065)Â
Last Things: Resurrection of the Body, Death, Particular Judgement, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell, Last Judgement, New Heavens, and New Earth God ‘wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth’ (1 Tm 2:4). God’s desire for the salvation of every human person is the basis for our ...