What Catholics Believe:  A Popular Overview of Catholic Teaching  by Leonard Foley, O.F.M.

 

If you are Catholic, this is post-Vatican II wrap-up and short catechism, and an invitation to deeper faith. If you are a no-longer-practicing Catholic, this is an invitation to take a fresh look at your old family.  If you come from a different religious tradition, welcome to this overview of what Catholics stand for.  If you have no religion, we hope this will be a new opening to God. 

Welcome to Our Catholic Faith!

1.  Who God is

 

2.  What God did

 

3.  Who Jesus is

 

4.  What Jesus did

 

5.  Who the Spirit is

 

6.  Who we are as Christ’s Mystical Body

 

7.  Who we are as visible Church

 

8.  What we are called to do as followers of Jesus

 

9.  What we do as the whole Church

The Church is called to be a "sacrament" of Jesus. That is, just as Jesus was a sacrament of the Father—making visible the love of God—so Jesus' followers are called to be a "sacrament" of Jesus. The Church has the fearful burden of knowing that it must show Jesus to the world, nothing less.

The greatest action we perform as Church is to celebrate the death/resurrection of Jesus, which is made present in the Eucharist, the sacrifice/meal we call "Mass." It is not just the living body and blood of Jesus replacing the bread and wine: The actual death/resurrection of Jesus is made present for us to enter into. The "outside" of the Mass may sometimes be dull and boring—much of life can seem that way too. But this is the heart of Catholic life—the essential family gathering.

Other acts of God are made sacramental too—that is, visible, assured, "provable." These, with the Eucharist, form the seven great sacraments (there are many little sacraments). Baptism in faith is the sign that God raises us to new life and that our old selfish self is "drowned." Confirmation completes Baptism and is the assurance that the Spirit of God is in us, so that we can be witnesses of Jesus. If we die by mortal sinfulness, the Sacrament of Reconciliation ("confession") is God's assurance that he does forgive us through the Church, which readmits us to the community. The Anointing of the Sick is the visible continuation of Jesus' concern for the suffering. Marriage and priesthood are God's seal on two essential functions in the Church.

10. ‘As we wait in joyful hope…’