Week 19: The Lord’s Prayer (¶2759-865)

“Christian prayer is our speaking to God with the very word of God” (¶2769)

“The Prayer of Saint Ephraim”
(translated into poetry by Scott Cairns)

O Lord and Master of my life,
remove from me this languid spirit,
this grim demeanor, this petty
lust for power, and all this empty talk.
Endow Thy servant, instead,
with a chaste spirit, a humble
heart, longsuffering gentleness,
and genuine, unselfish love.

Yes, O Lord and King, grant
that I may confront my own offenses,
and remember not to judge my brother.
For You are—always and forever—blessed.

Theological Reflections on the Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer

“Our Father who art in heaven”: We pray as adopted children to our heavenly Father, who is revealed to us as Father by the Son, Jesus Christ. God is “ours” in that we belong to him as his covenant people¬—as the Body of his Son. Our Father in heaven transcends all ideas of human “fatherhood” or “motherhood; he cannot be defined by creaturely categories. This is what we mean by the phrase “in heaven.” Heaven is not a physical space but a mode of existence, one that is glorified and majestic.

“Hallowed be thy name”: “To hallow” means “to sanctify,” “to consecrate,” “to make holy.” We do not make holy, because only God can; rather, we recognize and affirm the holiness of God through our prayer. And by acknowledging God’s holiness, we also acknowledge that we are to be holy just as God is holy.

“Thy kingdom come”: The “kingdom” or “reign” of God was revealed and realized in the person of Jesus Christ, and will come in fullness when Christ returns at the end of the age. Just as God transcends creaturely categories, so too the kingdom of God transcends culture and society. At the same time, the Spirit who conforms us into the people of God’s kingdom empowers us to seek transformation in the world through the spread of justice and peace.

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”: In this petition we acknowledge that our wills need to be conformed to the will of God, following the example of Jesus who prayed in Gethsemane: “not my will, but yours be done.” By the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to unite our wills with the will of the Son so that our lives might be pleasing to the Father.

“Give us this day our daily bread”: As children adopted by grace, we acknowledge the goodness of God and humbly trust him to provide for all our needs. This petition urges us to live in solidarity with those who have physical needs around us, but it also and more fully pertains to our spiritual need for the Bread of Life which we receive in the Eucharist. God provides us with our true “daily bread” in the body and blood of Jesus.

“And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”: Because we recognize our sinfulness, we humbly seek the forgiveness of God, whose boundless mercy extends to all people. But this petition remarkably makes our forgiveness from God dependent upon our forgiveness of others, just as in Jesus’ twofold command, love of God is made mutually dependent upon love of neighbor. As faithful disciples, our lives must imitate the mercy and love of God. Just as Christ died for the ungodly, so too we must forgive our enemies. Just as God reconciled us to himself instead of avenging himself, so too we must be reconciled to others rather than take out our anger against another.

“And lead us not into temptation”: In recognizing our weakness in the face of temptation, we ask God for discernment between trials and temptations, protection from evil, and strength in the face of temptation. The Holy Spirit keeps us strong and vigilant as we await the final victory over sin and death.

“But deliver us from evil”: Evil is not an abstraction but a personal power, Satan, the Evil One. Evil was definitively defeated by Jesus on the cross, and the world was delivered from sin and death. As we await Christ’s coming, we bring before God all the distresses and sufferings of the world, looking to him for hope and strength in the midst of difficulty. We petition God for continual deliverance as we look forward to the final consummation of Christ’s victory in his resurrection from the dead.

Week 18: Prayer (¶2558-758)

“We pray as we live, because we live as we pray.” (¶2725)

The Witness to Prayer in Scripture

1. Key Old Testament Prayers

a. Moses’ intercession for his people (Exodus 32:11-13)
b. Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving (1 Samuel 2:1-10)
c. Solomon’s prayer for wisdom (1 Kings 3:6-9)
d. Solomon’s prayer to dedicate the temple (1 Kings 8:23-61)
e. Jehoshaphat’s prayer for deliverance (2 Chronicles 20:5-17)
f. Daniel’s prayer (Daniel 9:4-19)
g. Nehemiah’s prayer (Nehemiah 1:3-11)

2. Key New Testament Prayers

a. The Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13 and par.)

b. Jesus’ Gethsemane Prayer (Matt. 26:36-46 and par.)

c. Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” (John 17)
d. Paul for the Ephesians (Ephesians 3:14-21)
e. Paul for the Philippians (Philippians 1:9-11)
f. Paul for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9-17)

Prayer as Gift, Covenant, and Communion (¶2559-65)

1. Prayer as gift

a. Prayer is a response to God’s initiating movement toward us throughout salvation history, from creation to the coming Kingdom (¶2567)
b. Prayer is grounded in love: the love of God for us, our love of God in response; we can persevere in prayer only because of love (¶2742)

2. Prayer as covenant

a. Prayer is a covenant relationship between God and the human person, which is a relationship of faith, hope, and love
b. Our covenant relationship with God is grounded in our union with Christ through the Holy Spirit, who conforms us to the image of the Son and brings our will into conformity with the Father’s will

3. Prayer as communion

a. Prayer is a life of union and communion with the triune God, rooted in our Baptism and nourished by the Eucharist.

The Life of Prayer

1. Three kinds of prayer

a. Vocal
b. Meditative
c. Contemplative

2. Three facts about prayer (¶2743-45):

a. We can pray at any time, because we live in the time of Christ’s resurrection; the “Today” of the Lord (¶2606, 2659, 2677, 2686, 2705, 2730)
b. Prayer is a vital necessity for the Christian
c. Prayer is inseparable from the Christian life of discipleship

Week 17: The Ten Commandments: Part II (¶2052-557)

Fourth Commandment: “Honor your father and mother.”

1. Positive command: Respect authority.

a. Family life is an image of the Trinitarian communion and a reflection of God’s work of creation (¶2205).

2. Two dimensions: (1) respect for parents/family, and (2) respect for civil authority
3. Question: What is the relation between the family and society? Where do the rights of parents end and the rights of children begin? What is the justification for and the limits of “civil disobedience”?

Fifth Commandment: “You shall not kill.”

1. Positive command: Respect life.

a. Respecting life and peace is an imitation of Christ’s own life of nonviolence (¶2262) and a reflection of Christ as the “Prince of Peace” (¶2305).

2. Three dimensions:

a. Respect for life: personal and civil defense, abortion, euthanasia, suicide
b. Human dignity: physical health, scientific research, the problem of terror and torture
c. Safeguarding peace: necessity of peace and avoidance of war, Just War theory

3. Questions: Is there any killing which is justified according to the Church? Why does the Church reject abortion? Is the use of science and technology morally neutral? Why or why not? What does the Catholic faith have to say to the issue of using torture on those deemed to be enemies of the state? What qualifies as a “justified” war? What is the nature of peace?

Sixth Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery.”

1. Positive command: Practice chastity (or, respect the human body).

a. Chastity and conjugal fidelity is an imitation of the Creator’s generosity and fecundity (¶2335).

2. Dimensions of chastity: ordered toward right human relations, moral virtue of temperance, dignity and integrity of the human person, conjugal fidelity and fecundity
3. Questions: What is chastity? What forms can it take? What is the Church’s stance on homosexuality? Why is birth control “intrinsically evil”? Why does the Church take a position against artificial insemination if fecundity (childbearing) is the proper “end of marriage”?

Seventh Commandment: “You shall not steal.”

1. Positive command: Respect the goods of others, and so respect the common good.

a. The stewardship of the common good is a reflection of God’s providential stewardship over creation, and our preferential love of the poor is an imitation of God’s own compassion in Christ for the least of his brethren (¶2402, 2417, 2427, 2448).

2. Dimensions of the common good: universal “destination” of the goods of creation, protection of private property, protection of the environment, protection of social relationships and economic justice, protection of the poor
3. Guidelines in the social teaching of the Church:

a. relationships should not be determined entirely by economic factors;
b. profit must not be the final norm and end of economic activity;
c. the disordered desire for money is the cause of many social disorders; and
d. individual rights must not be subordinated to a collective.

4. Questions: What does the Church mean by the “universal destination of goods”? Why is environmental protection part of this commandment? How does the social doctrine of the Church view Western capitalism? What is the spiritual value in human labor? Why does the Church command “works of mercy”?

Eighth Commandment: “You shall not bear false witness.”

1. Positive command: Respect the truth.

a. Honoring the truth is an image of God as the source of all truth (¶2465).
b. Jesus Christ is the “truth” (John 14:6); Satan is the “father of lies” (John 8:44).

2. Questions: Why is lying an act of violence? What kind of threat does mass media pose to a respect for the truth? Why is art treated more fully here in the command against lying than in the first commandment against graven images?

Ninth Commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.”

1. Positive command: Purify your heart (of lust for the flesh).

a. Purification of the heart is an imitation of Christ’s own purity of heart in obedience to the Father.

2. Dimensions of purity: charity, chastity, and truth/orthodoxy (¶2518); purity of intention and purity of vision; prayer and modesty (¶2520-22)
3. Questions: What is concupiscence? What is modesty? What is the relationship between purity and vision?

Tenth Commandment: “You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor’s.”

1. Positive command: Purify your heart (of lust for the goods of another).
2. Dimensions of purity: rejection of greed, avarice, and envy; pursuit of the desires of the Spirit; and poverty of heart
3. Questions: Why does St. Augustine call envy “the diabolical sin”? Why is “poverty of heart” a requirement of entrance into the Kingdom of heaven?

Week 16: The Ten Commandments: Part I (¶2052-557)

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
—Matthew 22:37-40

The Decalogue in Rhyme: Two Versions

Thou no God shall have but Me.
Before no idol bow thy knee.
Take not the name of God in vain,
Nor the Sabbath day profane.
Give thy parents honor due.
Take heed that thou no murder do.
Abstain from words and deeds unclean.
Steal not, for thou of God art seen.
Tell not a willful lie, nor love it.
What is thy neighbor’s, do not covet.

Thou shalt have no more gods but me.
Before no idol bend thy knee.
Take not the name of God in vain.
Dare not the Sabbath day profane,
Give both thy parents honor due.
Take heed that thou no murder do.
Abstain from words and deeds unclean.
Steal not, though thou be poor and mean.
Make not a wilful lie, nor love it.
What is thy neighbor’s dare not covet.


A “Decalogue” on the Decalogue

1. The Decalogue is a gift of God (¶2059).
2. The Decalogue forms the appropriate response to the covenant initiated by God (¶2062).
3. The Decalogue forms an organic whole (¶2069).
4. The Decalogue is both natural and revealed (¶2071).
5. The Decalogue is not abolished but fulfilled in the “law of Christ” (¶2053).
6. The Decalogue is fulfilled in the law of love (¶2055).
7. The Decalogue is fulfilled in the context of a relationship with God (¶2063).
8. The Decalogue defines the truth of free human existence in the image of God (¶2085).
9. The Decalogue contains a set of grave and permanent obligations (¶2072).
10. The Decalogue is only fulfilled by God’s grace (¶2074, 2082).


Questions for Discussion

1. What are some idols or false gods which you see as prevalent today? What aspects of our culture present temptations to serve something or someone other than the Lord?
2. How is the Lord’s name taken in vain today? How can we show proper respect for the Lord’s name?
3. How do we honor the Sabbath day in a world of constant work? What can we do to open up a space for contemplation and rest?
4. Have you experienced doubt or despair or indifference, and what brought you toward faith and hope and love?

Week 15: The Christian in the World: Social and Moral LIfe (¶1877-2051)

The human person is a social creature who lives before God as a member of various communities: the family, the state, various voluntary associations and institutions, and most importantly, the Church. God calls us to love God and to love our neighbors. We fulfill the latter by working for the common good, which involves pursuing the virtues, following the way of charity, obeying the authorities, employing one’s talents in a spirit of generosity, rectifying any injustices and inequalities, and living in solidarity with others. We find the basic outline of this new moral life in God’s law. In order to fulfill the law in our own lives, we depend upon God’s justifying and sanctifying grace, communicated to us by the Holy Spirit.

1. Law and Grace

(a) Different forms of the Law:

a. Eternal law: the eternal Truth of God
b. Natural law: rational moral sense (conscience)
c. Revealed law: Old and New Law (Decalogue and Sermon on the Mount)
d. Civil and ecclesiastical law (institutional law): legal code, precepts, etc.

(b) Grace

a. The grace of preparation
b. The grace of faith/response
c. The grace of participation
d. The grace of sanctification/deification
e. The grace of the sacraments
f. The grace of charisms
g. The grace of state or ministerial office

(c) Justification

a. Justification is a grace of the Holy Spirit which has both a negative and positive character:

i. negatively, it separates us from sin, while
ii. positively, it communicates God’s righteousness to us, the righteousness merited for us by the Passion of Christ

b. Justification thus involves the sanctification of the human person, since justification establishes the basis for a new life in the Spirit
c. Justification is conferred in Baptism, which establishes the basis for free human cooperation with the grace of God

(d) Human works and merit

a. Human works cannot merit the initial grace of conversion, which is a free gift of the Holy Spirit—given because God has freely chosen to involve humanity in his work of grace
b. Moved by the Spirit, human works merit the graces of sanctification and eternal life
c. All merit has its source and basis in the love of Christ
d. Our spiritual progress toward holiness is grounded in our mystical and sacramental union with Christ and the Holy Trinity

2. The Precepts of the Church

(a) First precept: attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days, while resting from labor
(b) Second precept: confess your sins at least once a year
(c) Third precept: receive the Eucharist at least during the Easter season
(d) Fourth precept: observe the days of fasting and abstinence
(e) Fifth precept: provide for the needs of the Church

3. Themes associated with our social and moral life

(a) charity/love
(b) freedom
(c) common good
(d) nature and grace

Week 14: Christian Ethics (¶1691-1876)

In the first section of the Catechism, we examined the articles of the faith according to the Apostles’ Creed, from the Trinity to the Church to eternal life. In the second section of the Catechism, we looked at the Seven Sacraments of the faith and how they function in the liturgy of the Church. Now, in the third section, we will examine how to live in the world as faithful followers of Christ.

Questions for the discussion of Christian ethics:

1. What are the aspects of humanity which enable us to live rightly?

2. What are the aspects of humanity which hinder us from living rightly?

3. What do we receive from Christ and the Church to help us live rightly?

4. What are the virtues which we seek to perfect in our lives?

5. What are the three moral rules which always apply (¶1789)?

6. How does your own experience relate with the material we read for today?

Week 13: The Sacraments of Healing and Service (¶1420-1666)

“Easter Communion”
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Pure fasted faces draw unto this feast:
God comes all sweetness to your Lenten lips.
You striped in secret with breath-taking whips,
Those crooked rough-scored chequers may be pierced
To crosses meant for Jesu’s; you whom the East
With draught of thin and pursuant cold so nips
Breathe Easter now; you serged fellowships,
You vigil-keepers with low flames decreased,
God shall o’er-brim the measures you have spent
With oil of gladness, for sackcloth and frieze
And the ever-fretting shirt of punishment
Give myrrhy-threaded golden folds of ease.
Your scarce-sheathed bones are weary of being bent:
Lo, God shall strengthen all the feeble knees.

I. The Sacrament of Reconciliation

(a) Summary: The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the representation and consecration of the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial conversion, penance, and satisfaction. In this sacrament, the sinner is reconciled to God, Church, and self by receiving the priest’s sacramental absolution. This sacrament restores the communion broken by sin.

(b) Questions for discussion:

a. Why is this sacrament necessary if baptism purifies us from all sin?
b. What is the “treasury of the Church,” and what is its relation to this sacrament?
c. What is the “double consequence” of sin?

II. The Sacrament of the Sick

(a) Summary: The Sacrament of the Sick is a sacred anointing of the sick person in which the recipient of the sacrament is united with Christ’s Passion for the healing of both soul and body. The sacrament completes the union with Christ begun at baptism and fortifies the end of our earthly life in preparation for our passing from this world to the Father.

(b) Questions for discussion:

a. What is the relation between this sacrament and the Eucharist? And Penance?
b. What are the so-called “sacraments of completion”?
c. Can this sacrament be received more than once for the same illness?

III. The Sacrament of Holy Orders

(a) Summary: The Sacrament of Holy Orders is the sacrament of apostolic ministry, which includes three degrees: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate. This sacrament is a special participation in the priesthood of Christ and consecrates specific men as successors of the apostles for the sake of serving the ecclesial community.

(b) Questions for discussion:

a. Why is the sacrament of Holy Orders given to men alone?
b. Why are priests celibate?
c. Why constitutes the “essential” difference between the “common priesthood of all the faithful” and the ministerial priesthood?

IV. The Sacrament of Matrimony

(a) Summary: The Sacrament of Matrimony is an indissoluble covenant between a man and a woman which signifies and communicates the grace of the New Covenant in Christ, the spouse of the Church.

(b) Questions for discussion:

a. If living together becomes practically impossible and reconciliation is not possible, will the Church grant a divorce? Why or why not?
b. Can a Catholic marry a non-Catholic? If so, how? If not, why?
c. What is the relation between marriage and childbearing?