CATECHISM: FAITH MUSIC VIDEO: Teach My Heart OPENING PRAYER: Heb 1, 1-4 Long ago God spoke to our

ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. CATECHISM PROPER: 1. WHAT TO EXPECT: a. b. c. d. What is Revelation? Who reveals and what is revealed? How does God reveal himself? What is it to me? To us?

2. WHAT IS REVELATION? a. You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised [...] You have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you. (Saint Augustine) b. The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our own response of love allows God's life to flow into us without limit. All the things in this world are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily. (Saint Ignatius of Loyola) c. Important Points: We come from the loving hands of God who wishes to reveal himself to us and draw us into a loving relationship, into an intimate relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Even though God is essentially mystery, a mystery so profound that we cannot comprehend, yet this God has not removed himself from us. In fact, in him we live, move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Our loving God has placed within us a capacity to respond to his reaching to us. d. CCC 50-53: God in his goodness and wisdom reveals himself. With deeds and words, he reveals HIMSELF and his PLAN of loving goodness that he decreed from all eternity in Christ. According to this plan, all people by the grace of the Holy Spirit are to share in the divine life as adopted sons in the only begotten Son of God.

e. Eph 1, 9-10: [H]e has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. f. Important Points: God reveals Himself. God reveals His plan of salvation. 3. HOW DOES GOD REVEAL HIMSELF? a. God reveals himself in CREATION. [CCC31-33] i. Gods fingerprints are all over his creation. ii. It is for us to open the eyes of our soul and see this presence of God in all that he has made. iii. Ps 19, 1-2: The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. iv. Ps 8, 1; 3-4: O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? v. Throughout history, people with open minds have seen the universe as evidence of Gods existence. vi. The order, harmony and beauty of the world point to an intelligent creator. b. God Reveals himself through the contemplation the HUMAN PERSON. [CCC 33-35] i. Psalm 139: 13-16: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be. ii. CCC 33: The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the "seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material",[GS 18, #1; cf. 14, #2] can have its origin only in God. iii. This yearning for God found in the history of people in all places and times lead us to believe that in the core of his being, man is fundamentally a religious being. iv. "Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God," (G. K. Chesterton) v. There is light enough for those who want to see and darkness enough for those who are otherwise inclined. ; If you win, you win everything. (Blaise Pascal) vi. Faith in God is the best wager. With atheism or unbelief, one risks losing everything. vii. CCC 50: By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the order of DIVINE REVELATION. c. DIVINE REVELATION i. God reveals his loving plan of salvation through DEEDS and WORDS [CCC 5167] ii. Human beings reveal themselves to each other by deeds and words which are both linked: the truth of what we say is borne out by our deeds iii. After the fall, God did not abandon humanity; he did not stop loving us, his sons and daughters. iv. Rather, he created a plan to restore our friendship with him. v. Eucharistic Prayer IV: again and again you offered friendship to man and taught him to hope for salvation. vi. OLD TESTAMENT: DEEDS: God gradually himself and his saving plan with covenants with Noah, Abraham, and the people of Israel; significant revelatory events Exodus and Sinai Covenant (10 Commandments-how we ought to relate with God and each other) WORDS: spoke through the prophets of a New Covenant with all of humanity and the promise of a messiah

vii. NEW TESTAMENT: JESUS: THE FULLNESS OF GODS REVELATION HEB 1, 1-2: Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son . . . . Through the deeds and words of Jesus, God spoke a perfect, complete and final word to humanity. o DEEDS: miracles, inclusion of the marginalized, passion, death, and resurrection o WORDS: teachings and parables, Sermon on the Mount Jesus revealed the Trinitarian God, God as infinitely loving, forgiving, generous, etc. viii. WITH JESUS, PUBLIC REVELATION HAS ENDED. While public Revelation ended with Jesus, our understanding of Revelation did not end. The truth that is found in Jesus Christ is something like a gold mine. We have discovered the mine (or rather, God has revealed the mine to us), yet we still have the task of digging out all the gold. This means that the Holy Spirit is enabling the Church over the course of centuries to uncover the truth revealed in Christ, and at times along the way to define the truth that she has come to understand. -- Alan Schreck So until the end of time, the Holy Spirit will be helping the Church to: o Grow in her understanding of what Jesus said and did; o State in new and fresh ways her growing understanding of Divine Revelation [e.g. the Catechism of the Catholic Church] d. PRIVATE REVELATION i. E.g. Apparitions of Mary ii. Some are recognized by the Church iii. They do not improve or complete Christs definitive Revelation but help live more fully by it iv. Important to discern and welcome whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ to the Church. 4. WHAT IS IT TO ME? TO US? a. Importance of the EUCHARIST b. PRAYER and DISCERNMENT

IGNATIAN EXAMEN 1. Become aware of Gods presence. Look back on the events of the day in the company of the Holy Spirit. The day may seem confusing to youa blur, a jumble, a muddle. Ask God to bring clarity and understanding. 2. Review the day with gratitude. Gratitude is the foundation of our relationship with God. Walk through your day in the presence of God and note its joys and delights. Focus on the days gifts. Look at the work you did, the people you interacted with. What did you receive from these people? What did you give them? Pay attention to small thingsthe food you ate, the sights you saw, and other seemingly small pleasures. God is in the details. 3. Pay attention to your emotions. One of St. Ignatiuss great insights was that we detect the presence of the Spirit of God in the movements of our emotions. Reflect on the feelings you experienced during the day. Boredom? Elation? Resentment? Compassion? Anger? Confidence? What is God saying through these feelings? God will most likely show you some ways that you fell short. Make note of these sins and faults. But look deeply for other implications. Does a feeling of frustration perhaps mean that God wants you consider a new direction in some area of your work? Are you concerned about a friend? Perhaps you should reach out to her in some way. 4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it. Ask the Holy Spirit to direct you to something during the day that God thinks is particularly important. It may involve a feelingpositive or negative. It may be a significant encounter with another person or a vivid moment of pleasure or peace. Or it may be something that seems rather insignificant. Look at it. Pray about it. Allow the prayer to arise spontaneously from your heartwhether intercession, praise, repentance, or gratitude. 5. Look toward tomorrow. Ask God to give you light for tomorrows challenges. Pay attention to the feelings that surface as you survey whats coming up. Are you doubtful? Cheerful? Apprehensive? Full of delighted anticipation? Allow these feelings to turn into prayer. Seek Gods guidance. Ask him for help and understanding. Pray for hope.

CLOSING PRAYER: A prayer of St Anselm Lord Jesus Christ; Let me seek you by desiring you, and let me desire you by seeking you; let me find you by loving you, and love you in finding you. I confess, Lord, with thanksgiving, that you have made me in your image, so that I can remember you, think of you, and love you. But that image is so worn and blotted out by faults, and darkened by the smoke of sin, that it cannot do that for which it was made, unless you renew and refashion it. Lord, I am not trying to make my way to your height, for my understanding is in no way equal to that, but I do desire to understand a little of your truth which my heart already believes and loves. I do not seek to understand so that I can believe, but I believe so that I may understand; and what is more, I believe that unless I do believe, I shall not understand. Amen. Dei Verbum [Dogmatic Constitution of the Church on Divine Revelation] 2: In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature (see Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4). Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 1;15, 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 33:11; John 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take them into fellowship with Himself. This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having in inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest 6

truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation.