Don Bosco Technical College

Mandaluyong City
CHRISTIAN LIVING II
Handouts
Subject Teacher:
Mr. Gerald S. Cabrestante
Lesson 1: We believe that as friends of Christ we are all called to be holy
The Church and Saints
When the New Testament talks about the Church it speaks of an assembly of people. In
the Bible the word Church is a translation of the Greek word ekklesia,
ekklesia, meaning "a
calling for an assembly.

It is therefore important to take note the difference between the Church and the
church. Jesus thought of the Church as the people of God, the early believers of
Christ who gather in His name. Later on, it just developed into structures of worship
especially in the medieval ages.

Pilgrim Church
Like the Israelites journeying towards the Promised Land, as a Church, we journey as
pilgrims in this life, hoping to enjoy one day the fullness of life. That is why we call
ourselves a pilgrim Church.

Thus the Catholic Church was born. We who have become members of the Church
through Baptism captures the idea of a Church exiled from her true homeland but
gradually making her way home by faith and not by sight. Indeed, we are pilgrims
journeying to our final goal in heaven.

Civilization of Love
The Church is ONE - We are ONE because all of us of different races and cultures
are united around the Pope, our Head, the Vicar of Christ.
The Church is HOLY - We are HOLY, because our goal is to become like God, holy
and without sin. Those already in heaven are saints, made holy by God. We are still
pilgrims on earth, striving to live holy lives.
The Church is CATHOLIC - We are CATHOLIC (meaning universal), because in
obedience to Christ who sent his apostles to the whole world, our Church is open to
every race, language and people. This is the beauty of Gods plan of salvation, in
choosing few, he chose the whole of humanity
The Church is APOSTOLIC - We are APOSTOLIC inasmuch as we are all sent to
continue preaching the Good News of Salvation, to spread the love of God in all we
meet, to be ourselves witnesses of Gods transforming love.
The Facts of Death
The fact is that death is a reality in life. We cannot escape it. How foolish when people
spend all the resources they have to be younger. If there is really a fountain of youth or
a flask of immortality, many would try to seek for them. But we cannot escape death.

 We need to prepare to die

St. John Bosco shares this same view. He prepares his students about the reality of
death. It is for this reason why we have a monthly exercise for a Happy Death. It is
a practice among Salesians and bosconians that every end of the month, all are ready
as if death is about to take them. They all have went to confession and communion.
They returned all borrowed things and fixed their own things. He teaches the boys that
death is not something to be feared but something to be prepared for.
Our negative attitude about death actually springs from how we have lived our life. To
prepare for death is to live life fully. You must love, show that you love, say that you
love. You give kindness to everyone. You forgive no matter how many times. To prepare
for death is not really to fear it, but actually welcome it with readiness in your heart
and soul. For death is not actually the end of everything, it is only a transition to a new
beginning a new life with God.
The Human Soul
For although the reality of death comes, what only perishes is our body. Our existence
doesnt pass away for there is something in man that prevails even into eternity. That is
our soul. The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal
(body) and spiritual (soul). That is, he is made up of body and soul.
In Sacred Scriptures, the term soul often refers to human life (soul comes from the
Latin anima which means breath a principle of life. But soul also refers to the
innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him, that by which he is
most especially in Gods image: soul signifies the spiritual principle in man.
The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God it is not
produced by parents and also it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates
from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection.
As previously mentioned, that death is not actually the end of everything. It is actually
a transition for the mans beginning of a new life. This is what we call the Everlasting
Life.
Realities towards eternal life
From the moment of his death, every man receives his eternal recompense (reward or
punishment) in his immortal soul in a particular judgment by Christ, the judge of the
living and the dead.
DEATH - the very entry to eternal life.
Particular Judgement - a judgment not merely imposed on us from outside but by
our free acts in life to become open to Christs light and love or having freely chosen
to harden our hearts to his love and thus let ourselves be condemned to eternal
punishment
Heaven - the state of being with the Lord, often described as the beatific vision,
the consummation of the life of faith, hope and love (3 theological virtues) begun on
earth.
Hell - the eternal damnation, the finality of death, whose essence is simply the loss of
God.
Purgatory - the state of final purification by calming excessive anxiety over the
remnants of selfishness and sin even in the lives of generous and loving persons.
Parousia General Resurrection and final judgement.

The awaiting of the day of the Lord. Gods justice will have the final say
about all of human history, bringing all things to their complete fulfillment
and providing the unshakeable ground of Christian hope

What is a Saint?
Saints, broadly speaking, are those who follow Jesus Christ and live their lives
according to his teaching. Catholics, however, also use the term narrowly to refer to
especially holy men and women who, through extraordinary lives of virtue, have
already entered Heaven.

Sainthood in the New Testament

The word "saint" literally means "holy," and, in the New Testament, "saint" referred to
all who believed in Jesus Christ and followed his teachings. St. Paul often addressed his
epistles to "the saints" of a particular city (see, for instance, Ephesians 1:1 and 2
Corinthians 1:1), and the Acts of the Apostles talks about St. Peter going to visit the
saints in Lydda (Acts 9:2). The assumption was that those who followed Christ had been
so transformed that they were now different from other men and women and, thus,
should be considered holy.

Practitioners of Heroic Virtue

Very early on, however, the meaning of the word began to change. As Christianity
began to spread, it became clear that some Christians lived lives of extraordinary, or
heroic, virtue. While other Christians struggled to live out the gospel of Christ, these
people were eminent examples of the moral virtues, and they easily practiced the
theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
The word "saint" thus became more narrowly applied to such people, who were
venerated after their deaths as saints, usually by the members of their local church or
the Christians in the region where they lived, because they were familiar with their
good deeds. Eventually, the Catholic Church created a process, called "canonization,"
through which such venerable people could be recognized as saints by all Christians
everywhere.

Canonized and Acclaimed Saints

Most of the saints whom we refer to by that title (for instance, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)
have gone through this process of canonization. Others, such as St. Peter and St. Paul,
received the title through acclamation, or the universal recognition of their holiness.
Catholics believe that both types of saints (canonized and acclaimed) are already in
Heaven, which is why one of the requirements for the canonization process is proof of
miracles performed by the possible saint after his death. Canonized saints can be
venerated anywhere and prayed to publicly, and their lives are held up to Christians
still struggling here on earth as examples to be imitated.

Why do Catholics pray to Saints?

Like all Christians, Catholics believe in life after death, but they also believe that our
relationship with other Christians does not end with death. Catholic prayer to saints is
recognition of this communion.

 Do Catholics believe that saints should be worshiped?

Why do they pray to saints?
Is there a difference between prayer and worship?

The Communion of Saints

Like all Christians, Catholics believe in life after death. Those who have lived good lives
and died in the faith of Christ will, as the Bible tells us, share in his resurrection.
While we live together on earth as Christians, we are in communion, or unity, with one
another. But that communion doesnt end when one of us dies. We believe that
Christians in heaven, the saints, remain in communion with those of us on earth.
So, just as we might ask a friend or family member to pray for us, we can approach a
saint with our prayers, too.

Feast of All Saints:

The Feast of All Saints is celebrated on All Saints Day, November 1st in the Western
Christian calendar. The purpose of this feast and celebration is to emphasize a bond
between those already with God and those who remain here. Not all Christian
communities had a local martyr, which was a detriment, so these churches celebrated
a feast for martyrs generally. Around the 5th century, a celebration for All Saints was
established; in the 8th century, Pope Gregory IV fixed the date to November 1.

Venerable status & Saints:

The first step toward canonization and sainthood is not beatification, as many believe,
but the status of venerable. When a person receives the title Venerable, it means
that they are now under serious investigation to see if their holiness is sufficient to
later merit beatification and canonization. It means that they have led a virtuous life
certainly more virtuous than the average believer, but perhaps not quite so virtuous
as that of a saint.

Beatification & Saints:

Beatification, the second step towards canonization which permits people to publicly
venerate a person (from the Latin beatus, blessed and facere, to make or do) is a
formal papal declaration that a deceased person deserves to be called blessed.
Beatification occurs when a person had an especially holy character and (preferably)
suffered a heroic death. A blessed person is assumed to be enjoying heaven, and
perhaps also have special status there.

Intercession of Saints:
When they act on behalf of humanity, it is called intercession. People who pray to a
saint for intercession dont believe that healing, forgiveness, or various blessings come
from the saint. Instead, they come from God but on account of the saints help. In

this way, veneration of saints is essentially also a form of worship of God because the
holiness and power of saints can only come through God.

Canonization of Saints

Canonization is the process by which a person is declared to be a saint in Roman

Catholicism. Canonization occurs only after beatification and means that a person is
definitely in heaven, enjoying the presence of God. Canonization permits the entire
Church to venerate the person and seek intercession from them. Canonization involves
a ceremony, the issuance of a papal bull, and setting a feast day. Shrines may be
dedicated to them and they may be declared the patron saint of some place.
The veneration of saints has been a common practice since the early church, but it was
only gradually that the identification of who is a saint came to be regulated by bishops
and the pope. Beginning in the 10th century, the Roman Catholic Church asserted that
no one could be venerated as a saint without its approval.
The first recorded canonization of a saint is Ulrich of Augsburg by Pope John XV in
993. The process of canonization became a part of canon law in the Roman Catholic
Church and developed into a long and complex process. This process was simplified by
the Apostolic Constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister of January 25, 1983. Other
churches, particularly the Orthodox and Anglican churches, also honor saints and have
their own systems for canonizing saints who lived after their splits with the Roman
Catholic Church. The Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican Churches share common saints
from before 1000 AD.

The Significance of Canonization

The primary purpose of canonization is to officially authorize veneration of and prayer

to a particular deceased person. The investigation process that precedes canonization
seeks primarily to ensure that the person is in heaven and God is working through him
or her.

Being canonized as a saint means that:

The saint's name is added to the official catalogue of saints (meaning that veneration
is authorized)
The saint is invoked in public prayers.
Churches may be dedicated in the saint's memory.
The Mass can be offered in the saint's honor.
Feast days are celebrated in the saint's memory.
Images of the saint are made in which his or her head is surrounded by a halo.
The saint's relics (remains) are enclosed in vessels and publicly honored.

The Importance of Miracles

If a person is martyred for the faith, miracles are not necessary to be declared a saint.
As mentioned above, the purpose of canonization is to verify that the person is now in
heaven, and all those who die as martyrs are believed to go directly to heaven.

For those who died naturally, however, at least one miracle is necessary to be
declared Blessed (beatified) and at least two miracles are necessary to be declared a
saint (canonized). These miracles must have occurred after the person's death (to

demonstrate that the person is in heaven and able to assist the living), but miracles
during his or her lifetime may also be taken into account as evidence of God's favor.
When considering a reported miracle, the Church often consults with medical,
scientific and theological experts to see if there might be alternative explanations. If
the experts can find no explanation, they report that to the Church (they do not
declare the event to be a miracle, just that they could find no natural explanation.

The Process of Canonization

The process of declaring a deceased Christian to be saint was originally quite informal,
but became increasingly regulated over the centuries and is now defined by canon
law. The steps for becoming a saint are as follows:
1) Usually between 5 and 50 years after a would-be saint's death, a formal request is
made to consider the person a saint. The group making the request, called the Actor
Causae, consists of people from the candidate's church and community, and the
request is directed to the bishop of the diocese where the person died. The request
includes testimony of the person's exceptional virtue and dedication to God.
2) The bishop decides whether the evidence is compelling enough to take it to Rome. If
so, he asks the Congregation for the Causes of Saints for permission to open the
cause.
3) If permission is granted, the bishop opens a tribunal and calls witnesses to attest to the
quality of the person's public life. The person must be shown to have been virtuous,
devout, religious, and characterized by love, kindness, prudence and other virtues
(concrete examples are required). Miracles are not necessary at this point, but they are
recorded if mentioned. If the person asses this step, he or she is called a Servant of
God.
4) The bishop sends a report to Rome, where it is translated into Italian. This step is called
the Apostolic Process.
5) A summary called the Positio is presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
and the local bishop appoints a postulator to be in charge of promoting the cause of
the potential saint.
6) Nine theologians scrutinize the evidence and documentation. If the majority pass it, it
goes before the cardinals who are members of the Congregation.
7) If the cardinals approve, the Prefect of the Congregation authorizes the person to be
called Venerable.
8) If any miracles are reported (which qualify the person for beatification or canonization),
the Prefect presents the cause to the pope to decide.
9) The pope authorizes a potential saint to be beatified (publicly declared blessed) when
at least one miracle has been confirmed. The person may now be called Blessed.
10)
When a second miracle has been confirmed the pope formally canonizes the person
at a special
Mass, usually celebrated by the pope in Rome. The person may now officially be called
Saint.
Ceremony of Canonization
The formal declaration of beatification or canonization occurs during a special Mass
conducted by the pope. It usually takes place outdoors in St. Peter's Square before
large crowds, but sometimes is conducted in the saint's home country. In 2001, over a
half million people attended the canonization of Padre Pio (1887-1968). The
canonization ceremony is conducted as follows:

The saint's life history is read aloud.

The pope chants the following in Latin: In honor of the Blessed Trinity, for the exaltation
of the Catholic Faith and the growth of Christian life, with the authority of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and Our Own, after lengthy
reflection, having assiduously invoked God's assistance and taken into account the
opinion of many brothers of ours in the episcopate, we declare and define [name] to be
a saint [or "to be blessed"], and we enroll him in the Catalogue of the saints, and we
establish that in the whole Church he should be devoutly honored among the saints. In
the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The person is officially recognized as blessed or as a saint at this point. A large tapestry
with an image of the saint is unfurled before the faithful to admire and venerate.