Catechism of the Catholic Church

 PROLOGUE

 I. The life of man - to know and love God

 II. Handing on the Faith: Catechesis

 III. The Aim and Intended Readership of the Catechism

 IV. Structure of this Catechism

 V. Practical Directions for Using this Catechism

 VI. Necessary Adaptations

 PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

 SECTION ONE I BELIEVE - WE BELIEVE

 CHAPTER ONE MAN'S CAPACITY FOR GOD

 I. The Desire for God

 II. Ways of Coming to Know God

 III. The Knowledge of God According to the Church

 IV. How Can We Speak about God?

 IN BRIEF

 CHAPTER TWO GOD COMES TO MEET MAN

 Article 1 THE REVELATION OF GOD

 Article 2 THE TRANSMISSION OF DIVINE REVELATION

 Article 3 SACRED SCRIPTURE

 CHAPTER THREE MAN'S RESPONSE TO GOD

 Article 1 I BELIEVE

 Article 2 WE BELIEVE

 Article 2 WE BELIEVE : The Credo

 SECTION TWO THE CREEDS

 CHAPTER ONE I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER

 Article 1 I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

 CHAPTER TWO I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF GOD

 ARTICLE 2 AND IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD

 Article 3 HE WAS CONCEIVED BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND WAS BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY

 Article 4 JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DIED AND WAS BURIED

 Article 5 HE DESCENDED INTO HELL. ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN

 Article 6 HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN AND IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER

 Article 7 FROM THENCE HE WILL COME AGAlN TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

 ARTICLE 8 I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

 CHAPTER THREE I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

 Article 9 I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH

 Article 10 I BELIEVE IN THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS

 Article 11 I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY

 Article 12 I BELIEVE IN LIFE EVERLASTING

 PART TWO: THE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY

 SECTION ONE THE SACRAMENTAL ECONOMY

 CHAPTER ONE THE PASCHAL MYSTERY IN THE AGE OF THE CHURCH

 Article 1 THE LITURGY - WORK OF THE HOLY TRINITY

 Article 2 THE PASCHAL MYSTERY IN THE CHURCH'S SACRAMENTS

 CHAPTER TWO THE SACRAMENTAL CELEBRATION OF THE PASCHAL MYSTERY

 Article 1 CELEBRATING THE CHURCH'S LITURGY

 Article 2 LITURGICAL DIVERSITY AND THE UNITY OF THE MYSTERY

 SECTION TWO THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH

 CHAPTER ONE THE SACRAMENTS OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION

 Article 1 THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

 Article 2 THE SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION

 Article 3 THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST

 CHAPTER TWO THE SACRAMENTS OF HEALING

 Article 4 THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION

 Article 5 THE ANOINTING OF THE SICK

 CHAPTER THREE THE SACRAMENTS AT THE SERVICE OF COMMUNION

 ARTICLE 6 THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY ORDERS

 Article 7 THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY

 CHAPTER FOUR OTHER LITURGICAL CELEBRATIONS

 Article 1 SACRAMENTALS

 Article 2 CHRISTIAN FUNERALS

 PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST

 SECTION ONE MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

 CHAPTER ONE THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

 Article 1 MAN: THE IMAGE OF GOD

 Article 2 OUR VOCATION TO BEATITUDE

 Article 3 MAN'S FREEDOM

 Article 4 THE MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS

 Article 5 THE MORALITY OF THE PASSIONS

 Article 6 MORAL CONSCIENCE

 Article 7 THE VIRTUES

 Article 8 SIN

 CHAPTER TWO THE HUMAN COMMUNION

 Article 1 THE PERSON AND SOCIETY

 Article 2 PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL LIFE

 Article 3 SOCIAL JUSTICE

 CHAPTER THREE GOD'S SALVATION: LAW AND GRACE

 Article 1 THE MORAL LAW

 Article 2 GRACE AND JUSTIFICATION

 Article 3 THE CHURCH, MOTHER AND TEACHER

 SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

 CHAPTER ONE YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND

 Article 1 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

 Article 2 THE SECOND COMMANDMENT

 Article 3 THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

 CHAPTER TWO YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF

 ARTICLE 4 THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

 Article 5 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

 Article 6 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

 Article 7 THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

 Article 8 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

 Article 9 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

 Article 10 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

 PART FOUR: CHRISTIAN PRAYER

 SECTION ONE PRAYER IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

 CHAPTER ONE THE REVELATION OF PRAYER - THE UNIVERSAL CALL TO PRAYER

 Article 1 IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

 Article 2 IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME

 Article 3 IN THE AGE OF THE CHURCH

 CHAPTER TWO THE TRADITION OF PRAYER

 Article 1 AT THE WELLSPRINGS OF PRAYER

 Article 2 THE WAY OF PRAYER

 Article 3 GUIDES FOR PRAYER

 CHAPTER THREE THE LIFE OF PRAYER

 Article 1 EXPRESSIONS OF PRAYER

 Article 2 THE BATTLE OF PRAYER

 Article 3 THE PRAYER OF THE HOUR OF JESUS

 SECTION TWO THE LORD'S PRAYER

                           THE LORD'S PRAYER

 Article 1 THE SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE GOSPEL

 Article 2 OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN

 Article 3 THE SEVEN PETITIONS

 Article 4 THE FINAL DOXOLOGY

Article 1 AT THE WELLSPRINGS OF PRAYER

AT THE WELLSPRINGS OF PRAYER

2652 The Holy Spirit is the living water "welling up to eternal life" 3 in the heart that prays. It is he who teaches us to accept it at its source: Christ. Indeed in the Christian life there are several wellsprings where Christ awaits us to enable us to drink of the Holy Spirit.

The Word of God

2653 The Church "forcefully and specially exhorts all the Christian faithful . . . to learn 'the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ' ( Ò Phil 3:8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.... Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man. For 'we speak to him when we pray; we listen to him when we read the divine oracles."' 4

2654 The spiritual writers, paraphrasing Matthew 7:7, summarize in this way the dispositions of the heart nourished by the word of God in prayer "Seek in reading and you will find in meditating; knock in mental prayer and it will be opened to you by contemplation." 5

The Liturgy of the Church

2655 In the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit proclaims, makes present, and communicates the mystery of salvation, which is continued in the heart that prays. the spiritual writers sometimes compare the heart to an altar. Prayer internalizes and assimilates the liturgy during and after its celebration. Even when it is lived out "in secret," 6 prayer is always prayer of the Church; it is a communion with the Holy Trinity. 7

The theological virtues

2656 One enters into prayer as one enters into liturgy: by the narrow gate of faith. Through the signs of his presence, it is the Face of the Lord that we seek and desire; it is his Word that we want to hear and keep.

2657 The Holy Spirit, who instructs us to celebrate the liturgy in expectation of Christ's return, teaches us - to pray in hope. Conversely, the prayer of the Church and personal prayer nourish hope in us. the psalms especially, with their concrete and varied language, teach us to fix our hope in God: "I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry." 8 As St. Paul prayed: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." 9

2658 "Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." 10 Prayer, formed by the liturgical life, draws everything into the love by which we are loved in Christ and which enables us to respond to him by loving as he has loved us. Love is the source of prayer; whoever draws from it reaches the summit of prayer. In the words of the Cure of Ars:

I love you, O my God, and my only desire is to love you until the last breath of my life. I love you, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving you, than live without loving you. I love you, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love you eternally.... My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as often as I draw breath. 11

"Today"

2659 We learn to pray at certain moments by hearing the Word of the Lord and sharing in his Paschal mystery, but his Spirit is offered us at all times, in the events of each day, to make prayer spring up from us. Jesus' teaching about praying to our Father is in the same vein as his teaching about providence: 12 time is in the Father's hands; it is in the present that we encounter him, not yesterday nor tomorrow, but today: "O that today you would hearken to his voice! Harden not your hearts." 13

2660 Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to "little children," to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom. 14

3 Ò Jn 4:14 4 DV 25; cf. Ò Phil 3:8; St. Ambrose, De officiis ministrorum 1, 20,88: PL 16, 50. 5 Guigo the Carthusian, Scala Paradisi: PL 40, 998. 6 Cf. Ò Mt 6:6[ETML:C/]. 7 GILH 9. 8 Ò Ps 40:2. 9 Ò Rom 15:13. 10 Ò Rom 5:5. 11 St. John Vianney, Prayer. 12 Cf. Ò Mt 6:11, Ò 34. 13 Ò Ps 95:7-8. 14 Cf. Ò Lk 13:20-21.

IN BRIEF

IN BRIEF

2661 By a living transmission -Tradition - the Holy Spirit in the Church teaches the children of God to pray.

2662 The Word of God, the liturgy of the Church, and the virtues of faith, hope, and charity are sources of prayer.