Actual Grace
This supernatural, free, and undeserved help from God is given for specific circumstances to help us choose what is good and avoid what is evil
Charism
A specific gift or grace of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefits the Church, given in order to help a person live out the Christian life, or to serve the common good in building up the Church
Church
The name given to the assembly of people whom God has called together from the ends of the earth. This word has three meanings: the people that God gathers together, the local curch (diocese), and the liturgical assembly. Also, the name given to a building used for public Christian worship.
Concupiscence
Human appetites or desires remain disordered due to the temporal consequences of Original Sin; Concupiscence remains even after Baptism and constitutes an inclination to sin. It is often used to refer to desires resulting from strong sensual urges or attachment to things of this world.
Covenant
A solemn agreement between people or between God and man involving mutual commitments and guarantees.
Ex Opere Operato
A term in sacramental theology (literally, "by the work done"), meaning that sacraments are effective by means of the sacramental rites themselves, and not because of the worthiness of the minister or recipient.
Form
The necessary ritual words and signs that accompany a sacrament.
Habitual (Sanctifying) Grace
An infused gift of the Holy Spirit by which a person receives the divine life of God in one's soul. This grace is also called "sanctifying" grace and through it a person receives the tree theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. Habitual grace enables one to live as a true disciple of Christ.
Image of God (Imago Dei)
The image of God, present in all humans by virtue of their creation by Almighty God, is made even more explicit through the Sacrament of Baptism, whereby one is "baptized into" Christ and made "a new creation." That image of Christ is enhanced through living a life of grace or marred by the commission of sin.
Matter
The material or physical sign of a sacrament. Examples include water, baptism, and bread and wine, the Eucharist.
Messiah
Hebrew for "anointed." This is used in reference to Jesus because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission of priest, prophet, and king, signified by his being anointed as Christ.
Minister
The person who administers or celebrates a sacrament.
Mystical Body of Christ
Based on the teaching of St. Paul found in his First Letter to the Corinthians, this doctrine holds that believers are united to Christ as branches to a vine and, due to that union, united to one another.
Original Sin
Adam and Eve's abuse of their human freedom in disobeying God's command. As a consequence, they lost the grace of original holiness and justice, and became subject to the law of death; sin became universally present in the world; every person is born into this condition. This sin separated mankind from God, darkened the human intellect, weekend the human will, and introduced into human nature an inclination toward sin.
Protoevangelium
From the Greek proto meaning "first" and evaggelos meaning "bringing good news." The first message of Good News - the first Gospel - is Genesis 3:15 in which the promise of the Messiah and Redeemer is foretold.
Redemption
Literally meaning "being bought back," the act by which Jesus Christ, through his sacrificial Death on the Cross, set us free from the slavery of sin, thus redeeming or "buying us back" from the power of the Devil.
Resurrection
The bodily rising of Jesus from the dead, as he had foretold, on the third day after his Death on the Cross and burial in the tomb. By virtue of his resurrection with Christ on the last day.
Sacrament
An efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed through the work of the Holy Spirit. There are seven sacraments.
Sacramental Character
An indelible mark, i.e., a permanent and unrepeatable spiritual quality, imprinted on the soul by the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, that gives the Christian a share in the priesthood of Christ.
Sacrilege
Profaning the sacraments or other liturgical actions, or things consecrated to God in a special way, such as priests, religious women and men, churches, shrines, convents or monasteries, icons, statues, etc. Extreme irreverence by word or deed.
Sanctifying Grace
The free and unmerited favor of God given through the sacraments. This heals human nature wounded by sin by giving man a share in the divine life infused into the soul by the Holy Spirit to heal from sin and sanctify.
Grace
Gift (and help) given by God.
Triple Concupiscence of Adam and Eve
that subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness of earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of reason.
Mary's Response to Gabriel
Let it be to me according to your word. (Lk 1:38)
Meaning of Sacramentum
Means "oath," it was an oath taken by Roman soldiers upon entering the Roman military where they pledged their loyalty to them empire and it's mission.
Material Sign of Baptism
Water
Material Sign of Confirmation
Sacred Chrism (oil)
Material Sign of Eucharist
Wheat bread and wine.
Material Sign of Reconciliation
Oral confession
Material Sign of Holy Orders
The laying on of hands.
Material Sign of Matrimony
Exchange of vows and consummation
Material Sign of Anointing of the Sick
Oil and laying on of hands.
Efficacious
Having the power to produce a desired effect.
Sign
Something that points to a greater reality.
Three Divine Calls of Sacraments
A call to personal holiness, a call to worship, and a call to correct moral attitude.
Eastern Rites of Catholic Church
Result of the Great Schism, followed the Patriarch of Constantinople, retained their unique liturgical customs.
Bl. Otto Neururer
The first priest killed in the Nazi concentration camps. Lived a priestly life and characterized by an extraordinary fidelity to his priestly work.
Sacraments of Initiation
baptism, confirmation, and the eucharist.
Sacraments of Healing
Reconciliation and anointing of the sick.
Sacraments of Vocation
Holy Orders and matrimony.
Ex Opere Operantis
The subjective state of the minister and recipient.
Sacramentum Tantum
the external reality (sacramental sign)
Res Tantum
the sacramental reality
Res et Sacramentum
the effect of the sacrament.