Discipleship

Chapter 1

will - The will of God refers to God's power to bring something good into existence. God, who is all loving, calls goodness into being in the life of each person. Our challenge is to realize and be responsive to that goodness. Scripture, Church teachings, and prayer help us meet this challenge.

Chapter 2

virtue - Virtue comes from the Latin word meaning, "strength", is a habitual and firm disposition to do good. It helps us to grow in love of God and others.

The theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity) are gifts from God and the foundation of Christian moral activity. They affect all our relationships.

The moral virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) are acquired by human effort and help us live a morally good life.

G = gratitude for all their parents have done and continue to do for them

R = responsibility in caring for property, in doing their work well and on time, and so forth.

O = obedience in terms of understanding and then following the necessary rules and requests of parents while learning to discern the spirit (reason) behind them.

W = Work on willingness to assume a fair share of the tasks needed to make the family function smoothly.

Obedience- comes from the Latin word meaning "to listen to" (oboedire). In the Christian life obedience refers to the stance of the free human person before God. We believe that God knows and wants what is best for us. Obedience means listening to God and freely acting to do His will.

disobedience - means not listening to God and acting contrary to his will.

Chapter 3

fidelity - is faithfulness to a person or cause. It can also be defined as loyalty, commitment, trustworthiness, constancy, devotion, allegiance, or keeping one's word. It is the cement that holds a personal relationship together, the heart that keeps it alive. Our relationship with God is rooted in fidelity; God is faithful in his love for us, and we are faithful to him by following his commandments. Yet even if we are unfaithful to God, God will always be faithful to us.

free will - is the ability to choose one's attitudes and actions, to choose between right and wrong. Because we have free will, we are responsible for the results of our choices. The first humans freely chose to disobey God, losing for themselves and for us the perfect friendship they had enjoyed with God. God the Father sent His Son to free us from the power of sin and to restore us to friendship with God.

Chapter 4

sacred - Any person, place, object, time, or action that is dedicated to or set apart for the worship of God is sacred.

ministry - refers to a particular way to serve God and others. Many different ministries, both lay and ordained, are needed to carry out the work Jesus gave the church to do. The word ministry means "service".

intercede - The saints can intercede, or act as special messengers, for us with God. Church teaching clearly distinguishes between worship, which is reserved for God alone, and devotion, by which we honor saints. While cautioning against practices that would detract from worshipping God, the Second Vatican Council encouraged devotion to the saints as a way to enrich our worship.

blessing - a blessing praises God and expresses a deep desire for God's favor to rest upon a person or community. Blessings go beyond wishing someone well. They ask that God's presence and grace be felt in, through, and around someone. The following familiar words are part of a blessing:"May Almighty God bless you, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

Corporal Works of Mercy -These works of mercy are actions that respond to people's basic physical needs, necessary for all human life. All humans are entitlied to have these needs met. When we practice these works of mercy, we are signs of God's kingdom among us.

prayer - is the act by which we speak and listen to GOd. Prayer can be vocal, consisting of words spoken or sung or recited., as in the Lord's prayer. Prayer can be mental, an act of opening oneself to God's presence through a technique such as meditation. Prayer is initiated by God, who moves us by grace to respond.

liturgy - refers to the oublic forms of worship - both rites and prayers - of the church. Before the fourth century, liturgy varied greatly according to local custom. Beginning with Pope Gregory VIII, liturgy was gradually standardized. The most recent reforms by the Second Vatican Council, however, acknowledged the need to respect cultural traditions in liturgy.

worship - comes from the Old English word meaning "honoh". Worship includes all the many ways we praise, thank, and revere God, especially as a community.

Chapter 5

matrimony - A man and a woman who celebrate the sacrament known as Matrimony forever change their own lives and the lives of those around them. Matrimony calls them to love each other through serving and communicating with each other. Matrimony also calls them to live out their covenant, for the sake of others - their children and the faith community - for whom they are a visible sign of Christ's oneness with his church, Thr Body of Christ. In fact the family is often called the domestic Church.

chastity - is the virtue by which we treat our own and others' sexuality with respect, whether we are young or old, married or single. In the context of a religious community, the vow of chastity for married people is renunciation of sexual relations with anyone, while chastity for married people means renouncing sexual relations with anyone other than one's spouse. Through chastity we see that human sexuality is a gift from God that cannot be separated from love.

celibacy - is an unmarried state of life in which a person abstains from sexual intercourse. It may be voluntarily undertaken in order to serve God. In the Western Church celibacy is required of bishops and priests and of deacons who are unmarried at the time of ordination.

revelation - was written in a time of crisis in the early Church when Christians were being ruthlessly persecuted by the Romans. The book is filled with symbolism that provides hope, encourages Christians to wait patiently, reminds them that Jesus will always be with them, and challenges them to have faith in the risen Lord. Those who endure to the end will be joined with Christ forever, a union symbolically represented in the wedding feast of Revelation 19.

Chapter 6

temptation - is anything that encourages us to sin. When we are tempted, we feel pulled to do the wrong thing because of the pleasures or rewards that we think it will bring. We should always recognize the danger that temptation presents, but we may also look on it as a chance to grow in our friendship with God. When we resist temptation, we are being the people God wants us to be.

Chapter 7

justice - is the virtue that enables us to perserve the quality of our relationships with other people and with God. Justice makes it possible for us to give other people what is due them as children of God and to give God what is due Him.

injustice - the opposite of justice - the firm will, which arrises from the love of God and neighbor, to give each person what he is entitled to. The Church teaches that every person has the responsibility to participate in society, and in turn, society must make sure that everyone has the opportunity to do so.

The kingdom of God is a state of perfect joy, peace, love, and justice with God and with others. Although the fullness of God's kingdom will not be realized until after the second coming of Christ, we can begin to experience God's Kingdom now through participating in the Church's life and practicing the Beatitudes.

common good is based on the understanding that God created humans to live together. The common good requires that we help one another become the best we can be.

Compassion - means" to suffer with" another, to feel that person's suffering and to desire to lessen their pain.

Community comes from the Latin word for "common". A community exists because its members have something in common, such as a purpose or belief. The source of Church community is the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 8

prudence -enables us to know what is right and good and then choose the right means of achieving the good. The word prudence means "to see ahead". As the "pilot" of all virtues, prudence allows us to forsee the possible consequences of our actions.

justice - is the virtue that enables us to carry out our moral duties toward God and other people. Justice is much more than fairness. It means giving each person what he or she is due, not based on material standing or merit but simply because he or she is a child of God.

temperance - is something described as moderation, self-control, sobriety, or modesty. Temperance leads us do all things in moderation rather than in excess.

fortitude - is another word for courage, the virtue that strengthens our ability to resist evil and do good.

contrition is sincere sorrow for sin, strong dislike for sin, and the pledge not to sin again.

creed is a profession of faith or summary of belief. It comes from the Latin credo meaning " I believe".

disciple is a follower of Jesus.