First Universal Catechism St. Augustine AD Council of Trent AD Vatican Council

Catechesis is handing on the Faith To adults To children To converts Catechism – Greek “to speak and echo” Questions and answers

Compendiium Introduction, Moto Propio Three Principal characteristics of the Compendium: 1.Close reliance on the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2.The dialogical format 3.The use of artistic images in the cathechism

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. CCC1, Comp #1

He invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God CCC 27 (Compenidum #2)

Ways of Coming to Know God Created in God's image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, twofold point of departure 1. the physical world 2. the human person CCC 31-33, Comp 3

The world - the five proofs for the existence of God: 1.movement and motion– unmoved mover First ProofFirst Proof 2.becoming – the uncaused cause 3.Contingency - 4.The world's order and beauty - 5.one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe. 6.Aquinas' Five Proofs for the Existence of GodAquinas' Five Proofs for the Existence of God

The human person: 1.Openness to truth and beauty, 2.Sense of moral goodness, 3.His freedom and the voice of his conscience, 4.Longings for the infinite and for happiness 5.Signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material can have its origin only in God.

God can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason. However, man experiences many difficulties in coming to know God by the light of reason alone So God has also revealed them to us through Scripture and the Apostolic Tradition WE speak about God using human language, even though that is limited CCC 36-40, Comp 4 & 5 The Knowledge of God according to the Church