God is Our Father, and We are His Children Unit 1: Sessions 1-6

Session 1: God is a Trinity of Persons

Mystery of the Trinity Read Matthew 3:13-17. This Gospel story fully reveals to us for the first time one of the most important truths of our Christian Faith, that God is a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three Persons of the Trinity are present at Jesus’ Baptism and made fully known to us.

Mystery of the Trinity The Trinity is one of most important mysteries of our Christian Faith: God is three Persons and yet still one God. A mystery is a truth that we can know only because God tells us about it. This passage tells us not only about Jesus’ Baptism but also about the mystery that God is three Persons in one God. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. They are not three separate gods, but one God.

Mystery of the Trinity Trinity means “three in one.” Think of the roots of Trinity—tri, which means “three,” and unity which means “one”. God is three Persons, but He is only one God. The mystery of the Trinity is that God is three Persons in one God.

Mystery of the Trinity The Trinity is a mystery of our Faith that is difficult to understand. How can God be both one and three at the same time? The answer to this question lies in a better understanding of what it means to be a person. A person is a unique individual. Each of us is a person. We are unique individuals. I am not you, and you are not me. You are you, and no one else ever can be or will be you.

Mystery of the Trinity God as Trinity is three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each is a unique Person. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, nor is either one the Holy Spirit. Each Person is fully God. God is not three gods, nor is each Person only partly God. The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God. It is difficult to understand how something can be both three and one at the same time. But we know that with God, anything is possible. He has divinely revealed to us that He is Trinity, so therefore it is true.

Mystery of the Trinity Each of the Persons of the Trinity is fully God and participates fully in the work of God. Each Person of the Trinity shows forth this work in a unique and special way that is proper to Him. The Father is the Creator. He keeps all things in existence. The Son is the Savior. He came to earth as Jesus Christ and gave His life for the salvation of everyone. The Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier. To sanctify is to make holy. The Holy Spirit works to make us holy.

Session 2: God Calls Us to Love Him above All Else

Ten Commandments In the Old Testament God gave Moses Ten Commandments to give to His people. A commandment is a rule or law that God gave to His people to learn to love Him and to love each other. The Ten Commandments were laws that God gave to us to teach us how to love.

The Ten Commandments 1. I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange gods before me. 2. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. 3. Remember to keep holy the LORD’s day. 4. Honor your father and mother. 5. You shall not kill.

The Ten Commandments 6. You shall not commit adultery. 7. You shall not steal. 8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. 10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

The Great Commandments Jesus gave us one of His most well-known teachings when He was challenged by a Pharisee. The Pharisees were religious leaders in Jesus’ time, and many of them were enemies of Jesus. This Pharisee hoped to catch Jesus saying something that was against the Law of Moses. Then he could have had Jesus arrested for blasphemy. Blasphemy was a religious crime that involved insulting God or the things of God, or saying or teaching things that went against God’s Law. In response to the Pharisee, Jesus gave us two special commandments.

The Great Commandments Read the story of the Great Commandments from Matthew 22:34-40. The two Great Commandments Jesus gave are in fact a summary of all the Ten Commandments. The first three of the Ten Commandments teach us how to love God, which is the first of Jesus’ Great Commandments. The other seven of the Ten Commandments teach us how to love our neighbor, or each other, which is the second of Jesus’ Great Commandments.

The Good Samaritan Read the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-35. Samaritans were outcasts in society during Jesus’ time and were considered to be less than others. In fact, it was against the law for upstanding Jewish citizens to even speak to a Samaritan. The Samaritan, who was considered an outcast and even an enemy, disregarded this and helped a person in need. He showed his love for God by following His command.

The Good Samaritan In this parable, Jesus deepens His teaching about loving our neighbor as ourselves by dramatically demonstrating to us that “our neighbor” doesn’t refer only to those people we like or who are our friends. God calls us to love everyone. Everyone we meet gives us an opportunity to love.

We Are Called to Love If we love God, then we must also love our neighbor. The Bible says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. …Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him” (John 14:15, 21). Loving Jesus involves keeping His Commandments.

We Are Called to Love If we love God, then we must also love our neighbor. The Bible says: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21).

We Are Called to Love A disciple is a student or follower of someone. Jesus had many disciples, and He calls us to be His disciples. The Bible says, “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). The Bible makes it clear that we cannot love God without loving our neighbor. This is a requirement of our Christian Faith. When we love our neighbor, we show our love for God. We make God’s love for us known here on earth. Loving in this way helps to make us disciples of Jesus.

Session 3: God’s Loving Plan for Creation

God Is a Loving Creator “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). Each and every one of us loves and is loved. That means that, whether we know it or not, we know God! The Bible tells us that God is love, and if we know love, we know God. Therefore, you know God because you are loved and you love. By nature, love wants to be shared freely. And so God, because He is love, shared His love by creating all things.

God’s plan for Creation God created the world and everything in it. He made the first human beings out of love. He created everything for them and gave them dominion over it. That meant that they were to care for God’s creation and in turn offer it back to Him out of love. As long as the first humans remained in perfect friendship with God, there would be no suffering, illness, or death. This peaceful state is known as Original Justice.

Stewards of Creation God created human beings in a very special way — unlike any other part of His creation. He gave man a share of His glory: people are the only creatures God calls into a relationship with Himself. Because of this, we have a special responsibility to take care of the gift of creation that God has given us! We can take care of creation by loving God, loving the world around us, and loving our neighbor. Human beings are the best part of creation!

Session 4: Original Sin

Intellect and Free Will of Adam Read Genesis 2:15-17. God gives Adam rules, which shows he is capable of understanding them and has intellect. The fact that God gives him these rules and explains the consequences of disobedience shows that Adam has free will — he is free to chose to obey God or to disobey.

The Fall Read Genesis 3:1-6. The bad choices Adam and Eve made are all instances of disobedience to God, and failure to trust God. When we disobey God on purpose, it is called a sin. Sin hurts God, sin hurts our neighbors, and sin hurts our souls. All sin is, in a way, a failure to trust God. When we sin, we put our own preferences or feelings ahead of what God has told us is true, good, and beautiful.

The Fall From the very beginning, God has called us into a relationship with Him and given us what we need to be able to live in harmony with Him. We have intellect, free will, and the capacity to love, and we can use those faculties of our soul to do good or to sin. We all have the same choice to make as Adam and Eve did. We can choose to return God’s free gift of love, or we can reject Him. Adam and Eve made the wrong choice, and through their choice sin entered into the world. But someone else in history made the right choice, and through her choice we were able to regain our friendship with God. That person was the blessed virgin Mary.

Session 5: Baptism Removes the Stain of Original Sin

We Are Members of God’s Family We are members of God’s family. There are many different ways we know that we belong to God’s family. One of those ways is that we all share the same Sacraments. A Sacrament is a sign of God’s grace that actually gives the grace it is a sign of. The Sacraments were all instituted, or begun, by Jesus as a way for us to receive God’s grace in the Church.

We Are Members of God’s Family The Church has seven Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance and Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Holy Matrimony. Of those seven Sacraments, three are called the Sacraments of Initiation. To be initiated into something means to be made a member of it. The Sacraments of Initiation make us members of the Church, strengthen us for our life’s journey, and give to us our calling as Christians. They are Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist.

The Sacrament of Baptism The Sacrament of Baptism is the first Sacrament any of us receives. Baptism makes us members of God’s family. Read John 3:5. When we are baptized, water is poured over head and we receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus instituted or began the Sacrament of Baptism during His public ministry. In fact, He began His public ministry with His own baptism! (Jesus, however, did not need to be baptized because He was sinless.) Baptism forgives our sins, gives us new life in Christ, and makes us members of the Church.

Symbols of Baptism A symbol is something that stands for or represents something else, like a sports team logo, superhero symbol, or product logo. There are many symbols in the Sacrament of Baptism. Each represents a different invisible truth happening within the celebration of the Sacrament. By recognizing these symbols and participating in the words and actions of the Sacrament, the newly baptized is introduced to the many blessing of the Sacrament of Baptism.

Rights and Responsibilities As the first Sacrament we all receive, and the first Sacrament of Initiation, Baptism makes us members of God’s Church. The Church is the visible sign of the Kingdom of God here on earth. As members of the Church, we are gathered together as God’s people so that we may enter into His Kingdom. Jesus said, “No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” He was talking about Baptism.

Rights and Responsibilities We belong to all sorts of different communities throughout our lives: our family, our classroom, our school, sports teams, clubs, the places we work, and so forth. Belonging to each of these communities comes with certain expectations, and certain rules to follow. Being a member of the Church, then, brings with it certain rights and certain responsibilities.

Rights and Responsibilities The Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 1269 tells of some of these rights and responsibilities. As members of the Church we have the right to receive the Sacraments, to be nourished with the Word of God, and to be sustained by the other spiritual helps of the Church. As members of the Church, we have the responsibility to be subject to others (to rely on others), to serve others in communion with the Church, and to obey and submit to the Church’s leaders.

Session 6: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell

The Beatific Vision In the state of Original Justice, and as it is now in Heaven, there are no wrongs to be made right! Jesus has made everything new and restored everything to how it should be. The souls in Heaven live in perfect communion and relationship with the Blessed Trinity, the Virgin Mary, and all the angels and saints. They spend eternity contemplating God as He really is — in the Beatific Vision.

Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Jesus and the Church make it very clear that some souls do not go to Heaven after death. God does not pick certain people ahead of time to go to Heaven or Hell. Where we go after we die depends on whether we choose to accept God’s grace or to reject Him. After death, our souls are sent to one of three states of being: Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell.

Purgatory Even after someone feels sorry for a sin and is forgiven, effects of that sin can remain. Purifying our souls of the remaining effects of sin is the purpose of Purgatory. God is perfectly true, good, and beautiful. This means that to be with God in Heaven, we also must be pure. This is true here on earth too! It is why we perform a penitential rite at Holy Mass, and why we cannot receive Holy Communion if we are in a state of mortal sin — we must seek God’s mercy and have our sins forgiven in Confession first.

Purgatory The souls in Purgatory cannot pray for themselves, but as part of the Communion of Saints, they can pray for us! We can and should pray for them too. A good prayer we can say every day, and especially during the month of November, when we especially remember the faithful departed, is: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; And let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.