Creation Man, Angels, the Fall

Opening Prayer Our Father

Ice Breaker Using Play Dough, create a new animal. Take a few minutes for a little show and tell about your animal. Where does it live? What does it eat? What is the coolest part of the animal?

Why Did God Create the World? Was God lonely? No. Did God need us? No. Did God have to create the world the way it is? No, He could have created it any way he wanted, but He saw His Creation (as it is) as Good. God created out of love for us. He created the world to show forth his goodness and to share his happiness.

What are some things we know about God? God is: –All Powerful –All Good –All Loving –All Merciful –All Present How are these qualities reflected in creation?

Creation From Nothing When we made our animals, we required play dough. We can only make things from other things, for example we make a cake from ingredients. To Create is to make something from nothing. (ex nihilo in Latin). That is why God only needed to say, Let there be light and there was. He didnt need any building blocks.

The Three Truths of Creations The most important part of the creation story is to understand these three truths: –God is the only God who is the Creator of all things. –God created in an orderly way in order to share his love and goodness with man. –Everything God created is good!

God Created Man and Woman When we were created we had several gifts called preternatural gifts. Immortality – We were created to live forever. Infused Knowledge of God and all that is necessary for life – In the Garden of Eden there was no school! Paradise Indeed. Integrity – Harmonious relationship with oneself, among mankind, and with nature. There was no carbon footprint in the Garden. Also we were given a supernatural gift of grace (a share in Gods life). Everything was provided for us at Creation.

The Nature of Man We all have body and soul. Our bodies help us interact with the physical creation. We have an immortal soul which is Spiritual and cannot be seen. The soul has two powers, what are they? Intellect and free will. It is the spiritual gifts of intellect and free will that puts us at the top of the physical creation.

Sanctifying Grace Grace is our ability to share in Gods life. When humanity became stained with original sin, we lost this gift. This is why we will all die, Gods life is life. Our goal on earth is to obtain grace, keep grace, grow in grace, and die with grace in our souls. Only with grace can we live forever with God in the Kingdom of Heaven as his children. This is every mans goal and the plan for each life. The Good News is that Jesus Christ poured out abundant grace for us on the Cross, that we might be filled with all that we need.

The Devil is Bad The Song is by The Ws This Song is about the Fall and Sin This kids dancing is so much funnier than the original video!

The Fall of Man – Original Sin Original Sin was the first sin committed, which was to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. God had told Adam ahead of time, that if this happened he would die. So instantly Adam and Eve were subject to death, their bodies became corruptible, and they became susceptible to illness and suffering. We now have an ignorance of things divine Concupiscence – Interior Temptation to Sin Disharmony with nature and others Loss of Grace Loss of union with God. The preternatural gifts had all been tainted.

God Still Loved Us Though God, who speaks only truth, had to allow Adam and Eve to die as He told them they would if they ate the fruit God still loved them and promised them a redeemer, someone to make right what went wrong. Without sanctifying grace we could no longer reach God and we were separated by a great divide too big for us to cross. Jesus, because of his death and resurrection has become our bridge back to the Father.

A Redeemer? If you get an I-Tunes gift card, you plug in the number and press Redeem. To Redeem means to pay the price We could not pay the price for our sins because we had, and still have, nothing of great value. We could only offer animal sacrifices, imperfect prayers, and actions. We needed a perfect priest, perfect victim, and perfect love for God – only Jesus could do this!

Atoner? Man could not put himself back in union with God because he could not share in Gods life through grace. Jesus is one Divine Person with two nature. He is fully God and fully man. Because Jesus is God, he has Gods life in Him. With this life in Him, He won grace for man and opened the gates of heaven so that man could be saved.

Savior? Man could not save himself from sin because of concupiscence, which is mans inclination towards sin. We could not restore perfect attraction to God when we shared an attraction to sin. Though we are not free from sin, Jesus saved us from the effects of our sins, and offers us Sanctifying Grace through the Sacraments.

Closing Prayer Guardian Angel Prayer