1. Endurance that allows us to rejoice in our suffering can never be described by Christians as an individual achievement, not only because it follows from a gift, but also because it is the endurance of a whole people committed to remembering the saints. From the saints we learn how to be steadfast in the face of adversity. By remembering them we become members of a community and history that gives us the power to prevail. Of course, the saints make no sense apart from the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. The memory of them, therefore, derives its power from the memory of Him, whom we celebrate in a meal, a meal that offers us the opportunity to share together in His calling. The saints' faithfulness to this calling is concrete demonstration that by Jesus' resurrection a people is formed who can sustain the virtues necessary to remember His death. As we sustain that memory, Christians receive the power to make our deaths our own by learning to endure. Stanley Hauerwas and Charles Pinches, Christians Among The Virtues. p.124

2. Father of Light and Wisdom, thank you for giving me a mind that can know and a heart that can love. Help me to keep learning every day of my life-- no matter what the subject may be. Let me be convinced that all knowledge leads to you and let me know how to find you and love you in all the things you have made. Encourage me when the studies are difficult and when I am tempted to give up Enlighten me when my brain is slow and help me to grasp the truth held out to me. Grant me the grace to put my knowledge to use in building the kingdom of God on earth so that I may enter the kingdom of God in heaven. Amen.

3. Objectives: The Communion of Saints The Church, The Channel of Grace Priests Prophets Our Royal Mission

4. The Communion of Saints Two meanings: 1.A sharing of communion in spiritual goods. -Communion in the Faith -Communion in the Sacraments -Communion of Charisms

5. I. COMMUNION IN SPIRITUAL GOODS 949949 In the primitive community of Jerusalem, the disciples "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers." 482 Communion in the faith. The faith of the faithful is the faith of the Church, received from the apostles. Faith is a treasure of life, which is enriched by being shared. 950950 Communion of the sacraments. "The fruit of all the sacraments belongs to all the faithful. All the sacraments are sacred links uniting the faithful with one another and binding them to Jesus Christ, and above all Baptism, the gate by which we enter into the Church. The communion of saints must be understood as the communion of the sacraments.... The name 'communion' can be applied to all of them, for they unite us to God.... But this name is better suited to the Eucharist than to any other, because it is primarily the Eucharist that brings this communion about." 483

6. 951951 Communion of charisms. Within the communion of the Church, the Holy Spirit "distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank" for the building up of the Church. 484 Now, "to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." 485 952952 "They had everything in common." 486 "Everything the true Christian has is to be regarded as a good possessed in common with everyone else. All Christians should be ready and eager to come to the help of the needy... and of their neighbors in want." 487 A Christian is a steward of the Lord's goods. 488 953953 Communion in charity. In the sanctorum communio, "None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself." 489 "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." 490 "Charity does not insist on its own way." 491 In this solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the communion of saints, the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all. Every sin harms this communion.

7. The Communion of Saints Two meanings: 2. Communion of All Holy People

8. The Communion of All Holy People Endurance that allows us to rejoice in our suffering can never be described by Christians as an individual achievement, not only because it follows from a gift, but also because it is the endurance of a whole people committed to remembering the saints. From the saints we learn how to be steadfast in the face of adversity. By remembering them we become members of a community and history that gives us the power to prevail. Of course, the saints make no sense apart from the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. The memory of them, therefore, derives its power from the memory of Him, whom we celebrate in a meal, a meal that offers us the opportunity to share together in His calling. The saints’ faithfulness to this calling is concrete demonstration that by Jesus’ resurrection a people is formed who can sustain the virtues necessary to remember His death. As we sustain that memory, Christians receive the power to make our deaths our own by learning to endure.

10. The Church The Channel of Grace 1.The Church has the power to transform us - The Church affects the inner union of people with God - The Church is also a sign and an instrument of the unity

11. The Theological Virtues Faith, Hope & Charity

12. The Church The Channel of Grace 1.Baptism 2.Confirmation 3.Eucharist 4.Penance and Reconciliation 5.Anointing of the Sick 6.Holy Orders 7.Matrimony

13. The Church The Channel of Grace 1.Spiritual Sacrifices 2.Personal Holiness 3.Helping Others Grow in Holiness

14. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13

15. Our Mission as Prophets We share in the prophetic mission of Christ whenever we give witness to him through our words, actions, or example We also act as prophets whenever we encourage others in the Church to persevere in faith

16. Our Royal Mission Christ offered us the gift of “royal freedom” so that we might overcome our own sinfulness and encourage the world to do the same True royalty does not seek to be served, but rather seeks to serve others

17. Our Royal Mission “What else are the sacraments (all of them!), if not the action of Christ in the Holy Spirit?

18. What else are the sacraments (all of them!), if not the action of Christ in the Holy Spirit? Review: 1.How does each of the Seven Sacraments transform us as Church? 2.How do we carry out the priestly, prophetic and royal missions of the Church? 3.Explain the differences between sacramental grace, sanctifying grace and actual grace 4.What are the theological virtues