3. How important is faith in our world?
Does everyone have faith?
All people have a ‘faith’ of some kind.
‘Center of value’: deep-down convictions and commitments around which people organize their lives.
‘Faith’ motivates people, gets them out of bed and shapes how they live their day.

4. How important is faith in our world?
Faith at Work
A religion is essentially a community of people of faith.
Religion helps people to join with others and ‘put their faith to work’.

5. What is religion?
Religion is a set of beliefs and practices followed by those committed to the service and worship of God
Life stance: it is an understanding or image of the Transcendent at the center of one’s life – Holy Trinity, YHWH, Allah, Brahman
Spiritual Tradition: People are born into a tradition, and it engages people’s souls and enable them to live out their identity as religious beings (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism)
Institutional Structure: It develops the expression of beliefs, habits, customs, convictions and practices that protect, foster, and guide the spiritual life of its people

6. Faith finds a home in religion
How do religions develop?
Most religions begin with a founder (person or group) who had a powerful experience of the Divine (the Transcendent).
Personal transformation leads to the development of doctrines or beliefs.
Homage and petitions for help lead to worship.
Learning how to live one’s daily life leads to moral laws and ethics.
The Catholic Church has the Magisterium to pass on the Deposit of Faith

7. Faith finds a home in religion
Does faith need a religion?
Religion can help to build unity in a fractured world and lend great spiritual wisdom for life.
The Golden Rule is common to most religions: ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you.’
All major religions that have stood the test of time place central emphasis on the Golden Rule—compassion, love of neighbor, forgiveness and respect.

8. Becoming a member of the Church
Every religion has some process of initiating new members into the life of the community and into their faith story
Catholic Church = Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA)
Sacrament of Baptism = we are joined with Christ and become adopted sons and daughters of God the Father, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and become members of the Church
Religion can give people who are open to God’s grace a profound sense of meaning and purpose in life, great hope in the face of difficulties, and a sense of belonging to a caring and supportive community

9. The Choice to ‘Go it Alone’
We need a community in order to grow and become a person of faith. God did not create us to be alone.
Church reminds us ‘Faith is a personal act – the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone just as no one can live alone’ (CCC., no. 166)
People who ‘go it alone’ isolate themselves from the support of the community of believers, and in truth, deny the reality of who they have been created to be

10. The Church: The People of God ‘Church’ – Ecclesia – a convocation/assembly
The Church was founded by Jesus Christ.
The Church is catholic because Jesus Christ, the Savior of all people, is present with her.
The Church is catholic because Christ has sent the Church out to the people of all nations to call and gather them into the unity of the one People of God, the one family of God.

11. The Church: The People of God
This term refers to the whole Catholic community of believers throughout the world. The term can also be used in the sense of a diocese or a particular parish.
USCCA, 507

12. The Church: The People of God
Jesus Teaches Us How To Be His Church:
Jesus preached the Good News of the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth
Kingdom of God: a way of living and a way of being with others in the world
The Beatitudes summarizes the values of the Kingdom of God and are central to living ‘the way’ that Jesus taught – to not live a self-centered life

13. The Church: The People of God
The Church, the People of God, Is ‘One’ in Love
The Church is both human and divine, both visible and invisible.
The Church is a sign of unity through the presence of a worldwide community of people sharing one Lord, one faith and one Baptism.
The Church is a means of unity through her teachings and through her worldwide work for peace and justice (Caritas International and Catholic Relief Services).
The Church is one.
The Church is holy.
The Church is catholic – “universal”
The Church is apostolic.

14. The Church is the Body of Christ in the world
The Church Is One Body—the Body of Christ
In the Church every member is vital and inter-related—as is every part of the human body.
All members of the Church work together according to their function to continue the mission and ministry of Christ in the world.
In the Church each member is invaluable; everyone has gifts, responsibilities to fulfill and a contribution to make.
The Church as the Body of Christ cares for all who are in need.

15. The Church is the Body of Christ in the world
The Church: Sign and Instrument of Salvation
The Church gives witness to the fullness of God’s Revelation in Jesus.
The Church enables us to encounter God’s Revelation and grace through Word and Sacrament.
The Church’s nature and mission is to be the sacrament of God’s Salvation in the world.
The Church has but one purpose: that the Kingdom of God may come and the salvation of the human race may be accomplished.

16. The Church is the Body of Christ in the world
The Church: Sign and Instrument of Salvation
The Church in this world is the sacrament of salvation, the sign and instrument of the communion of God and men.
CCC, no. 780

17. St. Teresa of Ávila Born in Ávila, Spain in 1515.
Joined the Carmelite convent at age 20.
Received many mystical visions of Jesus and wrote about them in several books.
Established the ‘Discalced’, or ‘barefoot’, Carmelites in seventeen convents for women as well as many men’s cloisters.
Died in 1582; canonized in 1622; proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1969.

18. Sharing faith with family and friends
The Domestic Church
The Church, at the Second Vatican Council, echoing an ancient tradition in the Church, described the Christian family as ‘a domestic church’, a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity.