1. God Is the Source of All Life
Grade 5: Unit 1

2. Session 1: God Speaks to Us through Visible Creation

3. The Creed
A creed is a summary of faith and a profession of belief. We have the opportunity to profess our faith every Sunday at Mass when we pray the Nicene Creed.
The Church has a few different creeds; the most common are the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. The Apostles’ Creed dates to the first century and the time of the Apostles. The Nicene Creed dates to the late 300s. Both are still used today. Typically we pray the Apostles’ Creed at the beginning of a Rosary, and we pray the Nicene Creed at Mass. Both creeds, however, profess belief in the same thing: the essential elements of our Catholic Faith.

4. Signs and Symbols
God uses the visible creation to communicate invisible realities to us, such as who He is and His love and plan for us. This is the way we, as human beings, learn and understand anything that is unseen. Love is invisible. You can’t see love. But there are signs and symbols that help us to know and understand that love is real. A sign is a visible representation of an invisible truth.
As human beings, we recognize and respond to common, universal signs and symbols to know and understand invisible feelings and ideas.

5. Ruah
Read Genesis 2:7.
The Hebrew word for breath is ruah. It is used interchangeably to mean “wind,” as in Genesis 1:2 (“a mighty wind sweeping over the waters”) and “spirit.” Ruah is most often used in reference to God Himself, describing God’s breath or Spirit, but is also used to describe the spirit or soul of human beings and even the wind blowing through the trees.
Considering the close connection of the word to God Himself, we cannot understand any other usage of the word ruah apart from God.

6. Ruah
The Spirit of God is present in His creation, but most specifically and importantly, the Spirit of God is present in a special way in human men and women. God has placed within each one of us His breath of life, a spiritual soul. This makes us, as Genesis 1:26-27 tells us, in the image and likeness of God.
As human beings, we are at the same time physical, visible creatures and invisible, spiritual beings. The human soul is what gives us life and gives us dignity as human persons made in God’s image and likeness.

7. Session 2: The Church Is a Sign of God’s Love

8. The Church: A Sign of Salvation
On the Cross, when the soldier pierced Jesus’ side, blood and water flowed out of the wound. In that moment we have a symbol for the origin and growth of the Church. The moment when Jesus loved us so much that He literally poured Himself out for our salvation is a symbol of the beginning of the Church.
The Church, in turn, is an enduring sign of salvation and is the very instrument of our salvation. The Church is a visible symbol of God’s love for us and how Jesus makes God’s love present to all people for all time. The Church brings all people into communion with God and with each other as one Body of Christ.

9. The Kingdom of God
The central message of Christ’s public ministry was “The Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe.” The Church, founded by Jesus during His earthly life, is the beginning of God’s reign, the Kingdom of God here on Earth.
The Church seeks to gather all persons together for the sake of their salvation and to be part of God’s Kingdom as one people, one Body of Christ.

10. The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God is not a visible, earthly kingdom. It is the very presence of God and the union of man with God in Jesus Christ. Therefore, in order to know what the Kingdom is like, Jesus taught about it using parables. A parable is a story that has layers of symbolic meaning. Jesus often used parables in His teaching.
The Church, founded by Jesus during His earthly life, is the beginning of God’s reign, the Kingdom of God here on earth.

11. Session 3: Grace Is the Gift of God’s Life

12. Gifts and Talents Read Romans 12:4-8.
God’s grace is made known through the gifts and talents that He has given us, and God’s grace strengthens those same gifts and talents to be used for good. In fact, that is exactly what St. Paul is telling us: the gifts given to us by God must be used in return.
The Catechism affirms this fact in paragraph 2002: “God’s free initiative demands man’s free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him.” We know and love God by exercising the gifts and graces He has first given us.

13. Grace
God gives us gifts and the gifts God gives us are greater than any other gift we could receive! The only reason He gives us these gifts is because He loves us. We do nothing to earn them.
Grace is the undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His call to holiness.
Grace is the gift of God’s life within us. (By grace we participate in the life of God.)

14. Grace
Grace is free and undeserved. (We are all sinners and thus undeserving of God’s favor.)
Grace is the opposite of sin. (Sin is an offense against God that turns our hearts away from God’s love for us.)
Grace makes us adopted sons and daughters of God. (Jesus is God’s only, beloved Son. By His saving actions on the Cross, and through the gift of grace, we become like Christ and adopted sons and daughters of God.)

15. Grace
Grace requires a response from us. (Just as we have to respond when someone gives us a gift by receiving it with gratitude, we must respond to God’s gift of grace with thanksgiving.)
We are called to use the unique gifts and talents gifted to us by the grace of God to honor and serve Him.
Mary, whom the Archangel Gabriel greeted as “full of grace,” is our most perfect model of faith. She said “yes” to becoming the Mother of God, and Jesus became incarnate in her womb. Because Mary’s “yes” to God’s will undid the “no” said by Eve, Mary is the New Eve and Jesus is the New Adam.