Catechism of the Catholic Church

875

Glossary

-E EASTER: The greatest and oldest Christian feast, which celebrates Christ’s Resurrection from the dead. Easter is the “feast of feasts,” the solemnity of solemnities, the “Great Sunday.” Christians prepare for it during Lent and Holy Week, and catechumens usually receive the Sacraments of Christian Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist) at the Easter Vigil (1169; cf. 647). EASTERN CHURCHES: Churches of the East in union with Rome (the Western Church), but not of Roman rite, with their own liturgical, theological, and administrative traditions, such as those of the Byzantine, Alexandrian or Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, and Chaldean rites. The variety of particular churches with dis- tinctive traditions witnesses to the catholicity of the one Church of Christ, which takes root in distinct cultures (1202-1203; cf. 835). ECCLESIASTIC/ ECCLESIASTICAL: Pertaining to or of the Church (Greek/Latin: ecclesia ). Hence ecclesiastical government is church government (857); an ecclesiastical province is a grouping of church jurisdictions or dioceses (887); an ecclesiastic is a church official. ECONOMY: The structure and organization of productive work or activity in a society, forming the basis for financial support and stability of individuals, families, and society. The morality of economic activity is judged according to the seventh commandment; economic activity is one of the principal points

DISCIPLE: Those who accepted Jesus’ message to follow him are called his disciples. Jesus associated his disciples with his own life, revealed the mystery of the Kingdom to the disciples and gave them a share in his mission, his joy, and his sufferings (767, 787). DIVINE OFFICE: The Liturgy of the Hours, the public prayer of the Church which sanctifies the whole course of the day and night. Christ thus continues his priestly work through the prayer of his priestly people (1174). DIVORCE: The claim that the indissoluble marriage bond validly entered into between a man and a woman is broken. A civil dissolution of the marriage contract (divorce) does not free persons from a valid marriage before God; remarriage would not be morally licit (2382; cf. 1650). DOCTRINE/DOGMA: The revealed teachings of Christ which are proclaimed by the fullest extent of the exercise of the authority of the Church’s Magisterium. The faithful are obliged to believe the truths or dogmas contained in divine Revelation and defined by the Magisterium (88). DOXOLOGY: Christian prayer which gives praise and glory to God, often in a special way to the three divine persons of the Trinity. Liturgical prayers traditionally conclude with the doxology “to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit”; the final doxology of the Lord’s Prayer renews the prayer’s first three petitions in the form of adoration and praise (2639, 2855).