United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

514 • Conclusion and Appendices

-H

Spirit. Traditionally, God has been used to refer to the Father, or the First Person of the Trinity, as well as to the whole Godhead. GOSPEL: The proclamation of the entire message of faith revealed in and through Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Second Person of the Trinity. The word Gospel also refers to one of the four books of the New Testament—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—that con tain a record of the life, teaching, death, and Resurrection of Jesus. GRACE: The help God gives us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted sons and daughters. The divine initiative of grace pre cedes, prepares, and elicits our free response in faith and commitment. Sanctifying grace is a habitual gift of God’s own divine life, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables us to live with God and to act by his love. Actual graces refer to God’s interventions in our lives, whether at the beginning of conver sion or in the course of the work of sanctification. GREED (AVARICE): An inordinate attachment to the goods of cre ation, frequently expressed in the pursuit of money or other symbols of wealth, which leads to sins of injustice and other evils.

HERESY: A religious teaching that denies or contradicts truths revealed by God. HOLINESS: A state of goodness in which a person—with the help of God’s grace, the action of the Holy Spirit, and a life of prayer—is freed from sin and evil. Such a person, when gifted with holiness, must still resist temptation, repent of sins that may be committed, and realize that remaining holy is a lifelong pilgrim age with many spiritual and moral challenges. The struggles evident in the lives of the saints are instruc tive when trying to explain and describe holiness. HOLY DAYS OF OBLIGATION: In the United States, for Latin Catholics these days are: Mary, Easter or the following Sunday); Assumption of Mary (August 15); All Saints Day (November 1); Immaculate Conception of Mary (December 8); Nativity of our Lord or Christmas (December 25). On these days, there is an obligation to attend Mass and to refrain from servile work as much as possible. Mother of God (January 1); Ascension (forty days after

HOLY ORDERS, SACRAMENT OF: The Sacrament in which a