United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

Appendix A. Glossary • 523

PEOPLE OF GOD: God calls the Church into existence as his people centered in Christ and sustained by the Holy Spirit. The visible struc ture of the People of God as the Church is the means intended by Christ to help guarantee the life of grace for the whole. PERPETUAL VIRGINITY: Mary was a virgin in conceiving Jesus, in giving birth to him, and in remain ing always a virgin ever after. PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE: This is suicide performed with the aid of a doctor. The emergence of physician-assisted suicide, popular ized by the right-to-die movement, seeks to legalize what is a gravely immoral act forbidden by God in the Fifth Commandment. POPE: The successor to St. Peter who serves as the Bishop of Rome and as the visible and juridical head of the Catholic Church. PRAGMATISM: A philosophy that asserts that acts have value only in terms of their usefulness and practicality. PRAYER: The raising of one’s mind and heart to God in thanksgiving and in praise of his glory. It can also include the requesting of good things from God. It is an act by

visible sign of an invisible act of God.

PASSOVER: The name of the Jewish feast that celebrates the deliverance of Israel from Egypt and from the Angel of Death who passed over their doors marked by the blood of sacrificed lamb. Jesus Christ inaugurated the new Passover by delivering all people from death and sin through his own blood shed on the Cross. The celebration of the Eucharist is the Passover feast of the New Covenant. PENANCE, SACRAMENT OF: Also called the Sacrament of Confession, Reconciliation, Conversion, and Forgiveness, this is the Sacrament in which sins com mitted after Baptism are forgiven. It results in reconciliation with God and the Church. PENTECOST: Celebrated each year fifty days after Easter, Pentecost marks the day when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles and dis ciples. The first Pentecost is some times referred to as the birthday of the Church because it was on this day that the Apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit, first publicly preached the Good News to others.