The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, Following the rules of sound interpretation: "All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal." 83

Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right, 33 by the admission of faults to one's brethren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one's Cross each day and Following Jesus is the surest way of penance. 34

To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that Sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as Following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain. 83

Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their Cross in their turn. 113 By Following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick. Jesus associates them with his own life of poverty and service. He makes them share in his ministry of compassion and healing: "So they went out and preached that men should repent. and they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them." 114

The Apostolic Constitution Sacram unctionem infirmorum, 126 Following upon the Second Vatican Council, 127 established that henceforth, in the Roman Rite, the following be observed:

The celebration of the sacrament includes the Following principal elements: the "priests of the Church" 132 - in silence - lay hands on the sick; they pray over them in the faith of the Church 133 - this is the epiclesis proper to this sacrament; they then anoint them with oil blessed, if possible, by the bishop. These liturgical actions indicate what grace this sacrament confers upon the sick.

This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy - heavier than the Law of Moses. 108 By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by Sin, he himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God. It is by Following Christ, renouncing themselves, and taking up their Crosses that spouses will be able to "receive" the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ. 109 This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ's cross, the source of all Christian life.

Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, Christians are "dead to Sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" and so participate in the life of the Risen Lord. 8 Following Christ and united with him, 9 Christians can strive to be "imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love" 10 by conforming their thoughts, words and actions to the "mind . . . which is yours in Christ Jesus," 11 and by following his example. 12

Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reaSon to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going." 65 "Keep sane and sober for your prayers." 66 Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, Following Aristotle. 67 It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. the prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.

The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in Following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or also be linked to the capital Sins which Christian experience has distinguished, Following St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great. They are called "capital" because they engender other sins, other vices. 138 They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia.

Ever Since St. Augustine, the Ten Commandments have occupied a predominant place in the catechesis of baptismal candidates and the faithful. In the fifteenth century, the custom arose of expressing the commandments of the Decalogue in rhymed formulae, easy to memorize and in positive form. They are still in use today. the catechisms of the Church have often expounded Christian morality by Following the order of the Ten Commandments.

Following St. Paul, 83 The tradition of the Church has understood Jesus' words as not excluding oaths made for grave and right reaSons (for example, in court). "An oath, that is the invocation of the divine name as a witness to truth, cannot be taken unless in truth, in judgment, and in justice." 84

Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week." 104 Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eighth day" Following the sabbath, 105 it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica) Sunday:

The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. Where families cannot fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping them and of supporting the institution of the family. Following the principle of subsidiarity, larger communities should take care not to usurp the family's prerogatives or interfere in its life.

Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the Following conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of fundamental rights; 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; 4) there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is impossible reaSonably to foresee any better solution.

Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, Following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

When Jesus prays he is already teaching us how to pray. His prayer to his Father is the theological path (the path of faith, hope, and charity) of our prayer to God. But the Gospel also gives us Jesus' explicit teaching on prayer. Like a wise teacher he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. AddresSing the crowds Following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of prayer from the Old Covenant and opens to them the newness of the coming Kingdom. Then he reveals this newness to them in parables. Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the teachers of prayer in his Church.

Thus from celebration to celebration, as they proclaim the Paschal mystery of Jesus "until he comes," the pilgrim People of God advances, "Following the narrow way of the Cross," 168 toward the heavenly banquet, when all the elect will be seated at the table of the kingdom.

The meaning and grace of the sacrament of Baptism are clearly seen in the rites of its celebration. By Following the gestures and words of this celebration with attentive participation, the faithful are initiated into the riches this sacrament signifies and actually brings about in each newly baptized perSon.

The revelation of the ineffable name "I AM WHO AM" contains then the truth that God alone IS. the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and Following it the Church's Tradition, understood the divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have from him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is.

Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical Council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is "consubstantial" with the Father, that is, one only God with him. 66 The second ecumenical council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed "the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father". 67

The affirmation of the filioque does not appear in the Creed confessed in 381 at Constantinople. But Pope St. Leo I, Following an ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, had already confessed it dogmatically in 447, 76 even before Rome, in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon, came to recognize and receive the Symbol of 381. the use of this formula in the Creed was gradually admitted into the Latin liturgy (between the eighth and eleventh centuries). the introduction of the filioque into the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed by the Latin liturgy constitutes moreover, even today, a point of disagreement with the Orthodox Churches.

The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine perSons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation: "The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle." 97 However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, Following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are". 98 It is above all the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons.

Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam's Sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the "death of the soul". 291 Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed perSonal sin. 292

From this loving knowledge of Christ springs the desire to proclaim him, to "evangelize", and to lead others to the "yes" of faith in Jesus Christ. But at the same time the need to know this faith better makes itself felt. To this end, Following the order of the Creed, Jesus' principal titles - "Christ", "Son of God", and "Lord" (article 2) - will be presented. the Creed next confesses the chief mysteries of his life - those of his Incarnation (article 3), Paschal mystery (articles 4 and 5) and glorification (articles 6 and 7).

The Monophysites affirmed that the human nature had ceased to exist as such in Christ when the divine perSon of God's Son assumed it. Faced with this heresy, the fourth ecumenical Council, at Chalcedon in 451, confessed: Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; "like us in all things but Sin". He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God. 91

The Paschal mystery of Christ's Cross and Resurrection stands at the centre of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church Following them, are to proclaim to the world. God's saving plan was accomplished "once for all" 313 by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ.

The historical complexity of Jesus' trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. the perSonal Sin of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone. Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the apostles' calls to conversion after Pentecost. 385 Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the Cross, and Peter in Following suit, both accept "the ignorance" of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders. 386 Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places, based merely on the crowd's cry: "His blood be on us and on our children!", a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. 387 As the Church declared at the Second Vatican Council: . . .

Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation in this way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your Fathers... with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake." 402 Man's Sins, Following on original sin, are punishable by death. 403 By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 404

At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." 410 He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique perSon of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us. 411 The Church, Following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a Single human being for whom Christ did not suffer." 412

Following in the steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgement of the Last Day in his preaching. 581 Then will the conduct of each one and the secrets of hearts be brought to light. 582 Then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of God's grace as nothing be condemned. 583 Our attitude to our neighbour will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love. 584 On the Last Day Jesus will say: "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." 585

This is why Christ inaugurates the proclamation of the Good News by making his own the Following passage from Isaiah: 84

"Virgins who, committed to the holy plan of Following Christ more closely, are consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop according to the approved liturgical rite, are betrothed mystically to Christ, the Son of God, and are dedicated to the service of the Church." 462 By this solemn rite (Consecratio virginum), the virgin is "constituted . . . a sacred person, a transcendent sign of the Church's love for Christ, and an eschatological image of this heavenly Bride of Christ and of the life to come." 463

At the Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter, the Christian Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday Following the first full moon (14 Nisan) after the vernal equinox. the reform of the Western calendar, called "Gregorian" after Pope Gregory XIII (1582), caused a discrepancy of several days with the Eastern calendar. Today, the Western and Eastern Churches are seeking an agreement in order once again to celebrate the day of the Lord's Resurrection on a common date.

Following this analogy, the first chapter will expound the three sacraments of Christian initiation; the second, the sacraments of healing; and the third, the sacraments at the service of communion and the mission of the faithful. This order, while not the only one possible, does allow one to see that the sacraments form an organic whole in which each particular sacrament has its own vital place. In this organic whole, the Eucharist occupies a unique place as the "Sacrament of sacraments": "all the other sacraments are ordered to it as to their end." 2