By natural reaSon man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the order of divine Revelation. 1 Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. This he does by revealing the mystery, his Plan of Loving Goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men. God has fully revealed this plan by sending us his beLoved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

God makes himself known by recalling his all-powerful Loving, and liberating action in the history of the one he addresses: "I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." the first word contains the first commandment of the Law: "You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him.... You shall not go after other gods." 5 God's first call and just demand is that man accept him and worship him.

All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. 48 Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and Loving fear that we owe to God alone.

Among all the words of Revelation, there is one which is unique: the revealed name of God. God confides his name to those who believe in him; he reveals himself to them in his perSonal mystery. the gift of a name belongs to the order of trust and intimacy. "The Lord's name is holy." For this reason man must not abuse it. He must keep it in mind in silent, Loving adoration. He will not introduce it into his own speech except to bless, praise, and glorify it. 74

"God is Love and in himself he lives a mystery of perSonal Loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image . . .. God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion." 114

Charity is the form of all the virtues. Under its influence, chastity appears as a school of the gift of the perSon. Self-mastery is ordered to the gift of self. Chastity leads him who practices it to become a witness to his neighbor of God's fidelity and Loving kindness.

Modesty protects the mystery of perSons and their Love. It encourages patience and moderation in Loving relationships; it requires that the conditions for the definitive giving and commitment of man and woman to one another be fulfilled. Modesty is decency. It inspires one's choice of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet.

David is par excellence the king "after God's own heart," the shepherd who prays for his people and prays in their name. His submission to the will of God, his praise, and his repentance, will be a model for the Prayer of the people. His prayer, the prayer of God's Anointed, is a Faithful adherence to the divine promise and expresses a Loving and joyful trust in God, the only King and Lord. 28 In the Psalms David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the first prophet of Jewish and Christian prayer. the prayer of Christ, the true Messiah and Son of David, will reveal and fulfill the meaning of this prayer.

The Gospel according to St. Luke emphasizes the action of the Holy Spirit and the meaning of Prayer in Christ's ministry. Jesus prays before the decisive moments of his mission: before his Father's witness to him during his baptism and Transfiguration, and before his own fulfillment of the Father's Plan of Love by his Passion. 43 He also prays before the decisive moments involving the mission of his apostles: at his election and call of the Twelve, before Peter's confession of him as "the Christ of God," and again that the Faith of the chief of the Apostles may not fail when tempted. 44 Jesus' prayer before the events of salvation that the Father has asked him to fulfill is a humble and trusting commitment of his human will to the Loving will of the Father.

The evangelists have preserved two more explicit Prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with thanksgiving. In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves learned and has revealed them to infants, the poor of the Beatitudes. 48 His exclamation, "Yes, Father!" expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father's "good pleasure," echoing his mother's Fiat at the time of his conception and prefiguring what he will say to the Father in his agony. the whole prayer of Jesus is contained in this Loving adherence of his human heart to the mystery of the will of the Father. 49

Mary's Prayer is revealed to us at the dawning of the fullness of time. Before the incarnation of the Son of God, and before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, her prayer cooperates in a unique way with the Father's Plan of Loving kindness: at the Annunciation, for Christ's conception; at Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, his Body. 88 In the Faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance he had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made "full of grace" responds by offering her whole being: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word." "Fiat": this is Christian prayer: to be wholly God's, because he is wholly ours.

"Hope does not disappoint us, because God's Love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." 10 Prayer, formed by the liturgical life, draws everything into the love by which we are loved in Christ and which enables us to respond to him by Loving as he has loved us. Love is the source of prayer; whoever draws from it reaches the summit of prayer. In the words of the Cure of Ars:

The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the Prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, 19 but holds fast to the word and "brings forth fruit with patience." 20 This prayer is possible "at all times" because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of Loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus.

Contemplative Prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcome the Love by which he is loved and who wants to respond to it by Loving even more. 8 But he knows that the love he is returning is poured out by the Spirit in his heart, for everything is grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved Son.

Contemplative Prayer is hearing the Word of God. Far from being passive, such attentiveness is the obedience of Faith, the unconditional acceptance of a servant, and the Loving commitment of a child. It participates in the "Yes" of the Son become servant and the Fiat of God's lowly handmaid.

Prayer and Christian life are inseparable, for they concern the same Love and the same renunciation, proceeding from love; the same filial and Loving conformity with the Father's Plan of love; the same transforming union in the Holy Spirit who conforms us more and more to Christ Jesus; the same love for all men, the love with which Jesus has loved us. "Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he [will] give it to you. This I command you, to love one another." 41

The term "to hallow" is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way. and so, in adoration, this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving. 66 But this petition is here taught to us by Jesus as an optative: a petition, a desire, and an expectation in which God and man are involved. Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his Plan of Loving kindness for the fullness of time, "according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ," that we might "be holy and blameless before him in Love." 67

Jesus makes charity the new commandment. 96 By Loving his own "to the end," 97 he makes manifest the Father's Love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." and again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." 98

God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his Sons in his only-begotten Son. 3 By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him and of Loving him far beyond their own natural capacity.

In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God". 67 "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes Lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them." 68

Believing in God, the only One, and Loving him with all our being has enormous consequences for our whole life.

This paragraph expounds briefly (I) how the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed, (II) how the Church has articulated the doctrine of the Faith regarding this mystery, and (III) how, by the divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfils the "Plan of his Loving Goodness" of creation, redemption and sanctification.

Many religions invoke God as "Father". the deity is often considered the "father of gods and of men". In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of the world. 59 Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born Son". 60 God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is "the Father of the poor", of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his Loving protection. 61

By calling God "Father", the language of Faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time Goodness and Loving care for all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, 62 which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. the language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: 63 no one is father as God is Father.

"O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!" 93 God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is Love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the "Plan of his Loving kindness", conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: "He destined us in love to be his sons" and "to be conformed to the image of his Son", through "the spirit of sonship". 94 This plan is a "grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began", stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. 95 It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church. 96

of all the divine attributes, only God's omnipotence is named in the Creed: to confess this power has great bearing on our lives. We believe that his might is universal, for God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything. God's power is Loving, for he is our Father, and mysterious, for only Faith can discern it when it "is made perfect in weakness". 103

Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind's origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God's Plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created perSons so that they are capable of Loving him and loving one another.

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 Son of God, who came down "from heaven, not to do (his) own will, but the will of him who sent (him)", 413 said on coming into the world, "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God." "and by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." 414 From the first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces the Father's Plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work." 415 The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world" 416 expresses his Loving communion with the Father. "The Father Loves me, because I lay down my life", said the Lord, "(for) I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father." 417

In Mary, the Holy Spirit fulfills the Plan of the Father's Loving Goodness. With and through the Holy Spirit, the Virgin conceives and gives birth to the Son of God. By the Holy Spirit's power and her Faith, her virginity became uniquely fruitful. 105

The first announcement of the Eucharist divided the disciples, just as the announcement of the Passion scandalized them: "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" 158 The Eucharist and the Cross are stumbling blocks. It is the same mystery and it never ceases to be an occasion of division. "Will you also go away?": 159 The Lord's question echoes through the ages, as a Loving invitation to discover that only he has "the words of eternal life" 160 and that to receive in Faith the gift of his Eucharist is to receive the Lord himself.

The first and last point of reference of this catechesis will always be Jesus Christ himself, who is "the way, and the truth, and the life." 24 It is by looking to him in Faith that Christ's faithful can hope that he himself fulfills his promises in them, and that, by Loving him with the same Love with which he has loved them, they may perform works in keeping with their dignity:

The human perSon participates in the light and power of the divine Spirit. By his reason, he is capable of understanding the order of things established by the Creator. By free will, he is capable of directing himself toward his true good. He finds his perfection "in seeking and Loving what is true and good." 7

"He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ . . . to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will." 98 We ask insistently for this Loving Plan to be fully realized on earth as it is already in heaven.