When we say "our" Father, we recognize first that all his Promises of Love announced by the prophets are Fulfilled in the new and eternal covenant in his Christ: we have become "his" people and he is henceforth "our" God. This new relationship is the purely gratuitous gift of belonging to each other: we are to respond to "grace and Truth" given us in Jesus Christ with love and Faithfulness. 45

"A vow is a deliberate and free promise made to God concerning a possible and better good which must be Fulfilled by reason of the virtue of religion," 21 A vow is an act of devotion in which the Christian dedicates himself to God or Promises him some good work. By fulfilling his vows he renders to God what has been promised and consecrated to Him. the Acts of the Apostles shows us St. Paul concerned to fulfill the vows he had made. 22

In many circumstances, the Christian is called to make Promises to God. Baptism and Confirmation, Matrimony and Holy Orders always entail promises. Out of personal devotion, the Christian may also promise to God this action, that prayer, this alms-giving, that pilgrimage, and so forth. Fidelity to promises made to God is a sign of the respect owed to the divine majesty and of Love for a Faithful God.

The first commandment is also concerned with sins against Hope, namely, despair and presumption: By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is Faithful to his Promises - and to his mercy.

God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and Love him. the soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for Truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. the Promises of "eternal life" respond, beyond all Hope, to this desire:

The Law of the Gospel "fulfills," refines, surpasses, and leads the Old Law to its perfection. 21 In the Beatitudes, the New Law fulfills the divine Promises by elevating and orienting them toward the "Kingdom of heaven." It is addressed to those open to accepting this new Hope with Faith - the Poor, the humble, the afflicted, the pure of heart, those persecuted on account of Christ and so marks out the surprising ways of the Kingdom.

The moral law is the work of divine Wisdom. Its biblical meaning can be defined as Fatherly instruction, God's pedagogy. It prescribes for man the ways, the rules of conduct that lead to the promised beatitude; it proscribes the ways of evil which turn him away from God and his Love. It is at once firm in its precepts and, in its Promises, worthy of love.

Christian Hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen people which has its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed abundantly by the Promises of God Fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by the test of the sacrifice. 86 "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the Father of many nations." 87

Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the Kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's Promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is Faithful." 84 "The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life." 85

Promises made to others in God's name engage the divine honor, Fidelity, Truthfulness, and authority. They must be respected in justice. To be unFaithful to them is to misuse God's name and in some way to make God out to be a liar. 77

Whoever wants to remain Faithful to his Baptismal Promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral virtues, and Fidelity to prayer. "Indeed it is through chastity that we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into multiplicity." 127

The traditional form of petition to the Holy Spirit is to invoke the Father through Christ our Lord to give us the Consoler Spirit. 23 Jesus insists on this petition to be made in his name at the very moment when he Promises the gift of the Spirit of Truth. 24 But the simplest and most direct prayer is also traditional, "Come, Holy Spirit," and every liturgical tradition has developed it in antiphons and hymns.

That is why the Canticle of Mary, 91 The Magnificat (Latin) or Megalynei (byzantine) is the song both of the Mother of God and of the Church; the song of the Daughter of Zion and of the new People of God; the song of thanksgiving for the fullness of graces poured out in the economy of salvation and the song of the "Poor" whose Hope is met by the fulfillment of the Promises made to our ancestors, "to Abraham and to his posterity for ever."

The Psalms both nourished and expressed the prayer of the People of God gathered during the great feasts at Jerusalem and each Sabbath in the synagogues. Their prayer is inseparably personal and communal; it concerns both those who are praying and all men. the Psalms arose from the communities of the Holy Land and the Diaspora, but embrace all creation. Their prayer recalls the saving events of the past, yet extends into the future, even to the end of history; it commemorates the Promises God has already kept, and awaits the Messiah who will fulfill them definitively. Prayed by Christ and Fulfilled in him, the Psalms remain essential to the prayer of the Church. 38

As a final stage in the purification of his Faith, Abraham, "who had received the Promises," 13 is asked to sacrifice the son God had given him. Abraham's faith does not weaken (“God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering."), for he "considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead." 14 and so the Father of believers is conformed to the likeness of the Father who will not spare his own Son but wiLl deliver him up for us all. 15 Prayer restores man to God's likeness and enables him to share in the power of God's Love that saves the multitude. 16

When God calls him, Abraham goes forth "as the Lord had told him"; 8 Abraham's heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he obeys. Such attentiveness of the heart, whose decisions are made according to God's will, is essential to prayer, while the words used count only in relation to it. Abraham's prayer is expressed first by deeds: a man of silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey. Only later does Abraham's first prayer in words appear: a veiled complaint reminding God of his Promises which seem unFulfilled. 9 Thus one aspect of the drama of prayer appears from the beginning: the test of Faith in the Fidelity of God.

It remains for the holy people to struggle, with grace from on high, to obtain the good things God Promises. In order to possess and contemplate God, Christ's Faithful mortify their cravings and, with the grace of God, prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power.

The economy of law and grace turns men's hearts away from avarice and envy. It initiates them into desire for the Sovereign Good; it instructs them in the desires of the Holy Spirit who satisfies man's heart. The God of the Promises always warned man against seduction by what from the beginning has seemed "good for food . . . a delight to the eyes . . . to be desired to make one wise." 329

Promises must be kept and contracts strictly observed to the extent that the commitments made in them are morally just. A significant part of economic and social life depends on the honoring of contracts between physical or moral persons - commercial contracts of purchase or sale, rental or labor contracts. All contracts must be agreed to and executed in good Faith.

Adultery is an injustice. He who commits adultery fails in his commitment. He does injury to the sign of the covenant which the marriage bond is, transgresses the rights of the other spouse, and undermines the institution of marriage by breaking the contract on which it is based. He comPromises the good of human generation and the welfare of children who need their parents' stable union.

The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. They express the vocation of the Faithful associated with the glory of his Passion and Resurrection; they shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical Promises that sustain Hope in the midst of tribulations; they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples; they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.

The prophetic texts that directly concern the sending of the Holy Spirit are oracles by which God speaks to the heart of his people in the language of the promise, with the accents of "Love and Fidelity." 85 St. Peter will proclaim their fulfillment on the morning of Pentecost. 86 According to these Promises, at the "end time" the Lord's Spirit will renew the hearts of men, engraving a new law in them. He will gather and reconcile the scattered and divided peoples; he will transform the first creation, and God will dwell there with men in peace.

The forgetting of the Law and the inFidelity to the covenant end in death: it is the Exile, apparently the failure of the Promises, which is in fact the mysterious fidelity of the Savior God and the beginning of a promised restoration, but according to the Spirit. the People of God had to suffer this purification. 77 In God's plan, the Exile already stands in the shadow of the Cross, and the Remnant of the Poor that returns from the Exile is one of the most transparent prefigurations of the Church.

Against all human Hope, God Promises descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of Faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit. 68 In Abraham's progeny all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This progeny will be Christ himself, 69 in whom the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will "gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad." 70 God commits himself by his own solemn oath to giving his beLoved Son and "the promised Holy Spirit . . . [who is] the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it." 71

When he proclaims and Promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls him the "Paraclete," literally, "he who is called to one's side," advocatus. 18 "Paraclete" is commonly translated by "consoler," and Jesus is the first consoler. 19 The Lord also called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of Truth." 20

Christ's Resurrection is the fulfilment of the Promises both of the Old Testament and of Jesus himself during his earthly life. 521 The phrase "in accordance with the Scriptures" 522 indicates that Christ's Resurrection Fulfilled these predictions.

Jesus asked the religious authorities of Jerusalem to believe in him because of the Father's works which he accomplished. 373 But such an act of Faith must go through a mysterious death to self, for a new "birth from above" under the influence of divine grace. 374 Such a demand for conversion in the face of so surprising a fulfilment of the Promises 375 allows one to understand the Sanhedrin's tragic misunderstanding of Jesus: they judged that he deserved the death sentence as a blasphemer. 376 The members of the Sanhedrin were thus acting at the same time out of "ignorance" and the "hardness" of their "unbelief". 377

Throughout the Old Covenant the mission of many holy women prepared for that of Mary. At the very beginning there was Eve; despite her disobedience, she receives the promise of a posterity that will be victorious over the evil one, as well as the promise that she will be the mother of all the living. 128 By virtue of this promise, Sarah conceives a son in spite of her old age. 129 Against all human expectation God chooses those who were considered powerless and weak to show forth his Faithfulness to his Promises: Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Deborah; Ruth; Judith and Esther; and many other women. 130 Mary "stands out among the Poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently Hope for and receive salvation from him. After a long period of waiting the times are Fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established." 131

The Annunciation to Mary inaugurates "the fullness of time", 119 The time of the fulfilment of God's Promises and preparations. Mary was invited to conceive him in whom the "whole fullness of deity" would dwell "bodily". 120 The divine response to her question, "How can this be, since I know not man?", was given by the power of the Spirit: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you." 121

"The sum of your word is Truth; and every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever." 30 "and now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true"; 31 this is why God's Promises always come true. 32 God is Truth itself, whose words cannot deceive. This is why one can abandon oneself in full trust to the truth and Faithfulness of his word in all things. the beginning of sin and of man's fall was due to a lie of the tempter who induced doubt of God's word, kindness and Faithfulness.

God calls Moses from the midst of a bush that burns without being consumed: "I am the God of your Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." 9 God is the God of the fathers, the One who had called and guided the patriarchs in their wanderings. He is the Faithful and compassionate God who remembers them and his Promises; he comes to free their descendants from slavery. He is the God who, from beyond space and time, can do this and wills to do it, the God who will put his almighty power to work for this plan.

The People of the "Poor" 87 - those who, humble and meek, rely solely on their God's mysterious plans, who await the justice, not of men but of the Messiah - are in the end the great achievement of the Holy Spirit's hidden mission during the time of the Promises that prepare for Christ's coming. It is this quality of heart, purified and enlightened by the Spirit, which is expressed in the Psalms. In these poor, the Spirit is making ready "a people prepared for the Lord." 88

The remote preparation for this gathering together of the People of God begins when he calls Abraham and Promises that he will become the Father of a great people. 157 Its immediate preparation begins with Israel's election as the People of God. By this election, Israel is to be the sign of the future gathering of All nations. 158 But the prophets accuse Israel of breaking the covenant and behaving like a prostitute. They announce a new and eternal covenant. "Christ instituted this New Covenant." 159

"Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways." 325 The relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People, 326 "the first to hear the Word of God." 327 The Jewish Faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews "belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the Promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ", 328 "for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable." 329

The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They take up the Promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. the Beatitudes fulfill the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven:

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:

In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice among the first fruits of the earth as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to the Creator. But they also received a new significance in the context of the Exodus: the unleavened bread that Israel eats every year at Passover commemorates the haste of the departure that liberated them from Egypt; the remembrance of the manna in the desert will always recall to Israel that it lives by the bread of the Word of God; 154 their daily bread is the fruit of the promised land, the pledge of God's Faithfulness to his Promises. The "cup of blessing" 155 at the end of the Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing of the bread and the cup.

When Confirmation is celebrated separately from Baptism, as is the case in the Roman Rite, the Liturgy of Confirmation begins with the renewal of Baptismal Promises and the profession of Faith by the confirmands. This clearly shows that Confirmation follows Baptism. 110 When adults are baptized, they immediately receive Confirmation and participate in the Eucharist. 111

For all the baptized, children or adults, Faith must grow after Baptism. For this reason the Church celebrates each year at the Easter Vigil the renewal of Baptismal Promises. Preparation for Baptism leads only to the threshold of new life. Baptism is the source of that new life in Christ from which the entire Christian life springs forth.

The gathering of the People of God begins with Baptism; a church must have a place for the celebration of Baptism (baptistry) and for fostering remembrance of the Baptismal Promises (holy water font). The renewal of the baptismal life requires penance. A church, then, must lend itself to the expression of repentance and the reception of forgiveness, which requires an appropriate place to receive penitents. A church must also be a space that invites us to the recollection and silent prayer that extend and internalize the great prayer of the Eucharist.

Jesus Christ himself is the "Amen." 648 He is the definitive "Amen" of the Father's Love for us. He takes up and completes our "Amen" to the Father: "For all the Promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God": 649

Thus the Creed's final "Amen" repeats and confirms its first words: "I believe." To believe is to say "Amen" to God's words, Promises and commandments; to entrust oneself completely to him who is the "Amen" of infinite Love and perfect Faithfulness. the Christian's everyday life will then be the "Amen" to the "I believe" of our Baptismal profession of Faith:

In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we find the expression "God of Truth" (literally "God of the Amen"), that is, the God who is Faithful to his Promises: "He who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth [amen]." 645 Our Lord often used the word "Amen," sometimes repeated, 646 to emphasize the trustworthiness of his teaching, his authority founded on God's truth.

Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the Truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their Promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to "yield by Faith the full submission of... intellect and will to God who reveals", 26 and to share in an interior communion with him.