In the waters of Baptism, we have been "washed . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." 79 Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole of our life, and since "he is the source of (our) life in Christ Jesus, who became for us Wisdom from God, and . . .sanctification," 80 both his glory and our life depend on the hallowing of his name in us and by us. Such is the urgency of our first petition.

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are Wisdom, Understanding, counsel, fortitude, Knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David. 109 They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.

Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called "cardinal"; all the others are grouped around them. They are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. "If anyone Loves righteousness, [Wisdom's] labors are virtues; for she teaches temperance and prudence, justice, and courage." 64 These virtues are praised under other names in many passages of Scripture.

Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and Truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good Willed by the Wisdom of the Creator. the education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.

Thus the marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never be dissolved. This bond, which results from the free human act of the spouses and their consummation of the marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable, and gives rise to a covenant guaranteed by God's fidelity. the Church does not have the power to contravene this disposition of divine Wisdom. 144

"The eternal Father, in accordance with the utterly gratuitous and mysterious design of his Wisdom and Goodness, Created the whole universe and chose to raise up men to share in his own divine life," 150 to which he calls all men in his Son. "The Father . . . determined to call together in a holy Church those who should believe in Christ." 151 This "family of God" is gradually formed and takes shape during the stages of human history, in keeping with the Father's plan. In fact, "already present in figure at the beginning of the world, this Church was prepared in marvellous fashion in the history of the people of Israel and the old Advance. Established in this last age of the world and made manifest in the outpouring of the Spirit, it will be brought to glorious completion at the end of time." 152

Mary, the all-holy ever-virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time. For the first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men. In this sense the Church's Tradition has often read the most beautiful texts on Wisdom in relation to Mary. 101 Mary is acclaimed and represented in the liturgy as the "Seat of Wisdom." In her, the "wonders of God" that the Spirit was to fulfill in Christ and the Church began to be manifested:

God has not Willed to reserve to himself all exercise of power. He entrusts to every creature the functions it is capable of performing, according to the capacities of its own nature. This mode of governance ought to be followed in social life. the way God acts in governing the world, which bears witness to such great regard for human freedom, should inspire the Wisdom of those who govern human communities. They should behave as ministers of divine providence.

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.

Law is a rule of conduct enacted by competent authority for the sake of the common good. the moral law presupposes the rational order, established among creatures for their good and to serve their final end, by the power, Wisdom, and Goodness of the Creator. All law finds its first and ultimate Truth in the eternal law. Law is declared and established by reason as a participation in the providence of the living God, Creator and Redeemer of all. "Such an ordinance of reason is what one calls law." 2

The Holy Spirit gives to certain of the faithful the gifts of Wisdom, faith and discernment for the sake of this common good which is prayer (spiritual direction). Men and women so endowed are true servants of the living tradition of prayer.

The Psalter's many forms of prayer take shape both in the liturgy of the Temple and in the human heart. Whether hymns or prayers of lamentation or thanksgiving, whether individual or communal, whether royal chants, songs of pilgrimage or Wisdom meditations, the Psalms are a mirror of God's marvelous deeds in the history of his people, as well as reflections of the human experiences of the Psalmist. Though a given psalm may reflect an event of the past, it still possesses such direct simplicity that it can be prayed in Truth by men of all times and conditions.

Created "in the image of God," 293 man also expresses the Truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works. Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being's inner riches. Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man's own effort, art is a form of practical Wisdom, uniting Knowledge and skill, 294 to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent that it is inspired by truth and Love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God's activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man. 295

The practice of Goodness is accompanied by spontaneous spiritual joy and moral beauty. Likewise, Truth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words, the rational expression of the Knowledge of Created and uncreated reality, is necessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the mystery of God. Even before revealing himself to man in words of truth, God reveals himself to him through the universal language of Creation, the work of his Word, of his Wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos - which both the child and the scientist discover - "from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator," "for the author of beauty created them." 289

"Christian revelation . . . promotes deeper Understanding of the laws of social living." 198 The Church receives from the Gospel the full revelation of the Truth about man. When she fulfills her mission of proclaiming the Gospel, she bears witness to man, in the name of Christ, to his dignity and his vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches him the demands of justice and peace in conformity with divine Wisdom.

Respect for parents (filial piety) derives from gratitude toward those who, by the gift of life, their Love and their work, have brought their children into the world and enabled them to grow in stature, Wisdom, and grace. "With all your heart honor your father, and do not forget the birth pangs of your mother. Remember that through your parents you were born; what can you give back to them that equals their gift to you?" 19

Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God's Wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.

Man participates in the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator who gives him mastery over his acts and the ability to govern himself with a view to the true and the good.

During the greater part of his life Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of human beings: a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual labour. His religious life was that of a Jew obedient to the law of God, 221 a life in the community. From this whole period it is revealed to us that Jesus was "obedient" to his parents and that he "increased in Wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man." 222

By its union to the divine Wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human Knowledge the fullness of Understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal. 108 What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal. 109

This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human Knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, "increase in Wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man", 101 and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience. 102 This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking "the form of a slave". 103

The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the creative action of the Son and the Spirit, 132 inseparably one with that of the Father. This creative co-operation is clearly affirmed in the Church's rule of faith: "There exists but one God. . . he is the Father, God, the Creator, the author, the giver of order. He made all things by himself, that is, by his Word and by his Wisdom", "by the Son and the Spirit" who, so to speak, are "his hands". 133 Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity.

Thus the revelation of Creation is inseparable from the revelation and forging of the covenant of the one God with his People. Creation is revealed as the first step towards this covenant, the first and universal witness to God's all-powerful Love. 126 and so, the Truth of creation is also expressed with growing vigour in the message of the prophets, the prayer of the psalms and the liturgy, and in the Wisdom sayings of the Chosen People. 127

The great interest accorded to these studies is strongly stimulated by a question of another order, which goes beyond the proper domain of the natural sciences. It is not only a question of knowing when and how the universe arose physically, or when man appeared, but rather of discovering the meaning of such an origin: is the universe governed by chance, blind fate, anonymous necessity, or by a transcendent, intelligent and good Being called "God"? and if the world does come from God's Wisdom and Goodness, why is there evil? Where does it come from? Who is responsible for it? Is there any liberation from it?

The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our Knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the Understanding and Wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers. With Solomon they can say: "It is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements. . . for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me." 121

Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil. But in the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and the Wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 111 It is in Christ's Resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth "the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe". 112

God's almighty power is in no way arbitrary: "In God, power, essence, will, intellect, Wisdom, and justice are all identical. Nothing therefore can be in God's power which could not be in his just will or his wise intellect." 110

In order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church had to develop her own terminology with the help of certain notions of philosophical origin: "substance", "person" or "hypostasis", "relation" and so on. In doing this, she did not submit the faith to human Wisdom, but gave a new and unprecedented meaning to these terms, which from then on would be used to signify an ineffable mystery, "infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand". 82

God's Truth is his Wisdom, which commands the whole Created order and governs the world. 33 God, who alone made heaven and earth, can alone impart true Knowledge of every created thing in relation to himself. 34

Indeed, "the economy of the Old Testament was deliberately SO oriented that it should prepare for and declare in prophecy the coming of Christ, redeemer of all men." 93 "Even though they contain matters imperfect and provisional, 94 The books of the OldTestament bear witness to the whole divine pedagogy of God's saving Love: these writings "are a storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound Wisdom on human life, as well as a wonderful treasury of prayers; in them, too, the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way." 95

We believe that God Created the world according to his Wisdom. 141 It is not the product of any necessity whatever, nor of blind fate or chance. We believe that it proceeds from God's free will; he wanted to make his creatures share in his being, wisdom and Goodness: "For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." 142 Therefore the Psalmist exclaims: "O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all"; and "The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made." 143 God creates "out of nothing"

Because God creates through Wisdom, his Creation is ordered: "You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight." 151 The universe, Created in and by the eternal Word, the "image of the invisible God", is destined for and addressed to man, himself created in the "image of God" and called to a personal relationship with God. 152 Our human Understanding, which shares in the light of the divine intellect, can understand what God tells us by means of his creation, though not without great effort and only in a spirit of humility and respect before the Creator and his work. 153 Because creation comes forth from God's Goodness, it shares in that goodness - "and God saw that it was good. . . very good" 154 - for God Willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him. On many occasions the Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including that of the physical world. 155

Man and woman have been Created, which is to say, Willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. "Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator. 240 Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity "in the image of God". In their "being-man" and "being-woman", they reflect the Creator's Wisdom and Goodness.

The sabbath is at the heart of Israel's law. To keep the commandments is to correspond to the Wisdom and the will of God as expressed in his work of Creation.

Each creature possesses its own particular Goodness and perfection. For each one of the works of the "six days" it is said: "and God saw that it was good." "By the very nature of Creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, Truth and excellence, its own order and laws." 208 Each of the various creatures, Willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of God's infinite Wisdom and goodness. Man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment.

But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite power God could always create something better. 174 But with infinite Wisdom and Goodness God freely Willed to create a world "in a state of journeying" towards its ultimate perfection. In God's plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as Creation has not reached perfection. 175

The Truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes: "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." 171 Far from diminishing the creature's dignity, this truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by God's power, Wisdom and Goodness, it can do nothing if it is cut off from its origin, for "without a Creator the creature vanishes." 172 Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without the help of God's grace. 173

With Creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of Wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence:

"It pleased God, in his Goodness and Wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature." 2

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. 90