Catechism Themes

CCC 2232-2233: to follow Christ is first vocation of Christian
CCC 537, 628, 790, 1213, 1226-1228, 1694: baptism, to die to self, to live for Christ
CCC 1987: grace justifies through faith and baptism

Lesson Plans

13th Sunday of Year A –

Catechist Background and Preparation
Primary Session
Intermediate Session
Junior High School

Sacrament of Baptism

We Catholics hold that the celebration of this sacrament is the gateway to the spiritual life, and, as such, its effects can be detailed in a number of ways. To begin with, baptism (along with confirmation and Eucharist) initiates one as a member into the Church. Claimed by Christ in baptism, each initiate is given a share in the priesthood of all believers. Thus, by baptism we belong to one another, a community whose members pour out their lives in service to one another, each using their unique gifts and abilities to build up the whole (CCC 1268 – 69). In addition, because we also believe that the Church is not merely a social collection of individual people but the living, mystical body of Christ, baptism also joins one to the Lord.

While we Catholics believe that faith and baptism are closely linked, and that a first faith is required as evidence before one can go into the life-giving waters, we also affirm that what is being professed and offered in the sacrament is the faith of the Church itself. This is the theological reasoning behind the baptism of infants. Every individual who is baptized, regardless of chronological age, is called to grow in maturity and develop the practice of the faith with the help of the entire household of the faithful (CCC 1253).

Finally, the Catholic Church understands baptism as our incorporation into Christ’s mission. Believers step forth from the baptismal font, washed and reborn, indeed, reinvigorated so that they might proclaim the good news of salvation by their words and deeds in every circumstance of life that they will meet.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

• What does baptism mean for your life today?
• Who has supported you most in your walk of faith?
• How do you live out your baptismal promises?

28 Lessons

Fr. Eamon Tobin

Baptism and Confirmation

Is Baptism necessary for salvation? What are the effects of Baptism on those who receive the sacrament? What are by baptism of blood, baptism of desire and baptism of implicit desire? Why does the Church baptize infants when they cannot repent of sin and profess faith in Jesus? What are the origin and essential rite of the sacrament of Confirmation? Who may receive Confirmation and what are its effects on the confirmandi?

3 Minute
Catechism

Hospitality Is Biblical—and It's Not Optional

Our homes and our churches should be places where everyone feels at home. Guests should never feel that they are causing undue extra labor. In short, all that is really needed to be an excellent host is a loving heart, an open ear, and eyes that see Christ in each person who crosses the threshold.

Catholic Answers

In the second book of Kings, the prophets Elijah and Elisha repay their hosts by curing their sons. In a gesture of gratitude prefiguring the Eucharist, Elijah blesses his hostess’s grain so that it never runs out (2 Kgs. 4).

Our homes and our churches should be places where everyone feels at home. Guests should never feel that they are causing undue extra labor. In short, all that is really needed to be an excellent host is a loving heart, an open ear, and eyes that see Christ in each person who crosses the threshold.

How to Be Worthy of Jesus

Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Y...

Catholic Answers

Hearing the words of Our Lord’s [in the Gospel for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A] may be a little difficult for some of us. How can he claim that we should love him so much that to love someone else more makes us unworthy of his love?

The answer is simple. He is the God who is love. He is goodness itself, and so any love we have for persons or things who are good and loveable comes from him as its unique source, and this love we have for his creatures must return to him. To be sure, he tells us that the twofold commandment of love of God and of neighbor are practically the same commandment. St. John is especially insistent on this point in his epistles. But even so, we must love all that is not God for his sake, and never apart from him.

Intrinsic Justification

The Catholic Church teaches the biblical doctrine that justification is intrinsic. This means that the initial justification of the sinner, wrought by God's gift of grace, produces a real, inward change.

Catholic Answers

What the Early Church Believed: The Necessity of Baptism

As the following passages from the works of the Church Fathers illustrate, Christians have always believed in the necessity of baptism for salvation.

Catholic Answers

What the Early Church Believed: Baptismal Grace

Few truths are so clearly taught in the New Testament as the doctrine that in baptism God gives us grace. The writings of the early Christians affirm this.

Catholic Answers