Twelve questions chosen at random. A new selection appears at each visit.
Q409The Second Petition: “Thy Kingdom Come”
The Church prays, in the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, in a striking past tense: “You did not cease doing all things until You had led us up to heaven, and granted us…
Read the answer →Q088The First Article: God
Holy Scripture speaks in this way because it speaks the common language of mankind, condescending to our capacity, for we cannot otherwise picture what is invisible. We are to understand such expressions in a…
Read the answer →Q346Holy Communion: The Eucharist
At the Great Entrance, the holy gifts are transferred from the table of oblation to the altar. This recalls Jesus Christ going voluntarily to suffer, as a victim to the slaughter, while more than…
Read the answer →Q237The Eighth Article: The Holy Spirit
In both Hebrew and Greek, the word for “spirit” (ruach, pneuma) also means “breath” and “wind,” conveying the idea of an invisible cause with visible effects. For this reason, the Scriptures often emphasize the…
Read the answer →Q200The Fourth Article: The Crucifixion
The mention of Pontius Pilate is important not only to mark the time of the crucifixion, but to establish that Christianity takes place in history. The Christian faith does not consist in abstract ideas…
Read the answer →Q272The Ninth Article: The Church
The saying “Outside the Church there is no salvation” (extra ecclesiam nulla salus) comes from St Cyprian of Carthage, who writes that “there can be no salvation for anyone except in the Church” (St…
Read the answer →Q530On the Second Commandment
Every refusal to direct honor and thanksgiving ultimately to God, the source of all blessings, is akin to idolatry. As the Prophet Samuel warns: “rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is…
Read the answer →Q265The Ninth Article: The Church
Indeed, the book of Revelation shows the ministry of both the martyrs and the angels before the throne: “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word…
Read the answer →Q300Holy Baptism
The symbolism of the white garment is scriptural, reminding us that it is the Lord who has clothed us out of his love for mankind: “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD… for he…
Read the answer →Q232The Seventh Article: The Second Coming
Even words and thoughts are manifestations of the “inner man.” Those who are joined to Christ and are truly “in Christ” produce the thoughts, words, and actions that correspond to their new nature: “As…
Read the answer →Q018On Holy Tradition and Holy Scripture
Certainly, the Holy Scriptures are a uniquely reliable and authoritative repository of Holy Tradition, on account of their nature as theopneustos, “God-breathed”: “Every Scripture is God-breathed, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,…
Read the answer →Q521On the Second Commandment
To understand the Church’s wisdom in blessing and regulating the use of holy images, one must consider the alternatives: either the complete prohibition of all representations or the indiscriminate blessing of every kind of…
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