Week 4: Passages 172-231

This week’s reading cover passages 172-231 or days 22-28 on the CHN guide. Almost a month of reading under our belts!

We continue with Article 2 of Chapter Three of Section One of Part One.

III. Only One Faith
The Church has confessed only one faith through all the centuries and across a multitude of cultures. Some great quotes from Saint Irenaeus are referenced, I love the imagery presented here:

“We guard with care the faith we have received from the Church, for without
ceasing, under the action of God’s Spirit, this deposit of great price, as if in
an excellent vessel, is constantly being renewed and causes the very vessel that
contains it to be renewed.” (CCC 175)

In Brief
I usually don’t take notes on the “In Brief” section but this one contains a wonderful summary of last week’s reading on faith. “Faith” is a word I throw around all the time, but I’m not sure I really know or understand its actual meaning. It was edifying to read the official Church definition of this important concept. I loved this passage which again refers to the Church as a mother:

“’Believing’ is an ecclesial act. The Church’s faith preceeds, engenders,
supports and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all
believers. ‘No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as
Mother’”. (CCC 181)

My edition of the CCC includes a handy chart which compares the Apostle’s Creed to the Nicene Creed- I am always getting those two confused!

Next we move to:
Section Two- The Profession of the Christian Faith
The Creeds
In this section of the Catechism we will be walking through the Apostles’ Creed line by line. I am really excited about this- I hope to gain a deeper appreciation and reverence for those lines I mumble in Mass! This introductory section explains what a creed is, its purpose and the difference between the two commonly used creeds (Apostle’s and Nicene).
I hadn’t before heard the Creed referred to as a “symbol of faith”. (CCC 187) I found this explanation really interesting:

“The Greek word symbolon meant half of a broken object, for example a seal
presented as a token of recognition. The broken parts were placed together
to verify the bearer’s identity. The symbol of faith, then, is a sign of
recognition and communion between believers. Symbolon also means a
gathering, collection, or summary. A symbol of faith is a summary of the
principal truths of the faith and therefore serves as the first and fundamental
point of reference for catechesis.” (CCC 188)

Chapter One – I Believe in God the Father
Our profession of faith begins with God, and specifically with God the Father, the first person of the Holy Trinity.

Article 1 – I Believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth
Paragraph 1. I Believe in God
I. I Believe in One God
There is one God supreme and without equal, which does not contradict the fact that this one God is made up of three divine persons.
II. God Reveals His Name
God reveled his true name to Moses in the burning bush so that we could come to know Him more intimately. In revealing his mysterious name (YHWH or “I AM WHO I AM”) God is telling us who He is. He is revealing that He is a living God, faithful, merciful and gracious.
Moses realizes his own worthlessness in the presence of God’s greatness. God forgives those who acknowledge their own sinfulness before Him. St. John says,

“We shall… reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for
God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” (CCC 208)

I found it interesting to note that out of respect for the holiness of God, the people of Israel do not say his name (YHWH). Where the title appears in Scripture they read “Lord” instead. This sheds new light on the New Testament revelation that “Jesus is Lord”.
CCC 213 gives a good summary of what we can know about God through the revelation of His name:

“The revelation of the ineffable name ‘I Am who Am’ contains then the truth that
God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures,
and following it the Church’s Tradition, understood the divine name in this
sense: God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and
without end. All creature receive all that they are and have from him; but
he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is.”

III. God, “He Who Is,” Is Truth and Love
Truth and Love: these two terms give us a summary of the many riches revealed in the divine name.
God is faithful and righteous in all things. We can always trust Him to keep His promises. Failure to trust God was what caused Original Sin. God’s truth is His wisdom. He created the world and everything in it, and only He can give us true knowledge of every creature and thing in relation to Himself.
God is truthful when he reveals himself, we can trust in Jesus who was sent to “bear witness to the truth.” (CCC 217)
The only reason God has to reveal himself to us and to never stop saving us is love. God loves us with a love that is everlasting and greater than any human love. In fact God’s very being is love:

“God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of
love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that
exchange.” (CCC 221)

IV. The Implications of Faith in One God
This section lists the consequences for our belief in the One God:

• Coming to know God’s greatness and majesty and serving him


• Living in thanksgiving, since everything we have comes from Him


• Knowing the unity and true dignity of all men, who are made in the image and likeness of God


• Making good use of created things, detaching ourselves from things that do not bring us closer to God


• Trusting God in every circumstance even in adversity- a prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus expresses this trust:
  

“Let nothing trouble you
Let nothing frighten you
Everything passes
God
never changes
Patience
Obtains all
Whoever has God
Wants for
nothing
God Alone is Enough.” (CCC 227)

I think that is a wonderful prayer for mothers!

As I was reading this section about the nature of God revealed through his name I was struck with the ineffable greatness of it. I was filled with awe as I was reading, and I had trouble paraphrasing in my notes, my words just did not seem adequate to describe the majesty of God. I was driven to reflect that passing on the faith to my children is more than just teaching them catechism, although that is very important. I also hope to pass on to them a sense of wonder and reverence for God the Father Almighty who IS Truth and Love.

Here are some questions for reflection and discussion, as always feel free to comment on anything that struck you:

• How does the explanation of a creed given here (CCC 185-197) mesh with your understanding of creeds? Personally I have gone from thinking of a creed as a sort of “Cliff Notes of the Faith” to something much deeper!


• How can we as mothers, instill reverence and awe for God in our children and help them to understand what He has revealed about Himself through His divine name?


• Which of the Implications of Faith in One God (CCC 222-227) do you struggle with the most? What are some concrete ways we can pass these on to our children?

Week 3: Passages 109-171

This week we read passages 109- 171, or days 15-21 on the CHN guide.

How is everyone doing? I encourage you as you read to highlight, mark up, or take notes in a notebook- even if you never look at it again the process of recording your thoughts really helps the material stick! And of course you’ll want to note your favorite passages so you can comment about them on this blog!
I’m finding the length of these readings pretty doable. I even got this one done ahead of time, because as you all are reading this I am in New York living it up! And attending Mass with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI– accompanied by my four kids ages 8 and under. I’ll let you know how that goes!

But anyway back to the Catechism!

These readings continue where we left off last week in Article 3…
… of Chapter Two…
… of Section One…
…of Part One.


Are you with me?

We are up to Roman Numeral III: The Holy Spirit, Interpreter of Scripture
This section gives us guidelines for interpreting Scripture, through which God speaks to us in a human way.
First we need to understand the intention of the human author, taking into account the historical context, literary genre, and modes of the time of writing.
Second we need to read and interpret in light of the Spirit. Particularly what God wants to reveal to us for our salvation.
We are given three criteria for interpreting Scripture in accordance with the Spirit:

1. “Be especially attentive ‘to the content and unity of the whole Scripture.’ Different as the books which comprise it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God’s plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.” (CCC 112)




2. “Read the Scripture within ‘the living Tradition of the whole Church.’” (CCC 113)




3. “Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By ‘analogy of faith’ we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.” (CCC 114)
   

There are two senses of Scripture: literal and spiritual, with the spiritual being divided into allegorical, moral and anagogical senses.

The Church carries the Divine Commission for interpreting Scripture, as St. Augustine reminds us:

“But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic
Church already moved me.” (CCC 119)

IV The Canon of Scripture
The Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of sacred books known as the canon of Scripture. There are 46 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New.
The Old Testament has not been revoked, the Church venerates it as the True Word of God and a source of much teaching, wisdom, and prayer. Additionally, the mystery of our salvation is present in the Old Testament in a hidden way.
The New Testament hands on the ultimate truth of God’s Revelation. The Gospels are the heart of the NT “because they are our principal source for the life and teaching of the Incarnate Word, our Savior.” (CCC 125)

There are three stages of the formation of the Gospels:
1. The life and teaching of Jesus.
2. The oral tradition.
3. The written Gospels.

The Gospels hold a unique place in the Church, in the liturgy and in the minds of the Saints.

“The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in
the New.” (CCC 129)

The typology of the Old Testament reveals prefigurations of what will be accomplished in the New Testament, but the OT does not lose its intrinsic value.

V. Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church

“The Church ‘forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful…to
learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ by frequent reading of the divine
Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.’” (CCC 133)

I need to read that over and over!

Chapter Three – Man’s Response to God

“By his Revelation, ‘the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses
men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them
into his own company.’ The adequate response to this invitation is faith.”
(CCC 142)

By faith man completely submits his mind and will to God through a process known as the obedience of faith.

Article 1 I Believe
I. The Obedience of Faith
This section discusses those we can look to as examples of faith: Abraham (our Father in faith) and of course Mary whose faith never wavered even as her son died on the cross.

II. I know Whom I Have Believed
Christian faith differs from faith in a human person. We are adhering to the whole truth that God has revealed, to put such faith in a creature would be futile.
Because we believe in God we also believe in his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is.

III. The Characteristics of Faith

“Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him.” (CCC 153)

We need the grace of God to assist us! How often do I try to do things on my own strength? My brain has so much trouble wrapping around the idea that I can’t do everything all by myself, that I need the gift of God.
Faith is a human act, contrary to neither the human freedom nor human reason. I know I have had trouble accepting that statement. I really used to believe that Christians were not excersing their freedom or reason. I thought they were just blindly following what they were taught, which I didn’t understand so I concluded didn’t make any sense. Now I can see that while perhaps some Christian fail to apply their freedom and reason, the same can be said for a large number of non-Christians. Let’s face it – it is just so much easier to accept what you see around you and not rock the boat. It is Jesus who calls us out of our nice comfortable boat onto the wild and raging water and gives us the grace to do what seemed impossible and crazy! But accepting that invitation is tough.
We believe because of the authority of God, but so that faith would be in accordance with our reason God willed external proofs of His Revelation to be joined with the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.

“The assent of faith is ‘by no means a blind impulse of the mind.” (CCC 156)

Faith is certain because it is founded on the very Word of God.
Faith seeks understanding. Read this passage well, dear Catechism reading buddies, and find encouragement:

“It is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom
he has put his faith and to understand better what He has revealed; a more
penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set
afire by love. The grace of faith opens ‘the eyes of your hearts’ to a
lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of
God’s plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and
with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery. ‘The same Holy Spirit
constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more
profoundly understood.’ In the words of St. Augustine, ‘I believe, in order to
understand; and I understand, the better to believe.’” (CCC 158)

There is no conflict between faith and science. Truth can never contradict truth.

“Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between
faith and reason.” (CCC 159)

Faith must be free, men cannot be coerced. Christ invited conversion but never forced anyone.
Faith is necessary for salvation, we must believe in Jesus Christ and the One who sent him.
It is possible to lose faith, we must persevere.

“To live, grow, and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with
the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; it must be ‘working
through charity,’ abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.”
(CCC 162)

Faith gives us foretaste of the beatific vision, when we see God face to face. However our experience here on earth is often that of looking into a rather dirty mirror. We see God imperfectly and all the evil and suffering of the world is a temptation against faith.
We must turn to the witnesses of faith, Abraham the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints.

Article 2 We Believe
I. Lord, Look Upon the Faith of Your Church
We have not given ourselves faith, it has been given to us by others and it is our responsibility to pass it on!

II. The Language of Faith
The Church is our mother, through which we first receive the gift of faith. She is also our teacher. As a mother teachers her children to speak, so the Church teaches us the language of faith using certain formulations to aid us in understanding the life of faith.

And so concludes the reading for this week. I love the analogy of the Church as a mother. I really cling to the example of the Church as I strive to raise my children as Christians. As mothers we are in a unique position to share in the Church’s maternal mission.

So let’s have some discussion questions!

• Share any passage that jumped out at you! What part of the reading spoke to your heart?




• Do see Faith as a supernatural virtue that is infused by God? What steps do you take to nourish your faith? (see CCC 162 for examples)




• How can we as wives and mothers, fulfill our duty to pass on the faith as it has been passed to us?

Week 2: Passages 50-108

Tomorrow begins week 2!!! Our assignment this week is to read passages 50-108, or days 8-14 on the CHN guide.

Here are my notes and thoughts followed by some discussion questions...

Chapter 2: God Comes to Meet Man


Although we can know God through our reason alone, we have also been given a higher order of knowledge: Divine Revelation. This chapter is all about how God has revealed himself to us, by sending his Son, Jesus Christ.


This chapter is further divided into Articles. So let’s review: we have Part, Section, Chapter and now…Article. All these divisions are giving me flashbacks of an outline-happy teacher I had in high school – but I digress! Here we go with the Articles:


Article 1


I God Reveals His "Plan of Loving Goodness"

This section is pretty amazing! Check out this quote:

“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.” (CCC 52)
That sort of leaves me speechless! Why
does God care to reveal himself to us?
“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.” (CCC 52)

What a gift! And I love how this section is titled "God's Plan of Loving Goodness", before I converted I always feared the Bible contained "God's Plan of Infinitely Painful Sinner Smiting"!


Now we move on to how God reveals himself to us, and CCC 52 gives us the answer. God reveals himself through both actions and words, and he reveals himself to man gradually!
Be sure to check out the quote from St. Irenaeus about God and man needing to become accustomed to each other! I wonder if He needs extra time to become accustomed to some of us :)


II The Stages of Revelation
God reveals himself to man in stages. We read about our first parents Adam and Eve, and how God manifested ourselves to them, and did not forsake us even after the Fall, but gave us a promise of redemption.
Then we read about Noah, and God’s plan to save humanity part by part. Biblical figures Abel, Melchizedek, Noah, Daniel and Job are mentioned as Gentiles who were able to reach the heights of sanctity under the covenant of Noah, while the world awaited Christ.
Next in the line-up of Salvation History is Abraham, the father of God’s chosen people who were “called to prepare for that day when God would gather all his children into the unity of the Church.” (CCC 60)
After the patriarchs we read of Israel and how God freed them from slavery in Egypt, established a covenant on Mount Sinai and gave them his law, so that they might know him as their Father and look forward to the coming of a Savior.
Then we have the prophets and a list of holy women (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Judith, and Esther) keeping alive the hope of Israel’s salvation. And finally, the purest of all, Mary.
This all leads us to....



III Christ Jesus- “Mediator and Fullness of All Revelation”

“God has said everything in his Word” (CCC 65)

And there you go, no other words are necessary :)
We are to expect no new revelation, we are living the Christian Covenant! This is it people, the party is NOW!!!!

And then we get a note about private revelation and its role in the Church and finally this good bit about “new revelations” which someone ought to send to Oprah:

“Christian faith cannot accept ‘revelations’ that claim to surpass or correct
the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain
non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves
on such ‘revelations’” (CCC 93)

Article 2 The Transmission of Divine Revelation

“God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation
of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be
transmitted to all generations.” (CCC 74)

And I was worried the Catechism would be boring! Not only did we just read that God chose to reveal himself to us so that he could adopt us as children, but now we hear how he arranged for his Revelation to be kept safe and transmitted to everyone throughout the ages!
He did this through Apostolic preaching (both oral teachings and writings under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) and continues this transmission through apostolic succession. This living transmission is also known as Tradition, and is distinct from Sacred Scripture.


II The Relationship Between Tradition and Sacred Scripture

“’Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and
communicate one with the other. For both of them flowing out from the same
divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing and move
towards the same goal.’ Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church
the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own ‘always, to the close
of the age’” (CCC 80)

I’ll have to try to remember to say THAT next time someone tells me how the Church teaches things that aren’t in the Bible.
The difference between Tradition and tradition (Big T versus little t) is also discussed and then we are on to the next section.


III. The Interpretation of the Heritage of Faith
Here the role of the Magisterium is discussed. The Magisterium alone exercises authority in the Name of Jesus Christ to give an authentic interpretation of the Word of God revealed in Scripture and Tradition.
The faithful are instructed to be “mindful of Christ’s words to his apostles: ‘He who hears you, hear me,’” and to “receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.” (CCC 87)
Ok, I’m going to need to work on that docility thing :)

And now we get to discuss dogma, or truths we as Christians are obliged to believe as an “irrevocable adherence of faith”. (CCC 88)
I’ve always felt the word “dogma” had quite negative connotations, almost synonymous with “multitude of persnickety rules that are impossible to follow made up to torment us all” so I was excited to read this:

“There is an organic connection between our spiritual life and the dogmas.
Dogmas are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate it and make it
secure. Conversely, if our life is upright, our intellect and heart will
be open to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith.” (CCC 89)

Bring on the light! Stumbling around in the dark does get wearisome after awhile.


And CCC 90 reminds us of the coherence and order of Catholic doctrine.
We then read about the supernatural sense of faith through which the body of the faithful is able to “manifest a universal consent in the matters of faith and morals.” (CCC 92)
We can grow in our understanding of faith through the assistance of the Holy Spirit, by means of contemplation and study, reading Scriptures, and listening to preaching.


Let’s pray for all of us brought together on this little blog as we “ponder these things in [our] hearts” in our search to “deepen our knowledge of revealed truth.” (CCC 94)


Article 3 Sacred Scripture


I. Christ – The Unique Word of Sacred Scripture
In order to speak to us God uses human words:

“Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like
human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself
the flesh of human weakness, became like men.” (CCC 101)

All the many words of Sacred Scripture are really just one Word, the Word of God. The Church has always venerated Sacred Scripture as she venerates the Lord’s Body.


II. Inspiration and Truth of Sacred Scripture
The Holy Spirit has inspired the authors of Sacred Scripture to write whatever he wanted written and no more. The books of Scripture teach the truth.
The following quote is a great way to conclude the reading!

“Still, the Christian faith is not a ‘religion of the book.’ Christianity is the
religion of the ‘Word’ of God, a word which is ‘not a written and mute word, but
the Word which is incarnate and living.’ If the Scriptures are not to
remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through
the Holy Spirit, ‘open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures.’” (CCC
108)

Here are some questions for discussion:

• In CCC 65 we read, “Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.” Are you guilty of this? ‘Fess up!
  


• In these readings we learned that Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture both make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God. Do you rely more on one than the other in your day to day life? Actually as I am typing this, I am not entirely sure what “Tradition” encompasses? Would Mass be “Tradition”, even though in contains Scripture readings? I suppose they really are entwined. Thoughts?
  


• Let’s talk dogma, have you found it to be a guiding light? Or perhaps not?

As usual feel free to comment about anything that strikes you from these readings! The more we are able to bring these words off the page and into our lives, the better chance we have of remembering and living these truths we profess to believe!

Week 1: Intro - 49

It’s time for our first reading assignment! This week we will be reading and discussing the Introduction,or Prologue as my edition calls it, and passages (not pages!) 1-49, also known as days 1-7 on the printable CHN guide. Before you begin reading I strongly recommend that you say a prayer to the Holy Spirit, using the prayer I added to the right side bar, the shorter one in the CHN guide, or one of your own choosing.

Good news- the reading didn’t take me all that long. Hopefully they will stay a uniform length.
I found this link to the Compendium very useful. The Compendium is basically a shortened more concise version of the Catechism in a question and answer format. When I had trouble with a passage in the Catechism, I looked it up in the Compendium. Seeing it rephrased or even just reading the same information an additional time proved very helpful.

So without further ado, here are my notes and mommy-thoughts, I hope they will prove helpful and a starting point for reading and discussion.

Prologue

I The Life of Men- to know and love God.
I found this quote from the Compendium (a link I think I’ll be using a lot) that sums it up nicely:

"God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness
freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. In the fullness of
time, God the Father sent his Son as the Redeemer and Savior of mankind, fallen
into sin, thus calling all into his Church and, through the work of the Holy
Spirit, making them adopted children and heirs of his eternal happiness." (CCC
1-25)

The rest of the prologue (sections II-IV) deals with defining catechesis, and information on the history, structure, intended use of the Catechism. What is this crazy huge book anyway? Read the Prologue and find out!

“Catechesis is an education in the faith of children, young people, and adults
which includes especially the teaching if Christian doctrine imparted, generally
speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the
hearers into the fullness of Christian life.” (CCC 5)

Traditionally catechisms are built on four pillars, and this one follows that tradition:
Profession of faith (the Creed)
Sacraments of faith
Life of faith (The Commandments)
Prayer of the believer (The Lord’s Prayer)

Hopefully in reading the Catechism from beginning to end we will be able to appreciate and understand it as a “united whole.” (CCC 18)The Prologue also contains a section that details how to adapt the Catechism for use in different cultures and situations. Truly we belong to a universal Church that has relevance to all places and circumstances!

And finally we are given an excellent reminder “Above All- Charity.”

“The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love
that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope or for
action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can
see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no
other objective than to arrive at love.” (CCC 25)

And so ends the Prologue and we are on to Chapter 1- Man’s Capacity for God of Section 1- I Believe- We Believe of Part 1- Profession of Faith. Does anyone else find all these levels of division confusing? The chapter itself is divided into sections using Roman numerals, I have kept that format in my notes for clarity.

Part 1, Section1, Chapter 1

I The Desire For God

“The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created
by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in
God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.” (CCC
27)

Man is a religious being, and we can find evidence of this throughout history across all cultures.
However, this “intimate and vital bond” with God is often easily forgotten. Several causes are given for this forgetting:
1. Revolt against evil in the world
2. Religious ignorance
3. Cares and troubles of the world
4. Scandal or bad example of believers
5. Currents of thought hostile to religion
6. Attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call

Wow, I know can personally relate to causes # 2, 3, 5, and 6, and not just in my life BC (before conversion). I think these things are just more subtle now. I really noticed myself doing #6 just this week. I noticed this at times when I was engaged in a conflict with my son (who has developed quite a sassy attitude of late). I start to lose my temper, and the farther I go from a charitable and loving parental response (deeper into sin), the less likely I am to turn to God in prayer, both at the moment and even for hours/days afterward. Yes, I actually try to hide from God.

I’m sure I look just as foolish to our Lord as my 6-year-old did to me the other day when I discovered him sitting on the white bathroom rug with a guilty look all over his face and an empty bottle of blue paint next to him. In a misguided attempt to avoid discovery he even told me in all earnestness, “Nothing happened here, I am sitting on this rug for NO reason in particular.” The funny part was, it was washable bath tub paint, so if he would have told me immediately about the mess I could have washed it easily. Hmmm, I’m sure there is a message for me here, I am going to make a pointed effort to bring all my messes to God right away!

Can you share an experience with any of these six factors that cause us to reject or forget God?

Despite all these ways that man can forget about God, God “never ceases to call every man to him, so as to find life and happiness.” (CCC 30) Definitely check out this passage which includes a great quote from St. Augustine!
Do you have a great "restless heart" story to share?

II Ways of Coming to Know God
This section discusses ways of coming to know God: through the beauty and order creation and through the human person and his soul (referred to as the “seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material”).

This reminds me of the importance of getting kids outside to experience God’s creation. I try to incorporate nature study into my homeschooling, and I need the reminder that it is not just an extension of our science or phys. ed. curriculum, but an aspect of bringing them up in the faith. In fact I think we can look at all the school subjects in this light, marveling at the order and wonder in the universe through science, exploring the orderliness and patterns of mathematics, the beauty of art and music, all these things can help our children to know and love God.

III The Knowledge of God According to The Church
This section is all about the role of the Church. Although man IS capable of coming to know God by reason alone (because he is created in the image of God) there are many obstacles to his doing so including the impact of the senses, imagination, and “disordered appetites which are the consequence of original sin”. (CCC 37)
So we need divine revelation to enlighten us, “not only about those things that exceed [our] understanding, but also ‘about those religious and moral truths which of themselves are not beyond the grasps of human reason, so that even in the present condition of the human race, they can be known by all men with ease, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error.’” (CCC 38)

IV How Can We Speak About God?
This section is about how we can use our human ways of knowing and thinking and our words which are human and describe earthly things to describe God- “the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable”. (CCC 42)
From the Compendium:

"By taking as our starting point the perfections of man and of the other
creatures which are a reflection, albeit a limited one, of the infinite
perfection of God, we are able to speak about God with all people. We must,
however, continually purify our language insofar as it is image-bound and
imperfect, realizing that we can never fully express the infinite mystery of
God." (CCC 39-4348-49)

At the end of each chapter, there is a review section called “In Brief” which provides a handy point by point review! Notice these points have their own reference numbers, so don’t skip them as they are part of the assigned reading.

So now your job is to go do the reading, and come back here and post any questions, comments, insights, favorite passages, or anything else Catechism related! Go, go, go!!!!