Conclusion
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, equal with God the Father and God the Son. It is the Holy Spirit that sanctifies man, works in many ways “to build up the whole Body in charity,” according to Ephesians 4:6.
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.
Beatitudes
The Beatitudes are the basic qualities of Christian holiness, which are pleasing to God and which will be generously rewarded. They were Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, addressed to the disciples and the crowd.
- Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;
- Blessed are they who mourn for they will be comforted;
- Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the land;
- Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied;
- Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy;
- Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God;
- Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God;
- Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;
- Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in heaven, Matthew 5, 3-12 said.
The Beatitudes exalt those who put their confidence in God despite lack of material possessions. Too, those who are with clean and humble heart and live in conformity with God’s will.
Fruits of the Holy Spirit
The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
These fruits are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in Christians as the first fruits of eternal glory, according to Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1832. Spiritual writers consider virtues as stable dispositions of the will and intellect that govern acts of man. Seemingly interrelated, these moral values “can be grouped into four cardinal virtues: penance, justice, fortitude and temperance,” CCC 1834 said.
The tradition of the Church lists 12. The three virtues that were not included are generosity, modesty and chastity.
Ten Commandments
To deserve eternal life is to keep the Decalogue, which literally is the Ten Commandments.
It was proclaimed by God to an assembly of people, led by Moses, amid fire, cloud and thick darkness on Mount Sinai.
God wrote them in two stone tablets and gave them to Moses. A covenant between God and His people, the two tables are considered as Tables of Testimony to be deposited in the Ark or Sanctuary, which will be built for the Lord.
The first three commandments specify man’s relationship with God, and the rest are how man should relate with other people.
Apostles of the Lord
“Now it happened in those days that He went up on the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came, He summoned His disciples and picked out 12 of them. He called them apostles—Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor,” according to Luke 6:12-16.
Because Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord, he did not help build the Catholic Church as the 11 apostles did.
The word apostle means one who is sent. The 11 apostles were the prime witnesses to Christ’s resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday.
They knew Him and loved Him, and were assigned roles in building Christian communities.
According to Catholic teaching, Christ ordained them priests during the Last Supper and commissioned them to preach the Gospel, Matthew 28: 19-20 said.
Doctrines of the Apostles Creed
The Apostles Creed is the faithful summary of the apostles’ faith. From the Latin word credo, the 12 principal truths of Christian faith are the fundamental reference for catechesis.
The ancient tradition of the Church as attested by Saint Ambrose reckon with 12 articles of the Creed, which symbolize the fullness of apostolic faith by the number of the apostles, CCC 191 said.
The Creed is divided into three parts: God the Father and His wonderful work of creation; God the Son, His birth, death, resurrection from the dead; and the mystery of Redemption, and the Holy Spirit, the origin and source of man’s sanctification. The Creed ends with Amen, a Hebrew word that is derived from the word “believe”.
- Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptor is College in Calauan, Laguna.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons