SmLjRciaClassCatholicMorality

Class on Catholic Morality

This page is meant to be only a guideline for the catechist, and the below are very rough notes meant as a starting point.

Beatitudes - Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and a group discussion will do more for most people than all the theology in the world
But theologically speaking, you could cover the below...
Other Topics that could fit under this subject heading but may not need to be covered (just too much stuff!): Great Commandments, Cardinal Virtues, Theological Virtues, Seven Capital Sins, Mortal Sins, Venial Sins, Gifts of Holy Spirit, Fruits of Holy Spirit, Spiritual Works of Mercy, Corporal Works of Mercy

Humans are the only creatures God made for its own sake, created as intelligent and free beings in God's image and likeness.
We're called as sons and daughters to intimacy with God to share in His happiness.
To truly be children of God, members of the divine family, called to eternal life with the Holy Trinity ... to fully become the beings God wants us to be, we will be "other Christs" for the Risen Jesus is now what we are meant to be.
But how?
We must love as Christ has loved and shape our choices and actions in accordance with his loving commands.
The Sermon on the Mount is the "magna carta" of the Christian Moral life
Old Testament: the major idea common is that holiness requires morally upright conduct: justice and mercy, concern for the poor and the weak, personal integrity, and fidelity.
St. Anselm: "I believe that I may understand, and I understand that I may believe."
Making morally correct choices helps us to be holy. Holiness helps us to make morally right choices.
- Good choices <--> Holiness
- A choice/action becomes part of our being, I commit adultry so I become and adulterer
It is one thing to commit a sin through ignorance, but that does not apply when someone takes little trouble to find out what is right or good, or when that person is blinded due to habitual sinfulness.

Naural Law to Aquinas is a work of human reason that results in a series of rules (gross simplification).
We must pursue good and avoid bad.
How we pursue the good matters: must do so by acting fairly (Golden Rule), by loving God and neighbor, by refusing to do bad to others.
These inclinations are written into the human heart and moral choices flow from these precepts.

An Introduction To Moral Theology By William E. May ISBN 193170992-0
Christian Morality: In The Breath Of God By Russell B. Connors, Jr., Ph.D. ISBN 0-8294-1722-2
Reason Informed By Faith: Foundations Of Catholic Morality By Richard M. Gula, S.S. ISBN 0-8091-3066-1
Catholic Catechism