{"id":19210,"date":"2018-07-26T01:01:27","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T06:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/?p=19210"},"modified":"2018-07-21T12:30:46","modified_gmt":"2018-07-21T17:30:46","slug":"a-one-holy-catholic-and-apostolic-church-the-attributes-of-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/2018\/07\/26\/a-one-holy-catholic-and-apostolic-church-the-attributes-of-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"A One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church - The attributes of the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church<\/span><\/h2>\n

Respond quickly to this question: “What is the full name of the Catholic Church?”<\/span><\/p>\n

If your answer was “Catholic Church, Apostolic, Roman,” I’d say you got it right, but only in parts.<\/span> A more complete and precise answer to this question can be found in the beautiful composition of the<\/a>Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: “I Believe in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Illustrative photo: Wesley Almeida \/ cancaonova.com<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It would be very important that all those who freely profess their faith through the Creed to be thoroughly aware of the wealth that lies behind each of these terms.<\/span> To say that the Catholic Church is one, for example, entails saying that among many other things it has a single founder, professes a single faith, has a common celebration of divine worship.<\/span> Besides, she is One, because she has a single Pope since Saint Peter, she has a single doctrine.<\/span> As we can see, in the trace of each attribute, one finds an inestimable treasure , encompassing rich meanings, permeated by history and the most crystalline Tradition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Get ready for this irrefutable proposal!<\/span><\/h3>\n

How can we dive, little by little, into this source of grace and fruitfulness, which are some of the teachings of the Catholic Church?<\/span> In other words, how about we stand before this precious treasure to contemplate its brilliance and its beauty?<\/span> Of course, as we do this, we will be more aware of our faith, more enlightened “in” and “for” reason and enlightened “in” and “by” the Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

We will have, therefore, four more articles.<\/span> They were prepared with much affection for you.<\/span> Through them we will be given the opportunity to delve deeper into each attribute of the Church (One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic).<\/span><\/p>\n

What is behind the expression “Church”?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Since we leave to deal with these attributes in the next articles, I want to at least point to some basic meanings about the expression “Church”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraph 751, tells us that this word derives from the Greek term “ekkl\u00e9sia”, and means “convocation.”<\/span> And “convocation” can be understood in the following sense: God who “summons” his people from the ends of the earth, to form the community of those who believe in him.<\/span> In this way, God wants to bring together in one community all men dispersed by sin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Church as God’s house and our house<\/span><\/h3>\n

Leaving the etymological context of “Church”, and giving a slightly more metaphorical sense, this word can also be understood as “House of God”.<\/span> How interesting is this definition!<\/span><\/p>\n

Surely, I can say that the sense of “home” for me and for you is very rich and deep.<\/span> Our house represents, among many other things, security, warmth, freedom.<\/span> We show ourselves, truly, who we are within our home.<\/span> Such a sense of welcome is so intense, for example, that when we want to welcome a person into our home, we often say to her, “Feel at home” or “It’s your house.”<\/span> Ask yourself this question and try to answer it within yourself: Am I making the Church my home?<\/span><\/p>\n

Church is a place of intimacy<\/span><\/h3>\n

In our house, we live with those people closer and, as a consequence, we know them very well.<\/span> So the house is a place of intimacy.<\/span> We know the most intimate secrets of those who live with us and they also know our secrets.<\/span> Without a doubt, the most effective way to truly know a person is to live with them under one roof.<\/span> Here is another question: Am I living a relationship of intimacy with God and with my brothers within this house, which is the Church?<\/span><\/p>\n

Once we live inside this house (Church), we find people who represent for us the presence of real parents, mothers, brothers.<\/span> We can then say: We are a family, by the way, we are a big family.<\/span> The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the first paragraph, proves this thesis, which affirms the familiarity among the faithful.<\/span> God calls us “to the unity of his family, the Church”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gateway to this house, which is the Church<\/span><\/h3>\n

It may seem the greatest of all the truisms, but there is no house without a door and, of course, the Church also has its door.<\/span> But what door would that be?<\/span> The Catechism of the Catholic Church responds clearly to this question in paragraph 950: “… the sacraments, especially baptism, which is the door through which one enters the Church …”.<\/span><\/p>\n

If, therefore, we were baptized, we are residents of that house.<\/span> This reality is so important that I will repeat it in other words.<\/span> The moment we were baptized, we became residents of that house.<\/span> The Church is your home, my brother!<\/span> In short, the Church is the house of God, and it is also our home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Important warning that the Church makes us<\/span><\/h3>\n

To conclude, I want to leave here a fraternal admonition made by the Catholic Church .<\/a><\/span> It can be found in paragraph 837: “They are fully incorporated into the Church, those who… Accept the whole of their organization and all the means of salvation instituted therein.<\/span> However, one who, not persevering in charity, remains within the Church ‘with the body’, but not ‘with the heart’ is not saved, although it is incorporated into the Church. “<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, it is no use to be only present in the Church, it is necessary to be in full.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the following articles, we will have the opportunity to reflect a little more about the four attributes of the Catholic Church: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.<\/span><\/p>\n

God bless and see you next time!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Seminarian Gleidson de Souza Carvalho (Instagram: @cngleidson)<\/em><\/span> 
\nMissionary of the Can\u00e7\u00e3o Nova Community<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church Respond quickly to this question: “What is the full name of the Catholic Church?” If your answer was “Catholic Church, Apostolic, Roman,” I’d say you got it right, but only…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[178913],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19211,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19210\/revisions\/19211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}