Gain a better understanding of who we are. What is our purpose in life? God’s love for us! GRACE ~ allows us to participate in a life of harmony with Christ.

1. St. Joseph’s Cathedral
CCoonnffiirrmmaattiioonn PPrreeppaarraattiioonn
LLeessssoonn 11 -- GGrraaccee

2. LLeessssoonn 11 -- GGrraaccee
PPoooorrnniimmaa DD’’SSoouuzzaa
EEmmaaiill:: ppoorrdd__3333@@yyaahhoooo..ccoomm
TTwwiitttteerr && PPiinntteerreesstt:: @@ppoorrdd__3333

3. “Come Holy Spirit” ~ Prayer
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle
in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and
they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the
earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did
instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same
Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His
consolations, through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
Goal : To receive a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit

4. Reflect on what you see...
*New ideas
Jot it down !
*Ah-ha's!
*Reflect and Connect.
Discussion Guide
M - Moment-to-moment attention
I - In the here-and-now
N - Non-judgmental attitude
D - Detach from unhelpful thoughts
F - Forgive and be grateful
U - Unconditional acceptance
L - Learn with beginner’s mind

5. Lesson 1 – Learning Objectives
 Gain a better understanding of who we are.
 What is our purpose in life?
 God’s love for us!
 GRACE
~ allows us to participate in a life of harmony with Christ.

6. Talk to your partner – discuss the
answer
 Why are we here?
 What do you think is your purpose in life?
Report out to the group:

7. Video of the Creation
Creation of Humanity & Image and Likeness

8. Why Did God Create Us?
Created by God out of His Radical Love for us
Created for happiness, which we find in a relationship with Jesus
Natural inclinations
 As humans we are made with a natural inclination to truth, goodness, beauty, health. happiness…
 These desires cannot be satisfied outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ
 God has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy
 The promises of “eternal life” respond, beyond all hope, to this desire

9. Beginning & End
 Watch video – Our Heavenly Father’s Plan
 How can we set our destination as heaven, and
create a plan to get there?
Report out to the group

10. How are we like God?
 Endowed with an immortal soul, a rational intellect,
and a free will
 Human relationship are to reflect the Blessed Trinity
as a “community of persons” – Father, Son and the
Holy Spirit
 Adam and Eve were created
 Matrimony – two become one flesh – resultant –
new human life created with love
 We all are one human family

11. God is…

12. God is…
 Infinite, All Knowing, All Loving
 God is pure act or actuality
 Where we have the potential to love, God is Love
 God is omniscient - having total knowledge
 As humans we are created with the ability to know and
love (our intellect and our will)
 God’s love is pure and unconditional

13. God is a Trinity

14. God is a Trinity
 One Essence/Substance
 Father is God, Son is God, Holy Spirit is God
 All three are Fully God, possess fullness of Divine Nature
 3 Persons
 Father is not Son/HS, Son is not Father/HS, HS is not
Father/Son
 Distinct by their relations
 God is a Community of Persons
 We are called to imitate this by entering into loving
relationships with God and other, to enter into that
community

15. Original Harmony
 We are created with
the ability to know and
love God
 We are called holy
and set apart with the
Lord (Eph. 1:3)

16. Original Sin

17. Original Sin
 God created our first parents and blessed them
 Go made gave them free will so they could
choose to return his love.
 Example – A person w/o free will is a slave (Slaves can’t love the master b/c they aren’t free)
 Adam and Eve chose used their freedom to sin
and lost communion and friendship with God
 Man’s Original Harmony with God is destroyed
 We inherit sin through our human nature
Video - Creation

18. Concupiscence
 We now have the inclination to sin
 Our intellect or knowledge is clouded and darkened
 Our will, which helps us love and choose the good, is
now unruly
 We need the help of God to be perform our proper
action and to truly know and love God and others

19. Concupiscence

20. God Sends Help
 Nothing humans try to offer can repay this
 God does not leave us, but promises to send a Messiah
 God sends his own son, Jesus Christ,
 who is fully God
 offered the sacrifice and paid the price of this sin and own sins
 opened the gates of Heaven
 We participate in this offering every Mass in the Eucharist
 Christ has redeemed us so that we can be eternally happy

21. God Sends Help

22. CCrreeaattiioonn,, CChhaarriissmmss,, && HHoolliinneessss
Because we are all created in the
image and likeness of God, we have
been given charisms (Graces and
Gifts fo the Holy Spirit) that enables
us to build of the Body of Christ.
The Church helps us cooperate with
God’s grace to use these gifts and by
doing so we become holy.

23. Where is Heaven and how do we get there?
 We received God through Grace

24. Where is Heaven and how do we get there?
Why Grace?
 Because of our fallen nature we need God’s help
 He gives us His gift of grace
 This is a free gift from God
 God’s free initiative demands man’s free response
 God has created man in his own image by conferring on him,
along with freedom, the power to know him and love him
 The soul only enters freely into the communion of love
 When the soul enters into this communion, God immediately
touches and directly moves the heart of man

25. Where is Heaven and how do we get there?
 Grace is participation in the life of God
 It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life (CCC 1997)
 The Grace of God begins the healing of human nature
 For humans to attain perfect happiness, their nature must not
only be healed, but elevated through participation in divine
nature, the life of God
 This participation is called sanctifying grace
Video – sanctifying grace

26. Invitation to Adoration and Confession
 You are invited to grow in faith and love of our Lord
 Attend the Eucharistic Adoration at the Cathedral
 Experience the quiet and peace of praying before our Lord in the
Blessed Sacrament

27. PPeennaannccee
 Due to concupiscence, our tendency toward sin,
we frequently need the grace of God for the
forgiveness of our sins.
 Principle purpose of Christ’ mission is
Redemption for sin
 Christ gave the authority to forgive sins to the
Apostles, his first bishops and priests.
We must have true contrition (sorrow) for our
sins and resolve to avoid future sin.
 The priest gives us absolution and we are
required to an act of penance.

28. Invitation to Adoration and Confession
 experience God’s forgiveness and our reconciliation with the church
 experience great peace and spiritual consolation after making a good confession.
 powerful way to get rid of our weaknesses, grow in holiness, and lead a balanced and virtuous life.
Photo by carlosoliveirareis - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/54218923@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

29. Sacramental Grace that comes from going to confession…
The spiritual effects of the sacrament of Penance are:
reconciliation with God by which the penitent recovers grace;
reconciliation with the Church;
remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins;
remission, at least in part, of temporal punishments resulting
from sin;
peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation;
an increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle.
~CCC-1496
Sacramental Grace

30. CCooooppeerraattiinngg wwiitthh GGrraaccee
 We are all created in the image and likeness of God
 We have been given charisms (Graces and Gifts of the Holy
Spirit)
 Charisms enables us to build of the Body of Christ.
 The Church helps us cooperate with God’s grace to use these gifts
and by doing so we become holy.

31. CCooooppeerraattiinngg wwiitthh GGrraaccee
 The lifelong challenge and goal of every Christian
 to know, love, and serve God in this life
 in order to live happily forever with him
 and all his friends (saints) in heaven.

32. Questions to Ponder…
 What do I see as my purpose in life?
 Do I have a relationship with Jesus Christ or do I
desire to know Jesus Christ?
 What is it that will make me truly happy
Report out to the group

33. HHeeaavveenn
 State of everlasting
life with God in
eternal happiness.
 (Happiness is what
we all want from life
and it is found in
Christ and
ultimately with him
in heaven).

34. FFiillll oouutt tthhee ffoorrmm -- hhaannddoouutt
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35. CCoonnffiirrmmaattiioonn EExxppeeccttaattiioonn
 Participate in Sunday Mass each week
 Attendance at the Confirmation classes is
extremely important
 The confirmation sponsor
 strong role- model
 is a faith-filled Roman Catholic
 Choose a Confirmation name and write a
biography about that saint

36. Questions or Comments

37. References
 Hahn, S. The Church: Sacrament of Salvation (1998). Didache Series: Midwest Theological Forum
 http://www.stjosephcathedral.net/
 http://www.faithfirst.com/html/
 http://stroccoglencove.com/
 http://saintland.com/
 http://eborg3.com/
 http://stlukescatholic.com/
 http://www.dioceseoftanga.org/
 http://fc04.deviantart.net/
 http://www.catholicbook.com/
 http://www.catholicapologetics.org/
 http://thelivingtruthfellowship.org/
 http://sandra0612.files.wordpress.com/
 ometimesmarthaalwaysmary.files.wordpress.com
 http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/KTn/xG7/KTnxG7ETq.jpeg
 http://shareaverse.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/psalm-147-5-omniscient-god.png?w=547&h=410
 http://www.catholicbible101.com/
 http://www.ouridentitymatters.com/
 http://www.fbcdeerpointlake.org/
 http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/

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39. THE END.