Catholicism

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to practice Catholicism? Catholics learn how to live their lives through their devotion to God. Catholicism offers believers a way of life based on faith, theology, and a good sense of moral responsibility. The thing that gives Catholics a unique personality is that they have different liturgical, ethical, and spiritual orientations than other religions. Some of the sacraments practiced in the Catholic Church are common in any other protestant church, but they all have a little different touch to the Catholics. The one thing that is certainly the shared among all Christians is the acceptance of Jesus Christ.

Catholics believe that God's grace is expressed with the trinity. The trinity is the unity of three divine beings or spirits: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christians believe that God is made up of those three persons. Catholics are baptized in the love that unites the three divine persons. God is a real, living presence shown in the Eucharist (Le Gall 12-16).

The Catholic Church is based on four basic principals: tradition, universality, reason, and analogy. Tradition is all the teachings included in the Bible. Universality is the openness to all truth, same in every culture, and welcome to all people. Analogy and reason are used to help believers understand the dual nature of Christ and the Holy Trinity. Analogy is the use of logic that aids in the understanding of God. Reason is seen in the Church's thinking. The Bible is full of God's wisdom and teachings and is needed in your relationship with Him, but in order to understand the scriptures people need guidance from the Church (Keeler 6-7). The highest authority that you could go to would be the pope.

There are three concepts that are needed in the Catholic faith. They illustrate how Catholics relate themselves to God. Sacramentality states that everything in creation is sacred because it comes from the Lord. Catholics practice seven different sacraments. A sacrament is a rite believed to be a means of or visible form of grace (American Heritage Dictionary). The blessed object becomes the sanctified and is sacramental. Meditation is a time when you just talk to God; sometimes people go to confession, which is like having a mediator between you and God which is just fine (Keeler 7-8). Communion states that the only way to Him is through the community of faith, especially through