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514 • Conclusion and Appendices
Spirit. Traditionally,
God
has been
used to refer to the Father, or the
First Person of the Trinity, as well as
to the whole Godhead.
GOSPEL:
The proclamation of the
entire message of faith revealed in
and through Jesus Christ, the Son
of God and the Second Person of
the Trinity. The word
Gospel
also
refers to one of the four books of
the New Testament—Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John—that con-
tain a record of the life, teaching,
death, and Resurrection of Jesus.
GRACE:
The help God gives us to
respond to our vocation to become
his adopted sons and daughters.
The divine initiative of grace pre-
cedes, prepares, and elicits our free
response in faith and commitment.
Sanctifying grace is a habitual gift
of God’s own divine life, a stable
and supernatural disposition that
enables us to live with God and to
act by his love. Actual graces refer
to God’s interventions in our lives,
whether at the beginning of conver-
sion or in the course of the work
of sanctification.
GREED (AVARICE):
An inordinate
attachment to the goods of cre-
ation, frequently expressed in the
pursuit of money or other symbols
of wealth, which leads to sins of
injustice and other evils.
-H-
HERESY:
A religious teaching that
denies or contradicts truths revealed
by God.
HOLINESS:
A state of goodness in
which a person—with the help of
God’s grace, the action of the Holy
Spirit, and a life of prayer—is freed
from sin and evil. Such a person,
when gifted with holiness, must still
resist temptation, repent of sins that
may be committed, and realize that
remaining holy is a lifelong pilgrim-
age with many spiritual and moral
challenges. The struggles evident
in the lives of the saints are instruc-
tive when trying to explain and
describe holiness.
HOLY DAYS OF OBLIGATION:
In the United States, for Latin
Catholics these days are: Mary,
Mother of God (January 1);
Ascension (forty days after
Easter or the following Sunday);
Assumption of Mary (August 15);
All Saints Day (November 1);
Immaculate Conception of Mary
(December 8); Nativity of our Lord
or Christmas (December 25). On
these days, there is an obligation
to attend Mass and to refrain from
servile work as much as possible.
HOLY ORDERS, SACRAMENT
OF:
The Sacrament in which a