Glossary

That which pertains to the Church as the community of believers, with stress on their faith and union through love, and on the invisible operations of divine grace among the faithful.

The Catholic understanding of ecology is drawn from Genesis whereby the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the explanation of the Seventh Commandment, states respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man's dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation. (CCC2415)

The great plan of God by which his will and work is accomplished even without the help of human beings. This plan of salvation is described in Ephesians 1:3-14.

The ideas that are central to the Catholic faith, its traditions and rituals. The enduring understanding will be addressed in the core content for the unit content area.

The period in the history of western thought and culture, stretching roughly from the mid-decades of the seventeenth century through the eighteenth century, characterised by dramatic revolutions in science, philosophy, society and politics.

A diocese of an Eastern Catholic Church.

From the Greek word meaning "letter," This word refers to the 21 books in the New Testament that were written as letters to instruct and encourage the members of the early Church.

Questions that stimulate inquiry and provide a focus for teaching and learning.

A system of moral principles, the rules of conduct or approaches to making decisions for the good of the individual and society.

Eucharist is the central sacrament, and the one to which all sacraments lead. Eucharist recalls and celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the new covenant between God and his people (Year 8 TKWL, Ch11:11.3 Sacraments of Initiation). In this sacrament, the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and are offered up in sacrifice.

An apostolic exhortation issued in 1975 by Pope Paul VI on the theme of Catholic evangelisation.

The privation of a good that should be present. It is the lack of a good that essentially belongs to a nature; the absence of a good that is natural and due to a being. Evil is therefore the absence of what ought to be there. (CCC 309, 314)

The second book of the Bible. The book of Exodus tells the story of the freedom of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to the time they wandered through the desert up to Mt Sinai.