Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Ligouri

Catechism Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Ligouri

Dearly beloved Christian, impress well on your mind the mysteries of your holy faith, and the things that are necessary for making your confessions and Communions with fruit. And after having learned them well, repeat them at home and teach them to others. You will thus give great pleasure to Jesus Christ; and with a little trouble you shall share in and gain all the good which, through your instructions, others shall afterwards do. In order to save your soul, it is not enough for you to be made a Christian by the sacrament of Baptism, which you have received; it is, moreover, necessary for you to know the mysteries of faith, to observe the commandments of God and the Church, and to receive the holy Sacraments with the requisite dispositions. First, you must believe that there is one only God, and that He is omnipotent; that is, that He has created the heavens, the earth, the angels, men, yourself, and all things. God is immense; that is, He is in heaven, on earth, and in all places. God is just; He punishes sinners, and rewards the good; He sends to hell all who die in mortal sin, and gives the glory of heaven to them who die in His grace. You must believe in the most holy Trinity; that is, that in this infinite, eternal, omnipotent, immense, and just God, there are three divine persons, who are called Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; three persons, and only one God. You must believe that the Son of God, that is, the second person of the most holy Trinity, was made man in the most chaste womb of the Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy Ghost; that He was born an infant, in a stable, and that He died on a cross in order to save our souls; and that He is called Jesus Christ, true God and true man; that, after death, He arose again the third day from the dead, that He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; that, on the day of the general judgment, He will come to judge the whole world; that He will send to hell the souls and bodies of all who have died in mortal sin, and that He will bring with Him into heaven the souls and bodies of them who have died in His grace. You must believe that Jesus Christ has instituted the holy Sacraments, by means of which He pardons our sins and sanctifies our souls, by applying to us His own merits and the efficacy of His precious blood. And all these truths of faith you must believe, not because the priest teaches them to you, but because Jesus Christ has taught them to His Church, and His holy Church teaches them to us. And by this holy Church I mean the Pope, who teaches all the faithful, or the holy pastors along with the Pope, who is their head.