As presented in the

Catechism for Filipino Catholics

Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for,

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and conviction about things
we do not see. ( Heb 11:1)

God is a Mystery
"Can you fathom the
mysteries of God?
(Job 11:7)

Many of the truths revealed by God to us

are beyond the power of our human
comprehension.
Yet because we believe that God,
who is all good "cannot deceive nor be deceived
we say AMEN
even to things we do not fully understand.
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A Virtue
A Virtue is a good habit, that is, a good
inclination is more or less permanent.
It is infused by God
Faith is a GIFT
It enables us to believe in God and in all
that He has revealed (CCC 1814)
It enables us to hope for heaven and to
love God and neighbor
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A Human Act
Faith is our response to Gods
revelation, to Gods invitation, to grace

As a personal response, it can

sometimes coexist with doubt for the
object of faith is not seen directly
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A Way of Life
Involves the mind, heart and will
Believing, Trusting and Doing
Paniniwala,
Pagtitiwala at

Pagsunod
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FAITH IN HUMAN RELATIONS:

We show our faith when we accept the
words of others. (PANINIWALA)
We show faith when we readily obey the
directions of those over us. (PAGSUNOD)
We show our faith when we entrust our
welfare to others, even to strangers .
(PAGTITIWALA)
It is impossible to live without faith!
Faith, as a human reality, is central to
our lives.
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MIND
What can I
know?

HEART
What can I
hope for?

WILL
What
should I do?

We can know God as Our Father and Christ

as Our Lord. Know that we belong to God . .
. that the Son of God has come and has given
us discernment to recognize the One who is
true (1 Jn 5:19-20). Pagkilala sa Ama, sa
Anak at sa Espiritu Santo.
Neither death nor life, neither angels nor
principalities, neither the present nor the
future, nor powers; neither height nor depth
nor any other creature, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that comes
to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Rom 8:3839)
Keep His commandments (1 Jn 2:3), which
means to love in deed and truth and not
merely talk about it (1 Jn 3:18). This
demands acting on the credibility of Gods
teachings in Christ as true and dependable.
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DOCTRINE

WORSHIP

MORALS

BELIEVING
Faith is knowing,
but not mere head knowledge of
some abstract truths. It is like the
deep knowledge we have of our
parents, or of anyone we love dearly.
Christian Faith, then, is personal knowledge
of Jesus Christ as my Lord and my God (Jn
20:28). Christ solemnly assures each of us:
Here I stand knocking at the door. If anyone
hears me calling and opens the door, I will
enter his house, and have supper with him,
and he with me (Rv 3:20).
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BELIEVING

is an aspect of faith, a way of expressing faith

to hold dear, to prize, to give allegiance, to be loyal to.
an act of the whole person
accepting things we do not fully grasp or control
requires certain submission of the mind
concerns knowing about and accepting the content of
faith as embodied in creeds, dogmas, doctrines, moral
codes, ritual, and the like

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TRUSTING

Faith is from the heart __ the

loving, trusting, and hoping in the
Lord that comes from Gods own
love flooding our hearts

This trusting Faith lives and grows

through prayer and worship __
personal heartfelt conversation
with God that is the opposite of
mindless, mechanical repetition of
memorized formulas. Genuine
personal prayer and group prayer
find both their inspirational source
and summit of perfection in the
Liturgy, the Catholic communitys
official public Trinitarian worship
of the Father, through Jesus Christ
our Lord, in the Holy Spirit (cf. PCP

II 74-77).

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TRUSTING

Trust is the basis of all faith

It is letting go, stop managing things

and let someone else do it.
Having the confidence to throw ourselves in the
arms of God, who will no let us drown
an expression of confidence born of a loving
relationship
It is our trusting faith that leads us to pray from
the heart, seeking to cement our relationship
with the God

often associated with praying, participating in

ritual, sharing faith, and any other expression of
relationship

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DOING

Faith is a commitment to follow (obey) Gods

will for us. This we see exemplified in Marys
I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done
to me as you say (Lk 1:38).
PCP II brings out this doing
dimension of faith as
witnessing through loving
service of our needy
neighbors. In our concrete
situation, particularly urgent is
the call for:

1) deeds of justice and love; and

2) for protecting and caring for our endangered
earths environment (cf. PCP II 78-80).
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DOING
Working with God
cooperating with God in an
active manner in and through the
very fabric of our everyday life

St. Augustine : God, who made

us without ourselves, will not save
us without ourselves.
the result of the integration of
believing and trusting
Often associated with service,
outreach, and responsibility to
and for others.
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Belief that God was truly at work in

the life, teachings and especially in
the passion, death and resurrection
of Jesus of Nazareth
Christian faith therefore calls us
to a personal relationship with
Jesus, to accept him as Lord and
Savior, as the Way to the Father
To know, to love, and to
follow Christ in the
Church he founded (PCPII)
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TRINITARIAN
For us Christians, Faith is our adherence to
the Triune God revealed through Jesus Christ
our Lord. It is our friendship with Christ and
through Christ with the Father, in their Holy
Spirit. Through Christs witness to his Father
in his teaching, preaching, miracles, and
especially in his Passion, Death and
Resurrection, we come to believe in Christ our
Savior, in the Father, and in the Holy Spirit
sent into our hearts. Our Faith as Catholics,
then, consists in our personal conviction and
belief in God our Father, revealed by Jesus
Christ, His own divine Son-made-man, and
their presence to us through the Holy Spirit, in
the Church (cf. PCP II 64; CCC 151-52).
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LOVING, MATURING, AND MISSIONARY

Our Christian Faith is truly life-giving and
mature only through love, for the man
without love has known nothing of God, for God
is love (1 Jn 4:8). And to be Christian, this
love must be inseparably love of God and love
of neighbor, like Christs. It thus impels us to
mission, to evangelize, by bringing others the
Good News (cf. 1 Cor 9:16). Such a missionary
spirit is the test of authentic Faith because it
is unthinkable that a person should believe in
Christs Word and Kingdom without bearing
witness and proclaiming it in his turn (cf. EN
24; PCP II 67-71, 402). This means
we are all called to share in Christs
own three-fold mission as priest,
prophet and king (cf. PCP II 116-21; LG 10-13).
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INFORMED AND
COMMUNITARIAN
PCP II insists that Catholic Faith must
be informed, that is believing
Jesus words, and accepting his
teachings, trusting that he has the
words of eternal life (cf. Jn 6:68;
NCDP 147). It must be
communitarian since it is the
Church that transmits to us Christs
revelation through Sacred Scripture
and its living Tradition, and
alone makes possible for us
an adequate faith-response
(cf. PCP II 65).
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INCULTURATED
This Catholic faith in God and in Jesus
Christ is never separated from the typical
Filipino faith in family and friends. On the
one hand, we live out our faith in God
precisely in our daily relationships with
family, friends, fellow workers, etc.
On the other hand, each of these is
radically affected by our Catholic Faith in
God our Father, in Jesus Christ His only
begotten Son, our Savior, and in their Holy
Spirit dwelling within us in grace.
This is how all will know you
for my disciples: your love for
one another (Jn 13:35; cf.
PCP II 72-73,
162, 202-11).
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TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE

Already the Old Testament
contrasted faith in man in whom
there is no salvation with faith in
the Lord who made heaven and
earth . . . who shall reign forever
(cf. Ps 146:3,5-6,10; Jer 17:5-8).
Only Faith in God calls for a total
and absolute adherence (cf. CCC
150). Christ himself provides,
especially in his Passion, Death
and Resurrection, the best
example of this total and
absolute commitment to
God.
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Catholic (universal) intended for all

men and women
Sacramental manifested in the use
of symbols to signify Gods presence
Traditional preserving and
transmitting the original teachings of
Christ from generation to generation
Communal drawing people
together in common belief, way of
life and worship

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Recognizes the Holy Father and

the Bishops
Honors Mary as the Mother of
Jesus and of the Church

PARADOXICAL CHARACTERISITCS OF FAITH

(CFC141-154)
certain enough to die for, yet a mystery because
like love, there is always more to understand;
a free personal response to God, yet morally
binding in conscience;
reasonable, yet beyond our natural ways of

knowing;
an individual act of our graced reason, yet also a
life-long process;
a gift of God through both Revelation and interior
inspiration, yet something we do nobody can
believe for us;
a personal individual response, yet
only possible as a member of the
Christian community, the Church.
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Faith is our personal response

as disciples of Christ of accepting him
as Lord and Savior.
It is our Please come in! to Christ
who stands at the door and knocks
(Rv 3:20) (PCP II 64).
As a Theological virtue:
Faith is our personal knowledge of
God in Christ, expressed in
particular beliefs in specific
truths by which we adhere to
Christ.
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Faith in Jesus Christ:

helps us to grow into adult persons who can
relate to others responsibly and maturely;
liberates us from being enslaved by sin; and
opens us to deep joy and happiness in the
Lord.

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Faith is something like the

loving knowledge we have
of our family and friends.
We are sure of their
love and we try to respond
to them. Likewise, through
Gods Revelation in Christ,
we are absolutely sure of
His love for us, and try to
respond through the
gift of faith.
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Positive and Negative Qualities

of Faith Today
Filipino Faith :
Deep and Simple

Expressed in performing religious

rites
Dare to follow religious practices
in places where faith is banned

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Positive and Negative Qualities of

Faith Today
Filipino Faith :
Largely uninformed
Prone to ritualism and pietism
Tending towards the externals of
prayer and sacraments without
proper understanding of its nature
and meaning
Separated from life
Result : In our predominantly Christian countries
poverty, social justice and lack of integrity are
glaring while dishonesty and corruption with
impurity
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SECULARISM
It is an arrogant claim to
self-sufficiency.
Denies the religious dimension to human
existence.
It is the false absolutization of the secular
& human means in the search for human
fulfillment.
The God language is disparagingly
regarded as the language of a pious, naive,
and unscientific view of reality.
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Secularism
Its essential principles are three:
The improvement of this life by material
means.
That science is the
available Providence of man.
That it is good to do good. "Whether
there be other good or not, the good of
the present life is good, and it is good to
seek that good" (English Secularism, 35).
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Secularism
I did it my way is an assertion of mans
growing autonomy as he recognizes his
growing ability to control the world and to
engineer his own potential.
Science & technology dominates.
Life is convenient we can manage on our
own, we dont need God.
Religion is superfluous.
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The Impact of Secularism on

Filipino Faith
Ignoring God
Loss of faith
The weakening of divine authority
and of the authority of the Church.
Secularism and Materialism have
created their own values
contradicting and rejecting the
universal values of the Gospel as
taught by the living tradition of the
Church

We are in this world

but we are not of this world (Jn 17:11-17)
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Maturing our Faith

( Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas Vol. LXXXIX No. 896)

1. Knowing and Deepening our Faith

Conversion
- Realize ones weaknesses and the
sinfulness
- be informed and deepen it
2. Personally Knowing Christ
- Making Him the Center of our Life
- adherence of the heart, a personal
entrustment to Jesus and friendship with
Jesus
- uncompromising religious assent to
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Maturing our Faith

3. Celebrate our Faith
The Liturgy
When the Church
celebrates the
sacraments, she
confesses the faith
received from the
apostles the law of
prayer is the law of
faith: The Church
believes as she prays.
(CCC 1124)
- We celebrate our faith as well when we read
the Sacred Scriptures and when we pray.
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Maturing our Faith

4. Living our Faith Charity as Faith in Action
If we know and understand our
faith, we are led to live a moral
life, a life of fidelity to Gods
commands.
Faith has to be a norm and guide
of life, its energy, inspiration
and light

A genuine moral life is a life of

genuine charity
Charity is faith is action
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Witness of life may grow in

credibility. To rediscover the
content of the faith that is
professed, celebrated, lived and
prayed, and to reflect on the act
of faith is a task that every
believer must make his own.
(Pope Benedict XVI Porta
Fidei No. 9)
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FAITH IS PERSONAL
KNOWLEDGE OF
CHRIST, WHO IS
OUR TRUTH.

FAITH IS OUR
WHOLE LIFE IN
CHRIST.
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