(n.): God’s communication of Himself, by which He makes known the mystery of His divine plan by deeds and words over time, and most fully by sending His Son, Jesus Christ.
Reason
:
(n.): The powers of the mind, or intellect, to know and understand through the process of logic.
Social Responsibility
:
(n.): The obligation of justice and charity that individuals owe to other members of their society.
Freedom
:
(n.): The power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate actions of one’s own. Freedom attains perfection when it is directed toward God, the sovereign Good.
Sin
:
(n.): A deliberate offense against God. A deliberate thought, word, deed, or omission contrary to the eternal law of God. It is a failure to love God and neighbor.
Practical Reason
:
(n.):
Deliberative reflection by which we freely discern which actions are for the good of our nature.
Hierarchy of Goods
:
(n.): The order of goods according to their value.
General/Last Judgment
:
(n.):The judgment experienced on the Last Day in which the light
of Christ, who is Truth itself, will illuminate everything. Nothing will remain hidden. We will see not only all of our own individual choices
for or against God, but how each one affected everyone else and the whole order of creation. On this, then, we will be judged and welcomed to eternal life with Christ in the New Heavens and the New Earth, or banished into the eternal torment of Hell.
Encyclical
:
(n.): A pastoral letter written by the pope and sent to the whole Church and even to the whole world, to express Church teaching on some important matter. Encyclicals are expressions of the ordinary papal Magisterium.