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Classical Liberal Arts Academy

Catechism I

Lesson 01.  The Lord's Prayer

Before you begin:  This first lesson gives you an easy start to Catechism.  Each lesson in the Catechism program has two parts:  Prayer and Catechism.  Prayers are to be memorized by daily use and are followed by a brief lesson that helps to explain their meaning and importance.  The Catechism questions are to  be memorized and are also followed by a brief lesson.  When you have memorized your prayers and Catechism questions, and have read your lessons carefully, you can complete your lesson examination.  If you don't pass your examination, go back, review and try it again.  This page is designed to be printed for use away from the computer.

1.  Prayer

Directions:  Recite and memorize the following prayers daily.  Then, read and reflect upon the lessons.  The lesson is divided into parts that may be used on separate days.
 

1.  The Lord's Prayer is the most beautiful and best of all prayers, because our Lord Himself made it. (Matt. 6:9; Luke 11:2). One day when He was praying and explaining to His Apostles the great advantages of prayer, one of them said to Him: "Lord, teach us to pray." Then Jesus taught them this prayer. It contains everything we need or could ask for. We cannot see its full meaning at once. The more we think over it, the more clearly we understand it. We could write whole pages on almost every word, and still not say all that could be said about this prayer. It is called "the Lord's," because He made it, and sometimes the "Our Father," from the first words.

We say "Our," to show that we are all brethren, and that God is the Father of us all, and therefore we pray not for ourselves alone but for all God's children.

2.  We say "Father," because God really is our Father. We do not mean here by Father the First Person of the Blessed Trinity, but the Blessed Trinity itself--one God.

What does a father do for his children? He gives them their natural existence, provides them with food and clothing, teaches, protects, and loves them, shares with them all that he has, and when he dies leaves them his possessions. Now, in all these ways, and in a much truer sense, God is our Father. He created us and gives us all that is necessary to sustain life. He gives light, heat, and air, without any one of which we could not live. He provides for us also food and clothing, and long before we need or even think of these things God is thinking of them.

Your clothing is provided for you long before you need it. The little lamb upon whose back the wool is growing, from which your coat is someday to be made, is even now far away on some mountain, growing stronger with the food God gives it till you need its wool. The little pieces of coal, too, that you so carelessly throw upon the fire were formed deep down in the earth hundreds of years ago. God produces all you use, because He foresees and knows you will use it.

Moreover He protects us from danger; He teaches us by the voice of our conscience and the ministers of His Church--our priests and bishops. He loves us too, as we may learn from all that He does for us, and from the many times He forgives us our sins. He shares what He possesses with us. He has given us understanding and a free will resembling His own. He has given us immortality, i.e., when once He has created us, we shall exist as long as Himself--that is, forever. When Our Lord died on the Cross, He left us His many possessions--His graces and merits, the holy Sacraments, and Heaven itself. It is surely, then, just and right to call God Father. Our natural fathers give us only what they, themselves, get from God. So even what they give us also comes from Him.

3.  Before the time of Our Lord, the people in prayer did not call God Father. They feared Him more than they loved Him. When He spoke to them--as He did when He gave the Commandments to Moses--it was in thunder, lightning, and smoke. (Ex. 19). They looked upon God as a great and terrible king who would destroy them for their sins. He sent the deluge on account of sin, and He destroyed the wicked city of Sodom with fire from Heaven. (Gen. 7:19). They called Him Jehovah, and were afraid sometimes even to pronounce His name. But Our Lord taught that God, besides being a great and powerful king--the Ruler of the universe and Lord of all things--is also a kind and good Father, who wishes His children not to offend Him because they love Him rather than because they fear Him, and therefore He taught His disciples and all Christians to call God by the sweet name of Father.

1.  [Question 1]  The "world" here means more than the earth--more than is shown on a map of the world. It means everything that we  can see--sun, moon, stars, etc.; even those things that we can see only with great telescopes. Everything, too, that we may be able to see in the future, either with our eyes alone, or aided by instruments, is included in the word "world." We can call it the universe.

2.  [Question 3]  A "creature" is a thing created. Man differs from anything else in creation. All other things are either entirely matter, or entirely spirit. An angel, for example, is all spirit, and a stone is all matter; but man alone is a combination of both spirit and matter--of soul and of body.

Directions:  When you have completed all of your assignments above, complete your lesson exam.