Q. 197. {31} What is a mystery? 
A. A mystery is a truth which we cannot fully understand.

Q. 198.  Is every truth which we cannot understand a mystery?  A. Every truth which we cannot understand is not a mystery; but every revealed truth which no one can understand is a mystery.

Q. 199.  Should we believe truths which we cannot understand?  A. We should and often do believe truths which we cannot understand when we have proof of their existence.

Q. 200.  Give an example of truths which all believe, though many do not understand them.  A. All believe that the earth is round and moving, though many do not understand it.  All believe that a seed planted in the ground will produce a flower or tree often with more than a thousand other seeds equal to itself, though many cannot understand how this is done.

Q. 201.  Why must a divine religion have mysteries?  A. A divine religion must have mysteries because it must have supernatural truths and God Himself must teach them.  A religion that has only natural truths, such as man can know by reason alone, fully understand and teach, is only a human religion.

Q. 202.  Why does God require us to believe mysteries?  A. God requires us to believe mysteries that we may submit our understanding to Him.

Q. 203.  By what form of prayer do we praise the Holy Trinity?  A. We praise the Holy Trinity by a form of prayer called the Doxology, which has come down to us almost from the time of the Apostles.

Q. 204.  Say the Doxology.  A. The Doxology is:  “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.  As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.”

Q. 205.  Is there any other form of the Doxology?  A. There is another form of the Doxology, which is said in the celebration of the Mass.  It is called the “Gloria in excelsis” or “Glory be to God on high,” &c., the words sung by the Angels at the birth of Our Lord.

LESSON FOURTH.  ON CREATION.

Q. 206.  What is the difference between making and creating?  A.  “Making” means bringing forth or forming out of some material already existing, as workmen do.  “Creating” means bringing forth out of nothing, as God alone can do.

Q. 207.  Has everything that exists been created? 
A. Everything that exists except God Himself has been created.

Q. 208. {32} Who created heaven and earth, and all things? 
A. God created heaven and earth, and all things.

Q. 209.  From what do we learn that God created heaven and earth and all things?  A. We learn that God created heaven and earth and all things from the Bible or Holy Scripture, in which the account of the Creation is given.

Q. 210.  Why did God create all things? 
A. God created all things for His own glory and for their or our good.

Q. 211.  Did God leave all things to themselves after He had created them?  A. God did not leave all things to themselves after He had created them; He continues to preserve and govern them.