But someone may say, I think I love my parents more than God.  Well, let us see.  Suppose your mother should command you to commit a sinful act (a thing no good mother would do) and you have therefore to choose between offending her or Almighty God.  Now, although you love your mother very much, if in this instance you prefer to displease her rather than commit the sin that offends God, you show that you love God more than her.  Again, many who dearly love their parents leave them that they may consecrate their lives to the special service of God in some religious community and thus prove their greater love for Him.  The love we have for God is intellectual rather than sentimental; and since it is not measured by the intensity of our feelings, how are we to know that we love Him best?  By our determination never to offend Him for any person or thing in the world, however dear to us, and by our readiness to obey and serve Him before all others.

10 Q. How shall we know the things which we are to believe?  A. We shall know the things which we are to believe from the Catholic Church, through which God speaks to us.

“Catholic Church” in this answer means the Pope, councils, bishops, and priests who teach in the Church.

11 Q. Where shall we find the chief truths which the Catholic Church teaches?  A. We shall find the chief truths which the Catholic Church teaches in the Apostles’ Creed.

“Chief,” because the Apostles’ Creed does not contain in an explicit manner all the truths we must believe.  For example, there is nothing in the Apostles’ Creed about the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, about the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, or the infallibility of the Pope; and yet we must believe these and other articles of faith not in the Apostles’ Creed.  It contains only the “chief” and not all the truths.

12 Q. Say the Apostles’ Creed.  A. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; He descended into Hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.  Amen.

“Descend” means to go down, and “ascend” to go up.

Lesson 2 ON GOD AND HIS PERFECTIONS

A “perfection” means a good quality.  We say a thing is perfect when it has all the good qualities it should have.

13 Q. What is God?  A. God is a spirit infinitely perfect.