I believe the Catechism is THE tool for the re-evangelizing of secular society and the renewal of Catholic culture. Every Monday this epic mini-series will share a gem from our Catechism of the Catholic Church that is interesting, relevant, or remarkable.
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Is art a useless hobby? Is there a higher meaning and purpose to finger painting? Is Bob Ross in heaven?  The Catechism explains that art is a participation in the divine. There is hope yet for the happy trees…

2501  Created “in the image of God,”²⁹⁴ man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works. Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being’s inner riches. Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man’s own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill,²⁹⁵ to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God’s activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man.²⁹⁶

+JMJ

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I believe the Catechism is THE tool for the re-evangelizing of secular society and the renewal of Catholic culture. Every Monday this epic mini-series will share a gem from our Catechism of the Catholic Church that is interesting, relevant, or remarkable.
_________________________________________________________________________

We use the word “Catholic” but what do we mean by Catholic? Were the first Apostles Catholic? Is Jesus Catholic? Is Catholicism a denomination? Check it:

830 The word “catholic” means “universal,” in the sense of “according to the totality” or “in keeping with the whole.” The Church is catholic in a double sense:

First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church.”³⁰⁷ In her subsists the fullness of Christ’s body united with its head; this implies that she receives from him “the fullness of the means of salvation”³⁰⁸ which he has willed: correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession. The Church was, in this fundamental sense, catholic on the day of Pentecost³⁰⁹ and will always be so until the day of the Parousia.

831  Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race:³¹⁰ All men are called to belong to the new People of God. This People, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God’s will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one. … The character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the Lord himself whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods, under Christ the Head in the unity of his Spirit.³¹¹

+JMJ

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