The Lord gave Patti Brunner a quiz to assess the knowledge of catechists. Truth of the Spirit presents Handing on our Catholic Faith Quiz -True or False? Quiz answers and citations from the Catechism are given for true and false statements such as: 1) God the Father is in charge of Jesus and the Holy Spirit; they are not equal in “rank” to him. True or false? 2) The Virgin Mary was chosen by God before her birth at the time of her Immaculate Conception. Later she accepted this plan when she said, “Yes” to the angel Gabriel. True or false? 3) When Jesus suffered at the passion he did not feel pain because he was God. True or false? 4) When we say the creed at Mass we profess the basic beliefs of all Catholics and most who call themselves Christians. True or false? 5) The Church was given the authority to write the Creed by God, Himself. True or false? And more!
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Have you wondered if you know enough about your Catholic faith to hand it on to another? Matthew 15:14b If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” [NAB] Often when we give our opinion, we’ll hear “there are no wrong answers”. But that depends on the question! If I ask for your favorite flower or pet or color, varied answers are fine. But if I ask if you are male or female, there is only one answer to choose. Many questions about our faith have only 1 answer. Statements of faith are true or false.
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit, I’m your host Patti Brunner. The Lord gave me a quiz to assess the knowledge of catechists as they prepared to teach the children of our parish. This quiz can help you identify if you know what you think you know. He gave me the true/false answers and then I used the Catechism to prove His work to others! You are listening to “Handing on our Catholic Faith Quiz True or False?”
First Question, True or False? God the Father is in charge of Jesus and the Holy Spirit; they are not equal in “rank” to him. True or false? The answer is “False”
CCC[i] 245 “The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was confessed by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople (381): “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.” By this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as “the source and origin of the whole divinity.” But the eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected with the Son’s origin: “The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is God, one and equal with the Father and the Son, of the same substance and also of the same nature. . . Yet he is not called the Spirit of the Father alone, . . . but the Spirit of both the Father and the Son.” The Creed of the Church from the Council of Constantinople confesses: “With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.””
CCC 266 ““Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son’s is another, the Holy Spirit’s another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal” (Athanasian Creed: DS 75; ND 16).”
Next question: True or False? The creation of the universe was an act of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit but is attributed to the Father in the Apostles’ Creed. True or false? The answer is: True
The Apostles’ Creed starts out like this:I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth…
CCC 316 “Though the work of creation is attributed to the Father in particular, it is equally a truth of faith that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together are the one, indivisible principle of creation.”
CCC 258 “The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same nature, so too does it have only one and the same operation: “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle.” However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, “one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are.” It is above all the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons.”
Next question—I have heard people giving many opinions on this one. Ready? True or false? The life, death and resurrection of Jesus was planned to bring salvation to mankind. The answer is: True.
CCC 599 “Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God’s plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: “This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”
CCC 778 “The Church is both the means and the goal of God’s plan: prefigured in creation, prepared for in the Old Covenant, founded by the words and actions of Jesus Christ, fulfilled by his redeeming cross and his Resurrection, the Church has been manifested as the mystery of salvation by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. She will be perfected in the glory of heaven as the assembly of all the redeemed of the earth (cf. Rev 14:4).”
Next question: True or False? The Virgin Mary was chosen by God before her birth at the time of her Immaculate Conception. Later she accepted this plan when she said “yes” to the angel Gabriel. True or false? The answer is: True .
CCC 721 “Mary, the all-holy ever-virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time. For the first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men.”
CCC 722 “The Holy Spirit prepared Mary by his grace. It was fitting that the mother of him in whom “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” should herself be “full of grace.” She was, by sheer grace, conceived without sin as the most humble of creatures, the most capable of welcoming the inexpressible gift of the Almighty. It was quite correct for the angel Gabriel to greet her as the “Daughter of Zion”: “Rejoice.””
CCC 494 “At the announcement that she would give birth to “the Son of the Most High” without knowing man, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary responded with the obedience of faith, certain that “with God nothing will be impossible”: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word.” 139 Thus, giving her consent to God’s word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus. Espousing the divine will for salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her Son; she did so in order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and dependent on him, by God’s grace:” 140
True or false? When Jesus suffered at the passion he did not feel pain because he was God. True or false? The answer is: False.
CCC 609 “By embracing in his human heart the Father’s love for men, Jesus “loved them to the end,” for “greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men.426 Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death: “No one takes [my life]
from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” Hence the sovereign freedom of God’s Son as he went out to his death.”
Next question: True or False? When we say the creed at Mass we profess the basic beliefs of all Catholics and most who call themselves Christians. True or false? The answer is: True.
CCC 195 “The Niceno-Constantinopolitan or Nicene Creed draws its great authority from the fact that it stems from the first two ecumenical Councils (in 325 and 381). It remains common to all the great Churches of both East and West to this day.”
CCC 186 “From the beginning, the apostolic Church expressed and handed on her faith in brief formulae for all. But already early on, the Church also wanted to gather the essential elements of its faith into organic and articulated summaries, intended especially for candidates for Baptism: This synthesis of faith was not made to accord with human opinions, but rather what was of the greatest importance was gathered from all the Scriptures, to present the one teaching of the faith in its entirety. And just as the mustard seed contains a great number of branches in a tiny grain, so too, this summary of faith encompassed in a few words the whole knowledge of the true religion contained in the Old and New Testaments.”
CCC 187 Such syntheses are called “professions of faith” since they summarize the faith that Christians profess. They are called “creeds” on account of what is usually their first word in Latin: credo (“I believe”). They are also called “symbols of faith.”
Next question: True or False? The Church was given the authority to write the Creed by God, himself. True or false? The answer is: True.
CCC 880 “When Christ instituted the Twelve, “he constituted [them] in the form of a college or permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter, chosen from among them.” Just as “by the Lord’s institution, St. Peter and the rest of the apostles constitute a single apostolic college, so in like fashion the Roman Pontiff, Peter’s successor, and the bishops, the successors of the apostles, are related with and united to one another.”
CCC 881 “The Lord made Simon alone, whom he named Peter, the “rock” of his Church. He gave him the keys of his Church and instituted him shepherd of the whole flock. “The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of apostles united to its head.” This pastoral office of Peter and the other apostles belongs to the Church’s very foundation and is continued by the bishops under the primacy of the Pope.”
CCC 88 “The Church’s Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form obliging the Christian people to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these.”
Next question: True or False? The Apostles Creed is stated in the bible when the apostles asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. True or false? The answer is: False.
CCC 194 “The Apostles’ Creed is so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the apostles’ faith. It is the ancient baptismal symbol of the Church of Rome. Its great authority arises from this fact: it is “the Creed of the Roman Church, the See of Peter the first of the apostles, to which he brought the common faith”.”
CCC 2765 “The traditional expression “the Lord’s Prayer” – oratio Dominica – means that the prayer to our Father is taught and given to us by the Lord Jesus. The prayer that comes to us from Jesus is truly unique: it is “of the Lord.” On the one hand, in the words of this prayer the only Son gives us the words the Father gave him: he is the master of our prayer. On the other, as Word incarnate, he knows in his human heart the needs of his human brothers and sisters and reveals them to us: he is the model of our prayer.”
True or false? When the Holy Spirit brings us the life of God, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The answer is: True.
CCC 246 “The Latin tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque).” The Council of Florence in 1438 explains: “The Holy Spirit is eternally from Father and Son; He has his nature and subsistence at once (simul) from the Father and the Son. He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration[ii] . . . . And, since the Father has through generation given to the only-begotten Son everything that belongs to the Father, except being Father, the Son has also eternally from the Father, from whom he is eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son.”
CCC 298 “Since God could create everything out of nothing, he can also, through the Holy Spirit, give spiritual life to sinners by creating a pure heart in them and bodily life to the dead through the Resurrection. God “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.””
Next question: True or False? Jesus shall gather all from the ends of the earth for the final judgement at the end of time. The answer is: True.
CCC 1040. [Quoting John chapter 5, quoting Jesus] “John 5:25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, 27 and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. 28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.””
Next question: True or False? If you are a good person you don’t need Jesus as a savior. The answer is:False.
CCC 161 “Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. 42 “Since “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life ‘But he who endures to the end.'”
CCC 1257 “The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are “reborn of water and the Spirit.” God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.”
True or false? When the end of the world comes, people will disappear like in the Left Behind books and avoid judgement and tribulation. The answer is:False.
The idea of a “rapture” was publicized by John Nelson Darby in the 1830’s. Until the last 30 years or so of our generation, the rapture doctrine was refuted by mainstream Protestants. Catholics continue to take the view that was put forth by St. Augustine in the 3rd century: the coexistence of good and evil on earth until the end. The tension that exists on earth between the righteous and the wicked will be resolved only by Christ’s return at the end of time.[iii]
CCC 675 “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. 573 The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth 574 will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.”
True or false? We worship Mary and the saints because they are in heaven and are like God. The answer is: False.
CCC 971 “”All generations will call me blessed“: “The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.” The Church rightly honors “the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,’ to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. . . . This very special devotion . . . differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration.” The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an “epitome of the whole Gospel,” express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.”
Devotion not adoration!
CCC 946 “After confessing “the holy catholic Church,” the Apostles’ Creed adds “the communion of saints.” In a certain sense this article is a further explanation of the preceding: “What is the Church if not the assembly of all the saints?” 479 The communion of saints is the Church.”
CCC 947 “Since all the faithful form one body, the good of each is communicated to the others…. We must therefore believe that there exists a communion of goods in the Church. But the most important member is Christ, since he is the head…. Therefore, the riches of Christ are communicated to all the members, through the sacraments.” 480 “As this Church is governed by one and the same Spirit, all the goods she has received necessarily become a common fund.” 481”
True or false? We can ask Mary and the saints to pray for us and ask favors from them. The answer is: True.
CCC 2683 “The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were “put in charge of many things.” Their intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.”
True or false? Forgiveness of sins is by the priest, not Jesus. True or false? What is your final answer? The answer is: False.
CCC 1466 “The confessor is not the master of God’s forgiveness, but its servant. The minister of this sacrament should unite himself to the intention and charity of Christ. He should have a proven knowledge of Christian behavior, experience of human affairs, respect and sensitivity toward the one who has fallen; he must love the truth, be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, and lead the penitent with patience toward healing and full maturity. He must pray and do penance for his penitent, entrusting him to the Lord’s mercy.”
CCC 1495 “Only priests who have received the faculty of absolving from the authority of the Church can forgive sins in the name of Christ.”
How did you do? If you got all the answers right you are good to go on Handing on your Catholic Faith. These topics are from the Creed you repeat at every Sunday Mass!
You’ve been listening to Truth of the Spirit. I’m your host, Patti Brunner. You are welcome to share this podcast with anyone who needs to verify their opinions. And look for more quizzes from the Lord on basics of prayer, sacraments and the Old Testament. You could also watch some of our teaching videos on the Basics of Faith on Truth of the Spirit YouTube channel—to refresh your education. And then, come back for more. With the Holy Spirit there’s always more! Amen.
[i] All CCC references are quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994, United States Conference, Inc. –Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[ii] Spiration: The act of breathing. (theology) The procession of the Holy Ghost.
