The Catechism Explained

Retypeset and including Index, this is the timeless traditional catechism of Truth. Twenty years into the third millennium annis Domini , and most of humanity is lost. A day will come when the whole world will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad they will say, 'You are mad; you are not like us, ' prophesied a Desert Father. It seems we are in those days. Thus, the great need for the present book. The person who has the light of the Holy Spirit in him is like a traveller performing his journey in sunshine and fair weather; quite otherwise is the case of him from whom that light is cut off by the clouds of sin; he is like the unwilling traveller, forced to make his way through wind and storm. The book in your hands is a clear guide on the royal road to profound joy. No need to stumble along in darkness and confusion, no need to re-invent the wheel - Our Lord has already bestowed everything necessary for the good journey, we have only to take heed and make use of it. As the Fathers of the Church have said, the Catholic Faith is a seamless garment, thus this Catechism is a marvellously connected system of revealed truth. If Catholics were thoroughly acquainted in their childhood with the fundamental truths of religion; if they were taught to see how all the different parts of this divine edifice combine to form one beauteous structure, the darts of hell would have no power to injure them. Calculated to touch the heart and kindle the flame of charity towards God and one's neighbor, this Catechism aims at the warmth of expression and the fervent, persuasive eloquence which appeal to the heart, the force and vivifying power which affect the will through the influence of the Holy Spirit. It cultivates, to an equal extent, all the three powers of the soul: the understanding, the affections, and the will. It does not therefore content itself with mere definitions. The principal object proposed in it is not to teach men to philosophize about religion, but to make them good Christians who will delight in their faith. From the Preface.