"Does our conduct correspond with our Faith?"

The Cure D'Ars

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"He who wishes to be perfectly obeyed, should give but few orders."

St Philip Neri

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"Let no one wear a mask, otherwise he will do ill; and if he has one, let him burn it."

St Philip Neri

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The Unity and Trinity of God

Dogmas concerning the Unity and Trinity of God  compiled from "Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma" by Ludwig Ott.

(Click here for the meaning of "De Fide" & "Sententia certa" in the text below.)

The Unity of God: His existence and Nature

The Existence of God

  • God, our Creator and Lord, can be known with certainty, by the natural light of reason from created things. (De Fide)
  • The Existence of God can be proved by means of causality (Sentent. fidei proxima)
  • God's existence is not merely an object of natural rational knowledge, but also an object of supernatural faith. (De Fide)

The Nature of God

  • Our natural knowledge of God in this world is not an immediate, intuitive cognition, but a mediate, abstractive knowledge, because it is attained through the knowledge of creatures. (Sent. certa.)
  • Our knowledge of God here below is not proper (cognition propria) but analogical (cognition analoga or analogica). (Sent. certa.
  • The Blessed in Heaven possess an immediate intuitive knowledge of the Divine Essence. (De Fide)
  • The Immediate Vision of God transcends the natural power of cognition of the human soul, and is therefore supernatural. (De Fide)
  • The soul, for the Immediate Vision of God, requires the Light of Glory. (De Fide D 475.)
  • God's Essence is also incomprehensible to the blessed in Heaven. (De Fide)

The Attributes or Qualities of God

  • The Divine Attributes are really identical among themselves and with the Divine Essence. (De Fide)
  • God is absolutely perfect. (De Fide)
  • God is actually infinite in every perfection. (De Fide)
  • God is absolutely simple. (De Fide)
  • There is only One God. (De Fide)
  • The One God is, in the ontological sense, The True God. (De Fide)
  • God is absolute Veracity. (De Fide)
  • God is absolutely faithful. (De Fide)
  • God is absolute ontological Goodness in Himself and in relation to others. (De Fide)
  • God is absolute Benignity. (De Fide) D 1782.
  • God is absolutely immutable. (De Fide)
  • God is eternal. (De Fide)
  • God is immense or absolutely immeasurable. (De Fide)
  • God is everywhere present in created space. (De Fide)
  • God's Knowledge is Infinite. (De Fide)
  • God knows all that is merely possible by the knowledge of simple intelligence (scientia simplicis intelligentiae). (De Fide)
  • God knows all real things in the past, the present and the future. (scientia visionis). (De Fide)
  • By the knowledge of vision (scientia visionis) God also foresees the future free acts of the rational creatures with infallible certainty. (De Fide)
  • God also knows the conditioned future free actions with infallible certainty (scientia futuribilium). (Sent. communis)
  • God's Divine Will is Infinite. (De Fide)
  • God loves Himself of necessity, but loves and wills the creation of extra-Divine things, on the other hand, with freedom. (De Fide)
  • God is almighty. (De Fide)
  • God is the Lord of the heavens and of the earth. (De Fide)
  • God is infinitely just. (De Fide)
  • God is infinitely merciful. (De Fide)

The Doctrine of the Triune God

  • In God there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Each of the Three Persons possesses the one (numerical) Divine Essence. (De Fide)
  • In God there are two Internal Divine Processions. (De Fide)
  • The Divine Persons, not the Divine Nature, are the subject of the Internal Divine processions (in the active and the passive sense). (De Fide)
  • The Second Divine Person proceeds from the First Divine Person by Generation, and is therefore related to Him as Son to a Father. (De Fide)
  • The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son as from a Single Principle through a single Spiration. (De Fide)
  • The Son proceeds from the Intellect of the Father by way of Generation. (Sent. certa)
  • The Holy Spirit proceeds from the will or from the mutual love of the Father and the Son. (Sent. certa)
  • The Holy Spirit does not proceed through generation but through spiration. (De Fide)
  • The Three Divine Persons are in One Another. (De Fide)
  • All the ad extra Activities of God are common to the Three Persons. (De Fide)
  • The Father sends the Son: the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit. (Sent. certa)
  • The Trinity of God can only be known through Divine Revelation (Sent. fidei proxima.)