INTRODUCTION:

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 3
OPENING
PRAYER
INTRODUCTION:
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 3
DO YOU BELIEVE IN FOREVER?
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOST?
DO YOU BELIEVE UNICORN?
BUT ACCORDING TO ST. AUGUSTINE

• Believe that you

may understand,”
“understand that
you may believe.”
concealed
 What is “Revelation”?

(Divine) Revelation is God’s personal loving communication

to us of who He is and His plan to save us all in His love. It is
God’s reaching out to us in friendship, so we get to know and
love Him. (CFC 101)
Stages of
Divine
Revelation
 • In creation, man holds a special place. God said: “Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness” (Gn 1:26).
Natural Signs • God even gives us a share in His own creativity: “Be fertile and
multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gn 1:28).
(Creation) • God creates the whole world for us, to support us in life and
CFC 65 reveals Himself to us through His handiwork. “Since the creation
of the world. . . God’s eternal power and divinity have become
visible, recognized through the things He has made” (Rom 1:20).
 Biblical Signs
• God revealed Himself in stages. In the Old
Testament, God revealed Himself through
biblical signs made up of both deeds and
words.
• God made covenants with Noah, with
Abraham, and with Moses.
• God performed great works for His Chosen
People, and proclaimed their saving power
and truth through the prophets’ words (cf. DV
2; CCC 56-64).
• Through chosen men and women God led,
liberated, and corrected His people. He
forgave their sins. He thus revealed Himself
as Yahweh, He-who-is-with His people.
• Today, through His inspired word in the Old
Testament, God still reveals Himself to us,
 In the Church
(Ecclesial Signs)
• God continues to manifest Himself
today through the Holy Spirit in the
Church.
• He is present in the Church’s preaching
the truth of Scripture, in its witness of
loving service, and through the
celebration of its Christ-given
Sacraments.
• Christ’s revelation in the Church is “the
new and definitive covenant [which] will
never pass away.
• No new public revelation is to be
expected before the glorious
 • Ultimate sign of
God’s revelation.
• Jesus personifies
God’s selfless
love for us.
• By Jesus’ Paschal
mystery, He show
the Father’s never

In Jesus Christ ending love.

 His interior presence, Grace in our
conscience and in all the events of our
Everyday daily lives, world events, recognized in
the “signs of the times.
How can God communicate Himself to us in
this life?

God reveals Himself to us

through the deeds He performed
in history and the words which
proclaim the deeds and clarify
their true meaning (cf. DV 2.).
These words and deeds show
God’s presence among us and
His saving purpose for us.
CFC 103
 To whom does God reveal
Himself?

God “wants all men to be saved and

come to know the truth” (1 Tim 2:4),
and in ways both hidden and clear,
calls all to Christ, who is the goal, the
object, and the agent of God’s Self
revelation, and “the real light which
enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9).
CFC 106