6th Grade
Chapter 2 — Creation: God created everything and that all of creation is good.
Main ideas:
- God is the Creator of everything that exists.
- The Book of Genesis tells the story of creation.
- God created the world out of love.
- Creation shows God’s goodness, wisdom, and power.
- Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. This means every person has special dignity and worth.
- God gave human beings the responsibility to care for creation.
- Adam and Eve represent the first human beings.
- God gave people free will, allowing them to choose whether to follow God.
- Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. This is called Original Sin.
- Even after sin entered the world, God continued to love humanity and promised to save us.
7th Grade
Chapter 2 — Scripture and Tradition
Main ideas:
- Sacred Scripture is the Word of God written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
- The Bible contains the Old Testament and New Testament and tells the story of God’s relationship with his people.
- Sacred Tradition is the living transmission of the teachings and life of the Church from the time of the Apostles.
- Scripture and Tradition come from the same source: God.
- Scripture and Tradition work together to help the Church understand and live out God’s Revelation.
- The Magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church, helps explain and faithfully teach Scripture and Tradition.
- The Apostles passed on Jesus’ teachings to the early Church.
- The Church continues to hand on the faith from one generation to the next.
- Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium help Catholics understand what God has revealed.
8th Grade
Chapter 3 — The Mystery of the Trinity
Main ideas:
- There is one God, not three gods.
- The one God exists as three distinct Persons:
- Each Person of the Trinity is fully God, but the three Persons are not the same Person.
- The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share one divine nature.
- The Trinity is a mystery of faith. We can know and learn about God through Revelation, but we cannot completely understand the mystery of God’s inner life.
- Jesus revealed the Trinity to his disciples through his words and actions.
- The Incarnation means that the Son of God became human as Jesus Christ while remaining fully divine.
- The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity. The Spirit is present and active in the Church and in the lives of believers.
- God’s three Persons are united in perfect love.
- Christians are called to reflect God’s love by loving God and other people.
- Catholics profess belief in the Trinity through prayers such as the Sign of the Cross and the Nicene Creed.