Hindu Catholic Dialogue Commemorative Brochure 20150523

Author(s): United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Publisher: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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is meant to remind the faithful of the means by which God gives grace to the person of faith.
E4. What are the main holy days? Every Sunday is a holy day, commemorating the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the course of the year, time is divided up into several sacred liturgical seasons: Advent, to prepare for Christmas: Christmas (December 25) to reflect on the birth of Christ and his manifestation (Epiphany, January 6); Lent to prepare for the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter and the fifty days after; Pentecost to celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit; Ordinary Time, in which the main themes of Christian faith are presented in a three-year cycle of readings. There are also the feast days of Mary such as her Annunciation (March 25, when she received the message of the angel Gabriel and conceived the Child Jesus), her Assumption (August 15, when she was raised body and soul to heaven), her Immaculate Conception (December 8, when she was conceived without the transmission of Original Sin by her parents Joachim and Anna- please note that this feast is often confused with the Annunciation). Through the course of the year, there are feasts for many of the saints. In addition, all the saints known and unknown are remembered on All Saints' Day (November 1), and all the dead are recalled on All Souls' Day (November 2).
E5. What are the major sites for pilgrimage? The main sites of pilgrimage are Rome and the Holy Land (Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, as well as other sites associated with Jesus, Mary, and the prophets of ancient Israel). Over the centuries, pilgrimage to sites associated with important saints or the relics of the saints has been a very important part of Catholic piety. In recent centuries, the sites of apparitions of the Virgin Mary have become particularly important, such as Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal.
E6. How is worship integrated in daily life? The sacraments celebrated under various circumstances are intended to unite worship to the experience of a committed and faithful life. In addition, it is understood that worship carried out in church is meant to influence one's ethical conduct in daily life. The Church itself, as the visible Body of Christ, is itself a sacrament, that is, an outward sign of the invisible action of God's grace in the world. There are seven sacraments that particularize the grace of God that comes to believers through the action of the Church:
Baptism - the ritual water bath that first initiates a believer into the Church and celebrates victory over original sin;
COMMEMORATIVE BROCHURE
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