Catholic Faith Formation Resources

"Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path." — Psalm 119:115 "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all." — 1 John 1:5 "Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'” — John 8:12 As Christmas approaches, the world around us fills with human-created lights. Streets glow, homes shimmer, and candles flicker in darkened churches. Yet all these lights are only signs pointing to a far greater reality: the light of Christ. Christ's light does not merely decorate our lives; it penetrates and illuminates them. It reveals who God truly is. Christ's light also reveals who we are called to be—children of God. It opens our hearts and minds to the love, truth, goodness, and beauty of God, even as it exposes the shadow...

We live within a material reality, enveloped by a spiritual reality, that is both visible and invisible. We experience the material world through our senses, as constructed through our minds, but enter into the depths of the spritual reality of God through eyes of faith. To assist us in doing this, Catholic tradition calls us to live with a sacramental worldview of life. A sacramental worldview believes that God’s invisible grace is made visible through the physical world. This means that every part of our day can be a place of encounter with God. God isn't just present in holy places or at special times. Rather, God reveals the Godself throughout creation—through people, through present moments, and through the stuff of everyday life. A sacramental worldview is rooted in God's act of creation, and especially through the Incarnation, when God humbly entered into humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who the Church confesses is fully human and fully divine. In Jesus...