The Marks of the Church - One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic

All About My Catholic Faith

We have now made it to step 12 on our journey to learn our faith. Step twelve is about the 12 Marks of the Church. In the last chapter we learned that Jesus picked twelve apostles from his disciples to spread what he taught them to all the world. We also learned that he selected Peter to be the leader of the twelve apostles. This was how Jesus started his Church. Peter was the leader of the apostles being the first pope. The remaining apostles were the first priests of the Church. They were actually considered bishops since they were responsible for going throughout the entire world to teach the good news of Jesus. The question that we asked at the beginning of last chapter was: Why did our Lord choose twelve apostles? He chose Twelve to tie back to the Old Testament of the Bible to represent the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Today, there are many Christian traditions and denominations. Many experts say there are more than 30,000 different Christian denominations. How do we know which one is correct? Which church or churches have the truth. The most important question here: Is there a church that has the fullness of Christ’s truth? Here are some questions to think about during this chapter: Who are the other sheep that Jesus was talking about? What does Jesus desire for the other sheep? Did our Lord start many churches or only one church? How do we know which church or churches Jesus established? How do we help the other sheep to know that the Catholic Church is the Sheepfold of Christ? Remember from the last chapter, that the Sheepfold of Christ is the same as Jesus's Church. Our first reading from the Holy Bible is from the Gospel of St. John 10: 9-16We see in that reading that Jesus called his Church a Sheepfold. We also see something new that we didn't read before. “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock one Shepherd.” This really helps us to better understand and to answer the question that we had: Did Jesus establish one church or many churches? Well, Jesus definitely said there will only be one flock of sheep, one Church with one shepherd. Jesus Christ was the first leader of his one Church. We call Jesus the head of his Church and we call his Church a body. The Church, like us, has one head and one body. That makes sense to me. In the body of Christ the people in the Church all believe what the Church teaches. Jesus gave the authority to the apostles to teach the whole world what he taught, even to those who don’t believe. Jesus gave the authority to the bishops back then. The bishops still have that same authority to teach everybody the one and only complete truth about Jesus and his Church. All of us in his Church are taught and believe what the Church teaches and we all receive the same sacraments. Just like when Jesus started his one Church and chose Peter to be the head of his Church on Earth as the first pope, we still have one head of the Church today. Pope Francis takes the place of Jesus here on Earth. He has the same authority that was given to St. Peter 2000 years ago. Every pope in history has had the same exact authority as our first pope St. Peter had. Today's chapter is titled the Marks of the Church. A mark is something that we can use to know that something is true or it shows that it is true. The Church has four marks. I will describe each of them right now. The first Mark of Christ’s Church is that the Church is Holy. The Church teaches us all to be holy. Everyone who follows the teachings of the Church and stays away from mortal sin will become and remain holy. The Church is here to help us to do just that. The sacraments of the Church are most especially here to help us do that. The second Mark is that the Church is catholic. [...] https://www.allaboutmycatholicfaith.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/allaboutmycatholicfaith/support