Freshman Religion
Syllabus/Requirements/Texts
September 2009 Michael J. Ortiz
Organization of Class
“What good must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mt. 19:16).
This course is organized on a quarterly basis. Each element studied during the year aims to help students understand and assimilate the Revelation of Jesus Christ in Sacred Scripture and the Tradition of the Church in its moral, doctrinal, and spiritual dimensions. In the first quarter we will study the Decalogue; in the second, the Sacraments; in the third, the Credo and how God speaks to us in Scripture and Tradition; in the fourth, we will concentrate on Life in Christ as it relates to the dignity of the human person, community life, and the relationship between Law and Grace. Throughout the year, we will read and reflect on the Gospel of St. Mark. We will study its origins, context, and history. Students will be quizzed weekly as we read—and memorize parts of—the life of Christ as put down in writing by the St. Mark.
Quarter One: The origin of the Decalogue; its historical context; meaning in Church tradition; meaning of each of the commandments within a Covenant relationship with God; the unity of the Decalogue; its relation to natural law; the Decalogue in the Life of Grace and Prayer and Divine Filiation.
Quarter Two: The institution of the seven Sacraments by Christ; the nature and purpose of the sacraments in the Liturgical life of the Church; sacraments of initiation, Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist, “source and summit of Christian life”; sacraments of healing, Reconciliation, or Sacrament of Confession, and Anointing of the Sick; Holy Orders, deacon, priest, bishop; Marriage, goods and requirements of Conjugal love.
Quarter Three: Transmission of Divine Revelation, in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition; the Magisterium; the senses of Scripture; Canon of Scripture; unity of Old and New Testaments; the Apostles’ Creed; the Nicene Creed; Faith as Man’s free response to God’s initiative
Quarter Four: Dignity of the Human Person; Man as Image of God; vocation to Beatitudes; Beatitudes as “the countenance of Jesus Christ”; reality of human freedom; responsibility; the morality of human acts; morality of the passions; moral conscience; human virtues; cardinal virtues; theological virtues; gravity of sin, mortal and venial; the Common Good; Grace and Justification.
Requirements
1. A neat, well-organized notebook will be 15% of the class grade. Class notes, definitions, historical outlines, prayers studied, and drafts of essays will be done in this notebook.
2. Quizzes on our reading of the Gospel of St. Mark will be 10% of the grade.
3. Tests will include memorization and essay, and will be 70% of the grade.
Texts
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Gospel of St. Mark, (Navarre Bible 2005 edition)
Forget Not Love, Andre Frossard
