Category: Catechesis and Fundamentals

“Let’s get back to the fundamentals.” Usually one hears this said when complications arise from hyperactivity or novel experimentation. As the saying goes “the old ways are tried and true.”

The Church teaches that our holy Faith comes to us from the two fountains of scripture and tradition. There are no new doctrines, no new, inspired revelations. Everything that we believe by Faith is found explicitly in at least one of these, and at least implicitly in the other.

When we speak of Catholic fundamentals, we are speaking of the basic tenets of our religion. Where are these tenets found? In our Creeds, in the Ten Commandments, in the theology of the seven sacraments, and in our prayers. In fact the structure of every good catechism begins with questions and answers about each of the articles of the Apostles Creed, followed by an inquiry of each of the Ten Commandments, questions about grace and the seven sacraments, the petitions of the Our Father, and ending with questions pertaining to discipline and the laws of the Church. Of course the common prayers approved by the Church are also listed in the final pages of every catechism.

So, getting back to the fundamentals in Catholic parlance means to get back to the catechism and the things that we learned directly therein, or indirectly as an extension thereof.