Glossary
103 words and phrases Catholics use — what they mean, where they come from, and where the Catechism says so.
The Mass & Liturgy
Alleluia
“Praise the LORD” in Hebrew — the Church's characteristic shout of joy, sung before the Gospel and throughout Easter, and set aside during Lent.
Anamnesis
The “memorial” of the Mass — not a mere recollection of Calvary but its being made present, in obedience to “Do this in memory of me.”
And with your spirit
The people's reply to “The Lord be with you,” drawn from St Paul, which answers the priest's greeting by acknowledging the Spirit given him at ordination.
Consecration
In the Mass, the moment in the Eucharistic Prayer when the priest speaks Christ's words over the bread and wine and they become his Body and Blood.
Epiclesis
The prayer in which the priest asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit upon the gifts so that they become the Body and Blood of Christ.
Genuflection
Touching the right knee to the ground as an act of adoration, made toward the tabernacle or the exposed Blessed Sacrament.
Homily
The preaching after the Gospel at Mass, in which the readings are opened up and applied to the life of the people; part of the liturgy, not an interruption of it.
Hosanna
The Hebrew acclamation of Palm Sunday, sung at every Mass in the “Holy, Holy, Holy” just before the Eucharistic Prayer.
In persona Christi
The teaching that when a priest consecrates the Eucharist or absolves sins, it is Christ himself who acts through him.
Kyrie eleison
The Greek plea “Lord, have mercy,” kept in that language in the Latin Mass since antiquity and still sung at the start of Mass today.
Liturgical Year
The Church's calendar of seasons and feasts — Advent, Christmas, Lent, the Triduum, Easter and Ordinary Time — that unfolds the whole mystery of Christ each year.
Liturgy
The Church's public worship — above all the Mass, the sacraments and the Liturgy of the Hours — in which Christ himself acts.
Monstrance
The vessel, usually gold and shaped like a sunburst, in which a consecrated host is displayed for adoration and Benediction.
Ordinary Time
The thirty-three or thirty-four green weeks outside the great seasons, numbered in order and marked by green, not unremarkable.
Paschal Mystery
Christ's Passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension, taken together as the one saving event the whole liturgy celebrates.
Tabernacle
The locked, often ornate box in a church where the consecrated hosts are reserved, marked by a lamp that burns whenever the Blessed Sacrament is inside.
Triduum
The three holiest days of the year — from the evening Mass of Holy Thursday, through Good Friday and Holy Saturday, to the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday.
Vestments
The special garments worn for the liturgy — the alb, stole and chasuble for the priest at Mass — whose colour changes with the season or feast.
Sacraments & Grace
Absolution
The words by which a priest, in the sacrament of Penance, forgives sins in the person of Christ — “I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
Actual Grace
God's passing help for a particular moment — the nudge to pray, the strength to resist temptation, the light to see the right thing to do.
Anointing of the Sick
The sacrament in which a priest anoints a seriously ill person with blessed oil for healing, strength and forgiveness; formerly called “Extreme Unction,” it is not only for the dying.
Baptism of Desire
The Church's teaching that a person who explicitly desires Baptism but dies before receiving it can be saved by that desire, joined to repentance and charity.
Chrism
The perfumed oil consecrated by the bishop each Holy Week, used to anoint in Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders as the sign of the Holy Spirit; the root of the word “Christ.”
Confession (Penance, Reconciliation)
The sacrament in which sins committed after Baptism are forgiven through confession to a priest; its three names each describe one part of what happens.
Contrition
Sorrow for sin with the resolve not to sin again — the first act required of the penitent; “perfect” when it springs from love of God, “imperfect” when from fear or the ugliness of sin.
Eucharist
The sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood under the appearances of bread and wine — the sacrifice of the Mass and Holy Communion — called “the source and summit of the Christian life.”
Ex opere operato
The principle that a sacrament acts by Christ's power when validly performed, not because of the holiness of the minister, though its fruits depend on the recipient's disposition.
Godparent (Sponsor)
The person who presents a child or adult for Baptism and promises to help them live the faith; must be a Catholic at least sixteen years old, confirmed, receiving the Eucharist and living a life of faith.
Grace
God's free, undeserved help and gift of his own life to us — the participation in the life of the Trinity that makes us his adopted children.
Real Presence
The Catholic teaching that Christ is truly, really and substantially present — Body, Blood, soul and divinity — in the consecrated bread and wine, not merely symbolically.
Sacrament
An outward sign instituted by Christ that gives the grace it signifies; there are seven, and they are the ordinary way Christ's life reaches us.
Sacramental
A blessing, blessed object or sacred action — holy water, a rosary, a scapular, the sign of the cross — instituted by the Church to prepare us for grace; distinct from the seven sacraments.
Sanctifying Grace
The stable, habitual gift of God's own life that makes the soul holy and pleasing to him; received in Baptism, lost by mortal sin, restored by Confession.
Transubstantiation
The Church's name for what happens at the consecration — the whole substance of the bread and wine is changed into Christ's Body and Blood while the appearances remain.
Viaticum
Holy Communion given to a person who is dying — food for the final journey, the last sacrament a Christian receives.
God, Christ & the Trinity
Ascension
Christ's bodily entry into heaven on the fortieth day of Easter, taking his humanity into the glory of the Father; celebrated on Ascension Thursday or the following Sunday.
Consubstantial
The word the Council of Nicaea (325) chose to say that the Son is fully God, “of the same substance” as the Father; said every Sunday in the Creed.
Divine Providence
God's loving care by which he guides all he has made toward its perfection; the reason a Catholic can say “God has a plan” even in suffering.
Filioque
The single Latin word added to the Creed in the West — the Spirit proceeds “from the Father and the Son” — which became a flashpoint between East and West.
Hypostatic Union
The theological term for the union of Christ's divine and human natures in his one divine Person; defined against errors at Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451).
Incarnation
The Son of God taking on a full human nature — body and soul — in the womb of the Virgin Mary, so that Jesus Christ is true God and true man.
Kenosis
Christ's “self-emptying” in Philippians 2 — the Son of God taking the form of a servant and humbling himself even to death on a cross.
Logos
“The Word” — St John's name for the eternal Son of God, through whom all things were made and who became flesh in Jesus.
Trinity
The central mystery of Christian faith: one God in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit — not three gods, and not one God wearing three masks.
Mary & the Saints
Assumption
The dogma that Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was taken body and soul into heaven; defined in 1950 and celebrated on 15 August.
Canonization (Venerable, Blessed, Saint)
The Church's solemn declaration that a person is in heaven and may be honoured publicly; the steps are Servant of God, Venerable, Blessed and Saint.
Communion of Saints
The living bond among all members of Christ's Body — the faithful on earth, the souls in purgatory and the saints in heaven — who share one life and help one another by prayer.
Fiat
Mary's “yes” to the angel, “Let it be done to me according to your word” — the model of every Christian's surrender to God's will.
Immaculate Conception
The dogma that Mary, from the first instant of her own conception in her mother's womb, was preserved free from original sin by the grace of Christ — about Mary's conception, not Jesus's.
Intercession
Praying on behalf of another. Asking the saints to intercede is asking them to pray for us, as one would ask a friend, not praying to them instead of God.
Kecharitomene
The one-word title the angel Gabriel gives Mary at the Annunciation — a perfect passive participle meaning she has been endowed with grace and remains so — a scriptural root of the Immaculate Conception.
Magnificat
Mary's song of praise at the Visitation, named from its first Latin word; sung every evening in the Church's Evening Prayer.
Perpetual Virginity
The teaching that Mary was a virgin before, during and after the birth of Jesus, and had no other children; “Ever-Virgin” in the liturgy.
Theotokos
Mary's title “Mother of God,” affirmed at the Council of Ephesus (431) — a statement about who Jesus is, not a claim that Mary is the source of his divinity.
Veneration (dulia and latria)
The honour given to the saints, their relics and images, which is different in kind from the adoration owed to God alone; theologians call the first dulia and the second latria.
Virginal Conception (“Virgin Birth”)
The teaching that Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb by the Holy Spirit, without a human father — what people usually mean by “the Virgin Birth.”
Sin, Salvation & the Last Things
Beatific Vision
Heaven itself — seeing God “face to face,” as he is, in a way that fills every desire and makes the soul perfectly happy.
Concupiscence
The disordered inclination toward sin that remains even after Baptism; not itself a sin, but the tinder from which sin catches.
Hell
The state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed, chosen by dying in mortal sin without repentance; its chief punishment is eternal separation from God.
Indulgence
The remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven, granted by the Church from the treasury of Christ's and the saints' merits; not the forgiveness of sin and never for sale.
Justification
God's action, through grace, that forgives sins and makes a person truly righteous within — the passage from the state of sin to the state of grace, begun at Baptism.
Metanoia
The New Testament word for repentance and conversion — not just regret, but a turning of the whole self toward God — which is the first word of Jesus's preaching.
Mortal Sin
A grave sin committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent, which destroys charity in the soul and, unrepented, leads to hell; forgiven in Confession.
Original Sin
The fallen state every human being inherits from Adam's first sin — a deprivation of original holiness, not a personal fault — which Baptism washes away.
Parousia
The Second Coming of Christ in glory at the end of time, to judge the living and the dead and bring the Kingdom to its fullness.
Particular Judgment
The judgment each soul receives from Christ immediately at death — heaven, purgatory or hell — as distinct from the Last Judgment of all humanity at the end of time.
Purgatory
The final purification of those who die in God's friendship but still imperfectly purified, so that they may enter heaven; not a second chance and not a lesser hell.
Redemption
Christ's saving work, above all his death and Resurrection, by which he “buys back” humanity from slavery to sin and death; the Redeemer is one of his oldest titles.
Venial Sin
A lesser sin that wounds charity without destroying it — either because the matter is light, or because grave matter was done without full knowledge or consent.
The Church & Her Teaching
Apostolic Succession
The unbroken succession of bishops from the apostles, transmitted by the laying on of hands, through which apostolic teaching, sacraments and authority are handed on in the Church.
Catholic
“Universal” — the mark of the Church that possesses the fullness of the means of salvation and is sent to all peoples; first used of the Church by St Ignatius of Antioch around AD 107.
Deposit of Faith
The whole body of Revelation, contained in Scripture and Tradition, that Christ entrusted to the apostles and the Church guards, hands on and explains — but cannot add to.
Diocese (and Parish)
The territory of the faithful under a bishop, in which the whole Church is present; a parish is a stable community within it entrusted to a pastor.
Dogma (and doctrine, and discipline)
A truth revealed by God and definitively proposed by the Church, to be believed with divine faith; distinct from doctrine in general and from discipline, which can change.
Ecumenical Council
A gathering of bishops from throughout the Church with and under the pope to teach and legislate for the whole Church; the Catholic Church counts twenty-one, from Nicaea (325) to Vatican II (1962–65).
Ekklesia
The New Testament word for “Church” — an assembly called together by God — behind the Latin ecclesia and every “ecclesiastical” thing.
Encyclical
A formal circular letter from the pope, often addressed to the whole Church or the world, on a matter of doctrine, morals or social teaching; usually named from its opening Latin words.
Ex cathedra
“From the chair” of Peter — the phrase for a pope's solemn, infallible definition of a doctrine binding on the whole Church; used only rarely — the Immaculate Conception (1854) and the Assumption (1950) are the two universally acknowledged modern examples.
Infallibility
Christ's guarantee that the Church cannot err when she definitively teaches a matter of faith or morals; exercised by the pope as supreme pastor and by the bishops in communion with him, especially in an ecumenical council.
Magisterium
The teaching authority of the Church, exercised by the pope and the bishops in communion with him, which authentically interprets Scripture and Tradition.
Rite (Latin and Eastern)
A liturgical and spiritual tradition within the one Catholic Church — the Roman Rite is the largest, alongside Byzantine, Maronite, Chaldean, Coptic and other Eastern traditions, all equally Catholic and in communion with the pope.
Sacred Tradition
The living transmission of the Gospel in the Church, from the apostles onward, through teaching, worship and life; with Scripture, one of the two ways the one Word of God reaches us.
Prayer & Devotion
Adoration (Eucharistic Adoration, Holy Hour)
Worship given to God alone; in Catholic usage most often Eucharistic Adoration — praying before the consecrated host, exposed in a monstrance or reserved in the tabernacle.
Amen
The Hebrew word of assent that ends every prayer and creed, meaning “so be it, it is true”; Jesus used it to begin his most solemn sayings, and Scripture calls him “the Amen.”
Angelus
The short prayer of the Incarnation — three verses, three Hail Marys and a collect — said at morning, noon and evening, traditionally at the ringing of a bell; replaced by the Regina Caeli in Eastertide.
Examination of Conscience
A prayerful review of one's thoughts, words and deeds in the light of God's commandments — daily before sleep, and always before Confession.
Lectio divina
The ancient monastic way of praying with Scripture in four movements — reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation — until the text becomes a conversation with God.
Litany
A prayer of short invocations with a repeated response — “pray for us,” “have mercy on us,” “deliver us, O Lord” — such as the Litany of the Saints or the Litany of Loreto.
Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office)
The Church's daily cycle of public prayer, built on the psalms, sung at set hours — Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and the rest — by clergy, religious and any of the faithful who join in.
Novena
Nine consecutive days of prayer for a particular intention, patterned on the nine days the apostles and Mary spent in prayer between the Ascension and Pentecost.
Ora pro nobis
“Pray for us” — the response after each saint's name in a litany, and the shorthand of every request for a saint's intercession.
Rosary
The prayer of beads in which decades of Hail Marys are said while meditating on twenty “mysteries” from the lives of Jesus and Mary; a “Gospel in miniature.”
Scapular
Two small squares of cloth joined by cords and worn over the shoulders — most commonly the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel — as a sign of belonging to Mary; a sacramental, not a charm.
Everyday Catholic Speech
Cradle Catholic, Convert, Revert
Common labels for how someone came to the faith — baptized and raised Catholic from infancy; received into the Church from another tradition or none; or returned after years away.
Easter Duty
The obligation to receive Holy Communion at least once a year, during the Easter season, and to confess grave sins at least once a year — the second and third precepts of the Church.
Fasting and Abstinence (“Fish on Fridays”)
The Church's penitential practice: fasting limits food and abstinence means giving up meat; their observance is required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, with penance on Fridays and throughout Lent.
Holy Day of Obligation
A feast day, other than Sunday, on which Catholics are bound to attend Mass and refrain from work that hinders worship, joy or proper relaxation; the list varies by country.
Lapsed (fallen-away) Catholic
A baptized Catholic who has stopped practising the faith is still marked permanently by Baptism and is always welcome to return to the Church.
OCIA (formerly RCIA)
The process by which adults are initiated into or received into the Catholic Church — a period of inquiry and formation, often culminating at the Easter Vigil; renamed from “Rite” to “Order” by the U.S. bishops in 2021.
Offer it up
The old Catholic instruction to unite a suffering, big or small, with Christ's Passion and offer it to God for some intention — turning pain into prayer.
Precepts of the Church
The five minimum obligations the Catechism sets out for every Catholic — Sunday Mass, yearly Confession, Easter Communion, fasting and abstinence, and supporting the Church — a floor, not a ceiling.
State of grace
The condition of a soul that possesses sanctifying grace — in friendship with God, free of unconfessed mortal sin — and therefore able to receive Communion.
Vocation
God's call to a particular way of life — priesthood, religious life, marriage or single life — within the universal call of every baptized person to holiness; “praying for vocations” usually means for priests and religious.