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Catechism of the Catholic Church

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Growth in understanding the faith

94 Thanks to the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the understanding of both the realities and the words of the heritage of faith is able to grow in the life of the Church:

- "through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts"; 57 it is in particular "theological research [which] deepens knowledge of revealed truth". 58

- "from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which [believers] experience", 59 the sacred Scriptures "grow with the one who reads them." 60

- "from the preaching of those who have received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate, the sure charism of truth". 61

95 "It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls." 62

IN BRIEF:

96 What Christ entrusted to the apostles, they in turn handed on by their preaching and writing, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to all generations, until Christ returns in glory.

97 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God" (DV 10) in which, as in a mirror, the pilgrim Church contemplates God, the source of all her riches.

98 "The Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes" (DV § # 1).

99 Thanks to its supernatural sense of faith, the People of God as a whole never ceases to welcome, to penetrate more deeply and to live more fully from the gift of divine Revelation.

100 The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him. Article 3

Notes:

57 DV 8 § 2; cf. Lk 2:19, 51.

58 GS 62 § 7; cf. GS 44 § 2; DV 23; 24; UR 4.

59 DV 8 § 2.

60 St. Gregory the Great, Hom. in Ezek. 1, 7, 8: PL 76, 843D.

61 DV 8 § 2.

62 DV 10 § 3.

English Translation of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.

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