Catechism Research – Section W
Section W
WAY OF THE CROSS: A devotional exercise which follows the “way of the cross” in the Savior’s steps, observing stops or “stations” to meditate on the path Jesus took from the Praetorium in Jerusalem to Golgotha and the tomb. “By his holy Cross he has redeemed the world” (2669).
WISDOM: A spiritual gift which enables one to know the purpose and plan of God; one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (1831). Wisdom is also the name of one of the books of the Old Testament (120).
WORD OF GOD: The entire content of Revelation as contained in the Holy Bible and proclaimed in the Church. In John’s Gospel, God’s “Word” means his only-begotten Son, who is the fullness of God’s Revelation and who took flesh (the Word incarnate) and became man for the sake of our salvation (65, 81, 101, 241, 461; cf. 2653).
WORKS OF MERCY: Charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbors in their bodily and spiritual needs (2447). The spiritual works of mercy include instructing, advising, consoling, comforting, forgiving, and patiently forbearing. Corporal works of mercy include feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, sheltering the homeless, and burying the dead (2447).
WORLD: Creation, or the earth, or even the universe. “All that is”–often called the “world” in Scripture–owes its existence to God’s act of creation; God’s creation is called “good” in the Bible, and human beings are said to have been created “in his own image and likeness” (282, 295). In the New Testament the “world” is sometimes used to indicate the forces of opposition to the work of Jesus and of his Holy Spirit. In this sense it signifies the world which Jesus came to redeem from sin. The world will reach its goal and perfection when it has been renewed and transformed into “the new heaven and the new earth” in the fullness of God’s kingdom (1043).
WORSHIP: Adoration and honor given to God, which is the first act of the virtue of religion (2096). Public worship is given to God in the Church by the celebration of the Paschal Mystery of Christ in the liturgy (1067).