8th Grade

Holy Trinity

1 - Examine the Holy Qurbana and discuss how the {being, nature, essence, existence, life} of God applies equally to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

2 - Examine the Holy Qurbana and identify how each Person of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are distinct but not separate, and always act with ONE will.

3 - Explain why common examples used for the Trinity are not true explanations of the Trinity.

4 - Discover common heresies such as Modalism, Arianism, and Partialism.

5 - Examine St. Gregory of Nazianzus's introduction to the Trinity."

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God the Father

1 - Examine God the Father in the first paragraph of the Nicene Creed.

2 - Conclude that the relationship with your father is the basis of learning more about the Heavenly Father, as denoted by Father meaning Abba in Aramaic.

3 - Demonstrate understanding that God is understood and addressed as Father, not to be seen just as an authoritative figure alone, but as an expression of love, caring, mercy, trustworthiness and responsibility.

4 - Explore the Old Testament understanding of God the Father.

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Jesus Christ

1 - Investigate the Nicene Expression of Faith ""And in the One Lord Jesus Christ..."" (2nd paragraph of the Creed).

2 - Explore St. Athanasius - On the Incarnation."

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Theotokos

1 - Correlate that St. Mary is Theotokos.

2 - Explain that we venerate St. Mary, not worship her.

3 - Examine Old Testament prophecies and typologies of St. Mary.

4 - Discuss the early life of St. Mary, including her parents.

5 - Examine the Feast of the Theotokos in the Temple.

6 - Distinguish why we reject the theory of immaculate conception."

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Salvation

1 - Demonstrate how God saves and loves mankind through the events of the Incarnation, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

2 - Explore the question, ""Are you saved?""

3 - Analyze how our daily actions affect our salvation.

4 - Analyze how our life in the Church affects our salvation.

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Final Judgement

1. Explain the connection between repentance and confession and forgiveness of sin.

2. Understand that the outcome is Eternal Life, either as heaven or hell, so the time to repent is now.

3. Discuss the consequences of our actions, and how our free-will ultimately leads to our final judgement before God.

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Holy Spirit

1. Investigate the Nicene expression, "And in the One Living Holy Spirit..."

2. Relate with the attributes of the Holy Spirit as all holy, good, adorable, life-giving and consubstantial.

3. Identify the Holy Spirit as the Perfector of the Sacraments.

4. Explore the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives (as the Comforter, the Sustainer of Creation, Sanctifier, the opener of eyes, the teacher of wisdom, the guide of our life.)"

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Church

1 - Investigate the beginning of the Church and characteristics of the early Church.

2 - Associate and interpret the Church as the Bride of Christ, the Temple of God.

3 - Understand that Christ is the Head of our Church, and the understanding of our Church hierarchy.

4 - Explain that every member of the Church are together the faithful, and everyone together is the Body of Christ.

5 - Explore the four characteristics of the Church found in Acts 2:42 (Apostle's teaching, Prayer, Fellowship, Breaking of bread), and discover the tangible and visible nature of the living Church.

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Life after Death

1 - Explain once we pass from this world, we are passing over to the next world, the abode of the departed, the place of light.

2 - Relate how life after death is like the children of Israel passing over the red sea and how we are on our way to the promised land, which is heaven and salvation.

3 - Explain how the departed enjoy deeper communion with God along with the saints.

4- Learn the biblical foundation of the Qukilion for the departed.

5 - Investigate how being departed means awaiting the resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming of Jesus our Lord.

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etc.