I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord

1. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord Christmas

2. Introduction • In order to save us, God sent his Son, who is Jesus, the Christ, Jesus Christ. • Jesus Christ is true God and true man. • He is our Saviour and model for all of us.

3. Main ideas

4. 1. He is our saviour because…. • In spite of sin (turning away from God), God continued to love us, and wanted to bring us closer to Him and make us his children. • He promised that He would save all people from sin, giving us the gift of grace.

5. 2. Throughout history, God remembers his promise • God remembered his promise to send us a saviour and said it to Abraham, Jacob, Moses and David, Isaiah, and others. • These were the Prophets, who spoke of the coming of a Saviour. • Isaiah (7: 14) proclaims that the Saviour would be born of a “virgin”; • Micah (5: 2) says that He would be born: in “Bethlehem”.

6. 3. The Saviour is Christ • “God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son” (John 3: 16). • The Lord is called Jesus, which means “saviour”. • The Archangel St. Gabriel said to St. Joseph: The Virgin “shall give birth to a son, and His name will be Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins” (Mat 1:21).

7. 4. Jesus Christ is really God because … • Jesus Christ heals the sick, the blind, the lepers…; He raises His friend Lazarus from the dead, as well as the son of the widow of Naim; He forgives the sins of the paralytic, and those of Mary Magdalene and of the adulterous woman…; and He did all these things with His own power, because He is God. • He told us: “I and the Father are one; he who sees the Father sees me; nobody can know the Father except through the Son”.

8. 5. Christ’s resurrection is the main proof of His divinity • Jesus Christ truly died and truly resurrected. • After His resurrection, He showed Himself several times to His disciples, and they gave witness to these apparitions. • Christ’s resurrection is the main proof of His divinity, because He rose from the dead by his own power.

9. 6. Jesus is really man • Jesus Christ is a man like any other, except in sin. • Why is he like us? He had a mother, like us; He worked with His hands helping St. Joseph; He felt hunger and thirst; He had friends and wept when His friend Lazarus died, He was cheerful with his disciples, with children… • Jesus Christ was not only true God but also true man.

10. 8. Getting to know Jesus, growing in His friendship • We enjoy the company of our friends. As friends, we share each other’s thoughts and ideas, are interested in each other’s lives. The same is true of our friendship with Jesus. • If we wish to get to know Him we can find Him by reading the Gospel or other books that talk about Him, in talking to Him in prayer, and visiting Him in the Oratory.

11. How to reach Christ … • Read the Gospel for a few minutes every day so as to know it a little more each day about the life of Christ and His teachings. • Do a short visit to the Oratory to be near Christ, really present in the tabernacle.