What Are the Basics Every Catholic Should Know?

Why Start with the Basics?

The Catholic faith is vast. Its theology fills libraries, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church alone runs to 2,865 paragraphs. It is easy to feel that there is too much to know, and to conclude that knowing the faith is for experts.

But the Church has always taught that the essentials can be learnt by anyone — a child preparing for First Communion, an adult coming into the Church, or a lifelong Catholic who never quite got round to it. Generations of Catholics learnt them from small catechisms like the Penny Catechism, often by heart.

What follows is a simple checklist. If you know these things, you have a solid foundation for everything else.

Why We Are Here

The first question of the old catechisms asked why God made us. The Penny Catechism’s answer has never been bettered: “God made me to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in the next.”

Everything else on this list serves that purpose. The faith is not a set of rules for their own sake. It is the way to know and love God, and to reach the happiness for which we were made.

What We Believe: the Creed

The Creed is the summary of the faith. Every Catholic should know the Apostles’ Creed by heart, and be familiar with the Nicene Creed said at Sunday Mass. Between them they cover the essentials: God the Father and creation, Jesus Christ and His saving death and Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, the Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and eternal life.

See What Is the Apostles’ Creed and Why Do We Say It?

The Essential Prayers

These are the prayers every Catholic should be able to say from memory.

The Sign of the Cross — the simplest prayer of all, and a profession of faith in the Trinity.

The Our Father — the prayer Jesus Himself taught His disciples.

The Hail Mary — drawn largely from the greetings of the angel Gabriel and of Elizabeth in the Gospel of Luke.

The Glory Be — a short prayer of praise to the Trinity.

An Act of Contrition — a prayer of sorrow for sin, said in Confession and at the end of the day.

Many Catholics also learn the Morning Offering, Grace before and after meals, and the prayers of the Rosary. But the five above are the foundation.

How We Worship: the Seven Sacraments

The sacraments are the visible signs through which Christ gives us His grace. Every Catholic should know all seven:

Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist — the sacraments of initiation, by which we become fully members of the Church.

Penance (Confession) and the Anointing of the Sick — the sacraments of healing.

Holy Orders and Matrimony — the sacraments at the service of communion, by which some are called to serve the Church as priests and others to build a family.

See Why Are There Seven Sacraments and Not More or Fewer?

How We Live: the Commandments

The Ten Commandments are God’s law, given to Moses and confirmed by Christ. They sum up our duties to God (the first three) and to our neighbour (the other seven). Every Catholic should know them, at least in their short form.

Jesus summed them up in two: love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:37–39).

See What Does the Church Teach About the Ten Commandments?

The Precepts of the Church

Alongside God’s commandments, the Church sets out a few minimum duties for Catholic life, known as the precepts of the Church (CCC 2041–2043). In their present form, they are:

1. To attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, and to rest from unnecessary work.
2. To go to Confession at least once a year.
3. To receive Holy Communion at least once a year, during the Easter season.
4. To observe the days of fasting and abstinence.
5. To help provide for the needs of the Church.

These are a floor, not a ceiling. They set the very least the Church asks, so that no Catholic drifts away from the sacraments altogether.

Virtue and Sin

Every Catholic should also know a few basic lists that shape the moral life.

The theological virtues: faith, hope and charity. These are gifts from God that direct us to Him (1 Corinthians 13:13).

The cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. These are the “hinge” virtues on which a good life turns.

The seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth. These are the root vices from which other sins grow.

It also helps to understand the difference between serious and lesser sins. See What Are Mortal and Venial Sins?

The Works of Mercy

Faith shows itself in love. The Church has long taught two sets of works of mercy.

The corporal works of mercy care for the body: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned and bury the dead.

The spiritual works of mercy care for the soul: to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the sorrowful, forgive injuries, bear wrongs patiently and pray for the living and the dead.

The Four Last Things

Finally, every Catholic should know the four last things: death, judgement, heaven and hell. The saints recommended thinking about them often — not to frighten us, but to remind us what life is for, and to help us live each day with eternity in view.

Where to Go from Here

If you already know everything on this list, you know more than many Catholics. If you do not, that is no cause for embarrassment — simply start. Learn one prayer this week. Read the Creed slowly and ask what each line means. Look up a sacrament you know little about.

These basics are not the end of learning the faith. They are the beginning. But they are the beginning every Catholic needs, and the foundation on which everything else in this section is built.