Article 3
THE CHURCH, MOTHER AND TEACHER
2030
It is in the Church, in communion with all the baptized, that the Christian fulfills
his vocation. From the Church he receives the Word of God containing the
teachings of "the law of Christ."72 From the Church he
receives the grace of the sacraments that sustains him on the "way."
From the Church he learns the example of holiness and recognizes its model and
source in the all-holy Virgin Mary; he discerns it in the authentic witness of
those who live it; he discovers it in the spiritual tradition and long history
of the saints who have gone before him and whom the liturgy celebrates in the
rhythms of the sanctoral cycle.
2031
The moral life is spiritual worship. We "present (our) bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,"73 within the Body of
Christ that we form and in communion with the offering of his Eucharist. In the
liturgy and the celebration of the sacraments, prayer and teaching are
conjoined with the grace of Christ to enlighten and nourish Christian activity.
As does the whole of the Christian life, the moral life finds its source and
summit in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
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