The Church: Marks, Parts, and Pillars

Marks of the Church

Parts of the Church

Pillars of the Catholic Faith

Pillars of the Catholic Church

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Marks of the Church

The Four Marks of the Church Are:

1.  Unity

2.  Holiness (Sanctity)

3.  Catholicity

4.  Apostolicity

"These four essential characteristics, proper to the Catholic Church alone, visibly manifest to the world that she is the true Church of Christ." (Catholic Dictionary) 

Parts of the Church

The Three Parts of the Church Are:

1.  The Church Militant (Those on Earth)

2.  The Church Suffering (Those in Purgatory)

3.  The Church Triumphant (Those in Heaven)

"The Church consists principally of two parts, the one called the Church triumphant; the other, the Church militant. The Church triumphant is that most glorious and happy assemblage of blessed spirits, and of those who have triumphed over the world, the flesh, and the iniquity of Satan, and are now exempt and safe from the troubles of this life and enjoy everlasting bliss. The Church militant is the society of all the faithful still dwelling on earth. It is called militant, because it wages eternal war with those implacable enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil." (Catechism of the Council of Trent) [Note: There is also a 'Church suffering' which refers to purgatory - all those souls in purgatory will enter the Church triumphant at the appropriate time.]

Pillars of the Catholic Faith

The Four Pillars of the Catholic Faith Are:

1.  The Apostles' Creed

2.  The Seven Sacraments

3.  The Decalogue (The Ten Commandments)

4.  The Lord's Prayer

"The truths revealed by Almighty God are so many and so various that it is no easy task to acquire a knowledge of them or, having done so, to remember them so well as to be able to explain them with ease and readiness when occasion requires. Hence our predecessors in the faith have very wisely reduced all the doctrines of salvation to those four heads: The Apostles' Creed, the Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer." (Catechism of the Council of Trent) 

Pillars of the Catholic Church

The Three Pillars of the Catholic Church Are:

1.  Sacred Scripture

2.  Sacred Tradition

3.  The Magisterium

"Holy Scripture is profitable 'to instruct us, to expose our errors, to correct our faults, to educate us in holy living' (2 Tm. 3:16)... [but it is not the] only or the direct rule of a Christian's faith. The direct rule is the teaching of the living Church, and divine tradition is with Scripture the joint source of revelation." (Catholic Dictionary)