God is beyond all comprehension, words, images,
what the mind and heart can think, contemplate or imagine.
“The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of the Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
“The Incarnation of God’s Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father, the Son is one and the same God.”
“The mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the name of the Son, and by the Son “from the Father” reveals that with them, the Spirit is one and the same God. With the Father and Son he is worshipped.”
“By the grace of Baptism, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in the eternal light.”
“Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persona or dividing the substance, for the person of the Father is one, the Son’s is another, the Holy Spirit’s another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.”
Quotations taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, pp 69-70
Only God creates
“God alone created the universe freely, directly and without any help.”
“God created the world to show forth and communicate His glory. That his creatures should share in his truth, goodness, and beauty – this is the glory for which God created them.”
“Divine Providence consists of the dispositions by which God guides all his creatures with wisdom and love to their ultimate end.”
“Divine providence works also through the actions of creatures. To human beings God grants the ability to cooperate freely with his plans.”
“The fact that God permits physical and even moral evil is a mystery that God illuminates by his Son Jesus Christ who died and rose to vanquish evil. Faith gives us the certainly that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil, by ways that we shall fully know only in eternal life.”
“Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator. The world began when God’s word drew it out of nothingness; all existent beings, all of nature, and all human history are rooted in this primordial event, the very genesis by which the world was constituted and time begun. Each creature has its own particular goodness and perfection.”
Quotations taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, pp 84, 88
The beauty of the world reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator and ought to inspire our respect.
Christ invites us to filial trust in the providence of our heavenly Father. As children of God we are loved and cared for by the Providence of God.
St. Peter writes: “Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you.“ [I Pet. 5,7]
Reflection
I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me.”
In the spiritual life we let God be the God of our life by saying “Amen” to His will.
It is not always easy to discern God’s will. Faith and prayer are needed.
We do know God’s Will in some matters.
The 10 commandments are a good source for knowing God’s will.
Click here if you need help in recalling the 10 Commandments.
As you pray over them which do you find the most challenging and why?
Listed below are some quotations that speaks of the Hunger of the Human Heart for God. They are worth your time to pray over and take to heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to touch your heart with new insight and understanding.
v From Bishop Ken Untener, deceased Bishop of Saginaw, Michigan
“But keep this in mind: (spirituality) is more about God loving us than us loving God, or loving others, or loving ourselves. The first thing we have to catch is that God loves us, now, as we are. Before doing anything else, we need simply to let ourselves on the receiving end of the goodness of God.”
v From Carl Jung to Bill Wilson (AA Founder)
“His craving for alcohol was the equivalent on a low level of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in the medieval language: the union with God. “As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. Athirst is my soul for God, the Living God.” Psalm 42, 2-3 Alcohol in Latin is spiritus, and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritus.” (The [Holy] Spirit against spirits.)
v Attributed to Pedro Arrupe, S.J., deceased and former General of the Society of Jesus
“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what you get out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”
v From St. Augustine of Hippo:
“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”
“You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”