Your Questions, Answered
Sometimes it feels like God chooses some and excludes others in the Old Testament. Why is this?
From the Popes
“THE LOVE STORY BETWEEN GOD AND MAN consists in the very fact that this communion of will increases in a communion of thought and sentiment, and thus our will and God's will increasingly coincide: God's will is no longer for me an alien will, something imposed on me from without by the commandments, but it is now my own will, based on the realization that God is in fact more deeply present to me than I am to myself. Then self- abandonment to God increases and God becomes our joy (cf. Ps 73 [72]:23-28).”
Pope Benedict 16th, God is Love, 17
“The most difficult thing – but essential one –
is to love Life, to love it even when one suffers,
because Life is all, Life is God, and to love Life means to love God.”
Leo Tolstoy
DESCRIBING HIM
Therese Pace
God has a heart as big as outer space,
a hoard from where all gifts are distributed
deserved or undeserved. Kibbutz of grace.
FROM LIFE: Finding God in Literature
For me personally, God’s most clear and most effective conduit of his Spirit has always been literature.
“Lord . . . culture, custom, art, science, literature, can all serve as conduits of your Spirit . . . “ This is part of a prayer in my Lent and Easter book. Books have always been my great love, and grace rests on nature.
From the Fathers of the Church
"You made us for Yourself, O Lord; and our heart is restless until it rests in you."
St Augustine of Hippo
Prayer: To me God is...
THE FATHER – offering us unconditional love,
THE MOTHER – promising us eternal tender care,
THE GIFT – giving Himself to us,
THE WORD – becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us,
THE TRUTH – bearing witness to Himself,
THE REVEALER – showing Himself as Love,
THE BROTHER – sharing our experiences of life,
THE BABY – so fragile in a manger in Bethlehem,
THE CARPENTER – leading a normal life in Nazareth...
Experiencing God "with me" and yet as the "totally other"
If one is to ask various persons, if they believe in God, probably they will say 'yes'. If one is to ask, "who is God?" or "what is God?" there will probably be as many different answers as there are people! In ancient philosophy, God is described as the Unmoved mover, the all-knowing, eternal and transcendent. In Christianity, according to Scriptures, God revealed his name as YHWH: the God Who Is. From the very first book of Scriptures, God is seen creating the universe, the stars, our planet and finally the human being. So God can be called the Creator of heaven and earth. In the New Testament, we find Jesus Christ calling God as Father and revealing God to be a Triune God: Father, Son and Spirit. Hence, in Christianity, we speak of the Trinity. Throughout the centuries, God was experienced as the God with us and yet as the Totally Other.
From the Bible
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God."
1John 4:7