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When I was a child, I first
learned about God through a little book called the “Penny
Catechism”. It started with the question:
WHO MADE YOU?
(answer: “God made me.”)
The next question was
WHY DID GOD MAKE YOU?
(answer: “God made me to know him, to love him
and serve him in this world, and to be happy with him for
ever in the next.”)
Those two simple questions and
answers tell us much about the meaning and purpose of our human
existence.
Life is God’s gift. We
are not here by accident. Life is not a meaningless succession
of experiences, good and bad, between coming to consciousness
and the oblivion of death. On the contrary, every human
life has meaning and purpose. We are all here with a
purpose.
St. Francis of Assisi spent his whole life reflecting
upon this. “My God, who are you?” he used to pray, “and who am
I?”
Our Catholic Faith helps us to ask
the same questions, and to find answers to them.
God calls us to know him.
It is not easy to know God because God is a great mystery.
His existence can be deduced from looking around us and asking
if such a beautiful and vast universe could have come to be
without a creator. Beyond that, however, we cannot go.
We can only know of God what God himself reveals to us.
Through the Bible, both Old and New Testament, God speaks to us
of himself, and of our relationship with him. Over its
long history, the Catholic Church has reflected upon God’s
self-revelation and has expressed truths about God in its own
Doctrine. In the Catholic Church, we come to know God in
both Scripture and Tradition.
God calls us to love him.
Loving and being loved are the most important things in life.
We may survive without love, but we will never thrive.
Loneliness causes great suffering. So we spend a lot of
our lives trying to find friends we can rely on.
Friendship begins when one person is attracted to another, and
wants to be with that person. This is especially true of
marriage, which is the deepest expression of friendship and love
we can see on earth.
The Catholic Faith is about God
and ourselves becoming friends. Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, told his disciples: “I call you friends, because I have
made known to you everything I learned from my Father.”
He also told them “You did not choose me, no I chose you.”
St. Augustine, a fifth century African Bishop, wrote
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are
restless until they find rest in you.” Without God, we are never
truly at peace, never truly ourselves.
God calls us to serve him.
Jesus also said to his disciples “You are my friends if you do
what I command you.”
We will never get to know God if we don’t spend time with him.
We do this through worship and prayer, especially in the Mass.
The Creator God makes the rules, and expects us to live up to
them. The Catholic Church has very clear moral standards
which help us to avoid situations and patterns of behaviour
which will damage us and other people. Jesus said
“Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do
to me”.
As well as avoiding evil, we also have a positive duty to do
good, and especially to look after those in greatest need.
We are all wayfarers through life.
The Catholic Church provides us with a route map, travelling
companions and food for the journey.
If you would like to know more
about the Catholic Faith, there are links
provided to some sites that will help you.
Here in Glossop we have regular
CAFÉ (Catholic Faith Exploration) courses,
and dates will be given on the website and parish newsletter.
If you live locally, you would be
most welcome to visit either of our churches. Please
introduce yourself to Father Jonathan or any one of the
parishioners. We would be delighted to meet you. If
you live further away, please feel free to contact us by email.
God bless you and yours,
Father Jonathan
(Mgr. Canon Jonathan Moore was the Parish Priest
of All Saints' & St. Mary's Glossop until 2010.)
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