I was raised in a strict Catholic home. I believed that I was unworthy in the eyes of God because I sinned in thought, word, and deed. I definitely did “dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell.” I did not love God, I feared him as a demanding, vindictive, angry, all-punishing creator.
My view of God changed much after I had finish the 4 year Philosophy of a Roman Catholic Seminary. However, decades later, I met a searching, but most kind and religious soul who was a recovering alcoholic, remaining sober for 36 years. As our friendship developed, I began to feel inspiration, visions, the force of Grace which led me to write the many religious Blogs on this blogsite. I believe it was the Holy Spirit, God’s Person on Earth, who gave me the Grace and Teaching to have my beliefs evolve through His Love and Mercy.
MY BELIEFS ABOUT GOD
1. God is infinitely loving and merciful.
“God created us in his own image. He became Jesus to show us he loved us enough to live as and suffer as a human being. He gave us the New Testament, one which emphasized active love and mercy and replaced the Old Testament, which had emphasized God as vengeful.”
Written by me on another Blog Site
2. To be a good human being, all persons should follow the two greatest Commandments as presented by Jesus in the NEW TESTAMENT OF THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.
“36 Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.
38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.
39 And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.”
Matthew 22:36–40
3. The Holy Spirit will give us the grace to use our talents to help our neighbours, for the Glory of God.
WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?
God the Holy Spirit: The unseen, divine presence of God actively working in the world and in the lives of people.
https://www.christianity.org.uk/article/the-holy-spirit
“The Holy Spirit enables Christian life by dwelling in the individual believers and enabling them. The Holy Spirit also acts as a comforter or Paraclete, one who intercedes, supports, or acts as an advocate, particularly in times of trial.
“‘The Holy Spirit illuminates the minds of people, makes us yearn for God, and takes spiritual truth and makes it understandable to us.’ –Billy Graham.
“The Holy Spirit is a beautiful and powerful part of who God is. We need Him in our life as a conduit to become who God created us to be, and through His power we have aid in all situations. Without Him, we are powerless.”
WHY SHOULD WE DO GOOD?
“Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.”
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Matthew 5:15–16
4. Everyone should commit themselves to help others to recognize that God is infinitely loving and merciful and to help others to commit their lives to fulfilling the two greatest commandments.
The Old Testament emphasized that Man had offended God who was all powerful and to be feared. The Old Testament is followed by most Christian Churches who
“1. Admonish everyone to love God, but preach that God is strict and will punish them with an eternity in Hell.
2. They preach that the way to salvation is to not sin, simply, “Thou shalt not.”
3. They vociferate that we are all sinners and not worthy of God’s love.
4. They insist that sinners are an abomination to God.
5. They talk of love but stress that fear of God is the only way to Salvation”
Written by me on another Blog Site.
HOW I GREW TO UNDERSTAND GOD WAS LOVING AND MERIFUL
When I was in the seminary Saint Pope John XXIII was Pope. Through the Holy Spirit, he inspired me to change my Catholicism from an Old Testament belief to a recognition that the New Testament superseded the old.
During the reign of John XXIII, Saint Pope John XXIII emphasized aggiornamento (bringing the Church up to date) and mercy. He tried to increase the emphasis on God infinitely loving, “God is Love.” During his shepherdship, the Church focused more on the loving and merciful God of the New Testament. In addition, he stressed the importance of helping to ensure the salvation of the Christian community, not just individual salvation. Catholic worship evolved from the mystical, clergy-centered Latin rites of the past to a cultural, vernacular, uplifting mass filled with the singing and speaking voices of the congregation.
Written by me on another Blog Site
“We deem it opportune to remind our children of their duty to take an active part in public life and to contribute toward the attainment of the common good of the entire human family as well as to that of their own political community. They should endeavor, therefore, in the light of their Christian faith and led by love, to insure that the various institutions — whether economic, social, cultural or political in purpose — should be such as not to create obstacles, but rather to facilitate or render less arduous man’s perfecting of himself in both the natural order and the supernatural…. Every believer in this world of ours must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying leaven amidst his fellow men. And he will be this all the more perfectly, the more closely he lives in communion with God in the intimacy of his own soul”
Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris: On Establishing Universal Peace
5. We should all recognize that God made us in his image, instilling in us his goodness and beauty.
Others has expressed similar beliefs. Here are a few examples:
“Genesis 1:26–27
Here in the Bible’s first chapter, God states His goal: He is making man in His own image! By using both “image” and “likeness,” God explained that He would create man to be just like Him! Man would not only look like God, but humanity would also have a spiritual ability to understand His nature and learn to conform to it. Through the experiences of life and the process of building godly character, humankind can put on the image of God and be resurrected into His Family (I Corinthians 15:49–53).”
https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/560/Image-of-God.htm
“God IS truth. God IS beauty. God IS goodness. Humans, since they are made in the image and likeness of God, not only have the attributes as a reflection of Him, but are also aware of these transcendentals and are drawn to them because the desire to seek out God is written in the human heart. Upon reflection, you will likely find that one of the transcendentals moves you toward God more so than the others.”
https://www.corpuschristiphx.org/blog?month=202106&id=425239503&cat=931661708
6. However, God gave us free will so anyone may reject everything that I believe to be true.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“1730 God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. “God willed that man should be ‘left in the hand of his own counsel,’ so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him.”26
Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts.27
26. GS 17; Sir 15:14.
27. St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 4,4,3:PG 7/1,983.”
https://www.catholiccrossreference.online/catechism/#!/search/1730-1738
According to a writer for ALL PEOPLES CHURCH & WORLD OUTREACH
“When God created man, He created him in His own image and He gave us free will which simply means the ability to choose and make decisions. Free will is the power to decide what you will do in a certain situation. Our choices shape our lives, it impacts our relationship with God, it impacts our relationship with other people. “
https://apcwo.org/resources/sermons/message/gods-gift-of-free-will
I BELIEVE THAT THOUGH THE GRACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, WE CAN MANIFEST OUR LOVE OF GOD AND ALL HUMAN BEINGS THOUGH POSITIVE ACTS TOWARD HIS CREATIONS, WHOM HE MADE IN HIS OWN IMAGE.
WITH THE GRACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, WE ALL SHOULD USE OUR GOD-GIVEN FREE WILL TO ACCEPT THAT GOD IS ALL LOVING AND MERCIFUL, TO HONOUR HIS TWO GREATEST COMMANDMENTS, AND TO HELP OTHERS EVOLVE TO THIS CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING AND CHRISTIAN GOOD DEEDS FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.