How is Sacred Scripture to be read?

18. Why does Sacred Scripture teach the truth?

What is the Plan of God for Man?

Prayer: It’s Not About Changing God’s Mind, But Ours

Praying to God is not like going to the ATM machine. Punch in the right numbers and “Caching!” Cash out!

Asking things from God in “Jesus Name” do not make what you are asking for magically appears. If you think that just dropping the Name Jesus you will get what you want, regardless if it is good for you or not, you are not praying, you are wishing on a genie. The Name of Jesus is not a magic spell you can use because you cannot use God.

If your daily prayers are filled with self affirmations how great you are to the point you are even telling God who great you are, that is not a prayer… that is a monologue.

Prayer is a conversation between 2 persons in a relationship. A relationship between the Almighty and the creature. The one Who knows more do the talking and the one who knows less do the listening. The One Who knows better lead and the other follows. A child does not tell his Father what to do. The child obeys his Father.

Prayer can be summarize in this simple sentence, “Not my will, but Your (God’s) will be done.”

And what is that “will?”

Love God with all your being and your neighbor as yourself.

Our prayer must come from an unselfish heart. Our petitions must be first for others and even those for ourselves must give glory to God. Why do we pray for daily bread? So we can be alive and give glory to God. Our prayer should always boomerang back to God.

WHAT IS PRAYER?
For me, prayer is a surge of the heart;
it is a simple look turned toward heaven,
it is a cry of recognition and of love,
embracing both trial and joy

"Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God."
But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or "out of the depths" of a humble and contrite heart?
He who humbles himself will be exalted; humility is the foundation of prayer,
Only when we humbly acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought," are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer.
"Man is a beggar before God."
(#2558-255 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church)

The Pruning of Pride

Today, society views pride as a virtue and not as what it really is… sin. Pride has become a sign of a person’s confidence and not of a soul’s weakness.

The Catholic Church has always and continues to teach that pride is one of the “seven capital sins.” Pride is the mother of all sin. It is the sin of sins. It was Lucifer’s pride that said to God, “Non serviam” (I will not serve). It was the pride of Adam and Eve of wanting to be gods themselves that (original) sin came to this world. Pride is hell’s favorite sin, for it was the pride of the fallen angels that created it.

In His love for us, the Father prunes our pride. For pride is a block to His grace. And the more we block His  grace, the less we become alive. Sooner or later, our soul will dry up.

A healthy plant is watered plant. A healthy soul is a soul filled with grace.

So the Father permits trials, crisis and pain to prune our pride. When our arrogant self-reliance is broken and we find ourselves eating dirt, we come to realize how weak we really are, and in desperate need of God’s help. Until we are helpless, we shall not cry out for help. Until we are brought down to our knees, we shall not bend them.

It is when we hit rock bottom that we open ourselves to the heavens. Out of the depths we cry for help. And in that place of humility, grace flows. When we stop relying on ourselves and solely on God, His power is made manifest in us.

“But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.”  2 Corinthians 12:9

And we shall be fruitful.

“Jesus said to his disciples: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.” Jn 15:1-2

(#2094 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church)

One can sin against God's love in various ways:
- hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to love of God, whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and inflicts punishments.

Is Faith More Than Believing?

Having faith in God does not just believe that He exists. The demons and Satan himself knows God exist, and we can’t actually call them faithful to God.

Having faith in God not just mean believing in Him and His words, but realizing them. Making them real! It has no use in believing in God and setting Him aside in your life like everything else. There is no use hearing His words if we do not listen to it. Having faith in God is to accept that HE IS GOD! That means He owns you and you have to submit yourself to Him.

Having faith is to rearrange one’s life in accordance to God and His designs. Faith does not only happen in our intellect, but in our very being. To have faith is to obey!

Why is Abraham called the "father of all who believe"? Because he obeyed God even though God was asking something improbable.  At the ripe age of 99, God asked Abraham to move out of the city into the desert and make him the “father of all nations.” At pass 100 years old, God promised that we would bear a son. And Abraham believed.

The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment of faith. Why? Because God asked something impossible of her, virgin birth. And she believed and said “Fiat” (Be done to me according to your word).

Faith calls us to submit. Faith calls us to obey.  That is what real faith is.

If your faith is just something that happens in your head or in your mouth, chances are, it is not real.

For faith to be real, it has to be seen in our lives and our being. It cannot be “put under a basket”.

To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment. (#144 Catechism of the Catholic Church)

The Search is Over: Love is Here!

The desire for joy, peace and love is deep within the human heart. Most of us have sought it. And most of us are left frustrated.

Many think that joy can be found in the ungodly. And so we try all the ungodly stuffs thinking it would make us happy. We commit one sin to the next hopping the next one would bring us happiness. In our search for joy, we have left ourselves miserable.

Many of us also believe that the world can give us peace. We presume that material wealth will automatically bring peace in our lives. We think that temporal security is the key to peace. But our effort in accumulating and preserving material wealth has only made us more anxious and fearful (of losing them.)

And our search of love, we have jumped from one wrong person to the next. Our desire for perfect and lasting love has only caused us to be heartbroken, again and again. We have sought the perfect in frail and weak creatures.

We have sought the divine in the human and in the world.

And we are disappointed.

Real lasting joy, peace and love can only be found in its Author.

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”  John 15:11

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

They can only be found in Him who is joy, peace and love Himself… Jesus.

"The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator." (#27 Catechism of the Catholic Church)

What is the Life of Man?

Almost all of us search for what life is all about. What is its meaning? What is my meaning? Sadly, most of us define it by our own terms, or worst, by what the media and society dictate to us.

Man made definitions of the meaning of life will always be faulty. Why? Because man did not create himself. We are not the designer of our lives. We did not come to existence because we decided to, Someone else decided we should exist. Only that Someone can reveal to us what life is all about.

That Someone is “The” One. God.

Only in God can we find what life is all about because He is Life itself.

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” – John 14:6

To find meaning outside God is to live a life prone to error and pain. Our human efforts will always fall short for we do not know who we really are. We do not know our fulfillment. And most of all, we cannot reach the fulfillment of our humanity by our own effort (that is why the New Age movement is a heresy.) Only God’s grace can do that.

Only God through Jesus can we truly live. Only in Jesus can we find life’s meaning. For Jesus is God’s revelation made flesh. In Jesus, God did not only reveal Himself to us, but revealed ourselves to us.

And what did Jesus revealed?

We were created to know and love God. And we cannot find life’s meaning outside of it.

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Saviour. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. – (#1 of Catechism of the Catholic Church)

The Fecundity of Marriage

We Are All Called

Where does the Eucharist fit in the divine plan of salvation?

273. How did he institute the Eucharist?

272. When did Jesus Christ institute the Eucharist?

271. What is the Eucharist?

500. How should children be considered?

498. What are immoral means of birth control?

497. When is it moral to regulate births?

495. What are the goods of conjugal love to which sexuality is ordered?

494. What is the responsibility of civil authority in regard to chastity?

493. Why does the sixth commandment forbid all sins against chastity?