God is a father to us

God is always by our side

When Moses was chosen an extraordinary task to lead his people the Israelite's from their bondage, which was a life time of work, God confirmed him in his mission with these words "I will be with You"

Our lives too, Gods presence at every moment is hard to fathom.  He is like a father minding his toddler.   Jesus who is true man and true God, knows the father better than anyone else because he is intimately one in substance with the father, so he can reveal his Father (with a capital F) relationship with us.  What Jesus has revealed to us and with it, and in it we find the wonder of God's fatherhood.

Our lord has revealed to us the depths of the trinitarian mystery: the fact God is a father, so close to us men.  Notice that Jesus used the title Father both in private discussion with the apostles and in his preaching publicly.   Jesus lets us know that this Father is never far away, no more that would be a father who sees his little toddler alone and in danger.

God's Will; you will never, even in the worst state of agitation, lose sight of the fact that our Father in Heaven is always close to you, very close, right next to you, with his everlasting Love and with his unbounded affection.

Imitating Christ is the way to be true children of God. To be children of God which our God the Father intend for us to be with him, his children wants us to be partakers of the divine nature.  It is through Christ that we share this divine son ship.  The more like Jesus we become, the more God the Father will see us as children, if we try to work as he did, to have pity on people as he did, and show our thanks like Jesus did.  Let us pray and have dialog like Jesus did with our Father.

Our mother Mary is the perfect example of what divine grace can achieve when it is fully availed of.  No one excepting the sacred Humanity of Our Lord, was ever closer to God, no created being ever become the Daughter of God the Father that she was.  Let us ask her to make us seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit who will get us to imitate Jesus, Under his influence we will feel the pressing need to turn to the Father at all times.

Summary from Fr. Fernando of Conversation of God

Faith - Keep our eyes on Christ

Faith in Christ. With him, we can do everything; without him we are incapable of taking a single step.

If you recall, after the miracle of the loaves, when Jesus asked the apostles to go to their boats and then himself went up to the mountain to pray on his own, however later on a storm formed and the apostles were stuck in it.  Jesus saw them from afar buffeted by waves.  He started to walk toward them and when the apostles saw Jesus approach them walking in the water, they were filled with fear, Jesus said "Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.

Christ always presents himself in this manner.  Peter is moved and wants to join Jesus in the water and says "Lord, if it is thyself, bind me to come over the water". Loves daring has no limits and our Lord easily yields to the request. Peter starts walking in the water with faith and confidence in his "Master"  , and so when difficulties that surround us , it doesn't matter if we walk in faith and confidence in Jesus, it doesn't matter if the waves are high, or if its not natural to walk in the water, if we look at Jesus, we can do anything, by looking at him is the virtue of piety, through prayer and the sacraments, we will be in the right path.

However , just like Peter who looks away from Jesus and was distracted by the waves  and then his faith at first great, starts to diminish, then he starts to sink, and so like Peter, we sink too many times.  Just like Peter we realize the  force of the waves and wind it was impossible to walk in water, we instead worry about the difficulties.  We miss that if we pay attention , that in in complete trust in Jesus we can avoid our faith diminishing, just like Peter at that moment.

It is God who keeps us afloat and makes us effective in the midst of those apparent impossibilities, it is he who makes us walk on water but on one condition; we should keep our eyes set on Christ., and not allow obstacles and temptations distract us.  

When faith diminishes, then difficulties seem greater.  If Peter would have kept looking at Jesus, who would have remained firm and walked all the way to Jesus on the water, so we should strive in our prayer to have that confident gaze and prevent our faith to be exposed and sink in discouragement.

Saint Thomas Aquines states: If you want to be saved, look upon the face of your Christ.  It is through prayer and the sacraments which is going to help us look upon his face through middle of rough seas we live in.

Even though Peter stopped looking at Christ while walking in the water and sank,  but he knew enough to return immediately  to Jesus "Lord save me", Peters cries with all his strength when he felt it was loss, and so Jesus with infinite affection, stretched out his hand.

And it is the same with us, when our faith diminishes, cry out to the lord and say "Lord, save me" when going through over whelming difficulties, temptations, failures  - let us go to Jesus, because he will always stretch out his hand to us, and pull is up again.

Based from "Conversaion with God" Fr. Fernando

How the Holy Spirit Perfects our faith

The Holy Spirit is one of the three divine person of one God, the Holy Trinity.  The Holy Spirit  is identified in several area's of the bible but one of them is in Act 5:3 when Peter addresses a man named Ananias who lied about the donation, Peter asked why he would lie to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is part of the birth of Jesus; God into man, and as noted by St. Ignatius; for our God, Jesus Christ was according  to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb of Mary, but by the Holy Spirit.

But how does the Holy Spirit relate directly to our relationship with God through it beauty and power, one with God in the Holy Trinity.

Faith is a particular response on the part of man to the Word of God reveals himself in the revelation of Jesus Christ.However, the acceptance of knowledge of God is imperfect in the present life.

The originality of our faith in comparing with knowledge of God started with "created things". By faith  man gives his response to "God's self revelation" and accepts the divine plan of salvation.

This is stated in part First Vatican Council which underline the supernatural character of faith.  God works in the depths of mans spiritual faculties and in his energies and dispositions, the divine power is called grace, in particular grace of faith.

In Second Vatican Council it explains that this grace of faith , that is to make an act of faith is through the interior help of the Holy Spirit. To bring upon a deeper understanding of revelation the same Holy Spirit constantly brings faith by completion of his gifts.

These gifts enables man to fully respond fully to God's self revelation in Jesus Christ, this grace protects the act of faith, it stirs it up, supports and guides it.  Thought it, man believes in God, participates in internal life.

This grace from the Holy Spirit is the source of the supernatural illumination which opens the eyes of the mind to the acceptance of the mysteries of God and the elements of the plan of human salvation. In the same time man's faculty, under the action of grace of faith, tends to a deeper understanding of the contents revealed.

This understanding is projected by the total truth promised by Jesus Christ and these efforts of growing understanding finds it through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.


The Fathers Know Best and Catechesis on the Creed from John Paul II  God Father and Creator (from general audience of April 10th, 1985)

God is not Hidden from us

Jesus seems remains hidden so that he may be sought out by our faith and our love.

He wanted to live among us to pitch his tent among men. So on earth and remained hidden for the great majority of people. God seems to be hidden from us, but in reality he is in the tabernacle or exposed in adoration to us, we should be like the rabbi in the Presentation when we approach the tabernacle”Lord now lest thou servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen the salvation"

God was hidden during the miracles, he instructed people to not report them, during Gesiname and in his Passion his divinity was also hidden However God was hidden in the eyes of people because we chose too, this would be our pride and sin, this is why we missed his divinity. Jesus hides again in the Blessed Eucharist under the appearance of bread and wine so that our faith and our love may seek him out. We say to him in our prayer; Lord you who make us share in the miracle of the Eucharist, we beg you not to hide away, may your face be ever clear to  our eyes.  

Live with us, because without you our lives have no meaning. May we see you, with our eyes purified by the sacrament of Penance.  May we see you , with our eyes purified by the sacrament of Penance. May we touch you , like that woman who dared to finger the hem of your garment and who was healed. May we too touch you; without ever wanting to get accustomed to the miracle. May we want to be beside you all the time: which is the only place where we are completely happy.  May we have you as the King of our lives and of our work: because we have given everything to you.

The Holy Eucharist transforms us, when we do to adoration, go to church a pray before the tabernacle , or receive him in the Eucharist during mass, we develop a deep friendship with him. He may be hidden from our senses but clear to our faith.

Saint Thomas affirms that the virtue of this sacrament is to transform a man into Crhist through love.  We all have the experience that eah one of us lives largely in accordance wit that he loves. People devoted to study, to sport or to their profession say that activities are their life. Ina similar way, if man seeks only his own self-interest, he lives for himself alone.  If we love Christ nd unite ourselves to him, we will loive more deeply thorugh him and in him, depending on the truth and depth of our love.

Jesus is not hidden, we just need to look for him with our heart.

Gethsemane to Sanhedrin - Reflection of Jesus Passion

Jesus knew what his disciples should have witness - the occasion to assert that the Passion was not to be regarded as a condemnation of him or his doctrine, but a solemn attestation before the world, showing his loyalty to God

"That the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father hath given me commandment, so do I, arise let us go"

When in the garden of Gethsemane, he shows he is command or the leader, not Judas from the start, but before that he went through the greatness of his soul, he thought for his disciples even in midst of his own agonies of body and of mind.  He well know that the disciples be spared if their faith were not to reel under shock , which is why he withdrew apart from them, during his agony.

Jesus whole nature and causes of the dreadful mental sufferings that he endured alone for long hours., no created intelligence can fully explore.  Once the moment or his hour has come, Jesus finds himself plunged in trembling fear and anguish. He was to wrestle alone with dreadful force bonding's that pressed on him, sorrow crushes the vitality out of the soul.

Tradition is unanimous in asserting that what the savior endured was intimately connected with sins of mankind.  The almighty allowed his son to experience in the depths of his being a realization of the consequences for himself of his taking on his shoulders the responsibility for the crimes of humanity in spite of his personal innocence.

Jesus saw all the acts of faithfulness and base betrayals, all the acts of lust and adultery; all the acts of impiety and sacrilege; all the imprecations and blasphemes; all the acts of violence and murder. It is not surprising that the savior prostate himself in agonizing prayer before God.  For thee long hours he lay prone on earth repeating the same words; My father if possible, let this chalice pass from me.  Jesus from the beginning accepted the passion.  He knew the passion was God's absolute will. He needs to the perfectly human impulse to plead with God, knowing all the time what God wills. 

It was thus Jesus prayed his prayer was conditional and Jesus did not wish that is should alter the absolute determination of God, the prayer was not without its answer.  Jesus was comforted, with an angel from heaven to strengthen him.  Christ saw and understood caused his shuddering from the contract with agony and panic, fear under the physical contractions of nerves and fibers and arteries, the blood drops oozed through the pores of the skin and mingling together, flowed in red stream-lets to the ground.  Up to the time of entering on the Passion Jesus acted as accredited envoy of God and had his disposal the divine omnipotence to indicate his claims, he could operate miracles at will but he stood before the rabble under the guidance of Judas.  The defense of his divinity is now withdrawn, he was now a victim of sin, but his last dominate power was permitted to secure the safety of his followers.

Again,even through his suffering , he thought of others well being.