| |
| |
When we think of the Blessed Trinity we know that God the Father is the Creator;
God the Son the Redeemer;
God the Holy Ghost Sanctifies.
God the Father created heaven and earth. We know that God is the Creator of all things from common sense, conscience, and divine revelation. The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God" (Ps. 13:1)
God made all things for His own glory and for our benefit.
When we say that God preserves the world, we mean that He keeps it in existence by His all-powerful will.
When we say that God governs the world, we mean that He directs all things according to His wisdom.
St. Thomas says of God . . . "The Wisdom of God reaches from end to end mightily and it arranges all things sweetly. Everything has its place in the pattern of divine providence. God fits everything and everyone to its place in His plan for the world. When God the Father resolved to send His only-begotten Son into this world to be born of a woman, He chose and fashioned a woman to be the worthy mother of so great a Son. When we meet a very good child, we are quite likely to say, 'He must have a very good mother'. We explain the child's goodness by the goodness of his mother. We believe that it is the mother's goodness which has made the child good. But in the mystery of the Incarnation, it is the contrary which is true.
Mary of Nazareth is the perfect Mother of God because her Son, Who is God, has made her so. Because the Son of God is all holy and all perfect, Mary, His Mother in the flesh, must be as holy and perfect as she can be. God did not cast His eye over all the women in the world, seeking to discover which one was best fitted to be the mother of His Son. Mary was not chosen by God because He found her to be the most perfect of women. Rather, He made her the perfect woman because He had chosen her to be the Mother of His Son." From "My Way of Life" St. Thomas page 475
IF GOD LOVES US SO, if He is so provident a Father, why does He let us commit sin? The answer is that He is God, reverently respectful of His children, and He has made us men. Why, since He knows from eternity which of us will lose our souls, did He make us at all? The question is a coward's complaint against his humanity and the share of divinity given to men. If we are to have a chance at heaven, we must run the risk of hell; no man is in hell who did not have, time after time, the chance of taking heaven in his grasp. Heaven is worth the risk of hell; God is worth the risk of the devil. It is dangerous to be a man lifted up to the heights, of God; dangerous, but a danger well justified by the goals that are open to us. The shared power of God that is ours does not destroy His omnipotence, nor does His eternal knowledge destroy our freedom: we are men and He is God, and we can live that divine life with Him forever if we will, or we can start our hell on earth and preserve it for all of an eternity.
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?
A Christian is a sinner and a man constantly being saved. He understands the two basic axis of revealed ethics. The first is theocentric: God is the Master; if He gives salvation gratuitously, He has a right to impose obedience, fidelity, and perseverance: demands which would amount to nothing if no sanctions were placed upon them. A God who is holy can call only those who are holy to live in His company; His immense generosity has as its corollary the stringency of His demands. The second asix of Pauline (pertaining to the apostle Paul) ethics is man's liberty and consequently his responsibility. For every gift there is a corresponding obligation. If man is truly master of his life and choices, he can orient them either toward good or toward evil; and since, on this earth, he remians "tempted" and must resist the solicitations of the flesh, it is actually an act of mercy on God's part to encourage his choices by the hope of reward and the fear of punishment. The Christian life is movement and growth. How many occasions there are to deviate and give way!
Taken from: The Trinity and Our Moral Life by The Newman Press
Revelation teaches that there is also in God a fatherhood in the true and proper sense which belongs to the First Person only, and which is the model of God's fatherhood of man, and of all created paternity (Eph. 3, 14). Jesus referred to God as His Father in a unique and exclusive sense. When He speaks of the Father in heaven He says either: "My Father" or "Thy Father," or when appropriate "Your Father," but never "Our Father." (The "Our Father" is not Jesus' prayer for Himself, but the prayer of His disciples: cf. Mt. 6,9.) Assertions of Jesus, which testify to His identity of essence with the Father, prove also that His Sonship and the Fatherhood of God are to be understood in a proper physical sense. Cf. Mt. 11, 27: "And no one knoweth the Son but the Father: neither doth anyone know the Father, but the Son and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him." John 10, 30: "I and the Father are One." John 5;26: "For as the Father hath life in Himself, so He hath given to the Son also to have life in Himself." St. John calls Jesus the Only Begotten Son of God, St. Paul the only Son of God. John 1, 14: "And we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the only-begotten of the Father." John 1, 18: "The only-begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him."
Traditional Catholic Greeting Cards for your needs.
Here is my PICK OF THE MONTH for a beautiful Traditional Catholic Christmas Card.
PICK OF THE MONTH
Greeting Card#1
Greeting Card#2
Greeting Card#3
Greeting Card#4
Greeting Card#5
Why buy Catholic Christmas postcards instead of a Christmas card?
Think of all the handlers that will read your religious Christian message before it gets to the receiver.
You will also save a little on postage.
Here is one postcard Christmas design you can purchase online, that I have designed
The picture is a print from my watercolor, a familiar image to Traditional Catholic.
I just received my order today and the quality of printing is beautiful.
Zazzle the company that prints these postcards offers bulk rate based on how many postcards you order.
***SPECIAL ONLINE BOOK FOR CHILDREN*** see link below:
***FREE BOOK FOR CHILDREN***click here
OBITUARIES
THE HOLY GHOST
ABOUT ANGELS
ARCHIVE monthly
dedications
COMPLETION OF THE
UNIVERSE
HOLY CARDS
HORROR
KEY TO HEAVEN
MOTHERS PAGE
MYSTERIES
OUR SAINT VICTOR
memory
SILVER OR
GOLD
TREASURY OF
SAINTS
TRIBUTE TO THE MOTHER OF
GOD
WHAT IS A BLOCK ROSARY
WHERE CAN
I GO
Source of above information concerning SIN is from
"Catholic Belief" by Rev. Joseph Faa Di Bruno, D.D. Author's American Edition Edited By Rev. Louis A. Lambert 1884 with
* Imprimatur 1883 -- Henricus Eduardus, and John Cadinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, 1884
created by myrna migala ~~ 2001