Winterr's words
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Some Catechism....
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is such a beautiful thing, the things contained in those pages are more exciting that unlocking fantasy secrets from fantasy Da Vinci codes, this is real and something to be explored by anyone who wants to unlock the "secrets" behind what the Catholic Church truly teaches.
One of my favorite gifts is my Catechism, here is an excerpt that I like and read this morning:
II. WAYS OF COMING TO KNOW GOD
31 Created in God's image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of "converging and convincing arguments", which allow us to attain certainty about the truth. These "ways" of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world, and the human person.
32 The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world's order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe.
As St. Paul says of the Gentiles: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.7
And St. Augustine issues this challenge: Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky. . . question all these realities. All respond: "See, we are beautiful." Their beauty is a profession [confessio]. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One [Pulcher] who is not subject to change?8
33 The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the "seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material",9 can have its origin only in God.
34 The world, and man, attest that they contain within themselves neither their first principle nor their final end, but rather that they participate in Being itself, which alone is without origin or end. Thus, in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a reality which is the first cause and final end of all things, a reality "that everyone calls God".10
35 Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith. The proofs of God's existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason.
I copied the text from the Vatican website.
5 Comments:
I love the CCC --
I remember in highschool, there was a highschool catechism class where we just read through the catechism over the course of the year.
So many beautiful passages.
Truth is beauty; beauty is truth.
Wow that's really inspiring, thanks for sharing that :)
I am not catholic, nor am I a very religious person but that was cool
The CCC is a wonderful tool that should be read daily alongside the Bible!
I actually just bought a new one today (the 2nd edition. apparently the one I had was an older version, not much older, but still older).
Yes~that was inspiring! Thanx carmel!
:)
Maria,
Truth and beauty, beauty is truth, AMEN! I wish we had read it in high school :/
Phats,
Thank you!! I'm glad you liked it, you don't have to be Catholic or religious to enjoy things like this at least, so it's good reading for all. :)
K-man,
Wow, it's really great to hear that! I will be very interested in your experiences and conversion story! The blog world has quite a few fabulous and inspirational conversion stories. I'm glad you stopped by!
Danny,
You are right, it's good to read it alongside the bible, how much richer can you get?
I haven't finnished reading mine yet, but as you can tell I am enjoyin it.
Lyl,
Yeah you will lose me to the US lol, but I'll be visiting. We won't have a wedding date until the whole immigration process is over, I will be letting everyone know that date!!
Starbender,
You are always welcome, God bless ya!
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