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Paragraph numbers with topics
Chapter 2 We Believe in One
Triune God
(continued)
126-130 Part 5
What Pleases God
126 God is pleased
with the faithful
127 God is pleased with
those who repent
and return to Him
128 God is pleased with
our work especially
when included
129 God is pleased with
His creation
130 What does not
please God
131-140 Part 6
Attributes of God
131-133 Section 1 Physical
Attributes
131 God’s beauty
132 God’s ears
132 God’s eyes
132 God’s hair
132 God’s hands
133 God’s Heart
134-140 Section 2 Attributes
of Possession
134 God has a name
134 God has interests
134 God has plans
135-136 God owns Creations
135-136 God owns the Earth
137 God owns a
Chosen People
138 God owns a book
138 God owns many
gifts to freely give
Sidenotes
(342) IGL 148:13
see also 461:22
(343) IGL 49:5-6
see also 250:20-23
(344) IGL 492:31-33
(345) IGL 296:28-29
(346) IGL 260:4-5
(347) IGL 27:3-4,6
(348) Gospel of Luke 15:24
(349) IGL 358:7-15
see also 27:5-7
(350) IGL 47:8-21
(351) Presentation
paragraph 64
(352) IGL 330:10-12
(353) IGL 179:26-29,31
(354) IGL 62:4 and 98:25-26
(355) IGL 499:2,8-9,13-24
(356) God’s displeasure with the sin of abortion, contraception surgery to prevent conception of life see passage IGL 207 and also PR/CH11/PP 504-507. God’s displeasure with the acts of homosexuality see passage IGL 122 and also PR/CH11/PP 512-519.
(357) I have already presented a discussion of God’s beauty and being the Body of
bodies in PR/P 80
(358) IGL 175:19,18
see also 439:3-4
(359) IGL 437:28-30
(360) IGL 433:3-4
(361) IGL 447:24-25
(362) IGL 461:2-5
(363) IGL 506:11-14
(364) IGL 308:19-21
see also 23:18-19
(365) IGL 285:33-34
(366) Gospel of
Matthew 7:11
(367) IGL 531:20-21
(368) IGL 330:2-4
(369) IGL 420:24-26
see also 435:7-8
(370) CCC 203-204
(371) CCC 431-435
(372) IGL 442:21-23
(373) IGL 20:2-4
(374) CCC 53
(375) IGL 99:22-24
(376) CCC 331
(377) IGL 444:5-6
(378) IGL 521:17-21
see also 271:11
(379) IGL 518:3-4
(380) IGL 44:19-20
see also 161:11-12
and 165:19-23
(381) IGL 196:1-2
(382) IGL 3:1-3 and 7:2-4
(383) IGL 356:20-23
see also 397:9
and 421:15-17
How does In God's Love
written by Janet Hurlow
relate to
the Catholic Faith ?
Chapter 2 We Believe in One Triune God (continued) 5/12
Part 5 What Pleases God
126 Titles, and other descriptions, feelings and actions can help us to get to know a person. Knowing what pleases a person can also help us get to know a person. The same may be true with God. The messengers of In God’s Love state that “God is well pleased in such loyal children.”(342) God is pleased with those who pray to Him: “God is so pleased when you speak to Him. This is more wisdom than all that is taught.”(343) God is pleased with those who follow His commands: “Blessed ones are the great joy of God. He is so thrilled that those who are on Earth are obeying His commands and living as He desires.”(344) God is pleased with those who serve Him with their life: “So well have you served God on Earth. So pleased is your God with His dear ones.”(345) God is pleased with those who have continued to stay with Him, even in times of struggle: “God is pleased with your long suffering and blessed patience. In this sorrow, kind ones, it has been a sad, long trial on Earth”(346) “You who accept no defeat. You who, in all Earth’s struggles, have stayed in God’s love. …. So pleased is your Father.” (347)
127 The Father is pleased with sinners who repent and return to Him. In the Scriptures, Jesus speaks of the father who receives and forgives the younger, repentant sinful son. The father of the parable says, “‘Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Then the celebrations began.”(348) The messengers write, “Return with sorrow and contrition. God is pleased with those who come back and resolve to sin no more. Seven times seventy are your sins. Believe. Return. God is a forgiving Father who blesses the most hardened sinner who reaches out to God in a contrite spirit.”(349)
128 God is pleased with work, especially when He is not left out of the business of life. “Can kind, blessed Father reach such Earth creatures who are so busy in Earth’s toil? So busy. Too busy to speak to God in Earth’s work. God is pleased in all work. Work is man’s blessing. Come, bring your work. In the sweat of your labor, bless God. In the sweat and toil of God’s spiritual beauty, bless the God of your spirit. God is such a busy Father. So busy. Yet He has time to bless the children. Children sing in their labor. God sings in His labor.”(350)
129 God is pleased with His creation. It has been alluded to that everything created by God can be called a saint.(351) If a creation can be a saint, then it follows that God can be pleased with any of His created saints. “Each thing on the Earth has the right to life. Very dear children, God is so pleased with His creatures of Earth.”(352) “This is inscribed: ‘God is pleased with the sun of Earth.’ In this, understand: His love is in sun’s spirit….In God’s will are all things.”(353)
130 While God is pleased with many people and things, God is also displeased with many people.(354) One of the things He is displeased with is that His gifts are refused or thrown away: “Some people are great givers, but are too proud to take…. Some people walk away with the unwanted gift; they feel as if it is worthless and throw it away…. God has a gift. He wants to give that gift to you. If you do not accept His gift, God is very displeased. He has a gift for His children. Those who receive the gift accept eternal happiness. Those who do not have the gift have thrown it away. They do not accept God as a friend. The gift they share is life. Give Him your life. Accept Him and His Spirit, and you will receive eternal life and happiness forever.”(355) God is also not pleased when people perform the sinful acts of abortion, contraception, surgery to prevent conception and acts of homosexuality. (This will be presented in Chapter 11.)
Part 6 Attributes of God
Section 1 Physical Attributes
131 Titles, and other descriptions, feelings, actions and knowing what pleases a person can help us get to know a person. Sometimes knowing some of their physical attributes can help us understand them, too. When a husband describes his wife to someone, he may describe her hands and start reflecting on all the help, joy and sorrow that those hands have been a part of. He might describe her eyes of love and compassion. This type of description would not be very helpful for a police identification drawing, but would be essential to understand the beauty of his wife. Likewise, discussing the “physical attributes” of God’s beautiful body(357) may help us to begin to appreciate the beauty of our God.
132 The messengers use the symbols of the body to describe God. God’s ears “are sensitive to the voices of His Earth children. In your every need, speak so softly to your God.”(358) God’s “Spirit is soft like a breeze. His eyes are lovely and soft like the blue in the sky. His hair is soft and wavy like the hair of a newborn baby.”(359) God’s hands made all creation.(360) God’s hands, “are a Father’s hands who loves His children with a great, undying love.”(361) God’s hands reach for us: “Small Earth children, someone does love you. It is good to reach out and take His hand. Very wise is the one who takes the hand that is reaching out to receive him.”(362) God’s hands are the hands of the poor: “Be kind to the poor. Take that dirty hand. It is God’s hand. God made it and loves it so very much.”(363)
133 God has a loving heart: “Come, your Father cares. In His Heart is all care. Very soothing is His care.”(364) The messengers also state, “So close are the kind to God’s heart. In this spirit is pure kindness”(365) In the Gospels, Jesus states, “If you then who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.”(366) The messengers echo that: “The King gives all good things because all good comes from His heart”(367) It is from this heart that longs for us that we receive the greatest gift of all, life: “His heart is the only source of life, source of blessed life, most pure source of life.”(368) “God is your dear Father who loves you with an endless love. Try to understand this: He thirsts for your spirit. Those who come to His heart will receive life everlasting.”(369) Our knowledge of God is enriched by these symbols of the body.
Section 2 Attributes of Possession
134 Finally, when getting to know a person, sometimes knowing what they own, or things that they possess or value can tell us a lot about a person and the same may be true about God. God has a name. The Catechism holds that God’s name reveals God’s essence and makes Himself known.(370) God’s name has power and many actions are done in God’s name.(371) In similar fashion, the messengers of In God’s Love, declare that “So blessed is the name of God. His name keeps you and provides for you on the Earth and in Heaven.”(372) Our inspiring God has many interests.(373) One of God’s many interests is His plan for our salvation. The Catechism states that God has a plan for salvation which gets revealed to us gradually.(374) God’s plans will succeed, as the messengers put it: “Made are the plans of Earth. Made are the plans of God. And whose plans do you think shall prevail?”(375) God has a name, a plan for us and many interests.
135 God also possess or owns things which He values. God owns all that He has created. When the Catechism speaks of Angels, it tells that they belong to God, as does all of God’s creation: “Christ is the center of the angelic world. They are his angels: ‘When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him.’ (Mt 25:31) They belong to him because they were created through and for him: ‘for in him all things were created in heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities - all things were created through him and for him.’ (1 Col 1:16) They belong to him still more because he has made them messengers of his saving plan: ‘Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?’(Heb 1:14).”(376)
136 The messengers of In God’s Love agrees, for they simply assert, “Saints and angels are your dear treasures. We are yours forever and ever”(377) About creation they exclaim its possession by God and its vastness: “Search to your heart’s desire, but never in all existence can you find anything God has not created. God has made it all. His creation goes on forever.”(378) The Earth, as part of this Creation, is God’s: “Your Father is the King, and He owns all the land (of Earth). He has only loaned it for a while.”(379) “Children, Earth is small. She is a small jewel in the Father’s setting.”(380)
137 On this Earth is God’s chosen people who are His own: “Blessed are those who are in God’s Spirit. God’s own, chosen race.”(381) God also owns a special book with the names of the righteous in it.(382) More on this “Book of life” will be written in Chapter 7 within the topic of Judgment Day.
138 God also owns many things which He desires to give to us as free gifts: “Spiritual treasures flow freely as you desire because God is a generous Father who does not limit His gifts, and in His storehouse are unlimited treasures.”(383)
139 To sum up this presentation of God to this point, our One God is an almighty Father. Our God is a mighty King of kings, king of all the living, all the saints, king of all. Our God is creator of all life who creates with His song. Our God is close to Earth. All creation has God’s spirit within it, and only exists by this spirit, and this includes Angels, messengers, Earth, Moon, Sun, and time. Our God created us and gives us the gift of eternal life at our conception. Our God created us out of His Earth and His singing breath, and we will be forever linked with the Earth. Besides being described as Father, King, and Creator, the one God can also be described as awesome, humble, compassion, life-giving, joyful, peaceful, inspirational, faithful, mother, brother and sister. Our God has feelings of compassion, joy, desire for us and justified anger.
140 Our God acts in many ways. God calls, inspires, does actions of compassion, justice, anger, and He is very polite. Our God does as he pleases and He chooses to remain faithful to His promises. Our God is pleased with the faithful and with sinners who return to Him. He is pleased with His creations, including the animals, the Earth, the sun, the moon and time. Our God is spirit of spirits, beauty of beauty, and body of bodies. Our God’s body is young and beautiful for it is the source of all life and beauty. His body has a loving, wounded, heart. Our God’s name provides for us and He has many plans that will come to be. Our God owns all of creation, including the jewel of the Earth. His special possession is the chosen people whose names are written in the book of life that He possesses. Our God is the great free gift giver. Our God, who is the Father of the messengers, is also our Father. Together we have reflected upon how much the Catholic Faith and the messengers have a shared belief about our one God, and we both profess in the belief that God not only is one, but has been revealed as One Eternal, Triune God. Indeed, as mentioned earlier, every single passage begins, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”