Distant and near Preparation for holy communion.

The most necessary reception conditions have been set so that no one is unnecessarily discouraged. The Lord’s table. On the contrary, it is understandable that the Preparation for the sacrament is encouraged to be as good as possible. By “remote preparation,” we mean the true Christian life to receive it at any time. «Yes, I’m not preparing in any special way, »said St. John of Avila, “because I am always ready.” He has already given this advice in the 4th-century Ambrose: “Live so that you deserve to receive it daily!” «Close preparation» is the Preparation immediately before the reception. St. Vincent of Paula asked one of the nuns how she was preparing when she went to the Lord’s table.
She replied that she was entrusted to God in the words of St. Theresa:
«My God, you give yourself completely to me, I give myself completely
to you.” According to St. Francis, Salesian is the primary and most crucial Preparation for receiving “to submit completely to God will.» It is easy to repeat the words of saints, but it is not easy to speak them with all your soul and with full conviction. Therefore, advises that Preparation should not remain for a general one sigh. To be more specific, more alive, it has become a custom, especially since the 16th century, to arouse the acts of individual virtues.
St. Alfonzo of Liquor often prepared large crowds at the Lord’s table during public folk missions. He wrote about it: «Preparation should usually be in acts of faith, reverence, humility, regret, love and desire; however, the main ones are three: actions of faith, humility and love; Respect is associated with faith, regret for humility, and longing for love. “
St. John of Chrysologus points to the example of those who, with faith, touched only the clothes of Christ and were healed: “And we, the poor, who receive and touch daily, with the body of Christ, we are not healed of our wounds. “The liturgical renewal has now returned to the custom of the ancient Christians, which is reported to us by St. Cyril of Jerusalem. He writes that believers receive the body of the Lord in hand with the words: «Body of Christ.» The recipient then replies: “Amen.” He testifies, confesses that he believes in the presence of the Son of God. To desire is an expression of love. The food benefits the person after cheaper. St. Katharina  had to go far so that it can receive. But she said, “If only I had been dead, and if they brought the Holy Host to my lips, I think that I would wake up. »
Otherwise, one cannot approach God only with humility. The liturgy thus repeats before accepting the word of the centurion from the gospel: Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter the mine roof … (Mt 8: 8).
The Catechism of the Council of Trent encourages everyone to ask himself before receiving whether he lived in peace with others, whether he genuinely and sincerely loves his neighbor.” He should remember the words of the Gospel: When you bring a gift to the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar and go to reconcile with his brother first; only then come a sacrifice your gift (Matt. 5: 23-24). The Eucharist is the sacrament of love, unity. We are to give Christ ourselves whole, while your person. That is, of course, impossible if we deny it provides a neighbor with what is his.
The prayer books read instructions on how to reception prepare. Still, the most natural and the best way is to observe the liturgy, the rites, and the prayers of the Holy Mass. This is because reception includes how central part. It is therefore recommended adopting, if possible, at Mass.

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Show me, God!

The aircraft remains connected to the base from which it took off; the ship is heading for the port, aimed by instruments not to turn because it would be lost. The spotlight’s light is aimed at the sky at night, but it all depends on the source from which it came. All this is self-evident to us. Well, people no longer feel that we exist only by the presence of God, who leads us, maintains us, without whom we cannot say a single word to create a single thought. That we do not see God. What about that? What we don’t see today, and we recognize as reality.

For example, in radiation, the spacecraft is kept in orbit by an invisible connection to the base. What would happen to the cabin, and the astronauts orbiting the earth or the moon completely lost contact with the ground? What would happen if they changed direction and flew into the unattended spaces of space? A stray boulder, lost and doomed. Do you think it’s different with us? God does not have to exist as visible things. There are things that we can capture with devices—for example, radio or television waves. But some facts cannot be captured by any device—for example, love, hate. Love alone, hatred cannot see, but we see their effects. We can’t even see the electric current, but we see that a light bulb connected to an electric current is lit, and if it is not connected to an electric current, it doesn’t shine. He must also experience moments of silence.

The world bears witness to God. Everything testifies of God. Everything testifies to him by existing. Our knowledge of God is not direct. We find it behind things and the world as a necessary foundation and reason for the world. This leads us to the idea that God is out of the world. But then he seemed to sustain the world. God is more than the world. He is above the earth. He is everywhere, also in us. It is not remote. As St. Paul says: We live in him, we move, and we are. It must be amazed that we do not understand everything and cannot express it. God is more significant than our minds and our hearts. I may have problems with faith. I may have trouble. But I should be willing to deal with them. The whole truth is revealed only to an honest, direct, and peaceful heart. Only then can I discover God, who is already speaking to me in my heart. Only then can my faith be a personal decision and a transforming force.

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God, who is?

I am, who I am. This is the actual name of God. A word that denotes his incomparable greatness and distinguishes him from all that he is not. At least a dull, foggy concept. Moses asked God what his real name was. What shall he call him before the children of Israel? And God told him then. I am the one who is. And he adds. You shall tell the children of Israel. He who is,  sends me to you.

Bossuet speaks- God is the only one who has the right to say I am. Two verbs should be noted. They are verbs: to be and to have. The first verb belongs only to the essence of God. The second verb of the created substance. Augustine once said God is what He has. We think of this statement when we speak of God, that he has good, wisdom, and mercy, that God is a subject who has different qualities from himself, without which it would also be possible to imagine him. To think of God like that would be a big mistake. We need to talk. God is good; God is mercy; God is wisdom. We say that his being is identified with his perfections. He is the one who is the very being that is entitled to say. I am- Ego  sum. If someone other than God could say I am, then the name that spoke on Mount Horeb would no longer be the name of Yahweh. And what do we say about other beings? It’s just that neither of them can say I’m this; . But only I have this; I have it.

It is understood that the word appears in our speech occasionally, even when we are talking about creatures, but whoever analyzes each word well will soon be convinced that when it comes to animals, then the verb to be is only a helper of the verb to have. And rightly because no abstract perfection can rightly be appropriated to creation. Note its qualities. Are you educated, but can you say you are enlightened? No, you are just someone who has something that has a specific dose of science. You are gifted with intelligence. But can you say you are intelligent? You are not someone who has intelligence. And notice your very nature. You are man, a being endowed with reason, meaning, life. But you are not human nature; you are not reason, feeling, life. No, you are the only one who participates in these various realities and owns them. You are someone who has a certain degree of being, which is limited by his imperfection.

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Who loves me, will keep my commandments.

There is one joke. He speaks of a godly Jew who strictly observed the whole of God’s Law. When he died, he appeared before God’s throne, looked up at God, and said, “Oh, Adonai! I have only one question for you: All my life I have honestly prayed all the prescribed prayers, observed all the holidays and all the fasts, studied the Torah – and never given me wealth or fame. And besides me lived a neighbor who was not pious at all and embraced him with all the blessings. I don’t blame you, O Adonai. Just tell me one thing: Why? Why him and not me?” And God replied, “When You were just so annoying.”
Joke. But it touches on an exciting thing and an interesting question: Why do bad things sometimes become good people? Perhaps – instructed by John of the Cross – we would be able to respond satisfactorily and with understanding. But even more and even more insulting is the second: WHY DO GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO EVIL PEOPLE ???
We would like it to be clear to the whole world that without God, it is impossible to live, that life without God is impossible. But… but again and again, we are confronted with the fact that around us are people who live peacefully without God, are often rich and famous, usually only satisfied – but they live pretty well without God and are not about much unhappy than most Catholics we know. Indeed, not all the gold that glitters and not all the Catholics that appear in the church, whether at baptism or communion. Alright. But the same insulting fact remains: How is it that many people live happily without God? Why doesn’t God show that we are entirely dependent on Him? Why does God even seem to be hiding? Is it a “hidden God” (Isaiah 45:15)? Why doesn’t it appear more transparent, more visible? Why???
The answer may be somewhere in the past, catechisms:
The community is the goal, and the SIGN OF THE COMMUNITY IS THAT THOSE WHO CREATE IT DO NOT NEED ANYTHING FOR YOU !!! WHAT CONNECTS THEM IS NOT NEEDED AND DEPENDENT, BUT PURE LOVE IN THE PURE JOY OF GIFTING! • Because Heaven is a community because God is a Community because salvation is a community.
Now you will indeed say: But it cannot work for God! We still need God! We cannot exist without God! After all, the Bible says of Jesus, saying, “3 He is a glimpse of his glory and an image of his essence, and he maintains all things with his mighty word” (Heb 1: 3). If God had forgotten us only for a moment and stopped loving and sustaining us in his mind, we would have vanished and disappeared completely because we exist only in God, “we live in him, we move, and we are” (Acts 17, 28). So, how can we be independent of God? It is impossible!
But really? Yes, indeed, we are substantially and existentially dependent on God. It is true. But on the other hand, God has made this addiction similar to, for example, our dependence on breathing: We know that we are entirely dependent on air – but we can live and breathe peacefully without even realizing it. God has become like air to us: we live from Him, with Him, and in Him, but we don’t have to realize it at all, we can ignore it in peace, God can really “be air” for us, Nothing – and yet, we exist: in God, but as if without God. Do you want proof that it works that way? There is one definitive proof, and that is HELL! Hell is a place where one lives entirely and totally without God – and yet, Hell itself is possible and exists only because God keeps it with his word exists !!!
God knows that deification is possible only if we decide among ourselves, but also about God, to create the same community of pure and pure Love formed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the circle of the Trinity. And in this community, the Son comes from the Father, and all he has is from the Father, but on the other hand, Jesus is not some inferior god, different from the real God – the Father. The Son is equal to the Father in everything. The Father endowed the Son with the same greatness and independence as He. Jesus himself suggests this when he says, “26 For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself” (Jn 5:26). And elsewhere: “17 Therefore my father loves me because I give my life, and I will take it again. 18 No one takes it from me, I give it to myself. I have the power to give it, and I have the power to take it again” (Jn 10: 17n). Jesus is an entirely free, independent, sovereign, and self-sufficient God, utterly equal to the Father. His relationship with the Father is not marked by subordination, dependence, fear, and anxiety. It is a relationship of pure and pure Love, which is possible only and only between equals!
All this deity, this greatness that Jesus speaks of, is summed up in the word “glory,” which Jesus speaks in prayer to the Father: “22 we are one.” (Jn 17:22). Jesus says two things:
– EVERYTHING THE FATHER GAVE TO HIS SON, ITS ENTIRE SIZE, FREEDOM, AND INDEPENDENCE OF GOD, NOW JESUS ​​GIVES TO CHRISTIANS. That’s what St. says. Maxim the Confessor: “Everything that God has – except the identity of being – is accepted by one who is deified by grace.” Just as the Father remained the Father and the Son, but otherwise they are equal in everything, so it should be.

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The existence of God.

On the question of the existence of God, many misunderstandings have arisen about the terms “evidence” and “proving” the existence of God. Indeed, philosophy, from its beginning, sought to develop and describe how we come to know God. Step by step, she logically justified knowledge after knowledge until the whole of her reasoning necessarily showed that God must exist. But this evidence and this means of proof cannot be confused with scientific evidence. We do not prove God as something that will eventually appear to us. In this way, we do not verify any spiritual reality. Not even the human thought of what, as a natural and powerful and transforming world, will appear to us either in a test tube or under a microscope. We are convinced of its existence, something other than material evidence. When we talk about God, we don’t always have to talk about evidence. St. Thomas spoke of the ways of God. Sometimes the signs of God are enough for our lives.
Looking for evidence can mean looking for a cause as a force. It’s not personal and alive enough. Looking for traces of God is different. It means knowing the meaning, the idea. God is proving to be the most profound meaning of the world. In knowing God, we must always keep in mind the nature of human knowledge. One does not know things at once and all from all sides. We get to know each other step by step. We think and focus on one thing, and a hundred other things escape us. I focus on studying; I forget the world; I focus on the game; I forget the duties. The people on the Titanic focused on their little things for play and fun and failed, they were at sea. They wanted to avoid believing they were drowning. This is the disadvantage of gradual knowledge of man; we do not see everything in one action. So, we focus on the small events of our lives; it escapes us that we only live here for a while and have no power, neither life nor death.
We forget God. We often deal with details, and we miss the essentials. One may not consciously think of some things. Pascal once said that some people don’t think about what they don’t want to think about. Do not think of places about the Messiah, the Jew told his son, who had difficulty reading the Bible, especially the prophecies. This is what those who want to avoid God do. They do not think about it. Others talk about the problem of God, but they talk about it superficially, recklessly; they make it easier. The most primitive is the objections concerning the visibility of God. Show me, God, say primitive deniers. Where is God?

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God does not change

God does not change
Everything changes around him, only he remains the same, without change in his immense being, without modification in his perfection. The eternity of God is a necessary consequence of immutability. St. Augustine calls for God, who changes everything and renews himself, unchangeable. Who, then, is my God? About the highest, the best, the most powerful, the fairest, the most present, the most beautiful, still the same. For the creation of the world, his eternal life was concentrated only on himself. He became a team. He never became the Creator, but there was no change in him. First, all his deeds were done in him. So far, all his acts – such as the procreation of the Son and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit- were necessary, his creative show was free, yet no change has taken place in him. Creation is not over: it creates human souls out of nothing every day, and this activity will not cause any change in it. One divine person — the Word — takes on a human body, transfers it to heaven in the bosom of the Trinity, exposing it to eternal obeisance, and even this does not change anything in God. This divine quality is a condemnation of our instability.
As soon as we have taken the first steps on the path to good, we are already looking back. We look like St. Basil, a cloud that the wind throws here and there. The only way to secure your spirit against instability is to cling to God, that is, to merge with Him into one. Saint Peter of Chrysostomus adds. God’s mercy descended on us to burden and strengthen the instability, the lightness of our hearts, with the weight of His love. We should not rely on our strength. When we surrender to God, we know that God who does not change will never leave us. But unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that we will not leave him. His Word is irrevocable; ours is as changeable as the weather, subject to all sorts of whims, our imagination. When it comes to God, who has neither a beginning nor an end, it does not matter when we use verbs. Even God cannot be spoken of in the past. Nor in the future. He has neither a past nor a future. God was because he never ceased to be, he will be because his existence will never end, it is because his presence is permanent. God has not passed away as things of the past, does not flow with things present as if he did not have a permanent existence, nor does he begin to exist with things to come, as he would never be. Well, who is talking about what necessarily lived, lives, and will exist for all ages? We can always use any verb tense. We notice this, especially when reading the Psalms. Let us not be discouraged by the wrong translation of verb tenses, for where God is spoken; this is not decisive.

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The need to prepare for Holy Communion

The need to prepare for Holy Communion
The Eucharist acts by itself with its sacramental power (ex-works). However, the sacraments are not magical powers. They are medicine that a living organism receives in its way of personal disposition (opus operands). They compare the guest to the sun, soul to the house. The apartment is illuminated and warmed by the sun if we open the shutters wide open and remove what would hold the rays. He who prepares for Holy Communion tries to remove what would hinder the connection with Christ. It is, of course, internal preparation. It is not enough, as St. Augustine, to prepare the mouth, but above all the heart.  The fathers talked about it, albeit occasionally.  In the 15th century, however, we read in spiritual books systematic instructions and methods on how to prepare for dinner Of the Lord (see, e.g., Following the Christ, IV, 12).

«Necessary» preparation and «desirable» preparation.
There have long been controversies over how to prepare someone
to receive the body of the Lord. This dispute came to an end with the provision of 1905. It distinguishes between two preparations: necessary and desirable. Some dispositions are required to allow admission. However, it does not follow that we should still be content with that alone, most necessary. We should strive for the best possible preparation.
The following are considered necessary: ​​a state of sanctifying grace, good faith, Eucharistic fasting. The Council of Trent refers to the words of St. Paul (1 Cor 11:28), and therefore orders that one who is aware of grievous sin does not approach St. receiving without having to do so before did not sacra mentally testify ». The custom of confession before accepting the body of the Lord penetrated vividly into the faith and traditions of the people.
However, we are right to ask today whether this is an exaggeration. Difficult sins in the true sense of the word do not occur daily nor weekly. And yet, we should go to the reception as often as possible. So it is wrong not to go to the Lord’s table at Mass only because we could not confess before.
St. Paul writes: Let a man examine himself and only then let them take the bread and drink it from the cup (1 Cor 11, 28-29). It can also hide comfort in the habit at all times to confess because such a person does not intend to think seriously about his relationship with God, he does not want to he “researched” and preferred absolution rather than magic medicine. For those who often receive regular spiritual guidance in confession is commendable. However, it cannot be praised frequent confession out of empty habit or unreasonable Anxiety. Church documents often speak of confession before communion, but it is not until the 7th century that people have rarely come to the Lord’s table. On the contrary, it is not good to discourage confession to those who have doubts. They can also accept the Eucharist because they are indeed and undoubtedly not aware of grave sin. It happens However, they often have their doubts then, so psychologically they grieve that they are losing their inner peace and security. Therefore, they are better when they confess that they say “for sure.” But let them ask the confessor not to fall into unnecessary anxiety. We are, therefore, still convinced that purification should precede the union of the soul with Christ. Confession and the Eucharist, so they have a mutual relationship; they belong to each other. This relationship, however, must not become mechanical. The best advice for daily life is the way for everyone to resolve this issue in agreement with his confessor. He who is reasonable will not exaggerate in either direction or the other.
The physical preparation for the reception of the Sacrament of the Altar is the so-called Eucharistic fast. It’s an ancient custom. Valid from midnight. Today, it is enough to be hungry one hour before communion. However, the Eucharistic fast does not interfere with drinking water or taking medication. Other regulations were applied in the Middle Ages. The couple was encouraged to exercise restraint in marital relations for several days before admission. Here and there, a few days of fasting and silence were required.

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Twenty.first Sunday in Ordinary Time B Jn 60-69

Who do I follow in life?
Let’s re-evaluate the priorities we live for, which is the goal of our lives.

If someone asks you questions: Who are you? What personality are you? How do you enrich the surrounding people?
Indeed, you have the experience that people under the influence of alcohol are best avoided. The proverb says to know a bird by feathers and a man by speech. He promises, he promises, but no deed. Are we not among those whom people listen to in silence and leave alone?

About St. To Thomas from Aquino, his professor said in front of the students: “When this dumb ox, as you call Thomas, speaks, the whole world will  be silent.

We read of Jesus in the Gospel that “after the sabbath, he taught, and they were amazed at his teaching because his word had power” (Lk 4:32). Who can listen to this ?!” (Jn 6:60)

Jesus is a strong personality, and a strong character will always arouse resentment in some people around you. Jesus also had admirers, but also opponents. For many of Jesus’ listeners, his words are harsh. And so, some departed from him. Others stayed. Which were better and which were worse? Not only did Jesus speak, but he also proved in life that his words were “Spirit and life” (Jn 6:63). Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” (Jn 6: 66-67) Jesus did not stop saying that whoever wants to enter eternal life must eat his body and drink his blood. After all, it is the Eucharist, which is the source of eternal life but also the cause of apostasy. Many left, but Judas stayed. He did not believe and did not leave. He remained with Jesus, even though he did not think. Jesus does not force anyone. In the Eucharist, we either receive Jesus with faith and share in graces, gifts, or we receive without faith; that is, we reject and cannot go unpunished. It is the secret of dignity and human freedom. The philosopher Hegel was to say that his philosophy was understood by only one of his students and not quite at all. Jesus could also comment on the many leaving him: They do not understand me, and they are going. They open up to me little, trust little, think little about what I teach, what I do, what I promise… It is also great with Jesus that he accepts them; he waits like a father for a prodigal son. One can be blinded, deceived, deceived by the devil and his practices. When they say, “It’s hard speech! Who can listen to this ?!” (Jn 6:60), they forget to realize that the truth is often complicated when it shows a person how small he is. Many abandon Jesus when he demands more sacrifices, duties. They forget that God will also give a fair reward. Also leaving is the God of the belly, money, bottle, sex, power, or popularity.
The culmination of the whole part of the Gospel of John, to which we have paid attention during the five Sundays, are the words of Peter the Apostle, who speaks on behalf of the apostles: “Lord, and to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6: 68-69) Peter’s words speak of a desire to work with God’s grace. The Holy Spirit speaks through the mouth of Peter, who loves Christ and desires to live with him. He does not know that he will defend Jesus with a sword in his hand, but that he will also betray him. At the right moment, Peter correctly distinguishes, considers, and is guided by the Holy Spirit. He trusts Jesus. He believes that Jesus’ words are valid, even though he does not yet fully understand them.

“It’s hard to talk!” (Jn 6:60) Even today, the frequent reaction of those who do not want to see, hear, experience … A blindly in love person, or one who does not deserve love, can find true happiness? A man in love with sin leaves Jesus. For one who loves vice, Jesus’ words are harsh. Jesus loves them even then. How many call their troubles, sickness, and Jesus still offers the means to change, drawing attention to the evil state of their souls, the wrong meaning of life, the possibility of changing their return.
Surely, you will know that at the hour of death, someone reconciled to God for the prayers of others. He may have departed from Jesus years ago, but returned to witness others in God’s love. The one we know and feel primarily through the Eucharist. Many say, as Peter received the Eucharist, “Lord, and to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6: 68-69) And it is their faith with love that is rewarded, heard by the Eucharistic Christ. We, therefore, have the right to beg for others. But God requires our faithfulness.

We realize that Jesus gives himself food to us in various ways. His sacrifice, love, word, but also body and blood, and none of these ways are useless. It depends on our loyalty, steadfastness, and dedication, with which we submit our prayers, but also how we live. Peter is clear: “You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6: 68-69)

Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz in the travel-adventure novel In the Desert and Rainforest, introduces a young boy, Stasia Tarkowski, who did not deny his faith, which he took away from his parents’ house, at a critical moment. Kidnapped with his girlfriend Nela, he has a daring conversation with the ruthless Mahdi. Mahdi asks, “Will you accept my teaching?” To this, Stasia, with the hand he held on his chest, blessed himself as he was drowning in a boat before jumping into the water, and said, “I do not know your teaching. If I accepted your teachings out of fear, I would be like a rogue dishonest. And do you care that your faith is professed by Thorn or mean people? I’m sorry, I’m going to be a Christian!”

We always want to remain faithful to Christ. Christ is our Teacher, our goal. We have believed his words and have come to know that Jesus is “the Holy One of God” (Jn 6:69). Let us ask for perseverance on the path to Christ.

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A question about God.

It is an ongoing question throughout human history. Simple nations knew the world’s mystery so vividly that they saw it everywhere and looked at everything with respect. When we disassemble the car on wheels and cylinders, did we say everything? Isn’t it necessary to see the minds of the designer and the car mechanics behind the vehicle? You will say that primitive people also attributed phenomena and processes to supernatural forces, which we explain by natural laws. But have we removed the secret by describing these laws? Whether we have already explained the astonishing fact by describing chemical reactions that a tree with branches, leaves, and fruits develops from a small grain.
Where did this ability in atoms of matter come from? When a simple man saw only secrets everywhere, he was perhaps closer to the truth about the world of life and himself than we, who deny the secret and are content to repeat the law’s formulas as spells. If a simple person saw a secret everywhere, it was an extreme. However, we have gone to the opposite extreme, as if there were no secrets anywhere. And we pretend to understand everything, although we cannot explain the origin of the grain of grain or the mystery of the human mind. We know that the individual beings of the world and the world as a whole are more than what we see and can touch. The world is immersed in a mystery that transcends it.
Do you find it strange? But is there no more car than we see on it? If you want to understand and explain the existence of a vehicle, you have to register what you do not see directly, but what is authentic, that behind it all the designer’s mind. Think about the designer and admit that the car depends on him, belongs to the reality of the vehicle. The vehicle could not have come into being on its own. Think of God amid the world, beyond the world, and above the world is no luxury. God necessarily belongs to the world, and the world cannot be separated from it. When we talk about God, it is not impersonal theoretical reasoning. This is something most important for our lives. It is not a matter of someone in whom everything is explained and acquires its meaning. We can have an opinion on something. However, we accept God with respect and love. We believe in Him. To believe is to complete the personality from a human point of view. To consider means not to be something incomplete and empty, and not to live in a vacuum.
To believe means to be involved in the whole, to be connected with people through God, and thus to be fully human with the world. Faith in God has encountered many pitfalls, especially since the 19th century. Some opposed it for science. However, the wave of this scientific enthusiasm has subsided. We look at the results and possibilities of the sciences today with respect, but also materially and soberly. Science cannot solve those problems and interfere in those areas of human life where the overriding need for faith, the need for God, arise. Today, the most excellent naturalists are either much more restrained in their belief in God than their predecessors or talk about the need for God and his necessary existence.

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God’s perfection.

God is the abode of all perfection, for he is perfection itself. Remember some perfection, such as goodness, justice, mercy, and so on. God is not only good. He is goodness, mercy, justice itself. God has everything, without any shadow of imperfection. God knows directly, immediately; he knows everything completely with one eternal gaze. When we realize this, it will be apparent that God is a being that cannot come from another. God is first, eternal. It is impossible to imagine such an ample space containing God, nor a line limiting his immensity. St. Augustine compares the universe to a sponge. Which seawater washes from wholly and everywhere penetrate. After all, the sea is not whole in it; while God is authentic in every place, he is complete in every one of us. The Lord calls the holy bishop to another location.
I finally found where you live. I wandered like a lost sheep, I looked for you outside, and you were in me. What unprecedented horizons this thesis gives us. We are never alone. On the contrary, we still live in the presence of the Supreme, the Most Holy. We still have God with us. We have with us an attentive witness who will not do anything, an impartial judge whom no one will deceive. God permeates our very essence. These great ideas have been the light and support of many people in the past. All teachers of the spiritual life recommend living in God’s presence and consider it an essential element of the spiritual life. This exercise is sweet for the righteous, difficult for sinners, solvable for both. Sinners feel God’s presence, like heavy lead handcuffs; the righteous enjoy it. Well, who would dare to think of God’s presence to sin? St. Augustine speaks. If you want to sin, find a place where God cannot see you.
We should learn to see God in everything. In a beautiful rose, in the murmur of the wind, in the silence of the desert, in a flying eagle, the size of a sea, as well as in a small flower. It is necessary to learn, to reveal him, to admire him in everything. Every creature comes from him, and therefore by him and with him, he is given to serve me. God Himself enlightens my steps in the sun with the sun and through the sun. He is in the bread I eat, and through the bread, he sustains my life. It is necessary to learn to attribute everything to him, to thank him for everything; everything should lead me to him. The means to realize God’s presence are restraint, silence, separation from external objects.

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