CHRTC 250 Chapter 3: Chapter 3: God - Mystery Present
22 Jun 2018
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Notes: Week 1
Chapter 3: God – Mystery Present
God is Mystery
- “There is only one true God, eternal, infinite and unchangeable, incomprehensible,
almighty and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons
indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple.” (CCC 202, Source:
Lateran Council IV: DS 800)
- God is mystery
- There isn’t a reason to be frightened of mystery
- When God opens himself up to us he reveals himself to us. He does this so that we can
relate to him.
- There are always things that are mysterious and beyond our grasp
- “Mystery is not something we cannot know; it is something we cannot fully or wholly
know.”
- “our vision and experience are limited”
Our Search for God
- “It is in Jesus, therefore, what we “see” and know God most clearly and fully.”
- God searches for us
- We can look around us and find God
o“Reflect on the order and beauty in the word”
- In the story of the movie Laura there is an example of the world being God’s
“apartment”. By looking through the effects we get a better understanding of him.
- “By contemplating the created universe and reflecting upon it we can come to know the
unseen God (CCC 54)
- You can come to know God exists by direct personal experience
- There are many forms of religious experiences
o“One of them is “Presence” which is not human or finite, a presence of “the
Other,” the transcendent.”
oCreate peace and joy
o“moves us to respect and worship”
- People who are not “religious mystics” can and do still experience personal experiences
- “God is never far away from any of us.”
- You can find God through someone who has touched you in a special way
oParents, a teacher, a pastor, friends
- “God comes to us and touches our lives in a variety of ways”
oThis depends on your own story
- “We must do our best to become aware of our experiences, particularly the early ones
which have shaped and formed us”
- We need to filter through the positive and negative images of God and eliminate the
false ones that we have grown up with.
Images of God
- “kindly old man with a beard, sitting on a throne in heaven”
- “luminous halo”
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
There is only one true god, eternal, infinite and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty and ineffable, the father and the son and the holy spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple. (ccc 202, source: When god opens himself up to us he reveals himself to us. There isn"t a reason to be frightened of mystery relate to him. There are always things that are mysterious and beyond our grasp. Mystery is not something we cannot know; it is something we cannot fully or wholly know. It is in jesus, therefore, what we see and know god most clearly and fully. We can look around us and find god: reflect on the order and beauty in the word . In the story of the movie laura there is an example of the world being god"s. By looking through the effects we get a better understanding of him.
