The Thinking Mind is a Questioning Mind

The thinking mind is a questioning mind. The quality of thinking is determined by the quality of its questioning. God gave us this power to ask the right questions, not stupid questions, not self absorbed questions, not meaningless questions, not imaginary questions, not evil questions but divine inspired questions.  The power of the thinking mind is in the questions the mind asks. Questions are the force that powers our thinking. Questions define the focus of thinking, the information we seek, the answers we find, the direction we take. Ask the right question, the thinking mind will find the right answer. A man’s destiny is determined by the quality of his questioning. The power of thinking can only be realised by applying deliberately it’s fundamental principles. These principles of thinking are applied, by it’s nature to every act of thinking. If you think; you automatically apply these principles. If you do not think; you do not apply these principles. What are the principles of thinking? All thinking has a purpose, an end. The thinking mind thinks for a purpose, that is the motivation of thinking. The purpose of thinking is a thought; an idea or concept from which we act. Our actions respond to thought. The result of thinking is a response. In pursuing that thought we automatically generate questions. Questions are the stimulus. To answer a question you need data. The question will determine the nature, focus, content and specifics of the data. The power of focus is in the focus of the thinking mind’s questioning. Once data is brought to bear on the question a conclusion is formed. But it doesn’t finish there. Conclusions are evaluated and accessed regarding assumptions used in the thinking process and implications or consequences of the conclusion. It would be very fool hardy to follow every conclusion without evaluating the implications of taking action on that conclusion. The thinking mind is part of our souls and God’s gift. God wants us to think, god wants us to question, because god wants us to find the Truth and to find Trust in Him.

Moral Principles are the Foundation to Effective Living

Moral principles govern conduct and behaviour. Moral principles tell us how to be good. They are the natural laws of conduct in the human dimension. They are the roots and foundation of all human and social interaction, the foundation to living. All human conduct is governed by moral principles. There is no human action, behaviour or conduct that is not governed by principles. Principles govern even though man may not believe that the moral law exists or governs. Principles are universal, meaning they apply at all times, in all places and all situations. Principles never change. They are unchangeable as gravity or motion. Principles are absolute; there is good conduct and there is evil conduct. There is right and wrong. Religions believe that moral principles are absolute; secularism believes there are no absolutes. Catholics believe there is black and white to human conduct. Secularism only believes in grey or no colour exists at all. Catholics believe that principles apply to all behaviour; the secular mind believes that no principles apply but that behaviour is to be interrupted. Principles bring order to chaos. Physical laws bring order to matter. Moral laws bring order to man. Principles are real and objective facts. Principles are not values. Values are like maps; they represent the territory, but are not good when the territory changes constantly. Values change; principles never change. They always point in the correct direction like a compass. If man does not believe in sin then he doesn’t believe there are objective laws governing conduct. If there is no sin there is no repentance and salvation is not necessary. One follows the other. You cannot repent for a sin that does not exist. Bur Catholics know sin is real and salvation comes through Christ.

Detachment of the Spirit is Liberating

God is life. Things are dead. If we centre our life on God, we are alive in spirit. If we centre our life on things we are dead in spirit. To centre or base your life on something, it is to worship that thing. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” Mt 5:3. Jesus teaches that detachment of the spirit from worldly things is liberating. It’s liberating because we are freed, we are not prisoners to our attachments, we are not slaves, and we are not addicts. God can fill us up, things can never fill up. God in our lives is enough, more things in our life is never enough. God is really priceless; the attachment to things is really worthless. We become what we worship, for to worship in to marry our hearts with, and where our hearts are that is what we become; alive with God or dead with things. The more we gain the world the more we lose our soul. To gain is to desire disorderly, to lose our souls means to turn from God. We cannot gain both the world and God. Gaining one excludes the other. The desire for the world and anything in it and the desire for God are opposite ends of the spectrum; opposite as night and day, dark and light. It cannot be night and day at the same time, you cannot have dark and light at the same moment. Desire in itself is good because it comes from God. It is good when we desire good things. It is good when we desire to be holy with all our hearts. It is good when we desire to do God’s will. Liberation from attachments is achieved through man’s desire for God.

There can only be One True Church

It is an undisputed fact the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ. All Christians who have knowledge of the historical facts acknowledge this one fact. All non-Christians who have knowledge of the historical facts also acknowledge this one fact. All non-catholic Christians who accept the fact that Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church and believe that he was God become catholic. If they have not become catholic it is either they want to reach full knowledge and have not done so, thus far or they don't want to reach full knowledge. They want to remain ignorant because they do not want to change. Change is hard. It means becoming a new person. There can only be one church of Jesus Christ. A one and only church reflects a one and only God. The church reflects it's founder, it’s inventor. The founder came to teach, the church teaches in his name. The founder had authority; the church was given authority by its founder. One god, one church, one authority, one teacher. Oneness brings unity, order and stability; otherwise chaos. The Catholic Church cannot break, like its founder but unlike its members. It's members have always been breaking and continue to break. They break because they want to do it their own way. When they don't get their way, they demand, when demands aren't met they protest. When protesting doesn't work they walk. They shout "I'm going to show you"; thus the proliferation of Christian churches. Not one of these churches have come back and said "I told you so."  Jesus did not say you are the way or they are the way or we are the way or this is the way or that is the way. He said "I am the way, the light and the truth". The Catholic Church is the body of Christ, it is under the authority of Christ, it is under the "I am the way".

What is Truth?

Truth is light. Truth is order. Truth is perfection, the perfect standard. Truth is ultimate reality. Truth is rightness of thinking and acting. It is integrity, fidelity and reliability. Truth originates in God. The opposite of Truth is falsehood. Falsehood is darkness. Truth is the revelation of God’s mind, will and heart. To reveal is to make known the hidden. How is Truth revealed? God’s mind is revealed in his Word. There are mysteries to man, that man could never deduce, but the Truth reveals the mystery. Truth is the revelation of God’s will. God’s will is revealed in God’s law. Truth is God’s faithfulness. God’s faithfulness is revealed God’s promises. True thought originates in God’s Word. True Life in God’s commands. True joy in God’s promises. Spiritual and moral growth is the process of replacing falsehood with truth. Replacing falsehood with Truth means transformation. Truth is alive because it transforms and gives life. We are transformed from darkness to light. Before God formed creation he called forth light. This is Truth at work.

Our Goal in life is Self-discipline over Things and Matter

Reality is the reason for certain actions being right and other actions being wrong. The basic principles of reality underlying right and wrong include: the creator is the origin of the creature therefore the creator is to be worshiped and obeyed. Things and matter are less than spirit therefore of less value. But things and matter are good in their own right because they too come from God. Our goal in life is self-discipline over things and matter. Discipline over our attachments to this world. We shouldn’t exclude our selves from matter and things because they are good in their own right neither should we become things and matter because the soul is greater. Man is not an animal. Animals are not persons. Man should be loved as man and animals as animals. Man cannot be treated as an animal: raised for food, hunted or used as a pet. Neither should animal be loved same as man, treated like a family member, given food when a neighbour starves, buried in a graveyard with man. The body does not reign over the soul but should serve the soul. Reason that understands truth guides will that guides emotions and feelings. The will is free, emotion is not. Ought is based on what is. The rules of conduct are based on reality. What we should do is based on how things are. The thinking mind is the power of the soul by which we understand and know truth. The thinking mind is more than a smart computer, a data processor, a logical reasoner, it has the power to understand and know the nature and essence of reality.

Our Conscience is our Moral Compass

The thinking mind is a moral mind and since all men have a thinking mind then man is a moral being. Animals are not moral. They cannot act in either a good or evil way. They act instinctively. Animals have no free will. They cannot act other then from instinct. The thinking mind has free will. He can choose his acts. Free will is free choice. Our conscience is our moral compass. It is the thinking minds power of direction. Our conscience is not a map. If we didn’t use our conscience we would have to use a map. A map is a representation of the territory. You can still get lost with a map, because it is a poor representation of the territory. A compass is different. It points the way. You do not need a map if you have a compass.  A compass must be correctly calibrated to true north to function correctly, to point the right way.  If our internal moral compass is not correctly calibrated on the principles of moral behaviour, it too will not point the true right way. The conscience, the internal moral compass, was placed in man by God. If there was no God there would be no right and wrong because there would be no moral law. But there is a moral law, there is right and wrong, and there is an obligation on man to act morally because he is a moral being. The theory of evolution says that man evolved from apes, and apes from matter. Conscience, the right and wrong detector cannot evolve from matter. Matter is neither right or wrong, neither does it know right or wrong but man knows right from wrong. Man in all of creation only knows right from wrong. This knowing cannot evolve from matter that does not know.  

The Thinking Mind is also a Moral Mind

The thinking mind is also a moral mind. It is a moral knowing mind. It knows right from wrong. It has the power to know whether an act is good or bad. It has the awareness of goodness and badness. It is the guide within, the compass that points to true north. The true north never changes just as the principles of moral behaviour never change. The intellectual ability of the thinking mind to intuitively know good and evil is the conscience. A fully informed conscience works the principles of moral behaviour in our living. Only if we listen to the conscience. When we don’t listen, it is like trying to feel around in the dark. When we listen it is like walking under the noon day sun.  The conscience is a power, an intellectual muscle. It is the power of knowing. The conscience is not a feeling. It can generate feelings from other aspects of our being, but within itself it is not a feeling. Feelings and emotions can not be trusted. The conscience can. Feelings and emotions are fickle, unreliable and poor guides in living reality. The conscience is definitive, reliable and a guide. It knows the truth. It knows reality. It is the thinking minds knowing of right and wrong. It is God’s prophet within your soul. But the conscience must be informed. We are not born with fully formed conscience.  It can make errors because it does not have knowledge of reality. It can make errors like everything inside us it is not infallible. It must be educated. Educated in what? Educated in the Truth that is full knowledge of reality.

Man has a Thinking Mind

Man has a thinking mind. Thinking minds require input to process into output. If there is no input there will be no output. No input and the thinking mind thinks about nothing or itself which is meaningless. The thinking mind cannot create input but can receive input. It receives input from external in to itself. But this input can be fuzzy, faulty, half truths or reality. Man is a lazy thinker. Often the thinker does not screen or filter properly. Man likes to jump to conclusions, to take the easiest route, to get easy wins, quick fixes because thinking is hard work, the hardest work of all. But God helps the thinker. He has revealed reality to the thinking man. Man sought and thought about reality. Man got some of the way but always came up very short. Ancient man developed creation myths and destiny stories. But all were incorrect therefore man was unsatisfied. They did not reflect reality. But God wanted the thinking mind to know reality so revealed reality to him. The thinking mind could not conceive the idea that reality, the universe, the visible and invisible, was formed from nothing. Nothing is the complete absence of anything. How can something come from nothing? That was answered by the revelation of a second idea about reality that there is an all-powerful, infinitely wise, infinitely good, infinitely just and infinitely merciful God. A third idea revealed our intended destiny in reality, to join God in Heaven. The source of this ultimately unique knowledge in the history of man was not the thinking mind’s work but God’s work in revelation. It was the Jewish thinking mind that this knowledge was first revealed, and then passed on to Christians and Muslims.

We Naturally Desire more then this Life

Begin with the end in mind. The meaning of our lives is found in the end of our lives. Life is a road, living is the journey, we are all going forward to somewhere, some destiny, some definite place, the journey always finishes, the road always ends. Living can’t avoid the ending. The point of life is the full stop at the end. We find the meaning in the destiny and that is a place we call happiness. Catholicism says that our end is in God, for we come from God and we belong to God. We are God’s children and he always claims his own. We naturally desire more then this life. We have an innate instinct the desire for life, here now and forever. That is the real pain within. It can never be satisfied in this world, it is not meant to be satisfied here. That’s heaven’s purpose. We desire life beyond the finishing line. All the desires of the heart which come from within are satisfied by a corresponding outside reality. The desire for life beyond death, life everlasting, exists because it exists. You cannot long for a thing that did not exist. Animals do not desire life everlasting because there is none for animals. Man cannot desire for something that did not exist in reality. It may not be visible but it still does exist.  Our souls are immortal, they live forever. Our souls are our mind, will and heart. Our souls are “I” and “I” exists forever. Man was made forever. This is not all there is. God planted his image, and his immortality into the soul of man. That is why we desire what is beyond this world. That desire gives meaning and hope in this world.

Character is Transformed by Life's Problems

God’s purpose for man’s life is not pleasure, personal fulfilment, peace of mind, comfort or even earthly happiness. The ultimate purpose of life is found in the person of Jesus Christ. The life of Christ is the ultimate example of spiritual and character maturity. Man was created to become that life. All of creation was made for this specific purpose; for man to become like Christ. We are not meant to become clones of Christ. God created human being uniqueness. Every human has a unique personality and we are not meant to lose that aspect of our existence. It is our character that must become like Christ’s character. Life is a character development boot camp. Man does not take things into eternity but he does take his soul which comprises his character. Character develops when it is stretched. Character is built by moving out of our comfort zones.   Man struggles with life because he does not understand that it is a life of conflict. Character is revealed and transformed by life’s problems. When we moan, groan and complain about life’s problems, it is basically because we do not understand the purpose of life. Life is designed to be a problem. Life is a battleground of conflict. This conflict causes us pain and suffering. We are meant to have pain and suffering in life. Acceptance of this is not defeatist, not fatalistic, or negative thinking, giving up; it is a sign of true maturity.  But we run away and try and shut out problems. This is the cause of so much more suffering and pain within us. Most mental anguish can be traced to the fact that we want to escape life’s problems. We fight with ourselves over life’s problems.  The significant majority of people with mental neurosis are really seeking the avoidance of legitimate suffering.

Fast Thinking verses Slow Thinking

In today’s western society we live fast. We live fast because we think fast. People have to think fast because society today requires fast choices and even faster decisions. Fast thinking is shallow thinking which is the opposite of slow thinking which is deep thinking. People are in a great hurry. We are not allowed to sit back, think and watch the world go by. That is waste because it does not create an economic value. And according to today’s social view; anything that does not produce a monitory value is worthless. Going fast produces wealth. It produces wealth because the great economic machine needs to process output fast. Faster the better. That’s what economic growth means; processing and selling outputs faster than yesterday. The most critical ingredient to the economic machine is people’s time. All other factors are based on the human contribution, so to get more out of less the machines needs people to go faster. Western society surrenders itself totally to the machine. It’s governments, big business, media, push an agenda to ensure the machine keeps rolling. The agenda is pushed because all these interests have become dependent on the machine. We have moved significantly from democracy to corporacy. The agenda ensures that there are enough people contributing to the machine. The economic machine views and uses people in a number of different ways. It requires people to produce it’s product and also make sure people earn enough to consume it’s product, to return a profit. The “produce, earn and consume” cycle has become the mantra of the modern world. Today it seems people define their worth and evaluate what’s worthwhile in relation to this cycle. Human value and what’s worthwhile is determined in units you can produce, the money you earn, the things you can buy and what you own. Things that cannot be measured in units, money or price tags are pushed aside. Things like relationships, love, caring, friends, religion and community, things that are not relevant to turning a profit. This “produce, earn and consume” cycle, so central to today’s life philosophy, has far reaching negative implications for those things and those people that do not produce value. The negative implication is that they fall off the radar. And it is not accidental either. The handicapped, the young, the old, the disabled, the disadvantaged, the poor, the mentally ill, the addicted and anybody else who do not contribute to the economic machine are put away, out of sight. Society puts them in day care, retirement homes, mental institutes, rehab, work houses, ghettos under the justification that it is for their own good, necessary for their care or that they just don’t deserve to be included. But people want to be with people. It’s in their DNA. Children want to be with their parents, the elderly want to be with offspring, the disabled, the mentally ill want to taken care of by those who are meant to love them. Modern society doesn’t want slow thinking. Slow thinking is about deep thinking, thinking about values, what’s important in life, about love and eternity; it’s thinking about God and creation, about our relationships. The economic machine abhors slow thinking. It’s “produce, earn and consume” cycle feeds off fast thinking because it is superficial thinking. Fast thinking speeds up the cycle whereas slow thinking contracts and slows the cycle. Fast thinking reacts instantly to the barrage of media advertising, feeds the latest fads and fashions, wants the latest gadget, gives up love in favour of works. But real happiness is found by slow and deep thinking.

The Life of Man is Sacred

The sanctity of life goes to the heart and meaning of man, creation and God. There is one undeniable principle that is the foundation of all creation that is that the life of man is sacred. The life of every human being that ever lived and will ever live is sacred. It is sacred because God created life. He also created man in his image. He gave every person a destiny, to share his infinite happiness in the next life. It is scared because every single person has a relationship with God. Many turn away from that relationship, all of us violate it in some way but that singular relationship still exists every moment of our lives. If it did not we would cease to exist. We can deny God, but God won’t deny us. God won’t deny us because God does not make mistakes. We did not create ourselves, God created the creature. God created it from nothingness because God is goodness and love. God created sacredness. If life is not sacred, then life is worthless, life is a commodity and a dead thing. If life is not sacred, then you can kill life, because it is not wrong. In fact if life is not sacred then nothing is wrong. Opposing the idea that life is scared is the idea that life must be worth living. The criterion for whether life is worth living is based on the subjectivism and objectification of life. Humans are viewed as objects to be used (and abused) and have no value intrinsic in their being but only in their use. The criteria by which to judge the usefulness and worth of a life in based on relative and subjective desires and feelings. This philosophy of life is anti-life. If a life is not wanted or useful or doesn’t meet an arbitrary minimum standard in terms of health, functioning or aesthetic; dispose of it. Throughout history where this philosophy has prevailed, has led to mass slaughter and bloodshed. It has and does lead to a culture of death. Humans are subjects not objects. We are not means but ends. Society does not want all humans to live but God wants everyone to live, and live abundantly. A life that exists for a billionth of a second or hundred years are of equal sacredness, value and love. There is no potential to live, there is life or there is no life. We are not creators of life; we assist in creation of life, the pro-creators. God creates life solely, and has sole ownership rights over that creation.

Divine Power is God's Life

We cannot be holy on our own power. We cannot carry out God’s work using only human determination. We cannot be idealistic and use our own initiative to make those ideals real. Human power is less than divine power. Human power is different to Divine power. It is different because man is finite, God is infinite. Man is limited. God is unlimited. Divine power comes from one source; the Holy Spirit. Divine power is God’s life. When the Holy Spirit comes upon us and gives us Divine Power we are sharing in Gods one life.  It is not like God gives a jolt, a motivational speech, a new engine and we’re off. There is only one God’s life. A life that cannot be halved, or portioned and taken away like a McDonalds take away. It is one undividable divine life. God is spirit that cannot be divided. If it is one undividable life then when the spirit comes upon man then they become one. Man doesn’t share his spirit with God, his spirit and his essence is transformed into God’s spirit. So the spirit in Man and God’s spirit are one. That is god’s life within us. Life is not death. In the whole of reality, there are three types of things. There are living things, there are dead things and there is energy. E=MC²; Energy is power but it is dead like matter. Living things have power flowing through them, hence they are alive. Dead things have no power flowing through them; hence they are lifeless. Energy powers life. Energy does not give life. Love gives life. Love gives spirit. But spirit is also love because they are one and the same. Energy is an effect of Love. Love is not energy. Energy is not love. Man is not just a living thing; man is more then living, man has a soul and carries the image of God. God is made of love as man is made of atoms. The essence of God is love. There are three persons in God; the Father, the Son and the love between the Father and the Son which is the person.

The Choice between "Things" and "Love"

The great choice of modern life is around the spending of our time. The modern world has made our time both precious and cheap. Our time is precious because it is scarce and there are competing ends for it’s use. This is the economics of time. When something is both scarce and in demand, it automatically carries a hefty price.  There are limits to our time. We have limited time because as time passes, there is change. And once change happens we never get back to the point before change. We don’t get second chances to spend time with our children. They are young once. When they are grown up, we can’t wind back the clock. Our time is also limited because we will run out of time someday. We run out of time because we die. After we die there is no time; only eternity. It is cheap because what we give up will never be adequately compensated. What we give up is love. When we give up love the bargain is that we get “things” in return. Our modern lifestyles force us to make a choice between things and love. We can’t have both because our time is scarce. We are either spending our time chasing material things, earning money, working to earn money to buy things, buying things, using things, enjoying things, scheming for more things, protecting things, worrying over things, dreaming of more things, envious of other people’s things or we give and receive love, care for others, communicate, bond, help others, build communities. The choice between love and things permeates every aspect of our lives. We make hundreds of choices each day and they fundamentally come down to a choice regarding the use or our time between either things or love. Things in themselves are not bad. We need things to live. We need to work. Work is very good. We need money. Money buys food, clothing and pays the electricity bill. The problem arises when things come to dominate our lives to such an extent that we see everything in life (including people) through a things perspective, a “things” mentality. When we look at life through a things mentality we act and think that  everything can be bought, replaced, upgraded, easily disposed; a price on everything. We become unhappy when we realise that what we give up, love, can never be compensated by things. The modern world, the financial economic machine, the secular society wants your time. It wants your time because human time is the key resource to keep the economic machine growing. The economic machine needs to keep growing because if it stops growing, there will be panic and it will collapse. Modern man is out of kilter because it’s thinking is out of kilter. He is also out of kilter because he is being forced to prioritise his time in favour of things instead of love. Time scarcity is the plague of the modern age; it is also the plague of love and the cause of so much unhappiness. If we prioritise love over things; we find that things lose their attraction. When things lose their attraction they lose their power over our lives. Love meets needs that things cannot meet. The needs that can only be met by love are they only needs that make us happy.

Christian Hope is Fire Within Us

Hope is not dreaming. Dreams come with no guarantees. Hope is not based on illusions. Illusions are false. Hope is not based on others. Our hope is not a reflection of the social vision. It is not based on the expectations of any human, organisation or society. Our hope is not scripted by the social dimension. Today society operates from materialistic, secular, fatalistic, hedonistic and individualistic scripts. Hope is God’s divine script. Real hope is based on reality. Hope that is true. Our hope is based on God. Hope is not based on any assurances in this world but solely on the promises of God. Our hope is an absolute cast iron guarantee. Hope is placing our trust on Christ’s promises and not relying on our own strength but the grace of the Holy Spirit. Hope directs our purpose, points us to the future and empowers us to over come any obstacle or problem this life may throw at us. Hope, the divine vision, is the passion of life. It is the divine motivation; it becomes the impelling impetus behind all our actions, choices and decisions. All the saints have immense hope, a divine vision that drives their lives to the heights of sanctity. This divine vision, when it fires inside of us enables us to say “no” to the unimportant things of life and “yes” to the important things of life. It transcends our lives, our weaknesses, our failings, our ingrained vices, our scripting. Our capabilities, our strength and our character grow exponentially with the divine vision burning within us. We are transformed and we transcend. Hope is the inner source of persistence, firmness of purpose, strength to resist, fortitude to overcome. Hope enables us to conquer our fears, doubts, and hesitations, limitations, to overcome trials, tests, setbacks and persecution. The Holy Spirit is fire. Hope is fire within us. The Holy Spirit ignites that fire in our souls.

Hope is the Divine Vision

Hope is the divine vision. Viktor E Frankl, an Austrian psychologist, wrote a groundbreaking account, in Man’s Search for Meaning, of his survival in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and his discovery of the primary determining trait of the survivors. As he rose above the horrors of his situation, he noted that those with compelling purpose increased their survival chances dramatically. Reflecting on his experiences he was convinced that in life an empowering conviction in the future or a compelling vision is the difference in overcoming any obstacle. The highest level of vision is divine vision. The divines vision of everlasting life and happiness with God forever. There is no more inspiring vision in this world.  Hope is compelling. Hope is future-oriented. Hope is a virtue, an empowering habit of a virtuous centred life. Where there is hope, there is life. Where there is absence of hope there is despair. Vision leads to mission. Divinely inspired vision leads to divinely inspired mission. Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit to inspire the Apostles with divine vision. The result was a mission that continues to conquer the world to this day. As vision inspires at a personal level, vision also inspires at organisational and society level. There is no more determining factor in deciding the future of any organisation or civilisation then the vision it holds of it’s future. The Catholic Church is the longest surviving organisation man has ever seen exist. This did not happen by chance but by purpose.  A key is the divine vision, the hope within the life of the Church. If you want to know the future of any individual, organisation, or country, just examine it’s vision of the future. Hope impacts on our time and our lives. All of us have a vision of the future, we all hope or despair in the future in some manner or form. This vision of the future is key to the choices we make and the way we spend our time. We act differently, we choose differently, we get different results when our vision is of everlasting life rather then earthly life. If our vision is short term, we will make decisions and react to what appears immediately in front of us. We won’t care about eternity because we are stuck in the now. We make short sighted decisions because we have no long sighted vision. We will have an urgency mentality, impulsive, addictive, moodiness, seek instant gratification, limited awareness of consequences, our feelings about ourselves and others will constantly fluctuate.

Reason and Reality lead us to God

We find truth in Faith but we also find a reflection of truth in the thinking mind’s reasoning process. The thinking mind is a logical mind. The thinking mind can process data into meaning that describes reality. It can order data into logical conclusions that are constructs of reality. These constructs of reality we call science. The thinking mind can know what reality really is like. It can know what is; ought to be follows what is. Animals do not possess a thinking mind. The universe does not posses a thinking mind. Only man possesses the thinking mind.  Only man can know the true nature of reality and his existence in that reality. It can analyse, deduce and form patterns that mean something. We call this process reasoning. The thinking mind is a meaning creating mind. It transforms data into explanations and reasons. Explanations and understanding lead to reasons as to what man should be. Faith leads ultimately to God, for faith reflects God. The thinking mind also leads man to God, for reason that reflects reality will always lead to God. God created Faith. He also created reason. Reason when properly used will always find truth. Faith is truth therefore reason and faith can never contradict. Where Faith and Reason seem to contradict is because man has failed. He has failed either to understand or know his Faith or failed to understand and know his Reason.  A true understanding of Faith can never contradict a true understanding of science. A truth in Faith never contradicts a fact in science. Faith is greater than science because Faith can take us to a place where science can never take us. Science can describe visible reality but Faith can describe both visible and invisible reality. Science is natural. Faith is both natural and supernatural. Reality is both natural and visible but also supernatural and invisible. Reality reflects it’s creator; God. God is visible and invisible, natural and supernatural. He is visible in the person of Jesus Christ and invisible in being the Father the Creator who stands aside from creation. He is natural in that He took on the nature of man, became a creature and supernatural because He is the Holy Spirit. Man is also a reflection of God and reality; man is natural in body and supernatural in soul and spirit.

Live in faith or Live in Fear

The opposite of Faith is fear. The more faith we have, the less fear we have in us. Human beings have two choices either to live in Faith or live in fear. Faith and fear are opposites on a continuum from life to death. Where there is fear there is no trust or lack of trust in God. Fear does not believe in the promises of God. If you do not believe in the promises of God, you do not believe that God is God. Faith is an act of man that places his trust in God. We cannot trust an idea. We cannot trust a thing. We can only trust a person. Faith is the act of trust in the person of God. Fear is lack of trust. The symptoms of fear are everywhere; anxiety, anger, addiction, hedonism, selfishness, neurosis, mental illness, broken hearts, broken minds, broken lives.  Since the dawn of time man lived in fear. His life is fear. There is fear in all of us. Fear of the unknown; we do no know the future so we fear it. Fear of suffering; we can’t or don’t want pain or trouble in our lives. Fear of not being loved or accepted. Fear of failure. Fear of death. Because we fear we reject. We reject God. Fear is a coward. When we seek our point of view, our dominance, our worldly power to our own ends we are really cowards. When we trample on people, we are cowards. We are cowards because we are full of fear. We were born not to fear but to have faith. We were created to be faithful not fearful.  Fear is childish and self centred. Fear is immaturity; it means we have never grown up. Faith is the opposite. Faith is maturity. Fear says crawl on the ground and eat dust from the earth. Faith says stand up and walk you are divine, you are a child of God.  Fear says let the troubles, the struggles and suffering of this world get you down. Faith says embrace the troubles, struggles and suffering and change yourself, change this world. Faith is the antidote to the problems of this world.

Your True Identity; Who You are Meant to Be.

God is the author of Faith, so faith reflects God. God is faithful, Faith is faithful. God is goodness and produces goodness. Faith is goodness and produces goodness. God is Truth. Faith is Truth. All that Faith is; it reflects the nature of God. The ultimate goal of Faith is perfection. God, who is perfection, divinely inspires perfection in man. The closest man gets to perfection, we see in holy people. Holiness in man is the reflection of the extent of God’s character and God’s life in man. Jesus Christ was perfection made flesh. We were all created to be perfect, to be like the perfection in Christ. God became man in Christ to show us what perfection in man looks like. That is the original design of man, to be perfect. If you want to know who you are meant to be; look at Christ. This is what the ultimate you looks like. A car is designed to be driven. A powerful sports car is meant to be driven fast. You were designed for a purpose. God is not leaving you in the dark as to that purpose. You are meant to be like Christ. So what is Christ like? Christ is “The way, The light and The Truth”. He is the supreme reflection of real love and beauty. Man through history asked and prayed to God to answer who am I? God’s answer was Christ. Christ revealed the true identity of man to man. Man is now in no doubt as to his design and purpose.  Man can no longer use the excuse that he didn’t know or understand. God previously spoke to man, but through Jesus Christ he showed man what he was made for and what the character of God looks like. He showed what your character should look like. And what is the perfection of your character. It is exactly the perfection of Christ’s Character. Christ showed man perfection in love. Love that lay down his life for man and rise it up again for man. Love that bore every transgression of man, every sin, took the blame and paid the price on man’s head.  Christ had no sin yet took the blame and punishment for man’s history of transgression. Why would the holiest and most innocent human being ever to have lived take the blame and punishment of us all? Because he was God. The God of love. He showed us that he loved us beyond all measure. His love showed us that he was willing to go to whatever extent whatever price to bring us to heaven and eternal happiness. That is perfection. Without blemish, total truth, total purity, no bounds to love, no price too high. That is out true identity, our true character.

Faith; No Greater Difference in Life

There is no greater difference in the life of man then Faith. It is the avenue to allow God to create spiritual life in your soul. How does God create a spiritual life in your soul? After Faith comes Hope. Before we have hope we must have faith. Faith is the foundation, the beginning, the first cause of hope. Hope is more then the natural instinct for happiness, it is the hope of happiness with God. Man has the natural instinct for happiness and seeks it. He sometimes seeks it in the wrong places.  The worse place he seeks happiness is in the things of the world. Hope is a freely chosen affirmation to God. Hope is a virtue, a good habit, a firm disposition to trust in Christ’s promises. Hope is the fire of perseverance, of fortitude, of pursuing the goal of eternal life to the end. The thinking mind asks “why”, hope is the response and the “Why”. Man will endure any hardship; give up anything even the offer of the whole world, even his life, if there is a big enough “Why”. The ultimate “Why” is eternal happiness.  The thinking mind asks, but what do we hope in? We hope in the promises of God. We do not have false hope, wrong hope, misdirected hope but true hope. True hope because we have the truest assurance that the hope will be satisfied, because God does not break his promises. The thinking mind asks how do we attain hope? We attain hope through the Holy Spirit. We do not rely on our own strength but on God’s grace. Love follows Hope that follows Faith. Love is the greatest virtue, the greatest good habit, the greatest sign of a virtuous centred character, the very nature of God, the ultimate reality. The nature of reality is love. The result of love is creation. The greatest commandment of God is to love. It is the greatest because the one God is the God of love. All creation comes from God because of love. When we love we are united with God. The visible evidence of the virtue of love in a person is good works. If there are good works there is love, if there is love there is hope, if there is hope there is faith.

Faith is letting God into your Soul

It is important to distinguish between letting God into your Soul and God living in your Soul. Faith is letting God into your soul. Having God in your Soul is having life in your soul. This life is Spiritual Life. Spiritual life is eternal life, it is salvation, it is being born again, but ultimately it means being united with God. If we do not let God into our souls, God will not force entry. God respects man’s free will. If he forced his way into our soul, man would have no free will. This is the power of man, the power to choose and immense responsibility comes with that power, whether man realises it or not. God will not force any person’s hand. He will call, he will knock, he will ring but it is our choice to answer. Choosing to answer is Faith. The result of faith is opening the door, God will come inside our soul and live and unite with us. Living life is living the Faith. Faith is not some test we must pass, or some trial that we must seek to win over. Correspondingly life is not a trial, not a test. God does not put man to the test. God calls man not examines man. Faith is opening the door to God to allow him to enter. Once we open the tap, the spiritual life will flow through us. Faith can only happen in this life not the next. Because man has free choice in this life, he won’t need it in the next. Man that dies united with God will share in the joy and happiness of God forever, if not, if man deliberately rejects God and cuts all ties, he will be unable to unite with God forever and therefore will not share joy and happiness forever. This is the meaning of Heaven and Hell. Man can claim that this is an unreasonable choice. The claim is that man did not choose to be born, to be created, yet he is presented with the choosing between being united with God or separated from God. First every person was created from ultimate truth and goodness. Your life is a gift. It was good that you and I were created and born. All of creation was formed to express love and the ultimate expression of love is man. Man did not choose to be born because there was no choice to be made. Nothingness can not choose because there is nothing to choose. Second man claiming that he did not choose to be born comes from his own selfishness and ignorance of truth. Selfishness because every life is good and goodness, even though circumstances can be difficult. Selfishness because it is the rejection of the gift of his life. Selfishness because he blames the consequences his decision on rejecting God on not having the decision to exist in the first place. But love and Goodness are not selfish. God’s goodness and love will win over man’s selfishness every time. Thirdly man wants the power to choose but not the responsibility. That is the immaturity of man. Most people never grow up, forever the child spiritually, mentally, emotionally, wanting the prize but not the work, wanting the joy and happiness but not the responsibility. Man should grow up! Growing up means leaving God into your soul. Leaving God into your soul is what Faith does. Salvation is what God does.

Faith is the Foundation of Living

The foundation of Catholicism is Faith. Catholics believe in the Faith, live the Faith and celebrate the faith. We believe in the Faith because we believe in the teachings of Christ. We live the faith because we obey the commandants of God, the same commands summarised in the two commandments of Jesus, to love God and love our neighbour. We celebrate the faith through the sacraments which summit in the Mass, the real presence of Christ. So we can now say the Faith is in Jesus Christ. Faith is two things.  Faith is both a personal act and an object. Faith is a personal act because it is a personal response to the reaching out of God. Faith is an object because it is data revealed by God. Data that reveals the true nature of reality. This data proves to us that the sum of reality is God. Belief is a process of the thinking mind whereas faith is a process of the Will. The thinking mind reasons the data to be true and reflective of reality, therefore a belief in an idea. The will chooses to accept, trust and believe the data as true. The thinking mind reasons Jesus Christ to be true; the thinking mind believes an idea. The will chooses to trust the person of Christ; that is faith. Belief in an idea does not produce an effect, faith is active and it produces an effect, a result, an output which is a spiritual life in the believer’s soul. That spiritual life is the life of the one true living God. The action of Faith comes to us by the Holy Spirit, God alone. It is a free gift and free offer from God that must be freely chosen. It is given freely and it is chosen freely.

The Two Sides to Man

Life is a struggle. Every human being struggles. From instance of conception to death is a struggle. A struggle for life. We struggle within ourselves, with each other and with all things. Man struggles because he is divided within himself. He is divided because there is goodness and badness, good and evil, within him. The good is man originates from God; the evil is man’s selfish instinct. In all of creation evil only exists in man. Galaxies, solar systems, suns, planets, nature, oceans, land, animals, and vegetation contain no evil only man contains evil. A storm that kills is not evil; that is an act of nature. A man that kills is evil; that is an act of his selfish instinct. The universal struggle between good and evil is being played out in man. Man is good because he contains the image of God, but also he is fallen, he has been damaged, he has fallen from perfection. Catholicism recognises this dualism in man. Catholicism is realistic and practical. Catholicism has eternal joyous hope in the goodness of man (goodness which comes solely from God) and pragmatic realism that there is also capacity for evil (evil which comes from man’s fall).  Man that is pure evil and badness would have no moral instant. But man has a moral instinct. Any moral behaviour from such evil man would only exist if it was a means to an end. The purely evil man would sometimes have to commit some good act (act against his nature) to enable an evil end. A purely good man would commit no sin, suffer no guilt, but would suffer; there would be no requirement to seek forgiveness or say sorry. But man is “neither”, nor is he an “or”, he is a combination; there are two sides to man’s existence. Morality serves a duel function, a guide for the goodness in man and a counter to the badness in man. 

What is a Christain?

Jesus Christ is the totality of Christianity. There is no difference between Christ and Catholicism. Christianity as a religion is unique, it is totally centralised on one person, one identity that is Christ. All other religions focus on their beliefs not on a person, but the founder’s ideology, on the teachings, not the teacher, on the commands, not the commander. Their theology (what is believed) can survive if its founder was proven to be a fraud. Unlike Christianity which is totally existent on the person and continuous presence of Jesus Christ. What is a Christian? Answer someone who believes that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Any person who believes that Christ is God made human is a Christian. Any person who believes that Christ was a prophet, a sage, a good man, a miracle worker or master teacher but not God is not a Christian. Any body who proclaims to follow Christ but in their hearts do not believe that Christ was God is not a Christian. A person who fundamentally believes that Christ was God but doubts or questions is still a Christian. Doubting Thomas was always a Christian. The thinking mind questions but the heart knows. Real belief comes from the heart. All other religious founders say; don't look at me but listen to what I teach. Except Christ, who says look at me, I am what I teach. He thought the Truth; He said He was the Truth.

The Holy Spirit is the Source

You were born for “True Love”. The real self sacrificing, self-forgetting, other-centred love one person has for another. We all really know that love, “true Love” is the ultimate meaning of our lives, the ultimate good. Christ was and is radical. His new love was a totally new redefinition of the word. But we fight it, confuse it , moan about it, run from it, search for it, flicker with it, fickle with it, fight it because we have never grown up. To really grow up is to live this self sacrificing love. But where is the source of this love. The Holy Spirit is the source. He is the source of true wisdom, holiness, the spring well-off saintliness, the powerhouse to live the Christian faith. He is the fire in the belly. He is the fuel of Catholic dynamism and action. He is the source of ultimate love, love that changed the world, history and us. Where do I find the Spirit? We don’t. He finds us, when we allow him to find us. God gives us the spirit. He comes to us through the Son, from the Father. Just like a child asking it’s parent, we ask with childlike faith in our Father’s love for the Spirit. Childlike faith is all that is required.

Man is One Being reflecting Two Demensions

Materialism says that man is a body formed from matter. Spiritualism says that man is a soul that occupies a body. Dualism says that man is two entities; the house is the body, the tenant is the soul. Man is not half or two, he is not part or multiple, he is not subtraction or addition. Man is one being reflecting two dimensions; body and spirit. The soul is not a tenant. The body is not a house. “I” is not a landlord. The soul expresses it’s meaning in the body and the body fulfils it’s meaning by the soul. One is not a prisoner; the other is not a slave. One isn’t caught in a trap the other isn’t a trapper. Our soul, (our mind, will and heart,) is our personality. It was created instantaneously by God not evolved from matter. Instantaneously at conception. Genes are inherited from our parents. Souls are not inherited from our parents but instantaneously created. Evolution cannot produce a Soul. It is impossibility. Evolution produces codes, not personalities. Matter which is made up of atoms and molecules and things cannot create a soul which is not a thing. A thing cannot produce a non-thing. Souls that are immortal cannot come from matter that is mortal. Something that lasts forever cannot come from something that has a beginning and an end. A thinking mind, a self conscious mind, a free will, a personality cannot evolve from matter. The body dies but the soul doesn’t. But the body and the soul are unity. They depart but are reunified for perfection.

Roadmap to Joy

Morality is the roadmap to joy. Morality is about applying unchanging principles of reality to changing situations. Living Catholic morality brings heroic and supernatural joy to life. It is the greatest hope and joy for our age. The hardest of hearts melt before anybody who lives as a true authentic catholic. We call a true authentic catholic a saint. A saint is the true embodiment and evidence of the hope and joy of catholic morality and virtue; how we should live. There are ultimately two decisions to make in life, either chose life or death. True Catholics chose life. This particular idea is at odds with secularism. But it is reality and the thinking mind must make choices that have consequences. Secularism rejects the reality of moral realism in favour of subjective sincerity. Catholic morality is about doing the right thing not the wrong thing. Secularism is about doing anything you want because the rules are changeable; there is no real right or wrong. Catholic Morality says there is, secularism says there isn’t. There is a moral crisis both within and without the church. There are many Catholics within the church which also say that morality is relative and subjective. But it is the Church’s moral teachings which point towards the truth in this crisis.

Man's Thinking is the Root of the Loss of Faith

Man’s thinking is the root of the loss of faith today. The modern world which correctly should be described as the modern “age” ceases to believe in the supernatural, that which is beyond human reason, power, nature and reach. It is also the age of unbelief in certainties and objective absolutes.  The Christian religion is centred on God’s Spirit and Character therefore it is supernatural. It is the bridge to God. But modern thinking ceases to believe the supernatural in favour of the natural. Objective, law based codes of morality are being replaced by the subjective and relativism. God’s absolute commandments are being replaced by man’s relative values. The natural desire for happiness is of divine origin. Happiness is the single most important meaning of life. It is the single and highest want of Man. All humans who have ever lived on earth have asserted this one proposition. It was put there by God to bring man to Him who alone can fulfil the hearts desire. Catholicism is the paradigm, the compass that directs us through the territory of our lives to heaven, to happiness. Catholicism is the sole answer to the meaning of man and the universe. There is no other answer. All other answers are meaningless, in the sense they do not meet man’s eternal quest. God is the source of all good and all love.

The Source of Goodness

Christianity is essentially a love triangle; God, I and neighbour. God does not separate love from principles. If you love God, you will keep his principles. The main reason we do not practice Christianity well is because we fail to understand Christianity well. The heart cannot resist full knowledge of the Truth. It is impossibility. If we have full understanding and knowledge of the truth we will live perfectly. Our minds, will and heart cannot act any other way when faced with this truth. We fail to understand that Christianity is not about acting good, but becoming a new person, a new being a new creation. We are to become Christ not imitate or act like Christ.  The secularised view of goodness as being in man is very different from Christianity’s view of goodness as becoming Christ himself in his life and his love. How can this be? It is ridiculous? All goodness comes from God. Man does not create goodness. It has to have a source. That source is God. That source is God even if some men are not aware of God or the source of goodness. All men are aware there are parameters, limits and rules to behaviour. Even pagan thinkers acknowledge there are rules and laws to conduct and behaviour. There are behaviours that are not permissible. Christians and non Christians recognise this fact. People who do not believe in a God, Communist states that do not believe in a god, recognise that there are binding laws on behaviour. All men recognise self-evident, external, natural, observable, unarguable, binding laws. This is how goodness operates in reality. Follow the binding principles and there is goodness. Break the rules and there are consequences. There are consequences because these rules are binding. We cannot really break the laws only we break ourselves against the laws. Without knowledge of God we still recognise there are rules, real rules and principles to conduct. These are real and objective and binding not man made. If they were man made they are changeable by man, therefore not binding at all. These binding laws are made by an unchangeable authority God. The moral rules for behaviour originate in God. Goodness originates in God. Goodness, in men that believe in God and who don’t know or believe in God, comes solely from God.

Reality is Real because God is Real

Man can transform to a limited degree, the form of matter but cannot create matter. To create matter means making something out of nothing. Man cannot do that. Only God can give existence to something that did not exist before. Only God can bridge the infinite distance from nothingness to existence. It is infinite, it is impossible to man’s viewpoint, but God is greater than infinity. This is his infinite power. Creation does not deserve to exist in it’s own right. It is a gift. Our existence is a gift. Something that does not exist does not automatically deserve or demand to exist. But the generosity of God created the gift of creation and existence. To create is to design. To design is to know intimately the designed. God has infinite knowledge of his creation. He does not make mistakes with his creation. We are not a mistake. We are not an accident. There are no accidents in Creation. The infinity wise designer cannot create a faulty design. He knows how it works, He made it work, He keeps it working. God continues to create in the present. For without God, existence would disappear into nothingness instantaneously. God is the infinite Artist, for his creation is beauty. There is only one God. There is only one source of power, wisdom, beauty and goodness that is the one God. Knowing this truth about reality points clearly to where we find goodness and happiness: In God. We cannot live apart or separate from the source of True Goodness and True Happiness and expect to find the heart’s desire somewhere else. The universe is a reflection of its creator. It is real, it is reality, it is true, it is one, it is not illusionary or a phantom. It is orderly not chaotic. Order cannot come from pure chance. There must be a master Designer. One God, One universe. There is solidarity in this one universe, one nature because there is one God and everything is ordered for his glory.  

The Thinking Mind and Three Ideas reflecting Reality

Man has a thinking mind. Thinking minds require input to process into output. If there is no input there will be no output. No input, the thinking mind thinks about nothing or itself which is meaningless. The thinking mind cannot create input but can receive input. It receives input from external to itself. But this input can be fuzzy, faulty, half truths or reality. Man is a lazy thinker. Often the thinker does not screen or filter properly. Man likes to jump to conclusions, to take the easiest route, to get easy wins, quick fixes because thinking is hard work, the hardest work of all. But God helps the thinker. He has revealed reality to the thinking man. Man sought and thought about reality. Man got some of the way but always came up very short. Ancient man developed creation myths and destiny stories. But all were incorrect therefore man was unsatisfied. They did not reflect reality. But God wanted the thinking mind to know reality so revealed reality to him. The thinking mind could not conceive the idea that reality, the universe, the visible and invisible, was formed from nothing. Nothing is the complete absence of anything. How can something come from nothing? That was answered by the revelation of a second idea about reality that there is an all-powerful, infinitely wise, infinitely good, infinitely just and infinitely merciful God. A third idea revealed our intended destiny in reality, to join God in Heaven. The source of this ultimately unique knowledge in the history of man was not the thinking mind’s work but God’s work in revelation. It was the Jewish thinking mind that this knowledge was first revealed, and then passed on to Christians and Muslims.

Finding the Purpose of your Life

The real meaning of your life is not the meaning you decide it should be. Man cannot define his life within himself. He is looking in the wrong place. It is the creator that gives meaning and purpose to the creation. It is the craftsman that decides and creates the sculpture from the stone. The craftsman decides the purpose not the stone. All other paths are dead ends. In the search for the reason, the meaning, the purpose, the big “WHY” of life, begin with God. You got started in God and you find your purpose in God. You are destined for God, you find purpose in God. There is no other purpose. The problem in our struggle to find purpose lies in our self centred view point of life and living. I have a life, I own my life therefore I decide what I want to be, do, become. I decide my goals, dreams, aspirations and my destiny. This obsession with ourselves will never reveal the real meaning and purpose of life. But God has an answer. He did not abandon man to speculation, to guess work or theories. He revealed that answer to man. Man speculates about the meaning of life but God reveals the meaning of life. It is in the Creator that we find out who we are, and what we are living for and what our destiny is. We do not design our purpose because we did not design ourselves. We can’t add or subtract anything from our design, our true purpose. Our purpose was decided by God before we were created. He had his eye on us; he had us named before even time itself. We have free will in this life, freedom to choose a lot of things, careers, friends, loves, pastimes, but we do not choose our meaning or purpose. Our meaning fits into a greater meaning that God is working out in everyone and everything. We are part of a whole. It is God’s whole. God reveals the meaning of life and ourselves in stages. First he revealed himself in his word, the bible, then through his word made flesh, Jesus Christ and then through the Holy spirit in the Catholic Church. The meaning, the purpose of your life is all there in Catholicism.