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God
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God (Topic Page)
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"God
is a spirit infinitely perfect." (Baltimore Catechism)
"God
is everywhere." (Baltimore Catechism)
"God
is the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things."
(Baltimore Catechism)
"God
had no beginning; He always was and He always will be."
(Baltimore Catechism)
"God
knows all things, even our most secret thoughts, words, and
actions." (Baltimore Catechism)
"He
that supposes he knows the magnitude of God is diminishing
it" (Minucius Felix, 3rd century A.D.)
"The
end for which man was created is none other than God
himself." (St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church)
"If
we do not entrust ourselves to God, we sell ourselves to the
devil." (St. Paulinus of Nola)
"Make
a note of the difference there is in believing in the existence of
God and believing in him." (St. John Vianney)
"If
you understood him, it would not be God." (St. Augustine,
Doctor of the Church)
"God
can do all things, and nothing is hard or impossible for
him." (Baltimore Catechism)
"God
is all just, all holy, all merciful, as He is infinitely
perfect." (Baltimore Catechism)
"God
is man's entire good." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the
Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the
Church")
"God is all-wise, all-holy, all-merciful, and all-just."
(Baltimore Catechism)
"God is our supreme Lord, and we must obey Him."
(Catechism of St. John Neumann)
"God is the highest, most perfect, and most amiable
good." (Catechism of St. John Neumann)
"When we say that God is almighty we mean that He can do
all things." (Baltimore Catechism)
"After the
Consecration [at Mass], the good God is there as He is in
Heaven." (Catechism of the Cure de Ars)
"The image of God is reflected in a pure soul, like the
sun in the water." (Catechism of the Cure de Ars)
"God is without limits; and therefore nothing created can
reflect His immensity." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
"When we say that God is infinitely perfect we mean that
He has all perfections without limit." (Baltimore Catechism)
"God is the Supreme Being, infinitely perfect, who made
all things and keeps them in existence." (Baltimore
Catechism)
"The first commandment of God is: I am the Lord thy God;
thou shalt not have strange gods before Me." (Baltimore
Catechism)
"Some of the perfections of God are: God is eternal,
all-good, all-knowing, all-present, and almighty." (Baltimore
Catechism)
"The mercy of God is like an overflowing
torrent - it
carries away hearts with it as it passes." (Catechism of the
Cure de Ars)
"What
God is in nature and essence no man has ever yet discovered nor
can discover." (St. Gregory of Nazianz, Doctor of the Church,
c. 380 A.D.)
"When we say that God is eternal we mean that He always
was and always will be, and always remains the same."
(Baltimore Catechism)
"God is the Supreme Being, an infinitely perfect spirit,
and the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth." (Catechism of
St. John Neumann)
"If
anyone denies the one true God, Creator and Lord of things visible
and invisible: let him be anathema." (First Vatican Council)
"If
anyone says that the substance or essence of God and that of all
things are one and the same: let him be anathema." (First
Vatican Council)
"God is eternal, everywhere present, almighty,
all-knowing, merciful, true, faithful and unchangeable."
(Catechism of St. John Neumann)
"When we say that God is the Supreme Being we mean that He
is above all creatures, the self-existing and infinitely perfect
Spirit." (Baltimore Catechism)
"When we say that God is all-knowing we mean that He knows
all things, past, present, and future, even our most secret
thoughts, words, and actions." (Baltimore Catechism)
"God
knows all things, both universal and particular." (St. Thomas
Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the
history of the Church")
"Almost
everything said of God is unworthy, for the very reason that it is
capable of being said." (Pope St. Gregory the Great, Doctor
of the Church)
"To
speak of the Godhead is, I know, like trying to cross the ocean on
a raft, or trying to fly to the stars on a little bird's
wings." (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Doctor of the Church)
"In
God there are three Divine Persons, really distinct, and equal in
all things - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
(Baltimore Catechism)
"For
who can comprehend God how great He is? Therefore are the
Seraphims said to veil their countenance, because of the
excellence of the Divine brightness." (St. Theophylact)
"If
anyone says that the one, true God, our Creator and Lord, cannot
be known with certainty from the things that have been made, by
the natural light of human reason: let him be anathema."
(First Vatican Council)
"When
we say God is 'infinitely perfect' we mean there is no limit or
bounds to His perfection; for He possesses all good qualities in
the highest possible degree and He alone is 'infinitely
perfect'." (Baltimore Catechism)
"If
anyone says that it is impossible, or not expedient, that human
beings should be taught by means of divine revelation about God
and the worship that should be shown him: let him be
anathema." (First Vatican Council)
"[T]he
true and living God, one in nature, triple in person, Creator of
the world, most wise Ordainer of all things, Lawgiver most just,
...punishes the wicked and has reward in store for virtue."
(Pope St. Pius X, "E Supremi", 1903 A.D.)
"God's
foreknowledge is true and inviolable, but it is not the cause
itself, purely and simply, of what is going to be done. It is
because we are going to do this or that, that He foreknows
it." (St. John Damascene, Doctor of the Church. c. 8th century A.D.)
"Christian
teaching reveals God and His infinite perfection with far greater
clarity than is possible by the human faculties alone. Nor is that
all. This same Christian teaching also commands us to honor God by
faith, which is of the mind, by hope, which is of the will, by
love, which is of the heart; and thus the whole man is subjected
to the supreme Maker and Ruler of all things." (Pope St. Pius
X, "Acerbo Nimis", 1905 A.D.)
"Who
can ponder carefully, and not know that God exists? But it happens
frequently that although the necessity of truth compel us to an
acknowledgement of God, our pleasurable vices may yet persuade us
that God does not exist; and in our hearts we speak, on the
counsel of wickedness, that which we would believe, though it be
in opposition to the faith." (St. Hilary of Poitiers, Doctor
of the Church, c.
365 A.D.)
"Whatever
you would say of God, whatever thought you might conceive about
Him in the silence of your mind, it misses the mark and is
corrupted in expression; nor can it have the note of proper
signification, since it is expressed in our terms, which are
adapted to human transactions. There is only one thing about the
nature of God which man can most certainly understand: you must
know and realize that nothing about Him can be brought out with
mortal speech." (Arnobius of Sicca, c. 305 A.D.)
"He
has neither beginning nor will He have an end. He is like some
great sea of Being, limitless and unbounded, transcending every
conception of time and nature. Only His shadow falls across the
mind, and even that but dimly and obscurely, as shadow produced
not by what He truly is, but only by the things around Him,
partial images gathered from here and there and assembled into
one, some sort of presentation of the truth, but which flees
before it is grasped and escapes before it is conceived."
(St. Gregory of Nazianz, Doctor of the Church, c. 383 A.D.)
"When
I saw that the world and all that is in it is moved by a force, I
understood that He who moves and maintains is God; for whatever
moves something is stronger than that which is moved and whatever
maintains something is stronger than that which is maintained. I
call the One who constructed all things and maintains them God; He
that is without beginning and eternal, immortal and lacking
nothing, and who is above all passions and failings such as anger
and forgetfulness and ignorance and the rest." (Apology of
Aristides of Athens, c. 140 A.D.)
"Most
strongly [the Church] believes, professes, and declares that the
one true God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, is the creator of
all things visible and invisible, who, when He wished, out of His
goodness created all creatures, spiritual as well as corporal;
good indeed, since they were made by the highest good, but
changeable, since they were made from nothing, and it asserts that
nature is not evil, since all nature, in so far as it is nature,
is good. It professes one and the same God as the author of the
Old and New Testament, that is, of the Law and the Prophets and
the Gospel, since the saints of both Testaments have spoken with
the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit" (Pope Eugenius IV,
"Cantata Domino", 1441/2 A.D.)
"First
of all, then, hold that every nature which is not God the Trinity
was created out of nothing by the same Holy Trinity which alone is
true and eternal God. And thus believe that all things in heaven
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones, whether
Dominations, whether Principalities or whether powers, are a work
and creature of the Holy Trinity, which is one God, Lord and
Creator of all things, eternal, almighty and good, of whose nature
it is to exist always and never to be able to be changed. This
God, who is without beginning, exists ways, because He is supreme.
He gave to the things He created that they should exist, but not
without a beginning, because no creature is of the same nature of
which the Trinity is, one true and good God, by whom all things
have been created." (St. Fulgence of Ruspe, 6th century A.D.)
"For
the sake of devotion...know that we have a God; a God who is one,
a living God, existing always; a God like unto Himself; who has
none other for a father; than whom there is none mightier, none to
thrust Him out of His kingdom; who in name is manifold; who is
all-powerful, and uniform in substance. For all that He is called
Good, and Just, and Almighty, and Sabaoth, He is not diverse and
various. Rather, being one and the same, He sends forth the
multitudinous operations of the Godhead; not exceeding in this and
deficient in that, but in all things He is like unto Himself. He
is not great in loving-kindness only, and little in wisdom; but in
wisdom and loving-kindness, He is of equal power. He is not seeing
in part, and in part devoid of sight; but He is all eye, and all
ear, and all mind. He is not like us, apprehending in part, and
in part not knowing. Such a statement were blasphemous, and
unworthy of the divine substance. He knows beforehand the things
that shall be. He is holy, almighty, excelling all in
goodness, greater than all, and wiser than all. Of Him we are able
to declare neither beginning, nor form, nor appearance." (St. Cyril
of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church, c. 350 A.D.)
"The
holy, Catholic, apostolic and Roman church believes and
acknowledges that there is one true and living God, Creator and
Lord of heaven and earth, almighty, eternal, immeasurable,
incomprehensible, infinite in will, understanding and every
perfection. Since he is one, singular, completely simple and
unchangeable spiritual substance, he must be declared to be in
reality and in essence, distinct from the world, supremely happy
in himself and from himself, and inexpressibly loftier than
anything besides himself which either exists or can be imagined.
This one true God, by his goodness and almighty power, not with
the intention of increasing his happiness, nor indeed of obtaining
happiness, but in order to manifest his perfection by the good
things which he bestows on what he creates, by an absolutely free
plan, together from the beginning of time brought into being from
nothing the twofold created order, that is the spiritual and the
bodily, the angelic and the earthly, and thereafter the human
which is, in a way, common to both since it is composed of spirit
and body. Everything that God has brought into being he protects
and governs by his providence, which reaches from one end of the
earth to the other and orders all things well. All things are open
and laid bare to his eyes, even those which will be brought about
by the free activity of creatures." (First Vatican Council)
"The
same holy mother church holds and teaches that God, the source and
end of all things, can be known with certainty from the
consideration of created things, by the natural power of human
reason: ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature
has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. It
was, however, pleasing to his wisdom and goodness to reveal
himself and the eternal laws of his will to the human race by
another, and that a supernatural, way. This is how the Apostle
puts it: In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers
by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a
Son. It is indeed thanks to this divine revelation, that those
matters concerning God which are not of themselves beyond the
scope of human reason, can, even in the present state of the human
race, be known by everyone without difficulty, with firm certitude
and with no intermingling of error. It is not because of this that
one must hold revelation to be absolutely necessary; the reason is
that God directed human beings to a supernatural end, that is a
sharing in the good things of God that utterly surpasses the
understanding of the human mind; indeed eye has not seen, neither
has ear heard, nor has it come into our hearts to conceive what
things God has prepared for those who love him. Now this
supernatural revelation, according to the belief of the universal
church, as declared by the sacred council of Trent, is contained
in written books and unwritten traditions, which were received by
the apostles from the lips of Christ himself, or came to the
apostles by the dictation of the Holy Spirit, and were passed on
as it were from hand to hand until they reached us. The complete
books of the old and the new Testament with all their parts, as
they are listed in the decree of the said council and as they are
found in the old Latin Vulgate edition, are to be received as
sacred and canonical. These books the Church holds to be sacred
and canonical not because she subsequently approved them by her
authority after they had been composed by unaided human skill, nor
simply because they contain revelation without error, but because,
being written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have
God as their author, and were as such committed to the Church." (First Vatican Council) Also
See: The
Holy
Trinity | Jesus
Christ | Holy
Spirit | God
is Unchangeable (Latin Mass / Catholic Tradition Reflections) | Heaven
| Our
Father's Love Reflections | 'Scriptural
Litany' of God | Selections
From the Baltimore Catechism | God
(Topical Scripture)
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