According to Catholicism, how should Christians "seek" and "find" God?
score:0
"To seek God" and "to attain God" is the goal of the Christian life.
Benedictines, when admitting a brother into their monastery, first "see whether he really seeketh God" (St. Benedict's Rule ch. 58).
Dom Marmion explains what seeking and possessing God means (Christ: The Ideal of the Monk ch. 1 "To Seek God"):
What does it mean to "seek" God?
Let us see what it is to seek God; […] if we truly seek God, nothing will prevent us from finding Him, and, in Him, we shall possess all good.
For us Christians, then, "to seek God", is to tend towards Him, not only as simple creatures who move towards the first principle and last end of their being, but supernaturally, that is to say as children who wish to remain united to their Father with all their strength of will urged by love, and through that mysterious participation in the very nature of God, of which St. Peter speaks [2 Pet. 1:4]; it is to have and to cultivate with the Divine Persons an intimacy so real and so profound, that St. John calls it, the “fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ,” in their common Spirit [1 Jn. 1:3].
It is to this the Psalmist alludes when he exhorts us to “seek the face of God” Quaerite faciem ejus semper [Ps. 104:4]: that is to say, to seek the friendship of God, to seek His love, as when the bride looking upon the bridegroom seeks to behold in his eyes the depth of his soul telling her of his tenderness. God is to us a Father full of goodness. He wills that even here below we should find our happiness in Him, in His ineffable perfections.
“To seek God", is to remain united to Him by faith, it is to attach ourselves to Him as the object of our love.
What does it mean to "find" God? How do we know we've found Him?
Another condition of the sincerity of our seeking is that it be exclusive. Let us seek God solely; I look upon this condition as capital.
Catherine of Sienna said on her death bed. […]
["Her first and fundamental principle":] that people who wish to begin to serve God must rid their hearts of all that kind of love into which the senses enter, not only for people but for any kind of creature whatsoever, and that they must seek for God the Creator single-mindedly and wholeheartedly. The heart, she said, cannot be entirely given to God unless it is delivered from all other affections and is simple and open and free from double-mindedness. [The Life of St. Catherine of Siena, Bl. Raymond of Capua, pt. 3 ch. 4]
It is to find God, “to please Him alone,” that, after the example of the great Patriarch, we have left all : Soli Deo placere desiderans ["Desiring to please God alone"], says St. Gregory [I Dialog. lib. II]. We must always remain in this fundamental disposition. It is only at this price that we shall find God. If, on the contrary, forgetting little by little our initial gift, we allow ourselves to turn aside from this supreme aim, if we cling to some person, some employment, some charge, some work or occupation, some object, then, let us be convinced of this, we shall never possess God fully.
More post
- 📝 Are chapter and verse divisions international?
- 📝 In John 17:19, what is Jesus referring to specifically regarding His sanctification, and how does this then apply to us being sanctified?
- 📝 The LDS perspective on the Four Horsmen
- 📝 Why are there Sibyls and Prophetesses in the Sistine Chapel?
- 📝 How do Christians who believe that eternal life begins now explain the fact that Christians die?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for the belief that Jesus' death made satisfaction for individual sins?
- 📝 Was Jesus was sent to speak to the Jews only?
- 📝 Aquinas on polytheism
- 📝 Which nuns get new names?
- 📝 Can a priest make disclosure of sin a part of penance?
- 📝 What is the theological basis both body and blood being present in both the eucharist host and the wine? (Catholic perspective)
- 📝 Why did it take so long for papal infallibility to be defined?
- 📝 Why First Epistle to St. John by St. Ignatius of Antioch is considered to be spurious?
- 📝 How, as a spiritual person do you differentiate your Intuition from Holy Spirit's guidance?
- 📝 Who found whom? After Jesus FINDS Philip, why does Philip tell Nathanael "We have FOUND the One..."?
- 📝 Must you have completed your confirmation to be able to go to confession?
- 📝 Thou shall not kill?
- 📝 Did Paul preach Jesus's message?
- 📝 What are the major differences between evangelical Christianity and Mormonism?
- 📝 Can Catholics receive sacraments via Skype?
- 📝 Did Prophet Jeremiah's soul pre-exist his conception in human form?
- 📝 Did the Reformers accuse the Catholic Church of being "a pagan mixture"?
- 📝 What is the basis for saying that the Gospel of Thomas was accepted as scripture by early Christians?
- 📝 When was Satan cast out of heaven according to Catholics?
- 📝 Who does John 6:40 refer to according to Reformed theology?
- 📝 What is Paul saying in Romans 7:15 - 7:25?
- 📝 Has God created anything since he rested on the 7th day?
- 📝 How will Satan rage in the hearts of the children of men? (LDS perspective)
- 📝 Did Jesus/God/Jehovah know that Jesus would die on the cross BEFORE coming to Earth?
- 📝 According to Catholicism, how can the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father and the Son if it is God?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 According to Protestantism, how should Christians "seek" and "find" God?
- 📝 According to Catholicism, how should Christians "seek" and "find" God?
- 📝 According to the Bible, how should Christians meditate?
- 📝 According to LDS, do all non-LDS Christians lack the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and if so, how does this lack manifest itself in the lives of non-LDS?
- 📝 According to Catholicism, how should Christians react when an unbeliever dies?
- 📝 How should Christians participate in a democracy?
- 📝 How should Christians discipline their children today?
- 📝 How should Christians act toward non-Christians?
- 📝 How do Christians explain commonalities between their religion, other major faiths and obscure isolated tribal belief systems?
- 📝 How can Christians reconcile the request to prohibit same-sex marriage and the lawfulness of h*m*sexuality itself?
- 📝 How is the belief that Christians are both adopted and begotten sons of God reconciled?
- 📝 Is there any holy language for Christians according to words of Jesus Christ and the apostles?
- 📝 According to Calvinists, how could Adam and Eve fall? How could Satan fall?
- 📝 How does the Hebrew Roots movement handle Paul's statements which imply Christians should not be enslaved to the Jewish Law?
- 📝 According to adherents of 'soul sleep', how did Moses and Elijah appear to Jesus, Peter, James, and John?
- 📝 How do Christians rebut Matt Dillahunty's objection that the resurrection of Jesus is untestable, unfalsifiable and thus unreasonable to believe?
- 📝 How do Christians define knowledge and faith?
- 📝 How do Christians who adhere to the maxim “in essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; and in all things charity” determine what is essential?
- 📝 How should other churches respond to a pastor and congregation who live contrary to the Gospel?
- 📝 According to Catholic Church tradition, where, when, how and by whom did the devotion of the Stations of the Cross begin?
- 📝 If marriage is not a sacrament, why should Christians care how the civil authorities define it?
- 📝 According to Catholicism how does a person discriminate between hearing the true word of God versus a hallucination or a demon?
- 📝 How did the early Christians and Apostles Get into the temple? Shouldn't they have been stoned by the Jews for preaching Jesus as God?
- 📝 According to Jehovah's Witnesses and Unitarians and all who deny that Jesus is the Almighty God, how can He be in you and live in you?
- 📝 What is an overview of how Christians interpret 2 Timothy 1:6-7 and apply it to their own lives?
- 📝 How do Christians who believe in current-day Apostles, Prophets and the 5-fold ministry interpret Ephesians 2:20?
- 📝 According to Reformed Theology how can we saved by Grace 'Alone' and Faith 'Alone'?
- 📝 According to Catholicism and Revelation are we going to be able to eat meat in Heaven or the Garden of Eden?
- 📝 According to Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy are there any doctrinal barriers to Christians sharing places of worship with non-Christians?
- 📝 How do Christians who see Scripture as self-evidently inspired explain that Catholics, Protestants and Mormons have different sacred scriptures?