BEGINNERS' PAGE - Brief or quick version - "Your prison cell door is open... all you have to do is walk out...."

In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.

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WHY CALL THIS A "BEGINNERS' PAGE"?

When it comes to God, we human beings are all beginners - no matter our ethnicity, culture, language, gender, age, religious or not... 

God is the only "eternal" being and we are all mortals... our life is brief... 

We are very limited in what we can know and do and how long we can remain in this life. But, this is not a curse; on the contrary.

BRIEF PARABLE: Our common human condition is comparable to a man or woman sitting in a prison cell with the door unlocked and open. All they have to do to be free from their prison is get up and walk out the door. Will they do it, or will they remain in the familiarity of their prison cell? That is the question.

NATURE OF THE QUESTION OR OUR DILEMMA: For millennia, human beings have wondered if there is a god or many gods or none. A multitude of religions and sects exist on the Earth and new ones crop up constantly. How can any of them be true? If God is real, why is he not obvious to everyone?

ORIGINS OF THE PARABLE: The Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible explains that the original human beings knew their Creator God personally and enjoyed his friendship. They were deceived by rebel angels, pure spirits, into withdrawing their trust in God and trust rather in their own selves. 

EXPLANATION OF THE PARABLE: That decision to withdraw trust from God isolated them inside themselves, no longer able to relate to their Creator God, isolating them even from each other and from the natural world around them. They were in prison. They passed on this isolation and trouble to their offspring and we have all inherited it. Whether we admit it or not, we are all in prison.

THE CONSEQUENCES, THE RESULT: As a result, to this day, we all suffer in varying degrees of isolation from God, from others, from nature, and even from our own self. By ourselves the best we can do is try to imagine a better life and strive for it, and wonder whether there is a god and what this god may be like. That is why there are so many religions and sects. We can't get out of our cell because we can't see the open door or are afraid to walk through it.

    APPLICATION OF THE PARABLE: WHAT IF OUR CREATOR GOD IS ALREADY REACHING OUT TO US?

This is precisely what The Bible - the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) and the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) - says throughout its pages. God reached out to humanity in the person of Abraham and his descendants, making them a people willing to believe in God, to know and walk in his ways, and learn to make a return of love to the Lord in return for his love. God's Chosen People - Israel and Juda - remained a very small nation and they always had trouble remaining faithful to the relationship God was constantly offering them.

GOD'S OFFER VS OUR DECISION: In time, God came to Earth among us as a man in Jesus of Nazareth, and He revealed more completely who God is and what his intentions are towards us. Jesus while on Earth, and since his resurrection from the dead, now from Heaven, continues to offer us freedom from our prison of isolation, from fear of God, from our unwillingness to trust, and restore our incapacity to care for one another and for Creation. 

JESUS BRINGS GOOD NEWS, HE IS THE GOOD NEWS: Jesus' offer is summed up in his declaration: "The kingdom of God is near at hand. Believe the good news." The moment we decide to trust God in Jesus, He frees us to get up and walk out of our prison and break through our isolation. We open ourselves to all that Jesus has to teach us and do for us, and He gives to us a "new heart", enabling us to see everything in life from God's point of view. 

WALKING OUT OF JAIL: The obstacles we experience in life are not on God's part but on our part. Once we begin to trust in God, we are like the blind man whose sight Jesus restored. We can relate to God from within ourselves, through others, through nature, with the words of the Bible, by experiencing the Sacraments, and in many other ways. We no longer rely on our own little, narrow opinions, but open ourselves to infinite horizons in God's presence.... 

I'D LIKE TO REFLECT A LITTLE MORE 

OR

👇 I'M GOOD TO GO. WHAT'S NEXT? 👇

SOME WAYS WE CAN EXPLORE OPENING OURSELVES TO GOD

👇👇👇

1.  Contemplating nature can lift my spirit to enter gratefully into God's presence. I can prolong this "visit with God" by using a variety of prayer "techniques":

👉 Praying "Alone" 

👉 Praying "in silence" 

2.  Reading prayerfully the living Word of God in Sacred Scripture - the Bible - can bring me to realize that God is actually "speaking to me here and now in my life" and there are ways of prolonging such a "visit with God":

👉 Praying with Sacred Scripture - the "Living Word of God" 

3.  Looking at a "visual aid" such as a statue, icon, or other work of religious art, it can "open my imagination and memory" to "lift me up into God's presence" where I can prolong this "visitation with God" in a variety of ways: 

👉 Praying "in the company of the saints" - with ICONS & STATUES 

👉 Praying "in the company of the saints" - with STATUES & IMAGES 

4.  Using something in my life as a point of departure, I can ponder this experience or event or state of being or emotion and navigate it "towards God's presence and loving disposition" like an athlete engaging in "white water rafting" in the midst of which I can find myself relating to God in a more personal way, expressing myself and also listening to God: 

👉 Emotions connect us but at times they are troubling 

👉 Praying? What the heck is that anyway? 

👉 Like Indiana Jones in "The Last Crusade"? 

👉 Ending the Day Well & Starting the Day Well 

👉 Doubts, troubles, & struggles 

5.  There are as many ways of relating to God as there are unique human individuals and as there are different conditions, circumstances, and settings of time and place.... In all of these approaches to God, we learn to remember that God is always "going ahead of us" because God is always "there" and "here" at the same time. Every attempt to pray is an effort to "tune in" to God who is already relating to us with love and speaking to us tenderly at times and, at other times in accord with our need, more robustly or authoritatively.... One can develop a habit or skill for "lifting up one's spirit to God" at various times during the day in the normal course of life's every day activity.... Here are examples:

👉 Spirituality "Moments" in the busy lives of couples & parents 

👉 Spirituality "Ideas" for daily Catholic Christian devotions 

MORE IDEAS... CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN TOOLS.... 

FR. GILLES' HOME PAGE 

CONTACT FATHER GILLES 

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In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.

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© 2006-2023 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2023 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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Indiana Jones' "Last Crusade" 👉 an analogy of the Christian life

In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity (Jeremiah 31:31-34) every person can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.

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"Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade"

In "The Last Crusade" anthropology professor / adventurer Indiana Jones enters with his companions into the "Temple of the Sun" and must then successfully meet 3 challenges or die on the way into the chamber containing the Holy Grail. While this is a fictional adventure drama, the authors have borrowed elements that are true to life. Here are the challenges. 

1.     The Breath of God - "Only the penitent man will pass." The object of the first challenge was to kneel before the breath of God. At the start, a person would feel the wind (the Breath) blow through the chamber's thick cobwebs. He would then have to kneel quickly in order to avoid being decapitated by two huge circular saws.

2.     The Word of God - "Only in the footsteps of God will he proceed." The second challenge had a series of lettered tiles on the floor. The object was to figure out and step on the correct spelling to the Word. The answer was Jehovah, but was to be spelled in Latin as "Iehova". Incorrect tiles would break through, causing the seeker to plunge into a deep chasm below the floor.

3.     The Path of God - "Only in the leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth." In the last of the challenges, the person must take a "leap of faith" from a sculpture of a lion's head across a huge canyon, when in reality there is a hidden path that is painted to look like the depth of the canyon. The object was for the person to believe they can cross whether or not they can see the path.

In Henry Jones' Grail diary, he abbreviated the three challenges in Latin as "The Pendulum," "The Cobbles," and "The Invisible Bridge." Although credited as having only three challenges to get to the Grail, the final one was, according to the Grail Knight, to "choose wisely" among a set of many cups, plates, and bowls to drink spring water out of. Finding the true Grail brought eternal life, which lasted until crossing the Great Seal, the price for immortality. The one who found the Grail was expected to use their eternal life to guard and protect the Grail. Choosing a false Grail and drinking from it would cause instant death.

RETURN TO CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN TOOLS PAGE 

Let us see now how these dramatic images actually apply to life and the journey to God. The reason there are so many different religions and "paths" to God - even many "versions" of God - is that God chooses to remain mysterious. This is also why so many people find connecting with God difficult. This is not because God is playing "hard to get", but it is due in large part to our inclination to approach life on our own terms with attitudes ranging from apathy or superiority to arrogance and contempt for others and for God. While the strong may succeed in imposing their will on the weak; God loves us too much to allow us to harm ourselves by trying to impose our will on Him, the flawed on the perfect. 

Jesus revealed that God is actually a Holy Trinity of divine Persons: the Father, the Son (the God-Man Jesus) and the Holy Spirit: together they are a perfect and eternal community of life and love, respect and harmony. We would do ourselves great harm in trying to approach God with an attitude of superiority or control; so God remains inaccessible to such approaches. The only way we can successfully approach God is to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into the proper humble attitudes and receptive dispositions for opening ourselves to join in this perfect communion of persons which is God. 

1.     The "Breath of God" - the Hebrew word for spirit "ruah" even sounds like wind and breath. The three divine Persons are spirit, not flesh, with the exception of the human flesh or nature the Son took from Mary. The Holy Spirit conceived the Son in Mary's womb and the Son came to be known as the man Jesus, son of Mary and also Son of God. John in his Gospel, chapter 3, records Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, an elder of Israel, in which He explains that God remains mysterious like the wind but very real. The 3 divine Persons are autonomous from us and act in accord with their own perfect will. The only option we have if we wish to approach God is with an attitude of humility or penitence, which is symbolized in kneeling as an expression of authentic openness and receptivity.

2.     The "Word of God" - In his Gospel Prologue, John expresses the faith of the apostles and disciples in seeing Jesus as the eternal Son of God, the divine Word spoken by the Father Creator from the beginning of time. This eternal Word became flesh because God wanted to get closer to humanity by becoming one of us. The only true path to come to know God in his true nature as Holy Trinity is by experiencing his love through Jesus of Nazareth. The holy Name of God is his life-giving Word to us, Jesus. The Father calls us to heed Jesus, his Word, obey his commands, and follow in his footsteps. This is what it means to be a disciple, one who follows in the steps of the master and becomes like the master. 

3.     The "Path of God" - For human beings to trust in the "Breath of God" and to listen to the "Word of God" and follow in his steps is very demanding of our mortal human nature. We are so insecure that we cling to our illusions of control. We don't let go of the desire for control very easily. To put our trust in anyone we need to let go of our fears and impulse to seize power. We do that every time we get in an airplane, on a train, bus, or ship, and being in the company of others doing the same thing helps. When it comes to trusting in God we hesitate because of God's mysterious divine nature; yet Christians find great support in one another's company on the journey of faith. It's easier to make the "leap of faith" together.

RETURN TO CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN TOOLS PAGE

We offer this web page to all people of good will who seek an authentic, personal relationship with God our Creator. As we journey together we will make good use of various practices which have proven essential for this journey of faith. We are called, each in our own way, to develop a personal "Rule of Life" to help us "sync" with God. These are elements and disciplines of living that enable us to live our whole life in the Presence of God by accepting to be drawn into the life, love, and communion of the Most Holy Trinity, where alone is to be found truth and goodness, beauty and light, justice and mercy, unity and harmony, and that authentic life which is lasting peace.

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In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity (Jeremiah 31:31-34) every person can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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