CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO BE HOLY
Did you know of God's great love for us, He wants us to become "holy" as His beloved Son is holy? In essence, "perfect?" Therefore, anyone who follows Jesus in His footsteps can and should become holy as Jesus!
The Catechism of the Catholic Church ("C.C.C.") 2013 confirms this theological find, "All Christians in any state of walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of Christ." All are called to holiness; perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48, "So be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect." This is only in the Gospel of Matthew. However, Luke comes closest in 6:36, "Be merciful as your Father is merciful." Merciful is a feeling that comes from the heart to forgive someone. It ties in with holiness which requires forgiveness from the heart.
Don't let this scare you to say, "I am not Jesus. I can't be perfect." If we are followers of Jesus, we definitely can progress in becoming better persons and reach this fullness of life. We start with following in the steps of our good Lord Jesus.
As we delve through scripture, we find parts of Jesus' life that we can immitate. He wants us to love Him, his Father or neighbor or we can help our neighbor as Christ loved them and help them with shelter, food or clothing or visit people in hospitals and pray for them. Also, one can visit and pray for the prisoners and help them in any way you can. Then, by continual progress, we can pray for the poor souls in purgatory and all other people who are suffering and carrying heavy burdens and need a variety of helps.
As for suggestion at this time in asking God our Father for His help to do His will and ask for blessings for every action you do for every moment in your life. Also, ask Him to even sanctify you and bless you to lead a better life and to become someday holy as Jesus is holy. How we need the theological virtues to support us in holiness.
CHAPTER 2
FAITH
God as an infinite being who was never created, created male and female to His own image and likeness. He created people for Himself to be able to love them and then call them to live with Him for all eternity.
Who is this being who created man with all the faculties of a living God and placed them on earth to be for Himself? This God was a superior infinite being that created the entire universe with billions of stars, a sun and moon; galaxies that are interspersed so precisely that they function as clockwork, not running into each other or the earth to destroy it.
God is not only an infinite being, but He is also divine, holy and a perfect being. And he wants all of us to become perfect as the Heavenly Father. God knows man and He knows how much each person needed help in his living a good and happy life. So, he gave Moses the Ten Commandments and instituted baptism, a sacrament that would provide each person with the Holy Spirit.
This spirit provides each person with seven gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and the fear of the Lord our God. These are perfections formed within us to assist us to love and worship God and love our neighbor and to enter into eternal love and peace in Heaven. We can use these God-given gifts in our daily life to help us make good decisions when it comes to how to best live our lives in our faith to be happy and earn our way into paradise.
There are many other gifts available from the Holy Spirit, but some of us may decide not to desire these gifts. They take upon themselves to decide what is good or bad and live a life according to their own whims of desires to only give themselves a temporary feeling of peace and happiness.
Many don't feel there is a purpose of life. They say that they will lead a good life and be able to enter Heaven or a good place where they will be happy. How wrong they could be! How can you not believe in God?
1. Common sense dictates that there is some higher power. It could be something in your mind that you cannot express.
2. The creation of the earth and all the heavenly bodies that are still out in space that our telescopes cannot see.
3. Historically, the life of Christ that has been recorded by pagan historians to their kings.
4. Over one billion Catholics believe it could be about the same for other Christian faiths. Also, Muslims believe in God.
CHAPTER 3
HOPE
God places hope in his people through Abraham and Moses by increasing the race as sands of the sea. He also made a new covenant that cannot be broken as it was written in the hearts of people in Jeremiah. "But, this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the Lord. "I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer will they need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoings and remember their sin no more." This prophesy was fulfilled through Jesus Christ who established a new covenant of himself.
God himself came down from heaven as Jesus to suffer and die for our sins to remove them forever so we can enter paradise with God. In Peter 5:10, God promised, "The God of all grace who called you to this eternal glory though Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you after you have suffered a little. Naturally, all serious sins must be forgiven by God or through confession through a priest with absolution.
In Catechism of the Catholic Church 1818, "The virtue of hope ... takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and sustains him during times of abandonment. It opens up his heart in expectation of external beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity."
Hope is the essence of God's love. Because God loves us so much, we know and feel that God will take care of us. He will never abandon us. We should never despair and feel that God will disappoint us if we are not worthy to be saved. No matter how sinful we may become, we know that God will always forgive us as he "thirsts" for our souls. One of the greatest sins is the sin of presumption whereby we believe we have already been forgiven with no further need of conversion. This can destroy hope.
We must thank God frequently for giving us life and time to repent our transgressions. Pray and thank God for everything we have received from him and live a good and hopeful, holy life.
CHAPTER 4
BEATITUDES
In a book, "A Do It At Home Retreat" written by Andre Ravier using the spiritual exercises by Saint Ignatius of Loyola p.p. 143146, meditation on the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus asked the crowd to assemble near the shoreline. In His talk, Jesus will ask for the grace of understanding of the true life and the grace to follow him more...
