God and the Trinity
The Catholic faith is a Christian and a monotheism faith. A monotheism faith is where we believe in, and worship one God.
God is infinite and perfect, and nothing stands equal to Him. God desires us to know and to love Him with all of our heart. Even though we have one God, in the Christian faith we see three “persons” in the one God. These are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three persons are referred to as the Trinity, and it plays an important part in our Christian faith. The Trinity shows what perfect love is. the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can never be separated from one another and work for the good for all those who love Him. God is Holy and Divine; no one can have a higher name than the Lord's.
The Trinity and our Catholic faith is a mystery. No one can truly know or understand the deep true identity of God. The Trinity wouldn’t exist without The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. They are to be worshipped as one God.
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God existed even before the beginning of time. He created all good things; the things we can see, and the things that we can't. God created humans and all the creatures on earth. When God created the world, He was very happy with it and said, “It was good”. Our purpose is to be in union with God forever and ever. God loves us so much that he is willing to give us everything.
How to summarise God in three words is that 'God is love'. God the Father loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ down to earth to die for us, so that we can one day live with the Trinity forever in Heaven. The crucifix, that has Jesus on the cross is a symbol of the Catholic faith. It reminds us of the total selfless love that Jesus gave to us.
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“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.
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John 3:16
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When Jesus came to earth around 2,000 years ago, it was the first time when people could communicate with God face to face. Before that time, people were separated from God by sin so much that anyone who saw the face of God would die. Jesus was fully human, like us, but he was fully divine; which meant he was God. He wanted to be like us, so we can feel safe and trust Him.
Jesus was born in a stable, where animals are kept, as His parents, Mary and Joseph couldn't find a place that night anywhere else. Jesus wasn't from a wealthy household; He learnt to be a carpenter (woodworker) like his foster father, Joseph. But since Jesus was God, He had a special mission, to teach the people about the Trinity and salvation. Many people at the time, didn't believe that Jesus was God. People who were waiting for the Messiah, thought Jesus would come from a wealthy household and be an earthly king. A lot people thought Jesus was lying and a fraud so much so that God's own people (the Jews) sentenced Him to death. Jesus didn't do anything wrong, He was without sin, but Jesus didn't argue against anyone. Jesus was beaten, put to shame and had his hands and feet nailed to a cross. He gave up His life for us.
It's important to know about Jesus dying for us, because before that time when anyone did something terrible, they would be separated from God, and would have to sacrifice an animal to be forgiven. But Jesus had mercy on us and died to take our place. It would be like if you had to owe someone something, like $50, and you didn't have that much money and you were in debt, Jesus came and paid that $50 for you, using his own money so you wouldn't have to pay it.
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In the book of Exodus in the Bible, God gave Moses and the Israelites (the followers of God) a list of rules. This list is called the 10 commandments. Catholics still follow the 10 commandments even today because it tells us what God wants and doesn't want us to do, and how He wants us to worship Him. The first three commandments are centred around God. The first commandment reminds us that no one stands higher than God and we should not worship anyone except God. The second commandment tells us that we cannot use God's name in vain - meaning we should respect the name of the Lord and not use it as a joke or as a bad word. The third commandment reminds us that we need to remember that Sunday is a very special day as it's the day that Jesus rose from the dead, so we remember that day by going to Mass
We should never make fun of God or joke about the Christian faith, because God loves us more than we can ever imagine. He is our heavenly Father and has given us so many wonderful gifts.
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Romans 8:26
Also, the Spirit helps us. We are very weak, but the Spirit helps us with our weakness. We do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself speaks to God for us, even begs God for us. The Spirit speaks to God with deep feelings that words cannot explain.
Prayer
Prayer is how we talk to God. Whenever we pray to God, we are asking Him for our needs and the needs of others. You can pray whenever you like and wherever you like. There are a lot of ways that we can pray; some people pray through listening or singing to worship music (music about God), some people read the Bible and meditate on words from the Bible. People normally say prayers in their minds, or whisper them quietly to themselves.
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The Lord wants us to pray, because He wants to hear from us. It doesn't matter if you are sad or happy; or even if it's the middle of the night. Prayer is how we come to Jesus, and how Jesus comes to help us. A prayer is like a secret phone call between you and God. Even though sometimes we can't hear God's voice, we should always have our ears and our hearts open to listen to God speak. Sometimes God doesn't answer our prayers right away; and sometimes He answers in unexpected ways.
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In the Bible, Jesus teaches his followers to pray by praying the Lord's Prayer. You might know the Lord's Prayer from going to Mass, or you might say it at home or at school.
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The Lord's Prayer goes like this:
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Our Father,
Who art in Heaven
Hallowed be your name,
Thy Kingdom come
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
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The Lord's prayer is a very special prayer because it comes straight from Jesus; that's why it's called the Lord's Prayer. This special prayer shows us how to pray, and tells us to thank and praise God first, before anything else. The Lord's Prayer also sums up what we should pray for in our lives. It teaches us that God is our Father lives in Heaven, and that we can ask him for our needs and desires. We ask our Father to give us what we need to survive and to give us the Eucharist. We ask God to forgive our wrong doings, and save us from evil.
Jesus also prays to God the Father, just like we do. We can see this a lot in the New Testament of the Bible.
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Catholics also say the Hail Mary. This prayer is a form of an intercessory prayer, which means you are asking Mary to ask God to help you.
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Only God can answer prayers, but you can always ask other people, like your parents, friends or your priest to pray with you or for you.
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Some prayers are formal, like the Our Father and the Hail Mary, but some can be whatever you want to say to God. Sometimes Catholics pray a special prayer called the Rosary. The Rosary is seeing the life of Christ through the faith of Mary. The prayer is said using rosary beads, and it can help us focus and feel supported in our journey in faith.
A prayer is from the heart, and it doesn't matter if you don't know exactly what you want to say to God, because he knows your heart even better than you do.
God knows what we want and need, but it's important to pray, as it shows that we want a relationship with Jesus. Through prayer, we also thank God for everything He has given us.
