Penny Catechism: Saving your soul and loving God.

Of which must I take most care of, my body or my soul?    I must take most care of my soul for Christ has said "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and SUFFER THE LOSS OF HIS SOUL".

What must you do to save your soul?    To save my soul I must worship God by Faith, Hope, and Charity, that is, I must believe in Him, I must Hope in Him, and I must love Him with my whole heart. 

St Paul spoke of being in a race, a race towards salvation, he has not yet reached the finishing line but he is striving forward.   He also admits that the things he should do, he does not do, and the things that the things he does not want to do, he does.    What St Paul was saying is that there was a battle inside him between Good and Evil and he must strive to allow the good inside himself to win.   For a large part of my eighty odd years, I never thought much about this.   I just went to Church on Sunday with everyone else.   I did not murder, I was not a criminal, and I worked and looked after my Family, so everything was good and I was going to Heaven, so going to Church was just a formality.   The rest of the week I did not think of God very much, though every so often I would pick up the Bible to read, or perhaps the life of a saint.    But no these were not the things I told to my friends.   Nor did I reveal to my friends how much I disliked this one or that one, nor did I, though mostly in my youth, tell my thoughts on the opposite sex, nor did I see much harm in using a girl for my pleasure.     But as I grew older I realised that, despite my good intentions, I was not running the race like St Paul.   I was not really concerned with loving God, just acknowledging Him.    Then I was given a singular grace at a Fatima rally, and I saw quite clearly what God was asking of me, he wanted me to give myself, my life, entirely to Him   So I entered the race.    It is not without struggles nor do I suggest that I am in any way a saint, no I am now part of all those wonderful priests and lay people I knew who already loved God so much and were an example in my life that I did not follow.    I pray especially for the young people who have never been taught to give their lives to Jesus ,and believe in the values of our secular society which has caused the ruin of so many of them.    Mary my Mother, teach them to love Jesus.


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