What Faith Means

Faith in God should affect the way we think and live in five ways. First, belief in God should lead us to turn to him alone as the first cause and final goal of all things. Everything that happens, God has willed or allowed for our greatest good. Therefore, abandon yourselves unconditionally to God’s Providence, to the way He guides all things for good. Trust him to work out your purification and holiness as He sees fitting. Try not to resist him but to do his will and accept his will in all things since union with God is our goal.   If everything we are and have comes from God and if God works all things for good for those who love him, then we should live in constant thanksgiving. We should begin each day, naming many things for which we are grateful to God. Then, when something wrong or bad happens, pray, ask God what to do and do what you can to change it. If you cannot change it, then thank God for it because God works all things for good for those who love him.   Faith in God means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men: everyone is made in the image and likeness of God. Every person comes from God and every person is made for union with God through Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church. Our role is to take the initiative to help them to friendship with God. Our role is also means we must live the Golden Rule: do to others what you would want them to do to you. Faith in God means making good use of created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him: A prayer of St Nicholas of Flue captures this idea well: My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you. My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you. My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you. Faith in God means trusting God in every circumstance, even in adversity. A prayer of St. Teresa of Avila wonderfully expresses this trust: Let nothing trouble you / Let nothing frighten you Everything passes / God never changes Patience / Obtains all Whoever has God / Wants for nothing God alone is enough.