In the Spotlight

This is a tricky one, but God has always existed, nobody made God. Try imagining time as a line. Everything that has ever happened, like your birth, is on that line. Everything that ever will happen, like next years FA cup final, is also somewhere on that line. Rather than thinking that the creation of God is somewhere on that line, it’s more accurate to say that God drew that line for everything to happen on. He invented time. Nobody made God, he has always been alive and he always will be.

I would say that God made the earth, and the way God chose to make the earth was by using the big bang (and all the millions of other things that took place between the big bang and the earth we know today). The story of creation we read at the beginning of the bible isn’t necessarily meant to be a scientific explanation of how God made us, but a story that explains that God made the universe and everything in it, including us, and that God loves us completely. I think science does a great job of explaining how God made us, and the bible does a great job of explaining why God made us.

This is a hard question to answer, because answers don’t necessarily comfort us when someone we know and love dies. Firstly, God doesn’t want anyone to suffer, that’s not part of his perfect plan, and one way we can understand death, is that it is a gift from God, a moment when we can move from this life, with it’s struggles and difficulties, into a new phase of our lives that is free from pain, and where we can always know God’s love. This is only possible because Jesus died for us and made that possible, so that’s proof of how much God really wants us to spend eternity with him! One way of dealing with the death of a loved one, is to Jesus knew what it was like to lose loved ones (his cousin John was killed), and Jesus is always there for us, always loving us and always ready to listen to us... so we can keep talking to him, and asking him for his help. It is also important to let others know how we’re feeling, and how hard it is at times, otherwise we can find that we’re struggling on our own, which is too hard for anyone. We can also ask God to take care of the person who has died, and we can trust that God is very good at taking care of people. (You can check out our prayer wall and start talking to God now)

This is a good question. My grandma died recently and she wouldn’t have said that she particularly believed in God. It is easy to imagine God as someone who only gives a place in heaven to those who deserve it, or those who believe in Him, but God wants us to go to heaven so much that he was willing to let his son Jesus die for us to make it possible. So, Jesus became a bridge for us, the way to enter heaven, and everyone who gets to heaven crosses this bridge. But, it says in the bible that God is love, and Jesus said he was the truth, so our Catholic Church teaches that if a person spends their life trying to love and seeking truth, then in some way they are choosing to move closer to God, and even thought they may not have had the opportunity to really meet Jesus, they are crossing the bridge he made for us. God is more loving and merciful than we can possibly imagine, and he wants us all with him far more than we might think, both those who call themselves Christian and those who don’t.

I think some people only believe in what they can see or prove to exist. It's not that easy to prove that God exists to people who don't believe already, and as some people are brought up without ever being told about God, or without being told that God loves them, it can sometimes take time before they can begin to believe. The great thing is that, as St Paul said, for every step we take towards God, by asking questions, or saying a prayer, God comes running towards us.

There are many reasons why it might not be possible for a child to live wit their biological parents, and adoption is a way of providing a child with a family for life. It is a great act of love provided by many wonderful people, and an opportunity for them to pass on the love of God and give children an experience of a loving family.

The important thing to remember that God loves us no matter what – we don’t need to try to please him, he is already pleased with us!

It's tough to imagine why somebody would give up their only child. They must really, really love what they are giving them up for. That is the reason. God loves us so much and wants us to share life with him that he was willing to do this. God knew that if Jesus didn't pay the ultimate price of his life, then we wouldn't be able to live with him in paradise. It's all about love.

Whenever we do anything wrong, we hurt Him deeply. But can you imagine if He stopped loving us because we did something wrong? Would there be anyone left on earth that deserved His love?! It’s lucky for us that God is love and is forgiveness.

Everyone, for the whole of their lives, no matter what they do, is loved by God. He is constantly giving everyone opportunities to change their ways, to ask for His forgiveness and turn back to Him. When we do, we feel this amazing love. When we don’t, we put ourselves outside it.

One way of thinking about it is that my dad is called Brown (Ken Brown) and I am called Brown (Martin), so I am Brown, son of Brown. God the Father is God, he is completely God, but his Son shares his divinity (His God-ness), so Jesus is also completely God. This is one of those things the Church calls a mystery though, so don’t worry if it’s still confusing, because our job is just to start to try to understand it!

God is God and there is only one God (the three persons of the Trinity). God is Spirit, not matter. Angels are also spirit, but they are not God. Humans have a physical nature (‘ matter’) and a spiritual side. What’s exciting is that for a time, Jesus took on our human physical nature, so that we could know God better.