In the Spotlight

Because He just does! Can you think of a possible reason why God made us? We get things wrong all the time, we hurt each other far too often and we’re really bad at saying sorry. We’re not even needed in the great food chain! What possible use can God, who created the universe, have for us? Absolutely nothing – yet he still made us, simply out of love. If we need more proof… when things got really bad He sent His son to die for us so we can be saved!

God loved us so much He gave us free will – the choice to do what we want when we want to. There’s a lot of pressure to do things just because our friends, or celebrities on TV or others around us do them - even though we know deep down it isn’t right. This is peer pressure. To be able to be the one to stand up and say ‘no’ can sometimes be terrifying. To not get mad and say hurtful things when somebody hurts you is really hard. The trick is to always talk to God about things in prayer -that way you’ll always make the right decision. You could also try to ask yourself what Jesus would do in the same situation.

First, always, always, take a deep breath and count to ten before you react – it calms you down and it really works. It gives you time to think about how best to respond. Second, find some time, perhaps before bed, when you can think about what it is that makes you angry and offer it up to God in prayer. God loves us very much and it hurts him to see us in distress. If you tell Him how you really feel deep down, He’ll help you through it. I promise you, prayer changes everything. (You can check out our prayer wall and start talking to God now)

Some things are so incredible it’s impossible they’re down to anything but God. Think of nature. Think of a baby in the womb. Think of a silk worm, or a butterfly or a blue whale or the ocean or the dozens of moons flying around Saturn. Or, bigger still, small acts of random, selfless kindness.

When Jesus was on earth he performed lots of miracles. The last time he ate with his friends he gave them bread and said it was his body – this was his best miracle - and it still happens every time we go to Mass. It follows a prayer the priest says, calling the Holy Spirit down on the bread to transform it, so it happens because of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Love God and love everyone around you as you love yourself. If we can do this, everything else we need to be for God slips into place. But the hardest thing to do as a Christian is to love the people that hurt you. How can you love the person who’s bullying you? Or the person who calls you names behind your back? God isn’t asking us to roll over and take it, but He’s asking us to try and see the person in front of us with His eyes. He’s asking us to be Christ for that person. This is where prayer is everything. It’s because of our relationship with God, that we will have the strength to do the right thing. In dealing with that person as Christ would, we are immediately giving them a glimpse of God’s love for them and a chance to change, which is exactly what God wants us to do. Whether or not they in turn choose to change is up to them, but we ourselves would have done God’s will.

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!

God made us in His image. He made us simply because He wanted to. He doesn’t need us, but He loves us more than anything else He created. His love is so great that He gave us free will. He gave us the choice whether to love Him or not. He loves us so much that He wants us to love him without being forced to.

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.

Just keep praying for them. It really works. Some of the greatest saints in the world came to believe in Jesus totally because of the prayers of others. St Augustine of Cathage, a great African saint, was completely off the rails when he was young. It was his mum’s constant prayers that finally caused him to look towards God and made him one of the most important and influential Catholic saints in history.

Absolutely. We can’t grow in our faith unless we really understand it. The only way to understand it is to question it. However, we also need to make sure that we question honestly and are open to what the Church teaches about our faith. Only then can make informed decisions as to what we believe. And finally, always keep it in prayer that we recognise the Truth.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look the best you can. The problem comes, as you say, when trying to look good is all you have. You can’t build a personality on looks and you certainly can’t base your happiness on it because we know it doesn’t last. Unfortunately in society today we’ve made looking good the most important thing a person can do. Almost nothing else matters. It actually takes faith and prayer not to get sucked in. But the rewards of trying to live as God has called us to lasts forever and make you a much more beautiful person.

I think it seems almost acceptable now to show how tough you are by being aggressive, to demand respect and rights, despite the fact that they have done nothing to earn them. Individuals believe that the only way to make it to the top is to make people scared of them, and that to show kindness is almost a weakness. Obviously, this isn’t good or right! It is ok to feel angry, and to feel hurt, it’s part of life – but we need to be careful not to hurt others with our anger.

Nobody gets sent to Hell. But we can put ourselves at risk of going there. God made us because He loves us. He loves us so much that He gave us free will. He gave us the choice whether to love Him or not and whether to try to lead a good life or not.
Everyone, for the whole of their lives, no matter what they do, is loved by God. Whenever we do anything wrong, we hurt Him deeply. We all do things that are wrong. Because He love us, He is constantly giving everyone opportunities during their lifetime to change their ways, to ask for His forgiveness and turn back to Him. When we do, we share in this amazing love. When we don’t, we put ourselves outside it and if a person continues to do so even as they are dying, they can finally separate themselves completely from Him and push themselves into Hell.

It’s fine to question your faith, in fact it’s important to. God doesn’t want a load of robots following Him! If you are wondering why you believe in what you do, you need to pray about it. Ask God to help you through your doubts. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would lead us into the Truth. Sometimes the difficulties we face in our faith is shaped by what’s happening around us, and we need to ask others for help and answers. We need to be able to be brave enough to first really discover what the Church teaches on a whole range of issues and then, make our decision in faith on whether we agree with it.