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Where do we find meaning in life?

Where do we find meaning in life?. Wants, Needs and Desires Wants are short term. Needs are more important and more lasting than short-term wants. Desires are deeper, longer and more personal. Where do we find meaning in life?. Where does God fit in?

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Where do we find meaning in life?

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  1. Where do we find meaning in life? Wants, Needs and Desires Wants are short term. Needs are more important and more lasting than short-term wants. Desires are deeper, longer and more personal.

  2. Where do we find meaning in life? Where does God fit in? The deepest human desire is to know that we count for something. The Church teaches: We matter to God; God loves us unconditionally; God is the only true answer to our search for meaning in life. Within each of us is a need or desire to know God. The desire for God is universal and inherent in our human nature.

  3. Human life is special The Book of Genesis—A Faith Account A faith story written by people who wanted to tell how the world and everything in it came to be. Not meant to teach scientific truths, but the great truths of our faith. God made the universe and everything in it. God made human beings to be the pinnacle of all creation.

  4. Human life is special The Book of Genesis—A Faith Account • God is the living Creator and Sustainer of all that exists. • God created man and woman ‘in the image of God’; both are equal. • God gave humankind ‘dominion’ over the rest of creation. • God demands that we be good stewards of creation. • God rested on the seventh day and made it holy. We need to do the same.

  5. Human beings share in God’sdivine life The Second Account of Creation At the beginning of the second chapter of Genesis. This parallel story of the Creation of human beings is much older than the first account. Imagines God as a modeler in clay, shaping human beings out of mud. Ish (man) and isha (woman) are equally created in the divine image.

  6. Human beings share in God’sdivine life We Share in God’s Life and Love We are made to love and to be loved. We experience love from those around us, but God loves us more than any human being could ever love us. God is love. (1 John 4:8)

  7. Human beings share in God’sdivine life God Promises Us Salvation The Fall of Adam and Eve in the garden—Original Sin. God tells the serpent, ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman’; this is the first promise of Salvation to be found in the Bible. This promise will be fulfilled in the Person and ministry of Jesus Christ.

  8. Human beings share in God’sdivine life God’s Love Is All Around Us God’s love is everywhere in the created world. God’s love is in every human person, including yourself. Human love is a reflection of God’s love. When we witness human love at its best, we get a sense of what God and the love of God is like.

  9. How do we recognize our desirefor God? The Desire For God Is Written on the Human Heart St. Augustine: ‘Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.’ (Confessions) Catechism of the Catholic Church: ‘The desire for God is written on the human heart, because man is created by God and for God.’ (CCC, no. 27) Blaise Pascal: ‘There is a God-shaped hollow in the human heart that only God can fill.’ Only God can fulfill our true longings and give lasting joy.

  10. How do we recognize our desirefor God? Faith Faith is both a gift of God and a human act by which the believer gives personal adherence to God (who invites his or her response) and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed. —United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, 512

  11. The story of St. Augustine St. Augustine Born in North Africa in AD 354. Lived a wild life by following his every want. Monica, his mother, prayed continuously for his conversion to Jesus. Converted to Christianity at age 33; describes this journey in his book The Confessions. His famous phrase sums up his experience: ‘Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.’ Became a priest in 391 and Bishop of Hippo in 396. Wrote many influential theological books and sermons; died in 430.

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