Other Experiences of an English Language Teacher

  Did you ever see God? Nobody did indeed. But we believe in him, and he has revealed himself, sure thing. Well a lot of people did see Jesus Christ, some two thousand years ago in ancient Palestine. And he is God. Actually true God and true man. At the same time.  And the essence of Christian creed or religion is Jesus Christ. And God has revealed all in Christ Jesus. He is the definitive revelation. Nothing else can be said. Anyway our mother the Church has deepened in these beliefs along history.  And with that Person, Jesus, we can talk. Now. We can talk to and with him, and so many a person can account about that tremendous experience. You can attain too. That’s not for a few chosen people. Moreover he is wishing you address him. In your interior. Or amid nature. Or you may enter a church and find him in the Tabernacle, in the Eucharist. Or in the Monstrance, if he is exposed to people’s adoration and chattering with him. It’s just ordinary experience. You also may a...

  God you asked? He is so good and good to us that he has revealed himself. He has gotten known to us. In his eternal love to us. By means of words and things that happened, he revealed to us what he is like.  In his son Jesus Christ – true God and true man – he has told us all he had to tell us. For example that there is one single God, yet three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  And he lets us entertain ourselves with him, for we can talk to and with him at prayer, and all day long, also through our everyday work and our rest. And all this with his grace and help – otherwise we cannot address him at all. Prayer is but a gift to us his children. And prayer may be made absolutely everyplace: at work, of course at church, with my family, when playing tennis, when having a beer with my friends, whenever we exist.  Furthermore we can participate in his life, by his grace. And in his inner life he is three Persons, like I said before.  How could I e...

  We may be hectic and so busy, you know, with everyday’s stuff, plus my kids, my work, etc.  And what about God? The devil tries we would be so immersed in worldly stuff that we don’t remember we have a soul, and our loving father God loves us infinitely.  You know, we can be busy for example with our work, but also we can carry it out as service to the community and the singular persons, even we can contemplate God and work at the same time, turning our dear work into prayer. All that with God’s help and grace, of course.  And can we talk about him? What is he like? We can approximate him by thinking of the perfections we find in our world and in singular persons. And he is beyond all that.  You know, the best thing to get so close to God is by talking to him; moreover, talking with him, for he responds, and that is not something extreme or out of every man’s reach. It’s regular stuff, everyday’s stuff.  When we make prayer, we get to start knowing God, a...

  Life actually  may be hard and present dire-straits. But more often than not, what occurs to western man today usually is minor stuff.  Yep, life is hard, but that does not necessarily block out you may also be positive, and optimistic.  I do know that they Christians have God in their lives, and that accounts for a great deal. You may be optimistic if you have a firm base to stand on.  There was a general, one with French Louis XIV, and he was about to die, very old. The king wished to offer him the marshall’s mace as a tribute to his generous and brave life. The old man took hold of the mace, and it is said he said, “It’s bright and beautiful, and quite an honor to me, but what I need now is something else,” and he took hold of a crucifix and covered it with kisses.  One can try and see the better side of things in life. I knew one guy that way. He seemed he was not annoyed by nothing in life, not at all. He responded nice to life, and to other people. ...

  Prayer? Talking to and with God, like a child with his dad, with a wonderful love of dad and mom? It is wonderful, prayer is so. Because I can tell him my stuff, my things, and my dear ones’ as well, and he responds, of course he does! In some way or other. At our interior, in my heart.  Prayer? Basically it’s a gift from and by God, it’s to try to reach him too, and he does not conceal from you – the little we seek him, he is easy to find. Well, you will probably not see him, anyway he is more present than me myself.  André Frossard, the famous French journalist, used to say – and I’ve heard say the same to other people – that Saint John Paul II was like a block of prayer. And I guess many of us can recall when he was on this world, well, he was such a block of prayer, absolutely embodied in prayer, but not indifferent to other people and their needs; even more, that prayer made him accessible to any person, and he perfectly realized about others’ needs, and had some p...

  We have already said that man can reach to know God with his own reason and mind, okay. But God has wished to reveal to man, his divine inside but also some things man can reach to know through his reason and mind. God is so good.  For example, God has revealed he is three Persons but anyway only one God. Is it clear? Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yet only one God. Well, that’s something you cannot understand nor comprehend totally, for it’s a mystery.  And Jesus Christ, the Son incarnated, revealed there are those three Persons in God. As I said before, God is so father and loving and good that he has revealed some things – moral and doctrinal – man can achieve to learn through his only mind – also because man is so fallible at getting to know such things.  And we get to learn all those things by the Bible, Tradition and our mother the Church teaching over the centuries.  I live in Granada, Spain, you know, the Alhambra palace and all that – ama...