CATHOLIC CATECHISM

IT SEEMS WE CAN'T FIND GOD

In psalm 23, king David sings about his trust in God: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters. "
When a man is prospering, he can easily say such a thing. But suppose somebody's fighting against cancer, or seeking the murderer of his son. Suppose somebody's fighting against slander. Then these words don't easily pass his lips.
Nevertheless, a Catholic will seek comfort with God. He will read up the psalms. He will read about missionaries who stood firm in difficult circumstances: father Damian with the lepers on Hawaii, the seventeenth-century Jesuits at the torture stakes in Canada, father Titus Brandsma in Dachau.
In psalm 74, Asaf asks God where he's hiding himself: "Then know, Lord, the enemy sneers at you, a people of fools is despising you."

The best way to keep hope vivid in everyday circumstances, is praying your morning prayer, including the Lord's prayer and the Act of Faith.

Jesus himself taught us to pray:
"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen."

God not only reveals Himself in nature. He also does this in a supernatural way in Jesus and his Church. Our catechism deals in three chapters with the three persons or facets of God:
"O my God, I believe that you are one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I believe that your Son became man, and died at the Cross; that you reward all good deeds and punish all evil deeds. I believe these and all the truths which you revealed and which you teach by means of the Catholic Church ... ".
All these things will come up more extensively later on.