How do we know we are encountering God?

To know the unseen God is indeed a mystery, yet we are compelled to believe by the gift of faith. In this short clip, Fr. Barron offers up some ideas about how to recognize that we are already seen and known by God.

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• Christian
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• Robert
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[FollowerOfTheGods]

How do you know you are encountering the Divine, whatever form it may be? When you see a man stop to help the one who utterly despises him, who would sooner attack him then look at him, and yet the man still takes time to help him, you have seen it.

The Divine is wherever humanity is at it's best. And you can find such places everywhere, even in the darkest, filthiest places.

[MaxxTheMerciless]

@sonyplaystation321 Good talking to you, too. What I tend to tell my fellow Christians on how to convert someone is very simple; just be yourselves, don't be afraid to speak out on things, promote excellence and decency in society when you can. But, what converted me was my own research, plus what I felt was a populist movement within some of the other denominations I had been to. In other words - Do Good things, speak the Truth, and let people make up their own minds.

[sonyplaystation321]

@MaxxTheMerciless this will have to be my last comment because of other things i need to do, i guess at the end of the day we will all find out whos right and whos wrong in the end, but if christians want to convert me, they will have to do a better job than what they are doing now, because i know so many, im quite used to people trying to force it down my throat and failing misserably. you seem ok though, ill let you go now, it was good talking to you.

[MaxxTheMerciless]

@sonyplaystation321 There's a lot of strife within the Catholic Church too. Since Vatican II, I've noticed there's been a great deal of feuding over how we do Mass, changes in doctrine (such as the idea of women priests), and notably the Church Sexual Abuse Scandals. I'm a Catechuman, a recent convert to the Church, and I never realized how much strife there was until I was explained what was going on first-hand by a good priest who helped me along the way.

[sonyplaystation321]

@MaxxTheMerciless i have actually been to a few catholic church services when i was younger,but can barely remember what it was like,i have a large philipino step family, that are all catholic, and they draged me along to church sometimes, i dont beleive in their faith, but they are certanly not as judgemental or pushy as some of the fundamental christians i know.

[MaxxTheMerciless]

@sonyplaystation321 I've heard of him. He's Pentecostal, I believe. Catholics have no Pastors. The difference between a Pastor and a Priest is that a Priest presents a Sacrifice on an Altar. A Pastor doesn't.

There's a bit more reverence for God and the faith in a Catholic Church than what you see the likes of Hinn do, which, if you note, mainly focuses on him and his antics. True, not all Pentecostals, I'm sure, are like that, but that's the kind of thing that drove me to Catholicism.

[sonyplaystation321]

@MaxxTheMerciless have you heard of a preacher called benny hinn? isnt he a catholic?(all i know for sure, is that he is probably THE biggest lunatic ive ever seen)

[MaxxTheMerciless]

@sonyplaystation321 And, I particularly don't like a lot of those odd-denominational (by the way, there are like 40,000 non Catholic denominations out there since the Reformation) churches doing this kind of thing. Similarly, I sometimes think that the Milinarian sects (hope I spelled that right) stress apocalyptic prophecy too much. 7th Day Adventists, in my experience, seem to go a bit overboard in that department.

[MaxxTheMerciless]

@sonyplaystation321 No. In fact, I didn't believe it even before I became Catholic. The whole bit about speaking in Tongues is from the book of Acts, where, during Pentacost, the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles, and they were able to speak in all kinds of languages. This was so they'd be able to spread the Gospel everywhere. This means that those clowns who are babbling in "tongues" fail to see that the Holy Spirit doesn't fill someone with gibberish.

[sonyplaystation321]

@MaxxTheMerciless also, as a christian(or catholic or whatever) do you really beleive in all that tongues and holy laughter etc...? i think they look like the biggest clowns on the planet. lol