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How often do you think of God’s presence in his creation. It is worth meditating about because he is present by his causality, his sustaining and provident power and guidance, by his very essence and Substance to every square centimeter of his creation. The Catechism explains it paragraphs 300,301. Linked before.
For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living.160 "
" THE VATICAN COUNCIL 1869-1870
Ecumenical XX (on Faith and the Church)
SESSION III (April 24, 1870)
Dogmatic Constitution concerning the Catholic Faith *
Chap. 1. God, Creator of All Things
1782 [The one, living, and true God and His distinction from all things.] * The holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church believes and confesses that there is one, true, living God, Creator and Lord of heaven and earth, omnipotent, eternal, immense, incomprehensible, infinite in intellect and will, and in every perfection; who, although He is one, singular, altogether simple and unchangeable spiritual substance, must be proclaimed distinct in reality and essence from the world; most blessed in Himself and of Himself, and ineffably most high above all things which are or can be conceived outside Himself [can. 1-4].
1783 The act of creation in itself, and in opposition to modern errors, and the effect of creation] . This sole true God by His goodness and “omnipotent power,” not to increase His own beatitude, and not to add to, but to manifest His perfection by the blessings which He bestows on creatures, with most free volition, “immediately from the beginning of time fashioned each creature out of nothing, spiritual and corporeal, namely angelic and mundane; and then the human creation, common as it were, composed of both spirit and body” [Lateran Council IV, see n. 428; can. 2 and 5]
1784 [The result of creation] .But God protects and governs by His providence all things which He created, “reaching from end to end mightily and ordering all things sweetly” [cf. Wisd. 8:1]. For “all things are naked and open to His eyes” Heb. 4:13], even those which by the free action of creatures are in the future.
onetruecatholicfaith.com/Roman-Catholic-Dogma.php?id=39&title=Denzinger+1700±+1799&page=2
Ludwig Ott, in Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma says, " God is everywhere present in created space. " ( De Fide )
Thomas Aquinas explains it speculatively as follows.
" On the contrary, A thing is wherever it operates. But God operates in all things, according to Isaiah 26:12, “Lord . . . Thou hast wrought all our works in [Vulgate: ‘for’] us.” Therefore God is in all things.
I answer that, God is in all things; not, indeed, as part of their essence, nor as an accident, but as an agent is present to that upon which it works. For an agent must be joined to that wherein it acts immediately and touch it by its power… Now since God is very being by His own essence, created being must be His proper effect… Now God causes this effect in things not only when they first begin to be, but as long as they are preserved in being… Therefore as long as a thing has being, God must be present to it, according to its mode of being. But being is innermost in each thing and most fundamentally inherent in all things since it is formal in respect of everything found in a thing, as was shown above (Question 7, Article 1). Hence it must be that God is in all things, and innermostly. " ( S.T. 1, q 8, a 1 )
" I answer that, Since place is a thing, to be in place can be understood in a twofold sense; either by way of other things–i.e. as one thing is said to be in another no matter how; and thus the accidents of a place are in place; or by a way proper to place; and thus things placed are in a place. Now in both these senses, in some way God is in every place; and this is to be everywhere.
First, as He is in all things giving them being, power and operation; so He is in every place as giving it existence and locative power. Again, things placed are in place, inasmuch as they fill place; and God fills every place; not, indeed, like a body, for a body is said to fill place inasmuch as it excludes the co-presence of another body; whereas by God being in a place, others are not thereby excluded from it; indeed, by the very fact that He gives being to the things that fill every place, He Himself fills every place. " ( S.T. 1, q 8, a 2 )
" On the contrary, A gloss on the Canticle of Canticles (5) says that, “God by a common mode is in all things by His presence, power and substance; still He is said to be present more familiarly in some by grace” [The quotation is from St. Gregory, (Hom. viii in Ezech.)].
I answer that, God is said to be in a thing in two ways; in one way after the manner of an efficient cause; and thus He is in all things created by Him; in another way he is in things as the object of operation is in the operator; and this is proper to the operations of the soul, according as the thing known is in the one who knows; and the thing desired in the one desiring. In this second way God is especially in the rational creature which knows and loves Him actually or habitually. And because the rational creature possesses this prerogative by grace, as will be shown later (12). He is said to be thus in the saints by grace. " ( S.T. 1, q 8, a 3 )
Here is an excellent meditation on God’s presence from Scripture, taken from a non-Catholic source. There is one anti-Catholic comment, but the rest is excellent and worth reading. tecmalta.org/tft138.htm
Pax
Linus2nd
For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living.160 "
" THE VATICAN COUNCIL 1869-1870
Ecumenical XX (on Faith and the Church)
SESSION III (April 24, 1870)
Dogmatic Constitution concerning the Catholic Faith *
Chap. 1. God, Creator of All Things
1782 [The one, living, and true God and His distinction from all things.] * The holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church believes and confesses that there is one, true, living God, Creator and Lord of heaven and earth, omnipotent, eternal, immense, incomprehensible, infinite in intellect and will, and in every perfection; who, although He is one, singular, altogether simple and unchangeable spiritual substance, must be proclaimed distinct in reality and essence from the world; most blessed in Himself and of Himself, and ineffably most high above all things which are or can be conceived outside Himself [can. 1-4].
1783 The act of creation in itself, and in opposition to modern errors, and the effect of creation] . This sole true God by His goodness and “omnipotent power,” not to increase His own beatitude, and not to add to, but to manifest His perfection by the blessings which He bestows on creatures, with most free volition, “immediately from the beginning of time fashioned each creature out of nothing, spiritual and corporeal, namely angelic and mundane; and then the human creation, common as it were, composed of both spirit and body” [Lateran Council IV, see n. 428; can. 2 and 5]
1784 [The result of creation] .But God protects and governs by His providence all things which He created, “reaching from end to end mightily and ordering all things sweetly” [cf. Wisd. 8:1]. For “all things are naked and open to His eyes” Heb. 4:13], even those which by the free action of creatures are in the future.
onetruecatholicfaith.com/Roman-Catholic-Dogma.php?id=39&title=Denzinger+1700±+1799&page=2
Ludwig Ott, in Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma says, " God is everywhere present in created space. " ( De Fide )
Thomas Aquinas explains it speculatively as follows.
" On the contrary, A thing is wherever it operates. But God operates in all things, according to Isaiah 26:12, “Lord . . . Thou hast wrought all our works in [Vulgate: ‘for’] us.” Therefore God is in all things.
I answer that, God is in all things; not, indeed, as part of their essence, nor as an accident, but as an agent is present to that upon which it works. For an agent must be joined to that wherein it acts immediately and touch it by its power… Now since God is very being by His own essence, created being must be His proper effect… Now God causes this effect in things not only when they first begin to be, but as long as they are preserved in being… Therefore as long as a thing has being, God must be present to it, according to its mode of being. But being is innermost in each thing and most fundamentally inherent in all things since it is formal in respect of everything found in a thing, as was shown above (Question 7, Article 1). Hence it must be that God is in all things, and innermostly. " ( S.T. 1, q 8, a 1 )
" I answer that, Since place is a thing, to be in place can be understood in a twofold sense; either by way of other things–i.e. as one thing is said to be in another no matter how; and thus the accidents of a place are in place; or by a way proper to place; and thus things placed are in a place. Now in both these senses, in some way God is in every place; and this is to be everywhere.
First, as He is in all things giving them being, power and operation; so He is in every place as giving it existence and locative power. Again, things placed are in place, inasmuch as they fill place; and God fills every place; not, indeed, like a body, for a body is said to fill place inasmuch as it excludes the co-presence of another body; whereas by God being in a place, others are not thereby excluded from it; indeed, by the very fact that He gives being to the things that fill every place, He Himself fills every place. " ( S.T. 1, q 8, a 2 )
" On the contrary, A gloss on the Canticle of Canticles (5) says that, “God by a common mode is in all things by His presence, power and substance; still He is said to be present more familiarly in some by grace” [The quotation is from St. Gregory, (Hom. viii in Ezech.)].
I answer that, God is said to be in a thing in two ways; in one way after the manner of an efficient cause; and thus He is in all things created by Him; in another way he is in things as the object of operation is in the operator; and this is proper to the operations of the soul, according as the thing known is in the one who knows; and the thing desired in the one desiring. In this second way God is especially in the rational creature which knows and loves Him actually or habitually. And because the rational creature possesses this prerogative by grace, as will be shown later (12). He is said to be thus in the saints by grace. " ( S.T. 1, q 8, a 3 )
Here is an excellent meditation on God’s presence from Scripture, taken from a non-Catholic source. There is one anti-Catholic comment, but the rest is excellent and worth reading. tecmalta.org/tft138.htm
Pax
Linus2nd