What do we mean by “the vision of life” or “our world view”? Each of us has a particular way of looking at the world and this shapes how we see and value people and things. This ‘vision of life’ is the lens through which we looks at life and see out place in the world. Our personal history, relationships, and a faith that shape our view of the world and influence the choices we make – actually give shape to our life.

Having faith in Jesus (see p. 7) Our faith in Jesus affects how we view reality and live our lives. Jesus is the ‘lens’ that helps us understand the Christian view of life. His life and mission, his teachings and actions, his passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension, shape our vision of the life. JESUS is the lens through which we see reality. Reading the Bible is essential to help us understand Jesus’ vision and be able to see the world through his eyes. (see p. 7)

God’s Wisdom is greater than ours St. Paul writes that God’s Wisdom is far beyond human wisdom. God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. —1 Corinthians1:25 Jesus teaches us that we need to rely more on God’s vision than on our own.

Learning to trust Positive experiences of trust with people in our lives help us to trust God in matters of faith. Likewise, when we experience broken promises or betrayal, we may find it difficult to trust God. Placing our trust in God is different from placing our trust in people. Because we cannot see or touch God, we must have faith. But, through Jesus’ teachings, we know that God is always faithful and keeps his promises.

Jesus placed his trust in God The Torah is the written Scriptures of the ancient Jewish people. It contains the promises of God’s Covenant. Jesus showed his deep trust in God through his knowledge of the Scriptures and by the way he lived his life.

The Great Commandment Jesus combined the Ten Commandments into one Great Commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. (See Matthew 22:34−40.)

The challenge of trusting God The three parts of the Torah are: the Law, the Prophets and the Wisdom Writings. Together, all of these books of the Bible help us to understand how the ancient Israelites learned to trust God and why we can also place our trust in God. The Bible is full of stories that convey the proven track record of God’s love and faithfulness to his people. )

Our God is both fair and generous God is Generosity. We can see this in the story of Creation: God creates every human in his own image and likeness. God gives us responsibility to care for creation and continue his plan for the world. We must remember to give thanks to God for all that we have. Praying the psalms can heighten our awareness of God’s generosity. See, for example, Psalm 104.

God is always trying to ‘convert’ us! We do not always respond to God’s generosity in the way that we should. We can make selfish and self-centered choices. Even in these times, God loves us unconditionally and continuously calls us to relationship with him. If we are faithless, [God] remains faithful − for he cannot deny himself. —2 Timothy 2:13

God is always trying to ‘convert’ us! God is always calling us back to right relationship with him; in other words, to ‘convert’ us, ‘to turn us around’. METANOIA The depth of God’s love and desire for humanity was fully revealed in his sending Jesus ‘for the expiation of our sins’ (CCC, nos. 620−621).

Created in God’s image and likeness The Bible tells us that we are created in the image of God: Let us make [man] in our image, according to our likeness. —Genesis 1:26 This means that the divine image is present in each of us. We are made to be holy. We are created to be united in body and soul, in both a material sense and a spiritual sense. Everyone is called to live in community with one another.

Losing the ‘likeness of God’ Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and made selfish choices that prevented them from becoming the people God created them to be. Those choices caused them to sin and they fell out of God’s grace. They lost God’s ‘likeness’. We call this Original Sin. All of humankind remains essentially good, even when we sin. We can ‘become like God’ once again when we turn away from sin and seek to be in harmony with God and with one another.

The story of Peter Maurin Peter Maurin co-founded the Catholic Worker movement and newspaper with Dorothy Day. Together they created two ‘Houses of Hospitality’ in New York City, as well as a farm in Pennsylvania where the poor and needy could live and work.