This is an enormous question and almost an impossible one to answer. Still, many people have formed some view of who or what God is – or isn’t – and whether this view has any relevance to their lives. The fact you are reading this probably means you are open to exploring what the Catholic understanding of God is. We believe such an exploration is a very worthwhile endeavour, and we are delighted that you are taking this journey. So, let’s start with some common experiences of God.

When some people imagine God, they think of an old guy in the sky with a flowing white beard who is either a wisdom guru or a heavenly police officer directing the goings-on in the world. They often don’t find this image realistic or sensible, so they tend to discard God to the fantasy or “make believe” realm. To be honest, it’s not surprising people don’t believe in a God like this – most Catholics don’t either! God is so much more.

Some people really aren’t sure what they believe about God. They might not want to rule God out completely, but they’ve never really received a satisfactory answer to who or what God is and whether God is relevant to their lives. Having an ambivalent position about God will satisfy some people, but others might develop a genuine desire to know the truth about God.

Many people have a strong sense of the “spiritual” or “sacred” but wouldn’t call themselves “religious” or “God-believers”. This might be best summed up by the phrase, “I’m spiritual, but not religious”. There could be many reasons for this. Some people just don’t want to be aligned to an organised religion because they’ve had a negative experience of “church”, or they aren’t prepared to make the changes in their lives that the religion might call for.

Your “God” experience might be nothing like the above – and that’s okay. But your question might be, “Who do Catholics believe God is?”

In a nutshell, there is one God who is the creator and source of all life. God has always been, always is and always will be; God exists outside of our understanding of time. God is not a “being” like any other “being”. God has always been spiritually present to the whole of creation. However, because of God’s great love for creation, God became physically present to us as a human being so we could experience God’s love in a tangible way.

This human being was named Jesus. Born in a Jewish world of a woman named Mary, Jesus lived an extraordinary life. He is our greatest means of understanding what God is like. Jesus’ actions and words were so powerful that they have been shared down through the centuries. Jesus’ values have shaped the lives of countless people. Jesus’ desire that we would love each other as he loved us is what we’d like to share with you now.