Belief

be·lief 
/bəˈlēf/  noun

1. an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists

2. trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something

I believe in the experiences I have had of God's active presence in my life.

I believe in the experiences people I know have described to me of God's active presence in their lives.

I believe in the Church that began the university system, invented the scientific method, cared for the sick and destitute, has survived for two millennia, and that feeds more people, clothes more people, shelters more people, and educates more people every day than any other organization in the world could dream of doing.

I believe in the truth, goodness, and beauty shown by the lives of the saints, in all their variety and vibrancy.

I believe in hope because the alternative leaves me no reason to live.

I believe in the material world, in the discovery and mystery of its vastness and intricateness, in the evidence it yields that points to an underlying engine spurring its movement and evolution, an engine I and millions of others call God.

I believe in the testimony given by martyrs of the faith from the earliest days of Christianity to the current millennium when more people have been killed for their belief in Jesus Christ than in any century before.

I believe in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to prompt the writers of the Bible and especially the Gospels to record what God intended us to know of salvation history because it is His-story.

I believe Jesus when He says the bread and wine are His true Body and Blood because he did not qualify the statement, because He appeared in the breaking of the Bread on the road to Emmaus, because He wanted to be with us always, and because Jesus Christ is God incarnate.

I believe in the Catholic Church not because of its great people but because of its unshakeable foundation in Christ who promised us the gates of hell would not prevail but that Love would triumph.

I believe in the end of the story because the Kingdom of God has come and is coming.

I believe.

What do you believe?