"Co-Create Your Own Reality"

I saw a bumper sticker with the above saying on it the other day. At first it sounded like a New Age-ish thing but the more I thought about it, the more Catholic it seemed.

Catholic doctrine &mdash basing itself upon the first chapters of Genesis — refers to human beings as co-creators with God. This is because God commanded us to "be fruitful and multiply", thus bringing new human beings into the world, indeed participating in the creation of new souls. (This is why we refer to it as procreation rather than "reproduction".) It is also because God put Adam in the garden to till it and take care of it. In other words, work is a form of co-creation.

God, in essence, created us to participate in the work of creation. He called us to fill the earth and subdue it, which is a participation in his own sovereignty. We are made in the image of God, and we are called to rest as he himself rested, or rather, his rest was a pattern for us to imitate. We have reason and intellect as God has, and use that in our work.

So in a sense, a call to co-create our own reality is a call to be aware of our role as co-creators, to raise our work and family to a divine level, and to apply the theme of co-creation to what we do.

I have no idea if the bumper-sticker makers (or the car owner) had this in mind. In fact, doing a Google search for the phrase does in fact bring up a bunch of New Age stuff. But I think it's a valid idea when understood in an orthodox fashion. St. Paul said to cling to whatever was true. Here is a perfect example.