When the Church speaks of the attributes of God she is not listing components, as one might list the features of a machine. God has no parts. Each attribute is the whole of God seen from one angle by a mind too small to take him in at once. His mercy is not a softer region of him beside a harder region called his justice; they are the same simple reality, and the division is in us.
With that caution kept in view, the tradition names these perfections.
The perfections
Aseity
A se
God exists of himself. He is not caused, not sustained, not dependent on anything. Everything else that exists has received its existence; God simply is. This is the meaning of the name given at the burning bush.
Ego sum qui sum — I AM WHO AM. (Exodus 3:14)
Simplicity
Simplicitas
God is not assembled from parts. His power is not one component and his mercy another; he does not have goodness, he is goodness. Everything we distinguish in him is one undivided reality, distinguished only by our need to think it in pieces.
“God is light, and in him there is no darkness.” (1 John 1:5)
Infinity
Infinitas
God has no boundary. Every created thing is defined partly by what it is not; God is limited by nothing, contained by nothing, and exhausted by no description.
“Great is the Lord… and of his greatness there is no end.” (Psalm 144:3 [145:3])
Eternity
Æternitas
God does not endure through time, waiting as we wait. He possesses his whole life at once. Boethius called eternity the complete possession, all at once, of unending life.
“Before the mountains were made… from eternity and to eternity thou art God.” (Psalm 89:2 [90:2])
Immutability
Immutabilitas
God does not change, because he cannot improve and will not decay. This is not coldness but reliability: what he is toward you today he will be forever.
Ego enim Dominus, et non mutor — I am the Lord, and I change not. (Malachias [Malachi] 3:6)
Omnipotence
Omnipotentia
God can do all that is possible. Nothing that can be done is beyond him, and nothing outside him limits him. The Creed puts the word almost first.
“I know that thou canst do all things.” (Job 42:2)
Omniscience
Omniscientia
God knows all things — not by discovering them, but as their author. He knows what is, what was, what will be, and every thought never spoken aloud.
“Of his wisdom there is no number.” (Psalm 146:5 [147:5])
Omnipresence
Omnipræsentia
God is wholly present everywhere, not spread thin across space but entirely present at every point of it. There is nowhere one could go to be outside him.
“If I ascend into heaven, thou art there.” (Psalm 138:8 [139:8])
Holiness
Sanctitas
God is set utterly apart, wholly other than anything created. The seraphim do not say the word once but three times, the Hebrew way of saying it absolutely.
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus exercituum. (Isaias [Isaiah] 6:3)
Goodness
Bonitas
God is not measured against a standard of goodness outside himself; he is the standard. All created goodness is a participation in his.
“None is good but one, that is God.” (Mark 10:18)
Justice
Justitia
God gives to each what is due. His justice is not a mood but an aspect of his goodness, and it is inseparable from his mercy.
“Justice and judgment are the preparation of thy throne.” (Psalm 88:15 [89:14])
Mercy
Misericordia
The greatness of God bends toward the small. Scripture says his mercies are over all his works — not one work among others, but the character of everything he does.
“His tender mercies are over all his works.” (Psalm 144:9 [145:9])
Incomprehensibility
Incomprehensibilitas
God can be truly known but never comprehended — never encircled by a mind. Every true thing said of him is said of one who exceeds it. This is not a defeat of theology but its most reverent conclusion.
“O the depth of the riches… how incomprehensible are his judgments!” (Romans 11:33)
Why this matters for prayer
These are not abstractions to be memorised. Each one changes how a person prays. If God is immutable, he will not be in a different mood tomorrow. If he is omnipresent, no place you go is outside his reach. If he is simple, then his mercy is not a concession wrung from his justice but the very same act. And if he is incomprehensible, then adoration will always be more adequate than explanation — which is why the Church, at the end of her arguments, sings.
The Scriptures behind each of these are gathered under Bible verses on the greatness of God.
Last reviewed for accuracy on , against the Douay-Rheims Bible and the Church's own documents.