Who is God? My first response to this question would standardly be, “how the heck am I supposed to even start answering that question?” My whole life I have been taught that God is knowable and at the same time a mystery, and knowing that, I am aware that I will never be eloquent enough to even half describe who God is. That being said, I would also struggle to fully explain to you who anyone is, because there are so many different elements to a person.
Take for example my mother, Carolyn. I could describe what she looks like, what she does, how she does it, and her other physical characteristics, but that isn’t all of who she is. Additionally, I could tell you her relationships — she is a mother, a sister, a daughter, and a wife — so that you might understand who she is in relation to others, but still words can’t fully describe who she is. It is only through meeting my mother and building a relationship with her that you could even start to understand who she is. So if that process is so difficult with just one person, it is infinitely harder if you are trying to describe God.
So now that it is clear that any answer I might give is sorely lacking — here it goes.
God is the eternal being who created the world and all its creatures and in fact is, as Ratzinger says, “the God of all people and the whole universe.” He is Being that is accepted as a person in the form of Jesus Christ and he is unbound by things such as time and definitions. He is the only God, present for all people in all places and is not confined to some local connection with humanity. He is the God who revealed himself to Abraham and his descendents and so continues to reveal himself to all of us to this day. He is present in humanity and calls us constantly into a relationship with him so that we can understand and love him more deeply.
And there is my pitiful and incomplete attempt. I believe that this question is one which doesn’t have an attainable answer, but the search for the answer serves that purpose to draw us deeper into understanding.
Introduction to Theology: Charlotte Spraul 
I agree with your comment that first and foremost God is a personal God and is not tied to some specific location. I also really like the analogy you made as to how you would describe your mother. This reminded me of Prof. Pagliarini’s example of how he’d rather have dinner with someone than with their CV. You can list as many facts and give as many descriptions about God but in the end, the experience will be truly lacking unless you know God on a personal level.
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I totally agree with you that describing anyone is hard, let alone God. It is easy to describe someone based on physical characteristics, but to actually explain the true essence of someone is almost impossible, even if you have known them your whole life as you explain in you mom example. I agree that God is at the same time personal and mysterious at the same time, making it even harder to try and describe him. I agree with your element that God is not attached to any human location and I think you make a great point. Do you think that any answer would be sufficient to describe God?
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You mentioned trying to use someone’s relationships to describe them. In the reading, Ratzinger seems to imply that God is the very act of having a relationship, the response to a deep loneliness that humans feel. How can a being that actually is love call us to love? What does that mean?
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