Gifts of the Holy Spirit and Me

In my life the gifts of the Holy Spirit are present through my personal prayer and reflection and the prayers and reflections that occur at school. I try to bear these gifts outside of school and I attend mass to give me a renewal of the liturgy and word of God. School helps me learn of these gifts. Religion class is centered around building a better understanding of the faith. I see the gifts in others around me too, especially the faculty and staff at school and church. Most of the people I surround myself with are always encouraging that I practice these gifts, not explicitly but I can determine it by the meaning of each gift in relation to what they are saying. Not long ago I saw piety at work when we did adoration at school because I was able to stop for a moment and fully focus on Jesus and my needs. There are people in my life that seem to embody a gift or more in themselves. They are the people who give me courage and teach me about God and the way to God. The gifts are working in my life not just outside of me but inside of me too. I possess each to some degree although I strive for a fuller possession of the gifts.

In my life today the gift I need most is piety. There are so many distractions that I create in my head and outside my head that I have trouble managing. I am often accused for thinking too much about the things that distress me. Then I think that if I didn't think as much I might stop caring and I don't want to stop caring. There I go again. The gift of piety helps me not only to be at peace during the hectic times but also to love others. I think this is also a great challenge to me because I try to love others but never feel like I am doing a good job or someone does something and I get upset. Piety offers a patience and acceptance of others and of the distractions. If I can understand others and be clear of anxiety I can focus more effectively on other aspects of my faith like fear of The Lord. Having a better sense of the gift of piety would allow me to be at a peace and therefore more able to think not of anxieties but of God. Today the world around me seems so busy and full of distractions I hardly feel I have time to slow down and reform my thoughts and actions.

"Are Sacraments Narrow?" Mark Shea

1. What is Ludwig's problem?
Ludwig does not understand why Catholics narrow the idea of grace down and confine it to the sacraments. In his view grace is much more simple and is not constricted to the sacraments.
2. Explain what the Church is not thinking about when it comes to "sacramentality":
The Church is not thinking when it comes to "sacramentality" that the sacraments prohibit or restrict any of God's love. Neither is it thinking that anyone who has not received the sacraments cannot be saved.
3. Explain what the Church is thinking about when it comes to "sacramentality":
The Church is thinking when it comes to "sacramentality" that other doctrines that state that God has not saved every one are untrue. It tries to support the idea that God redeems or saves every one and the sacraments are  prayers, gestures, and materials that bring us closer to that redemption and therefore closer to God the Father.
4. "How does God reveal and give to each individual human being his universally offered grace?"
God sent the ultimate symbol of himself, he sent his son Jesus who is considered a sacrament of the Father. Jesus represents and presents God and Jesus provides us with the sacraments which are the continuation of his life and teachings.
5. Which Christian doctrine is the foundation for the sacraments?
The life of Jesus Christ is the foundation for the sacraments because not only did he establish the sacraments but he also was a sacrament that paved the way toward salvation. His work is continued n the sacraments.
6. Explain what the gobs of modern "spirituality" tells us:
This modern spirituality tells us that God wouldn't spend his efforts by becoming human or revealing himself n the human way that Christians believe. The modern view sees it as below God to become a savage human.
7. Explain the Chritian repudiation of  "such spiritual snobbery":
The Chruch rejects the notion that God is condescending and so superior to humans. Instead, he likes the idea of joining us in human history through his son. That way he can try and accomplish his covenant in a way that humans can relate to and understand more fully than previous attempts.
8. "But that was so he could put this gross body of flesh to death on the cross and revert it back to pure spirituality, wasn't it?"
The is not what Jesus came for. He came as a human to emphasize that we too can resurrect and make it to heaven. Also, since he resurrected body and soul, we too can resurrect in our human state not just our souls. This is sort of comforting to know that we stay whole.
9. Explain: "That is why the Sacramental worldview see more than just a symbol in a sacrament."
This worldview sees that sacraments not only represent and present something but also sacraments are the incarnation of something. And they do something for us, mainly bringing us closer to Christ or heal or give power or reconciliation from our sins.
10. Explain what G.K. Chesterton said:
Chesterton said that real presence in the Eucharist and the universal grace of God are different.  Sacraments are God touching us through the son he sent, not just the idea that God universally decided to save everyone just because. He saved everyone when he sent his son and when his son established the sacraments.
11. What does grace do?
Grace, through the sacraments, touches us in the same way that Jesus touched and healed people 2000 years ago. In the sacraments we are able to participate in grace and since the sacraments are material and tangible they touch us with God's hand for salvation.

The Divine Sense of Humor...and other things

"A Divine Sense of Humor"

A divine sense of humor is not what it may seem, not some funny thing about God or Christianity, look through the words and then you’ll understand what it is. And it is just that, it is the ability to see through objects or people or nature. All objects with divine sense of humor are translucent to some other more significant meaning than its surface appearance. In Christianity, the divine sense of humor is directly linked to a sacrament. A sacrament is a tangible or audible thing with more than just a surface meaning. Sacraments present and represent something else. It is important to remember this so that one does not forget that God is an ultimate symbol, the thing itself of nature. It is important to make these connections of things in nature and God to have a divine sense of humor as it is to understand the double meanings of sacraments.

 "The Bible is a Sacramental"

The Bible is like a sacrament because it has as Sheen writes, a “foreground” and a “background”. Again it is this idea of two meanings or a deeper sense of the things presented in the foreground found in the background. It is also written that a sacrament is a mystery. Jesus is a sacrament because he is a mystery; he represents something divine, his father and presents something human because he was human. God becoming human was the best option for man because man is not divine like God; man is human…like man. So Jesus came and after he went man was left with the sacraments, signs of what he hopefully taught some of man.

 "What the Sacraments Bring to Man"

The sacraments are gifts from God, brought to man through Jesus. The sacraments are the most direct way to link human and divine together and be filled with grace. This leads Sheen to explain three levels of living, “the sensate, the intellectual, and the divine”. The most important level of course is the divine because that is where man is filled with grace and truth. God is giving himself and ourselves to us when man begins to understand the divine sense/aspect of life. A further understanding of the divine sense understands that man can prove Jesus saves because he left the sacraments. Sacraments are an almost permanent symbol of what Jesus was and what he continues to be on the divine side.

 "Seven Conditions of Life"

  There are two different aspects to these conditions of life. There are the practical ones:

Ø  Birth

Ø  Nourishment

Ø  Maturity/growth

Ø  Healing (of physical or mental wounds)

Ø  Diseases rid of

Ø  Live under government

Ø  Reproduce

Then the ones related to a Christ-life

Ø  Baptism

Ø  Eucharist

Ø  Confirmation

Ø  Penance

Ø  Anointing of the Sick

Ø  Holy Orders

Ø  Matrimony

These are the seven sacraments, signs of the conditions of life. They are instituted by Jesus, they are outward signs and have power of giving grace/divine life.

 "The Power and Efficacy of the Sacraments"

The power and efficacy of the sacraments is found in Jesus’ life and the end of his life and his resurrection back to life. He suffered and shed blood. Blood is vital to the survival of humans therefore blood can represent life. Jesus gave his life and he was human and divine therefore his blood was significant. His suffering was a sacrifice and made the sacraments all more powerful because Jesus was divine.

 "The Application to the Sacraments"

The sacraments convey grace because of Jesus’ divinity and bloodshed for man. Then, the sacraments are given out and are received and applied differently to each person during each circumstance in their life. Jesus set the ball rolling and has made the sacraments, not it is up to man receiving them to interpret them and receive them well.

What is the Divine Sense of Humor?

The Divine Sense of Humor is that which relates to a opaquness of things and in the religious sense of those things in the Bible, the Bible itself, and all that Jesus taught. Jesus prepared his followers with numerous parables and teachings in order to instill in them this divine sense of humor. It is to see through things as if they are clear not in physical attributes but in the meaning of things. Archbishop Fulton describes the different teachings of Jesus that alluded to this divine sense of humor.

Fulton Videos on the Divine Sense:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxLdrE7WTaA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGVmc95Byl8&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyfSiaz-q7w&feature=relmfu

The River -Flannery O'Connor and Grace and Justification

1987: “If I Baptize you,” the preacher said, “you’ll be able to go to the Kingdom of Christ. You’ll be washed in the river of suffering, son, and you’ll go by the deep river of life. Do you want that?”

Ø  Harry is baptized but does not understand the preacher’s metaphor of the river and later in the story tries to drown himself in order to get to the Kingdom of God and away from his home. The boy shows his faith in rejecting the unfaithful people in his home and trying to reach Christ in the river.

1988: He plunged under once and this time, the waiting current caught him like a long gentle hand and pulled him swiftly forward and down.

Ø  Harry by drowning himself in the accepting river understands his participation in faith as the river will lead him to the Kingdom of God, literally. He was more open than most who had come to the river looking for healing.

1989: Very slowly, his expression changed as if he were gradually seeing appear what he didn’t know he’d been looking for. Then all of the sudden he knew what he wanted to do.

Ø  Harry comes to a realization that from what he learned from the preacher and Mrs. Connin he wanted to get away from his home and get to the Kingdom.

1990: “I know from my own self-experience,” a woman’s mysterious voice called from a knot of people, “I know from it that this preacher can heal. My eyes have been opened! I testify to Jesus!”

Ø  Although she gives the preacher credit, the preacher mentions numerous times that it is not he who heals but those who have heard and understood his preaching have faith and are able to be healed.

1991: “If you ain’t come for Jesus, you ain’t come for me.”

Ø  The preacher is putting forth the idea that to be healed is to first accept God with faith and then other gifts such as healing will come.

1992: He saw the pale oval close to him in the dark. “He said I’m not the same now,” he muttered. “I count.”

Ø  Harry is baptized and then all of the sudden he counts and is able to receive the gifts from God.

1993: The river wouldn’t have him. He tried again and came up, choking. This was the way it had been when the preacher held him under—he had to fight with something that pushed him back in the face.

Ø  It takes cooperation on both parts for grace and freedom to occur.

1994: “This old red river is good to Baptize in, good to lay your faith in, good to lay your pain in, but it ain’t this muddy water here that saves you.”

Ø  The river flows and moves along and ‘passes away’ but those healed in it do not pass away.

1995: “You won’t be the same again,” the preacher said. “You’ll count.”

Ø  The boy will be sanctified and will count as part of the Church and its community.

1996: Mrs. Connin represents Harry’s grace because she helps him along the journey and takes him to the river where he is baptized.

1997: He intended not to fool with preachers any more but to Baptize himself and to keep on going this time until he found the Kingdom of Christ in the river.

Ø  Harry decides to participate in the journey to finding God.

1998: “If you just come to see can you leave your pain in the river, you ain’t come for Jesus.”

Ø  Only good faith and Jesus can reveal the nature of Jesus himself and healing power.

1999: In the story the preacher teaches that the river the thing that can carry everyone to the Kingdom of Christ but you cannot enter only expecting it to heal you. You enter with faith and baptism so that you can participate in the river.

2000: When Harry returns home he begins to change and then decides to abandon his home and follow the river to the Kingdom of Christ, keeping with the call from the preacher and the call he hears within himself.

2001: Before the boy goes to the river, Mrs. Connin teaches him about Jesus Christ and he takes the Bible with him to the river and home feeling more prepared for what is to come.

2002: The boy freely decides to be baptized and later to follow the river by drowning himself to reach the Kingdom of Christ.

2003: The same blood that makes the River red, made the leper clean, made that blind man stare, made that dead man leap!

Ø  Others have been healed in the river by following and being open to the idea of Christ. And these people have built up the community of Christ.

2004: The preacher finds his responsibility in preaching and explaining faith and what the message of Christ means. Mrs. Connin teaches Harry the fundamentals of Christ and follows her responsibility by teaching the boy this.

2005: For an instant he was overcome with surprise: then since he was moving quickly he knew that he was getting somewhere, all his fury and fear left him.

Ø  The boy is only four or five years old, but he follows what he interprets. He enters the river and gets what he was looking for whether it is grace or not.

Moral Certainty in "The Man without a Face"

 

The Man without a Face is a movie that displays the relationship between an ostracized man and a young boy develops and strengthens even against societal stereotyping and ‘norms’. The movie starts with the young boy, Charles Norstadt and his ideal dream he has, everything for him is perfect except one thing, he always misses a face in the crowd. At the end of the movie we see his dream come true and this time he sees this missing face in the crowd. From this we gather that Charles comes to a moral certainty about the man without a face. He is able to come to this moral certainty in a journey with the man, Charles questions, reasons, and finally believes and trusts the man without a face, Mr. Jason McLeod.

            Norstadt’s dream includes graduating from the boarding school his father attended and he takes the first step in moral certainty when he goes to McLeod for tutoring so that he might pass the entry exam. Despite Norstadt’s fears about McLeod, fears generated by the town and those who ostracized him, Norstadt continues to work with McLeod. Norstadt begins to develop a relationship with McLeod, a relationship that reminds me of a father-son relationship. McLeod teaches the boy geometry, Latin, and reasoning skills. However when Norstadt finds out the truth about his father and goes to McLeod for consolation their relationship is severed.

            Additionally, Norstadt finds out about a story that McLeod molested a child before and the child was killed and so Norstadt begins to question McLeod’s character and credibility. The boy is confused because although he knows McLeod based upon their relationship he does not know the truth about the story. When he confronts McLeod, the man yells at the boy saying, “I didn’t spend all summer [teaching you] so you could cheat on this question”. The question is did the man really molest/kill his previous student. Norstadt is able to come to the conclusion or certainty that the man didn’t because of his experience over the summer. His experience and relationship with McLeod conveyed no violence or molestation. He does not come to certainty because anyone told him yes or no, rather he uses personal judgment and knowledge to choose a decision.

            Norstadt’s moral certainty was a process. All moral certainties are a process and a risk to make or come to because there is no object or compass that can filter out all lies and bad things. Norstadt can only make the decision because of his experience with McLeod despite the rumors and lies from the people in his town. McLeod illustrates a great teacher because of his ability to teach things such as math and Latin but also reasoning and skepticism. Whether Norstadt was right or wrong, McLeod commended his student for the journey and the decision he was able to make. McLeod says toward the end, “You can’t teach a thing without giving away your trust”. He is saying this regards to a man asking why he didn’t check with the boy’s mother before continuing to teach him. McLeod is saying that in order to teach you cannot have a final goal or trust a person to learn. If you trust, people will disappoint you. It is better to let go of trust and be gifted with a student who can reason and solve problems and make judgments for themselves with the information they are given.

            It is difficult to explain how or why Norstadt comes to this moral certainty about McLeod. In an argument McLeod has with men who are questioning him after finding Norstadt in his home, McLeod tries to tell them about his friendship with the boy. He says with regards to not being able to explain their friendship, “No I don’t think I can, and the tragedy of that is I don’t know why I can’t”. It is hard to explain something such as love or friendship in a way that makes sense because what makes up love or friendship is not empirical. There is no tangible or hard evidence to prove to anyone that McLeod and Norstadt are close friends. However, in themselves there is certainty about their friendship and trust for each other. Charles Norstadt is certain of McLeod’s friendship and honest appearance because inside of him he can reason and he can decide what to think and believe. McLeod gets his second chance in teaching and is able to succeed in Norstadt because of the boy’s ability to decide that one pivotal issue for himself with certainty.

Knowlege is?

          Knowledge is believing and justifying something true. It is often associated with logic and reason because these things are what make up facts or things that are true. For instance, we know that we did not make ourselves; this is a truth that adds to our knowledge and knowing things. Knowing things involves understanding and accepting things that we later reiterate in some fashion.

            However, knowing things and knowledge do not develop until after all things have been named. In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” the prisoners name the objects on the wall and thus it is their truth. They “know” those objects until one prisoner is set free and climbs up into the light of the cave. He is blinded until he sees and begins to name the familiar objects that he sees with what he knows. What he knows, he comes to learn is false and he learns the actual names and meanings. Then Plato illustrates how we are stubborn with what we know because when the freedman re-enters the cave to gather his prisoners they attack and try to kill him.

            Knowledge is a varying term because when you know something and are proven wrong, you act stubbornly. You are stubborn because knowledge is belief and justification of something you didn’t know before. We learn truths, facts, logic, and skills that are all acquired into what we call knowledge. And our knowledge becomes our power because we can act superior to ignorant prisoners.

"Cathedral" by Raymond Carver

Summary:

Cathedral is a story told from the point of view of a man whose wife has a blind friend come for a visit. This man in the beginning is very close-minded toward the idea of a blind man visiting because he does not know about him or about blindness. The seeing man’s wife had met the blind man while looking for work, she read to him and they became good friends. She left but kept in contact with the blind man by sending tapes to him and receiving them from him. The blind man comes to visit and he and the other man’s wife are consumed in conversation. Finally the wife falls asleep and the blind man and other man get to know each other. They share dope, drinks, conversation, and finally depicting a cathedral because of the television program. The blind man does not know a cathedral and the other man cannot describe it. Therefore, the blind man asks the other man to draw it with their hands linked. At the end of the story the blind man asks the other man to look at the picture and how it looks, the other man keeps his eyes closed though and says it looks fine.

Question Responses:

(1) Why was the narrator not looking forward to the visit of the blind man? What do his feelings reveal about his character?

 The narrator did not show exuberance for the visit of the blind man because he was close-minded. He had misconceptions about blind people from movies and was insecure because he did not know about this man other than from his wife who kept her and the blind man’s relationship mostly to herself. These feelings reveal his opportunity to either change and learn or remain ignorant and not gain anything from this story.

 (2) Is it possible to read the experience the narrator’s wife had of Robert touching her face as an experience of being “seen” by him? How is her writing of poetry related to her desire to be seen? How does her attempted suicide also relate to her desire to be seen?

 It is possible to read the experience of Robert touching the narrator’s wife’s face as an experience of being “seen” by Robert because of the way it made her feel. Additionally, later in the story we see Robert holding the narrator’s hand as he draws in order to help him visualize or “see” the cathedral. Thus, both persons were “seen” and “seeing”. When the narrator’s wife would write poetry, she was expressing the way being “seen” or touched made her feel. She enjoyed sharing a deeper connection than physical appearance with the blind man. After being “seen” by the blind man she and he stay in touch with tapes and she attempts suicide. This is connected with her desire to be seen because she felt lonely and not seen with her first husband. He was in the Air Force and always travelling and she rarely felt seen by him like she had with the blind man.

 (3) What does it mean to receive another’s friend? Consider: “‘If you love me,’ she said, ‘you can do this for me. If you don’t love me, okay. But if you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d make him feel comfortable’” (359).

 To receive another’s friend is to be open and non-judging without tangible evidence or knowledge of this friend. It is more than just tolerating the person until they are gone, but actually making the person feel comfortable and making yourself approachable.

 (4) Consider page 360. Contrary to the narrator’s response of pity and disgust, do you think that Robert “saw” Beulah? What does it mean, more deeply, to see and be seen?

 Robert did “see” his wife Beulah in a deeper way than just physical attributes. To see deeply and be seen is to be understood and not judged or influenced by the way you look. Getting to know a person is just remembering what he or she looks like but rather knowing hobbies and values that he or she hold high in life.

 (5) Why do the characters smoke pot? What does it reveal of their desire?

 Just before the narrator offers pot to the blind man he comments that he doesn’t want to be left alone with the blind man. I think he brings the pot out in order to ease his nerves and facilitate conversation. The narrator’s desire is to be comfortable because he cannot avoid this situation. The blind man and narrator’s wife partake just to partake and be part of this occurrence.  

 (6) “In the olden days, God was an important part of everyone’s life. You could tell this from their cathedral-building” (372). What do churches reveal about what the culture thinks about God? Why?

 Churches, particularly cathedrals, reveal a desire to build something big and ornate enough for God as if he wants the biggest and best of everything. The culture is trying to match the size of their God and create a home big enough for Him. They see God as so big because he is intangible, he is a mystery and therefore has the illusion of being bigger than anything they can compare to.

 (7) Why does the narrator have difficulty describing a cathedral? What does he see with his eyes closed at the close of the story? Why?

 The narrator has difficulty describing a story near the end of the story because he does not know what images the blind man can visualize or in what way to describe it whether he be specific or broad in describing it. Then, after drawing the picture with the blind man, the narrator sees with his eyes closed. It is a new sight he experiences, the kind of sight the blind man has mastered. It is not just the physical appearance but all the components that make up an object or person. All that the blind man understands is left in the drawing and the narrator finally sees a piece of “sight”.