The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive

One of my theology teacher's favorite things to say is "the glory of God is man fully alive". This is a question that he loves to ask us. It really makes us think. He asks all of us what we think it means and we all have different answers. We sometimes spend entire classes answering questions that my teacher, Mr. Cole, asks us that relate to the ultimate question: "What does it mean to say that 'the glory of God is man fully alive'?" He has now asked us to put our opinion on the answer to the question down on paper for our final blog post. So, What DOES it mean to say that the glory of God is man fully alive? I am about to tell you what it means to me.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light." 
"Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."

I used these two quotes because I wanted to express how, even from the beginning, humans were special to God. He created us and gave us dominion over the other plants and animals of the earth. He told us "be fruitful and multiply," because he wanted Adam and Eve to fill the earth with his greatest creation. He even said that humans were "very good", not just "good" like the rest of his creations had been. God wants us to give glory to him by living a Christ-like life and being good stewards of the earth. We have to live the way that God intended for us in order to give him glory and praise. 

God created man in the image and likeness of Him which means that we have free will, capacity to love, and intellect. Because we have these things, each person makes his/her own decisions with what they do in life and they want to live their life. One of the consequences of this free will is that sometimes we make the wrong decision and make mistakes. With this being said, we all have something in common. We have to find our vocation or calling. Everyone's vocation is different but we are all called to give glory to God through whatever our vocation is. So, in a sense, we all have the same vocation, there are just different paths that we take to satisfy the ultimate calling - to give glory to God. Through this intellect, free will, and capacity to love, we are able to live to our full potential and be fully alive in God if we choose. We learn new things everyday about our calling, but we must remember the ultimate calling is to be with God in heaven, so we must live our lives fully alive in Christ, trying to give him praise with everything that we do. For me, this is what it means to say "the glory of God is man fully alive."

God's Greatest Attribute is His Mercy

This quote "God's Greatest Attribute is His Mercy" is another quote that my teacher, Mr Cole loves to say. He told us an interesting story earlier in the year about a teacher that he had in college that he learned this saying from. He said that there was a rumor that if you wrote "God's greatest attribute is His mercy" at the bottom of your test, he wouldn't fail you no matter how bad you did. That is something along the lines of what he told us, but he has brought this quote and started using it in our class in certain situation. I think this quote is very interesting because when you think about it, God has to forgive and have mercy on everybody because no body is perfectly sinless except for Jesus and Mary.

At the very beginning of time, in the first book of the Bible, we already see God's Mercy and forgiveness. Because of the free will we all sometimes make mistakes and do stuff we shouldn't do. We see these mistakes from the beginning of time when Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told them that they could eat from any other tree except for that one but they disobeyed him. After Adam and Eve, we see more mistakes made throughout the Old Testament. The world becomes so filled with evil at one point that he selects Noah to build an arch and save his family and one of every type of animal, and God sends a flood that kills everybody and takes all the evil with it, but original sin still remained. We see God's mercy when he makes the ultimate sacrifice and sends his only begotten son down to earth to die for our sins. While on earth Christ establishes the Church, the Sacrament of Salvation and the Sacraments as a way for us to receive God's grace and his salvation. God forgives all of our sins that we make everyday, we just have to pray, repent, and ask for forgiveness. For me, that is why God's greatest attribute is His mercy.

The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive

In our Theology II class a frequent term used is "the glory of God is man fully alive," but what does this really mean.  That question is the question that Mr. Cole will not stop asking. At the beginning of the year, we answered this question and he asked us to answer it again. Here is my reflection on St Irenaeus's quote from about 185 AD. 

Well I think that we can all a agree that God created the world and he did it to express his love for us. God is a perfect being that did not need to create the world and can not gain anything by creating the world. Therefore, God did not create the world for his personal gain, but share his glory with the world.  God truly expressed his love for us by creating us.  So the Glory God is when he manifests himself and his goodness through creation.  God created us, human beings, to be in communion with him.  One problem, when Adam and Eve committed original sin, we fell out of communion with God and could no longer fulfill our one true task.  So God sent his only son to redeem us by sacrificing himself on the cross.  Again, this is God showing his everlasting and  generous love for us.

The next step we must take to understanding the glory of God is man full alive now that we know what the Glory of God is.  Man fully alive is a person doing what God would want us to do, making the morale Christian decision and helping others.  An easy way to do this is when you are presented with a difficult situation, think with your heart and not your head.  This will usually get you going on the right track and you will often make the right decision. God also created us to work, so we can glorify God through our work. In our respective jobs, we should work hard to do the best we can. Now that we have an understanding what man fully alive is, we can begin to piece the phrase together.  So if the glory of God is creation and man fully alive is someone a good morale decision, when we put them together it takes on a new meaning.  The glory of God is man fully alive means that when a Christian is acting as God wants him to, then he is showing the world the Glory of God through his actions and works.  I hope that this helps explain the confusing and unanswerable concept of "The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive."

Confirmation: The Laying on of Hands

Confirmation is the perfection of the graces given in Baptism. The sacrament gets it roots from the story of Pentecost where Christ sent the Holy Spirit to the Apostles giving them the courage to preach the Gospel. The Early Church called this sacrament the Laying of Hands because an Apostle would lay his hands on the newly baptized and confirm his baptism. Confirmation completes Baptism by bringing the the confirmand- the person receiving the Sacrament- fully into the Mystical Body of Christ and perfecting the graces that had been given in Baptism. The confirmand receives the same rush of the Holy Spirit that the Apostles experienced at Pentecost. Confirmation reaffirms the person's identity as an adopted child of God and strengthens the person's ability to proclaim the Gospel through words and deeds. Confirmation confirms one's baptism through the laying on of hands and anointing with Chrism.

Baptism: Initiation into the Church

The Sacrament of Baptism is one of the three Sacraments of Initiation by which a person becomes a full member of the Church. Baptism is a new birth in water and the Spirit by which we are cleansed of both Original Sin and actual sin. Baptism connects us to the resurrection of Christ and allows us to be saved. Jesus says that unless a person is born of water and Spirit he can not enter the Kingdom of God. He commands the Apostles to go and Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit highlighting the importance of Baptism in Salvation. After we participate in Baptism, we become part of the Mystical Body of Christ and we become an adopted son or daughter of God. Although we are forgiven of Original Sin through Baptism, we retain the consequences of Original Sin such as death and the inclination to sin. Baptism opens the path and the ability to go to Heaven, but we still must live a Christ like life. Baptism initiates us into the Church and gives us the sanctifying grace needed to enter into the Kingdom of God.

The First Sin

Original Sin, the first sin, is a core part of Catholic Church teaching, and can only be understood through the creation story, along with some background on of Jesus Christ. In the beginning, Adam and Eve lived in a state of Original Justice and Holiness in communion with God. They were commanded not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, because it would kill them. When they disobeyed God and trusted the Devil's temptation, they losed communion with God and the advantages that came with being in communion with our creator. Before Original Sin, we were free from the burdens of sin like death. Adam and Eve's children would also not inherit the communion with God, and humans would be born in a state of lost grace. This Fall from communion is the direct effect of the Original Sin, which could only be atoned for by Jesus Christ. In order for us to be brought back into communion with God, we needed a human to repay the infinite debt that we owed to God. Only Christ who is fully divine yet fully human could redeem a sin committed by humans against God. 

Bum or Human

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AusCA28efa0&feature=youtu.be
In this blog post I would like to reflect on the video that I liked above. The video documents someone interviewing a homeless man. I am going to talk about our views of homeless people by the general public and then I want to talk about how we can help homeless people.
In this video, the homeless man gets very emotional and upset because he talks about how badly people treat him and how terrible some of the things people say to him are. We, as a general population, treat homeless people very badly because of stereotypes. Many people do not want to give homeless people money because they are afraid that they are going to go spend the money on drugs and alcohol and not actually use it to buy food and shelter. Some people also do not like to help homeless people because they think that they have become homeless because they are too lazy to go get a job. As Ronald Davis, the homeless man from the video, says, some people walk past him and say go get a job, you bum. This upsets him a lot because he is trying to get a job but he can't get the job because he doesn't have enough money to buy nice clothes, so they don't hire him. We are just making his life and the lives of other homeless people worse when we make fun of them instead of helping them.
I think the best thing to give to a homeless person is food. The 2 main things that homeless people like Ronald Davis need are food and shelter. He talked about this in the interview. A homeless person still needs money to buy a room, but giving them food is half of what they need. Of course giving a homeless person money is a lot more helpful to them, but then you run the risk of them spending it poorly. We need to help them out in whatever way we see most fitting. If you aren't comfortable giving money to the homeless then you should at least give them food. Giving them bad looks and saying mean things to them only makes things worse for them and makes their life harder than it already is. The little things that we do to help a person can make a world of difference to them.

The Church for Everyone

In an article I just read a Catholic Cardinal brought up how the Catholic Church includes everyone and loves everyone. He brought up a parallel between the washing of hands and the sinnful actions that we may do. For example, the child was welcome at the table if he washed his hands just like how we are welcome at the table of God after we confess our sins and have been cleaned. He also mentioned the four marks of the Church and how they show the Church is universal.
I also found the part about how the Church loves everyone but condemns their actions interesting. It mentioned some controversial topics like abortion and homosexual marriage. He said that the Church still loves those who may chose to have an abortion as long as they repent and confess their sins. The Cardinal made a good point in that God will forgive all sins and wants everyone to come to him. All in all, this article has some good points about the universality of the Church.

Ronald Davis Video Reflection

The Catholic Church teaches that all humans were made in the image of God, and as such are equal in their dignity. In short, the Catholic Church believes every human person is equal in the eyes of God and in should be equal in the eyes of everyone. But as you can see in Ronald Davis's video, many people do not recognize this fact. Ignorance clouds people's thoughts to make them believe people like Ronald are just bums, and inferior. It's dehumanizing to have no home and have to beg for food and shelter; such ignorant people only humiliate the homeless even more. 

I think Ronald's story can teach about judgement. People are quick to label homeless people as drunks and bums. Many of us look at someone like Ronald and assume he or she is just a good-for-nothing bum, but we do not know their story. We do not know what they have been through and how they got there. We cannot judge Ronald for not having a job when employers will not hire him due to his appearance. As humans we have no right to judge other humans and make assumptions about them. We must try to help others no matter what their situation. Next time you see a homeless person begging at the street corner I hope instead of judging you try to help them out.

Mathew 7: 1-5- “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

All Are Welcome

http://blog.archny.org/index.php/all-are-welcome/comment-page-1/#comment-132281
First off, I found this article to be a very good explanation of a lot of different Catholic teachings in the Church. The author uses very good and relate-able examples and parallels to the Church that a normal person might experience in the real world. If you, the reader, are trying to learn more about Catholicism whether you be separated brethren or non religious looking to see what the Church is about. I highly recommend reading it!
I like how in the author paralleled the washing of the hands when the boy entered the house before he ate dinner to baptism when one enters the Church. To enter the Church one must take the sacrament of baptism to cleanse themselves of original sin just as the boy must wash himself of all the mud before he eats dinner with the welcoming family.
"Hate the sin; love the sinner." This is another quote from the article that I found to be very interesting. He uses two very simple phrases to describe something that plays such a big role in the Church. One attribute that Jesus shows many times throughout his life on earth is his mercy and forgiveness. He reminds us that we should not stone the lady who is committing adultery because we are all sinners ourselves. We must learn to love everybody like they are our family and deal with their sins because we are all sinners too.

Female Priests in the Catholic Church

In this post I will be addressing the question: "Should women be able to enter the priesthood in the Catholic Church." The Church has always said no in response to this question and they use the teachings from the Bible to support the decision. The Church says "While women could publicly pray and prophesy in church" (1 Cor. 11:1–16), "they could not teach or have authority over a man" (1 Tim. 2:11–14), since these were two essential functions of the clergy. "Nor could women publicly question or challenge the teaching of the clergy" (1 Cor. 14:34–38). This means that the Catholic Church has not ever allowed a woman to become a priest in the Church. The Church Fathers rejected women's ordination, not because it was incompatible with Christian culture, but because it was incompatible with Christian faith. Thus, together with biblical declarations, the teaching of the Fathers on this issue formed the tradition of the Church that taught that priestly ordination was reserved to men. Throughout medieval times and even up until the present day, this teaching has not changed. 
Recently, there was a woman ordained in Kentucky in defiance of the Catholic Church She has decided to be ordained and start her own congregation outside of the Catholic Church because she doesn't want to wait for the Catholic Church to allow women priest. Seventy percent of U.S. Catholics believe that women should be allowed to be priests, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll earlier this year. I found this interesting because although it says that it says in the scriptures that many of the Catholics believe that women should be allowed to become priests in the Church. Although many Catholics want females to become priests, the rule has stayed very strict. The former pope, Benedict XVI, reaffirmed the Catholic Church's ban on women priests and warned that he would not tolerate disobedience by clerics on fundamental teachings. Male priests have been stripped of their holy orders for participating in ordination ceremonies for women. From this, I gather that woman priests will not be allowed in the Catholic Church anytime soon. 

Who can receive the Eucharist?

The Catholic Church rightly regards the Eucharist as the most important of the seven sacraments of the Church as contained within what appears to be a small wafer of bread is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is also perhaps the most obvious division between Catholics and Protestants. Unlike many Protestant denominations, the Catholic Church practices what is called closed communion. While other Christians are often (although not always) happy to welcome Christians of a different denomination to share in their “communion services”, the Catholic Church does not allow non-Catholics to receive the Eucharist. Many non-Catholics (and even non-Christians) are puzzled and sometimes offended by this. This attitude is viewed as damaging ecumenism and fostering division. Non-Catholics cannot (under ordinary circumstances) receive the Eucharist. This is for essentially the same reasons as exist which might prevent a Catholic from receiving the Eucharist – most non-Catholics deny the doctrine of transubstantiation, for example. In addition, Scripture makes it very clear that the Eucharist is the highest sign of Christian unity. If non-Catholics were to receive the Eucharist in a Catholic Church this would imply a unity which does not, regrettably, exist. Therefore, Non-Catholics can not receive the communion, but can receive a blessing at mass.

The Permanence of Marriage

     Among Catholics, one of the most sensitive and often-avoided topics is the stinging reality of divorce and its consequences. While there must be a pastoral response to assist those parties who seek counseling when their failed marriage ends in divorce, one must never compromise the truth of Christ’s teachings for the sake of the pastoral response. The words and teachings of Jesus Christ on divorce are clear, and it is the responsibility of the Church and its pastors to safeguard, proclaim, and defend them. A section from the Gospel of Mathew shows how Jesus responds to the question of divorce (see end of post). When Jesus came, he elevated matrimony to the same status it had originally possessed between Adam and Eve—the status of a sacrament. Thus, any valid marriage between two baptized people is a sacramental marriage and, once consummated, cannot be dissolved. Jesus, therefore, taught that if anyone so married divorces and remarries, that person is living in perpetual adultery, a state of mortal sin. The Church views marriage as a bond that can not be broken and is viewed as permanent in the eyes of God. Therefore, the Church only accepts an annulment or declaring a marriage null and void. This topic is very controversial in the modern world and the Church will remain in her view.

“And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, ‘Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one”? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.’ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?’ He said to them, ‘For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.’"

The Process of Becoming a Saint in the Catholic Church

In this post I want to talk about the process that a person has to go through to become a Saint in the Catholic Church. This process of becoming a Saint is called canonization. There are 4 steps to becoming a Saint. The 4 steps are Servant of God, Venerable, Blessed, and Saint. A person becomes a Servant of God when they are accepted into consideration of becoming a Saint. After the Vatican Congregation  for the Causes of Saints determines that the servant of God lived a life of heroic virtue, he is granted the title of venerable. Heroic virtue doesn't mean a person was perfect or sinless, but that he worked to improve himself spiritually and never gave up trying to be better and grow in holiness.  After the Church establishes one miracle, the venerable person’s cause is presented to the pope to see whether he deems him worthy of being called blessed. This step is called beatification and is the next-to-last step. Another miracle and the blessed person’s cause is presented to the pope again for his judgment. If he determines that the evidence is clear and that contrary reports aren't credible, he may begin the canonization of the person. If all goes well, the candidate is publicly recognized as a Saint. 

The picture is a picture of an incorruptible Saint. Some Saints bodies don't decay like a normal persons would after they die. This is an example of an incorruptible.

The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, Italy

The Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano, Italy is a miraculous that occurred during the celebration of mass in the city of Lanciano, Italy. The monk that was giving the mass had began to doubt the real presence of the Christ in the bread and wine. After saying the words of consecration he noticed that the bread and wine had turned into a real piece of flesh and real blood. Many tests have been performed on the bread and wine turned into real flesh and real blood by real scientists and they have proven it to be a real flesh and real blood. They tested the blood type of the blood and it turned out to be AB, the same blood type that was found on the Shroud of Turin. They also discovered that the piece of flesh is one that would have been from a human and this flesh is consistent with that of the human heart.
It is almost coincidental that the miracle occurred in Lanciano, Italy. Lanciano is the Italian word for lance and this is coincidental because when Christ was dying on the cross, the roman soldier pierced the side of Christ and from it came water and blood. This is important because without Christ coming to earth as the only begotten son of Christ and dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins then the infinite gap created between us and God could not have been bridged.
The Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano, Italy is different from the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. In the real presence Christ is present in spirit and the bread and wine symbolizes the body and blood of Christ which he instituted at the Last Supper. If the normal bread and wine of the Eucharist were to be tested by scientists then it would not turn out to be actual blood and flesh of Christ. In the Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano, Italy, it actually became the body and blood of Christ and this could be backed up and tested by science.

Controversial Topics: Abortion

I know abortion is a very, very controversial topic, but I did a class work exercise on it and I wanted address it in this blog. I read an article about Saint Gianna, an Italian doctor with many children. The article focused on her difficulties with her baby that she was about to have. They discovered cancer in Gianna in the 9th month of pregnancy and giving birth to the new baby would probably end in both Gianna and her baby to die. The doctor said she should get an abortion, but Gianna decided that she wanted to have the baby even though her life was at stake. She, being a very dedicated Catholic, wanted the doctors to try to save the baby rather than killing the baby to save her life. This was a very bold move by her. This is why abortion has become so controversial. It all depends on peoples opinions. Gianna's opinion was that her baby's life was more important than her's, so she wanted the doctors to try to save the life of the baby instead of her. Some other people think their life is more important than an unborn baby. These people most likely believe that unborn baby's aren't yet considered alive, so they don't consider it murder. Of course, the views of the Catholic Church are very strict. The Church believes that life starts at conception so that once the baby is created, it is considered alive. This means that unborn babies are considered alive. Some others do not agree with the Catholic Church. They believe that life starts once the baby has been born. This difference of opinion is what has caused the major controversy surrounding abortion.

The Main Obstacle Christians Face

I wanted to discuss what I believe to be the Main Obstacle of Living a Truly Christian Life. In my opinion, temptation is the main obstacle of living a truly Christian life for many Christians. Temptation is from the devil who tries to prevent you from living a truly Christian life. Some people face personal and minor temptations. However, some people face serious temptations. There are many people in the world today who face serious temptations which may include: self-harm, drug addictions, etc. These are things that can most definitely become obstacles of living a truly Christian life. Self-harm may be interpreted by some as “blemishing God’s creation,” pornography could be interpreted as “a bad distraction on the internet,” and drug addictions can also be interpreted as “blemishing God’s mind and body which he gave you.”  Without temptation and evil, there would be no sin. This possibility was changed when Adam and Eve committed the Original Sin (the first sin which was committed which brought sin into the world). Although everybody does face some kind of temptation, there are many ways that you can overcome these temptations. One way that these temptations can eventually be overcome is through prayer. For example, in the Our Father Prayer, we pray “…and lead us not into temptation…” This is a great example which portrays for you that praying for the overcoming of temptation can eventually help one achieve the ability to overcome their temptation. Prayer is a very strong way to get many tasks done and overcoming temptations just happens to be one of those tasks. Overall, I believe that temptation is the number one obstacle to living a truly Christian life.

Christmas vs. Easter

Earlier this week I reflected on a certain question about Christmas and Easter, and I found it to be an interesting topic to reflect on; therefore, I decided to write a blog post about it. The question that I was asked to reflect on was: "Why do you think that Christmas is celebrated as a bigger holiday than Easter although Easter is a more important day in the Church." In short, my answer to this is that people in society are more selfish and would rather receive gifts instead of give them up. Most people don't look at the meaning behind the celebration and the holiday. On Christmas, we are celebrating Christ's birth in the manger, and on Easter, we are celebrating Christ Resurrection. Both are very important days for the Church and without the birth of Christ then we would not have been saved through his paschal mystery, but the resurrection is when Christ defeats death and begins to teach the Apostles and prepare them to preach the Gospel message to the world. Most people don't think about these things and they are just worried about receiving gifts. We need to remember when we are celebrating certain holidays what the meaning of the holiday is and why we have it. We must not forget that those things are important too.

Easter vs. Christmas

Priests and Marriage

The issue of marriage and priests has been a key issue in the modern world. Many Protestant religions have allowed marriage of priests, and many people believe that in order for their to be a continued interest in the priesthood, priests must be allowed to marry. The Catholic Church on the other hand believes that the priesthood is a calling to a way of life and serving God. I know that at our school the catholic priest talk about being called to married life or being called to the priesthood. By remaining celibate, the priests are able to completely focus on God. Jesuit Priests can be called anywhere in the world at any time by the Pope, but if they were married and had a family they would have to move with him or be supported by the Church. Also, priests take a vow of poverty and would have to rely on the Church to pay for another person or family. Catholic Answers has a great article on the issue of priest's marriage. All in all, I believe that the Catholic will never change their view on the issue of priest's marriage.

Catholic Answers Article 

The Church in the Life of the Faithful

      How can we live our life to praise Christ and spread His message? The Laity, the members of the Church, are challenged by this question every time we think about the God and his call. We are all called to holiness through living like Christ through prayer and repentance. Christ told us in his Sermon on the Mount to strive to be perfect. Our call to perfection is a call to greater holiness. The members of the Laity need to do more than pray every once and a while and go to mass. They need to sanctify others in every part of our lives. The Laity need to participate in the mass, regularly take part in the Sacraments, pray multiple times a day, and sanctify our ordinary lives. We are called to respond to God's call and spread the good news to every one in every part of our lives.

The Catechism on the Laity-

"Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit maybe produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit - indeed even the hardships of life if patiently born - all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives."

The Rites of the Catholic Church

     It may surprise some people to know that there are many different rites within the Catholic Church. Before discussing these rites it is important to note that a different rite has no split from the Catholic Church, but they are the liturgies said by different cultural centers in the times of the Apostles. A rite represents an ecclesiastical tradition about how the sacraments are to be celebrated. As the early Church grew and spread, it celebrated the sacraments as would be best understood and received in the context of individual cultures, without ever changing their essential form and matter. The early Church sought to evangelize in the major cultural centers of the first centuries A.D. These centers were Rome, Antioch (Syria), and Alexandria (Egypt). All the rites in use today evolved from the liturgical practices and ecclesiastical organization used by the churches in these cities.

     The Church of Christ represented in these ecclesiastical traditions is known as a ritual church. The church in a certain territory is known as a particular church. The Catechism lists main seven rites. These rites are listed: Latin, Byzantine, Alexandrian, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, and Chaldean,. These rites are the descendants of the liturgical practices that originated in centers of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. Each rite originates from the authority of the apostles and have developed from a particular region thus integrating the culture of the region. 

"Within the Catholic Church ... Canonical rites, which are of equal dignity, enjoy the same rights, and are under the same obligations. Although the particular churches possess their own hierarchy, differ in liturgical and ecclesiastical discipline, and possess their own spiritual heritage, they are all entrusted to the pastoral government of the Roman pontiff, the divinely appointed successor of St. Peter in the Primacy." 

Indulgences

This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches about indulgences: 

1471    The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance.

What is an indulgence?

“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.”⁸¹

“An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin.”⁸² The faithful can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.⁸³

The punishments of sin

1472    To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the “eternal punishment” of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the “temporal punishment” of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.⁸⁴ (1861, 1031)

1473    The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the “old man” and to put on the “new man.”⁸⁵ (2447)

In the Communion of Saints

1474    The Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and to become holy with the help of God’s grace is not alone. “The life of each of God’s children is joined in Christ and through Christ in a wonderful way to the life of all the other Christian brethren in the supernatural unity of the Mystical Body of Christ, as in a single mystical person.”⁸⁶ (946-959, 795)

1475    In the communion of saints, “a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things.”⁸⁷ In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin.

1476    We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the Church’s treasury, which is “not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the ‘treasury of the Church’ is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ’s merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their efficacy.”⁸⁸ (617)

1477    “This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body.”⁸⁹ (969)

Obtaining indulgence from God through the Church

1478    An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity.⁹⁰ (981)

1479    Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted. (1032)

The definition of an indulgence is remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sin whose guilt has already been forgiven. This means that you cannot buy an indulgence to secure you position in heaven and make sure that you do not go to hell. One can receive indulgences under certain conditions with proper disposition through participation in prayer, devotions, pilgrimages, and acts of charity. An important part of the definition is the part that says "whose guilt has already been forgiven". This justifies why you cannot buy an indulgence to secure your place in heaven or ensure that you will not go to hell because your sins already have to be forgiven. you cannot buy an indulgence to replace the forgiveness of sins. The actual effect of indulgences is reducing or eliminating time spent in purgatory as long as the indulgences are received under the correct conditions. 

 

Food Bank

Throughout this year, I have done many different types of community service. Whether it be tutoring, food distribution, or simple manual labor, there has been one consistent factor through all of them. I have done almost all of these services alone. When I decided to work at the food pantry, I was optimistic about the amount of people that we as a group would be able to help. I learned at the food pantry that there is a substantial difference between working by yourself, like I usually do and working with friends. By yourself, there are certain limits to the number of things you can accomplish. You only have a certain amount of energy you can commit to your goal and therefore that lessens many of your possibilities. But when you work with friends, your abilities to work and think are greatly increased, as instead of having one mindset, you have many.  Most importantly, I felt that I could accomplish more in a group, than I ever could working as an individual. I saw yesterday how much time and effort everyone put in to helping at the food pantry and I could not wait to see what we are able to do when we put that same effort into different things. I know that as a team, we were able to find and do something that we are truly passionate about like packing food for the homeless.

During the experience of packing and handing out food, I felt like I was living a more Christ like life. I also felt that seeing a different economic level opened my eyes to the poverty that is all around us, and it allowed me to feel for the people who may not have food or a place to live. I remember one Sunday when I was working at San Mateo handing out food to underprivileged families. I specifically remember looking at some of the kids that were hungry and seeing the joy when they got all the food. This experience has allowed me to gain a greater understanding for the underprivileged families in the Houston area and around the world. While packaging food, my group and I participated in a program called backpack buddies. Backpack buddies gives food to kids who only eat when at school. When packaging the food all I could think about were the kids that would be overjoyed when they received this food. The Houston Food bank is an amazing place that allowed me to both package and deliver food to underprivileged kids and families.

Looking back on the experience I have a greater appreciation for all that I have especially the food. Seeing the reactions of the kids when they are receiving food changed my perspective on the world. We live in such a privileged and lucky society and I sometimes forget that there are people with little to no food or shelter. All in all, I enjoyed growing closer to God and reminding myself of all the things people need in the world.

Helping the Under-Privileged Community

For my fifteen sophomore service hours required for graduation of my sophomore year, my family and I decided that I should volunteer at Spring Baseball. Spring Baseball is an organization that organizes a baseball league for under-privileged kids in a bad part of town. This organization was created with hopes that it would help these young kids as well as their entire family to get involved in their community through baseball and to stay out of trouble. I feel like my choice of volunteering at this organization was a good one because I used to play baseball and I enjoyed it very much throughout my middle school years. My duties and responsibilities during the hours that I volunteered were to assist the younger kids with the fundamentals of baseball, to assist the coaches in keeping the young athletes under control, and sometimes even to setup a volleyball game so that the families of the young baseball players could get involved in the fun as well.

            I think that this service project relates to my life at Strake Jesuit because one of the six grad at grad statements is physically fit. This means that although Strake Jesuit and its students take much pride in their academic success, they also take pride in their physical abilities and their performance in sports. I think this project is especially important because, as I said before, one of the main purposes of this organization is to get kids that live in a bad part of town to participate in their community in order to keep them off the streets and causing mischief. I am proud to have worked at this organization because keeping young kids involved in their community and out of trouble can affect them greatly as they mature and get older. They will most likely become more responsible and willing to help others because of the kindness that people had shown to them in their early childhood.

One main thing that I want to reflect on in this reflection paper is something that I didn’t really realize and it kind of bugged me at the time, but after thinking and reflecting about the experience I realized why this certain thing kept on happening. This “thing” is that many of the families that came to Spring Baseball late or sometimes didn’t even show up at all. The experience was very inconsistent because of this. Sometimes when I volunteered there, there would be tons of people and they would all show up on time, but other times there were very few people and the people that did show up were very late. This meant that I had a little down time in between setting up and the arrival of the players. The absence of punctuality of the players and their families annoyed me at first, but then I realized that they are doing their best to get there on time. I noticed that many of the families walked to the Spring Baseball fields, so I began to understand their inconsistency. Many times some of the families that showed up were very large, maybe about seven or eight people. This means that it would have been hard for them to get organized and walk to the field in order to get there on time without fail. I discovered that in the over-indulged world that I live in, being punctual and on time is a very important thing, but in the world of the under-privileged families, they are trying their hardest to get there on time. After discovering the reality of the situation, I became a lot more patient with the families and I now just happy when they showed up and were ready to play some baseball!

What are the Sacraments?

The sacraments are signs and instruments of God's grace. The seven sacraments—Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, Confession, Marriage, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick—are viewed as the life of the Catholic Church. Each sacrament is an outward sign of an inward grace. The Catholic Church teaches that a sacrament "efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions" (CCC 1131). As an efficacious sign of grace, the sacraments are successful in producing the desired result. Catholic's believe that the sacraments allow us to receive the grace and grow in holiness. Through the sacraments, we are able to grow closer to God and develop a greater relationship with Him.