Universal Call to Holiness (Blog Post #15)

The Universal Call to Holiness is the way the Church expresses the exhortation made to all Christians by Christ to "be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)  There are 4 articles on the handouts page (you were likely given two in class as well).  You must read the articles and write a 500-700 word response to the following prompt on your blog.

Msgr. Luigi Giussani states:  "[T.S. Eliot] asked himself "Has the Church failed mankind, or has mankind failed the Church?" . . . Both, both, because first and foremost it is mankind who failed the Church, because if I need something, I chase after it if it goes away. No one chased after it . . . The Church began to fail mankind, as I see it . . . because she forgot who Christ was, she did not rely on..., she was ashamed of Christ, of saying who Christ is."(Interview, 2004)

What does it mean to say, "if I need something, I chase after it if it goes away"?  How does this relate to the "Universal Call to Holiness"?  What do you think this quote implies for the everyday Catholic?  What do you think it means to "say who Christ is" without shame?

            Msgr. Luigi Giussani states:  "[T.S. Eliot] asked himself "Has the Church failed mankind, or has mankind failed the Church?" . . . Both, both, because first and foremost it is mankind who failed the Church, because if I need something, I chase after it if it goes away. No one chased after it . . . The Church began to fail mankind, as I see it . . . because she forgot who Christ was, she did not rely on..., she was ashamed of Christ, of saying who Christ is"(Interview, 2004).  What does it mean to say, “if I need something, I chase after it if it goes away”? It means that no matter what I will do what it takes to get that something even it means that I must give everything up in my life just to do so.

            This relates to the “Universal Call to Holiness” because as a Catholic we are called to be devout in our faith. We are called to have a close relationship with God. We are supposed to make him number one in our lives. We are supposed to go to church every Sunday, pray every day and thank him for everything we have in our lives because it wasn’t for him we would not be alive today. But at times society likes to dictate what followers of Christ can do and that sometimes taints one’s universal call to holiness putting them on a path of destruction.

            This quote implies for the everyday Catholic that the Church has become a little ashamed of its faith and that as Catholic in today’s society we should not hide our faith. We should display our faith for everyone to see because God is good and that is what he would want us to do. He wants us to spread the good news of the Bible to everyone. Even the Church sometimes loses its true vision and veers away from the path that God wants us to follow. The world has corrupt everyone’s vision of faith and the freedom to practice one’s faith.

            To “say who Christ is” without shame is to proclaim that you believe in him without worrying about what other people will think about you by doing so. It should not matter what someone will think about you if you say that you believe in Christ. If you believe in Christ and trust him then no harm should ever come of you because he will protect you. Believe in God is a good thing, no one should be ashamed of their own religious faith. Has world come to that? It shouldn’t be like that. Being able to believe in Christ is right that should be respected.

Reading for Comprehension for She Went By Gently by Carroll (Blog Post 14)

A gift of Baptism is the ability to love others as God loves us. How is this ability seen in the woman’s treatment of the girl?

Although the girl may not be seen as accepted in society because she does not care about who uses her body the woman did not really care about that fact. The other men in the room told the woman to not touch her because of how unholy she is but the woman did not pay any mind to them. She helped the girl regardless of her social status. God loves us no matter what we do and forgives us no matter how grave the sin we commit just like the woman in the story did for the girl.

At the end of the story the woman says in regard to the infant “I saved him.” What does she mean by that statement?

                No one wanted to help the girl give birth because she was considered a whore by society. But the woman didn’t care, she wanted to save the baby. A baby is a baby, it doesn’t matter who the mother is. The other people did not want to even to help the girl but the woman did not care. She helped the girl give birth to her baby boy. Soon after the baby was born, she baptized the baby absolving his original sin. So “saving him” was really baptizing him. Saving him spiritually by performing the sacrament of baptism.

The author describes the journey of the woman to her own home. What is the purpose of this section of story? What is he trying to convey about the woman through his descriptions?

                The purpose of this section of the story is to show how calm and spiritual the woman is. The man with her could care less and was just bored. But she was actually thinking about what she did and was praying the rosary as she walked along. At one point they cross over a bridge and she pauses to contemplate over the sound of rushing water. Paralleling the rushing water beneath her with the little baby boy she just saved. 

Gifts of the Holy Spirit Reflection - Blog Post 13

Please read the handouts (can be found on the handouts page) on Confirmation by Bishop Sheen and James Seghers. In light of the readings, answer the following two questions with a short essay for each.

(Each question must have a response of at least 200 words.)

1. How do you see the Gifts of the Holy Spirit working in your life?

                I see the Gifts of the Holy Spirit working in my life through my faith. I have been practicing the Catholic faith since I was baptized as a baby. I have been attending mass almost every Sunday since then. Of course when one is younger, mass is not really taken all too seriously. Partly because a five year old does not really know what is going on symbolically throughout the mass yet. But through the years of going to mass and attending Catholic school, I came to know the meaning of mass. During Confirmation, the Holy Spirit is working to bring the person being confirmed closer to God and to better understand his ways and works. Every gift is hopefully being explored by the confirmed and is being strengthened and used daily. The Holy Spirit is an important aspect of the trinity, bringing the seven important spiritual gifts one needs to be truly one with God.  My faith has grown stronger by attending mass and it has to be because the work of the Holy Spirit in my life strengthening my faith in God. The Holy Spirit has helped me grow stronger through my prayers and grow closer in my relationship with God.

 2. Which Gift of the Holy Spirit do you think you need the most in your life today?

                The gift of courage is what I need most in my life today. I need to be brave. I need to have courage to face my future which is frighteningly growing closer every day. High school is finally ending and a new chapter of my life is unfolding. I don’t know exactly what is going to happen yet and that is scary. I do not know which college I am going to yet. I am sure of my major but what if I do not like it when I start. I will be living away from my parents for the first time, which does not sound too bad right now but it is still something new that I have never really experienced. My grandmother is possibly moving back to the Philippines in next year or so and that thought is always haunting me, bringing me to tears sometimes. The idea of having to be so independent in basically half a year from now makes me nervous. Courage is a gift of the Holy Spirit that I definitely need right now. Everything in my life is about to break away from a pattern that has pretty much been my life for eighteen years. It sounds over dramatic but it really is different from what I have been experiencing. 

Are Sacraments Narrow? (Distance Learning #3)

Answer the following questions on your blog (be sure to write the questions as well):

Are Sacraments Narrow? By Mark Shea 

1.      What is Ludwig's problem?

Ludwig doesn't know what it means to say grace is imparted through sacraments. He thinks that it’s a narrow way to see grace. Because he’s protestant, he doesn’t understand why grace needs to be shown through the sacraments. To him grace is simply unmerited favor.

2.      Explain what the Church is not thinking about when it comes to “sacramentality”.

The Church does not propose sacraments to deny God’s universal love and will to save. It does not hold that unbaptized people of good will (like the good thief cruicied with Christ) are necessarily denied salvation simple because they missed out on the “magic spell” of baptism.

3.      Explain what Church is thinking about when it comes to “sacramentality”.

a.       Both the universal redemption of Christ and the possibility of salvation for each person is forcefully maintained by the Church against carious Christian sects who assert that Christ has only redeemed a few or that God actively desires the damnation of certain people.

4.      How does God reveal and give to each individual human being his universally offered grace?

a.       The Church refers us to the primal Sacrament of Sacraments, the Incarnate Son of God. For as we shall see, all the Church’s sacraments are simply extensions of his power and work in the world.

5.      Which Christian doctrine is the foundation for the Sacraments?

a.       “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God revealed himself to us through Jesus. He poured himself into his son and made him human just like us so we can relate and understand him even more.

6.      Explain what the gobs of modern “spirituality” tell us.

a.       For such spirituality oftens speaks as though God is a sort of extended ether in the cosmos that He would never sully himself with the crudeness of matter. To be spiritual is to be more or less disembodied, to well in the realm of intuitions and concepts and secret mindset. It is assign of barbarism.

7.      Explain the Christian repudiation of “such spiritual snobbery”

a.       God likes matter. He not only declared it “good” at the beginning of creation, but he continued to manifest himself through it right up until the time that He took upon himself a real, life physical body of matter and united himself, not only to our spirits but to our whole beings.

8.      “But that was so that he could put this gross body of flesh to death on the Cross and revert back to pure spirituality, wasn’t it?” Answer and explain:

a.       It was so that he could rise from the death bodily. It means not only that we will live again, but that we will do so as human beings, not as disembodied spooks floating in the ether. God gave up his life on earth so that we could live on Earth peacefully. If not we would have all died, it was because of his sacrifice that we are living today.

9.      Explain: “That is why the sacramental worldview sees more than just a symbol in a sacrament.”

a.       They impart grace as the physical hands and breath of Christ imparted healing to the bilnd man and the Holy Spirit to the apostles. For they are the divinity of Christ. They are the physical means of grace that both signify what they do and do what the signify.

10.  Explain what G.K. Charleston said:

a.       Sacramentality comes from the odd nature of Christianity itself with its stubborn insistence that the world was saved when God, who had always been omnipotent and universal, became small and “local” so that he could touch us and call us by name.

11.  What does grace do?

a.       Grace touches us personally and that’s exactly what God did through Jesus Christ. He came to us, person to person, face to face, so that he might touch us spiritually and physically (so that we can fully believe that he is real). 

Man Without a Face Essay (Homework Assignment #9)

Write a 750 word blog post on the following topic: "How does Norstadt arrive at the moral certainty that he can trust McLeod despite the fear and doubt that is raised in him by the rumors? Why is it so important for McLeod that Norstadt not "cheat" on the problem of using his freedom to decide on his own whether the rumors are true?" In addition, you may also write about any other interesting questions or thoughts that you had on the movie.

                At the beginning of the movie, Man without a Face, Norstadt and his family are on ferry that is taking them to their summer vacation home. On this ferry boat is where Norstadt has his first encounter with McLeod. Norstadt was angry that his mother would not let him go to military school so in revenge he goes down to the lower deck and slashes his mother’s car’s tires. Norstadt did not even realize that McLeod was watching him but felt an eerie stare on his back after his anger towards his mother subside. He looked back and there was McLeod. Norstadt was scared then, he only knew McLeod by the rumors and false accusations that were said by everyone who lived in that town.

                When at their vacation home, Norstadt opts out to join his family going to the beach and decides to study for the entrance exam for the military academy.  He can’t focus on his books and decides to join his friends when they go out to the other side of the town where McLeod’s house is located and maybe get some studying down out there instead. His buddies are making fun of McLeod but Norstadt doesn’t join in. Norstadt actually defends him and says that they don’t really know for sure if he’s that. That he saw him on the ferry boat and seemed like he was just lonely. The boys make fun of him and talk about going to see some girls when McLeod’s vicious dog arrives and barks them off the shore. The quickly scurry to the boat when Norstadt forget his books on the shore. He asks the boys to turn around but refused. When they got back to the main part of town, Norstadt grabs his bike and gets over to McLeod’s as quickly as he can. This is when his relationship with McLeod really begins.

                Norstadt starts talking to McLeod and finds out that he’s a teacher. A teacher/tutor that can help him pass the entrance exam for the military academy. At first, McLeod is weary about teaching him again and tells Norstadt no, that he needs to find someone else. But after a few days of Norstadt’s persistent prodding, McLeod agrees. This first initial spark is how their relationship starts. Norstadt doesn’t want to believe the accusations against McLeod and makes it a point to judge himself if all the rumors were true. And he really needs a teacher if he wants to get into the military academy so he had no choice but to trust him a little. After a few weeks of Norstadt going to McLeod’s for tutoring, their relationship begins to get stronger and stronger. They begin to share quality time together thus strengthening Norstadt’s moral certainty about McLeod. That he’s not the bad man that everyone thinks he is, he’s actually a nice and dependable guy. Norstadt took that risk of him actually being the molester and murdered that everyone else in town thought he was. Norstadt wasn’t afraid of him, he treated him like a human being and didn’t let the rumors get in the way. Their teacher-student relationship took off and soon Norstadt enjoyed the lessons McLeod taught him and would rather spend his days with him then his family at home. They became good friends near the end of the movie and throughout the whole movie, Norstadt never doubted McLeod’s innocence. He let their relationship freely grow and bond together. It was never forced on either side of the relationship. Their relationship started like any long-lasting friendship would. That’s why it was important for Norstadt to figure out if McLeod was who everyone thought he was for himself, their relationship would have never have been strong and McLeod wanted to know if Norstadt truly wanted to know the real McLeod. Through the good and the bad, Norstadt managed to look past all of the negativity associated with McLeod and see the true person that he really is. 

What does it mean to know something? (Homework Assignment #8)

To know something means to be able to say able to say what you know about that thing and be able to prove that you do. You are able to say absolutely everything you know on the subject and can back yourself up with evidence either from your own experience or just prior knowledge. The definition of knowledge is the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association. It is impossible to say that you know everything about everything on the planet. You cannot truly know everything unless by the definition that you have experienced it. Like a man cannot say that he knows about being pregnant, he may know what his wife tells him about it but he does not truly know what it feels like himself and never will. He can read books about pregnancy and interview pregnant women and he cannot deny that he knows about pregnancy through those sources but by definition he does not truly have the knowledge about it. It’s hard to define what knowledge or the act of knowing really is but you just have to have the experience with the subject matter. That is what makes knowing something real, experience.

Cathedral Questions (Homework Assignment #7)

                The narrator’s wife was anticipating a visit from an old friend named Robert who is blind. Her husband, the narrator, is jealous that Robert is getting all of the attention of his wife. He makes it his duty when Robert comes to visit to let his wife know that he’s jealous and that he doesn’t appreciate her doing that to him. But during Robert’s visit, the narrator begins to have sympathy for him and actually befriends him.

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

a.       The Narrator was not looking forward to the visit of the blind man because he knew how much his wife liked his company over his own and began to feel jealous about that. His feelings about Robert reveal that his character isn’t very open-minded and is selfish. He doesn’t want any of the attention of his wife to go anywhere but him and notices that Robert makes her happy and he doesn’t want him to. The narrator wants to be the only one in his wife’s life that makes her happy.

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?

a.       It is possible to read the experience the narrator’s wife had of Robert touching her face as an experience of being “seen” by him. Since Robert couldn’t physically see, feeling the texture and shape of objects is the next best thing for him to sort of visualize an image in his head of what it could look like based on how it felt. Her writing of poetry is related to her desire to be seen because poetry is a way of expressing herself. Her attempted suicide is cry for help, a cry for everyone to pay attention to her because she feels like no one cares.

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).

a.       To receive another’s friend is to be friendly and accepting towards them. Don’t push them over and ignore them because you don’t want to be friends with them when you don’t even know the person. In the story, the narrator’s wife just wants her husband to be accepting of Robert because he means a lot to her.

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?

a.       Robert did “see” Beulah. Beulah was everything to him and because he couldn’t really base his love off of looks. He truly loved her for who she was as a person. He understood her like no one else could have because he didn’t have the distraction of how she looked to get in the way of his love for her. That is what it means to be truly see someone, to be able to connect with them because how they think and what their personality is like. Vice versa to be truly seen by another person.

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

a.       The characters smoke pot because there was a lull in the conversation and one of them suggested they do. It reveals that their desire is based on how happy they feel because of the pot they smoked. The drug provides them with a temporary high and they feed off that high to feel happy because they think that’s the only way they can ever feel happy.

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?

a.       Churches tell us especially in homilies that the media is controlling everything, controlling what everyone wants and needs because of commercials and advertisements that are plastered everywhere we look. The church tells us that the media is getting God out of the picture completely because it’s true and we sometimes look past that and put our faith in God on the back burner.

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?  

a.       The narrator has difficultly describing a cathedral because he doesn’t know exactly what to say to Robert because he’s blind and hasn’t ever seen a cathedral before in his life. So how could the narrator be descriptive of a building to person who has never seen what one in reality. When he closes his eyes at the end of the story he sees what Robert is seeing. He is finally understand the true meaning of life and opens his eyes to the world that surrounds him.