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Stage 3: Witness

Stage 3: Witness. We Journey Together (Commandments). The first 16 chapters helped us see how God reaches out to us and invites us to journey with him through our life. These last 7 chapters will help us look as what God’s invitation involves…. Praying. Chapter 17. Sadhu and the Boy.

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Stage 3: Witness

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  1. Stage 3: Witness We Journey Together (Commandments)

  2. The first 16 chapters helped us see how God reaches out to us and invites us to journey with him through our life. These last 7 chapters will help us look as what God’s invitation involves…

  3. Praying Chapter 17

  4. Sadhu and the Boy The first step in learning to do anything is the desire to learn. St. Augustine never ceased to stress the importance of desire when it comes to prayer. In fact, the desire to pray is a great prayer in itself. “Prayer is an expression of our incompleteness. We are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment.” St. Thomas Merton Prayer is the way we express (1) our love for God and (2) our need for God

  5. Prayer Purpose • Discussion: For what reason do you find yourself praying mostly? • Expression of Love • Prayer (expressing love for God) must also lead to action (expressing love for neighbor.) • True love … shows itself in action … If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. 1 John 3:18, 4-19 • Expression of Our Needs • Prayer – Love: Primary Purpose – Needs: Secondary Purpose • Father, if you will take this cup of suffering from me. Not my will, however, but your will be done. Luke 22:42

  6. Prayer Procedure • Jesus prayed: Alone (Solitude), With Friends (Friendship), With the Community (Community) • Four Primary Preparatory Steps • Finding a place • Scheduling a time • Choosing a posture • Entering God’s presence • Four Points of Focus • Adoration • Contrition • Thanksgiving • Supplication • Three Forms of Prayer • Meditation – thinking about God • Conversation – Conversing with God • Contemplation – Resting in God

  7. Prayer Attitudes • Humility - Jesus parable about the tax collector and the Pharisee praying in the Temple… • Perseverance – Jesus parable about the night visitor seeking help to feed a friend…

  8. Chapter Test Matching 1 – f 2 – d 3 – c 4 – g 5 – b 6 – a 7 – e Fill in the Blanks 1 a. Humility b. Perseverance 2 a. Finding a place b. Scheduling a time c. Choosing a posture d. Entering into God’s presence 3. a. Alone b. With friends c. With the community Tue/False 1 – T 2 – F 3 – T 4 – F 5 – F 6 – T 7 – T 8 – F 9 – T

  9. Choosing LoveChristian Morality Chapter 18

  10. Big Bang? Big Question? • The Biblical writer did not intend the creation story to an eyewitness account or a scientific explanation. • “Big Bang” occurred ~ 15 billion years ago • Within one second, all the hydrogen and helium in the universe was established… if one little force or constant had been off – all the hydrogen would have become helium and no life would exist • Theologians delight over the “Big Bang” theory – it points to a beginning to creation! • Life Leaps (pg 229), biblical creation story suggests same life-leaps: • Nonlife Gen 1:10 • Vegetative )plant) life Gen 1:11 • Animal (sense) life Gen 1:20,24 • Human (conscious) life Gen 1:27

  11. Jesus’ Response • The “human life” stage is not the last: a more remarkable “leap” lies a head – the leap to divine life! • The “seed” of eternal life is in us now. The “harvest” or “final leap” will not be “fully” realized until heaven. • Freedom to Choose – we must freely choose to take the next quantum leap. • Why? Simple answer – it is how God chose to set things up. Theologically – love demands that we be free to accept of reject it. A loss of freedom means a loss of love.

  12. Christian Morality • Choosing Life – choosing to live in the life in a way that prepares us for the leap to divine life. • Discuss Billboard Sign pg. 232 -Baptism and Confirmation strengthen us • Living as Jesus Lived • Trying to live and love as Jesus did is not easy in our world – some have compared it to trying to “walk on water.” (Matthew 14:22-31)

  13. Three Levels of Moral Growth • Self-centered Level • Live largely under the influence of our senses and our emotions – a small child is a good example, but, this stage in not limited by age • Other-centered Level - shift focus from self to others • Relationship between love and law – Law is love’s servant. Law serves as a n initiation to action when we are not as responsive to love’s invitation as we should be. Law serves as a guide to action (growth) when we are not certain what love invites us to do. • God-centered Level – discovering our personal relationship with God • Review about mortal sin – must be a grave matter, sufficient reflection, full consent of the will • Venial sin is when only one of the 2 conditions above is partially fulfilled

  14. Chapter Test Matching 1 – b 2 – c 3 – b 4 – b 5 – a 6 – a 7 – c 8 – b 9 – a Tue/False 1 – F 2 – F 3 – T 4 – T 5 – T 6 – T 7 – F 8 – T 9 - T 10 – F 11 – T 12 – T 13 – F 14 – T 15 – F 16 – T

  15. Loving God Chapter 19

  16. The Ten Commandments • Jesus and the Commandments (pg 241) • Matthew 19:18-19 (answering young man’s question about how to receive eternal life) • Matthew 22:31, 39-40 (what is the greatest commandment) • Jesus Fulfills Commandments • He redefined and refocused the 10 commandments in terms of love: • Sign: “Your love for one another will be a sign that you are my disciple” • Invitation: “If you want to show your love for me keep my commandment.” • Guide: “Love one another just as I have loved you.” • Gift of the Commandments • Covenant – sacred agreement with God • 10 Commandments freed the Israelites from a life of ignorance and passion for a life of love and service

  17. 1st Commandment • This commandment calls for fidelity to the infused virtues of faith, hope and charity – and in gratitude we pledge service: to make God the priority and focus of our life • Superstitions – attributing godlike power to ordinary things • Divination – seeking to learn the future from horoscopes, etc. • Spiritism – Seeking to communicate with the dead through mediums and seances

  18. 2nd Commandment • Deliberate or careless use of God’s name offends God and our neighbor. • The phrase “G-- damn you,” as used by people today is not a curse, but an expression of anger or frustration (still wrong and offensive to say!) • Curses (pg 245) – calls upon God to inflict harm on someone. It dishonors God gravely, because it attempts to make God a partner to evil (CCC 2148) • Oaths call upon God’s name to witness that we speak the truth. To lie under oath is a sin of perjury (CCC 2149-55) It dishonors God gravely by asking God to witness a lie.

  19. 3rd Commandment • One of the most powerful ways the Christian community can bear witness to the world is by worshipping together each Sunday at Mass. • Our day of worship is not the Sabbath but Sunday • Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday • The Holy Spirit descended (Pentecost) on a Sunday • Holy Days (Each country may have a few different feast days.) • In the US: Jan 1: Mary, Mother of God; 40 days after Easter: Ascension; Aug 15: Assumption (of Mary); Nov 1: All Saint’s; Dec 8: Immaculate Conception (of Mary); Dec 25: Christmas • Precepts of the Church • God must therefore be at the heart and center of all human life and activity (CCC 2177-78) • Christian responsibility to gather on Sundays and holy days for worship is excused only for serious reason. Assisting with Mass is a grave responsibility.

  20. Chapter Test Matching 1 – h 2 – d 3 – e 4 – b 5 – f 6 – g 7 – a 8 – c Fill in the Blanks 1 a. Mother of God: Jan 1 b. Ascension: 40 days after Easter c. Assumption: Aug 15 d. All Saints: Nov 1 e. Immaculate Conception: Dec 8 f. Christmas: Dec 25 2 a. signs of love b. invitations to love c. guides to love Tue/False 1 – T 2 – T 3 – F 4 – T 5 – F 6 – F 7 – T 8 – F 9 – F 10 – T

  21. Loving Neighbor Chapter 20

  22. Christian Morality • The Good Samaritan (pg 253) • The road form Jericho to Jerusalem was twisty and narrow making travelers very vulnerable to outlaws. Merchant often bought “protection” form local thugs. This is the backdrop of the parable of the Good Samaritan. • Who is my neighbor? • In the parable it is the Samaritan – which would have angered Jews because they regarded Samaritans as renegades and heretics. By making the Samaritan the hero, Jesus wanted to show love had no boundaries. • Loving my neighbor • The commandments are a guide, an invitation and a sign: • Guide (to eternal life) – Love God, love neighbor (Mt 22:37-39) • Invitation – “If you love me, keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15) • Sign – “If you have love for one another, then everyone will know you are my disciples” (Jn 13:25)

  23. 4th Commandment • Respect for authority • Familial authority: • “The family is more sacred than the state, and members are begotten not for earth and for time, but for heaven and eternity” Pope Pius XI • The family … was before the Church, or rather the first form of the Church was the family” Pope Leo XIII • Civil authority: • “I would agree with St. Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all … An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts the human personality is just. Any law that degrades the human personality in unjust.” Martin Luther King, Jr. • “To disobey the law openly, formally, and nonviolently can be a moral act of the highest kind … This is quite different from furtive disobedience to the law.” Rory McCormick

  24. 5th Commandment • Respect for life • “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” John F. Kennedy • (Barbara Ward:) wealthy nations throw away 15% of all the food they buy; “one B-1 bomber uses as much fuel in one year as the entire bus fleet of the US.” • “Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every rocket that is fired, signifies in a final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed” Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower • The difference Mother Teresa made -she started the first school for poor children in Calcutta, at her death: 100 schools, 750 mobile dispensaries, 120 leprosy clinics, 150 homes for the dying, 30 homes for abandoned children and 40,000 volunteers worldwide • Taking of human life: • Murder: The destruction of human life is one of the gravest crimes a person can commit (CCC 2268-69) • War: “Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and (neighbor)” Church in the Modern World, 80-82 • Suicide: kinds of hunger strikes: indirect: accepts death if necessary; uses possibility of death to “push” others (permitted when the importance of the end is proportionate to the risk to the striker’s life); direct: uses death as a means to an end (when death is intended – always wrong) • Capital Punishment: erodes respect for life, risks executing innocent, frustrates rehabilitation, ceases to deter crime • Abortion: direct – to kill an unborn fetus (forbidden); indirect – an action to save the mother’s life causes the fetus to die (permissible) • Euthanasia: direct – “mercy killing”, “assisted suicide” (always wrong); indirect – allowing an aged or incurably ill person to die naturally (permitted.) • Drugs and alcohol: the danger of alcohol (or drugs) comes when the user abuses or misuses it (CCC 2288-91)

  25. 6th & 9th Commandments • Responsible sex: love vs. feeling • Feeling is: high-voltage infatuation; intoxication of being desired; the thrill of taking a leap; an emotional sprint • Love is: Enduring commitment; disciplined work; an act of the will; a marathon of the heart • Responsible sex celebrates • Love: a sexual expression of love involved far more than the act of sexual intercourse • Life: (mirror of God’s love, pg 194) unitive: life-giving, forgiving, and procreative: life-giving and life nourishing • “Simply having children does not make mothers” John Shedd • “The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother” Theodore Hesburgh • Faith: “Mystical” experience of God • Sexual morality • The love of a husband for his wife is like the mystery of God’s love for Israel and Christ's love fore the his Church (Ephesians 5:25-33)

  26. 7th & 10th Commandments • Respect for property • Justice and charity • Ownership and Stewardship – the human tendency to greed and the responsibility to share: • “As long as anyone has the means of doing good to his neighbor, and does not do so, he shall be reckoned a stranger to the love of the Lord” St. Irenaeus • Stealing – taking something from another against his/her reasonable will • Cheating – involves both lying and stealing • Gambling- if it goes beyond our means and we lie about it or use money that is for bills, food, other’s we are responsible for

  27. 8th Commandments • Respect for truth • “Lying is an ugly blot on a person’s character … a thief is better than a habitual liar (Sirach 20:24-25) • “Lying”- when media doesn’t tell the whole truth • Pope Pius XII was falsely accused of silence on the holocaust when, in fact, he was the only one ruler left in Europe who dared to raise his voice at all. • Detraction – broadcasting another’s private faults, failures or sins without sufficient reason – destroys a person’s reputation or good name (CCC 2477-79)

  28. Chapter Test Matching 1 – b 2 – b 3 – a 4 – a 5 – a 6 – a 7 – a 8 – b Fill in the Blanks 1 a. Unitive b. Procreative c. Body d. Soul 2 a. Life b. Love c. Faith Tue/False 1 – T 2 – F 3 – T 4 – F 5 – T 6 – F 7 – T 8 – T 9 – T 10 – F

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