Tag: reflection

Faith Reflection: Conscience

Saint Paul wrote that the difference between what we will know in heaven is as great as the difference between what we know now and what we knew when we were children:

When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am a man, I have no more use for childish ways. What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete – as complete as God’s knowledge of me.

Meanwhile these three remain: faith hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:11-13

As a child gradually emerges into adulthood during the period of adolescence, more and more opportunities arise to form – and test – a personally validated self. Deep within our human consciousness, God has implanted a hunger for the truth, for goodness, for love – all of which are at holy war with the unevolved beast in us, the Id. Human dignity lies in conquering that beast and discovering God’s law, written right into the way God made things and people.

All creatures deserve proper treatment simply because of the way our Creator made them. According to Vatican Council II:

By conscience, in a wonderful way, the law is made known which is fulfilled in the love of God and one’s neighbour. Through loyalty to conscience, Christians are joined to other [persons] in the search for truth and for the right solution to so many moral problems which arise both in the life of individuals and from social relationships. Hence the more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by the objective standards or moral conduct. The Church in the Modern World, 16.

What guides you in making important choices, such as the way you deal with your family, friends, and strangers? With animals, food, the environment? Do you treat each consistently or haphazardly: as the mood strikes you or by what you can gain or lose? Are you, honestly, more of an altruist or a utilitarian?

Friendship Tableaus

A tableau or tableau vivant is a representation of a scene. No movement takes place. Students simply take positions to portray the main message of a scene. They freeze in that position for about 30 seconds. (Like a youtube “mannequin challenge” of sorts.)

Join a small group, pick one tableau. When it is your turn, present your scene. While watching other groups present their tableau, discuss/think about what you saw.

 

Reflection or discussion:
How do you feel if you spend time with your friends in this way? When is it most important to be together this way?

Tabeau

  • Portray a scene in which all are friends in the group and they are all enjoying doing the same thing together.
  • Portray a scene in which one person in the group wants to talk to one other person in the group privately.
  • Portray a scene in which members of the group enjoy being together, but not necessarily all doing the same thing together.
  • Portray a scene in which the people enjoy small groups rather than a large group.
  • Portray a scene in which the people enjoy talking in a large group.
  • Portray a scene in which the people enjoy talking in twos or threes.
  • Portray a scene in which one member of the group is introducing a new person to the group. The others in the group welcome this new person.
  • Portray a scene in which one member is sad. The others comfort this person in various ways.
  • Portray a scene in which members of the group celebrate the good fortune or success of one or two members.
  • Portray a scene in which one or more members are trying to be peacemakers among friends who have had a disagreement.

Groups

Groups A B C D E F
1 ROBERT RILEY HANNAH DELAYNA RYLAND DAWSON
2 SOPHIE MATTHEW BRANDON KAIDEN ALEX JAYCE
3 LEVI KEIFFER KENNEDY ANGELICA KAMDEN RYAN
4 COLTON RUTH SAIGE MYRANDA MORGAN
5 AUSTIN JOANNA VICKIE KYLIE LOUISE DIXIE
6 SHELBY DAYGAN E.J. JESSIE CORBIN KAMRYN

But I Don’t Teach Religion

Judith Dunlap, When You Teach in a Catholic School(2004) writes,

“Whether you teach science or math, music or gym, you are responsible for supporting the religion teacher by helping shape the faith and value system of the young people in your classes. Religion isn’t just about learning the facts of history and how to read a bible, it’s about growing in relationship with Jesus and that job belongs to everyone.”

1 Cor 12:12-14

One Body with Many Members

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.

Reflection:
Think of someone in your past that has passed on the faith to you. Ask God to bless them for the goodness they have done by being a witness to the love of Christ and bringing you closer in relationship with him.

RS25: Tuck Everlasting Reflection

Answer the following question.  The rubric page titled, Reflection Rubric will be used to grade this reflection.

Use the following to answer the question

Angus Tuck takes Winnie out onto the lake and tells her the following:
“Look around you, it’s life. The flowers, and trees, and frogs, its all part of the wheel. It’s always changing. It’s always growing. Like you, Winnie, your life is never the same. You were once a child, now you are about to become a woman. One day you’ll grow up. You’ll do something important. You’ll have children maybe, and then one day you’ll go out. Just like the flame of a candle. You’ll make way for new life as a certainty. It’s the natural way of things. And then, there’s us. What we Tucks have, you can’t call it living. We just are. We’re like rocks stuck at the side of the stream. Listen to me, Winnie, you know a dangerous secret. If people find out about the spring, they’ll trample over each other to get that water. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about people: Many people will do anything. Anything not to die. And they’ll do anything to keep from living their life. Do you want to stay stuck as you are right now, forever? I just want to make you understand.”

 

  1. Tuck clearly as an idea about what life should be.  Explain Tuck’s vision of life in your own words.   Do you agree with Tuck?  There is a Scottish Proverb which says, Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead. Is this proverb trying to tell us the same thing as Tuck is?  Explain.

What We Hunger For

Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth or power. Those rewards create almost as many problems as they solve. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it … If a person lives and dies and no one notices, if the world continues as it was, was that person ever really alive? I am convinced that it is not the fear of death, of our lives ending, that haunts our sleep so much as the fear that as far as the world is concerned, we might as well never have lived. — Rabbi Harold Kushner

What does Kushner mean by saying we hunger to make the world “a little bit different”?

Write your own reflection entitled, “What My Soul Hungers For.” To foster a meditative spirit, embed a snippet of instrumental music (mp3) in your post.