character – World Religions

No One Can Serve Two Masters

In this Gospel reading, before Jesus tells his listeners not to worry, he says “No one can serve two masters.” Who is Jesus refering to? One master is God(Love), surely, but who is the other?

Could Jesus be refering to more specific “evils” – evils that cause us to worry and make us miserable?

What kinds of worry are normal? What kinds of worry lead to debilitating anxiety?

Consider the character Tony from Wm. Paul Young’s, “Cross Roads” – after reading Chapter 3. What “masters” does (or doesn’t) he serve? What other ideas come to mind?

Conscience

Survey:

Bible Readings:

Skim these Scripture passages. Pick one that appeals to you and

summarize its main point,
tell how it relates to the theme “Understanding Conscience”,
list one or two thoughts that entered your mind when you read it.

“Confidence” 2 Corinthians 1:12-14
“A Clear Heart” Matthew 5:21-24
“Law and Conscience” Acts 15:1-21
“Law in the Heart” Romans 2:12-16
“Compromise” 1 Corinthians 10:27-33

Reflect:

The reflection will take effort, but it is an effort to focus – for yourself – an ego-conscience. If that’s not worth the effort, you will always have a personality, but it is unlikely you will ever develop character.

Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. On one side of the line, list the do’s and don’ts your parents, teachers, and media (other external forces) have taped on your Superego that you have already checked against reality and find are now wrong – or at least far too simplified. On the other side, write the elements of your Superego that you now see for yourself are valid.

Quotable Quotes:

“Faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:11-13

“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 of moral conduct.” – The Church in the Modern World, 16

“Return to the root and you will find the meaning.” – Sengstan

“A man’s action is only a picture book of his creed.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Rather fail with honour than succeed by fraud.” – Sophocles

“In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.” – Mohandas Gandhi

Activity:

Choose:

Roughly how many of your peers do you guess cheat routinely on homework, quizzes, and tests? What are the reasons most would give for doing that? Why is “Well, everybody does it” not a legitimate excuse? If trust and honesty are the glue that holds together the web of our human ecology, what is the effect of widespread cheating on the web of society?
When schools discover that a great deal of cheating is going on, the administration frequently will encourage teachers and exam supervisors to have greater vigilance and require strong punishment when someone is caught cheating. Similarly, with the increase of crime in our cities, the almost automatic response is to call for an increase in the number of police. What would be a better way to attack the problems of cheating and crime at their roots?

Justice

Not an option, justice is a mandate of Catholic faith. From the beginning, the educational mission of the church has been seem as participation in God’s saving mission. The divine edict of justice requires education for personal and social transformation.

The Catholic school, since it is motivated by the gospel message of Jesus Christ to proclaim liberty to the oppressed, is particularly sensitive to the call from every part of the world for a more just society, and it tries to make its own contribution towards it. It does not stop at the courageous teaching of the demands into practice, first in its own community in the daily life of the school, and then in the wider community.

Catholic schools aim towards a synthesis of faith and culture, of faith and life, syntheses that characterize mature faith. A mature faith will be able to recognize and reject cultural counter-values which threaten human dignity and are therefore contrary to the gospel.

Although all the problems of religion and faith will not be completely solved by academic studies, nevertheless, the Catholic school should be a privileged place for finding adequate ways to deal with these problems.

Strategies to incorporate the Justice Dimension of Catholic schools:

Spirituality

Catholicism is not simply a system of beliefs; it is also a life to be lived: a life of worship, shaped by the Eucharist and the other sacraments, and a life of moral commitment and behaviour, shaped by moral values rooted in the teaching and example of Jesus Christ. Catholic schools foster this way of life grounded in the love of God and values of the Reign of God proclaimed in the gospels.

Spirituality in Catholic schools consists in letting God be present in each moment of the day, becoming attuned to God”s presence in the ups and downs of the life journey of the school community. Prayer and a commitment to the moral and ethical values of the gospel provide the opening to God’s presence. The Catholic school, therefore, is a place of prayer, a place where the principals of Christian morality find expression in the interactions that take place there.

Catholic schools invite all members of the learning community into that place of prayer and moral living by modelling a prayer life in the school and by providing a learning environment characterized by relationships that are caring and nurturing.

Strategies for nurturing Spirituality in Catholic Schools:

Make resources for spirituality available to all members of the community
Provide opportunities for retreat and reflection days
Participate in faith development activities
Structure prayer into the life of the school on a daily basis
Celebrate Catholic identity through prayer, liturgy, and worship
Celebrate school events, the various passages and seasons of the year with religious rituals
Celebrate school patron saints, school feasts

How do Catholic schools integrate spirituality into the learning environment?

RS 25: Tuck Everlasting Assignment

Explain how this movie (story) is a parable. What specific characteristics does this story have that meet the criteria of a parable? Be as specific as possible and discuss all the characteristics of a parable.
What is the surprise that caught your attention in this parable movie? In other words, what is the “twist”?
What is the “truth” being taught by this parable story? Could the main teaching of this parable movie be, “Don’t be afraid of death, be afraid of the unlived life. ” What does Angus Tuck means by an “unlived life”. Explain. Reading the poem, An Unlived life might be helpful. ”John 10:10 say about the purpose of life? (Use Oremus Bible Browser) What does Colossians 3:1-17 say about how to live life this way?

The rubric used to grade this assignment can be found at the pages on the right. The rubric page is titled, Video Study Assignment Rubric