Tag: freedom

Freedom of Conscience, Tudor Style

Read and respond to Freedom of Conscience, Tudor Style by Sean Murphy.

Write a post in your iblog in which you

  1. demonstrate an understanding of the main point(s),
  2. relates an idea(s) from the reading to another text(s),
  3. offer your own arguments – agreeing or disagreeing with the points in the reading – with supporting evidence.

Consider the rubric:

Be Loving

Theme 1: What is love?

Outcomes
Students will

  • examine and evaluate their understanding of love
  • analyze Scripture pas- sages where Christ models love
  • explore the Christian dimensions of love within the context of popular notions of love
  • analyze ways they love others because they love themselves
  • articulate what it means to be loved and to love unconditionally
  • listen prayerfully to the call to be loving

Key Concepts

  • We are called to love as Jesus loved.(Since we have been loved, we also must love – 1 John 4.10- 12.)
  • Love that is rooted in Christ will never fail, even when it seems to be the most foolish, unreasonable or diffi- cult choice.
  • Love is not just an emotion. Love is willed. Mature love is a call to action which fosters the good of others.
  • Giving and receiving love is the most important dimension of our lives, bringing out the best in both the lover and the beloved.
  • To truly love others, we must love our- selves.

Theme 2: What is the loving thing to do?

Outcomes
Students will

  • reviewandapplythe decision-making model (see, judge, act, evaluate)
  • demonstrate an understanding of the role of the magisteri- um, Scripture and tra- dition in moral deci- sion making
  • identify times when it may be difficult to do what is loving
  • define conscience and name its role in moral decision making
  • explain the relation- ship between Christian moral deci- sion making and love

Key Concepts

  • Christian moral deci- sion making is based on love.
  • People are bound by their conscience in determining the loving thing to do.
  • The magisterium, Scripture and tradition guide Catholics in moral decision making.
  • Doing the loving thing may mean doing what is difficult or unpopular.

Theme 3: Why wait?

Outcomes
Students will

  • explain how our sexuality can help us to love
  • identify acceptable Christian expressions of love
  • explain why having sex is not the loving thing to do outside of marriage
  • define chastity and understand why it is a Christian virtue
  • analyze sexual issues in relation to the virtue of chastity

Key Concepts

  • “All Christ’s faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life” (CCC #2348).
  • “Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self- mastery which is a training in human freedom” (CCC #2339).
  • God created us as sexual beings. Our sexuality draws us out of our- selves to relate with others.
  • Genital sexual expression becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one per- son to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman. (see CCC #2337)
  • Sexual feelings are neither good nor bad in themselves; they sim- ply are.
  • There are many chaste ways of expressing our love for others.
  • The sixth commandment protects the sacred bonds of committed love.

Theme 4: How does love go wrong?

Outcomes
Students will

  • use 1 Corinthians 13.4-8a for identifying the signs of manipulative, coercive and abusive behaviour in relationships
  • value the basic dignity of every person within relationships
  • understand and demonstrate skills of appropriate assertive behaviour
  • use Scripture for developing Christian attitudes towards loving others

Key Concepts

  • “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5.9).
  • In Scripture we find direction and inspiration for healthy, lov- ing relationships. (e.g., 1 Corinthians 13.4-8a, Romans 13.10)
  • People in healthy relationships recognize the equal dignity and basic rights of all involved.
  • Love goes wrong when it becomes self- centred.
  • Not all relationships are healthy. Manipulation, coercion and abuse are signs of unhealthy relationships.
  • Assertiveness skills are necessary for developing and maintaining healthy relationships.

Be Faithful

Theme 1: What do I really believe?

Outcomes
Students will

  • articulate ways that relationships based on faith are reasonable
  • express what it means to have a relationship with God through Jesus
  • describe how faith in Jesus Christ challenges them to love and respect others

Key Concepts

  • “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord…” (Deuteronomy 6.4).
  • Jesus is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega.
  • Faith cannot be fully explained, but it is reasonable. Faith admits mystery.
  • Our moral life has its source in faith in God, who reveals his love to us. (CCC #2087) Faith in God’s love encom- passes the call and the obligation to respond with love and respect – the first and second command- ments call us to love and respect God above everything, and to respect all creatures for and because of God.
  • Being faithful means being open to develop- ing our relationship with God.

Theme 2: What’s the point of prayer?

Outcomes
Students will

  • define Christian prayer
  • locate in Scripture, describe and demonstrate five forms of prayer:
    • Adoration and Blessing
    • Petition
    • Intercession
    • Thanksgiving
    • Praise
  • express different ways that God responds to prayer
  • demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between human freedom, divine prerogative and prayer

Key Concepts

  • “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heav- en” (Matthew 5.3).
  • Prayer is our living relationship with God.
  • The third commandment calls us to stop and pray. The Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life.
  • Jesus teaches us how to pray.
  • God always answers our prayers.
  • God answers our prayers in ways that are not limited by our own perspectives. God’s view is infinitely bigger than our view.
  • In answering our prayers, God does not take away human free- dom.

Gender Roles

https://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia_en.pdf

 

Paragraph 286 from Amoris Laetitia

 

286. Nor can we ignore the fact that the configuration of our own mode of being, whether as male or female, is not simply the result of biological or genetic factors, but of multiple elements having to do with temperament, family history, culture, experience, education, the influence of friends, family members and respected persons, as well as other formative situations. It is true that we cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God’s work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences, and where biological elements exist which are impossible to ignore. But it is also true that masculinity and femininity are not rigid categories. It is possible, for example, that a husband’s way of being masculine can be flexibly adapted to the wife’s work schedule. Taking on domestic chores or some aspects of raising children does not make him any less masculine or imply failure, irresponsibility or cause for shame. Children have to be helped to accept as normal such healthy “exchanges” which do not diminish the dignity of the father figure. A rigid approach turns into an overaccentuation of the masculine or feminine, and does not help children and young people to appreciate the genuine reciprocity incarnate in the real conditions of matrimony. Such rigidity, in turn, can hinder the development of an individual’s abilities, to the point of leading him or her to think, for example, that it is not really masculine to cultivate art or dance, or not very feminine to exercise leadership. This, thank God, has 216 changed, but in some places deficient notions still condition the legitimate freedom and hamper the authentic development of children’s specific identity and potential.

Tradition

The fundamental source of human knowledge is encounter with the world and its history through experience. The guiding intent for the curriculum is to educate people to become fully alive and free human beings. In a Catholic context this source and this guiding intent both point to the experience of the community, an experience where Jesus Christ is encountered and the values of the Reign of God direct human action and being. Simply put, we learn through life.

Catholic education brings a focus to learning to discover, evaluate, interpret the human experience, which is always in transition, in ways that enhance and deepen appreciation for the gift of creation and provide insight into how learning can lead to fullness and freedom for all people.

Strategies to develop a respect for the life-giving dimensions of tradition:

  • Provide access to the tradition of human culture–works of art, literature, etc.–as a way of engaging learners in conversation with the past
  • Invite learners to bring the symbols and artifacts of tradition into their own lives with a questioning and interpreting attitude
  • Invite learners to come to know for themselves the wisdom, knowledge, or beauty, of the tradition
  • Allow for the occasion for moral discourse and provide access to models of responding to the moral questions raised by the study of the past
  • Invite learners into a critical assessment of experience so they may discern what is life-giving and life-enhancing
  • Celebrate the hope that comes with recognizing God’s continuing action in the life of the community

How can tradition be life-giving in Catholic education?

Reverence

“May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” – Romans 15:13

  1. How have I been attentive to God’s voice in my life?
  2. How can we liberate each other on our journey?
  3. How does receiving the Eucharist contribute liberating grace for my journey?
  4. Freedom is wide open friendship with God – what does this mean to me today?

“Sacred One, teach us love, compassion and honour that we may heal the earth and heal each other.” – Ojibwa Prayer

The Fall of Masada

Masada is an oblong mountain in Israel, near the Dead Sea. It has steep sides but an almost flat top and a panoramic view of the land around it.

In 70 C.E., Jerusalem was conquered by a Roman army, and the temple was destroyed. A group of about 1,000 Jewish resisters, called Zealots, fled Jerusalem and went to Masada. A fortress stood at the top of the mountain. Surrounded by ravines, the fortress was approached only by two narrow tracks. The Zealots took refuge in this inaccessible place.

The 15,000-man Roman army laid siege to Masada. Because of the mountain’s steep sides, they could not come close enough to the fortress to take it. Finally after a two-year siege, the Romans managed to build a ramp up one of the slopes of the mountain. When they entered the fortress, they found the Zealots dead. Rather than surrender to the Romans, the Zealots had killed themselves. Only seven women and children, who had hidden in a cistern, remained alive to surrender.

Today Masada is a symbol of freedom and independence for the Jews. Why do you think this is so?