Tag: history

Commandments of the Church

Did you know that in addition to the 10 commandments there are an additional 5 “Commandments of the Church”. But there used to be more, or less.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commandments_of_the_Church

Read about the history of the “Commandments of the Church” and write a short post emphasizing your understanding of the current commandments, make mention of any other details in the article you find relevant.

Bonus: see if you can find a source online that specifically lists the holy days of obligation in the Canadian Catholic Church. In Canada, only two holy days of obligation sometimes do not fall on a Sunday. What days are these?

2018 Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment

Bishop Dowd of Montreal wrote the following while participating in the Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment in Rome in October 2018:

The 4 basic questions I believe constitute the corners and edges that anchor the puzzle. These questions are:

  • Who is God?
  • If God is good, why is there evil in he world?
  • If God is good but there is evil in the world, what has God done about it?
  • If God is good but there is evil in the world and God is doing something about it, how can we be part of it?

It is my conviction that these questions haunt the heart of every person, religious or not, and that the Christian faith can give a complete answer to those questions. God is love, the tragedy of sin, the drama and beauty of salvation history, and the call to vocation.

Also in his paper he mentions his support for Bishop Barron from California. Bishop Barron said the following in his “intervention” to Pope Francis:

What would a new apologetics look like? First, it would arise from the questions that young people spontaneously ask. It would not be imposed from above but would rather emerge organically from below, a response to the yearning of the mind and the heart. Here it would take a cue from the method of St. Thomas Aquinas. The austere texts of the great theological master in point of fact emerged from the lively give-and-take of the quaestiones disputatae that stood at the heart of the educational process in the medieval university. Thomas was deeply interested in what young people were really asking. So should we.

Have a closer look at Bishop Barron’s “A New Apologetics” and Bishop Dowd’s “Putting together the puzzle of faith.” What discussion points, ideas, or questions do you find agreeable?

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.

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?

Jewish Names

Jewish history and culture have affected many aspects of Western civilization: it literature, its art, its philosophy. One small measure of this is the use of traditionally Jewish names. Abraham Lincoln was named for a Jewish patriarch. So was Noah Webster. Many people today have traditionally Jewish names, such as Adam, Luke, Joshua, Rachel, Sarah, Deborah, Naomi, and Nathan.

List as many well-known people as you can who carry Jewish names.