At five feet and seven inches, a blonde hair, blue eyed adolescent woman is what people visually perceive when they first glance at me smiling while conversing with friends or sitting at a table concentrating on a task. Many times before, people expressed that I am approachable. This perception is one that I yearn to maintain; however, there is one characteristic that I prefer to enhance. In St. Patrick’s prayer, he states this, “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left,” and he goes on to saying how Christ is there when people reflect on him and address him in conversation. This perception is one I desire. I recognize Christ in me and around
Be familiar with the following content from The Preface, Introduction, Appendix, & Chapters 1-5 of “Living Out the Mind of Christ: Practical Keys to Discovering and Applying the Mind of Christ in Every Day Life” by Dr. Gutierrez
The Christ figure is a recurring symbol in American literature. Throughout Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, various interactions and events portray McMurphy as a Christ figure. There are frequent visual and concrete references to Christ throughout the novel. Also, the reader discovers that the other patients view McMurphy as an inspiration and someone they wish to emulate. This cooperation enables him to oppose Nurse Ratched and do what he thinks is best for the patients.
To know Jesus Christ is the best thing that can happen in a person life. It transforms your mind, body and sprint. I have picked the following three topics to share my experiences of knowing Jesus Christ. First, what can your local church do to better communicate God’s love to your community? Second, why are personal testimonies important in sharing the gospel? Third, Did Jesus claim to be God? These are the three topics that always spark my interest when talking about our Lord savoir Jesus Christ.
In (Matthew 6:6 NIV), Jesus explains the merits of praying to the lord God and the reward of inner peace, “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret: and your father who sees in secret will reward you.” It is through this conversation with God that Christians pursue peace in their lives. Prayer can either be private or communal, spontaneous prayer is one way that charismatic communities can come closer to God. The act of prayer allows believers to have a personal conversation with God; it alleviates stress attributed to the monotony of everyday life. Besides prayer, meditation is another way of attaining inner peace, it is an ancient practice within the Christian tradition, which has undertaken a recent revival, a global group that reaffirms the concept of praying and meditating for inner peace is Taizé. Not as popular as prayer and meditation, Lectio Divina, generally known as bible studies is a way for Christians to feel connected to God and to finally attain inner peace. The studying of the sacred scriptures on a day to day basis and reflecting on prayers also maintain a continual connection with God. It is vital to maintain equilibrium between prayer and service, whereby an individual fathoms the notion ‘ora et labora’, in order to equally partake in both prayer, and the concept of action whereby ora develops inner peace, which is mirrored through the
Jean and I share. St. Jean and I both aspire to teach those who may not possess knowledge of our faith. St. Jean would teach the people of Huron about Christ and I could teach my family members more about the way to follow in Christ’s mission. St. Jean inspires me in my Catholic faith by relating my interests of sports, to my love of Jesus Christ. Also, I am inspired in knowing that Jesus is with me, at all times. I can grow in my relationship with St. Jean by praying to him, asking for his help and intercession. I can serve others, in need of my help and guidance, by living a life like St.
For my Meet the Believers assignment, I focused on Catholicism and Nondenominational Christianity. My Catholic interviewee, who I’ll refer to as John, is middle aged and was raised Catholic. My Christian interviewee, who I’ll refer to as Jane, is a young adult and was similarly raised Christian. From my interviews and attendance of worship services of both groups, several themes and concepts came to the forefront: the tensions between fundamentalism and modernism, the important conversation of gender and ethnicity, and the “true” good understood by both believers through their respective religious groups.
Jesus has been presented to me in a consistent way from my youth beginning in kindergarten through my high school experience. My initial understanding of Jesus is that he is a fully human, fully divine savior that serves as a teacher for his historical peers through contemporary times. The conceptions and understanding I have of Jesus had not been contested, challenged or questioned until I came to St. Joseph’s. While my original ideas of Jesus have largely remained unchanged throughout the course, they have been significantly strengthened through exploring and
Cindy is a tall lady with short blonde hair. Anyone she meets immediately notices her friendly smile. Her green eyes cannot hide how she cares for other people. Cindy stands strong in her faith in the Lord. When a person is looking at her, he or she can see just how bright her personality shines because of her faith.
St. Patrick was born around the year 387 A.D. in present day Britain, since at the time the area Britain was controlled by the Romans that area could be considered Roman Britain. His real name, according to Bibliography, was Maewyn Succat, the name Patrick was the name he took after he was ordained. Patrick’s parents were named Conchessa and Calphurnius Succat. Patrick came from a faithful family. His father was a deacon, and his grandfather, Pontius, was a member of the clergy. His mother also happened to be a close relative of the great patron St. Martin of Tours. What’s extremely surprising is that Patrick wasn’t raised with much of an emphasis on religion, and neither was education. His lack of education would later became an embarrassment for him. Patrick was also from a rich family. Durring his teenage years he was kidnapped by Irish raiders, but most people just think of them as pirates. During his imprisonment he became more and more religious, he even began to believe his kidnapping was a punishment for his lack for faith. In his autobiography the Confessio, he wrote he was imprisoned for six years, in the northern part of Ireland working as a shepherd.
“Your Reverence may suppose that it would have needed no great effort to behold those hands and that beauteous face…. I began to feel such certainty and security that my fear was soon lost,” (St. Teresa 42).
Christians have been celebrating the Lord’s Supper for almost two thousand years. In this paper I will refer to the Lord’s Supper as an ordinance of the church. “An ordinance is an outward rite prescribed by Christ to be performed by His Church.” There are quite a few varying interpretations among the different churches on how the Lord’s Supper is to be practiced. I Corinthians 11:23-34 provides Christians with the scriptural meaning and reasons for observing the Lord’s Supper, also known as communion. Many consider the Lord’s Supper of little or no value and some consider the ordinance as more of a ritual. In some modern churches, preaching the Word is emphasized the most and communion is only observed once a month or
With given a choice of what to write this paper, I could not get past the subtle nature of who we are as God’s creations. This fundamental truth of our identity is simplified with the truth of our identity in Jesus. We are created in God’s image with a purpose here on earth to display all of God’s greatness, His beauty, and to reveal all of His character aspects. Best of all, we are completely dependent on God. This new enlightenment of my identity in Christ as God’s creation will allow me to help people around the world become one with Christ by revealing the truth of their identity.
In Steps to Christ, Ellen White discusses our relationship goals with Christ. The metaphor of the “steps to Christ” in the title can be understood as the steps in our relationship with Christ, which is equivalent to the rungs of a ladder. The author begins with God’s love for man, our need for Christ as sinners, repentance, confession, consecration, faith and acceptance, test of discipleship, growing up in Christ, the work and the life, a knowledge of God, the
The catholic four common core questions, what is our relationship to God, How does one live a life of meaning and purpose, what is our relationship with the natural world and how can we form a more just society for the common good can be answered differently. However, the great books in the Catholic Intellectual tradition answered these questions in a broad distinctive way. This essay will examine the question, what is our relationship with God, from the view point of three writers, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and Pope Paul. What is our relationship with God was a better one answered by these writers. Most Christians refer a relationship with God to praying and communicating with him. As an explanation, many well-meaning Christians will explain that you can develop a personal relationship with God by “seeing Jesus. However, the great books in the Catholic Intellectual tradition such as Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness, Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain, etc. have a broader explanation of our relationship with God. They say a relationship with God is being fully human, living a meaningful life and having a relationship with the triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Reflecting upon the readings of Torrance’s Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace and White’s Introduction to Christian Worship will deeply shape how I look at worship in the churches I now order worship for the congregations. I used one of the churches in which I serve to do the Order of Worship assignment. It is a blue collar, small membership church located in a rural, retirement/ vacation area of North Carolina, Lake Gaston. It is also predominately Caucasian. Torrance’s focus is on trinitarian worship, participating in Christ’s communion with God, the Father and Christ’s life, death, and resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit. And White’s focus is to look at how the forms used in worship give worship its meaning. These forms include but are not exclusive of, time, space, music and art. There are implications for both focuses in the order of worship for the congregation used for my order of worship.