The clock reads 5:15 p.m. as I walk out the Ruston residence hall doors. I head towards the David L. Rice library, which is about a ten-minute walk from my dorm. As the sliding doors open, the strong aroma of coffee fills the air. I walk past the line at Starbucks and descend down the first flight of stairs. I turn left down the second hallway and enter room 0021. The pale, cream walls and clean whiteboard make the room appear brighter than it really is. Lovely, smiling faces welcome me as I sit down at the desk closest to the door. The clock now reads 5:30 p.m. It’s time to rebuild my faith and connect on a personal level with my fellow small group members. The belief and worship of some authority figure is the act of practicing a religion.
Since I was born and raised in a large, Catholic family, religion has always been a priority in my life. I can truly say my religion has shaped me into the person I am today. I was baptized when I was three months old and had first communion at the age of six years old. Baptism signifies purification and regeneration and represents the initial admission into the Catholic community. First communion refers to the act of receiving Eucharist for the first time. In the Church, the Eucharist represents the body and blood of Jesus Christ when he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. By receiving communion, one is simply united with Christ. Catholics believe the human body needs this nourishment to grow and mature. At the age of fifteen, I was confirmed into the Roman Catholic Church. Confirmation is the act of affirming your decision to be an active member of the Church. It’s the final step of the initiation process, preceded by baptism and first communion. It was a significant milestone in my life because it was my first decision as an adult of the Catholic community. I was in charge of choosing whether or not I wanted to continue my faith – not my parents, not my friends, but my decision. The Roman Catholic Church has a traditional way of living. People of other religions tend to say the Catholic Church is strict due to the intensity of our beliefs. For example, the Church does not believe in divorce; therefore, when one
Praying is a voluntary response to praise the Lord. Casual prayer takes place when one thanks God for all the blessings He has placed in one’s life. One can also request for Him to care for specific individuals, such as the sick and elderly. Recited prayer is when a prayer comes directly from Scripture within the Bible. Examples of recited prayers included the Our Father, Hail Mary, and the Apostle’s Creed. Following the opening prayer, we discuss the highs and lows of our past week. At this time, I learn the most about my fellow small group members because personal stories and experiences are shared. The leader of my group, Rachael Davis, does an excellent job of making sure everyone has an equal opportunity to speak and become involved. “It’s important to get to know everyone. Not only on a personal level, but as a whole,” explained Davis. Not only does Rachael want us to grow religiously, but she wants us to build long-lasting relationships with one another. By having a united small group, we easily accomplish the goals we set for ourselves because we all have similar expectations. Our goal is to connect religion into everyday life and incorporate it to the world around us. By finding the Lord’s presence in our surroundings, we connect spiritually. This allows us to gain strength and function as an independent group within the Catholic
This being so, it will be necessary to describe a little of the uniquely Catholic world view. In fine, it is a sacramental one. At the heart of all Catholic life is a miracle, a mystery, the Blessed Sacrament.
One difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is the question of adequacy and authorization of the Scripture. Protestants, being more traditional, focus on the Bible. They believe that it is the source of God’s revelation to man (“What”), and that “the whole of Christian truth is found within the Bible’s pages” (“Tracts”). Bible teaches one about their wrongs, and what actions they need to undertake in order to be saved from their sins. They see it as guidelines for Christian behavior. These guidelines are otherwise known as “sola scriptura” (“What”). Sola scriptura derives from “sola” meaning “alone” and “scriptura” meaning “writings.” “Sola scriptura” says that only the Scripture is responsible for the faith of Christians and their practices. The Scripture is the foundation of their religion. It tells one that their salvation is not obtained from random readings, but from the document itself. However, the Catholics rebuff the teachings of the Scripture. Many of their documents such as praying to saints, worship of Mary, etc. are focused only on the Roman Catholic traditions. They do not believe that the Bible alone will satisfy them. Instead, they believe that the Roman Catholic tradition alongside with the Bible are both mandatory for oneself. Both determine the sufficiency of the Bible as well as its authority and completeness (“What”).
The Eucharist is an important sacrament found among many denominations of Christianity. A sacrament is a religious rite; sacramental practices vary throughout Christianity. Catholicism recognizes the seven sacraments of baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, ordination, and matrimony. The Eucharist is a source of endless debate for the Christian faith; its history is complex and has evolved over the centuries. The Roman Catholic Church’s perspective on this religious ritual differs significantly from other offshoots of Christianity.
One becomes a Roman Catholic through the sacrament of Baptism. All baptized Catholics are expected to live out their faith in whatever culture and country they find themselves. This is seen by the celebration of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist on Sundays, by developing a prayer life with God, and by service to others, especially the poor. Catholics also perform fasting like all the other major religions. This particular fasting is called Lent and it happens 40 days before Easter Sunday. This act of worship is way to bring the bodies under the control of the soul and also as a way of doing repentance from wrongdoing. Most followers usually give up a particular craving for the duration of the 40 days. In addition to that, followers are expected to abstain from eating meat and also limit daily intake to only one meal. But according to lenient rulings people still can eat more than one meal day but meat still have to taken out of the
Over the past year I have grown as both a person and a writer. My writing has improved
Growing up in a traditional catholic family I attended catholic school and church just like everyone else in my family. Every Sunday and Tuesday growing up I spent time at church. Going to church taught all about religion and forgiveness. I learned from the bible that god knows we are all sinners and that if we ask for forgiveness he forgives us. I was told that to church is a safe place for someone to go if they need help and that everyone has their arms open to people in need. The catholic religion says that god loves all his children even when they sin.
Like discussed earlier Catholics and Christians believe that the Conformation, and Baptism matures the soul and helps people reach adulthood. Baptism usually occurs at a very young age but is not bound by a person’s age. In Baptism, water is used to purify and symbolizes the washing away of sins. It is also described a person being born again because the cleansing of a person with water symbolizes the death and rebirth of that person. Also, when a person becomes baptized they accept God and have faith in God and all his teachings. Confirmation is like a continuation of Baptism because the faith in God of that person is confirmed. Along with confirming one’s faith confirmation gives a person more responsibilities. A large part of bei...
As a second language learner I have never expected myself to be a perfect writer throughout the semester. Even If English was my first language still, I would not be a perfect writer. It is not about first or second language, it is about how well I understand the learning objectives. Then organizing and writing with my own ideas and putting them in my paper. I am going to be honest, I am not good at English subject and English subject is my strongest weakness than the other subjects. In this paper I will discuss and analyze my own writing, reflecting on the ways that my writing has improved throughout the semester.
The Roman Catholic Church is the largest body of Christians in the world. Catholics are concentrated more heavily in North America, Europe and South America than any other place. The traces of the beginning of the Catholic Church began about A.D. 30; this is the time when Jesus Christ was mandating his apostles to spread the teachings about the Kingdom of God. (Gills Web). Catholics have the belief that Christ inaugurated the church to carry to his people the salvation that he had brought to the world. They also believe that with the aid of God they have managed to preserve his teachings. Belief in God’s revelation is religious faith. Some beliefs that the Roman Catholic’s acquire are the Trinity and creation, Sin, the Incarnation, and salvation, Life after death, Worship and Baptism, Confirmation, and Mass. (Gills Web). Trinity and creation is where Catholics presume there is only one God. This one God exists of a unit of three persons – The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three persons form the Holy Trinity. (Gills Web) Although this is true there is still only one God.
Growing up in a heavy Hispanic family, I was raised with Catholic morals and practices. Every week, my family dressed in our best Sunday clothes and attended mass at “Our Lady of Perpetual Help”, where our family priest, Father Juan Nicholau, discoursed his sermons. Both my parents came from a heavy Hispanic-Catholic background where they prayed the rosary every evening with their families. As far as their participation in the church, my dad was really involved in the church as an usher, Eucharistic minister, and lecturer. On the other hand, my mom was a catechist during the school year for seven year olds.
According to Merriam-Webster, religion is based on “an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods” (“Religion”). In every part of the world there is a struggle between individual religions that are trying to institutionalize their “system of beliefs” on each other, and within those individual religions there is also a struggle of sects that claims that their teaching should be the basis for that religion, not the teachings that is presented by other believers of the same religion. These religious sect later go on to create religious organizations. The first thing these religious organizations try to propagate to their followers is that anyone that are not a follower of their doctrines is corrupt and needs a divine deliverance from themselves. This deliverance cannot be given to the individual in another religious organization, it has to come from them. One of the biggest organization that has openly declared themselves as the divine judgers of men from God is th...
Religion structures a religious person’s life. More than three quarters of the world’s population consider they belong to a religion.
Sunday Mass is described by the National Liturgical Council (2004) as the central and most important day of the week in Christian life. The celebration of Sunday Eucharist is of paramount importance because the community comes together on the Lords Day of rest to remember the resurrection of Christ (Diocese of Owensboro, n.d.). It is through this ritualistic gathering that the entire Catholic community comes together. We are called to gather in Church on Sunday’s to pray, give thanks and show respect to our God as he invites us to the feast of his own son, Jesus Christ, through the Eucharist (Bianchini, 2008). This Eucharistic celebration, where we relive and hear the words Jesus’ used with his own apostles during the Last Supper, is the “ultimate worship” (para. 8). We receive the body and blood of Christ through the bread and wine the priest blesses during the mass.
First, Catholics believe in “The Holy Trinity”. The Holy Trinity is a combination of three things. First there is God, the father then Jesus, the son and lastly the Holy Spirit. To the Catholics, God is the being that made us. Jesus is God’s son, who suffered and was buried for the fulfillment of the scriptures. Lastly, The Holy Spirit is the spirit sent down by God to live inside of us. Any one of Catholic faith also goes to a church or a parish. Any follower who goes to a parish or church is called a parishioner. There are many rules to follow when it comes to being Roman Catholic as well. Anyone who is Roman Catholic must abide by the Ten Commandments, which is a list sent down by God for his followers. The list contains commandments that state how wrong things like stealing, gluttony and many more dishonest acts are. There are many other instructions
It is followed by years of catechesis before being completed late by Confirmation and the Eucharist, the summit of Christian initiation. Baptism is the Church 's way of celebrating and enacting the embrace of God and the promise of salvation. 'Peter replied, "Repent and be baptised..." ' (Acts 2: 38-39) Baptism happens not only to the individual, but also the wider Church. At the time of Christ it signified that the person being baptised became a follower of Christ and acquired a relationship with him. '... I (Paul) also baptised the household of Stephanas... ' (1 Corinthians 1:16) The rite is celebrated with the community present and actively participating. It is the community, who will journey with them throughout their