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A topic on self discovery
Elocution on importance of prayer
The importance of prayer in our life
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Recommended: A topic on self discovery
Before entering this class, I never really prayed to God on my own. Growing up, I lived in a Catholic household, in which we prayed before every meal, we prayed in church, and we prayed the Rosary together. I thought we prayed because my mom told me that doing so was the moral thing to do. I knew that we were talking to God, but I didn’t fully know who God was. As I grew into my middle school and high school years, I thought I didn’t know how to pray; I felt that I wasn’t worthy enough to talk with him. And to be honest, I didn’t think about God that much – after all, faith and praying was a rare topic of discussion among friends and family, and I only went to church because my mom said I had to. I also thought that prayer was for people who …show more content…
I’ve learned that God wants us to live our lives by pursuing our deepest desires; he does not have a blueprint made for us and we don’t have a predestined path to take. Although, coming to realize your deepest desires and your unique gift to God and the world can be challenging. God wants us to figure it out – he made us to be free. This can seem overwhelming, because most people think they know what they want and have their lives all figured out before realizing they made a wrong choice and are unhappy. However, practicing discernment in life can ultimately lead to happiness by deeply considering what your heart wants and what your mind knows. Obviously, though, this is easier said than done. I’ve learned that each person is extremely unique and everyone has that one thing, or “thread” that runs through their life and holds them together. In chapter 3 of “The Messy Quest for Meaning”, Stephen Martin also stresses the importance of desire. One quote from the book that really caught my attention was, “if we had a week in which we were totally free to do the things we enjoy, what would they be?” (62). This quote caught my attention because I think I would spend the week baking cookies or other food for people but I don’t know what that had to do with desire. Martin mentions that it can take a long time for us to found our “authentic desires”, but it’s never too late to “begin or recommit to the quest” of pursuing our …show more content…
This theme was apparent when reading about how St. Frances de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal utilized Salesian spirituality in their lives and in their letters to one another. I think this is beautiful, because Salesian spirituality emphasizes that God is our friend, and we should live from the heart, in his image and likeness. Chantal and St. Frances de Sales set an example for how our prayer should be – with love. In class, one quote from the “highlights from the Salesian spirituality” handout stuck out to me, which says, ‘The motivation with which you perform some action may be far more important and powerful than the action itself”. I pondered this quote because in my life, there have been a lot of things that I feel like I was forced to do, but didn’t always like doing them. On the other hand, there have been some things I have done in my life with a lot of passion, and it was difficult for me to understand why others weren’t as motivated. If your heart isn’t present and you’re not passionate about what you’re doing in life, then your heart may not be fulfilled. I learned that whatever I want to do, I must do it with love, because God is love. That is the concept of Salesian spirituality – just as prayer should be intimate, personal, and use the touch of the heart, so should your life be filled with love, compassion, positive energy and sincerity. Coming to know and understand God becomes much easier when
"Usually, the quest for the meaning finds expression in a commitment to action, and in one's personal relationships. The building up of a professional career, for example, demands that we identify an activity that suits us and in which we can flourish, and that we settle on a goal and objectives to be achieved. The same can be true of our personal relationships: if we decide to have a family and raise children, we organize our lives in accordance with this decision, and our family life gives meaning to our existence." (Lenoir 30)
One question that tends to strike new Christians is, "what does God want me to do with my life?" Edward Taylor talks about the answer to this question in his poem, titled "Meditation 1.6". Edward Taylor lived from 1642-1729. He was a Puritan poet who made an unusual request. Before he died, he requested that none of his poems be published. It was not until the 1930's that his poems were discovered. In "Meditation 1.6", Taylor compares being a servant of God, to being a golden coin. However, the main, underlying theme of "Meditation 1.6" is God showing the author his faults and using the author to do His bidding.
Book Review of The Path of Prayer: Four Sermons on Prayer by St. Theophan the Recluse
In the “Model Prayer”, Jesus taught that prayer is to be directed to the Father, showing His role in prayer: “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9). Prayer, being directed to the Father, goes through Jesus (the Word), as He is the “one Mediator between God and men” (1 Timothy 2:5). Finally, the Holy Spirit’s role in prayer (though less clear than that of the other two) is to help us in our weakness (Romans 8:26). It is in this area, more than almost any other, that many attempt to change the assigned roles of each member of the Godhead. While the Father’s role in prayer is for it to be directed to Him, many attempt to direct prayer to the other two members of Deity. Because each member of the Godhead has such a clearly defined role in prayer as revealed in Scripture, to attempt to change of modify those roles seems to be quite presumptuous, unauthorized, and dangerous. Instead, let us hold fast to the Divine pattern for prayer as laid out in the
The pursuit of happiness ultimately leads to disappointment and a lack of satisfaction because people’s cravings can never be entirely fulfilled. Dalai Lama once said “When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‘Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.’” This quote shows that having high expectations of anything leads to disappointment when the expectation is not met. Also, having anticipations for what happiness is makes attained happiness irrelevant and inadequate relative to what one wanted to get
Human flourishing cannot be achieved through pleasure, short term desire, material wealth or status (Stephens, 2015, p. 323). When a person show signs that they are still searching for something else, like I did when I started questioning myself ‘is this it?’ desire had not come to rest, and even though in my mind my goal of marriage had been achieved I needed to stop and evaluate my own desires and realize I had been completely neglecting them and I had not in fact reached the ultimate good. Pleasure is not the goal of human life but it does accompany the good life as pleasure can never truly satisfy (Sober,
In A short and Easy Method of Prayer, Madame Guyon touches on how one can accept all things God through prayer. Through the simple steps of meditation and reading accompanied by meditation, Madame Guyon teaches the reader how to use those steps to have a relationship with God through the simple steps of meditation and reading accompanied by meditation. Madame Guyon was one of the few female religious leaders in the 17th century France as she was a voice of Quietism and to have a relationship through prayer. The two key biases in this book is reviewing it from a 21st century mind set and this is just one of the many different sources of the religious text from this time period.
Some people spend their lives complaining that there 's “no meaning to life”. They live their life not caring about others around them, themselves, etc. However, once they accomplish something, such as saving someone’s life or becoming a mom, they may finally feel that their life has a meaning. Those that aim and success are more likely to miss it and not feel accomplished with what they did. These would be the women that are told they can’t have children. Or someone who wants to be a doctor but continues to fail the entrance exam. Viktor Frankl said “...I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run, success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about
Prayer is an intimate one on one conversation with the almighty, wonderful God that you are having a relationship with. It is a special time and you are going before God who is above all.
Lewis Carroll is quoted on the margins of page 86 saying that, “One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asked. “Where do you want to go?” was his response. “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”” This quote demonstrates that without clear goals or plan for what you want you want to do with your life, you can get lost easily. I already have a life plan, others might not be as far along with their life goals, as I am, but that is not a bad thing, it just means that they have some searching to do. Being able to know what you want to do with your life, and how to get there, is an important thing to figure out, as soon as you can figure out what you want to do with your life. Discovering what you want to do in your life is often a good source of motivation to reaching your goals, whenever I start to struggle or fall behind in class I start to think about what is at stake for my future, and I ask the question, “what would I do with my life, if I couldn’t be a doctor?” Being able to have clear goals of what I want to do in my life allows me to look to the goals I have set for myself in life as a source of motivation, and work as hard as I can to reach them, even against all odds. There is good goal setting guideline that On Course
Too often, we become too caught up in our everyday mundane routines that we forget, or perhaps, never truly see what our purpose is. We forget what truly motivates us to live and what truly drives us to reach a greater goal. Oscar Wilde once said, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” As I look at the people around me, I see ones who furnish their goals with intents of gaining wealth, success, or recognition. However, are they truly happy? How many times have you actually sat down and asked yourself, “why do I do what I do?”.
In order to answer this question in a balanced way, we need to look at
“Most Christians would rather die than think; in fact they do” (White, 17). This quote from Bertrand Russel is thought provoking and a most appropriate way to start a book on using your mind for God. A Mind for God by James Emery White is a fantastic piece of literature that delves deep into what it means to truly follow God with your mind. In just under one hundred pages White explains why, how, and what we need to follow God with all of our mind. “And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27, ESV).
Throughout the years, religions have come together to bring about a new age of interfaith and interconnectedness. There are countless of examples where people have adopted two or more religions as there own, seeing and respecting the relationships and similarities between the two. In hand with this, people are now beginning to understand other religions and respect their practices. There is sort of a hybrid coming about of religions, where communities will pray with each other in a sort of collaboration of respects. However, this change in religion did not come about easily, it took much strife to bring about an interconnectedness that everyone is now a part of. Now that this interconnected and respect occurs in some areas, this can open up
We need to look at prayer with deeper thoughts. Prayer isn’t just closing your eyes, folding your hands and speaking. Prayer is a much more meaningful part of religion. We all need to pray, God himself demands us to pray. Prayer is defined as an act of God, a god or another object of worship, such as in devotion, confession, praise, or thanksgiving. When most people pray, they just say the same prayer, like the Lord’s prayer for example. Saying the same prayer isn’t really such a bad thing, its more about the meaning and the time that you spend praying. Prayer shouldn’t just be looked at as a routine or habit, but as more of a love poem to express ones self to God. Questions such as: why do we need to pray? What is this prayer?, and What does God command us to pray for? Are what we should be asking ourselves before we come to God in prayer.