Catholic Reflection

During the 16th century, Protestantism emerged as a new sect of Christianity. This process was not calm or peaceful in the slightest. Protestant leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin fiercely attacked and denied traditional Catholic beliefs, causing much controversy and debate upon religion. Many regions of Europe as a whole were converted to Protestantism, and many more Protestants emerged in areas where Catholicism remained the state religion. The Catholic faith became less and less appealing to people as the abuses of the clergy were now publicly addressed by reformers and a new, personal approach to religion was offered in Protestantism. In addition, rulers favored Protestantism as a state religion because it meant that no power

Culture are language, beliefs, values, norms behaviors, and material objects passed between generations. (Henslin 2007) In the picture above this is a catholic culture. As shown above my cousins, myself and our church pastor were smiling as my mom took our picture which she is not shown in the picture above. This picture was taken minutes after we have gotten out of our special communion mass. As shown in the picture above we are all not dressed in the usual dressing attire instead all white. Dressing in all white means we have completed our hours serving our church getting our certificate of completion but to be in all white means we will remain pure and we have now received god. In the picture I on the left side of the picture I was holding

Theology 104 has really changed my outlook and views regarding systematic theology. I now understand more clearly that as Christians, in order to be able to accurately share our faith that we must all be a theologian to some extent. Looking at the totality of it all, the four religion courses I have taken since January 2015 have really expanded my views and understanding of what it is to be a Christian. Between Philosophy and Contemporary Ideas (PHIL201), Contemporary Worldviews (APOL 104), Survey of Biblical Literature (BIBL 104), and Introduction to Christian Thought (THEO 104), my understanding of the Bible and Christianity in general has increased exponentially. While my overall belief system has not been impacted, I now have a better

Sins are a very big deal to have on (your) chest and it is not an easy process to have them be cleansed. The ruling from the Bible states, “Under Catholic teaching, every sin must be purified either here on earth or after death in a state called purgatory” (Hoblein). Indulgences should have never even been an idea from the Church leaders. The people of the church also should have realized that it is not right to buy off a sin that is being looked upon God. (lead up) “The customers for indulgences were Catholic believers who feared that if one of their sins went unnoticed or unconfessed, they would spent extra time in purgatory…”

By the late 1500s, Christian denominations had been popping up all over Europe. This was in response to the reports of indulgences (selling of freedom from purgatory), clerical immorality, abuse of money, along with many other bad actions that were rampant among the Church. It was these problems that Luther and others rebelled and created their own religions. With the rising of these Reformation movements, the Church needed to make some reforms itself. These reforms took the form of educating the clergy, opening monasteries, the Inquisition, and the organizing of councils. In fact, even though Protestant attacks brought these reforms, many of these reforms were needed anyway. The problems in the Church were so bad that the Church would not

The author (2007) also points out the importance of the Roman Catholic views point about confession and penance has three significate merits to confession. The first significate merit is that consistent confession forces one to confront one’s sin, meaning that one will not merely overlook or diminish one’s transgressions; instead it will cause one to take their sin more earnestly (p 213). The second significate is that the act of penance, paying a price for sin, creates a mindfulness of the significance of sin, meaning that it will not allow one to have a carelessness understanding toward sin of thinking that one will always be simply forgiven; instead penance combats this predisposition by arresting consequences for one’s sin (p 213). The third Significate merit is that it lifts the burned of guilt by forgiveness being granted during the ritual of penance, which can be extremely redemptive for some individuals (p

Throughout the last year with my middle school students we had a lot of conversations about the graces that you receive when you go to confession. From that has led into conversations about how God will always forgive us but it better not to sin at all as we will not be the same. As I was reading “And God Said What” by Margaret Ralph her symbolism of comparing eating to sinning is just the metaphor I need to help my students understand the consequences of sin. She states, “We can be forgiven sin, but we are not, by forgiveness, returned to the state of being we had before we sinned.” She goes on to say, “Through sin we grow in our knowledge of evil. Knowledge of sin affects our ideas of ourselves, or perceptions of others, and our relationship

"Oh you're Catholic" a common stereotype that labeled my being as homophobic, bible thumping or even a nun. The stereotype hurt me; however, I knew I was nowhere close to their predictions. After experiencing a stereotype firsthand, I started to become aware of the overwhelming amount of stereotyping that takes place in our society, specifically the modern over-generalization of the Islamic religion. Most likely provoked by the 9/11 attacks and unrest in the Middle East, where Islam is prominent, the Muslim religion is stereotyped as being radical and violent causing unnecessary prejudice against its followers.

Evaluate: Relate the effects of the event on yourself and others involved; describe emotions or images the experience evoked; identify the “heart of the matter”—what issue or question is raised/is at stake for you?

Contemplation can be defined as the ‘action of looking at something thoughtfully for a period of time’ or ‘deep reflective thoughts’. (Oxford Dictionaries, 2016) Within religious faiths, contemplation can be explained as a ‘form of religious practices in which a person seeks to extend beyond mental images and concepts in order to have a direct experience with a divine presence.’ (Oxford Dictionaries, 2016) It is hypothesised that contemplation in Roman Catholicism, Reform Judaism and Sunni Islam is a way of strengthening the connection with a higher divine presence, such as God. This essay will analyse and discuss the understanding of contemplation in Roman Catholicism, Reform Judaism and Sunni Islam, as well as, scrutinising the similarities and differences of contemplation in those religions.

When people fail to follow the commands they cannot receive communion until they have confessed their sins. However, people constantly sin but still receive communion because they believe that their sins are minimal. The sins they believe are minimal are missing church, lying, and swearing. These people abandon some of their morals to make things easier for themselves. However, would these same people still go up to receive communion if they killed someone or cheated on their spouse? That is very doubtful but it is still a sin there is no difference. Nevertheless people still choose to act as though there is a difference.

Penance was viewed as a practice or sacrament to deal with sin and disease. Sin shapes one’s desire and takes on its own shape and this was a way that the Christian could take on some balance. The bishop or priest according article, “read a passage to the Christian, explaining the Fall of man and the penance was to bestowal God’s grace. The Christian expressed their sorrow for the sin and the bishop or priest after going through the sacrament of the varies punishment like things that were expected of the person. It could be

The contrition is arguably the most important component as it is the initial commitment made by the penitent to commit to their beliefs under the eyes of God and vow not only to reveal all of their secrets to the priest,

There are several assumptions with which I will begin prior to discussing my confession. The first assumption is that Jesus, who was crucified, is Lord and that God has raised him from the dead. A second assumption is that apart from the first assumption, any and all other aspects of my confession could be flawed or wrong. My beliefs about the nature of Scripture, God, Creation, Humanity and Sin, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Holy Spirit, and the Church, though related to the centrality of the gospel, the gospel in itself is not contingent upon many these things. Therefore, though my confession in relation to the aforementioned beliefs could change over time and with experience, the central belief of the gospel of Jesus Christ, however,

The world has more than one billion Catholics and with the ever growing population, it will only get larger in number. To be a Catholic means to have complete faith in God and his divine grace. Having God's divine grace means to obey it and keep it holy as it was created by God and given to his people. The religion itself is based on this and the people take it very seriously. Catholics believe that all people are of good nature but when one commits a sin it not only hurts that one person but the people and the Church.