Maria Anna Barbara was a devout Catholic and felt the call to religious life as a young girl living in New York. Her heart’s desire was to enter the religious life. However, her dreams were delayed. Being the eldest of ten siblings, she…
I am writing you today as a concerned member of your congregation. Recently, I found myself on the doorstep of an old, breath-takingly beautiful cathedral, but I stumbled in only to realize that I, a devout Lutheran, am not allowed to receive communion. My lack of knowledge on the Eucharist and the guidelines the Catholic church has placed on this sacrament lead to a response of hostility and hurt on this particular guideline. I am writing to tell you that my response of hostility and hurt was wrong, and dangerous for me and my faith. To come to this conclusion, you must first understand the history behind Catholic communion, the Catholic view on transubstantiation, acceptance in relation to the Eucharist, the…
This article informs the reader that healthcare professionals are more involved than ever with the treatment of patients. This places a lot of responsibility on the provider and therefore they should be armed with spiritual tools if they are going to effectively and holistically help with spiritual needs of a patient. Healthcare workers treat all types of people of various cultures and religious backgrounds. Many clients participating in various religious cultures have their own worldviews regarding how they will…
The main objective for attending a Christian college is that it offers academic excellence with a deep understanding of the foundational commitments of Christian faith. It 's a community of faculty and students who place ethics and Christian values at the forefront of educational experiences by following Christ together. And no matter where you are in your spiritual journey it will challenge and prepare you academically, help you to grow in your faith, and teach you how to make an impact for Christ 's kingdom in the world. As Christians we have a greater purpose, and we are called upon to make a difference.…
For my observation, I went to a usual Catholic Mass at a parish local to me. I analyzed the texts being used, the words being spoken, and the level of involvement of every member present. I focused on the responses of those in attendance during prayer and the homily, a scripturally-based reflection not consisting of doctrinal instruction, spoken by the priest. Additionally, I attended Eucharistic Adoration, a ritual where one sits in front of the consecrated bread, which is believed to be the true presence of Christ, contemplating the Mystery of Christ. I observed the people who entered and left and if the read Catholic literature or wrote.…
As I thought about this paper, I wanted to explore a religion that I had little knowledge about so I chose Hinduism. In thinking about what little I previously knew about the Hindu religion my knowledge was very limited indeed! In this paper I will discuss what I have done in order to learn more about Hinduism. I will discuss any misconceptions I may have had and how they have changed. Also, I will try to figure out a way to minimize misconceptions.…
Consider how far the work of scholars has helped give an understanding of religious experience.…
Mrs. B.F. is a 52 yr old Hispanic female. Post surgical patient, who states God and the support of her family, gives her hope and strength in difficult times. She labels herself as “halfway catholic” and does not belong to a particular church. She attends church…
Only two weeks ago I was asked to facilitate a phase four session with one of our patients and her family. The family informed the staff that they were of the Roman Catholic faith. One of the daughters, son-in-law, and I discussed their beliefs and how their specific belief system gives them hope and peace during their time of loss. Being knowledgeable about different religious faiths allows the social worker to be informed and sensitive about the client’s feelings and desires. This also allows the social worker to use strength-based approaches to focus on the positive nature of their faith, for example seeing their loved one…
I found your explanation about religious feelings and experiences to be quite understandable. What helped more was the usage of historical examples. While I might not fully understand the history behind each story, I found your example to be a clear showing of religious experiences.…
I decided to do my religious study on Catholicism because I am a protestant Christian, and our religions are generally grouped together under the banner of “Christianity” even though our beliefs and traditions vary. I wanted to learn more about the beliefs of Catholicism so that I could better understand the differences between it and Protestantism. As it turned out, this semester my Catholic extended family invited my family and I to mass while we were visiting them in Michigan one weekend, so we decided to accept the invitation.…
In "A Private Experience" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichiea, a religious conflict is clearly indicated in the beginning. A Christian Igbo girl hides from a violent riot with a Muslim woman whose dignity and faith force her to encounter the realities and fears she is been pushing away. Many examples are used to display the differences between these two people, but the one that sticks out the most for me is the scarf and how it is represented in her story, “A Private Experience.” This scarf that is hanging around this woman’s neck represents who she is as a person and her ethnicity. This scarf not only breaks the boundary between two characters of distinct backgrounds, but it associates them as one. That same scarf also breaks a stereotype of religion and brings these two characters that share different religious beliefs to become women who are trying to survive.…
For this assignment we had to visit to houses of worship. I decided to visit a catholic church called Our Savior Parish with my roommate, who visits this church on every Sunday, and the Masjid Omar ibn Al-Khattab Mosque. I have been to a church before, and I visited a mosque during high school, but nevertheless quite some time has passed since I last visited a house of worship. So I want to begin with sharing the impression that I made during my visit to the church. We went there on Sunday, March 2nd at 10pm. I was quite surprised by that you can go to church this late, back home people usually go to mass in the morning or at 7pm for the evening mass. The church looked like a typical church from the outside, with stone optic and stain glass windows. Inside there were pews for the people to sit and a holy water font. At the back of the church in the middle was the altar, the priest was speaking to the audience from there. Everything was decorated nicely and the whole architecture was designed to look very antique. When the mass began there were about 70 people in the audience, and most of them were USC students. It was a very divers group, there were people from all different races, and there were about as many men as there were women. At the beginning the priest told us to introduce ourselves to the people who sat near us, which I thought was nice because you get familiar with the people next to you. That was new for me. The topic of the mass was the upcoming lent, and the priest told us a story out of his life. Basically, he left a very well a paid job to become a priest because he realized that money is not everything in this world. So he told us to let go and not get too attached to material things. Ironically, as the mass progressed the priest was asking for donations. This part of the mass got stuck in my head because he spent a lot of time explaining how we can make the payments. This was…
I have grown up as a Hindu Indian, and as one who does not go to temple every week either. I have never been to any kind of a Catholic service. I was nervous to go and did not know what to expect from the church or the service or even the people there. Being Hindu, I did not know very much about the Catholic religion at all. From the little that I know about the Catholic religion, Hindu rituals and prayers were very different from Catholic rituals and prayers. One big thing was that, for church you usually go in the morning, whereas whenever my family and I would go to the temple, we would go later at night; which is what most Hindu’s went to.…
As I was taking up Cl101 and CL102 (under Sister Hermina and Sister Mari Flor, respectively), I came to realize that I’m only a Christian by name. Because I haven’t encountered any religion subjects, I haven’t gained much knowledge about Christianity. I only celebrate the Holy Mass and other religious celebrations in our town because my friends want me to join them. So I’m very thankful to my nun teachers because they have provided me the knowledge that I needed, and they have provided activities like meditations which strengthened my faith. I learned not only to accept knowledge but also to appreciate being a Christian. I learned to appreciate the…