Faith Our Loving Response to God_s Revelation (1)

Faith a Loving Response to God’s Revelation

A young father has a first child whom he usually plays when he comes home from work. The child was just an 8 month old and starting to stand up on his feet while making his first step to walk. One afternoon the father played with him by putting himself on the table while establishing a distance around two feet away and asks the boy to jump towards him.

Immediately the boy stood up and made his first step then ran and jumped towards his father who was ready to catch and hugs him as the child obeys his command. The child immediately rushed to his father without knowing that what he did was very dangerous.

Activity: Trust Walk

2. Why is trust in your partner important?

When the action was done both had the feelings of satisfactions for they both had done what each had intended. The components of trust, obedience and confidence that they can do it without dangers were manifested in their faces. This is a peculiar relationship of father and son in the early stage of childhood development.

Did you experience fathers and children playing each other like what the story had told us?

What did you feel when you see them playing like that?

What are the basic components of faith?

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3 4

FAITH AS A LOVING RESPONSE TO GOD’S REVELATION

Activity: Trust Walk

Instruction:

Ask students to have his own partner. Blind –fold one partner and then the other will lead and vice versa. (3 minutes each)

Activity: Trust Walk

1. Choose your own partner.

2. Ask one partner to be the navigator/guide and the other member to be blindfolded.

3. The leader gives verbal instructions to navigate the blindfolded partner to avoid obstacles.

4. The guide is solely responsible for his partner’ s safety. He should be navigated correctly to avoid obstacles.

5. The guide may lead his partner by touching the elbow of his partner, by holding his hands, by placing his hands on shoulders from behind or by whispering verbal directions.

6. Then exchange roles.

Activity: Trust Walk

Let us reflect and share upon your experiences

Activity: Trust Walk

1. What did you learn about walking blind?

Activity : Trust Walk

2. Why do you trust your partner?

Activity: Trust Walk

3. How did you feel when you and your teammate successfully trusted each other?

Activity: Trust Walk

4. What did you learn from this activity in relation to our day to day lives?

Activity: Trust Walk

A. Guide

• learns about the challenge and responsibility of caring for another individual’s well being

Activity: Trust Walk

B. Blindfolded

• learns to trust and rely on another person

Activity: Trust Walk

Lessons:

• Teamwork

• Trust

Imagine the world without faith. What kind of a world do we have?

Why is faith necessary in our day to day life? Give reasons and cite concrete examples.

Do you have faith in your househelpers who prepare your meals daily?

Do you have faith in our school bus drivers to bring you safely to Claret School?

Do you have faith in your teachers in school that they will teach you the truth?

Faith is a natural human act, needed to live a human life.

We believe the food we eat will not poison us.

We trust that the buildings we enter will not fall down.

We have faith in other people like our parents, etc…

Without such human faith,

Human life would be impossible

This human faith involves:

1. Accepting the words of others

2. Obey the directions of those over us.

3. Entrust ourselves and our welfare to others: doctors, school bus drivers, cook etc…

Faith is our loving knowledge – the way we know our parents, Brothers and sisters, friends, etc.

FAITH AS A LOVING RESPONSE TO GOD’S REVELATION

FAITH

FAITHDOCTRIN

E MORALS

WORSHIP

THREE ESSENTIAL DIMENSIONS OF FAITH

FAITH

CREE

DAL

TRUTH

S(D

octri

ne)

COMMANDMENTS,

BEATITUDES,

VIRTUES

(Morals)

PRAYER, SACRAMENTS

(Worship)

OBJECTIVE REALITY OF FAITH – WHAT WE BELIEVE IN

FAITHBELI

EVIN

G IN G

OD FOLLOWING/ DOING

GOD’S WILL

PRAYING TO GOD

SUBJECTIVE REALITY OF FAITH – THE PERSON’S ACT OF FAITH

IDEOLOGICAL ACTIVISM(no prayer)

PIOUS DIMENSION

(no praxis)

IDEA

LISTIC

ACTIVISM

(no doc

trinal

base)

Worship (Sacraments)

Doct

rine

(dog

mat

ism) M

orals

(Activism)Orthodoxy

Orthopraxis

Scriptures, Tradition and Human experience

Faith is an attitude of reverence for whole of creation and our part in it. For human life, human relationships, coupled with an attitude of faith will help us open our eyes to see God who call s us from the depth of our experience.

FAITH THAT IS ACTIVE. A FAITH THAT IS BELIVEING, TRUSTING AND DOING FAITH, WORKING ITSELF INTO DAILY LIFE.

Faith as believing is a loving knowledge not drawn from direct evidence of the senses or mind nor from scientific experiment. It is an acknowledgement tat someone, something is true because God has revealed it. He communicated it to us.

Faith as doing is acting in obedience to God’s will. It the internal and external manifestation of what we know, our convictions. Internal disposition manifested in our external behavior.Faith as trusting/ worshipping is the recognition of our duty as creatures to worship God in spirit and in truth.

This trust is expressed clearly in the Church’s liturgical worship or actions and manifested as well in ones deeds. Authentic Christian brings about a way of life that embraces a conviction of the Gospel truths … the active commitment to obey God’s holy will and the personal trust and self-offering of Christian worship. A HEARTFELT CONVERSATION WITH GOD.

Characteristics of Christian Faith:

1.Total and Absolute

2.Trinitarian

3.Loving, maturing and missionary

4.Informed and communitarian

5.Inculturated

1. TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE

Faith in God calls for a total adherence to God

1. TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE

Difference between believing in another human person and believing in God:

Believing in human person – could be wrong or fails to be faithful

Believing in God – who cannot deceive nor be deceived

2. TRINITARIAN

Faith is our adherence to the Triune God revealed through Jesus Christ

A dimension/core value of the Claretian Spirituality

3. LOVING. MATURING AND MISSIONARY

Without love, we know nothing of God for God is love.

4. INFORMED AND COMMUNITARIAN

Believing Jesus’ words ; accepting his teachings and trusting that He has the words of eternal life

Our response in faith is an act taking place within the same community, the Church

5. INCULTURATED

The Catholic Faith is never separated from the typical Filipino faith in human family and friends.

Paradoxical Aspects of Faith

1.Certain, Yet Obscure2. Free, Yet morally obliging3. Reasonable, Yet beyond Natural Reason4. An Act, yet a process5. A gift, Yet our doing6. Personal, yet Ecclesial