Man fully alive

What it means to be man fully alive... This question have gone beyond this past semester but even into first semester and I have spent a lot of time putting this together and cutting things out and this is what I believe man fully alive is..

Man fully alive is Christ, most people say that it is impossible to be Christ and they would be right but God doesn't want us to be Christ, he wants us to be like him. God wants us to get in the morning "God I love you and live to spread your name'' and after eating a healthy breakfast, he would want us to go out, wherever it may be, and spread the word of God. God doesn't expect us to all become Pope, he just wants us to love him the same way he loves us. I believe a great example of this is Mr. Cole.

Mr. Cole is and has been a married man for quite a while now and he recently just had a kid. Him being a father now has not affected his faith in any negative way in fact I believe that his faith has grown. Mr. Cole has always taught theology in a encouraging manner and what I mean By that is everyday we talk about theology, it is as if it is not even his job to do so, I can really tell that he loves teaching theology and teaches it as if Jesus was in the class with us. Although his voice can put a crying baby to sleep, he never falls short of enthusiasm. Ever since he found out he was going to have a child, he has been trying new things for us to learn about Catholicism. He takes us in the computer lab now for religious debates, we write blogs now, and we use a system now that gives us little in class award points when we do something good. This is why I see Mr. Cole as man fully alive, he goes beyond a teaches expectations and tries a variety of different ways on us so that we can learn about God.

In conclusion, I know that we would all mess around with this question but I would like to say that Mr. Cole is the best representation I can think of what man fully alive should be.

The Great Question

What Does it mean to be Man Fully Alive?

I won't go to the internet for this one. Nor a book or any other person but myself. Because I don't believe that I will find my answer there. I think its already inside of me. Bear with me as I try to dig it out.

First, what does it mean to be alive. To be breathing? To have a heartbeat? I suppose. But wouldn't that make being fully alive just be fully breathing? that doesn't sound like much of a higher purpose. So no there has to be more to it than that. Something beyond the physical, something spiritual.

So what does it meant to be alive in a spiritual sense? I suppose that would mean that one's soul would have to be alive. But what makes a soul live? Can a soul even die? Even if a soul goes too hell, will it not still exist and therefore still be alive? By that definition, I suppose that a man in hell could technically be man fully alive. That can't be right.

There must be more to it for a soul to be "alive" than simply existing. It must be thriving. A man fully alive will have a thriving soul. So what makes a soul thrive? money? power? the highest things the material world has to offer? Plenty of horrible people have died with both of those things, but I would not consider their souls to be thriving. Many of them were not even happy. So I doubt that having a thriving soul has anything to do with material wealth.

So if not material wealth, what is it? I have to think back to people I consider to have been men fully alive. I think about the saints, the apostles, Mr. Cole, and I wonder what they all have in common. First of all they all loved God. They love God. I think there is more to it than that though, they all love God to the point where they want to do something about it. Some gave up their possessions, others their time, many gave up their old ways of life. I believe that these people are men fully alive. I believe that their soulds are thrivingg wiht joy. I believe that that joy comes from God, who is overjoyed by those who do his will.

So that's my answer. A man fully alive is someone who loves God, but also does everything in his power to prove it. He will not always be happy, but he will always be at peace knowing that one day he will enter into eternal satisfaction with God in heaven. That, is a man who is most fully alive.

Good stuff...

My Mistake.

So... Why was I irresponsible in Theology Friday?

No excuses. Never before has such an abominable violation of the most sacred classroom rules ever been committed. I dared to joke around instead of appreciating and diligently recording the wonderful amounts of knowledge being presented to me. Furthermore, I disrespected Mr. Cole and wasted precious and irreplaceable class time. I nearly caused one of my dear classmates to fall into the temptation of distractingg by making him laugh in class, forcing him into disunion with Mr. Cole All because I felt the need to use the restroom. I will never know truly what I have lost both in the form of knowledge and time through the deed that I have so very much done.

I must never do it again. I shall stay very focused during class and avoid those things and persons which might lead me to do otherwise. I would like to offer the highest apologies to my teacher, who so generously allowed me to take the punishment, which I so truly deserved, away from my peer, who was an innocent bystander. I hope that, in time, I may be forgiven not only for my sin, but remission from the temporal punishment as well.

Penance

Penance is the consequence to our sin that we must serve. Although Baptism washes away our sins, it doesn’t make us perfect, only God can be perfect. We still and always will commit sin even after Baptism because it is our human nature, which, due to the efforts of Original Sins, still suffers from an inclination to sin, we call this concupiscence. How we serve this penance is first by going to confession. We receive confession through the sacrament of reconciliation. What takes place here is that we would go to the Church during the designated time for confession. We would then go the confession room and confession our sins to the priest. All priest are different and I say that because lets say you ate being mean to a sibling, one priest may say '' okay for these sins I want you to say the Lord's prayer for your penance." Another priest my say, " for these sins, I want you compliment your brother everyday for 6 years and pray 5 our fathers daily during this time period." This penance is a little harsh for something like this, you could then go to another priest for a reasonable penance.

The mass in the early Church

We have:

• The Gathering on Sunday
• On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place.
• Reading of the Scriptures
• Here, the memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the prophets are read. Memoirs meaning the Gospels.
• The Homily
• When the reader has finished, he who presides over those gathered admonished and challenges them to imitate these beautiful things, normally the priest.
• Prayers of the Faithful
• Then we all rise together and offer prayers for ourselves and for others, wherever they may be.
• An Offertory
• Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed together to him who presides over the brethren.
• Eucharistic Prayer
• He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a considerable time he gives thanks, in Greek we would call this Eucharistian, that we have been judged worthy of these gifts.
• Reception of the Eucharist
• Last but not least, we have the Reception of the Eucharist. This is when he who presides has given thanks and the people have responded, those whom we call deacons give those present the 'eucharisted' bread and wine and water

The Catechumenate

This is a process that a person must take part in if they wish to become a part of the Church. They are instructed in the teachings of the Faith and prepared for the Sacraments of Initiation. These new member would customary be initiated at the Easter Vigil, the night before the commemoration of Christ's Resurrection. This isn't a Sacrament but it is essential if one wishes to take part on the Sacraments.

Sacraments

The sacraments were given to us for 3 reasons:

• To sanctify man
• To build up the Body of Christ
• To worship God

Through these Sacraments helps us to grow in our faith and to grow closer to God. Why sacraments though? God instituted Sacraments because this is his way of dispensing his Grace to us. I will be talking about one sacrament in particular which is the sacrament of Baptism.

I want to talk about Baptism because our teacher just had a baby and went or will be reviving this Sacrament. We see Jesus get baptized by St. John at the beginning of his public ministry, this wasn't an efficacious or a sacramental Baptism. This merely symbolized the recipient's desire to live more variously. Sacramental Baptism is a voluntary act of a person indicating his or her repentance from sin. Baptism normally takes place at birth. A priest will take holy water and pour it over the head of the baby. The water symbolizes the Holy water washing away our sins.