September 26, 2023, Class Update: The Faith We Uphold

Greetings everyone!

In our most recent class, during our opening prayer time, we listened to the song, "To Jesus Christ, Our Sovereign King", which is part of an album of music compiled for Pope Francis's 2015 apostolic journey to the USA.

Toward the beginning of class, we spent time looking more closely at the words of the Lord's Prayer, by writing out all the words.

For this week's activity at home, please display your writing of the Lord's Prayer in a place where you'll see it frequently throughout the week.

To follow up from last week, we looked in our textbook at the roles that Saints Peter and Paul played in upholding the faith.  St. Peter was one of the original 12 apostles.  Upon professing faith in Christ, He bestowed on Him the authority to hand on His teachings, which is what the magisterium is, the Church's teaching authority.  The magisterium has been handed down through the centuries via the Pope and the Bishops, the successors of the apostles.

St. Peter proclaimed the message of the Gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit he received at Pentecost.

St. Paul also proclaimed this message.  He took multiple missionary trips throughout the Mediterranean world to Gentile lands, where non-Jewish people lived.  You can see a map of those trips in the article at this link.

Some people gave up their lives for upholding this faith, and we revere them as martyrs.

Recalling our faith, we finished class by praying the Nicene Creed together.

Our plan for the next class is to continue exploring what it means to uphold the faith we have in Christ.

As usual, please feel free to contact me with questions, etc.

We remain connected as One Church, bound by faith in God given to us by Christ, and safeguarded by the Church:
All my relations.

God's blessings,
Paul
The Holy Spirit Dove appears above the high altar at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, MN.  The Holy Spirit continues at work in the Church.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

April 23, 2024, Class Update: Our Call to Holiness

Image
Greetings everyone! During this class, we started with the song " God's Not Dead " as our opening prayer.  One phrase in the song says, God is "roaring like a lion".  That image connects to St. Mark, whose feast is April 25, and his symbol is a lion. Then we considered the idea of our universal call to holiness.  In our books, we looked at two important Church councils, Vatican I in the 19th Century, and Vatican II in the 1960's.  The later council made a number of significant changes in the church, including the role of laypeople. The council emphasized that holiness is not just for priests and religious.  All people who are baptized are called to exhibit God's character, and to live like saints. There is a great piece of artwork in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that illustrates the "Universal Call to Holiness", and you can read more about it here , and see a picture of it when not being worked on, as is the ...
Read more

October 24, 2023, Class Update: Native Americans and the Roman Catholic Church

Image
Greetings everyone! During our most recent class, the vast majority of our time was spent viewing the documentary Enduring Faith .  It was produced by the Knights of Columbus and focuses on Native American Roman Catholics in North America, mostly in the USA. Our opening prayer was an extended quotation attributed to St. Teresa of Avila, " Christ has no body now but yours ". The closing prayer was from the 1st reading for All Saints' Day Mass, from Revelation 7:9-12.  As we learned about the practice of Roman Catholicism among Native Americans, we see that the Church has expanded to include people from many ethnicities, as this passage of Scripture describes. We are off from class on October 31.  However, we have the opportunity to attend Mass on November 1, which is a Holy Day of Obligation.  Masses at Ascension are at 8:15 AM and 7 PM.  We celebrate the many holy people who have lived lives of faith before us, and remind us of our call to holiness. The activity...
Read more

April 16, 2024, Class Update: The Paschal Candle

Image
Easter Greetings once again! At the 1964 Oscars ceremony, 60 years ago this month, Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win an Oscar, which was for his role in the movie Lilies of the Field.  During that movie, he played the character Homer Smith, who sang a song about Christ's life. That song, " Amen ", was our opening prayer for class. Pope Benedict XVI was born on April 16, 1927, in Germany.  The end of the first episode of the Catholicism series, hosted by Bishop Barron and Word on Fire, tells a story about Cardinal George at Pope Benedict's election. You can watch it here and go to the 40:00 mark. We are part of a Church that has stood the test of time because God has made us to be His Holy people, and His Holy Spirit continues to guide us in upholding the Truth as we answer the call to live faithfully as His people. Mrs. Monaco stopped by class to encourage everyone to keep practicing their faith as part of Bishop Casey's challenge at Mass to...
Read more