These are the questions that we dived into today. Before we could begin discussing and learning about the sacraments, I found it crucial that we spent today focusing on who God is, how our identity is from Him/essence of God and humans, and tomorrow we will then talk about where Jesus and the Church come into play, the source and channel of the 7 sacraments.
Summary of today, I was rejuvenated. To teach others about who God is, proofs of His existence (referencing St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica), discussing the nature of God, and then diving into how we are made in God's image and likeness which makes us favorable out of all of God's creation, reminded me of truly how amazing this gift of life truly is, and how much I owe to God. To teach them that were made for eternal life with God and how the belief in our soul is what separates us from all other visible creatures also made me curious to learn more, to study more.
If we truly understood our identity, we would strive much harder to know our Creator and live in a way that shows how much we honor and respect Him, ourselves, and everyone and everything around us. We would strive to live in right relationship with everyone and everything! We would have HEAVEN on Earth!
The more I talked about our soul and the importance of the visible and invisible elements of humankind, the more I could see my students opening their minds and recognizing their need for God. It was amazing to see how intrigued they were, especially when I taught them about our souls. (Teachers can tell even when they don't show it in their facial expressions.)
personal soul:
invisible, spiritual, and immortal gift from God that gives a human being life
Now, I didn't even dive into being pro-life or anything, and I had a student ask, "Miss Sexton, is that why Catholics are so against abortion?" I paused, and for the first time, I came to understand that that is a huge reason why! Never had that reason struck me, and I was so amazed by the connection she made. But yes, we are SO against abortion because God wants to spend not only this life with us, but also life after death. Our bodies and souls separate at death and will one day be unified (at the final judgement), therefore, we need to respect human life at any stage!
We also discussed the hierarchy of God's visible and invisible creations. Below are one of my student's notes for the day. At the bottom I asked them to write down one thing they learned. I'm glad she was listening to my summary of Aquinas' proofs :)
I'm really tired, otherwise I'd go into EVERYTHING we did in classes today. I'm not sure if today's presentation helped my students or myself more. It's funny how sometimes we need to take our own advice or re-teach ourselves that our identity lies in God and how valuable that makes us!
Our identity in God should affect EVERYTHING. Don't you think if we all really knew, understood, or accepted how truly valuable we are that things would be so different? Aka more peaceful and intentional? We have the potential of being GREAT, of being more like Jesus!
Let us ask God to remind us of value and that tomorrow we can strive to be more like Him.
If you'd like, you can try this out. We did this as an activity in class. Read 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 a few times. The first recognizing that this is God's way of loving and that we need Him to help us to love in those ways, and then by replacing the words "Love" and "It" with His name to recognize the HE is love, finally read it by replacing those words with your name to examine your conscience- to see how well you lived today. It will surely make you more aware and more intentional tomorrow! I know it helped me recognize some areas that I need to work on but also some areas that I rock in! ;) God loves us no matter what, but strive for a greater you, and a greater tomorrow.
St. Paul, pray for us!
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