Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ -who inspired the film Dead Man Walking (1995), starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn- has fought for twenty years to achieve death penalty degoratorium all over the United States, at the same time acting out as spiritual counselor to families of the victims. She sums up a recent contribution n the NPR´s Living my prayer the following quote: "The only way I know what I really believe is by keeping watch over what I do".
Such a phrase. I have pondered it several times since I first heard it. Sister Prejean establishes herself as a believer and how such beliefs are intrinsic with her work and everyday life.
All of us, I would say, have at least given some thought into the matter. The question of a supreme being was born with man itself when reason could not explain all the causes of the universe. Thus God was found in either single or multiple forms, in nature´s element or created upon´s man image to represent certain quality: power, fertility, the underworld and others. Today, under different labels, many, many people confess themselves as believers in one (some cases, more than one) only God.
I was born and raised in a specific religious tradition -Roman Catholicism-, which centered in the belief of Jesus of Nazareth as the only, begotten, Son of God -the same God of Islam and Judaism. Catholic is a latin word that means universality - an universal community centered around Rome and the figure of the pope, sucessor of Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ.
Belonging into a church could be marked, first, as a part of the childhood of many people. Enter, in my case, my grandmothers and parents, who taught me prayers and took me to Mass. In my teen years, I received further instruction on the doctrine of the Church, ethics and philosophy through my high school. Several new findings were done there, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas´ Five Ways to know God from the Summa Theologiae. Five rational arguments to know God.
Tradition and learnings left their mark. But what is that supreme being work into the real world. What is called the militant (Catholic) church. The one that climbs the steps of Caracas´ most violent shanty towns and helds a parish there, in which the neighbours photographs of those who have been assasinated and have not received justice through the local authorities every Mass. Despite such signs of darkness, though, there is hope. In the same parish tyouth groups, individuals, continue working with and supporting each other, especially those who need aid. And for those of us who came to them trying to help as volunteers... they ended up teaching us more, way more, than any expectation could foreseen.
All of this, in a world that constantly questions the notion of the existence of God through wars, cruelty and incurable ailments, among many reasons.
Who are you? Why are we your children? What are you in the lives of the humans of the 21st century, destructive and cruel, But Also capable of compassion and beauty?
as I See These questions invite us to Peruse That Our Traditions, explore new ones in an everlasting invitation That is God.
(To be continued)
1. Quo vadis: "Where are you going, Lord?" Taken from Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel Quo vadis .
Such a phrase. I have pondered it several times since I first heard it. Sister Prejean establishes herself as a believer and how such beliefs are intrinsic with her work and everyday life.
All of us, I would say, have at least given some thought into the matter. The question of a supreme being was born with man itself when reason could not explain all the causes of the universe. Thus God was found in either single or multiple forms, in nature´s element or created upon´s man image to represent certain quality: power, fertility, the underworld and others. Today, under different labels, many, many people confess themselves as believers in one (some cases, more than one) only God.
I was born and raised in a specific religious tradition -Roman Catholicism-, which centered in the belief of Jesus of Nazareth as the only, begotten, Son of God -the same God of Islam and Judaism. Catholic is a latin word that means universality - an universal community centered around Rome and the figure of the pope, sucessor of Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ.
Belonging into a church could be marked, first, as a part of the childhood of many people. Enter, in my case, my grandmothers and parents, who taught me prayers and took me to Mass. In my teen years, I received further instruction on the doctrine of the Church, ethics and philosophy through my high school. Several new findings were done there, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas´ Five Ways to know God from the Summa Theologiae. Five rational arguments to know God.
Tradition and learnings left their mark. But what is that supreme being work into the real world. What is called the militant (Catholic) church. The one that climbs the steps of Caracas´ most violent shanty towns and helds a parish there, in which the neighbours photographs of those who have been assasinated and have not received justice through the local authorities every Mass. Despite such signs of darkness, though, there is hope. In the same parish tyouth groups, individuals, continue working with and supporting each other, especially those who need aid. And for those of us who came to them trying to help as volunteers... they ended up teaching us more, way more, than any expectation could foreseen.
All of this, in a world that constantly questions the notion of the existence of God through wars, cruelty and incurable ailments, among many reasons.
Who are you? Why are we your children? What are you in the lives of the humans of the 21st century, destructive and cruel, But Also capable of compassion and beauty?
as I See These questions invite us to Peruse That Our Traditions, explore new ones in an everlasting invitation That is God.
(To be continued)
1. Quo vadis: "Where are you going, Lord?" Taken from Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel Quo vadis .
Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, inspired by the film Dead Man Walking (1995), with Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, has been fighting for twenty years for the repeal of the death penalty in the United States product of their experience accompanying spiritual kin of the convicts and victims alike. Recently, I found his intervention in the program Living My Prayer, National Public Radio in the United States. She then said: "The only way for what I believe is watching things that I do" ( The only way I Know What I really believe is by Keeping watch over what i do ).
Which words. This phrase I've been thinking since I heard, because he senses how Sister Prejean is confessed as a believer in a divine being and how this belief is manifested in dialogue, prayer, and in everyday life.
In this world, the question of a supreme being was synonymous with the origin of man. Probably the thought began when reason could not justify full. The gods were born and in memory of the people and took many forms, according to his followers, some were found in the earth, water, fire, air, earth, and others representing human forms representing particular qualities - the origin of the universe, fertility and the afterlife. Faith, in one way or another, has been with us since we homo sapiens and in the case of our day, continues to do so in different colors and flavors.
I was born and received the stamp printed on a tradition Catholic-Christian religious-whose details, in the first place: Christian, in the figure of Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God sent to Earth. Jesus crucified. Catholic is a Latin word referring to a universal community based in the city of Rome and head of the Pope, successor to the authority of Peter, an apostle of Jesus. My adventures in it began to pair the almanac: grandmothers life in childhood accompanied me and educated in the rudiments of faith, prayer, Mass, several passages of the Bible. The first youth was wandering deeper into the doctrine. Heard in class about the five ways of Aquinas , which pose a rational way of closeness to God.
But a few years later, what was with my traditions and my question? Was it a mere exercise of the head and no heart?
is not surprising that the university, or other areas, men and women ask for the knowledge and belief. Question why a tradition and its relevance in the world you live .. But sooner or later, you could find that God becomes more a matter of thinking .. as it says Ricardo Arjona, Jesus is a verb .. not substantive.
met in college next to the church that lives permanently in parts of the world where they can. In the Mass on Easter Thursday in a suburb of Caracas, such issues are aired, as the dead from violence in the neighborhood about whom there is an answer, but finally there is hope. And groups of young people and adults visit the missions - no, not the Venezuelan government missions, but the religious missions, in which the humbling experience and serenity where you think ... think that the community of human beings so dissimilar. There are men and women, close friends who have dedicated their entire life serving the community of believers, a choice that is not so common in our times.
God, in concrete, was action and life change in people, whether in the liturgy or in simple daily dealings. It's beautiful ... beautiful and transcendent. As certain elements of nature. Here are questions not just of justice .. but of order: If the universe from a Big Bang ... "Whose is the engineering for which it was created?". The formation of my previous years then found a new motivating.
Moreover, the secular world and ungrateful the name of God is easy or welcome. Incurable diseases, events such as September 11, the flaws in our own lives or simply those things that you can not understand his reasons. Some people do not think there is one God. Or are agnostic, ie, accept the possibility of its existence, but outside of organized religion.
In all cases, the question of Sister Helen Prejean leads to other questions, now in second person
Who are you? Why are your children? What is life in 2008, with this creation that pollutes and destroys, but also creates and can love? How To Live Your legacy and your word?
are questions over the tradition in which we were born, such as Catholicism, or the exploration of other alternatives we can explore. And, for happiness, complete freedom.
(continued)
Notes:
1. Quo vadis, Domine? ("Where are you, Lord?) Belongs to a passage in the novel Quo vadis the Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz will continue counting on this new series.
2. Catholic: Adjective original Latin Catholicus, and this the Greek καθολικός, universal. That includes or is common to all. Source: Royal English Academy.
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