A person's view of the world shapes something of their understanding of their own self and the way they live their life.
Reflection Starters
The following four pictures and statements are meant to be reflection starters as you articulate your story of what the world is really like.
> Should you choose the far right statement and the one on the bottom, then select the Bottom Right
picture.
OR
choose the left statement along with either the top or bottom one and then the corresponding picture.
2. Then respond to the next two questions
3. Reflect and write down for yourself how you would begin to tell another person who you are
The following four pictures and statements are meant to be reflection starters as you articulate your story of what the world is really like.
- Choose the two statements which best reflect your current perspective.
> Should you choose the far right statement and the one on the bottom, then select the Bottom Right
picture.
OR
choose the left statement along with either the top or bottom one and then the corresponding picture.
2. Then respond to the next two questions
3. Reflect and write down for yourself how you would begin to tell another person who you are
WHAT IS MY IMAGE OF THE WORLD?
Some Key experiences shaping my image of the world:
My concept or image of the world:
Some Key experiences shaping my image of the world:
My concept or image of the world:
Story
“Read me a story.” Even today children make this request. Why? Because stories touch a person’s mind, heart and spirit in a way nothing else can. Stories come from a person's own experiences and the stories of others found in books, movies and other media. The Bible is also a book of stories which have the power to change peoples’ lives. |
Our Life
Our life is exciting and full of possibilities and at the same time complex and uncertain. We long for beauty, goodness, truth, to experience wholeness, completeness and life to the full. We know there is more but it is as if we were standing on the seashore looking out at the horizon or looking up to the stars. There is a longing in our hearts which this world cannot fulfill.
Our life is exciting and full of possibilities and at the same time complex and uncertain. We long for beauty, goodness, truth, to experience wholeness, completeness and life to the full. We know there is more but it is as if we were standing on the seashore looking out at the horizon or looking up to the stars. There is a longing in our hearts which this world cannot fulfill.
Mystery:
Because life is ambiguous we need to make sense of it all. On the one hand we know more today than ever before about the stars, our genes, the atomic structure of matter, food and almost every aspect of life. At the same time we find ourselves asking more and more questions and wonder why we can't eradicate hunger and homelessness. We wonder why for so many things aren't better.
Recently, for instance. astronomers detected a mysterious cloud of particles extending more than 17,400 trillion miles into space like a massive fountain. Scientists who announced the discovery said they were amazed, perplexed and delighted. But here on earth, on our own planet we continue to be amazed at its beauty and fascinated by how everything is part of an integrated whole.
The proper word to describe such amazement, perplexity and delight (the wonder, complexity and ambiguity of life in this world and indeed the universe) is mystery. Here, mystery is not used in the sense of a murder mystery. A murder mystery can be solved once enough questions have been asked and answered. Faced with the Mystery of Life we can keep on asking questions and we’ll always have more questions than answers. This means we have to interpret and make sense of reality
Ultimate Questions About Life:
Traditionally the four classic questions that people ask themselves are:
1) Who am I?
2) Why am I here?
3) Where am I going?
4) How will I get there?
But there is another set of questions that one might ask. Clifford Geertz, a cultural anthropologist, studied a number of civilizations. He examined various societies from the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks to our modern ones. He concluded that every society tries to explain the meaning of life by answering in a more or less explicit way, the following six basic questions. Except for #5 these are ultimate, EITHER-OR, end of the movie questions.
1) Does Life really triumph over the grave or is the grave the end?
2) Will Good finally overcome evil or will evil overcome Good?
3) Is our life simply determined by random chance or is there some overall purpose and meaning to it?
4) Can people ever find a way to live in Peace with one another?
5) What is the real cause of so much suffering in the world?
6) Can we make contact with the Ultimate in the universe?
For instance, we all experience the conflict between Good and Evil, but which will triumph? Secular society gives us Batman (a symbol of Good) triumphing over the Joker (a symbol of Evil). But Batman is fiction. Our own experience of Good triumphing over Evil is, more often than not, rather transitory. At times it can seem as if Evil will be triumphant. When confronted with the conflict between Good and Evil, we struggle to decide what we really believe about the final victor.
Each one must struggle with answering, these six basic questions. The answers will be more or less explicit. Everyone is religious or spiritual in the sense that they develop an answer to these questions. Formal and explicit answers shape the nature of one’s. The word religion means to bind or link. The more formal and explicit one’s answers the more explicit (bound together or structured) is one’s religion. All great religions help their members answer these questions and unite one to the Ultimate, their neighbors and creation.
Depending on the answers given, a person also knows what kind of God he or she believes in, for the word GOD is shorthand for the word ULTIMATE. Understood in this way the most important question is not whether God exists but what kind of God or Ultimate does one believe in.
As with most other knowledge it comes to us from others both in living and written form. The Bibe is actually a collection of books in which the authors, writing at various times and for various purposes, tell of the experiences of their people. The Biblical stories invite us to explore the ultimate questions of life in a unique way.
What is the Bible?
The word Bible comes from a Greek word meaning “Book”. One could say that the Bible is a type of diary in which various authors at different times recorded for a variety of people their experiences of God’s loving. and life-giving presence, God's saving presence.'
The fundamental message of the Bible: God loves you and God wants you to experience life to the full.
The sign of God’s love is life:
> The life of this beautiful, good and intelligible world.
> The life that you now have
> The promise of life without end in God's new world to come
The God of the Bible is a God who creates Goodness, Order and Life [GOaL]. The goal of our lives is to do the same.
God creates man and woman in his own image and likeness and calls them to be stewards. They are to further the work of creation, that is doing what God does, namely bringing Goodness, Order {both purpose and right relationship} and Life into the world as God’s partners.
These first stories of the Bible, the stories of creation and the Fall, gives one both directional and initial answers to the six question posed by Clifford Geertz.
It is found in Chapters 21 and 22:5 in the Book of Revelation. In Chapter 21:4 we hear how God will wipe away every tear and there will be no more death. God will dwell with his people.
In other words God will bring Good to all (no more mourning, wailing or pain)
God will be God and dwell among his people. (A new order)
than God’s way.
Adam and Eve heard God’s command with their ears but not with their heart, that is to say they did not hear that they were created, good, with purpose and for life. They did not hear that they were created in God’s own image and likeness and so they ate of the tree thinking that they were the determiners of what was good and evil, right and wrong. Thus they sinned. Ever since their descendants and you and I today have had to struggle with the same issues.
It is Jesus who came to tell us the Good News that we are loved, we belong and we are called to make a difference.
The Two Central stories of the Bible are:
The Exodus Story of Moses leading the people from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land and the story of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection are the two central stories of the Bible.
The word Bible comes from a Greek word meaning “Book”. One could say that the Bible is a type of diary in which various authors at different times recorded for a variety of people their experiences of God’s loving. and life-giving presence, God's saving presence.'
The fundamental message of the Bible: God loves you and God wants you to experience life to the full.
The sign of God’s love is life:
> The life of this beautiful, good and intelligible world.
> The life that you now have
> The promise of life without end in God's new world to come
The God of the Bible is a God who creates Goodness, Order and Life [GOaL]. The goal of our lives is to do the same.
God creates man and woman in his own image and likeness and calls them to be stewards. They are to further the work of creation, that is doing what God does, namely bringing Goodness, Order {both purpose and right relationship} and Life into the world as God’s partners.
These first stories of the Bible, the stories of creation and the Fall, gives one both directional and initial answers to the six question posed by Clifford Geertz.
- Directional: meaning if one wanted to go to Mt. Rainier from downtown Tacoma one would go Southeast rather than Northwest.
- Initial: meaning that the stories give one a start in answering the question but the answers need to be developed.
It is found in Chapters 21 and 22:5 in the Book of Revelation. In Chapter 21:4 we hear how God will wipe away every tear and there will be no more death. God will dwell with his people.
In other words God will bring Good to all (no more mourning, wailing or pain)
God will be God and dwell among his people. (A new order)
than God’s way.
Adam and Eve heard God’s command with their ears but not with their heart, that is to say they did not hear that they were created, good, with purpose and for life. They did not hear that they were created in God’s own image and likeness and so they ate of the tree thinking that they were the determiners of what was good and evil, right and wrong. Thus they sinned. Ever since their descendants and you and I today have had to struggle with the same issues.
It is Jesus who came to tell us the Good News that we are loved, we belong and we are called to make a difference.
The Two Central stories of the Bible are:
The Exodus Story of Moses leading the people from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land and the story of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection are the two central stories of the Bible.
The Exodus Story consists of three parts:
- The escape from the slavery of Egypt (Ex 1-15:21)
- God making the Covenant with the people (Exodus 19 and 20) Note that the 10 commandments are given in the context of the Covenant. (Ex 19:5-8) and (Deuteronomy 4:44-49)
- Entrance into the Promised Land (Joshua 1– 5:12)
The story of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection is the climax of his life and message.
This story also has three parts which parallels the Exodus story but they are in a different order. (Note that in Luke’s Gospel account of the Transfiguration LK 9:31 Moses and Elijah talked about his Exodus that is his coming Death-Resurrection and Ascension into heaven.)
not simply the absence of violence but the building up of right relationships.
What we learn from these two stories is that God
From these four stories two reoccurring themes emerge from the Bible.
the people of old and open up a way for us to the true Promised Land, a time of joy, peace, love and Life
without end.}
This story also has three parts which parallels the Exodus story but they are in a different order. (Note that in Luke’s Gospel account of the Transfiguration LK 9:31 Moses and Elijah talked about his Exodus that is his coming Death-Resurrection and Ascension into heaven.)
- The making of the New Covenant at the Last Supper with the one command to “Love one another.” (Jn 13:34-35)
- Being trapped and treated like a slave and criminal during his arrest, scourging and crucifixion. Jesus is the
- When Jesus rises from the dead he is full of life and ascends to the Father. This is the true Promised Land.
not simply the absence of violence but the building up of right relationships.
What we learn from these two stories is that God
- Hears our cry
- Acts at the last moment so that we won’t think we have done it.
- Gives us our daily bread or what we need to keep on the journey
- Fulfills his promises.
From these four stories two reoccurring themes emerge from the Bible.
- Our God is a God who creates Goodness, Order and Life. {Note: Jesus does the same}
- When we are trapped and cry out, God hears our cry, acts to free us and gives us new life.
the people of old and open up a way for us to the true Promised Land, a time of joy, peace, love and Life
without end.}
Our Catholic Story:
As Catholics we believe:
That life is wonderful, exciting and full of possibilities and the same time is complex, uncertain and sometime sorrowful. The story of creation begins with a statement that “In the beginning the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters.” (Gen 1:2) Yes, there is a certain amount of chaos and uncertainty in the world. Yes, water can be destructive or contaminated but, we believe it is fundamentally life-giving.
In a somewhat similar way despite the all the uncertainty of this world, we believe it is fundamentally beautiful, good, intelligible, integrally interrelated and life-giving.
As Catholics we believe:
That life is wonderful, exciting and full of possibilities and the same time is complex, uncertain and sometime sorrowful. The story of creation begins with a statement that “In the beginning the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters.” (Gen 1:2) Yes, there is a certain amount of chaos and uncertainty in the world. Yes, water can be destructive or contaminated but, we believe it is fundamentally life-giving.
In a somewhat similar way despite the all the uncertainty of this world, we believe it is fundamentally beautiful, good, intelligible, integrally interrelated and life-giving.
Your story
Would you modify your story of your image of the world in some way?
Other Questions
What other questions do you have or would like to ask?
A) ________________________________________________________________
B) ________________________________________________________________
C) ________________________________________________________________
Would you modify your story of your image of the world in some way?
Other Questions
What other questions do you have or would like to ask?
A) ________________________________________________________________
B) ________________________________________________________________
C) ________________________________________________________________