Neil Salsich's Journal: Section 4
1.One paragraph summary of the key idea summarizing the topic of the week.
The key idea of the section is the theological definition, description, and characteristics of Faith. It is understood that Faith, with a capital "F", means a religious trust, usually in God. The Catholic definition of Faith is "an intellectual assent to a loving God and his revelation." (RB, pg. 92) Faith has seven characteristics, the first being: Faith is a grace. Just as grace is the loving and undeserved help that God offers us to help us to better become his children, faith is a loving and undeserved gift from God; without his intitial gift of faith, we could never experience it. Secondly, faith requires free human response. A faithful, loving relationship with God would not be true if he forced us to love and put faith in him. Faith requires a choice by us to allow God to participate in our lives. Faith is also a risk; it requires us to make changes in our lives and do things which we are not entirely sure of. On the oher hand, faith is reasonable. If you are willing to take risks for your Faith, then you must have reasons to take such risks; it would be foolish to believe in God with no reasons to support your belief. In addition, faith is certain. We make important, sometimes life changing decisions based on our faith. Therefore, faith must be certain. Also, faith seeks understanding. In a loving relationship with God, we must try to the best of our abilities to understand God (although we can not fully do this); in turn, he will satisfy our want to be revealed and understood. Finally, and arguably most importantly, faith is a virtue. A virtue is a moral habit or code that must be practiced and lived daily in order to take effect. Faith also must be practiced and lived daily; if not, it would lose its importance and fade from our lives.
List and explain three of the most important ideas you want to remember from this week.
Consolation vs. Desolation - When Ignatius endured his long recuperation at Montserrat, he spent much of his time daydreaming. When he dreamt about knightly adventures, fortune, and women, he experienced feelings of desolation, or spirtual emptiness. When he dreamt of serving God and building the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, he experienced feelings of consolation, or feelings of spiritual fullness and peace.
Discernment - Ignatius developed the idea of discernment during the formulation of his spirtual excercises. Discernemnt is simply asking yourself, when faced with a decision or action: What is God calling me to do? It usually involves factoring in feelins of consolation and desolation.
Blind Faith - Blind faith is "believing in God with nothing to support your beliefs." (RB, pg. 94) Though the definition of blind faith is often the image of faith that is stereotyped on most Catholics (or those of any religion, for that matter), Catholics believe that blind faith is foolhardy and irresponsible. As discussed before, faith is reasonble; there should be good and solid reasons why someone has Faith is God.
3. One image of that reminds you of the topic. Attribute, link, your source.
Source: Marquette University
Source: Musical Mart
4. One good question you should keep with you to ponder.
Am I carefully discerning my choices? In the discernment, am I thinking about what choices give me consolation and what result in desolation?
5. What should you try to do to make you a better person, a more faithful person, from this study.
The seven characteristics of Faith have helped me tremendously in coming to a more mature understanding of Faith. As a child, I had always struggled with placing Faith in God, because I was practicing blind faith; I was not reasoning my faith. Now, mostly due to my SLUH theology classes, I have come to understand that Faith is not something I should just automatically have. It is a gift from God, but I have to work at it. To further my already enlightened view of Faith, I can take the seven characteristics of Faith and further apply them to my Faith and Faith-based decisions.
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