1. On a purely intellectual level, I would define faith as a trust and belief in someone or something. Having faith means putting your trust in something and believing in something even though it may or may not be true. Even if you know for yourself that it may not be true. Because faith is not about having a complete trust and a complete belief in something or someone. When I look at my own life I find that that is impossible. There is nothing in my life that I completely believe in with out even the slightest doubt. Every thing I have faith in I doubt to some extent. You be thinking that I can’t have true faith if I doubt it so much, but doubt is in fact one of the four aspects of faith(more a loving trust, real risk involved, periods of doubt and darkness, a life long process) that so many heroes from the bible shared. So, faith cannot be complete trust and belief because such a thing is impossible, at least for us humans. Also, I agree with Mark Link, S.J. who said that faith is not totally intellectual, it is more of a loving trust. True, faith is about having a belief in your head that something is true, but that is only half way there. Faith cannot be true faith with out a loving trust that comes from deep down inside of you, from your heart. You can believe with your mind but you also have to trust with your heart.

2. Two key ideas that stick out for me from this chapter are that faith will entail periods of doubt and darkness, and that faith seeks understanding. First of all, I have been struggling with my faith a lot more recently. I pray less and even though I still attend mass regularly, it sometimes becomes dull and meaningless. But I believe that this doubt is ok and does not mean I lack faith. It is more a crisis of religion than a crisis of faith. I believe and trust in God with all my mind and heart, but more and more often I see religion of any kind insufficient in bring about the truth and meaning of God. And then there are sometimes when I something bad happens to me when I think that maybe there is no God, that we are all alone. However, when this happens, all I do is look around at this beautiful world that God has created and say, “Look at this, how could I even question the existence of God?”

Another key idea is that faith seeks understanding. The more I deepen my trust and belief in God the more I can come to better know and understand God. Which as St. Augustine said, would intern act to deepen my faith even more. This then becomes a great circle in which faith inspires understanding which then inspires more faith which inspires even more understanding and so on. To me this seems like a great circle to get trapped into because our ultimate goal of existence is to become as much like God as we possibly can, and how could we go about doing this if we don’t even know and understand God very well. This is one of the main reasons why my faith is so important to me.

3. An image that really captures the essence of faith (and Faith) for me is when Peter walks on the water. I really love this image of faith because it shows a very striking and deep form of faith that few people have. A faith in something so impossible and yet is strong enough to make the impossible happen.

4. For most of my life I have struggled with my own faith. There was a time that I convinced myself that the existence of God was impossible. But, know I have developed a strong faith in God. This process to gain the faith that I have know, did not just happen all at once. I didn't all of a sudden wake up with complete faith; it took time. It all started with a little understanding, a little insight into who God is in my world and what God is all about. This small insight came from seeing the beauty in the world all around me, and also hearing God's beauty through music, and realizing that it was all God's making. This small bit of understanding led me to some small faith which led me to more understanding which started me spinning faster and faster in this faith-understanding circle. Because of this I cannot deny the existence of God, and I believe that I have strong faith. And the deeper I grow in my faith the less I will doubt and the more I will come to love God which will in turn strengthen the loving faith in my heart.