"Be not afriad" --Pope John Paul II "It ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!" --Rocky Balboa "If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people to not kill each other? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion." --Mother Teresa "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." --Macbeth "You might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous? Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: Tradition!" --Tevye (from Fiddler on the Roof)

Chapter 1 A.) What is the one key idea of this chapter? Without a doubt, the key idea of Chapter 1 is Relationships and the different kinds we have as individuals. When God initiated the Covenant with Abraham, He began a long and lasting relationship which scripture invites us into everyday "empowered by the creative energy of the Spirit" (p. 19). Pentecost was the result of the relationship Jesus had with his disciples and friends. B.) Write about two major ideas you want to remember. Write a short paragraph on each clearly stating the idea and then telling why you want to remember it. -"Through Abraham, God began a covenant that would ultimately reach its fulfillment in Jesus" (p. 7). The entire second semester of Freshman Theology, we spent learning about the Old Testament and Abraham's covenant with the Lord making him the "Father of many nations". The covenant of the Lord is continued today each time we read scripture and continue the message of our faith. Now we are studying Jesus, divinely human yet humanly divine, who lived out the Word of God proclaimed to Abraham in the Book of Genesis. We can take Jesus' example that was set two thousand years ago when He became the Word Incarnate. We are called to become good Samaritans ourselves, not because Jesus told us to do it and not because it is listed in the Beatitudes, but doing good because we want to help others not because we have to. -"The Bible contains the works of human authors inspired by God to communicate his invitation to join a spiritual journey of faith and trust." (p. 11) God's love is shown from the initiation of His Covenant towards each one of us. The Lord gives us the free will to accept His generous offer of eternal life and is depicted in Michelangelo's painting of God and Man from the Sistine Chapel. This image shows God reaching out to man and the beginning of a relationship if man makes an attempt to reach back for God. We all have a choice to follow Him and start our own relationship and covenant with Him. C.) One image that captures the chapter for you. D.) One significant question you have from this chapter. It can be intellectual or personal. Just write out the question. Try to answer it if you want. Who decided on the canon of Scripture that makes up the Bible? Pope St. Damasus I at the Council of Rome in 382, in a decree called, "The Decree of Damasus," in which he listed the canonical books of both the Old and New Testaments. He then asked St. Jerome to use this canon to write a new Bible translation which included and Old Testament of 46 books and a New Testament of 27 books. E.) What experiences in your freshman year brought you closer to Jesus? For me, the experience that brought me closer to Jesus, was the Freshman Retreat. I loved the peaceful atmosphere and quiet reflection periods. It was a time to look back on all that we had done Freshman year, and also to look forward on what else was to come. We heard Fr. Harrison's homily on the ploy of SLUH and becoming "the light of the world." We also heard from several classmates and their everyday methods of finding God in all things. While sitting there in the chapel, I felt that I was closer to Jesus, yet not because some priest was throwing around holy water, or because a choir was singing some religious song. I felt closer to God because I wanted to be present, and I wanted to live out the message and word of Jesus as a human being. It was truly an unforgettable experience of my Freshman year at SLUH.