Lessons One and Two

My parents came into town early this week (I’m having trouble keeping track of exactly which day, the week is a blend of stress) and it’s been lovely.  I can’t tell you how much I missed feeling at home in my house. The feeling is still fleeting, but more permanent now than it has been for months. 

I’m working hard at modifying the wedding dress I bought at Goodwill and it’s coming along nicely.  I’m considering posting pictures after the wedding.

On to the point:

This is the first entry in which I will explore the catechism I’m learning from.  It’s been hard to not write until now; I wanted to write it every day of this week and I was having a difficult time waiting until Friday.  As it turns out, though, this Friday I’m working thirteen hours straight and I most likely won’t feel like writing when I get home (I’ve discovered that, for whatever reason, the wireless at work blocks me from signing in to blogger.  I can waste my whole day on youtube, but I can’t publish a blog or look at my stats.  I’m having a time puzzling over the logic of that one – if it exists).

The blog will be structured as such:

Things taken directly from the book are bold, my original views will be italicized, and my comments will be in regular typeface.

So, as I watch the snow fall outside, on to lesson one.

Lesson One:

The Purpose of Man’s Existence

My initial reaction was to sort of sneer at this sentence.  Who presumes to know the purpose of the existence of human-kind?  I should think no one human.  I was of the general opinion that our only real purpose was to procreate just like everything else that lives on this planet.  Certainly, individuals find purpose and meaning in life, and I never said they were wrong in that, I just held a rather cynical view that, in the end, what does human life really matter to the planet? and in the grand scheme of things, there was no one to hold merit to it.

I still sort of sneer at this sentence, although put into context of everything I’ve learned it sort of makes more sense to me.  The purpose is to lead a good life.  I still believe that no one human knows the true purpose of existence of human-kind, but I’m pretty sure God knows why we exist.

The next of the chapter consists of questions such as;

1. Who made us?  God made us.

2. Who is God?  God is the supreme Being, infinitely perfect, Who made all things and keeps them in existence.

3. Why did God make us?

You get the point.  There are six questions total and the chapter ends with the number seven:

7. Say the Apostles Creed.

Following seven is the Apostles Creed for you to read aloud, and a picture of the crossroads between Heaven and Hell

I’m glad I started mid-catechism because this chapter would have been a huge turn off to me.  It sort of has the feel of instructing you how to believe.  I’m aware that instructing my belief is the entire point of the catechism, but the remainder of the book is far less arrogant in tone than this chapter.

In the credit of the chapter, it asks difficult questions like;

1.  Suppose a great astronomer does not know why God made him and a little child does.  Which of the two is better off?  Why?

4. What makes people unhappy?

In context of the book the answer to four is simple; not knowing God makes people unhappy.  Or you could say not living a good life.  Answering one is a bit more trying.  I would counter with a question: Do you have to know why God made you to be living a Christian life?  This is assuming that ‘why’ is interpreted as ‘for what purpose’ and that you perhaps have a purpose other than living a good life.

Lesson Two:

God and His Perfections

A.  What is God?

8. What do we mean when we say God is the Supreme Being?  When we say that God is the Supreme Being we mean that He is above all creatures, the self-existing and infinitely perfect Spirit.
9. What is a spirit?  A spirit is a being that has understanding and free will but no body, and will never die.

B.  What are God’s Perfections?

12. What are some of the perfections of God?  Some of the perfections of God are:  God is eternal, all-good, all-knowing, all-present, and almighty.

17. If God is everywhere, why do we not see Him?  Although God is everywhere, we do not see him because He is a spirit and cannot be seen with our eyes.

19. What is God’s loving care for us called?  God’s loving care for us is called Divine Providence.

C.  How do we know about God?

22. Can we know by our natural reason that there is a God?  We can know by our natural reason that there is a God, for natural reason tells us that the world we see about us could have been made only by a self-existing Being, all-wise and almighty.

The rest of the chapter focuses on the bible, what it is, why we should read it, how to interpret it, etc.

-- Listen, children, take from this how to answer a question on a short answer essay test.  These are awesome examples (I couldn’t help noticing that). --

Most of these points seem logical to me, and seemed logical when I went over the lesson with my instructor.  Some of them cleared some confusion and some of them just reinforced my prior thoughts about a God before I was certain He existed.

The natural reason point (twenty-two) brings debate forward.  I ask this to counter those who are convinced everything is random:  Have you ever experienced a moment where time itself seems to stop, something so amazingly beautiful that you literally forget to even breathe for a short time?  If your answer to this was yes, I challenge you to say that God (or something/someone with a design in mind) did not fashion it for the world to see; for the very purpose of reassuring us that there is beauty in this ugly world.

This is part of what convinced me (I wasn’t reading this lesson until the end half of Convert Instructions) that God is out there.  I’d had that experience and, even when I wasn’t sure what I believed, the idea that the beauty I witnessed was created intentionally resonated within me.

To those of you who answered ‘no’ to the above question, I hope that sometime soon you’ll be able to change that.  It’s an experience that no one should be without, and it doesn’t necessarily require a long trek into the wilderness to achieve.  We’re too caught up in the great us that is humanity.  Technological advances are incredible, but also hindering.  I challenge you, for just one day, to set down everything (phone included) and go for a walk in a park, or drive to some remote location and just soak up the world.  Watch the sky, feel earth beneath your feet, find pictures in the clouds, see the stars – the real, magnificent star-scape you see when away from light pollution.  It’s worth every second to just experience nature, what I believe God has created.

A similar experience can be had through children.  Though I do not yet have children of my own, I see them frequently, and they often remind me how wonderful life really is.

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I’m going to take a second to disclaim this for those who read things that are not here.  There is no ‘between the lines’ in this blog.  I have to ulterior motive.  I created this blog because I feel the need to share my experience with others. 

The real inspiration for it was in reading A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken.  I strive to create something that can possibly touch another the way that book touched me.  I will most likely fail in that, but in not trying is a more desolate failure.

This is also a chance for me to know my faith more intimately.  In exploring each lesson for this blog, I will have a chance to learn things I had missed before.

This blog is not directed toward anyone, which is why I have made the decision to keep it anonymous.

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Now I’m going to take a minute to give my thanks.

I give my thanks to the troll(s) in my life.  You have taught me first hand that forgiveness is difficult, yet easy.  It is difficult in that you must forgive multiple times, it never takes just once, and each time the pain is just as fresh as the first.  It is easy in that I am forgiving by nature, and hating comes hard. 

The difficulty comes when I have forgiven a thousand times over, and still have yet more forgiving to do.  My instructor put this into words for me.

Another way to put it:  “There is nothing that has happened that God cannot forgive, that I cannot forgive, and that we can’t work through” (1 John 1:9)

In the words of a dear friend of mine: “Grief is like an angry monkey that runs in on you randomly, smacking you in the face with fistfuls of shit.”

That isn’t verbatim, but it’s close.

I also give my thanks to my first follower.  It makes me happy to have a reader, especially one who writes such an incredible blog herself.  I truly appreciate it.

On a similar token, I’m thankful for the share on facebook that one of the parish priests did for the link to my blog.  It’s brought the majority – if not all – of my traffic.

In short, you guys are awesome.

(yep, even the troll(s))

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Milestone Four: 100 views!

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Question Two:

Do you believe in ghosts or evil spirits?  Would you be willing to spend a night alone in a remote house that is supposedly haunted?