Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Peace be with you all on this Pentecost Sunday. The message of today is of Hope and Forgiveness, which we receive through the Holy Spirit. But today we also remember the importance of forgiving others. For “if you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven,” (John 20:23). When we are open to receive the Holy Spirit, we are also open to give and receive the divine forgiveness necessary for us to become one, unified under the common good of God. “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ,” (1 Cor 12:12). When we were baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, we entered the one body of Christ, and here we remain to give and receive God’s blessings.So what is the Pentecost and what does it mean for us? In the Bible, the story of the Pentecost represents some of the most miraculous of events: when all the believers were filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit and were open to direct communion with God. This is when the people were not just speaking in tongues, but also able to hear the word of God in their own language, using symbols and stories that are meaningful to them. Each one of us is unique, but in God’s eye we are one people.
Therefore, the message of Pentecost is clear: to remember that we are one as humanity in the body of Christ. Imagine if we could all speak the same language: this is...
It is our hope, every one of us, that we realize a true peace on earth. The only way we can fulfill the vision of peace on earth is by not allowing our differences to render us asunder. Remember that in God’s eyes, there are no differences between us because we are of one body in Christ. When we recognize our unity, it becomes easier for us to forgive, to let the grace of God flow freely through us in all our interactions with others.
Do you have someone you need to forgive? Of course you do—we have all been wronged by someone at some point. We all have parents who let us down, children who let us down, bosses who annoy us or who do not pay us enough, or even those who have committed evil and egregious acts towards us or our loved ones. The Pentecost is a perfect time to open your heart and allow the Holy Spirit to flow freely, letting your anger and resentment dissipate because they serve no one: not you and certainly, not God.
Maybe you have heard the phrase, “to err is human, to forgive is divine.” That saying is rooted in the Bible, because true forgiveness does come from the Holy Spirit. Yes, you need to be willing to forgive, but in our limited vision, we are too often clouded by emotions and faulty thinking. We need God’s help to forgive. Any one…
high degree of misinformation I had received from traditional teachings about the church and the beginning of Christianity. Moreover, I was struck by the notion that most other people in the Western world receive this same degree of intentional misinformation, so much so that I have even heard people defend the idea that knowledge of the historical church is irrelevant to modern Christianity. Reading through the class material, I
Jesus' Teachings, Prayer, & Christian Life "He (Jesus) Took the Bread. Giving Thanks Broke it. And gave it to his Disciples, saying, 'This is my Body, which is given to you.'" At Elevation time, during Catholic Mass, the priest establishes a mandate for Christian Living. Historically, at the Last Supper, Christ used bread and wine as a supreme metaphor for the rest of our lives. Jesus was in turmoil. He was
" And what was the end goal of his service to man? To die on the cross and release all from their many sins and grant forgiveness to them through His own death. To believe that -- that Christ died on the cross for us and arose again to sit on his throne -- is to be His disciple. And that was the service that Christ performed. And that leads
Holy Spirit is the cornerstone of the Acts of the Apostles, attributed to the apostle Luke. According to Lee, the Book of Acts refers to " the formative history of the Early Church," while establishing Luke as a "charismatic theologian who demonstrates that baptism in the Holy Spirit is an experience of empowering to facilitate the mission of the Church."[footnoteRef:1] The Book of Acts opens with a frank and
Catholic Philosophy Unlike some other Christian faiths, Catholics can approach the concept of evolution from a scientific standpoint. For example, Catholics can believe in evolution as a scientific hypothesis which "seeks to determine the historical succession of the various species of plants and of animals on our earth... [and, which] does not consider the present species of plants and of animals as forms directly created by God." (Knight). However, this scientific
His followers claimed He had risen as He said He would, bodily appeared to them and then bodily ascended into Heaven, as Elijah prophesied. This experience emboldened them to come out of hiding and they gathered at the upper room of the Cenacle on the Day of the Pentecost. From then on, they openly preached the radical ethic taught by Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus is the origin of