During his life on earth Jesus gave a sermon on a mount throughout which he informed the people listening of a list of ‘beatitudes’. The beatitudes are the objective of human actuality and the purpose for all our acts. Christ implies that if we live according to the beatitudes that we will experience the happiness of heaven in this life.
Each beatitude asks something different of us, some being harder to carry out than others, however, every single one of them is achievable and can be demonstrated on different scales. A modernization of each beatitudes could be done like this.
1. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
To be poor in spirit, despite the way it sounds is not to be lacking motivation or initiative but rather it refers to displaying traits such as modesty and humility both towards other beings and towards God. This particular beatitude asks that we as humans show modesty towards one another and towards God through our actions, speech and thoughts. We can be humble towards others by doing simple tasks such as volunteering our time to benefit others who may not be as fortunate as us. Even in doing something simple such as praying for others we are putting their needs before ours and are thus being humble. Even through prayer we recognise our need for God and thus again are demonstrating humbleness.
2. “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Mourning is not just confined for the death of a person but can be extended to such things as a job lost or the breakup of a relationship. This second beatitude asks us to be concerned about the pain and suffering of others no matter how small we may see it to be. When we take the time to care for those who may have lost a loved...
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...is life? We may not know what’s out there, beyond this world and beyond the infinite number of galaxies and universes, which dwell out of our reach. However, what we do know is this, the only things that are guaranteed in life are the present and the knowledge that one day each life will reach an inevitable end. We will all choose to take different routes in life with different careers and goals. We will all grow to accomplish different things and each of these will play an important role in the big picture of life.
No matter where we are from, what culture we choose to cultivate or what our beliefs are - at the heart of it all, is that we are all human beings who have ambitions and aspirations to live life to its fullest. And we should not allow political, religious or cultural differences to cause conflicts that only bring sorrow and destruction to our world.
As in the stages of change, pre-contemplation or denial is followed by the slow understanding that a profound alteration in our lives is occurring. In this early stage, Deits encourages the reader to focus on the immediate personal needs of the grief stricken. Early in this pr...
Loss and How We Cope We all deal with death in our lives, and that is why Michael Lassell’s “How to Watch Your Brother Die” resonates with so many readers. It confronts the struggles of dealing with death. Lassell writes the piece like a field guide, an instruction set for dealing with death, but the piece is much more complex than its surface appearance. It touches on ideas of acceptance, regret, and misunderstanding, to name a few. While many of us can identify with this story, I feel like the story I brought into the text has had a much deeper and profound impact.
When death has taken someone from your life, you think of everything you said to them, your last words, memories, and the talks that happened. During this assignment, one will see the grieving process from me about a tenant that I took care of, and the impact this lady’s passing away, left me. Polan and Taylor (2015) says “Loss challenges the person’s priorities and importance of relationships.” (pg 226) When an individual loses someone that you see everyday and take care of, this effects you because, you build a relationship and get to know each other on a personal level. When my tenant was passing away it was painful. I didn’t know what to feel when I seen what was happening and knew what was taking place.
Imagine that the person you love most in the world dies. How would you cope with the loss? Death and grieving is an agonizing and inevitable part of life. No one is immune from death’s insidious and frigid grip. Individuals vary in their emotional reactions to loss. There is no right or wrong way to grieve (Huffman, 2012, p.183), it is a melancholy ordeal, but a necessary one (Johnson, 2007). In the following: the five stages of grief, the symptoms of grief, coping with grief, and unusual customs of mourning with particular emphasis on mourning at its most extravagant, during the Victorian era, will all be discussed in this essay (Smith, 2014).
The word “beatitude” comes from the Latin word beatitudo meaning “blessedness”. The Beatitudes describe the happiness we can get from inner spiritual qualities. The Beatitudes are short passages that hold deep meanings and is addressed to everyone. Each of them serve a different purpose. They are deep interpretations of different principles. It measures our faith and trust in God. It expresses our need for Jesus and God’s guidance. God explains how things that seem to be undesirable are also blessed in a way we might not think. It elaborates the meaning behind unwanted qualities and how they can be good. These conditions might make us unhappy but God’s words tells otherwise. The piece suggests the kind of people who really are blessed. The Beatitudes is similar to the Ten Commandments. Both are God’s wishes that we hope to follow. This also contains the goal of our existence. It is basically describes how we, as God’s children, are expected to live. It fulfills God’s promises by showing a way to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a path to our inner happiness and pureness. Why do we study the beatitudes? It leaves us choices on how we could purify our hearts. This piece describes how we can live our lives as God’s disciples. It is to remind us that people who are suffering are being cared for. It helps us further understand the concept of salvation. We could incorporate this teaching in our everyday lives by praying, allowing us to have a talk with God. Another way is to simply believe in God. By believing in him, we prove that we are faithful and that we put our trust on Him. We could always instill good behaviours within us, to promote goodness. There are a lot of interpretations of the Beatitudes. Many of the passage is applied in...
Heffernan, Teresa. “Beloved and the Problem of Mourning.” http://www.questia.com/library/ 1G1-54196882/beloved-and-the-problem-of-mourning /. N. p. n. d. Web. Nov 24, 2012.
Allegedly given by Jesus, the Sermon is taken as an instruction manual for Christian living. First, Matthew 5:1, Jesus ascends the mountain to preach the sermon keeping the tradition of Moses ascending and giving sermons on Mt. Sinai to the people. Taking a closer glance at the sermon, we get the opportunity to inquire what Jesus taught his disciples, and whether he also abided by his own teachings. Jesus proclaims that the poor in spirit are blessed because they will get to the kingdom of heaven. While it does not explain spirit poorness, it can be assumed to be a general situation of sadness. While it does not explain the connection between spiritual poverty and the Heaven Kingdom, such verses have been used to calm
Though most have a desire to leave earth and enter eternal life peacefully, without any sorrow, the departure of a loved one can be despondent. Previously in 2011, my grandfather passed away due to heart failure. It was an arduous battle, not only for my grandfather, but also for the close knit family surrounding him. His battle with heart failure enabled me to create unforgettable memories with him, even in his final days. Laughing together, playing together and learning significant values about life together made me grow to become a more mature and wise person. Therefore, my personal experience is entwined with empathy because the death of my grandfather has made me realize how dismal it is to lose someone important. It also interplays with self-interest because I have grown as an individual to deal with the ache that is attached to losing a family member. It has helped me to realize how beautiful the gift of life is. Stephen Dunn, the poet behind Empathy and my story are connected because they both involve the feeling of empathy for others and the self-interest of an individual. They help us to grow and learn about ourselves and the emotions of
Jerry Sittser’s book not only brings readers into loss with all its real emotions and pain but it also highlights truths that can be applied to anyone’s life. Sittser’s faith is evident throughout the book and his struggle of finding his faith within his loss and sorrow is encouraging to many. In the end, through his loss, he finds God again and through the writing of his book is now able to offer many insights on the Christian perspectives of sorrow, loss, forgiveness and how mental illness affects families. Sittser inspires readers because they have witnessed that they can too grow and continue living life despite their loss and without forgetting their loss.
Death is sometimes considered unthinkable. People do not wish to think of loved ones dying. When someone close to us dies we are over come with sadness. We wish we had more time with them. Their death shows us the importance of that person’s role in our lives. We begin to think of how we will live our lives without them. We think of all the moments we shared with them, they live again in our memories. Perhaps death is considered unthinkable because we fe...
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” (Women's Devotional Bible, Matthew 5.3) In today’s world we don’t associate the word poor with blessed, in any fashion. Whether we are talking about life in general or a person’s spirit we think blessed are the rich. Today’s culture does not celebrate a person who needs help. We have adopted the “I can do it myself” attitude. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God helps those who help themselves, yet we hear that phrase all the time. Being poor in spirit means that you are at a point where you are broke, you can’t fix your problems and you have to ask for help. That is hard for people when you live in a world where we are all about appearing like we have it all together. If a person tries to do it all themselves, they run the risk of becoming frustrated and worn out instead of blessed. When you reach the end of your rope and turn it over to God that is when you’ll find your hidden blessing.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the first Beatitude. It tells us that we should accept people for who they are and not the material things they have. You should not treat a person who lives in a nice house and drives a nice car any different then someone who lives in a less desirable house and drives an old car. You should treat everyone how you would like to be treated. Just because someone can not afford some of the things as you might be able to does not mean that they are a bad person. We should accept everyone into our community.
During some point any many lives, someone had lost a loved one and weren’t sure how to properly mourn for them. Their death led to a path of agony and despair for the living that can’t handle to feel as their emotions died as well. It’s always hard to accept that the one you love is gone, but reality takes a stab at you telling you to wake up. In Emily Dickinson’s “After Great Pain” piece, she examines the series of steps every person has gone through now or in the future.
Everyone has or will experience a loss of a loved one sometime in their lives. It is all a part of the cycle of life and death. The ways each person copes with this loss may differ, but according to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s novel On Death and Dying, a person experiences several stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and, finally, acceptance. There is no set time for a person to go through each stage because everyone experiences and copes with grief differently. However, everyone goes through the same general feelings of grief and loss. There are also sections in Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” that connect to the process of grieving: “On Pain,” “On Joy and Sorrow,” and “On Talking.” Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” reflects on Kübler-Ross’s model of the different stages of grief and loss.
Living in a diverse world should be something a person should be proud of. Getting to know a person’s culture and their beliefs should be a wonderful ability. Respecting one another is important, even though a lot of people still disregard that, which should discontinue. We should all start to learn how to make this world a better place,