Lent is a tradition that has been celebrated for countless years in the Catholic church. There has almost always been a recording of people preparing for Easter. The preparations range from fasting for forty hours or eating a single meal a day, to giving something up for forty days or trying use your free time to help someone in need. To me, Lent is more than just giving something up, or trying to do something better. Lent is about realizing some of the painful things Jesus had to give up in his life to save us.
Many people go through Lent by saying that they’ll give up this or that and halfway through they just give up. I find that if you say something like I’ll give up sweets, or I’ll give up watching TV, it is much easier to say I’ll only watch TV for three hours a week, or I’ll only have one piece of chocolate a day. Lent is not a time to say that you’ll give something up and halfway through give up on it, you should say something that you know you can do, and each year do something a little bit harder.
This year, I am trying my best to play no more than two hours...
What or who is a Saint? In a very simple way to answer the question, we may say that a saint is any person who dies and who is now enjoying his/her external life before the eternal and divine presence of God in heavens. For people, well known or not, are celebrated on the very first day of the month of November; the All Saints Day. The origins of the religious feast in the Roman Catholic Church came from the early days of the church around the year 80 or 80 AC when sealed by the blood of Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross. By the martyrdoms of many Catholics, who are dedicated to Jesus’ teachings and the example of Saint Peter, pay with their lives to the Glory of belonging to the only church founded by Jesus Christ himself. The Catholics by the virtue of their martyrdom and their lives in all of the extinction of the Roman Empire, where they were persecuted and executed at the Circus Maximus, The Roman Coliseum at the Caracalla, and even inside of the Domus Aurea (Nero’s Palace). Those martyrs who lost their lives from th...
In Langston Hughes’ essay “Salvation,” Langston talks about the first time he is going to be saved from sin. Langston is a young boy around the age of thirteen. He is going to church to see Jesus for the first time. In which case, he truly experiences religion for the first time in his life. Throughout this essay Langston uses many narrative techniques such as, imagery, metaphors, and irony to explain his interpretation of that one night when he did not see Jesus.
The Eucharist is a Christian sacrament, additionally referred to as Mass, Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper. The Eucharist is a religious ceremony that takes place during every Catholic mass. First, the priest prepares the bread and wine in an act called “Preparation of the Altar.” Recalling the words of Jesus at The Last Supper, the priest then recites the Words of Institution:
There are many positive and negative arguments about infant baptism in the Catholic Church. Baptism is a Christian. Baptism is the second biggest sacrament known to Christian religions. Baptism is a Christian sacrament marked by a ritual, which admits the recipient into the Christian community. In the Roman Catholic tradition baptism is celebrated by immersing a persons head with water.
Teachers around the time when Jesus lived thought that learning was such that the people who wanted to learn should come to them to be taught. But Jesus felt differently and rather than waiting for people to come to him, he went out to find them and then chose them to be his followers. He called them disciples and this word means one who learns. But Jesus chose his disciples carefully as we are told in Mark 1:16-20 and also in Mark 3:13-19. In the first passage, Jesus appoints his first four disciples, Simon, Andrew, James and John. Jesus said to them “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Mark 1:17) In Mark 2:13-17, Jesus calls up the fifth disciple, Levi who was a tax collector, and Jesus later renamed him Matthew. But Levi was not called in the same way as the other four disciples. Jesus was with him at the tax collector’s booth and Jesus simply said, “Follow me” (Mark 2:14) and he rose and followed Jesus.
In the first half of the sixteenth century Western Europe experienced a wide range of social, artistic, political changes as the result of a conflict within the Catholic church. This conflict is called the Protestant Reformation, and the Catholic response to it is called the Counter-Reformation.
Christ, as the ultimate sacrifice in Christianity, gave his own life for the benefit of others. His self-sacrifice continues to this day to be celebrated in the Catholic Mass. Through communion, or receiving the Eucharist, one is able to actively partake of the fruits of that sacrifice. But how does one follow Jesus’ example? One surely cannot strive for the same kind of physical death that Jesus experienced. Thus, practice of another form of self-sacrifice becomes necessary.
There, Christ gave specific instructions to his disciples as to how to eat and drink in the futures as a remembrance to him. This was the first celebration of the Eucharist. "The Last Supper" precisely illustrates the seconds after Christ informs everyone that one disciple would betray him before sunrise. The twelve disciples all responded to this information with different levels of horror, anger and shock.
when we bind ourselves to Hell it is very hard to break with it. We are going
To first understand indulgences, one should first understand Catholic moral philosophy. Unlike the protestant belief in forgiveness through prayer and pure faith, Catholics observe a tradition which requires them to confess their grave sins to a certain church authority to receive God’s forgiveness. Confession is incredibly crucial to practicing Catholics, as an unconfessed grave sin is believed to qualify one for eternal damnation. As an example of an outlook on sin, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a piece of German artwork ca. 1497-1498 that displays a scene of the biblical description of the end of the world. The purpose of this was to remind everyone that the end of the world, and therefore the judgement of all souls, is near and to invoke fear of sin and evil so that one’s soul will not perish in Hell. However, in sixteenth century Europe, the policy on receiving forgiveness changed for Catholics. In detail, Instructions for Selling Indulgences by Albrecht of Brandenburg states that one who confesses is to respect the need for Church funds by telling how much of what they own but could go without to facilitate contributions in the future. The intended audience for this writing was confessors who would sell the indulgences. Indulgences were sold to collect money for the Church, an economic gain with a religious cause. The sale of indulgences is
Discipleship According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a "Disciple" is one who takes another as his teacher and model. Christian Disciples have faith and commitment to God, they use their own time to give service others; they sacrifice their home-life possessions and money. Christian Disciples preach to others about the Good Doings of Jesus and the excellence of God. Christian Disciples resist other temptations.
In Western Christian religions, Lent is observed for six weeks and four days. Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, gets its name from the practice, mostly in the Roman Catholic church, of putting ashes on the foreheads of the faithful to remind them that "man is but dust." Palm Sunday, one week before Easter, celebrates the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Holy Week begins on this day. Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday, is in memory of the Last Supper of Christ with his disciples. Good Friday remembers the crucifixion.
It holds one of the most important commemorations of Christ and allows these Catholics to thank Christ for all he has done for them. Easter, the resurrection of Christ, “marks the triumph of good over evil, sin and death. It is the singular event which proves that those who trust in God and accept Christ will be raised from the dead” (Catholic Online). This shows that Easter marks a day in which Catholic Christians can thank God for showing them that anything is possible as long as you believe in him. He has made a plan for everyone, and if people believe in that plan, people can accomplish whatever they deem