Sacred Communication/Journey 2018

[Topic of Choosing] Henri Nouwen's book Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World , has attempted to underline the purpose of the Christian life. Nouwen states "To identify the movements of the Spirit in our lives, I have found it helpful to use four words: "taken," "blessed," "broken," and "given"...they express the most spiritual as well as the most secular truth. They speak about the most divine as well as the most human behavior. They reach high as well as low, embrace God as well as all people" (Nouwen, 49-50, 1992). Nouwen is describing our purpose as believers is to be taken, blessed, broken, and given just as Christ was when he was on earth. We are taken, meaning we are chosen, as God's holy children to serve and to expand his kingdom in heaven. We are blessed with the promise of eternal life at the right side of the throne with Christ in heaven. We are broken, as Christ broke bread as his body, for the...

Landscapes of the Sacred is a Christian based piece but it also discusses other religious aspects. The writing goes into detail about deeper understandings of the sacred meanings that are attached to places. The way the author talks about seeking spirituality and sacredness in the places around you really opens my eyes. I am able to see life in a deeper lens and respect the areas that i am present in. I was able to see sacred aspects in the every day walk I take to school. Taking in the beauty of the trees around me and finding peace in God's creations. God is everywhere. He is always listening, watching, speaking. You just have to take a moment to open up and find Him in the places you go.

The Marian pilgrimage type selected catholic pilgrimages in Western Europe and the new world suggests conclusions. For example the pilgrimage should be regarded not as an ideal but as an institution with a history. Each pilgrimage is vulnerable to the history of its period and must come to terms with shifts of political geography. Pilgrimage is moved social change and popular moods fixed by rubric. What is a pilgrimage? A pilgrimage is a journey that a person takes to find an inner meaning. Some may even say it is to enhance their inner relations with God. A pilgrim is often set out to find the place that was significant to their heroes. Heroes can be anyone that the person might look up to such as God, Allah, the creator, or Yahweh.

When we took the class trip to the Noland Trail, I wasn’t expecting much from it. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed have some sort of spiritual experience within one class period or how nature would “speak” to me. However, what I did encounter was the immense amount of details that are in every single spot you look. I experienced different scents coming from crushed up plants and pinecones, I saw an abundance of saplings, etc. On the trip, I noticed a lot more details by using different senses that I wouldn’t have noticed before if I wasn’t looking closely. So many details went into the creation of the world and this experience gave me a much greater appreciation of it. God created every single one of us the same way he created the leaves for a tree or the petals on a flower; each leaf or petal is very different from the next. If there weren't details and differences in nature, there would be a lack of beauty and it wouldn't create any type of upliftment or enlightenment in pe...

Image and Pilgrimage is anti-structural. A transplanted religion takes on vitality in Mexico and then flowers into many visionary occasions, accompanied by the welcoming and multitudinous response. The people are the heroes, not the thinkers that put it all on paper. Each chapter is seen in a different light. The intro appears not as transition but as "what may be." What is enlightenment? Enlightenment is in the lap of the gods. Enlightenment is a man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without guidance of another. Within enlightenment you have pilgrimage. There are four different types of pilgrimage: the prototypical, the medieval, the archaic, and the relatively modern. The prototypical is for those established by the founder of a great saint. The medieval set a broad era of theologizing. The archaic is derived from an earlier devotion with synthetic features. The relatively modern appears to be c...

[Reflections from Sensuous Encounter piece] The idea of pain in sacrafice is a unique idea that Dr. Redick brings to light in his piece Sensuous Encounter when   quoting from Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club, " Tyler Durden sprinkles lye over the narrator’s moistened hand. The solution will heat to a temperature of over two hundred degrees...The narrator tries to escape the pain through mental techniques...The pain drives him from the center, shatters his significance. Tyler breaks the escape, “come back to the pain.”“This is the greatest moment of your life . ..  and you’re off somewhere missing it.”   Dr. Redick discusses the profound idea that no growth is made without sacrifice . He encourages that you need to embrace the pain, embrace the suffering, to grow into the person you were created to be. He goes on to further reference Christ death on the Cross-a  sacrifice , one that does not beg God to save him from the situation but one that takes the pain and ac...

The ordinary as mask of the holy explains that it is an ordinary landscape seen within the eyes of faith. Incarnation is when the ordinary is no longer, because all relationships are granted a new definition. This is all because of the ordinary found in Jesus Christ. What does this mean? Martin Luther explored the other side of holy. He insisted that god is naked and could never be pursed directly. To protect humans from the light of Gods glory he remains hidden by a mask. When the ordinary whispers of the holy you are fully present in those occasions.