Spiritual Growth Project

2. Spiritual Growth Project • Carpool Week! • Drive to and from school (and other places) with at least one other person you don’t normally drive with. Or ride with someone else. • Begin tomorrow (Thursday) morning and continue through Wednesday of next week.

3. Carpool week quotes • After this the Lord appointed seventy [-two]* others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. Luke 10:1 • We are not proving ourselves spiritually worthy of our material progress.  We have not been neighborly, courteous, and kind upon the highway.  Our lack of decency toward our fellow men is a definite black mark against us.  ~Cary T. Grayson • Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life. ~Pythagoras

4. For each book chapter • Teaching Presentation (Mr. Schafer) • Homework • Excerpt from a Church document (Everyone) • Quiz

5. For three chapters… • Current event presentation & discussion • 4 individuals per chapter • Culture connector - examples of where the theme is present or lacking in culture (movie, tv, songs, etc) and discussion • Individual or groups of 2 or 3 • Prayer Service or Artwork incorporating themes • Groups of 3-5 • Over the course of the Semester, each student will do one current event, one culture, and one prayer service or artwork.

6. Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching • Life and Dignity of the Human Person • Call to Family, Community, and Participation • Rights and Responsibilities • Option for the Poor and Vulnerable • Dignity of Work & Rights of Workers • Solidarity • Care for God’s creation

7. Human Dignity • Human Dignity - (Dignity of Being) - inherent worth of every human being because they are made in the image of God. • Basis of all Catholic Social Teaching • Encompasses Respect for life and working toward life to the fullest. • People come first.

8. Meaning of life • What does it mean to be fully human and fully alive? • Cannot be tied to money, career, possessions because these things come and go. • Imitating the perfect love of God • To be in right relationship with God, others, and the world.

9. Culture of Death (Worldview of Death) • Identity is tied to what we have • Focus is on what we can do and obtain • Quality of life is more important than life itself

10. Culture of Life (Worldview of Life) • View life and everything in life as a gift • Life is worth living through suffering • Since relationship are most important, giving more important than having

11. Consistent ethic of life • Protect and support the fullness of life from conception until natural death • Ties together all themes of Catholic Social Teaching • Abortion • Euthanasia • Capital Punishment • War • Slavery/human trafficking

12. Modern Day slavery • True of False: Slavery is illegal everywhere • True • In the world today, there is an estimated: • 1 million slaves • 9 million slaves • 27 million slaves • 27 million slaves

13. Human trafficking • Handout with Group discussion questions

14. “Gospel of Life” Open notes quiz • List three of the signs of hope John Paul II sees in promotion of the Gospel of Life. • List three of the “structures of sin” that John Paul II describes as promoting the individual decision of abortion.    • Give two points that John Paul II makes about how to renew the culture of life. • State two of the underlying causes of the culture of death discussed by John Paul II.

15. Gospel of life - Signs of Hope • Initiatives of support for weak and defenseless.   • Responsible and generous parents, adoptive parents, pregnancy support groups • Advances in medical science to promote life, medical missions, natural disaster relief • movements to raise social awareness • Daily unselfish care of those in need, religious who are dedicated to the poor • Public opposition to war and death penalty • Greater attention to ecology and quality of life.

16. Structures of sin supporting abortion • Lack of responsibility on part of father • Pressure of family & friends • Doctors and nurses using skills for promotion of death • Legislators who promote laws of abortion • Those who encourage sexual permissiveness • Lack of support for families • International institutions that lobby for abortion worldwide

17. Renewing the culture of life • Need to begin within Christian community by connecting faith and life through awareness, questioning, discussion. • To transform culture, need to form consciences in worth of every human life • Link between freedom and life - there is no true freedom where life is not respected; • freedom and truth (not subjectivity) • Admitting dependence on God • Adopt a new lifestyle of the primacy of being over having (person over things) • Others are brothers and sisters, not rivals • Inclusion and valuing the contribution of all. • Responsibility of the media to support culture of life • Witness of women for life

18. underlying causes of the culture of death • Excessive concern with efficiency creates tension between powerful and weak • Rights once used to defend human life are now used to destroy it • Selfishness of rich countries over poor countries • Rights are tied to autonomy, making people reject one another • Freedom which exalts isolated individualism instead of freedom as gift of self and openness to others. • Lack of link between freedom and truth leads to self as sole reference of truth (relativism)

19. Thought experiment • If you were starting from scratch, how would you set up society? • Image you do not know your position and particulars of life (gender, race, nationality, intelligence, family background, socioeconomic status, etc). • What principles would be necessary to create a just society?

20. John Rawls • 20th century American political philosopher. • Harvard Professor • Viewed justice as fairness. • To find principles of justice, one must try to beyond one’s own particular state in life. • “Veil of ignorance”

21. Basic principles of society • Basic rights and freedoms should be safeguarded. • Utilitarianism does not work - why? • Inequalities in distribution of goods is ok, under certain conditions. • Communism does not work - why?

22. Set up society as a… • Feudal Aristocracy • Life path is based solely on birth. • Based on accident of birth, it is not fair. • Freedom to choose career • Life not based on accident of birth, but on choice of what they want to do. • But of the 146 top colleges and universities: • Over 70% of students are from top 25% in income • Only 3% are from the bottom 25% in income • Starting points are different, so it is not fair.

23. Set up society as a… • Meritocracy • Give everyone equal opportunity/education to ensure justice in society. • Other factors are out of our control. • Birth order affects work ethic & effort; firstborn are more likely to succeed. • Effort often depends on circumstances we don’t have control over. • Success also depends on what society values • Artist or video game programmer • Teacher or lawyer • There is the “natural” differences of “fastest,” so it is not fair.

24. Creating a just (fair) society • School teacher average annual salary • $45,000 • David Letterman annual salary • $31,000,000 • Is this Just? • “Difference Principle” (Rawls) • Permit people to exercise differences as long as the differences benefit the least well off in society.

25. Creating a just (fair) society • Supreme Court Justice annual salary • $250,000 • Judge Judy annual salary • $45,000,000 • Is this just? • As long as it benefits the least members of society.

26. How does Rawls relate to the Gospel of Life? • Worldview that life is gift. • Balance of importance of both personal responsibility and societal/family influence. • Focus on the good of the entire community. • Reminder of the individual’s dependence on and responsibilities toward society.

27. Spiritual growth project • Traditional Fasting • Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting (no eating between meals) and abstinence (no meat). • For the following 6 days through Tuesday, dedicate yourself to continuing the fast in some way: • No eating between meals, no meat, no eating after a certain time at night, eating smaller portions • Think of the personal, interpersonal, and societal aspects of fasting…

28. SGP Quote • “Dear brothers and sisters, may this Lenten season find the whole Church ready to bear witness to all those who live in material, moral and spiritual destitution the Gospel message of the merciful love of God our Father, who is ready to embrace everyone in Christ. We can do this to the extent that we imitate Christ who became poor and enriched us by his poverty. Lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.” Pope Francis

29. Types of justice