1)      Some forms of religion are called primal because they have been practiced since prehistoric times and tend to come before the popular religions of today. Some characteristics of a primal religion are that they provide special insight into the mythic and ritual dimensions of religion, it is the stem of all religions, generally are practiced by nonliterate people and don’t depend on scriptures or written teachings, and they tend to be the traditions of tribal peoples.

2)      They established the landscape, various life forms including humans, tribes, territories, language, social rules, and customs.

3)      The spiritual essence of the Ancestors survives in the symbols.

4)      A totem is a representation of something like ancestors. Taboos are things that are forbidden to do.

5)      Rituals are essential because it is only through rituals that the sacred power of the Dreaming can be accessed and experienced.

6)      They originated with the very first humans.

7)      The purposes are to awaken young people to spiritual identity, redefine their social identity within the tribe, and help them learn the essential truths and their world and how they are to act within it.   

8)      Two acts are the two lower middle teeth being knocked out and buried and having the boy’s neck and back struck with wounds.

9)      The Yoruba live in the western regions of central Africa in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo.

10)  It has always been the center because it was there that the god Orisha-nla first began to create the world.

11)  They believe that reality is divided into heaven and earth with the gods and ancestors in heaven and the humans and deviant forms of humans on earth.

12)  Olorun is the primary, original source of power in the universe and all life forces owe their existence to him.

13)  The orishas are the lower gods and deities under Olorun and serve as the mediators between Olorun and human beings.

14)  Orisha-nla created the earth and Ogun is the god of iron and war.

15)  A trickster figure is a mischievous supernatural being that goes between heaven and earth because it contain both good and evil aspects.

16)  The two types are family and deified. The family are only worshiped by the family and the deified are worshiped by everyone.

17)  Their role is to mediate between the gods and ancestors in heaven and the human beings on earth.

18)  It is learning your future. It is regarded as essential because they believe that it is necessary to determine how to proceed with your life.

19)  They believe that they came twenty thousand to thirty thousand years ago from Asia by the Bering Strait.

20)  It is of vital interest because this religion serves as the model of pan-Indian religion, a recent popular movement uniting many tribes from across North America.

21)  Wakan Tanka is the name for the supreme reality.

22)  Inktomi is the trickster figure of the Lakota.

23)  They believe that four souls depart a person at death. One goes along the “spirit path” of the Milky Way and meets an old woman who decides whether it goes to live with the ancestors or goes back to earth as a ghost. The other souls go into unborn children.

24)  They try to gain access to spiritual power that will ensure greater success in activities such a hunting, warfare, and curing the ill.

25)  The structure is a dark, airtight hut made of saplings and covered with animal skins. The function is to purify the person body and spirit.

26)  A typical vision is a message coming from a spirit in the form or an animal or some other object or force of nature.

27)  A woman of outstanding moral character presides.

28)  The axis mundi is the axis or center of the universe. In the Sun Dance it is the cottonwood tree set upright in a certain spot.

29)  They do this because they feel that their body is the only thing can sacrifice because it is the only thing they truly own.

30)  Aztecs were a highly developed civilization and the people were urban, city dwellers. It is like other primal religions in its emphasis on the interrelationship between myth and rituals and how it predated Catholicism.

31)  It included most of Mexico and extended southward to Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

32)  Quetzalcoatl created and ordered the world. Teotihuacan was the origin of the cosmos.

33)  He was a priest-king. He provided the Aztecs with the perfect model for their own authority figure.

34)  They called their present age the fifth age and anticipated that it would end.

35)  The Aztecs understood the spatial world as having four quadrants extending outward from the center of the universe which connected the earthly realm to the heavenly realm above and the underworld below.

36)  Each human being was regarded as a sort of axis mundi because of the potency of the divine force in the head and the divine force in the heart.

37)  They were able to communicate with the gods and make offerings through language instead of sacrifices.    

38)  The coincidence that Cortez was wearing a feathered hat so the king at the time thought he was Topiltzin because he was supposed to come back that year.  

39)  It shows it because it joins the living and the dead through festive and spiritually meaningful rituals like the Aztecs did every year for the same basic purpose.

40)  The three themes are the thin and often crossed boundary between the supernatural and the human world, the all-encompassing nature of religion, and change.

Midterm Terms

1Introduction Unit:

1)      Heart- one's innermost character, feelings, or inclinations

2)      X and Arrows- The X represents God or the Mystery that mankind strives toward. The arrows going up represent religions or mankind’s attempts to reach the X. The arrow going along the bottom represents time. The arrow coming represents the Mystery coming down to us or Jesus.

3)      Desire- to long or hope for

4)      Reality- That which exists objectively, and independently of the mind, as opposed to the unreal, which is merely subjective or fanciful. Reality is that to which the mind conforms when it possesses the truth. 

5)      Religious Sense- The very essence of rationality that allows us to experience reality as it truly is.

6)      Ontology- A term introduced into philosophy by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) in 1826, to identify the science of ethics or moral duty, mainly as distinct from law or jurisprudence.

7)      Being-Whatever in any way is, whether it exists or is possible, whether in the mind, in the imagination, or in a statement. Philosophically being is the real, and corresponds to essence or thing. Its opposite is the unreal and finally that which implies an inner contradiction.

Anointing of the Sick:

8)      Job- The chief character in what many critics consider the most beautifully written book in the Bible. The author is unknown. From internal evidence it is speculated that he was an Israelite who wrote between 600 and 400 B.C. The Book of Job is a profound philosophic discussion of human suffering, with Job and several of his friends taking turns offering possible solutions to the problem of good and evil.

9)      Original Sin-Either the sin committed by Adam as the head of the human race, or the sin he passed onto his posterity with which every human being, with the certain exception of Christ and his Mother, is conceived and born. 

10)  Who administers the sacraments- priest

11)  Who can receive the sacrament- a sick, baptized person

12)  Four main effects of the sacrament- the uniting of the sick person to the passion of Christ, for his own good and that of the whole Church; the strengthening, peace, and courage to endure in a Christian manner the sufferings of illness or old age; the forgiveness of sins, if the sick person was not able to obtain it through the sacrament of penance; the restoration of health, if it is conducive to the salvation of his soul; the preparation for passing over to eternal life

13)  Transformation through the sacrament-The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick has the power to transform the sick, filling them with newly found courage to join their sufferings with those of Christ in His Passion, strengthening their will to be one with the loving will of God. A spiritual transformation always takes place as an effect of this sacrament.

14)  Theodicy-Natural theology, or the study of God's existence and attributes as known by the light of natural reason and apart from supernatural revelation.

15)  Oil of the Sick-Olive oil, blessed by a bishop, is normally used for the anointing, but any vegetable oil may be substituted in case of emergency.

   Reconciliation:

16)  Penance- repentance of sins

17)  Confession-A written or oral statement acknowledging guilt, made by one who has been accused or charged with an offense

18)  Forgiveness-Pardon or remission of an offense. The Catholic Church believes that sins forgiven are actually removed from the soul (John 20) and not merely covered over by the merits of Christ. Only God can forgive sins, since he alone can restore sanctifying grace to a person who has sinned gravely and thereby lost the state of grace. God forgives sins to the truly repentant either immediately through an act of perfect contrition or mediately through a sacrament. The sacraments primarily directed to the forgiveness of sins are baptism and penance, and secondarily, under certain conditions, also the sacrament of anointing.

19)  Empathy- A function of the virtue of charity by which a person enters into another's feelings, needs, and sufferings.

20)  Examination of Conscience- Reflection in God's presence on one's state of soul, e.g., in preparation for the sacrament of penance.

21)  Contrition- The prayer of the penitent in the sacrament of penance, by which he expresses sorrow for the sins confessed before receiving absolution. In general, an act of repentance for having offended God.

22)  Sin- a moral evil

23)  Mortal Sin-An actual sin that destroys sanctifying grace and causes the supernatural death of the soul. Mortal sin is a turning away from God because of seriously inordinate adherence to creatures that causes grave injury to a person's rational nature and to the social order, and deprives the sinner of a right to heaven.

24)  Venial Sin-An offense against God which does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace. It is called venial (from venia, pardon) because the soul still has the vital principle that allows a cure from within, similar to the healing of a sick or diseased whose source of animation (the soul) is still present to restore the ailing bodily function to health.

25)  Concupiscence- Insubordination of man's desires to the dictates of reason, and the propensity of human nature to sin as a result of original sin.

26)  Fornication-Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young. 

27)   Excommunication- An ecclesiastical censure by which one is more or less excluded from communion with the faithful. It is also called anathema, especially if it is inflicted with formal solemnities on persons notoriously obstinate to reconciliation.

28)  Heresy- Commonly refers to a doctrinal belief held in opposition to the recognized standards of an established system of thought. Theologically it means an opinion at variance with the authorized teachings of any church, notably the Christian, and especially when this promotes separation from the main body of faithful believers.

29)  Schism- Historic divisions in Christian unity. These divisions are differently appraised by different communions. 

30)  Who forgives sins?- God

31)  What is the role of the priest- The priest is the sign and the instrument of God’s merciful love for the sinner.

32)  Three required acts of the Penitent- The sinner must be contrite of heart, confess with their lips, and make fruitful satisfaction

  Matrimony:

33)  Abortion- In Catholic morality, abortion is either direct (induced) or indirect. Direct abortion is any destruction of the product of human conception, whether before or after implantation in the womb. A direct abortion is one that is intended either as an end in itself or as a means to an end. As a willful attack on unborn human life, no matter what the motive, direct abortion is always a grave objective evil.

Indirect abortion is the foreseen but merely permitted evacuation of a fetus which cannot survive outside the womb. The evacuation is not the intended or directly willed result, but the side effect, of some legitimate procedure. As such it is morally allowable.

34)  Contraception- deliberate interference with marital intercourse in order to prevent conception.

35)  Sterilization- Depriving the body of its generative powers in order to prevent the conception or fetal development of undesired offspring, for the satisfaction of a person's wishes and/or the relief of an economic or social need. Its morality falls under the same category as contraception. It is forbidden by the natural law.

36)  Natural Family Planning- The controlling of human conception by restricting the marital act to the infertile periods of the wife.

37)  Fidelity- Constancy in allegiance to God or the things of God; steadfastness in fidelity to a person or cause, organization or enterprise.

38)  Divorce- Legal separation of husband and wife, or the release by civil authority from any one or more of the bonds of matrimony between them. 

39)  Polygamy- The status or institution of simultaneous marriage of more than one woman to one man, or of several women to several men. The two forms are polygyny and polyandry.

40)  Adultery- Sexual intercourse of a married person and another who is not the wife or husband.

41)  Intimacy-a close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person or group.

42)  Grace- Temporary supernatural intervention by God to enlighten the mind or strengthen the will to perform supernatural actions that lead to heaven. Actual grace is therefore a transient divine assistance to enable man to obtain, retain, or grow in supernatural grace and the life of God.

43)  Family-
a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not

44)  Creation- The production of material and spiritual things in their whole substance, done by God and of nothing.

  Holy Orders:

45)  Diocese- The territory over which a bishop exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction. 

46)  Vicar- A delegate to a titular see, having episcopal consecration, appointed by the Holy See to govern in territories where the ordinary hierarchy is not established. Vicars apostolic have the same powers as bishops and are generally conceded special privileges because of the extraordinary situation in which they exercise their ministry.

47)  Infallibility- Freedom from error in teaching the universal Church in matters of faith or morals.

48)  Presbyters- (in the early Christian church) an office bearer who exercised teaching, priestly, and administrativefunctions.; (in hierarchical churches) a priest.

49)  Seminary- A school established for the academic and spiritual training of candidates for the priesthood.

50)  Who can be ordained- Baptized men

51)  Three degrees of Holy Orders- 1. episcopate 2. presbyterate 3. diaconate.

  Baptism:

52)  Baptism- The sacrament in which, by water and the word of God, a person is cleansed of all sin and reborn and sanctified in Christ to everlasting life.

53)  Proper matter of Baptism- holy water

54)  Correct words/form- “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” with triple pour of water.

55)  Designated Minister- Bishop, Priest, or Deacon (in emergency anyone who intends to offer baptism)

56)  Candidates- Anyone who understands the community they are joining or will be taught later

57)  Catechumens- in the early Church, was the name applied to one who had not yet been initiated into the sacred mysteries, but was undergoing a course of preparation for that purpose.

58)  Signs of Baptism- water, paschal candle, white garmet, oil of catechumens, and schism chrism oil

59)   White Garment- symbol of how baptism is supposed to cleanse us of sin.

60)   Oils of Baptism- Oil of Catechumens and Schism chrism oil

61)  Effects of Baptism- washes away original sin and the punishment due, makes us children of God and temples of the Holy Spirit, welcomes us as members of the Church, and marks us forever as sharers in the common priesthood of all believers, and in Christ’s mission of justice and peace

  Confirmation:

62)  Definition of Confirmation- The sacrament in which, through the laying on of hands, anointing with chrism, and prayer, those already baptized are strengthened by the Holy Spirit in order that they may steadfastly profess the faith and faithfully live up to their profession.

63)  Proper Matter- Chrism

64)  Form- “Be Sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit” with oil on the forehead in the sign of the Cross.

65)  Designated Minister- Bishop

66)  Fruits of the Spirit- love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

67)  Gifts of the Spirit- wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord

68)  Pentecost- Feast commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. It takes its name form the fact that it comes about fifty days after Easter.

69)  Conformation Name- A patron saint that the candidate wishes to follow

70)  Key elements- anointing with chrism, laying on of hands, blow on the check.

71)  Effects- increase of sanctifying grace, gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the strengthening of our faith

  Eucharist:

72)  Transcendence- Supassing excellence, which may be either relative or absolute. It is relative when the excellence surpasses some objects below it, as human nature transcends the irrational creation.

73)  Consecration- The words of institution of the Eucharist, pronounced at Mass, by which is accomplished the very sacrifice that Christ instituted at the Last Supper. The formula of consecration is uniform for all the approved canons of the Mass and reads, in literal translation: "Take and eat of this, all of you; for this is my body which will be given up for you . . . Take and drink of this, all of you; for this is the chalice of my blood, of the new and eternal testament, which will be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins. Do this in commemoration of me." 

74)  Transubstantiation- The complete change of the substance of bread and wine into the substance of Christ's body and blood by a validly ordained priest during the consecration at Mass, so that only the accidents of bread and wine remain. 

75)  Proper Matter- Wheat based Bread & pure grape wine

76)   Correct words/Form- The words of Institution: “This is my body . . . This is the chalice of my blood . . .”

77)   Designated Minister- Bishop or Priest

78)  Requirements for Reception- must be in state of grace and must fast for one hour prior.

Call to Holiness Essay

            In this world we care a lot about instant gratification and material things. We want to make the things we desire as easy to get as we can. Holiness doesn’t get counted out of that. We all want the quickest, easiest way to heaven and don’t want to do any work. However, the Church continues to tell us that going to heaven is impossible on our own and that we need divine help that we need to do a lot of work for. As a result, when the Church started to lose its way in modern society, we didn’t go after it.

            There are many things that we want in life but very few that we will chase after. We only chase after the things that we need like food and shelter. We live our lives for the goal of being rich enough to have food and good shelter. Another thing that we chase after is happiness. We search for it in every nook and cranny of reality but never quite get there. We should be chasing after God if happiness is our goal but the world always feel as if God has failed them in some way. As a result of this lack of faith, as the Church began to fall, we let it.

            We let it fall because the Church calls us to be holy and we as a society simply don’t want to do the work or go through that pain. Jesus calls us to be perfect as God is perfect and we see that as an impossible task. We don’t want to do it. We all think that that is impossible and being a good person should be enough to get into heaven. Saints are things of the past to us and part of a time when being holy was easier since they had less distractions. The Church is telling us that we need God’s grace and the Holy Spirit to fulfill our call to holiness and it’s going to take work. We don’t want to chase after something that seems that impossible and is known to require a lot of work. We have too many things that are easier to get that give us limited happiness.

            The quote by Giussani implies that every Christian needs to chase after the Church and really want God’s grace and love and the Church needs to show us that they can lead us to that goal. This means that we need to stop chasing after things that give limited happiness and really strive for the perfection that Jesus calls us to. This means that we can’t give in to our worldly desires and we must be charitable and virtuous people upholding God’s laws. We must love each other as God has lived us and follow each commandment with joy in our hearts. We must be able to speak Jesus’ name and not feel shame. We must not be scared to go against society but to stand up for our newfound happiness in the name of Jesus.

            Society at this time makes it hard for us to want to work for anything especially something not of this tangible world. We chase after things that are easy to get and make us temporarily happy because God seems like an impossible dream for people that are born holy and with God. We don’t want to go through the struggle of seeking God and staying with him. Being holy is hard and we always chase down the easier route.

            

"She Went by Gently"

1)                  This shows in the midwife’s treatment of the girl in how the midwife didn’t have to help her and many people thought that she shouldn’t. The pregnant girl did nothing for her and got pregnant outside of marriage. According to the midwife’s husband, the girl did deserve the help that she gave and the effort she went through to get to the girl. When the midwife gets there, the girl doesn’t even treat her nicely. The girl talks back and looks down on herself. The midwife not only helped her with the child but also was very kind and forgiving to the girl.

2)      When she says that she saved him, she means that she saved him from Hell. An unbaptized person is not a part of God’s family or Church and therefore cannot go to heaven. She baptizes the baby in its brief moment of life so that it could join God’s family before it completely died. She saved the child from death just as Jesus saved us. She did not save his life but she saved his soul and that was what mattered to her the most. She was happy with what she had done and did not feel sorrow for the baby.

3)      From the rest of the story we get the thought that this woman is a very nice, Christian person. The author tells about her going home as a way to show the reader just how devout this midwife is. She thinks about how God blesses the world with light and beauty with the new dawn. She talks about her husband which gives a further example of her deep love of others despite who they are. The author was trying to convey just how special, kind, and loving this one woman is and how that has allowed her to change the lives of the people around her.

Holy Ghost Gifts

1)                  The gift from the Holy Spirit that I feel is most at work in my life is Counsel. Throughout the day everybody faces many choices and you need counsel to make the right decision. If I didn’t make some right decisions I wouldn’t be as far in life as I am now. I need counsel everyday if I’m going to be a good person and Christian and live as I should. The second gift that I use the most is Understanding. When dealing with a lot of people on a daily basis you really need understanding. Understanding allows me to bring my knowledge of the scriptures my knowledge of others into my life. It affects how I deal with certain people or problems. The third gift that I use the most is Fear of the Lord. Everyone needs this gift throughout their life as it keeps them from continuingly committing sin. It keeps me and others from committing those small sins that there aren’t any laws against. All of these gifts work together in a way. You can use each one to handle a person or situation in the right way and live a good life. These gifts and the others have always been a part of my life and have kept me knowing where the right path is.

2)      The gift that I need most in life right now is Fortitude. There are many things going one in my life right now and I need strength to get through them. This time in life is a time of temptations and struggles and no one can get through them alone. Seghers says that fortitude is the power to be patient, brave, and gives us the determination to persevere. With all the things that life throws at me, I need all three now. Nothing is more important at this point than to have the will to keep going. Many might give up and sometimes it feels like you need the power of God himself to keep going and that’s why I need fortitude. I have always used the other gifts throughout my life and they have all had their times but this is the time when I need fortitude. Certain moments may appear where I need more understanding than usual but fortitude is the overall gift that I need these days. I will continue to use the others and will always need them so that I can be the person that I want to be but I need fortitude so that I can continue to use these other gifts within my life. 

"Are Sacraments Narrow?"

1)      Ludwig’s problem is that he believes that the sacraments are not necessary for God to bestow grace upon someone.

2)      When the Church is thinking about “sacramentality” it is not thinking that the sacraments deny God’s universal love and will the save everyone and does not think that unbaptized people are necessarily denied salvation.

3)      When the Church is thinking about “sacramentality” it is thinking about how salvation is a relationship with God and relationships require both people to participate and work with each other.

4)      God reveals and gives his grace through His creations. He works through them.

5)      The Christian doctrine, the incarnation, is the foundation for the Sacraments.

6)      Gobs of modern “spirituality” tell us that God would never bother Himself with the crudeness of matter since he doesn’t dwell in the physical world.

7)      The Christian repudiation is that God likes matter a lot since he declared it “good” when He created it, manifested Himself through it, and took on a physical body.

8)      No. God became man so that he could bodily rise from the dead and give us a second life as human beings and not disembodied beings. It brought us to the freedom of being children of God.

9)      This means that the sacraments impart grace as the physical extensions of Jesus just as Jesus’s actual hands heal when he was man.

10)   G.K. Chesterton said that the sacraments don’t limit God’s grace but only focuses it.

11)  Grace allows God to come down from heaven and touch us.  

Sacraments

A Divine Sense of Humor:

You can’t understand the sacraments without it. You have it if you can “see through” things or look beyond a thing’s basic meaning or appearance. Jesus brought this to us and the only thing he took seriously was the soul because it was the only thing he didn’t teach through parables. Jesus revealed that the universe was sacramental. A sacrament combines the visible and the invisible. Handshakes and kisses are a kind of sacrament. Men live in a world that is too serious with no divine sense of humor. Without it the world lacks beauty in its structures and there is no meaning behind anything. Courtesies, amenities, urbanities, and gentility are also gone. Life is a vertical dimension expressed in the soaring spire. Two errors can hinder our understanding of the natural world: taking out God or blending God in with His creations. Sin turns the poetry of the world to prose.

The Bible is a Sacramental:

It is a sacramental because it has a foreground and a background. The foreground is the natural and the background is the supernatural like God’s presence. One example of this relationship is when God used a brazen serpent to heal everyone that was bit by one. God used that as a symbol of trust or faith in Him. Jesus, like the serpent, “would be lifted up on the crotch of a tree, a Cross.” He would heal the poison of our sins and the poison of the serpent, Satan. The word “sacrament” in Greek means “mystery” and Jesus has been called “the mystery hidden from the ages.” He is both Man and God. Because of Jesus’ union with divinity he was able to our savior. Jesus was the sensible sign of God and the sacraments are the sensible signs of grace. Man works best when he can see the material as the revealer of the spiritual. It’s not the thing that matters but what it represents. Man both has a spiritual destiny and a physical body.

What the Sacraments Bring to Man:

The sacraments bring divine life or grace. Jesus came to bring the divine life back to man. This life is called grace because it is “gratis or a free gift of God.” Those who don’t go obtain the divine life ignore the beauty if it. Men live at three levels: the sensate, the intellectual, and the divine. The sensate are only interested in the material world and the pleasures in life. The intellectual are men that “brought to a peak all of the powers of human reason and human will.” The divine are illuminated by truths that you can prove, strengthened by something beyond the physical, and entranced with love that never fails. The Church shows Jesus’ divine life just as it was when he walked the earth Jesus had two types of contact with humanity: visible and invisible, touching and from a distance. The second foreshadowed how Christ now has contact with us from heaven through the sacraments.

Seven Conditions of Life:

The physical life requires seven conditions, five refer to the individual, and the other two as a member of society. You must be born, nourish yourself, mature, have his wounds healed, diseases must be driven out, must live under government and justice in human relationships, and must propagate the human species. There are also seven conditions for living a Christ-life. You must be baptized, participate in the Eucharist, grow spiritual maturity, heal the wounds of sin, participate in the Anointing of the Sick, participate in Holy Orders, and get married. Every sacrament has a visible sign. Three things are required: instituted by Jesus, be an outward sign, and bring grace.

The Power and the Efficacy of the Sacraments:

They derive this from the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. Life is in blood and sin so blood needs to be shed to erase sin. Blood is also the best symbol of sacrifice because it is the life of a man. The blood of Jesus has infinite value since he is divine. Jesus’ blood sanctifies our mind, will, and conscience.

The Application to the Sacraments:

Calvary is like a reservoir of divine life or grace and releases the sacraments because they are in contact with Jesus. The blood of Christ has different results when applied at different times in life.

The divine sense of humor is seeing through all of the things that God is in like Jesus.