Is It Possible To Live This Way?: An Unusual Approach to Christian Existence: Faith: 1

Absent or overprotective parents make their children more unprepared to face life and tend to underestimate the risks involved or are obsessed by a fear of making mistakes.

Young people, however, are not seeking reference persons among adults only; they have a strong desire for reference persons among their peers. Consequently, they need opportunities for free interaction with them, to be able to express their feelings and emotions, to learn in an informal manner and to experiment with roles and abilities without stress and anxiety. Young people, cautious by nature of those who are outside their circle of personal relationships, oftentimes nourish mistrust, indifference or anger towards institutions. This is not just about society but increasingly affects educational institutions and the Church as an institution.

They would like the Church to be closer to people and more attentive to social issues, but realize that this will not happen immediately. All this takes place in a context where sectarian membership and religious practice more and more characterize young people. In many places, the presence of the Church is becoming less widespread and, consequently, more difficult to encounter, while the dominant culture is the bearer of needs oftentimes at odds with Gospel values, whether it be elements of their tradition or the local reality of globalization, which is characterized by consumerism and an overemphasis on the individual.

Nevertheless, it is very important to focus on how the experience of technologically mediated relations might structure the conception of the world, reality and interpersonal relationships. On this basis, the Church is called upon to evaluate her pastoral activity , which needs to develop an appropriate culture. Moreover, together with the spread of western culture, a conception of freedom as the possibility of having access to ever-new opportunities is emerging. Young people refuse to continue on a personal journey of life, if it means giving up taking different paths in the future: In this context, the old approaches no longer work and the experience passed on by previous generations quickly becomes obsolete.

Valuable opportunities and enticing risks are intertwined in an entanglement which is not easily extricable, thus requiring suitable cultural, social and spiritual means, so that the process of decision-making does not stall and end up, perhaps for fear of making mistakes, undergoing change rather than guiding it. To use Pope Francis words: The phrase I use very often is: Whoever does not risk does not walk. Blessed be the Lord! The search for ways to reawaken courage and the impulses of the heart must necessarily take into account that the person of Jesus and the Good News proclaimed by him continue to fascinate many young people.

Generally speaking, these obstacles are even more difficult for young women to overcome. The economic and social hardship of families, the way in which young people adopt certain characteristics of contemporary culture and the impact of new technologies require a major capacity in responding, in its broadest sense, to the challenge in educating the young. On the global level, inequalities between countries need to be taken into account as well as their effect on the opportunities offered to young people in fostering inclusion in different societies.

Furthermore, cultural and religious factors can lead to exclusion by, for example, gender inequality or discrimination against ethnic or religious minorities, which drive the most enterprising among the young to revert to emigration. This situation makes particularly urgent the promotion of personal skills by putting them at the service of a solid plan for common growth. Young people appreciate the choice of working together in real projects which measure their ability to get results, of exercising leadership directed to improving the environment in which they live and of seeking opportunities to acquire and refine, in a practical way, useful skills for life and work.

1. What are science and religion, and how do they interrelate?

Social innovation expresses a positive involvement which turns upside-down the condition of new generations, transforming losers seeking protection from the risks of change to agents of change who create new opportunities. It is significant that young people — often withdrawn into a stereotype of passivity and inexperience — propose and pratice alternatives which show how the world or the Church could be.

If society or the Christian community want to make something new happen again, they have to leave room for new people to take action. In other words, devising change according to the principles of sustainability requires enabling new generations to experience a new model of development. This is particularly problematic in those countries and institutions where the age of those who occupy positions of responsibility is high and slows down the pace of generational change.

Through every phase of this Synod, the Church wants again to state her desire to encounter, accompany and care for every young person, without exception. The Church cannot, nor does she wish to, abandon them to the isolation and exclusion to which the world exposes them. Discourse of Philoxenus of Mabbug , a fifth century Syrian bishop, 9.

Offering others the gifts that one has received means accompanying them and walking beside them on this journey as they deal with the weaknesses and difficulties in their lives, and especially supporting them in the exercise of freedom which is still being formed. Consequently, the Church, beginning with her Pastors, is called to make a self- examination and to rediscover her vocation of caring for others in the manner recommended by Pope Francis at the beginning of his pontificate: In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love.

From this perspective, some ideas will now be presented regarding accompanying young people, beginning with the faith and listening to the tradition of the Church, with the clear objective of supporting them in their vocational discernment and their making fundamental choices in life, starting from an awareness that some of these choices are permanent. Faith is seeing things as Jesus does cf.

Lumen fidei , Faith is the source of vocational discernment, because faith provides vocational discernment with its fundamental contents, specific development, personal style and pedagogy. Joyously and willingly accepting this gift of grace requires making it fruitful through concrete and consistent choices in life.

It makes us aware of a magnificent calling, the vocation of love. The Bible has numerous accounts of young people receiving a vocational call and their making a response. This challenge must be faced by each Christian community and the individual believer. The place for this dialogue is the conscience. Conscience is therefore an inviolable place where a promising invitation is present. To discern the voice of the Spirit from other calls and decide how to respond is the task of each person.

Life and history teach that human beings cannot easily recognize the concrete form of that joy to which God calls each one and to which each one aspires, let alone at the present time of change and widespread uncertainty. At other times, persons have to deal with discouragement or the pressure of other emotional attachments that stalls a person on the path to the fulfilment.

Many people experience this; for example, the young man who had too many riches which kept him from accepting the call of Jesus, and because of this, went away sad, rather than full of joy cf. Human freedom, despite the fact that it always needs to be purified and perfected, never loses the fundamental capacity to recognize the good and carrying it out. Indeed, one form of discernment is exercised in reading the signs of the times which leads to recognizing the presence and action of the Spirit in history. Moral discernment, instead, distinguishes what is good from what is bad.

Still another form, spiritual discernment, aims to recognize temptation so as to reject it and proceed on the path to fullness of life. The connection of the various meanings of these forms is evident, a connection which can never be completely separated one from the other. The question of how a person is not to waste the opportunities for self-realization is part-and-parcel of every man and woman. For the believer, the question becomes even more intense and profound, namely, how does a person live the good news of the Gospel and respond to the call which the Lord addresses to all those he encounters, whether through marriage, the ordained ministry or the consecrated life?

The Spirit speaks and acts through the happenings in the life of each person, which in themselves are inexplicit or ambiguous, insofar as they are open to different interpretations. Discernment is required to reveal their meaning and to make a decision. A person feels attracted or pushed in a variety of directions, without enough clarity to take action, a time of ups and downs and, in some cases, a real internal struggle. At this stage the Word of God is of great importance.

Meditating on it, in fact, mobilizes the passions as in all experiences which touch one's inner self, but, at the same time, offers the possibility of making them emerge and identifying with them in the events it narrates. This interpretative stage is very sensitive, requiring patience, vigilance and even a certain knowledge. The assistance of an experienced person in listening to the Spirit, however, is a valuable support that the Church offers, a support which would be unwise to disregard.

Once all the desires and emotions are recognized and interpreted, the next step in making a decision is an exercise of authentic human freedom and personal responsibility, which, of course, is always connected to a concrete situation and therefore limited. The choice is subjected, then, to the blind force of impulse, to which a certain contemporary relativism ends up by assigning as ultimate criterion, norms imprisoning a person in continual change.

At the same time, a person is freed from subjection to forces outside oneself, namely heteronomy. For a long time throughout history, basic decisions in life have not been made by the individuals concerned, a situation which still endures in some parts of the world, as previously mentioned in the first chapter.

Promoting truly free and responsible choices, fully removed from practices of the past, remains the goal of every serious pastoral vocational programme. Discernment is the main tool which permits safeguarding the inviolable place of conscience, without pretending to replace it cf. Amoris laetitia , A decision needs to be proven by facts to see whether it is a right decision. A choice cannot remain imprisoned in an interiority which is likely to remain virtual or unrealistic — a real danger accentuated in contemporary culture — but is called to be translated into action, to take flesh, to embark on a path, accepting the risk of a confrontation with the reality which caused the desires and emotions.

Vocational discernment is not accomplished in a single act, even if, in recounting the development of a vocation, identifying specific moments or decisive encounters is possible. As for all important things in life, vocational discernment is a long process unfolding over time, during which one continues to monitor the signs used by the Lord to indicate and specify a vocation that is very personal and unique. Mary herself makes progress in the awareness of her vocation through meditating on the words she hears and the events which took place, even those she did not understand cf. Time is fundamental in verifying the effectiveness of a decision made.

As taught in every page of the Bible, every vocation is directed towards a mission undertaken with reluctance or enthusiasm. Consequently, contact with poverty, vulnerability and need are of great importance on the road to vocational discernment. The first is that the Spirit of God works in the heart of every man and woman through feelings and desires that are bound to ideas, images and plans.

Listening carefully, the human being has the possibility to interpret these signals. The second belief is that the human heart, because of its weakness and sin, is normally divided because it is attracted to different and even contrary feelings. The third belief is that every way of life imposes a choice, because a person cannot remain indefinitely in an undetermined state.

A person needs to adopt the instruments needed to recognize the Lord's call to the joy of love and choose to respond to it. In accompanying another person, the study of the teachings on discernment is not enough; one needs the hard, personal experience of interpreting the movements of the heart to recognize the action of the Spirit, whose voice can speak to the uniqueness of each individual. Herein lies the difference between accompaniment in discerning and psychological support, which, when open to transcendence, oftentimes has a basic importance.

The psychologist supports those in difficulties and helps them become aware of their weaknesses and potential. Spiritual guidance re-orientates a person towards the Lord and prepares the ground for an encounter with him cf. In the task of accompanying the younger generation, the Church accepts her call to collaborate in the joy of young people rather than be tempted to take control of their faith cf. Such service is ultimately founded in prayer and in asking for the gift of the Spirit, who guides and enlightens each and everyone.

How does the Church help young people accept their call to the joy of the Gospel, especially in these times of uncertainty, volatility and insecurity? The purpose of this chapter is to focus on how earnestly to respond to the challenge of pastoral care and vocational discernment, taking into consideration those involved in this task, the places where this guidance takes place and the resources which are available. In this sense, the pastoral and vocational care of young people, though overlapping, have distinct differences. The following overview is not intended to treat the subject fully, but to provide indications which are to be elaborated further, based on the experience of each local Church.

Accompanying young people requires going beyond a preconceived framework, encountering young people where they are, adapting to their times and pace of life and taking them seriously. This is to be done as young people seek to make sense of the reality in which they live and to utilize the message which they have received in words and deeds in their daily attempts to create a personal history and in the more-or-less conscious search for meaning in their lives.

Every Sunday, Christians keep alive the memory of the crucified and risen Lord in their encounter with him in the celebration of the Eucharist. Questions are the Answer: The Ascent of Mount Carmel: The Language and Thought of the Child. The Fire and the Tale. Knowing Right from Wrong. Restoring the Sense of Wonder. This Business of Living.

An Unintended Pursuit for a Natural Christianity. New Psalms for Old Sorrows. Why I Believe in God.

Literature and Theology as a Grammar of Assent. Philosophy in Seven Sentences. Crumbs from a Bum. The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology. The Logic of Faith. But Then My Voice Changed. Focus on the Family. Our Father, Who Art on Earth: The Lord's Prayer for Believers and Unbelievers. At the Origin of the Christian Claim. Christ, God's Companionship with Man. Journey to Truth is an Experience.

By way of contrast, this is not a book of analytical theology or a classic of Western spirituality like The Cloud of Unknowing.

1. 2. Science and religion in Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism?
2. See a Problem?.
3. Is It Possible to Live This Way?: An Unusual Approach to Christian Existence, Volume 1: Faith.
4. Historical Jesus!
5. Religion and Science (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)!
6. Belarta rikolto 2013: Premiitaj verkoj de la Belartaj Konkursoj de Universala Esperanto-Asocio (Basque Edition)!

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