Boblaird.files.wordpress.com



September 21, 2020Dear Parents,Both Gerri and I are thrilled to be able to teach this class. We hope that we are stretching the minds of your students to where they may not logically go during a 9th grade CCD class. We hope that they will use the handouts and the wrap up emails such as these, as a resource for further study.Here is a recap of the 9th grade CCD class #2. Please share this with your son/daughter since it was presented to them as a power point or video. We continued our discussion of the proving that God exists. But first we talked about St. Januarius (if you heard Father De Celle’s homily from Sunday, he mentioned it). We showed a 20 sec clip of the saint’s blood liquifying as it does each anniversary of his feast on September 19th. Here’s the clip (which just surfaced today) of the liquification of the blood this year. also showed that the Bible was the inspired word of God. The source of this presentation is a book from a deceased friend, Father William G. Most, Catholic Apologetics Today. He lived in the diocese in the 1980’s and 90’s before he retired. He taught at what is now Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College. There was a man named Jesus He claimed to be a messenger sent by God. (Mark 2:23-28; Matt. 12:1-8)He did enough to prove this by miracles such that there was a connection between the claim and the miracle (Luke 11:14-20; Luke 8:41-56; Matt. 8:5-13; Matt 9-27-29)4. He has an inner circle to whom He spoke more often (Matt 10:1-4) (Matt 25:14-29);5. He told them to continue His work, His teaching (Matt 28:16-20)6. He promised that God would protect the teaching, “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Lk 10:16)Summary:The apostles were commissioned to teach by Jesus, a messenger/Son from God;Jesus promised protection on its teaching;Therefore, can tell us that Sacred Scripture is inspired by God.We briefly discussed St. Thomas’ proofs of the existence of God (sent home previously)The remainder of the class was spent discussion creation and evolution.Two videos were shown: video should be useful for the student since most of them are taking biology this year. Darwin’s natural selection was by no means chance or random order, but very structured and deliberate. led us into the lecture by Pope St. John Paul II on evolution and the Church’s views of it (provided to you previously). I wanted to use this as an example of critically looking at an important original document pertaining to our faith. The important points were made below: “Truth cannot contradict truth”“There was no opposition between evolution and the doctrine of the faith about man…on condition that one did not lose sight of several indisputable points.”“…if the human body takes its origin from pre-existent living matter the spiritual soul is immediately created by God.”“…theories of evolution which…consider the mind as emerging from the forces of living matter…are incompatible with the truth about man."That led us into the discussion of the soul. I gave them the 12 capacities of a human soul. We learned about the three kinds of souls: Plant (Vegetative/nutritive)Merely able to nourish and reproduce itselfAnimalPowers of Plant Soul PLUSPowers flowing from bodily organs (sensations)But that transcend the elements of making them up (brute animals)Human (rational/intellective)Powers of Animal and Plant PLUSPowers that transcend the body; i.e., immaterial powersNext week’s class about near-death experiences (I gave them a handout at the end of class on the topic.) leading us into a discussion of the existence of a soul and heaven. We will be showing parts of one of most exciting presentations on the subject from the Magis Center. We will follow that up with the paper that they have on Adam and Eve and the Fall (Genesis 3:1-12). Then we will move forward talking about what it takes to attain heaven. What does your student need for next week:1. The handout on near-death-experience that I provided at the end of class yesterday.2. The handout on St. Augustine that I provided during class #1. I realize that there are some new students so I have attached this handout.I am still working on a blog site where you and your student can obtain all of these papers. It’s coming slowly.Many blessings to you and your family,Bob (& Gerri) Laird ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download