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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 1983)
PAGE 10—The Georgia Bulletin, August 18,1983 GOD 1983 in the Human Situation The following outline provides an overview of the basic topics covered in the 1983-1984 Know Your Faith series. Forty-five installments are included. Each week the series invites readers to think about how the Christian message enters into their own lives. -1984 Outline of KNOW YOUR FAITH Part I. Introduction /. God Talk. Much has been said in our age about the distance of God from humanity, God's absence. Yet the God oi Christianity is a God who is present to human beings and involved with human history. This week our series introduces its basic theme. Is God still present to modern people like us? What does Scripture tell of God s presence and action? 2. What Do People Say They Want to Know About God? Listening in on conversations about God. This week our series listens as people tell what they want to know about God and why. There is a sense that life has meaning and value. People want to know that God af firms that value. People want to know that God understands their life's circumstances; forgives them; can be trusted; that God s hopes for them are as big as their hopes for themselves. 3. Divine Encounters. What Can We Tell About Contem porary Experiences ol God? If God shares his life with peo ple, what do members of the Christian community say about how that life is actually shared now. Are there stories to tell of God's activity in the lives of the parish community, the family, the individual's life? Part II. God and the Human Predicament (These installments look into experiences and needs that are common to virtually all people in the course ol or dinary, daily life. Does God address these real-life situations?) 4. Your Human Life: Seeking the Balance, flow we view ourselves is important. The God we meet in the Christian community can strongly influence the way we view (and value) ourselves. Each person s life is a mix of important needs: the need to be with others; the need for privacy. What makes it such a challenge to discover a way of living that will allow life's meaning to come into view? 5. Hope: necessary Ingredient. Hope is called a virtue and with good reason! If hope wanes, people may feel that an essential part of them is wounded. But where should people look for hope? Some people think hope is a way of glossing over life's serious.problems. But hope can be a way to enter into the midst of your own life s challenges. lem is the stress almost anyone can experience. Pressures can develop in family life and careers; because of the cost of living or unemployment; even because of apprehension over world events. Often stress causes people to feel they are not what they hope to be as persons. What are some Christian perspectives on stress? 7. Good (and not-So Good) Relationships. Tor Chris tians. God's way of getting involved with people tells much about the value of relationships. Relationships can help people grow. But, common wisdom holds that not all relationships do this. What creates a life-giving relationship? 8. Handling Anger the Gace-full Way. Is anger a sign of God s absence from a human situation? People often find it difficult to speak of — or deal with — anger. It may make them feel ashamed and guilty. Yet anger is common in life's course. Is there a Christian way to handle anger? ; x*1 it..' " •- ’-3 ’■ 9. Families. Creative Ways of Living at Home. Within a home, family members know each other in special ways, adapt to each other in special ways and — it is sometimes complained — take each other for granted in special ways. What keeps family life from falling victim to routine and lack of communication? 10. The Pleasures of Life. For Christians, the "pleasures of life" and the "pleasure principle" can be very separate matters. The pursuit of some pleasure in life is almost everyone's pursuit. Does the Christian message cast light on this? Can God be found in life's little pleasures? 11. Fear's Force. Are there positive and negative sides of the fear people experience? Fear takes a multitude of forms — the fear to trust others, including God; the fear of becoming a victim', the fear of the future; even the fear to hope. Often those involv ed in church ministry find that fear has created an area of need in someone's life — a need the person is not resolving alone. What light does Scripture cast on the force of fear? * 12. How to Observe Advent at Home. Each year our series provides educational materials for the seasons of Ad vent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. This week we explore ways to take Advent seriously so that the coming celebration of Christmas may be more meaningful. 13. Shaping Your Own Future. What view on your own future possibilities in this world does Christianity propose? Adults and teen-agers find it is necessary to plan for the future — and that means making decisions about finances, home life, values, education, etc. This is a time- consuming factor in ordinary life. Our own future can become a major preoccupation, But what does our Chris tianity have to do with it? 14. Who Is Really Nature? Maturity for most people is an ongoing process that is never complete. One expects adults to be mature. But what does the word "maturity" actually imply? Is maturity a state in life or is it a goal? And what clues to the meaning of "maturi ty" will be found in our church's tradition? Part III. God's 20th Century People of Prayer (In this section our series takes on a biographical tone as it explores forms prayer has taken in lives of 20th cen tury people. Through people, we begin to see how prayer emerges from the context of one's life, how it connects with one s work and goals and relationships. We see that prayer is not only possible, but takes many forms.) 15. Prayer: What Do You Mean by "Prayer"? Are we ever at prayer almost without knowing it? At the end of his biography of Jesus, a Japanese author named Sliusaku Endo confessed he wanted to write another biography of Jesus, then still another. It is Endo's work to write. But is it his prayer? Perhaps a preoccupation with Jesus and with God's meaning are forms of prayer. 16. Father John Chapman. What If Prayer Doesn't Come Easily? This week we ll introduce an abbot from Downside Abbey in England. He has special insights for people who feel they don't get anything out of prayer, and advice for those who sometimes feel God is absent. Trappist Father Thomas Keating has said that the ex perience of God is "quite common in the population." We ll talk this week about his statement that the "capacity for the transcendent Is precisely what distinguishes us most from the rest of visible creation." *17. Christmas and the People of Prayer This week our series is all about Christmas. We'll meet people of Scripture associated with this special celebration, and we ll hear what their prayer was What is the message of Christmas?" 18. Edith Stein: Victim of the Holocaust. Edith Stein a convert from Judaism to Catholicism, was a victim of the Mazi Holocaust. This woman was a philosopher and a Carmelite nun. She was also a woman of prayer. She once wrote that all who seek truth seek God whether they know it or not. Is the search for life's meaning the beginning of prayer? This week we meet another woman of prayer from the Second World War: Simone Weil. She never actually became a Catholic. But we ll find that she discovered Christ in the Eucharist. 19. Dorothy Day: At Work Among the Very Poor. Dorothy Day's service in Catholic Worker houses in New York and other places was a way the spirit of prayer was expressed for her. This was her vocation. Vocations to family life, single life, a career, the priesthood, religious life: How can every vocation be seen as an expression of the spirit, even as a forth of prayer. Are there really ways to pray in ordinary life? 20. Ncct the People in a Parish Prayer Group. In an age when many people feel uprooted and alienated, prayer in a group often serves the added purpose of providing a sense of belonging, of putting people in contact with others whose experiences help illuminate the road to spiritual discovery. We ll introduce members of a parish prayer group. Why do they meet, and what do they discover through their ex perience together? 21. How Can Nodern Families Pray at Home? George Vanier was a governor general of Canada. The story of how he and his family prayed at home is intriguing. Can typical families find ways to pray at home? We (continued on next page) 6. Stress. A most common — and complicating — prob THIS GOD OF OURS Without a God who takes a personal interest in his people, Christianity just wouldn’t be Christianity. A personal God who gets involved with human events and history: That is the kind of God Christianity professes. But how seriously is God’s presence taken today? Does the idea of a God present in the midst of human relationships and human longings sound in-credible? Perhaps some people have learned to be firecely independent. They don’t readily rely on anyone, God included. Perhaps some people don’t understand a God who doesn’t instantly solve all their problems. Perhaps some people don’t take God’s presence seriously because they wonder if God takes them seriously. Is God present for a jobless person ... or when stress and anxiety seem to prevail in life? Again, is God present when people try to set goals in life ... when they are very happy ... when they find prayer almost impossible? What about God’s presence in the church? It is easy to think God is present in worship. But what about church structures and laws? The presence of God: What does it really amount to in the nitty gritty of human life? It amounts to very much, undoubtedly. The task, and the challenge, of this series is to re-search that presence.
