EID AL-ADHA
9
I rescued you from the power of Egypt
and all your oppressors. I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
10
And I said to you: I, the LORD, am your
God; you shall not FEAR the gods of the Amorites in whose
land you are dwelling. But you did not listen to me.
Sometimes people lose hope when they enter a strange land. John McCain highlights in his book Character is Destiny the hopefulness of John Winthrop who left the security of his native country to face the dangers of an unknown world to create and shape the character of a new civilization in America. Is there still hope in this country He helped found? Only if we have hope!
John was a puritan and followed the idea that they are to be in the world but not of the world. They should not love earthly pleasures but neither should they shun the blessings of God. To be humble and grateful and give hope to others, by being faithful and encouraging in their own society. John believed men should strive to build a shining city on the hill by putting one’s duty to God and community before one’s own personal desires and to never despair.
He wrote and preached the sermon, “Model of Christian Charity”
to give hope to others. He led always by example and never, never gave up hope.
Eid al-Adha[1]
Eid al-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى) commemorates Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice
everything for God, including his son, Ismael. God became impressed with
Abraham's sincerity, and gave him a ram to sacrifice instead. For that
reason, Muslims who can afford to do so also sacrifice an animal on any one of
the three days of Eid al-Adha. A third of the meat is kept, a third is
shared with family members, and a third is given away to needy people. Eid
al-Adha is a time of sacrifice for Muslims.
Eid Al-Adha Facts
·
Unlike regular prayers, prayers for Eid al-Adha
takes place in any large, open field. There Muslims from many mosques
congregate together. Usually, mosques collaborate together to find a
field that is convenient for everyone to go to. In the United States, Eid
prayers often occur in parks.
·
Festivities begin with a prayer service,
followed by a brief sermon on the morning of the first day. During the
prayer, Muslims recite verses from the Quran, lead by an Imam, prostrate to
God, and send their peace to Muhammad and Abraham.
·
Since this festival occurs immediately after the
Day of Arafah, many of those who go to pilgrimage celebrate it in Mina (Saudi
Arabia), where thousands of animals are slaughtered for sacrifice.
·
It is customary for Muslims perform a ritual
body washing shower, called "ghusl," before walking to the place of
prayers. This is in accordance with the tradition of the Prophet
Muhammad.
Eid al-Adha Top Events and Things to Do
·
Often, a large party is thrown by Muslims on one
of the three days of Eid al-Adha. Meat from slaughtered animals is
served.
·
It is customary for Muslim men who have lost
loved ones visit graveyards on Eid al-Adha.
·
It is Islamic tradition to wear your most
beautiful clothes on the first day of Eid al-Adha. A few days before Eid
al-Adha, Muslim’s shop for their new Eid clothes. Merchants in Islamic
countries often hold their biggest sales before Eid al-Adha.
·
As Christian’s
let us learn to sacrifice everything for God,
like the Muslims.
Catechism of the
Catholic Church
PART ONE: THE PROFESSION
OF FAITH
SECTION
TWO-I. THE CREEDS
CHAPTER ONE-I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER
Article 1-"I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER
ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH"
Paragraph 6. MAN
355 "God created man in his
own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created
them." Man occupies a unique place in creation: (I) he is "in
the image of God"; (II) in his own nature he unites the spiritual and
material worlds; (III) he is created "male and female"; (IV) God
established him in his friendship.
I. "IN THE IMAGE OF GOD"
356 Of all visible creatures only
man is "able to know and love his creator". He is "the only
creature on earth that God has willed for himself", and he alone is
called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end
that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity:
What made you establish man in so great a dignity? Certainly the incalculable
love by which you have looked on your creature in yourself! You are taken with
love for her; for by love indeed you created her, by love you have given her a
being capable of tasting your eternal Good.
357 Being in the image of God the
human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something,
but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely
giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. and he is called
by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and
love that no other creature can give in his stead.
358 God created everything for man, but
man in turn was created to serve and love God and to offer all creation back to
him:
What is it that is about to be created, that enjoys such honour? It is man that
great and wonderful living creature, more precious in the eyes of God than all
other creatures! For him the heavens and the earth, the sea and all the rest of
creation exist. God attached so much importance to his salvation that he did
not spare his own Son for the sake of man. Nor does he ever cease to work,
trying every possible means, until he has raised man up to himself and made him
sit at his right hand.
359 "In reality it is only in
the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes
clear."
St. Paul tells us that the human
race takes its origin from two men: Adam and Christ. . . the first man, Adam,
he says, became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit. the first
Adam was made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give
him life... the second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created
him. That is why he took on himself the role and the name of the first Adam, in
order that he might not lose what he had made in his own image. the first Adam,
the last Adam: the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. the last Adam
is indeed the first; as he himself says: "I am the first and the
last."
360 Because of its common origin
the human race forms a unity, for "from one ancestor (God) made all
nations to inhabit the whole earth":
O wondrous vision, which makes us
contemplate the human race in the unity of its origin in God. . . in the unity
of its nature, composed equally in all men of a material body and a spiritual
soul; in the unity of its immediate end and its mission in the world; in the
unity of its dwelling, the earth, whose benefits all men, by right of nature,
may use to sustain and develop life; in the unity of its supernatural end: God
himself, to whom all ought to tend; in the unity of the means for attaining
this end;. . . in the unity of the redemption wrought by Christ for all.
361 "This law of human
solidarity and charity", without excluding the rich variety of
persons, cultures and peoples, assures us that all men are truly brethren.
II. "BODY AND SOUL BUT TRULY
ONE"
362 The human person, created in
the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. the biblical
account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that
"then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." Man,
whole and entire, is therefore willed by God.
363 In Sacred Scripture the term
"soul" often refers to human life or the entire human person. But
"soul" also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of
greatest value in him, that by which he is most especially in God's image:
"soul" signifies the spiritual principle in man.
364 The human body shares in the
dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body precisely because
it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is
intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:
Man, though made of body and soul,
is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the
elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their
highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the
Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is
obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honour since God has
created it and will raise it up on the last day
365 The unity of soul and body is
so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the "form" of the
body: i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of
matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two
natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.
366 The Church teaches that every
spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not "produced"
by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it
separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the
final Resurrection.
367 Sometimes the soul is
distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God may
sanctify his people "wholly", with "spirit and soul and
body" kept sound and blameless at the Lord's coming. The Church
teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul. "Spirit"
signifies that from creation man is ordered to a supernatural end and that his
soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God.
368 The spiritual tradition of the
Church also emphasizes the heart, in the biblical sense of the depths of one's
being, where the person decides for or against God.
III. "MALE AND FEMALE HE
CREATED THEM"
Equality and difference willed by
God
369 Man and woman have been
created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality
as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman.
"Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and
willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them
immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and
the same dignity "in the image of God". In their
"being-man" and "being-woman", they reflect the Creator's
wisdom and goodness.
370 In no way is God in man's
image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no
place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective
"perfections" of man and woman reflect something of the infinite
perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband.
"Each for the other" -
"A unity in two"
371 God created man and woman
together and willed each for the other. the Word of God gives us to understand
this through various features of the sacred text. "It is not good that the
man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him." None of
the animals can be man's partner. The woman God "fashions" from
the man's rib and brings to him elicits on the man's part a cry of wonder, an
exclamation of love and communion: "This at last is bone of my bones and
flesh of my flesh." Man discovers woman as another "I",
sharing the same humanity.
372 Man and woman were made
"for each other" - not that God left them half-made and incomplete:
he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can be
"helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of
my bones. . .") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage
God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh", they
can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the
earth." By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and
woman as spouses and parents co-operate in a unique way in the Creator's work.
373 In God's plan man and woman
have the vocation of "subduing" the earth as stewards of God.
This sovereignty is not to be an arbitrary and destructive domination. God
calls man and woman, made in the image of the Creator "who loves
everything that exists", to share in his providence toward other
creatures; hence their responsibility for the world God has entrusted to them.
IV. MAN IN PARADISE
374 The first man was not only
created good, but was also established in friendship with his Creator and in
harmony with himself and with the creation around him, in a state that would be
surpassed only by the glory of the new creation in Christ.
375 The Church, interpreting the
symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New
Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were
constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice". This
grace of original holiness was "to share in. . .divine life".
376 By the radiance of this grace
all dimensions of man's life were confirmed. As long as he remained in the
divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die. The inner harmony of
the human person, the harmony between man and woman, and finally the
harmony between the first couple and all creation, comprised the state called
"original justice".
377 The "mastery" over
the world that God offered man from the beginning was realized above all within
man himself: mastery of self. the first man was unimpaired and ordered in his
whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence that
subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods,
and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of reason.
378 The sign of man's familiarity
with God is that God places him in the garden. There he lives "to
till it and keep it". Work is not yet a burden, but rather the
collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible creation.
379 This entire harmony of original
justice, foreseen for man in God's plan, will be lost by the sin of our first
parents.
IN BRIEF
380 "Father,. . . you
formed man in your own likeness and set him over the whole world to serve you,
his creator, and to rule over all creatures" (Roman Missal, EP IV, 118).
381 Man is predestined to
reproduce the image of God's Son made man, the "image of the invisible
God" (Col 1:15), so that Christ shall be the first-born of a multitude of
brothers and sisters (cf Eph 1:3-6; Rom 8:29).
382 "Man, though made of
body and soul, is a unity" (GS 14 # 1). the doctrine of the faith affirms
that the spiritual and immortal soul is created immediately by God.
383 "God did not create man
a solitary being. From the beginning, "male and female he created
them" (Gen 1:27). This partnership of man and woman constitutes the first
form of communion between persons" (GS 12 # 4).
384 Revelation makes known to us
the state of original holiness and justice of man and woman before sin: from
their friendship with God flowed the happiness of their existence in paradise.
Every Wednesday is
Dedicated to St. Joseph
The Italian culture has
always had a close association with St. Joseph perhaps you could make
Wednesdays centered around Jesus’s Papa. Plan an Italian dinner of pizza or
spaghetti after attending Mass as most parishes have a Wednesday evening Mass.
You could even do carry out to help restaurants. If you are adventurous, you
could do the Universal Man Plan: St. Joseph style. Make the evening a family
night perhaps it could be a game night. Whatever you do make the day special.
· Devotion to the 7 Joys and Sorrows of St.
Joseph
· Do the St. Joseph Universal Man Plan.
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Binding
and suppressing the Devils Evil Works
· Some catholic groups fast for the Vigil of Ss. Peter and Paul (June 28)
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
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