Ecological succession

In Fludd, the small town of Fetherhoughton has many ancient struggles that have plagued it since before anyone can remember. There are neighborly squabbles that many fail to recollect how they began and issues with the faith in the most divine members of the society. Fetherhoughton is “surrounded on three sides by gloomy moors, is stark and dreary, a dead end where unwanted people are unceremoniously dumped. (“Fludd”)” Mantel begins Fludd with such an unhappy depressing scenery that contrasts…

The relationship between my faith and my work as a therapist is very interesting to me. I was born and raised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) also known as Mormons. When I was two my family moved to a home in Provo, Utah where my father became a professor at Brigham Young University which is owned and run by the LDS Church. The area where I lived was about 99% Mormon. In fourth grade there was only one student in my entire grade-level who was not a member of the…

As I sit down to write this letter for your confirmation retreat, I would like to first tell you how honored I feel that you have chosen me to be your confirmation sponsor. I was with you when you were baptized into the Catholic faith, I witnessed you make your First Holy Communion, and now I look forward to walking next to you as you confirm your faith and are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Your parents have done an excellent job in raising you in the Catholic faith and I hope I…

The invention of reading and writing created a mean of communication that allowed anyone to send any message to masses of people. The problem was that when this capability got into the wrong hands, the wrong message can be sent to the public. This is why those who are in power must take it upon themselves to control who is allowed to harness this technology and what is allowed to be written. The term “censura librorum” is a term used by the Catholic Church for the act of having religious…

The Quiet Revolution had a dramatic effect on the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. Whereas, prior to 1965, the Catholic Church was a dominant cultural and political force Quebec, after 1965 the Catholic Church experienced a dramatic decline in its authority and its role in Quebec society. The people then abandoned the Catholic Church rapidly, and then transferred their allegiance from the Catholic Church to the Quebec state. This created a political vacuum within Quebec, due to the fact that, in…

Organized religion is defined as an “institutionalized religion, usually with a hierarchical clergy and rules to govern the means by which adheres participate” (Merriam-Webster). History has shown that organized religion is, in most cases, forcefully placed in society. As a result, many people develop an intense disdain and contempt for organized religion. One can see the use of a forced organized religion in the work of Leonardo Sciascia. The overall theme of disdain and contempt for organized…

On April 11, 1998, I became Catholic and it was the happiest day of my life. I had waited over 25 years to be confirmed and receive communion and because of religious education, my dream had finally come true. Religious education has many facets in the Catholic Church and that night I made a promise to myself that I would learn as many as I could in my lifetime. As a military child, I was always intrigued by the Catholic faith. Every Sunday I would watch the Catholic families pile into…

Academic conversations offer a unique opportunity for distinguished professors and researchers to write about their opinions and get equally beneficial feedback from others in the related field. It is important for authors to write in collaboration with others, especially those involved in academic and researched based conversations, because they need many opinions and comments to write fully. Although many discussions that involve faith based conversations are often rooted in fact, they also…

The word “saint” evokes many different images in the mind of men and women from all different sorts of religious backgrounds. Some people think of saints as someone acting in a particularly good or moral way in a specific moment in time, such as when a mother exclaims to another “your child is such a saint!” Others associate saints like Saint Valentine and Saint Nicholas as cartoonish figures that represent their related holiday, while others still have a medieval and archaic image of men and…

As I reflected on what to include in an autobiography of my religious and spiritual development, I think of five steps of growth in my life of faith. These include my baptism, my “born again experience,” my conversion to Catholicism, my living the Faith, and my call to a religious community. These steps also shed light on why I am interested in studying at Holy Apostles College. I count my baptism as a great gift of God’s loving care coming out of the tragedy of my father’s death when I was…