Thursday, May 3, 2007

Mother Teresa

The fruit of Silence is Prayer
The fruit of Prayer is Faith
The fruit of Faith is Love
The fruit of Love is Service
The fruit of Service is Peace

~Mother Teresa
原來關懷人要很個別, 由一點一滴開始的
這是源於每個人都是獨特的, 值得我們放上時間和整副心力與專注

這裡有一句:

「我飢餓時, 你給我吃
我赤身時, 你給我穿
我無家可歸, 你接待我

飢餓並不單指食物, 而是指愛的渴求
赤身並不單指沒有衣服, 而是指人的尊嚴受到剝奪
無家可歸並不單指需要一棲身之所, 而是指受到排斥擯棄」

然而, 父啊, 我自己根本也是一個貧乏的人, 求你給我力量去賜予
原來真正的偉大是藏在貧窮與極度的謙卑裡面
今天翻著德蘭修女寫的<<憑著愛>>, 真的很值得我們思考, 反覆細味:

(18)
耶穌對我們的愛是不附帶條件的
是溫馨的
是寬大仁慈的
是完美無瑕的

祂對我們的愛是毫無保留的
祂沒有計算, 量度過為我們付出多少
只有不斷的付出直到收到傷害

要愛得真摯就無法避免受到傷害
-----------------------------------------------------
以賽亞(47)
我曾替你的名呼喚你, 你是屬於我的
你渡過江河, 河水比不淹沒你
你從火中行過, 不被燒傷
你陷在火燄裡, 不受傷害
因我看你為寶貴
又因我愛你, 我寧願犧牲別人來換你的生命,
犧牲列邦來拯救你
-------------------------------------------------------
(57)
小孩放學回家, 家中沒有人
接待他們
關心他們
在他們悲哀失落時鼓勵他們
在他們快樂開懷時分享他們的喜樂

小孩期望家裡有人
接納他們
愛護他們
讚許他們
以他們為榮

假若他們得不到這一切, 便會跑到街上,那裡會有許多人準備吸納他們, 而孩子可能會迷失. 當孩子因家庭而失落, 許多怨恨和破壞就會出現. 原來他們要尋找他們, 像馬利亞和約瑟一樣, 前往找尋他們, 不是坐著等待, 而是不歇地找尋, 直到找著為止

我們必須把孩子帶回來, 讓孩子知道我們需要他
沒有孩子, 我們就沒有希望.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
愛源自家庭
假如我們沒法去愛與我們朝夕相對的人
我們又怎能去愛那與我們只有一面之緣的人呢?
愛表現與為他們設想
善待他人
與別人分享喜悅
與別人分享值得高興的事
是透過日常細微的事表現出來的

小孩子容易愛人
心內沒有愛的屏障
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

今天lunch沒有跟任何人吃飯, 我內心總預感天父會安排讓我遇見某個人(因為每次都是這樣)
然後真的有個女孩很主動要跟我一起坐
原來她是COC的, 之後她不知不覺跟我說了許多她以前一些經歷, 一些可能並不是經常跟別人分享的經歷吧
但可能我不大懂回應, 反而說了去一些其他的topic 上, 之後因為她要工作匆匆走了
其實自己真的可以表達得更好
如何跟不同於自己perspective的人表達自己的看法, 真的需要忍耐, 在對方的立場, 感受上去想, 怎樣講, 真的要慢慢學

但我心裡還會問: 天父, 為什麼今天你讓我跟她聊天呢??

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Pentacostalism in the postmodern age

Postmodernism dangers: extreme subjectivity, relativism, lack of absolutes, nihilism

Modernity:

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
cogito ergo sum --i think, therefore i am

-thinking is the foundation beyond which there is none
-upon thinking lie all human knowledge
=> everything could be erroneous
=>human subject(self) has become the foundation upon which evrything else rests

Immanuel Kant(1724-1804)
1) inherent categories
2) confidence in unfettered human reason
=> enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity

G.W. Hegel (1770-1831)
-dialectic
-struggles between a thesis and an antithesis (analogy of master and servant)
-recoprocal relationship, to produce synthesis and renewal
-positivity, confidence, bold use of intellect

Friedrich Nietazche(1844-1900)
-reality does not exist
-no identities, no god, no selves
-our wills create/invent reality

How modernity influenced Protestant thought:
-theological liberalism and higher criticism
-Fundamentalists in early 20th century

Strucuralism
-Kantian idea
-regardless of time and place, human understanding follows general formulae by which meaning is derived or produced from the experience of reality; all perspectives were united by these general formulae

Post-structuralism
-such unity does not exist and every perpective is different

Jacques Derrida
-every perspective of reality is nothing more than interpretation

Edmund Husserl(1859-1938)
-create the term "phenomenology"
-to observe the data of the world on their own terms as they present themselves to us
-bracketing presuppositions and assumptions during the observing
-assumption "colours" the observing process
-introduce the sensitivity to allow others to present themselves on their own terms instead of redefining them on ours

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
-Husserl intend to discern things' essential features; while Heidegger reconceived the Being itself--to reconceive epistemology as an ontological act
-knowing notonly involve the reception of raw data but the recpetion and recognition of a relation
-things present to us not only "present-at-hand"(vorhanden) but "ready-to-hand"(zuhanden)

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002)
-embracing traditions--which manifests itslef in us as presupposition, assumption and prejudice-is the true way of knwing and mode of being-in-the-world
-elevating particular and local over the universal

Dale Irvin has pointed out that one of the strengths of Pentecostalism is its ability to localize or particularize itself

more humble perspective: all human knowing is hermeneutical--interpretation is the mode by which humans accumulate knowledge of the world(text, tree, person of God)

=>through language---linguistic turn in philosophical hermeneutics

recalling structuralists:
Caresians of their day arguing for universal rules or formulae by which human intellects in any time and place could undrstand the data of the world
claim of metaphysics, transcendence

Derrida responded to the structuralists by climing that "there is nohing outside the text"

the definition of postmodernity is still in progress, but is essentially determined by modernity--it defies full defeinition because it marks hte boundary zone between modernity and something else yet emerging. Postmodernity is this boundary zone

Postmodernity:
local instead of universal
marginalized instead of the elite
community over hte individual
arts and humantiies instead of sciences
knowledge never complete

=> closer to Pentecostals and charismatics, more appreciate liturgy and ancient forms rather than the latest and greatest advances in worship or theology

What does it means of Christianity?
- distinction between sacred and secular
- a respect and discern for the autonomy of the secular
- witness, communivates the personal dimensions of the encounters with the Divine

Positive features of poststructuralism
- benefit of unmasking hidden political,cultural and religious assumptions
- truth is intersubjectivity which is covenantal correspondence
- human existence is hermeneutical: human is to be an interpreting being

1) postmoderns are skeptical of expects but appreciative of tradition-early church
2) postmoderns emphasize the inclusion and empowerment of the marginalized
3) postmoderns tend to be as spiritual as they are rational
life- a journey of miracles!

Ah-huh~this gonna be something new!

I'm excited to create my second blog!

In this blog i want to share/store up what i learn recently as a place pile up my pieces of knowledge and experience everyday----my own knowledge archive!

yeah yeah yeah~May God lead me through....that i can keep on writing sth here~~

Veri-C

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神愛你!盼望我們每一天更認識祂的愛!