Tho, Naykham, Seung Hu Jung and Jongsoo Kim
Group discussion
We think that these tasks should be started from family and community.
In Korean culture, these tasks start from family. However, parents have a difficulty to communicate with the young since young people do not like the one way communication. Also, young people do not want to reveal their own secret to their parents. So we think that communication between parents and the young is difficult due to our culture.
It can be approached by providing counselor to help young people. Also, Sunday school is a good opportunity for teachers and pastors to sit and listen to the young stories. Adults need to build up the relationship with the young by sharing and spending time with them in order to understand their interest and talk to them about virtue and holiness.
Living and experiencing between the two cultures American and Asian, we, as educators, need to build a bridge for young people to understand and help them to adjust between the two cultures. We should listen to young people in order to know them better so that we are able to understand their background and where they are from. This is a way that we can help them to discover their virtue and holiness.
India is patriarchal system. It is also a problem that this system support authority that is only one way communication such as when parents talk, children listen. Parents and teachers or adults have never educated the young about sex. They always keep secrets from the young. However, they learn from Western culture that parents and teachers should educate the young regarding sex. But it is difficult because other religious culture (Hindu, Muslim, etc.) do not allow them to do so.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Promoting virtue as a task
Sr. Celia reporting for another group:
• There are things which need to be understood in the task of promoting virtue:
o The desire for God is already present
o Often we cannot articulate it for another person
o The person must come to their own articulation of this hunger
o Perhaps virtues can offer a language, words to frame their experience
o Our challenge is to lead them beyond concepts to commitment
o An important task is to lead people to make a connection between their goodness and holiness
o It is a challenge to relate such holiness to youth (See “Soul Searching”)
o At the level of peers this task is one thing; at the level of adults, there is a need for wisdom and mentoring
o Wisdom figures are needed for sharing experiences
o Specific training that may be necessary in these tasks of promotion could include training to give talks to groups, training of student leaders, offering skills which last a life time (e.g. DSM, CMU)
o Ministers must develop their own skills and their development is a mutual need along with the need to offer development to others
o Such training is not simply skills orientation but life formation!
Br. Tho reporting for another group:
• There are things which need to be understood in the task of promoting virtue:
o The desire for God is already present
o Often we cannot articulate it for another person
o The person must come to their own articulation of this hunger
o Perhaps virtues can offer a language, words to frame their experience
o Our challenge is to lead them beyond concepts to commitment
o An important task is to lead people to make a connection between their goodness and holiness
o It is a challenge to relate such holiness to youth (See “Soul Searching”)
o At the level of peers this task is one thing; at the level of adults, there is a need for wisdom and mentoring
o Wisdom figures are needed for sharing experiences
o Specific training that may be necessary in these tasks of promotion could include training to give talks to groups, training of student leaders, offering skills which last a life time (e.g. DSM, CMU)
o Ministers must develop their own skills and their development is a mutual need along with the need to offer development to others
o Such training is not simply skills orientation but life formation!
Br. Tho reporting for another group:
Pragmatic approaches to presenting virtues
Here are some of the discussion points from the three groups which met:
Sr. Grace reporting for one group:
• Virtue can be defined in many ways: characteristics, attitudes, “Imago Dei”in our human nature, good act or deed, habit
• Virtue means different things to different people
• Is there a difference between living virtuously without believing in Christ?
• What is the difference? Everyone is capable of goodness regardless of faith or belief in Christ
• Perhaps a meaningful powerpoint presentation is a good approach
• Inviting young people to share from their experience is another good approach
• Virtue needs to be made experiential in order for it to be internalized, for it to be tried, for efforts to be made to achieve it
• Development of virtue needs to be like wiping a mirror clean; we do not know who we are until we wipe the mirror clean; seeing divine life allows us to see ourselves more clearly; but we cannot approach the divine without virtue
• Without opening the door, we cannot know the divine presence
• There are struggles with holiness: it demands an acceptance of our weaknesses; there is a danger of the struggle becoming the focus rather than God’s love; or there is also the danger of black and white thinking as holiness being perfection
• Sharing virtue requires a knowledge of the audience
• It is about convincing the audience to walk away motivated: “I can do this!”
• A loving community is one that is transformed through loving and forgiveness
• Open hearts are the most powerful means for obtaining and guiding others into virtue
• Struggles with virtue as a concept is the use of words considered old-fashioned and demands a word or expression that captures it better for a particular time and place; perhaps this is about directing characteristics or endorsing certain attitudes for life
Sr. Grace reporting for one group:
• Virtue can be defined in many ways: characteristics, attitudes, “Imago Dei”in our human nature, good act or deed, habit
• Virtue means different things to different people
• Is there a difference between living virtuously without believing in Christ?
• What is the difference? Everyone is capable of goodness regardless of faith or belief in Christ
• Perhaps a meaningful powerpoint presentation is a good approach
• Inviting young people to share from their experience is another good approach
• Virtue needs to be made experiential in order for it to be internalized, for it to be tried, for efforts to be made to achieve it
• Development of virtue needs to be like wiping a mirror clean; we do not know who we are until we wipe the mirror clean; seeing divine life allows us to see ourselves more clearly; but we cannot approach the divine without virtue
• Without opening the door, we cannot know the divine presence
• There are struggles with holiness: it demands an acceptance of our weaknesses; there is a danger of the struggle becoming the focus rather than God’s love; or there is also the danger of black and white thinking as holiness being perfection
• Sharing virtue requires a knowledge of the audience
• It is about convincing the audience to walk away motivated: “I can do this!”
• A loving community is one that is transformed through loving and forgiveness
• Open hearts are the most powerful means for obtaining and guiding others into virtue
• Struggles with virtue as a concept is the use of words considered old-fashioned and demands a word or expression that captures it better for a particular time and place; perhaps this is about directing characteristics or endorsing certain attitudes for life
Presenting Virtues and Holiness Today…
Presenting Virtues and Holiness Today…
Discussion Notes November 9, 2007
The guiding questions for our discussion were as follows:
Some members of the class indicated that these two questions demanded a definition of virtue before any task could be undertaken for a meaningful communication.
Discussion Notes November 9, 2007The guiding questions for our discussion were as follows:
- What needs to be understood before these tasks can be undertaken?
- What approaches will be necessary for a meaningful communication?
Some members of the class indicated that these two questions demanded a definition of virtue before any task could be undertaken for a meaningful communication.
- What training will be necessary to carry out these tasks?
- What cultural traps and pitfalls pose threats to this work?
- What cultural characteristics assist this effort?
- Think of your audience for this time with all of its political and religious culture. What can be done to speak clearly and effectively to this audience?
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