Significant Life Experiences and Religious Beliefs

Love

- Feeling affection, displaying passion and adoration, or being devoted to another - An individual can love another person or pet - Hopefully this devotion is returned but 'love is something a person gives, even if it is not reciprocated' - Love brings people closer to one another both physically and emotionally - Religious traditions: Love also extends to our relationship with the ultimate reality

Human Relationships

- Have a large impact on personal experiences - Contacts we have within our families, social groups, workplaces, and communities are very influential upon how we see the world and deal with life. - Religious traditions offer ethical guidelines to their adherents on approved behavior in personal, family and communal relationships.

Significant Life Experiences and Religious Beliefs

- Life's circumstances will differ from one person to another - Experiences can affect a person deeply and cause great joy, wonder, new commitment or even sorrow. - Individuals belief may guide them in this journey through life's vicissitudes, furnishing them with joy, strength or assistance. - Other's may question or even reject their religious understanding as inadequate and seek new insights into themselves and their faith. - Usually have some kind of life changing element to them, a person may not necessarily be the same person after going through the process of change.

Death

- Understood to have meaning - Death is the cessation of human biological functions - Can occur in old age at the end of a long satisfying life, or it may come early, taking a beloved child - Religious traditions offer a variety of theological explanations to account for why death occurs. - For some adherents this will be a time of questioning God, searching to explain life's cruel vicissitudes. - Others find security, affirmation and strength in their faith by reciting age old prayers and performing familiar traditional rituals of death and mourning.

Significant Life Experiences

- Variety of results can occur: - Can lead to confirmation ( verification) and reaffirmation (reiteration or renewed affirmation) of beliefs. - Could also cause a person to reinterpret their beliefs and come to a new understanding. - Other result can be the rejection of a belief if a person has trouble coming to terms with intense life experiences.

Commitment

- Means: Displaying dedication, loyalty and steadfastness to a person, task, organization or obligation. - There are some people who devote themselves to causes above and beyond that of the rest of the population, guided by their strong religious belief.

Wonder

- Means: Experiencing astonishment, aw and admiration. - Can derive from that which is discovered within oneself, or in a new understanding resulting from a significant life experience. - Cannot be easily fabricated - Religious traditions also provide adherents with many structures oppurtunities to experience wonder through rituals, worship, music, festivals and community.

Suffering

- Means: Experiencing physical, mental, emotion or spiritual anguish. - Pain can be inflicted by external forces beyond an individuals control. - Can also be inflicted by people upon each other e.g. wars, bullying and ridicule. - Can also be an individual experience whereby an individual is afflicted with physical or mental anguish that impacts upon their beliefs. - Distressful life events can lead to a questioning of their religious beliefs, a weakening of them, or even a loss. - Others find affirmation and strengthening of their beliefs as a result of their suffering, leading to renewed spirituality and greater commitment to their faith.

Joy

- Means: Finding delight,pleasure, happiness and even emotion in an experience or a relationship - Inexplicable, intense gratitude for life that can catch us off guard - Can give purpose to life - May emerge from difficult situations, demonstrating the resilience of the human spirit despite the harshest of circumstances - Religious acts of devotion, such as personal prayer and participating in communal rituals and festivals assist adherents to experience joy in a more structured manner through their faith

Major Life Choices

- Throughout our lives we make daily choices that may seem significant in the scheme of things but have far-reaching implications for our future relationships, faith, career or life story. - Sometimes we are forced to make difficult decisions that cause us much heartaches and soul searching. - Others will find the testing occasions make them question their faith, sometimes judging it inadequate. - Some may seek to understand further how their religious tradition can assist them in making life choices. - Faith can be a guiding spirit giving individuals courage to continue in their chosen path.

Father Damien de Veuster 1

January 3 1840 - Born Joseph de Veuster, in Tremelo, Belgium in a loving family commited to the CF. January 1859 - Joseph enters the COngregation of the Scared Heart of Jesus and Mary, as a religious brother. Takes the name ' Damien' October 1863 - Father Pamphille (his brother) sick with typhus, unable to travel missions to Hawaii. Damien asks' to take his place and sets out on October 20 1863 March 19 1864 - Damien arrives in Hawaii March 21 1864 - Ordained priest, assigned missionary work on main Hawaiian island

Father Damien de Veuster 2

January 3 1865 - King Kamehameha V issues decree making a law that lepers are to be segregated from main population to halt spread of leprosy. Infants, children and adults infected removed from families and taken to an isolated settlement in the north coast of Molokai Island. May 4 1873 - Bishop Maigret meets with Sacred Heart prisests, telling them about the need for a residential priest on Molokai to assist lepers. May 10 1973 - Bishop Maigret went to Molokai with Fr Damien to represent him to the people as their priest. Damien was only meant to be there for 3 months but asked to be a permanent resident and was granted

Father Damien de Veuster 3

September 15 1881 - Princess Lili'uokolani visits Molokai, cries openly. Cannot deliver speech due to the sadness. Awarded Fr Damien with the Royal Order of Kalalua in recognition of his 'efforts for alleviating the distresses and mitigating the sorrows of the unfortunate' December 1884 - Discovers he has contracted leprosy when accidentally spilling hot water on feet and doesn't feel it burning. Dr Arning in Honolulu confirms diagnosis March 19 1889 - Damien falls ill and becomes bed ridden April 15 1889 - Dr Damien died, buried under the shade of the pandanus tree under which he spent his first nights in Molokai.