Reflections

__**Merry's reflection** __
====During my experience of learning about the different aspects of Christianity, I came to a point of wondering about inter-religious dialogues and whether the fact that if different religions came together to share their experiences within their own religion with one another, would it create a more peaceful world? I thought about it again, and yes, it's true that majority of discrimination in the world is due to the fact that people are against each other because of their culture and religion. It's a absolute pleasure to witness what used to be conflict that has now turned into understanding, because by communicating and sharing the types of things that happen in a individuals religion means that the other person will get to gain a better understand of the person and their religion, and therefore there will be no more prejudice. This is when humanity comes into the world, while learning about humanity, I came to an understanding that humanity can be defined of all of humankind, nature and all the beautiful things that are present in the world. I believe all humans were made for a reason, whether it was for good or bad, they'll always be various different kinds of people, believing in different things, but not until they're gathered together do they realize the things they choose to believe and have faith in is quite the same, they have the similar goals, so why not come together to prayer. I think gathering up and praying together is something everyone can cherish as one, therefore i believe humanity is a gathering of people that believe in similar things and have similar goals, except for those who view life as something worthless. The excursion the year tens had on the 15th of September had quite an impact on me, how our guest speaker Sharene, who is islamic talked about her life experiences and the trauma she went through, it was so hard to believe and it made you sad thinking that people could do such things, when only one individual of the religion commits a sin, the whole community is viewed as bad people and so they are discriminated upon, things such as swearing, spitting, etc. Overall I had a great experience. I believe in that when people come together as one, the world slowly comes together into peace and goodwill. ====

**b)** The story of the Canaanite Woman's faith can be found in the Gospel of Matthew 15:21-28.
====**c)** In the Gospel of Matthew 15:21-28, Matthew talks about how Jesus is confronted by a Canaanite Woman, she then asks of Jesus to heal her daughter, who was tormented by a demon. But before Jesus could agree to healing the Woman's daughter, he tested her faith. When the Canaanite Woman approached Jesus and his disciples begging them to help her, Jesus' disciples moved themselves away from her telling Jesus to take her away simply because was looked down upon and considered a dog. However Jesus refused to do as they say and he talks to the Canaanite Woman, testing her faith. He was then satisfied of her answer and agreed willingly to heal the Canaanite Woman's daughter.==== ====**d)** This story is an example of Jesus in dialogue with another because he communicates with her, asking her questions of her faith because he wasn't going to judge her of her religion. By communication with her, Jesus is using dialogue with the Canaanite Woman, because his talking to a person that asks of his help, which is a normal conversation considering that Jesus is a person that helps people. The reason Jesus was talking to her was because he couldn't just leave her there when she asked him to help her, and he wasn't there to just help anyone. He wanted to help those that really wanted it and if they didn't appreciate it, for him, it felt like he did it for nothing. Jesus agreed to heal the daughter because he saw that the Woman really wanted this and therefore, deserved it, even though she was looked down upon and considered a dog that took food from children.==== ====**e)** The story demonstrates the following; humanity, prayer, faith. Humanity because Jesus had the heart to help someone not of his religion because he had faith in her, he didn't judge her, but he did test her faith. He also didn’t look down upon her when the disciples distanced themselves from her but instead showed her kindness by asking her questions about her faith. Also in this passage Jesus had demonstrated prayer by believing the Canaanite Woman's faith, therefore allowing him to communicate with God. Lastly, faith was shown in both the Canaanite Woman and Jesus. It was shown in the Canaanite Woman because she believed that Jesus would help her, therefore never giving up and answering all the questions Jesus asked of her. Faith was shown in Jesus because he knew she wasn't of the same religion of him but still asked her questions of her faith and decided to help her.==== ====**f)** The movement towards peace and goodwill in this story is mainly focused on Jesus' disciples because they were able to witness how having faith itself can help someone. Having witness this type of event, they would've changed how they overlooked things, such as faith, accepting and forgiving. The outcome of the story seen in Matthews' Gospel is that Jesus was able to witness how much faith she had and how she persisted in answering the questions and how sure she was, towards him, because she knew he was able to help her. By having the disciples witness this, they have changed how they looked at things such as accepting and forgiving.==== ====**g)** I remember when I was in Primary School and I was telling my sister about a friend that was really mean all of a sudden, so i started to dislike her very much because she was always ignoring me or talking to me in a rude tone, for no particular reason . But how did I know there was really no reason? When I told my sister for the second time, she says "Maybe she's having trouble at home or somethings bothering her, try seeing things in her point of view, maybe you should ask her about it if she normally doesn't act like this." So the next day I asked her about everything and she tells me it's nothing, but she says she's having a bit of trouble at home, with her parents. I tried talking to her and telling her that everything's going to be okay. Anyway it turns out she really needed to get everything out and tell someone about it. By communicating with her I knew the real reason for her behaviour and never questioned her about it ever again. By experiencing this event, I learnt to never judge anyone or dislike them before knowing the true reason behind it. I also learnt not to believe anyone else (rumors) accept the person who's experiencing the trouble. By learning this, I believe I've become a better and more understanding person.====

__**Amanda's reflection** __ ====In Christianity, humanity is when humans such as ourselves dominant over creations on earth. This is from the sacred text of Christianity; the bible from Genesis Chapter 1 vs: 28-29 ‘God blessed them, and god said to them, ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth’ The meaning of the statement above simply means that we as humans are dominant over these creatures and living things. However it does not mean we are to take advantage of it. God simply wants us to look after these and act as stewards of his creatures and take up theses duties since we are living on his planet. This relates to the main statement of common humanity since I personally think that everyone should be looking after every living thing on this planet. It’s a common humanity everyone should be doing. Prayer is a major part of Christianity; it is like a communication for us to God. Praying to God can be a private time or a gathering. To Christianity, prayer can be seen as a way to reflect on our doings; this may be either good or bad. It lets us think back to what we have been doing and how it had reflects us as a person. Reflecting back to the statement of prayer leading to peace and good will; Christians use pray as personal way to relax and think, it is a time to communicate and seek good will with God. I personally think that prayer is a calm time which people use to communicate to God to either confess or simply talk to relax their mind. During this calm state, people start to realize their actions and slowly realize how they have impacted others; this may be either in a good or bad way. This leads to peace and good will because prayer is a time for a person to personally seek for their inner peace and hence leads to the person becoming calmer. This is to similar mediation as helps you find yourself through prayer. As a result, this slowly leads to goodwill and peace. ====

====Today, the year level was privilege enough to be able to go around our local area and meet people from different faiths and learn about their experiences and religion. This excursion was a very good experience for me. I was able to see other religion’s view on inter-religious dialogue and creation. Also the Islam guest speaker Sharene, taught me not to blame one’s religion due to one individual. She enlightened me with her stories and hardship she went through due to her religion. One of the reason Sharene was able to overcome her hardship is due to her strong belief towards her religion and I think she should be recognized and a role model to us. One important fact I learnt through this excursion is that every religion has its own belief but somehow all the religion will end up in the same spot. Hence this excursion was worthwhile and that every religion has its own views which we should learn to respect and honour.This reflects to the statement, as every religion has its own way of contributing towards peace and goodwill. ====

__//**Canaanite Woman's Faith.**//__ a. The Canaanite woman’s faith b. ‘The Canaanite woman’s faith’ can be found in the gospel of Matthew 15: 21 – 28 c. In the gospel of Matthew 15: 21 – 28 Matthew talks about how Jesus had test the Canaanite’s woman’s faith before healing her daughter. The woman was considered as a dog hence was looked down upon. When she approach Jesus and his disciple pleading for help, the disciples had distanced themselves from her telling Jesus to take this woman away. However Jesus instead talked to her and tests her faith. When he heard her answer he was satisfied hence had helped her daughter who was being tormented by a ‘demon’ d. This is an example of Jesus in dialogue as Jesus is interacting with someone that is from a different religion from him. He is talking and having a normal conversation with her about her faith when she is not from the same religion as he is in. The woman he is talking to is considered a dog and wasn’t ’worth’ talking to. However he was talking to her to test her faith which was looked down upon. Also since he was satisfied with her answer when he had questioned her he immediately helped her daughter. He also helped the woman’s daughter not just talking to her which is considered as dialogue as well. This is seen as Jesus opening up to other people not just Jewish people. e. This story demonstrates about humanity as Jesus had the heart to help someone like the Canaanite woman. He did not judge her but had tested her faith. He didn’t ask anything about her but her faith. He also didn’t look down upon her when the disciples distanced themselves from her but instead showed her kindness by asking her questions about her faith. This showed how Jesus had easily demonstrated how Humanity should have been like. Also in this passage Jesus had demonstrated prayer. Prayer as the Jesus had shown how her faith towards him had allowed him to communicate with God and hence healed her daughter. Prayer is how humanity communicates with God hence when the woman had shown and expressed her persisted faith towards him it connected with God. Lastly, the woman had shown Jesus faith. Faith is shown as she is persisted that Jesus could help her. She didn’t give up her faith that Jesus could help her. She basically believed him and this simple gesture allowed her to be faithful to her actions of pleading to him. This shows her action wasn’t just a last minute thought or a thoughtless action. f. This is the movement towards peace and goodwill in this story as it is a step towards forgiving and accepting. If people can be accepting towards other faith and religion then this world is a step towards peace and goodwill because there would be less arguments and war that revolves around the topic. I believe that the disciples were the changed. This is because the disciples were able to witness how having faith itself can help a person as it is. They are changed because they were about to see that having faith itself, they would be able to overcome many obstacle. It is one of the core human qualities they have. The results seen in the story from Jesus was that he was able to witness how much faith she had and how persisted and sure she was towards him being able to help her. Another change was from the woman who was able to see that her faith actual had helped her go through this obstacle and the disciples being able to witness what impact faith had towards Jesus and how it can help overcome obstacles. g. I remember when I was in primary school I was able to talk to a priest privately for confession about myself. The priest had said to me that I should have faith in myself since faith is a key that would help me live life to its fullest. It was that talk that allowed myself to have faith in things that I believe in which would help me in life. It is a key to overcome obstacles and barriers.

__**Leanne's reflection** __
====In Religious Education in term 3, we have been looking at World Religions – “Many Faiths, One Humanity”. We are put into groups to complete a major assessment task of this term which is to create a wiki based on a religion allocated by our R.E teacher. In this case, my group was allocated to create a wiki on Christianity. Members of my group include, Sheridan, Merry, Julie La, Amanda and I. Together we investigated and analysed the different areas and aspects of Christianity to add to our wikis. I think that this task has helped me understand more about Christianity because the task involves a lot of research and investigating. As we a group we looked closely at the following areas of Christianity: humanity, faith expressions, prayer, interreligious dialogue, commitments and our hopes as students and also looking at the 8 aspects of faith traditions. I took part in reflecting the researches gathered as a group back to the statement of “Examine of the key aspects of major world religions reveals a common commitment to seek to live together in peace and goodwill. This desire arises not only from our common humanity but also from our people of faith and people of prayer”. In relation to this statement, I’ve learnt that as people of the Christian faith, we are to take care of God’s creation as being stewards of the earth, this is evident in Genesis. Praying is a quiet time to connect with God, to reflect our own doings and actions, and therefore can be expressed in different ways for example, meditating. By praying, it contributes to living in peace and goodwill as individuals will personally seek for their inner peace. I believe that through interreligious dialogue, we could soon create peace in the world, and all people of faith and people of prayer may come together to pray in silence as a sign of world reuniting. ==== ====As all year ten students, we had an opportunity to visit our local areas and meeting different people of faith and learning about their different experiences about their religion. This helped me have a broader idea of World Religions and that we all share a common belief which is to create peace and goodwill. We also had an Islamic guest speaker who came to talk to us about Islam; she shared her experiences, life story and also hardships she had to overcome about her religion. After visiting places around the local areas and having a guest speaker talking to us, I believe all people of faith are contributing to peace and goodwill and no matter what religion each takes, we still end up in the same spot and uniting together to live in peace and goodwill. Hence, the whole of this experience is worthwhile and helps others and myself have a better understanding of this term’s topic of World Religions. ==== 

__**Julie's reflection** __
====Before studying Christianity, I didn't really understand much about the religion but after studying Christianity, I've learnt a lot. To Christians, Humanity means looking after God's creation and having the responsibility for our actions. Since we are God's creation and God has made this world for us, we should take care of our environment and treat it well for everyone else to live in. I now have a better understanding of Christianity and their beliefs. ==== Our group consisted of Amanda, Leanne, Merry, Sheridan and I. Together we researched about Christianity and the beliefs. As a group we divided everyone up with a subheading to do so that it would be fair for everyone to have a part. Everyone was busy with their research about Christianity and did a good job. Although I'm not Christian, I find it very interesting to study. The excursions that we had during this term have helped me with having a better understanding of Christianity. It made me realise that at church people feel more comfortable and relaxed to be in the presence of God.

__**The Canaanite Woman's faith**__ Gospel - Matthew 15: 21 – 28 Jesus went to the district of Tyre and Sidon where he met a Canaanite woman yelling out that her daughter is being tormented by demons. But Jesus did not answer the woman. His disciples told him to send her away and Jesus answered, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel'. But the lady would not stop and kept pleading Jesus to heal her daughter. He answered, 'It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs'. Jesus only tested the woman's faith by calling her a dog, a non-jewish person and that she is not worth healing. She replied by saying 'Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table'. When Jesus heard her answer, he was satisfied and her daughter was healed instantly. This example of Jesus is in dialogue with a person from outside his religion. This story demonstrates that Jesus did not judge that the woman was not a Jewish person but he judged her faith.

__**Sheridan's reflection** __
====Humanity means many things in this multicultural world. In a dictionary search of the word ‘humanity’, there are multiple answers; human nature, behaviour, humankind, race and earth. In Christianity, it is way of living and taking care of our home; earth. For example, in Christian churches, upon leaving, the priest speaks "Go in peace and serve the lord". This statement is retold over and over again, reemphasizing a way in which to live in humanity. ==== ==== Christianity is a religion and a life in which we go about. Many people practice going to church regularly or simply pray in their own time. Going to church or praying can give a space where they can ask God our Savoir for forgiveness, acceptance to pleas. People have their time out to concentrate on the small things which eventually are big things. This time of prayer enables a person to feel whole in their self and connect with their inner spirit. If a person is connected with there inner spirit, then they will go about life in the way in which god does; this leads to humanity in our world. ==== 