Seeking Happiness & Seeking God PDF - University of San Agustin 2024

SEEKING HAPPINESS & SEEKING GOD ASF 3 - LESSON 7 UNIVERSITY OF SAN AGUSTIN CRS | 2024 LEARNING OUTCOMES LOVE By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to: identify Augustine’s types of love from his Confessions disti...

SEEKING HAPPINESS & SEEKING GOD ASF 3 - LESSON 7 UNIVERSITY OF SAN AGUSTIN CRS | 2024 LEARNING OUTCOMES LOVE By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to: identify Augustine’s types of love from his Confessions distinguish their own loves compose a personal prayer where they order their own prayer to seek God and God’s love  Leader: When we live in unity, All: How good and how pleasant it is. Leader: Pray for us, Holy Father Augustine, All: That we may dwell together in peace. Leader: Let us pray, All: God our Father, Your Son promised to be present in the midst of all who come together in Your name. Help us to recognize His presence among us and OPENING experience in our hearts the abundance of Your grace, Your mercy, and Your peace, in PRAYER truth and in love. We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen. GOSPEL READING: Luke 11: 9-10 LOVE This Gospel tells us to keep on searching until we find what we are looking for that gives meaning to our life. It encourages us not to give up, like what Saint Augustine did. What we need is to be more sensitive to what the Father is telling us through Christ. For only Christ could reveal to us who the Father is and lead us to true happiness.  LOVE Esmeralda: God Help the Outcasts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESVAexpA1Wc QUESTIONS FOR SHARING LOVE In your own prayer, do you spend time seeking the good of others? Who do you often find yourself praying for? What do you find yourself asking God for in your personal prayers (outside of the required prayer assessments?  LOVE God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, created man in His own image and likeness to make him share in His own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place God draws close to man, and man will experience true happiness only when he is united Source: https://ph.pinterest.com/pin/327214729193293462/ with God. (Prologue of Catechism of the Catholic Church)  Love (Caritas) - is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in Source: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/459648705738708546/ the field of justice and “God is love: everything has its peace. origin in God’s love, everything is shaped by it, everything is directed towards it. Love is God’s greatest gift to humanity, it is his promise and our hope. Source: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/70437486915354/  LOVE Charity is love received and given. It is “grace” (charis). Its source is the wellspring of the Father’s love for the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Love comes down to us from the Son. Source of image:https://ca.pinterest.com/pin/8514686788337027/ For Saint Augustine: LOVE Love is not merely an emotion or a fleeting sentiment; rather, it is a profound orientation of the soul, a driving force that directs our actions, desires, and pursuits. Source of image: https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/augustines-push-against- the-limits-of-time/  Saint Augustine criticizes the LOVE Stoic ideals of “Apatheia”. For him, both the good and the bad experience desire, joy, fear, and love. What matters is the Source of image: https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/augustines- intention. push-against-the-limits-of-time/ “The important factor in these emotions is the character of a man’s will. If the will is wrongly directed, the emotions will be wrong; if the will is right, the emotions will be not only blameless but praiseworthy. The will is engaged in all of them; in fact, they are all essentially acts of will” (The City of God 14.6). Augustine’s Types of Love LOVE Human desires (Sexual/Erotic) his sexual urges has always been a problem to him had a concubine and a son reluctance to give up sex was one of the last and painful obstacle to his full conversion “I was not yet in love, yet I loved to love...I sought what I might love, in love with loving.” Source of image: http://www.augnet.org/en/life-of-augustine/growing-up/1025-augustines-education/ Augustine’s Types of Love LOVE Love found in Friendship Augustine values friendship so much with a gang of his friends, sneaks into an orchard at night when his close friend died, Augustine was overcome with grief. He had to leave Thagaste for Carthage in order to escape the memories of his friend. Source of image: http://www.augnet.org/en/life-of-augustine/growing-up/1025-augustines-education/ Augustine’s Types of Love LOVE Love of his Mother, Monica Monica is a model of Christian motherhood. A personification of the Church She remained faithful, constantly praying for the conversion of her son “ She saw that through me you had given her far more than she had long begged for by piteous tears and groans.” Source of image: https://spiritualdirection.com/2020/08/27/63597 Augustine’s Types of Love LOVE Love of God on his conversion In a moment of intense emotional crisis, Augustine hears a mysterious child's voice chanting, "Take and read, take and read." When he does so, he encounters Romans 13:13-14, and the passage abruptly lays to rest all his doubts and fears about leaving his old life behind. Source of image: https://www.ncronline.org/books/2022/10/biography-filled-detail-puts-st-augustine- perspective Augustine’s Types of Love LOVE True Self-love based on God’s love Augustine's teachings invite individuals to recognize that the pursuit of divine love not only brings joy and fulfillment to the individual soul but also radiates outward, enriching the lives of others and fostering a sense of communal harmony and spiritual unity. “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.” Source of image: https://synod.ie/more-dates-added-to-leadership-training-programme/ Augustine’s Types of Love LOVE True Self-love based on God’s love Individuals are called to embody the divine attributes of love in their interactions, relationships, and endeavors, thereby becoming vessels through which the divine love shines forth in the world. “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” Augustine’s Types of Love LOVE True Self-love based on God’s love The love that Augustine sought, and that we too continue to desire, has its origin in God’s love, and therefore is meant to be shared to others. According to Caritas En Veritate (#7), to love someone is to desire that person's good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. From Caritas En Veritate #7 LOVE The common good is the good of “all of us”, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society. It is a good that is sought not for its own sake, but for the people who belong to the social community and who can only really and effectively pursue their good within it. Source of image: https://secure.stpauls.com.au/strathfield/caritas-in-veritate-in-charity-and-truth-4-disc-cd.html From Caritas En Veritate #34 LOVE The human community that we build by ourselves can never, purely by its own strength, be a fully fraternal community, nor can it overcome every division and become a truly universal community. The unity of the human race, a fraternal communion transcending every barrier, is called into being by the word of God- who-is Love. Source of image: https://secure.stpauls.com.au/strathfield/caritas-in-veritate-in-charity-and-truth-4-disc-cd.html From Caritas En Veritate #48 LOVE Today the subject of development is also closely related to the duties arising from our relationship to the natural environment. The environment is God's gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole. Source of image: https://secure.stpauls.com.au/strathfield/caritas-in-veritate-in-charity-and-truth-4-disc-cd.html From Caritas En Veritate #53 LOVE As a spiritual being, the human creature is defined through interpersonal relations. The more authentically he or she lives these relations, the more his or her own personal identity matures. It is not by isolation that man establishes his worth, but by placing himself in relation with others and with God. Source of image: https://secure.stpauls.com.au/strathfield/caritas-in-veritate-in-charity-and-truth-4-disc-cd.html  POINTS FOR REFLECTION: LOVE From the experiences of Saint Augustine and looking at my own life, a) how would I describe my own types of love? b) are these experiences of love leading me towards i) God? II) enriching others? iii) true happiness? VALUING: LOVE Lectio Divina on Luke 16:19-31 using the guide and template provided in the previous sessions. EXTENDING: Learners compose a prayer with the following elements: Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication using the template provided.  CONCLUSION: LOVE Wrongly in love with the beauty of the world, Augustine learned to love the beauty of God late in life. Whether one is rich or poor, life brings numerous temptations, from which only God can save us from falling into them.  CONCLUSION: LOVE According to Augustine, there are two types of love: 1. Caritas (charity or divine love) - is God-centered. It aligns with God’s will and seeks the good of others. Highest form of love, transcending human affections and desires. Through Divine love, individuals can overcome their sinful nature and move towards holiness and ultimate union with God. 2. Cupiditas (human love) – is self-centered, worldly, and seeks personal, sensual gratification. It leads individuals away from God and towards sin. A distorted kind of love often manifesting as the pursuit of material possessions, power, or sensual gratification.  CONCLUSION: LOVE No matter how much we try, how hard we work to find what we are looking for, if we do not purify our hearts, we cannot find and perceive God’s face. Augustine claimed that no human teacher, except from Christ, could teach the eternal truth, which he received firsthand by divine illumination. Therefore, we must train our hearts' eyes and ears to find, see, and hear what Christ desires to reveal to us. Closing Prayer THANK YOU Sr. Evelyn Faeldan Ms. Jean C. Japitana