Call to Family, Community, and Participation

As Christians we are involved in our family life and community. We are called to be active participants in social, economic, and political life using the values of our faith to shape our decisions and actions. This means we need to stand up for our country, to community, to family. We should take action, fight for what's right. But not in violence, do it how Jesus would. We could always talk, negotiate, but never violence. People might think that killing is the best way but to me as well as most people that is never the answer. We need to get involved and like I said stand up and say something. Always do the right thing, even if it means that you need to stand up in front of thousands of people. Another way we can do this is following the virtues. Faith, Hope, and Charity, in these 3 ways we can do so many things. Have faith in our country that soon the economy will change. Hope and also have Faith that we can make the the world a better, safer, place to live in. Charity is we can learn to or just love our world, each other and most of all God. If we do these in societies and our community I'm sure we can change ourselves, as well as the world

Rights and Responsibilities of the Human Person

"Every person has a fundamental right to life. This includes the things we need to have a decent life: faith and family, work and education, health care and housing. We also have a responsibility to others and to society. We work to make sure the rights of all people are being protected."

This means that everyone has the right to life, education, and family. We are liable to have our faith, shelter, and the necessities to life. These things are important to have because they help you live a subtle life style. One of the people who live this CST out is Thomas Merton.

Thomas Merton was a monk who grew up in France, England and the United States. He was a student at Cambridge and at Columbia. He was born in 1915 and died in 1968.  When he was little he was not raised Catholic, but had a conversion when he was a young man. He became a member of the Abbey of Gethsemani, when he felt like he needed to be closer to God. While he was a monk he wrote many poems, and focused on the phrase God Alone, which was inscribed on the monastery gate.Thomas Merton died on December 10, 1968 when he he was at a meeting of religious leaders in Thailand.

-Audree

Solidarity of the Human Family

Solidarity is a feeling of unity. It binds members of a group together. Each of us is a member of the one human family, equal by our common human dignity. The human family includes people of all racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds. We all suffer when one part of the human family suffers, whether they live near us or far away from us. We are a one human family all around the world. In the Catholic church, catholic means universal. So all around the World Catholics are a human family but that's not just catholics. Different religions too. We all have the same equality, and human dignity. It doesn't matter if we are from different countries, wear different things, different cultures, or beliefs. We are all the same no matter what and we all belong in the human family. We bind together in a special way. We all have our time of suffering too.


-Gillian

Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

Work is a sign of participation in God's work. People of all cultures have the right to work, a wage, and also safe working conditions. We use our different talents in his work and all has value. No matter what our job is they are all alike. They all earn a wage and work at a place. For example two people have different jobs, one is a lawyer, the other is a janitor. The janitor might think that the lawyer is earning more than he is because he's really good at it. Even if he is making more that doesn't mean they are all participating in God's work. God wants all of us to make us feel equal (which we are) and that we are doing something in life. So it doesn't matter what job we have, how much we're making, or where we are working. We all have the dignity of equality. If we don't participate our, lives can lead to bigger changes, like, poverty, losing your house things like that so that we can live.Also in the Bible it says,"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty."

Life and Dignity of the Human Person

Human life is sacred because it is a gift from God. We are all God's children, and share the same human dignity from the moment of conception to natural death. Our dignity-our worth and value -comes from being made in the image and likeness of God. This dignity makes us equal. As Christians we respect all people, even those we don't know.


Walter Adell McClellan was a very good example to this CST. He was killed in WW2 by the German soldiers by having his plane shot down, he was the only survivor. He was killed on the spot because he refused to answer any questions. He was a very brave 19 year old. For 65 years no one knew what had happened to him because there was no physical evidence of where he was shot down or buried. He was burried on Friday April 23, 2010 at the Barrancas National cemetery. The WW2 soldier went to school at Pensacola High shortly after he graduated he decided to join the military. During WW2 he and 8 others were in a plane when it got shot down. He was lucky enough to survive the crash, but The Germans found him and questioned him. Staying true to his country he refused to answer, they terroized him and later shot him and left him on the spot. A local Church took him away and burried him in their cemetery. U.S. Military officials were notified of the body in 2007 and launched an investegation, finding out the body was his. There were over 200 people at his funneral and his family was very glad he finally got returned home.
May You Rest In Peace Walter Adell McClellan
-Audree

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jP8CC2rKj4

This is a sign of what God has done and made for us. He made the Earth, Creatures, plants, and us to live on it.Its amazing that God has done all of this. His creation is so beautiful that do you think we should change it? No I don't think so. Keep the Earth green. Take care of our environment. Its really easy and so simple. Like in this video lets keep our World like this so clean and so safe so that you too can live in it. In our Earth day posts we talk more about helping. Only YOU can make a difference as well as a change.
-Gillian

Earth Day and what it means to me / Care for God's Creation

God created us to be stewards, or caretakers, of his creation. We must care for and respect the environment. We have to protect it for future generations. When we care for creation, we show respect for God, the creator.



Earth Day is special to me as well as everyone that lives on it. God made this planet for us to live on so I think we should take care of it's environment. There is so many ways we can help, by, planting trees, recycling, using less water, turning the lights off, and so much more. Another good thing we can do is using natural resorces.Keep the Earth green. We need to keep our environment safe as well as clean. Today one  billion people are expected to be celebrating, and helping. Our World has done so much for us and I think some of us either don't know it or take it for granted. This is not how we want it. This is the Earth's day so c'mon and help out! Well like I said before God made this planet generations back and if we keep it green and safe it will live on for many more generations.

-Gillian

Earth day to me personally is like a life changing experience. It's a day where it reminds what we should already be doing on a daily basis. You don't need a big group to help clean up trash to keep our environment clean, just simple things everyone can do right here in the comfort of their own home, neighborhood, and/or community. You could take shorter showers, turn the water off when your brushing your teeth, just simple things like that helps our world in a big way. We may not know how much we are helping to save our planet but mother nature does and she's proud (haha). Other things you could do is the 3 R's Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. The biggest thing with us is that we try to work so hard to help the earth but working hard is not neccessary because every simple act of kindness towards the Earth goes a long way. Like Gillian said we can turn electronics off when we aren't using them and that God made this world for use to live on and we need to take care of it. We are the new generation and hopefully to be the best, it may take a little bit of effort but I believe we can all do it.

-Kenzie

To me Earth Day is a day that helps us realize that this is our planet and we should take care of it. God put us on this planet to take care and maintain his creations. Earth Day shows us that we shouldn't take only one day out of the year to help that we should be helping the Earth daily. One way we can help the Earth is to use the 3 R's Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Reducing means to cut down on something, you could take shorter showers, turn off anything that uses energy, or by just simply riding your bike to more places instead of using your car. Reusing means to make put something to use again, ways you could reuse is by planting trees, or instead of always rebuying water bottles you could wash them out and refill them or buy reusable water bottles and fill them with tap water, a way you could reuse while in school is when your is when you're taking notes instead of getting a new piece of paper out when you're done writing one side you could simply flip it over and write on the other. The last R is Recycling one simple thing you could do in your home, school, or neighborhood is by setting up recycling bins around your town so instead of people wasting paper, plastic, aluminum cans, and sometimes glass it can be recycled into something new. Many people today take our planet for granted. God put us on this planet to care for it and respect it, not to waste it and ruin it. Remember that a small act of kindness can go a long way, just imagine if one person sees you helping the Earth what it could lead to. Happy Earth Day everyone.

-Audree

Idol Gives Back

Last night as you all may know the hit t.v show American Idol had a 2 hour episode on called Idol Gives Back. Idol Gives Back is where the American Idol contestants, audience, and celebrities donate money to help different charities. The main charities they donated to were Children's Health Fund, Feeding America, Malaria No More, Save the Children, and United Nations Foundation.

All together they raised over $140 million dollars and many people are still donating. They help people in need all over the world. We should follow Idol's example to help the less fortunate.

 

Our Mission Statement

We promise to live out all of the Catholic Social Teachings, fight social injustice. When our community calls us we will come, when our world calls us to help we will answer. We will live out the C.S.T's by keeping our world and environment clean. We plan to live this out by respecting peoples' rights and nationalities no matter what country or how they look. We will try to be the way for a new and better generation.