The Way

When I first heard about the premise of the film "The Way", I thought that the people on the pilgrimage would be living like actual pilgrims. They discussed the concept of true pilgrims a lot in the movie, but they did not live like them. They stayed in hotels and ate large meals and took a lot of breaks along the way. This was a little disappointing but of course the journey was still hard. The film did inspire me. I liked how they each had a goal and sometimes that goal changed along the way. For example, with Yost from Amsterdam, his self-hatred turned into self-acceptance; his original goal was to lose weight, but towards the end it changed to accepting himself for the way he is. The film inspired me that sometimes it is a good thing to escape from your normal daily routine and just spend time reflecting on your life. I liked how the "pilgrims" became friends at the end and put aside their differences. I liked how they all started the journey alone and then ended in a group. They met new friends that would change their lives for the better; that was my favorite part. It inspired me that sometimes it is okay to ask for help from other people because you can't always do everything alone.

Women in the Church

I think there are many positive messages that the Church sends to women.One of these is the sense of equality that the Church honors between men and women. This equality may not always be carried out completely, but it is still a prevalent idea in the Catholic Church. Another positive message is one of sexuality.The Catholic Church teaches about the need for intimacy, mutuality, consent, and respect for the dignity of one’s partner in sexuality, which are all important values. These messages help to balance out the negative messages that are also sent to members of the Church. The Church tells its members to value mutual pleasure and long term commitment in a sexual relationship. This positive message teaches us about healthy relationships, which in turn teaches us about a positive self-concept and seeing ourselves as gifts from God, made in his image and likeness. In a Catholic school environment, especially at an all-girls school, it has been drilled into my mind that women are to be empowered at a young age and can have a bright future if they are educated properly. Our school motto is "On the education of women largely depends the future of society." This has been repeated to me on several occasions and so it is very important to me.I have really only received positive messages from my school but the Church does not always uphold what it says about equality. Women are not allowed to be priests, how is that any different from women not being allowed to vote? In conclusion, there are some contradictory messages being sent about women from the Catholic Church.

IVF

I think that IVF is fine if you really can not get pregnant but you can carry the baby yourself. A surrogate, in my opinion, is weird to me but still morally acceptable. It is even weirder if the baby in the surrogate mother was not made from your husband's sperm and your egg. Why spend all that money if you can just adopt a baby which is basically the same thing in that case? I think that IVF is too expensive. It should not only be available to wealthy people; that is not fair. It should be there for anyone who needs it because they can't get pregnant. Although it is unnatural, I still think it is morally acceptable as long as it is the combination of your egg and your husband's sperm. It can get a tad sketchy too when dealing with which embryos to implant; that scares me. The idea that we can one day pick out the best embryos with the best possible genes is frightening and unnatural; it is like playing God.

Just Not That Into You

I loved this movie before but now, after watching it in class and being able to apply it to things that we have learned, I like it even more. The first character I chose is Jennifer Aniston as Beth. She desperately wants to get married to her live-in boyfriend of 7 years, but he does not believe in marriage and refuses, until the end. The first thing that we can apply this to is cohabitation. We discussed how this usually ends badly for a couple. This movie wants everyone to have a happy ending, so the co-habitating couple do end up together, although this is probably unrealistic. Another thing we can apply this scenario to is the whole idea of marriage in general. Beth tells her boyfriend, Neil, that if he will not marry her then they should not be together. We learned that marriage is committing to someone for you entire life; it is not an isolated event. Neil promises that he loves Beth and will commit to loving her for the rest of his life even though they are not legally married. He believes marriage is just showing-off your relationship and that two best friends do not get a "friend" certificate to prove their friendship or make it valid, so why should two people in love? We talked about how the ceremony of marriage is for the couple to affirm their love for another in the presence of their loved ones and to provide a living example to the rest of the church of what marriage should be. Another character is GiGi. She desperately wants to be in a relationship with someone. She is willing to sacrifice her pride and dignity for a man to like her. She is also willing to get serious with a man almost immediately. After thinking that a man likes her, she is seen in the movie looking up places to have her destination wedding. This is not good dating practices, according to what we learned and discussed in this class. Although, it is good to put yourself out there in a relationship, it is unwise to put yourself out there too much and risk getting hurt by someone who does not want to start a serious relationship after meeting once. She is too set on finding a soulmate; she thinks every guy that she meets could be the man of her dreams. Men do not necessarily think this way; they think more in the short term. Eventually, GiGi does find a good partner who she can possibly share her life with.

Changing Face Of Marriage

The idea of a domestic church is an idea that I can fully identify with. My parents wanted to expose me to Catholicism It was their decision and I am thankful to them for making it. It is the family who allows you to feel connected to God. I go to church with my family, we celebrate all of the sacraments together, and so on. It us through the family where our first encounter with religion and faith is established. My whole family has attended Catholic school since elementary school. There, our faith was further established and we learned more about what it meant to be Catholic. I really enjoyed the years that my siblings and I spent together in the same grade school. My brother went to high school after my 6th grade year and my sister's 3rd grade year. Now, my sister is a freshman at the Mount so we get to experience this together again. I do one day hope to continue the traditions that my parents have started for my siblings and I. I want to establish a domestic church and create a family that is based on Catholic values. I definitely intend to raise my kids as Catholics, to have a Catholic wedding etc.

Hooking Up And Dating

I think the chapter in the textbook and the article accurately sum up today's hook up and dating culture. I think the most accurate part was how the article affirmed that although it may appear as if everyone is participating in casual hook ups, most people are not. The article also states that the people who are participating are simply more vocal about their hook ups because they are seeking to justify their actions and see if they are acceptable to everyone else. This is definitely true in today's culture and I have witnessed it many times. I do not agree with the anti - daters. I do not think that dating is practice for divorce. I understand where they are coming from, because while ending a relationship is much more lax than ending a marriage and sometimes that line gets blurred, you can not enter into a marriage without dating other people first, in my opinion at least. I think you have to see what else is out there before settling down to make sure that this is the person you really want to be with. I totally agree with those who justify dating and I think those are the people we need to listen to as we learn more about dating in our lives.

Love Story Frank And Dana

My parents haven taught me a lot about the importance of relationships and the importance of love. My mom always tells me not to care what other people think about my relationships; it is about me and that other person. My parents always say that they want what is best for me and that if they don’t like the man I want to marry then they will be honest with me because sometimes once can get so caught up in love that they do not always see the bad things in a person. Their love story compares with those in movies and television shows in that theirs is a more real relationship, free of all the drama that is often illustrated in the movies and television shows today. For example, many married couples in shows have a break-up worthy fight every other episode. This is not realistic and it does not occur with my parents. They do not almost get a divorce every other week! I chose the song “We’ve Only Just Begun” to describe their love story because it was their wedding song and they both love the band The Carpenters. Lyrics from this song like: “Sharing horizons that are new to us Watching the signs along the way Talkin' it over, just the two of us Workin' together day to day, together” seem to describe my parents love. They work together in life to raise their children and they also literally work together for my dad’s law firm. My mom is his accountant! They have shared many new horizons, the biggest of which being having three children which is obviously a major life change.