Man’s Search for God with

Introduction to the Catholic Faith

Main Reference: I Believe by Fr. Lode Wostyn, CICM
 Course Outline
• Faith and Becoming Human Together
• Faith and Religious Practices
• The Catholic Church and other Christian
Churches
• The Bible: A Guide for my Life
• The Biblical Message: God Offering Salvation
• Christian Faith and Other Religions
http://www.psst.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Penitensya.jpg
• In the Philippines,
it s the
“uncultivated,” or
raw, or reflected
religious faith of
the majority, but
which nevertheless
evidently seeks or
even believes to be
Christian. https://img00.deviantart.net/dfd4/i/2009/103/6/3/penitensya_by_inser
tpicturehere.jpg
 • It involves the
indigenous beliefs
and practices of the
people, which may
or may not be
consistent with
“official
Catholicism”, and
which may be
acceptable or not https://traveleronfoot.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/banaue-cordillera-sculpture-
museum.jpg?w=470&h=352

acceptable to the
institutional church.
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 Faith
Commitment Community
Experience

Six Components of a Religion

 CREED
• They “danced their
beliefs.”
• What they believed
in is expressed in
their stories and
bodily movements,
more than in their https://i2.wp.com/farm3.static.flickr.com/2182/2260018512_f95c25c15f.jpg

heads.
• The traditional Filipino views the sacred and
profane in co-existence, that matter and spirit
are intertwined.
• Filipinos sees divine intervention as part of life.
• Traditional religionists sense that people ought
to be in harmony with a sacred power hat
move through the sky and earth and sea.
• Medicine women/men are believed to be
mediums for encountering the sacred powers,
they themselves are venerated and feared.
 CODE
• They do not have a
clear list of codes,
like the Ten
Commandments.
• Ethics is rooted, not
in the rights of an
individual, but in he https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaUBivyVQAYT9d6.jpg

natural tights of the

group.
• The ethics if nature is: be truly grateful for what you
take from the earth and take only as much as you
need it (gratitude and moderation).
• Traditional Filipino ethics answers the problem of
moral responsibility with his idea of “karma.” The
person’s own acts punish him.
• Traditional Filipino laws (batas) are understood as:
– Filipino stresses the duty aspect of law (tungkulin).
– Regards law from its interior aspect, bound by each
other’s word of honor rather than by written contracts.
– Understands the law in concrete terms.
• Unwritten laws of traditional Filipinos: habilin or
bilin.
 CEREMONY
• They are a way of
making believers feel
the presence of the
sacred.
• They allow believers to
express what their
feeling of the presence
of the sacred means http://www.bomboradyo.com/wp-content/uploads/canao.jpg

for life in the world.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4_avwifs0Tg/U_gKyOVvtVI/AAAAAAAADBY/iXMpDRKrmVg/s1600/2013_11_19_12_12_33.jpg
 Faith
Commitment Community
Experience

Six Components of a Religion

 CREED
A Deep Sense of God and God’s Providence
• Misfortunes, accidents,
sickness, and death are
“Kalooban ng Diyos.”
• God is specially present
in grottos/alleged
apparition sites.
• God is present in statues,
scapulars, medals, and
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/22/46/23/2246239672a875f
efe5b96fb3f60c4de.jpg other symbols.
 A Deep Sense of God and God’s Providence

• Traditional Filipino name

for God: Bathala.
– God is the creator who
created Malakas and
Maganda.
– God is eternal.
– God is remote and
somewhat
unapproachable.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Malakas_
and_Maganda_Emerging_from_Bamboo_BambooMan.jpg
– God is the retributor.
Anitos are believed to reside in brooks, rivers, seas,
fields, meadows, trees (balete), forests, caves, big
rocks, mountains, anthills, etc.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wXKhZKxiUSs/maxresdefault.jpg
 • Scientific and technological
development by the West has ended
up in exploitation, not only of nature,
but also of the vast majority of the
Asian poor. Filipino religious
traditions can help us to restore our
belief that all creation, not only
humans but also the earth, is sacred
and have their rights.
 Belief and Trust in the God of the Family

• Filipino believes in God as:

– Amang maawain
– Makapangyarihnag Diyos
– Mapagkalingang Diyos
• Sto. Niño (Anak)
• Immaculate Heart of Mary
https://img00.deviantart.net/6d54/i/2006/015/0/b/old_photo_of_filip
ino_family_by_breatheinaehr.jpg
(Ina)
• Angels and Saints
(extended family)
 Belief in the Power of Mediation

• Filipino are not very direct in their ways.

• Mediation through prayers of deceased family
members, intercession of angels and/or saints.
• St. Anthony
– Recovery of lost objects
• St. Jude
– For impossible cases
• St. Augustine
– For the conversion of sinners
http://www.newelizabethamec.org/uploads/8/1/4/9/8149732/4688209_orig.jpg
 CODE
• The Filipino family appears to be inner-directed.
• Parents work hard in order o provide for the
needs of their children.
• Everybody sacrifices for the family.

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We are willing to make heroic
sacrifices for our family.
On the reverse of this generosity is
often a lack of concern for the
common god.

https://daks2k3a4ib2z.cloudfront.net/56378cd5f60b35c75b48f114/58722de9f59f846f03bca65b_extreme-poverty-in-philippines-slum-dump.jpg
 Our family
centeredness has
hindered nation
building.
Families pursue only
their own socio-
economic security, at
the expense of the
wider community.
I
 No wonder that many Filipino popular Christians find great
consolation in gazing at the cross and praying in front of a statue
of the Sacred Heart, Sto. Entiero, or the Hesus Nazareno.
https://businessmirror.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Black-Nazarene.jpg
We believe that in the end, things
will turn out right.
We mark every victory with a
celebration.
 CEREMONY
• Because every blessing
is usually projected to
Divine Providence,
many believe hat
calling upon God and
offering “extra”
prayers, promises
(panata), and
http://glob.bargeo.fr/wp-
sacrifices merit many content/uploads/2010/04/41560594_flagellation416_ap.jpg

more blessings.
http://www.pinoytahanan.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/fb-image.jpg
The sacraments are often regarded as having
mediative “magical” effects on the recipients.
• Many Filipinos
attribute illness,
death, and other
misfortunes to a
disharmony with
environmental
spirits, “with
bodies,” more
appropriately called
superhuman beings.
 An albularyo performs rituals to find out the
cause of the misfortune, to cure, or to
appease. Rituals basically include the
recitation of prayers, while an atang is offered.
• Research on, or interview persons, to find out
about groups of persons or a person who
performs rituals.
• The Ritual
– Where and by whom it is performed
– When it is performed
– Why it is performed
– How it is performed
College of the Immaculate Conception – Cabanatuan