Saint Louis University

LABORATORY HIGH SCHOOL – SENIOR HIGH

Department of Religion

Religious Involvement:

“WEEKLY REFLECTIONS”

In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the subject

G12b: Growing as a Missionary Church

Submitted To:
Ma’am Florence Bronola

Submitted By:
Aeron Dwayne Gallate
12 STEM E - St. Jude Thaddeus

SLU-LHS, Senior High

March 30, 2022

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 Saint Louis University
LABORATORY HIGH SCHOOL – SENIOR HIGH
Department of Religion

Week: 1 Date: March 20, 2022 Time: 7:00-8:00 pm

Means of Participation: ( Check one) ____ In-person ____Virtual

Type of Religious activity: (e.g. Sunday Gospel reading or Bible reading:

Mass, Bible Study)
Luke 13: 1-9
Sunday Mass

Where or what Platform (e.g. Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Parish, Facebook

livestream)

Home TV

Reflect on your experience of the religious activity you participated in and write a
short reflection about your experience

The gospel talks about God’s patience towards us as well as repentance, and the
part that stuck out to me the most, is the parable that Jesus said. We can relate a lot to
the parable, with us representing the fig tree. God is the gardener – a hopeful and
patient gardener. God will not toss us aside immediately if we are not bearing fruit.
Our gardener, God, will fertilize us, nurture us, and pull the weeds that are growing
within and around us. However, we have to allow God to be our gardener.

The parable of the fig tree reminds us that God will never abandon us. He still
gives us time to bear good fruits like the fig tree. He always extends His mercy on us
because of His love for mankind. However, at times we forget that we must give back
what is due to Him. We sinned and always will, because we know God will forgive us.
This is not right as we have to put an effort to always be good. For no one knows when
death will come to each of us, so we must get ready. To be ready means to start
repenting, to go back to God and ask for forgiveness for all the sins we committed. I
think God wants us to remember that this Lenten season, is the best time to think over
of the sins we have. To forgive what others have done to us and to ask for forgiveness

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 Saint Louis University
LABORATORY HIGH SCHOOL – SENIOR HIGH
Department of Religion

to those we sinned. And that man, like the fig tree, will always sin but God will always
extend His grace and mercy to all the sinners.

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 Saint Louis University
LABORATORY HIGH SCHOOL – SENIOR HIGH
Department of Religion

Week: 2 Date: March 27, 2022 Time: 8:00-9:00 pm

Means of Participation: ( Check one) ____ In-person ____ Virtual

Type of Religious activity: (e.g. Sunday Gospel reading or Bible reading:

Mass, Bible Study)
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Sunday Mass

Where or what Platform (e.g. Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Parish, Facebook

livestream)

Home TV

Identify 3 important lessons you acquired from the religious activity you attended that is
related to charity.

Today, we have one of the most famous parables in the entire Bible. It’s the story
of the man with two sons. And it’s one of Jesus’ most original tales. We normally refer
to it as the Parable of the Prodigal Son or sometimes as the story of the Forgiving
Father. The story of the Prodigal Son is probably one of the most well-known and
adaptable of all the Gospel stories. And I think, it's because we can easily identify with
one or all of these three characters at different points in our life. We can relate with
them for a variety of reasons, such as when we want to put ourselves in the shoes of
the penitential son, who returns hat in hand from a wasted life, hoping to begin all over
again. Or the generous father, who, despite being wronged, still manages to forgive his
son. And or the eldest son, who seeks a fathers acknowledgement.

But in the end, the parable of the Prodigal Son gives me a picture of the steadfast
love of God. Just like the father, He welcomes back his lost son with tears of delight,
kills the fatted calf, brings out the best robe, and throws a great party, it is not to please
other people, but to give expression to his own overwhelming pleasure that his child
has come home.To show what we can learn from this gospel, here are the 3 lessons
I’ve learned that is related to charity:

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 Saint Louis University
LABORATORY HIGH SCHOOL – SENIOR HIGH
Department of Religion

1. Be like the father. When the youngest son returns home, the father actively
welcomes him. He then prepares a feast in celebration of his returned child to honor his
son. When the older brother grumbles against the situation, the father actively exhorts
him. He reminds his eldest of his place within the family and his portion of the
inheritance. The father then calls the son to join him in the celebration. My former way
of reading the parable made me feel the need to choose to be like two imperfect sons
rather than to strive to be like the father. The father reminds us that we should always
give second chances to those people who have wronged us. We should understand
that forgiveness is not based on the measure of wrongs, but on the goodness of the
heart that forgives. That is why we can all forgive anyone, and we can all get a second
chance.I believe Jesus was asking his listeners to respond like the father.

2. Choose to give rather than to receive. For a long time, I thought the theme of the
story of the Prodigal Son was forgiveness. This message seems apparent from the
son’s self-confession in the pigsty and the father’s consequence response when he
returns home. However, the more I study he parable, the more I am convinced that the
overarching theme is grace or giving. The father gives the son his inheritance, even
though he is still alive. The father gives a gift that impedes his own livelihood. When the
son returns to the father, the patriarch notices him from a distance, runs to him, and
embraces him. He does not allow the son to finish his confession because full
restoration has already been granted. This act would have been culturally completely
unexpected after what the son had done. Before the son goes to the father, he expects
to be treated as a hired servant at best. Yet, he is given back his full status as a son.
The father does not only give his son the inheritance but also his unconditional love
and forgiveness, despite what the son did. So in a world full of hatred and resentment,
be the person to give love.

3. Seek reconciliation. Jesus told this parable in response to the grumbling Pharisees
and scribes. These religious elites felt the Rabbi had no right to associate with the
moral and societal reprobates he accepted. The parable of the prodigal son is the final
of three stories Jesus uses to illustrate how to respond to those who were lost and are
now found. Jesus came to earth for the ungodly. He walked with those who were
broken and torn. He loved those that society and religion rejected. He did so, not
simply out of obedience to the Father, but because that was who He was. Jesus was
the image of God. He was love, so He lived out love.

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 Saint Louis University
LABORATORY HIGH SCHOOL – SENIOR HIGH
Department of Religion

Week: Community Mass Date: March 2, 2022 Time: 2:00 pm

March

Means of Participation: ( Check one) ____ In-person ____Virtual

Type of Religious activity: (e.g. Sunday Gospel reading or Bible reading:

Mass, Bible Study)
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Community Mass

Where or what Platform (e.g. Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Parish, Facebook

livestream)

SLU Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Parish Facebook Live stream

Choose a song that relates with the reading today. Write down the lyrics that best relates with the
reading and explain in not less than 3 sentences why you have chosen this song.

The song I chose for this reading is “Like an Avalanche” by Hillsong UNITED.
And the line that resonates me the most is “Trading Your righteousness for shame,
Despite all my pride and foolish ways.” What this line talks about, for me, is humility
and modesty. Keep your every acts of piety in secret and don’t trumpet it to the whole
wide world including the world of social media for HE knows everything, but the world
that we are in now is influencing us to discard this teaching of Jesus and embrace
publicity and self-proclamation. Nothing’s wrong to embrace these social media
platforms if we use it to advance our advocacies with other motives but to help, yet it
becomes wrong when we use it to proudly show to the whole wide world the good that
we do. Perhaps Jesus is telling us not to worry if nobody would notice our acts of
kindness and piety for HE knows it already, what’s important is we do everything for
Jesus and for the greater good of HIS people.

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 Saint Louis University
LABORATORY HIGH SCHOOL – SENIOR HIGH
Department of Religion

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