Our Everyday Life and Depth ExperiencesThe “Everyday” or “Ordinary” Unpacking the activity “My everyday” From the experiences, it appears that the everyday includes the following:o The joyful and the celebratory elements of your lives,o The tiresome and the boring, the exciting and typicalo The difficult and troublesome, your fears and anxieties, and your hopes and dreams. What is “everyday” and “Depth Experience?”- The “everyday” is the whole of doing, thinkingand feeling in our daily lives and recurring routine.- A depth experience refers to a happening or an incident in our daily life which calls our attention (intellectually, emotionally, and morally), because we sense that it has a significance, a value, or deeper meaning to us.- A depth experience makes you think about yourselves, your life or the life of others, and the world you live in. In this kind of experience, it is you who seek or discover thatthere is something “more” within the ordinary. The depth experience invites you to look closely at an incident and raise questions about it, and eventually raise questions about the meaning of our existence.The Everyday and Depth Experiences of Jesus ofNazareth1. Jesus was born in an ordinary way to ordinary parents at an ordinary place and ordinary time.Jesus did not fall from the sky. He came from among us, with us, among ordinary people, born of a woman,like your own fathers and mothers who experienced both excitement and fear in bearing a child.Christian Tradition says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The Gospels also say that Jesus spent most of his growing up years in Nazareth. Jesus was born in a small ordinary place, in an ordinary time of the day (or night).2. Jesus had an ordinary life as a boy, lived the everyday in its ordinariness, and grew up withdifficulties and dreams as well.Jesus grew up with difficulties and dreams as well, including his search for life’s meaning and for God. Jesus was also dependent for his formation on the influences around him. He listened intently to his elders and asked a lot of questions and even argued attimes. Jesus was a remarkably perceptive and insightful person. He also probably closely observed the events in his life, surroundings, the people whom he encountered, and his society. His observation and reflection led Him to discover the “depth experiences” in ordinary things, persons, and events that reveal the “extra-ordinary,” “the different and new,” the “sacred,” the “divine”.3. Jesus immersed himself in the lives of the ordinary people in ordinary places, and made them feel the extra-ordinary in their lives. Jesus was not only a person with “depth experiences,”but he also helped people realize that there is something “more” or important and valuable in their lives.By calling them to follow him, Jesus saw their God-given gifts or potentials, not their weaknesses nor frailties.Jesus gave them importance by believing in them, thatthey were also called to become better men and women who would do good things for other people. Jesus immersed himself in the lives of people. He had a mission from God, but he did not keep this mission to a few and within his circleof friends. He sought people; especially the poor, the sick, the outcasts, the abandoned, and the underprivileged. He healed and forgave them from their infirmities. He preached or taught, and often read, He did this while eating and drinking with people. He walked, worked, and rest with them. EVENT PLACEHealing the paralytic who was brought by his friends In a house with hole in the roofHealing a man born blind By the side of the roadForgiving a woman accused of adultery In a plaza (or neighborhood basketball court)Healing two blind men at Capernaum On the streetHealing Ten lepers At the entrance of a village Healing a blind person In an alley or small dirt road Healing a woman suffering from hemorrhage (internal bleeding)In a crowded place 4. In moments of silence and solitude, Jesus sawhis “depth experience” as an experience of intimate relationship with God.In his moments of silence and solitude, Jesus developed an intimate relationship with God, who is actively present in his life and in the world. Jesus prayed in public too, like when he thanked God for the food they received as narrated in the story of the feeding of the multitude. But whether it was in private or in public, Jesus spent some time of his every day to get in touch with his inner self and to see it in another, that way is, from the eyes of God. Silence is a way of relating your everyday to a bigger reason of your existence on earth. By communicating with your deepest self or a higher being, you uncover insights or learnings about life thatlay hidden in the routine activities of your day. You realize that you are more than what you think or know about
View Full Document
Unlocking...