S2 Blog Response 13

Pope Francis

While watching the video, I was shocked by Pope Francis' humbleness. As a Pope, who is a symbol of the holy and spiritual leader of numerous followers, he could easily bend down, wash and kiss a man's feet. Impact by the history of middle age, Pope in my mind is a person who holds the great power and has an inviolable position in no matter the church community or the real society. However, in order to follow and imitate Jesus' teach, Pope Francis could bring down his position, even lower than a plain adherent, which really impressed and surprised me. 

Pope Francis is really a person who cares about people, in "The Joy of the Gospel", He wrote that "We(the Church) need to engage the world, not separate from it. As we take our message forth, we need to simplify it and use less churchy language. " Pope Francis express that not only himself but also the entire church needs to bend down and cares about every ordinary individual.

Pope Francis is different. After he became the pope, he still adheres to pick up the phone by himself and take public transportation. As a pope, rather than pedestaling himself so high up that individual connect with him, he comes down to people and communicates with them even face to face. I cannot forget the scene in the documentary that shows the surprising of a couple called Pope Francis and got the response of pope Francis himself asking the phone. Picking up the phone by himself would definitely expand the workload, however, pope Francis did that, not only because he wants to eliminate the estrangement between the clergy and normal follower, but also because he cares about people. He wants to know what does people think about the church, about the society and about him.

I hope that nowadays, Catholic Church can show more inclusive attitude toward the minority, especially LGBT groups. Because lots of people, especially Christian, oppose the homosexual relationship because based on the bible, it is immoral to love a person who has the same sex. However, It also said in the bible that God create the world; animals were born in the way they look like right now. Nevertheless, based on modern science, we all know the existence of the earth is because of the big bang, and all animals went through the evolution to get the way they look like today. Bible is not right all the time, it also shouldn't be the credo of someone's life. If pope Francis could show his attitude toward the minority, I will definitely appreciate. 

Citation:
https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2016/12/20/looking-back-2016-year-surprises-pope-francis/
https://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/public-transportation/jorge-mario-bergoglio-aka-pope-francis-1st-subway/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag_(LGBT_movement)

S2 Blog Response 12

The thing that I interested the most about the history of Notre Dame is that we used to be a boarding school. Although I knew that fact at my first day of my freshmen year in Notre Dame, it still hard to image the life of living on the Notre Dame campus. Especially when we mentioned that our classroom used to be a dorm, I felt really surprised. I am pretty sure that it definitely was a totally different layout but still, it is really impressive. 

 The thing that impressed me most is the feeling of being welcomed. When they told us why they chose NDB, they all mentioned the feeling of being welcomed. I cannot appreciate more. On my first day in NDB, I was totally messed up. My English was so terrible that I cannot understand the lecture; My uniform was not shipped yet, I wore my casual clothes to school, which made my looks so weird; Also, I had no friends here, which means I had to have lunch by myself. However, when I hesitated about where should I sit, a bunch of international students invited me to sit with them and have lunch with them. I was so surprised because we never met before. I knew how hard to talk to a person that I never met before, but she did it so normally like she was talking to her friends. Since that time, I started to like this school. When Mrs. Wallace mentioned her experience in NDB, it immediately arousal my memory of my first day. 

 Learned from the first day in NDB, I started to be welcome to everyone, no matter who they are. Yesterday, I heard from Raena that we are going to have 8 new coming international students, and immediately I asked her if I can get their number or any social media. Because I knew the feeling of being welcomed, I want them to feel the exactly what I felt, which is also a culture of NDB, being welcome to everyone. 

 The girl I mentioned on the second paragraph names Jacy Sun, after that talk, we got closer and closer and now she is my best friend ever. On her last year, which is my freshmen year, she shadowed lots of freshmen international students and acted as a perfect model of NDB student. On her graduation party, I cried so badly not only because my best friend was gone for college in New York, but also because I lost my best sister. Yes, sisterhood is the central value of being an NDB student. no matter where I am, no matter how old I am, I will never forget the time of aquacade, not only when we compete with each other, but also led by the junior, we beat the sophomore when we were freshmen. I remember that I heard an NDB girl got a free coffee because she wore NDB uniform and the lady next to her is an alumna. 

Citation:

https://www.askideas.com/25-best-welcome-pictures-and-photos/

http://upliftconnect.com/reviving-ancient-sisterhood/

https://ndhsb.schooladminonline.com/users/sign_in