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ReachOut Australia. (2015). What Is Spirituality? Retrieved from http://au.reachout.com/what-is-spirituality

Krentzman A. R. What Is Spirituality? Retrieved from https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/enhance-your-wellbeing/purpose/spirituality/what-spirituality

Dienstmann G. What is Spirituality - A Guide to Spiritual Disciplines and Development. Retrieved from http://liveanddare.com/what-is-spirituality/

St Matthew Catholic Church. Memorial Acclamation and Doxology. Retrieved from http://stmattcc.org/memorial-acclamation-doxology

Catholic Online. Prayer for Parents # 3. Retrieved from http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=2472
The Eightfold Path. Retrieved from http://www.zen-buddhism.net/buddhist-principles/ei ghtfold-path.html
Dowling, M. (2016). Buddhism. Retrieved from http://www.mrdowling.com/612-buddhism.html

Southern Highlands. (2016). FREE Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Sessions in Mittagong. Retrieved from https://www.southern-highlands.com.au/events/whats-on/free-heartfulness-relaxation-and-meditation-sessions-in-mittagong1

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Robbie Williams is responsible for introducing me to music, as my Dad used to play a lot of his songs when I was little. Despite this, Angels is the only one I actually recall, so it is nostalgic for me as the first song I remember hearing.

For many people, music can help set out a path or contribute ideas to nurture spirituality. Messages of empowerment, self-love, kindness, strength and so on can carry more meaning when integrated into music to further push the emotional weight behind such ideas. Because of this, music can inspire us to better ourselves to further our spiritual growth.

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In 12 Angry Men, a holdout urges the rest of the jury to reconsider the evidence presented in court, revealing what initially seems to be a black and white case to be much more complex than it initially seemed. This movie taught me that there may be more under the surface to what I think I know; and the importance of standing for what I believe is right. If juror no.8# hadn’t further examined what seemed to be overwhelming evidence, or if he had submitted to the rest of the jury, then a most likely innocent boy would have been wrongfully executed.

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O Almighty God, you gave us the commandment to honour our father and mother. In your loving kindness hear my prayer for my parents. Give them long lives and keep them well in body and spirit. Bless their labours; keep them always in your care. Bless them generously for their loving care for me. Grant that, through your grace, I may always be their support and comfort, and that, after our life together on earth, we may experience the joy together praising you forever.

This prayer serves to show our love and gratefulness towards our parents by asking God to bless them and protect them. Through asking God to care for our parents, we show that we, too, care for them.

My parents are more important to me than anything else, and because of that this prayer resonates strongly with me. It perfectly encapsulates how I feel about them - I love and appreciate everything they’ve done for my sake and how much they care for me, and I wish them nothing but happiness and goodwill.

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When I notice that I’m starting to feel too stressed or panicked, I try to stop what I’m doing, move away from it if I can, and concentrate on focusing my breathing and my thoughts. This method is a form of meditation intended to stop the sympathetic system (fight or flight response) so you can think calmly, rationally and clearly. Usually, however, this fails to calm me down, as I will be overly fixated on the source of the stress and unable to separate myself from it. I still try it, though, because it has always been successful when I am not stressed, has been repeatedly recommended to me by the school counselors, and does sometimes work if I start before I get too stressed.

Meditation is a spiritual practice for many people as it shuts out external factors of their mind, soul and body. Their thoughts are cleared and they are able to focus solely on themselves and their state of being. Meditation has even become an integral part of many religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, as it assists with the path to enlightenment and brings happiness and peace.

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The mass we held on February started with an acknowledgement of country and opening song. The acknowledgement of country reminds us of the original owners of the land we stand on and gives respect towards them, while the opening song, ‘Gather us in’, served to unify us and lead into the next part of the mass.

After that, Father Mario greeted us and blessed us with holy water, protecting us from evil and initiating the next part of the mass.

After the blessing, Father Mario began the bible readings and prayer. The readings and prayer require the audience to speak together, calling on us to strive to follow to word of God and uphold each other as a community. We began with a reading of Ephesians 3: 14-21, which tells us about God’s love for us. We responded to the first reading with a short psalm prayer. This was followed by the Gospel acclamation, where we sang together to introduce the Gospel, the word of the Lord. For the Gospel reading, Father Mario read Matthew 5: 13-16, which calls upon us to do good deeds so that others may see and follow our example. We then professed our faith by stating the Franciscan Creed, and concluded the prayer and reading ceremony with the prayers of the faithful. A group of students took turns to read a short prayer to us where we responded together at the end, binding us to recognise the call to action we take upon together.

After Father Mario concluded the prayers of the faithful, two staff members presented the bread and wine to begin the preparation for communion. Father Mario blessed the bread and wine and said a couple short prayers to thank God for the sacrifices he made for us. We then said the memorial acclamation: “When we eat this bread, and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again.”, which served as another profession of faith. We finish the preparations with a reading of ‘Our Father’. The extensive preparation for communion demonstrated its importance and significance.

Upon finishing the preparations, we received communion. The bread represents the flesh of Jesus and the wine represents his blood. By eating the bread and drinking the wine, we take Jesus as part of us so that we may remember the sacrifice he made for us and follow his example to lead and good and holy life.

The mass concluded with Father Mario blessing and dismissing us. We ended by singing the school song to honour our school and our relationship as a unified catholic community.

I believe the mass was conducted well overall. The chosen readings and prayers were relevant to our journey as students of Mt Alvernia, and stuck to a general theme of following the Franciscan example as a unified community. There were no errors or mistakes such as technical issues with the projected Powerpoints or someone not understanding their lines or role, and the each section flowed into the next cohesively by loyally abiding by the traditional structure of Christian mass. My main criticism with the mass is that decision to include the first part of the Gospel reading, Matthew 5: 13, was a poor one. It goes: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”. This entire passage is confusing, incoherent and questionable. What does the salt represent? Why is the question posed in the second sentence never addressed? Why does the last sentence seem to imply that if we are worthless if we lack whatever essence the salt is supposed to represent? What does any of this have to do with the rest of the mass? This passage could have easily been excluded from the Gospel reading, and when the message behind the rest of the chosen prayers and readings was clear, concise and connected to the theme of the mass, this one section sticks out like a sore thumb - especially when it is included in the most important reading of the entire mass. Fortunately, the second part of the Gospel reading was clear, inspiring, and fit perfectly with the mass as a whole. Ultimately, the choice of including the salt passage in the Gospel reading is the only criticism I can level against the mass - everything else played out smoothly and carried a clear meaning and purpose.

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Religion serves to answer the questions surrounding our spirituality, so we can look through scriptures from any religion and find readings, passages and quotes that provide suggestions for how to set out your spiritual journey. For example, Buddhism suggests that true happiness and fulfilment is found in being a peaceful and loving person, as demonstrated by the following scriptures (the latter being a direct quote from the Buddha):

·      You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger

·      Radiate boundless love towards the entire world

The first reading outlines that cruelty is contradictory to the principles of Buddhism (‘you will not be punished for your anger’) and that anger will lead to regret (‘you will be punished by your anger’). The second reading simply asks us to show love towards everyone we know. Both of the above scriptures demonstrate the leading principles of Buddhism and how it lays out the path of our spiritual journey. These principles seen in The Eightfold Path: a set of laws taught by Buddha to nurture spirituality. Personally, I can connect with this depiction of spirituality more because the focus is on being a good and kind person, which are qualities I value highly. The Eightfold Path asks that we have the right view, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration so that we may live our lives peacefully.

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Spirituality is each individual’s search for the meaning of, and purpose behind, their life. The goal of spirituality is to reach self-understanding and inner peace. Because of this, everyone’s spiritual journey varies, some people find it in their religion, some pursue the answers to existential questions, some try to find what they want out of life, some try to learn self-love, and so on.