Blog Response 3:Of the four gospels, which resonates most with me and why?

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The gospel that resonates with me the most is the Gospel of Luke. I went to a Catholic school prior to this, so I did learn about all four gospel writers before I came to Notre Dame Belmont, but when I was younger, the Gospel of Luke always interested me most.

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It was used in the bigger, fancier masses, such as Easter and Christmas. I especially liked the Christmas masses, where I could dress up and go to church with my family, and mass was like a big celebration of the birth of Jesus. Sometimes, when the the story of Jesus' birth was read, my church would reenact it. And it fascinated me: Joseph and Mary searching for a place to go in crowded villages, baby Jesus being born in a humble barn, the Angel Gabriel sent down from heaven to announce the Good News to the shepherds, and the three kings travelling to Nazareth to gift baby Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh-- all coupled with the writing style of Luke's Gospel.

The Gospel of Luke resonates with me the most because it brings back good memories of spending time with God and Jesus and my family. It also had the most impact on my life because the stories Luke wrote were, to me, the most memorable and easier to understand.

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Blog Response 2:

How does what you have learned from the Bible archaeology project change or form your view of Jesus as you thought you knew him?

"Living Waters Evangelistic Association." Living Waters Evangelistic Association. 

N.p., 2016. Web. 3 Oct. 2016.

For the longest time, I only knew of the Jesus in the Bible. At my old school, the religion class were mostly focused on the first few books of the Old Testament and the Gospel stories. We learned about Jesus' birth, death, and everything in between, including His miracles and lessons. I knew about His birth in Nazareth and how He was born in a humble barn and how the three kings travelled to Nazareth to greet Him with gifts of frankincense, myhrr, and gold. I learned about His miracles: how he turned water into wine, how he fed thousands with five loaves of bread and five fish, and how he made a paralyzed man walk again and brought a woman back to life. We knew the story of Jesus' death really well because every Friday of Lent season, everyone was required to go to an extra hour of Mass, where the Stations of the Cross ceremony was performed. There, we either listened or performed the twelve stations and thanked Jesus for his sacrifices. Jesus was glorified in our religion classes and a lot of our practical classes, like history and science, were related back to Jesus' teachings.

Everything was very Jesus/Holy Trinity-centric for those nine years of my life, but it was mostly from a Catholic and Bible oriented perspective. I wasn't exposed to how Jesus was was seen by other cultures and non-believers.

Through researching for the Bible archaeology presentations, and listening to others' presentations, I was rewarded with new perspectives from people who didn't grow up like I did, surrounded by Bible stories and worshippers of Jesus. I read about speculation of if Jesus even existed in the first place, which I had never really thought about. It makes sense, I realize, because really there is no proof of Jesus, barring the actual New Testament stories. His body was resurrected by God so that Jesus may sit beside our Father in Heaven. So while it is enough for me, I know that just belief in Our Savior isn't enough for some people. It was interesting to read about their theories and scientific experiments to try and prove that Jesus really was just a myth.

"Jesus." WeKnowYourDreams. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2016.