IGNITE TEEN HANDOUT Week 20 3/31/2019 Lent

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1 Greed is an inrdinate desire fr material pssessins and wealth. This deadly sin is an affrnt t Jesus call t prepare fr the cming f Gd s kingdm, because the greedy persn is interested in nly ne kingdm: his r her wn. Frm Cnscience & Cathlic Faith by Anthny Marinellli. P.42 IGNITE TEEN HANDOUT Week 20 3/31/2019 Lent Lent: Simplify Our Lives FLAME Teen Handut SET THE WORLD ABLAZE! Cnscience Need Happiness Greed Temple $ Brands Want Simplicity sin Try this: read ne f the qutes belw and ask What wrd r phrase jumps ut at yu? Read a secnd time and ask Hw des this cnnect with yur life? Finally, read a third time and ask What are yu called t d? Clssians 2: 1 "Fr I want yu t knw hw great a struggle I am having fr yu and fr thse in Ladicea and all wh have nt seen me face t face, that their hearts may be encuraged as they are brught tgether in lve, t have all the richness f fully assured understanding, fr the knwledge f the mystery f Gd, Christ, in whm are hidden all the treasures f wisdm and knwledge. (New American Bible) Gen 28:20-22: Jacb then made this vw: "If Gd remains with me, t prtect me n this jurney I am making and t give me enugh bread t eat and clthing t wear, and I cme back safe t my father's huse, the LORD shall be my Gd. This stne that I have set up as a memrial stne shall be Gd's abde. Of everything yu give me, I will faithfully return a tenth part t yu." (New American Bible) Other Questins: 1. What are Gd s riches? Which are the mst imprtant nes? 2. Des Gd prvide ur fd and clthes as Jacb says? If s, hw? 3. Tithing is the traditin f giving 10% f yur incme t charity. What d yu think f this? What wuld stp yu frm ding this, even as a teen? 4. What are the signs f greed in smene yur age? What is Materialism? As the wrd itself signifies, Materialism is a philsphical system which regards matter as the nly reality in the wrld, which undertakes t explain every event in the universe as resulting frm the cnditins and activity f matter, and which thus denies the existence f Gd and the sul. It is diametrically ppsed t Spiritualism and Idealism, which, in s far as they are ne-sided and exclusive, declare that everything in the wrld is spiritual, and that the wrld and even matter itself are mere cnceptins r ideas in the thinking subject. Cathlic Encyclpedia 1

2 Hw d we cmpare with the rest f the wrld? Us (as is U.S. r yurs Prer 20% f the wrld truly) Incme $34,000 $300 CO 2 emissins 10 tns 0.1 tns Fssil Fuels cnsumed 20% f the wrld supply Nne (they dn t have electricity) Paper cnsumptin 760 punds/year Less than 1 pund/year Water used per persn (includes industrial) 1300 gallns Mst have n clean water. There is nt ne tap in the cuntry f Guatemala which has drinkable water. The average American cnsumes 60 times as much as a persn in the prest areas f the wrld DOES MONEY BRING HAPPINESS? CONSIDER In the 1990s, the Irish were happier than the much richer Germans and Japanese. Peple wh t g t wrk in veralls n the bus are just as happy as thse wh drive t wrk in their wn Mercedes. Happiness amng the Frbes 100 richest Americans is nly slightly higher than average Americans. Lttery winners return t the same state f happiness within 8 weeks f winning (euphria des nt last!). Between the 1950s and tday, ur incme is twice (in tday s dllars), but ur happiness is much lwer. Teen suicide is up x4, divrce x2. Frm The Price f Privilege by Madline Levine. 2

3 Mre n Mney and Happiness $550 millin will buy yu a lt f... misery By Melissa Dahl, NBC News, Nvember 28, 2012 Yu surely knw by nw that the Pwerball jackpt is set t hit at least $550 millin tnight. Yu shuld als knw that yur dds f winning the grand prize are smewhere arund 1 in 176 millin (at least, we really hpe yu knw that). S here's a bit f cmfrt fr yu tnight as yu stare dejectedly at yur lsing ticket: Mst lttery winners dn't end up any happier than the rest f us. Yeah, yeah, yu can prbably name 550 millin reasns why winning the jackpt tnight will make yu happy. But here's the truth: A handful f psychlgy studies ver the years have evaluated the happiness f lttery winners ver time, and fund that after the initial glee f getting ne f thse big giant checks has faded away, mst winners actually end up n happier than they were befre hitting the jackpt. Arguably the mst famus paper n this subject was published the late 1970s, and it's a dzy: Psychlgists interviewed winners f the Illinis State Lttery and cmpared them with nnwinners -- and, just fr gd measure, peple wh had suffered sme terrible accident that left them paraplegic r quadriplegic. Each grup answered a series f questins designed t measure their level f happiness. Stefanie Graef hlds what she hpes is the winning Pwerball ticket she just bught at Circle News Stand n Tuesday in Hllywd, Fla. If she's lucky, she wn't win. What they fund was cunterintuitive, t say the least: In terms f verall happiness, the lttery winners were nt significantly happier than the nn-lttery winners. (The accident victims were less happy, but nt by much.) But when it came t rating everyday happiness, the lttery winners tk "significantly less pleasure" in the simple things like chatting with a friend, reading a magazine r receiving a cmpliment. "Humans tend t have a relatively set pint f md," explains JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES Gail Saltz, a New Yrk City psychiatrist and frequent TODAY cntributr. Mst peple tend t bunce back t that set pint after a majr life event, whether it's smething negative r psitive. But fr sme lttery winners, psychlgists believe hitting an especially huge jackpt may alter that happiness baseline, making it harder t see the jy in everyday things. D yu buy this? What brings happiness? Is it a chice? 3

4 SIMPLE LIVING Simple living is the radical idea f rganizing ur lives arund Jesus mandate t lve each ther and applying it t everything we d each day. This wuld mean re-rdering ur pririties based n a few simple principles: Our purpse in life is t lve and care fr thers; In ur lving, as it is said by physicians, first d n harm t ther peple here and arund the wrld, r t Gd s creatin; By fllwing these principles, we reduce the burden we place n Gd s peple and his creatin, and we re-fcus ur lives n sustaining peple, cmmunities, and the earth. As Gandhi said, we live simply, s that thers might simply live. Be warned: this is nt fr the faint-f-heart! It takes knwledge, skill, effrt, and cmmitment, and we may be ridiculed r attacked by thers. Few f us in 21st Century America want t hear abut the prblems we are causing, much less d anything abut them, s many peple will resent ur way f living and try t stp us. S if yu begin t live authentically and simply, sme flks might think yu are an extremist, unpatritic, r at least an ecnmic ignramus. And if yu g n t becme an ut-spken advcate fr Christian simple living, yu may lse sme friends, but yu'll als gain sme great new nes! HOW DO WE MAKE THE SHIFT FROM CONSUMER LIVING TO SIMPLE LIVING? The first step is t make a realistic assessment f ur daily living values t see if they are really in sync with Jesus' teachings abut hw we shuld value mney, things, psitin, ur families, and ther peple. Obviusly we shuld be valuing peple and their needs far abve having a large salary, lts f stuff, r a 'cnvenient' life. This is easier said than dne fr mst f us. But withut having made this emtinal values-shift, it is hard t live simply because we spend a lt f time ratinalizing-away many f ur habitual self-interested cnsumer behavirs s that we dn't really have t change much in the end. Once we have really made the shift frm ur values t Jesus', the rest is very intuitive. We can then begin t live mre simply... By Stpping the thughtless purchase, use, and discarding f all thse things we dn t really need in the first place. Instead, we can: Buy less f what we want, and buy nly enugh f what we actually need. 4

5 Nt sthe ur egs n ever-trendier, bigger, faster, r mre cnvenient appliances, gadgets, and ther pssessins. Use envirnmentally, ecnmically, and scially cnscius values when buying thse few things we actually d need, including large items (hmes and cars), and small things (detergent and paper). Use energy-efficient and minimally plluting appliances and tls. Recycle everything, because in Gd's ecnmy, there is n garbage and everything is valuable. And By Starting t use ur time and mney fcusing, instead, n truly imprtant things like nurishing relatinships with ur families and cmmunities, serving thse wh need ur help, and wrking harder fr justice, here and abrad. This, after all, is the pint f the Gspel - lving and caring fr thers rather than manipulating the wrld, its peple, and its resurces, s we can have an easier life. Questins: 1. D yu have any clthes yu have wrn nly nce r twice? 2. What cell phne apps are really necessary? Is a smart phne necessary at all? 3. D yu care what brand f clthing yu wear? If s, why? What is the extra cst and what culd be dne with that mney? 4. When yu get a chance t purchase yur first car, will it be a fuel efficient hybrid r a sprts car? 5. D yu carry arund a reusable water bttle r d yu use and thrw away dispsable water bttles? 6. What can yu stp ding nw t live mre simply? 7. What can yu start ding nw t live mre simply? Gratitude is desiring what yu already have. 5

6 Faith in Actin Create Yur Own! Ideas fr thught: ᵻ Hw can I live mre simply? ᵻ What are the things in my life I culd live withut? ᵻ What changes can I make? ᵻ My gal fr lent is This week I learned I wish I knew mre abut The thing I liked best abut this week was Befre ur next sessin I will _ This week I was mst inspired by because 6