RATERTA, ZANDRINA ANN

2H Prof. Arnold Donozo, Ph.

D.

What manifestations of the Holy Spirit can you identify in your own

experience and in the world?

The Holy Spirit manifested mostly when I’m in dire need of help, usually

in hopeless cases. (i.e. law school) I have been struggling since first year, but

somehow I manage to survive not only because of hard work but because of divine

intervention as well. There are times when I just want to stop everything and give

up but the Holy Spirit keeps me going.

How do the gifts, especially wisdom, function in the process of moral

discernment? Without wisdom, we cannot differentiate what is right

from wrong. Moral discernment is something that we adults struggle with

nowadays; the gift of wisdom is the one we use in order to act the way we should.

What is the role of the Christian community in the process of moral

discernment? How does communal discernment factor into your own process of

decision-making?

The Christian Community acts more like our parents, the Christian

Community is that one community who guides us every day to be able to discern

what is right from wrong. It affects my decision making mainly because of the
influences provided by the community, what I see every day, how I feel about it

when I see such situation is where I base my decisions.

What is meant by connatural knowledge?

It is rather a knowledge resulting from an interaction between sensitivity

and affectivity, intellect and will, knowing and loving. It is thus a type of

knowledge caused in some way by the unitive tendencies of man's appetites, in

particular his rational appetite, or will. As knowledge, it is essentially an act of the

intellect; as connatural, it involves appetite and will. Because it is a mode of

knowing involving desire as well as intellect, it is a highly personal act, evidencing

in the concrete that knowing is an act of the whole man, of a person, who knows

through his intellect but whose knowledge is affected, at times intrinsically, by

noncognitive factors. Again, unlike rational, discursive knowledge, connatural

knowledge is directed to the concrete individual, not to the abstract universal.

What is the relationship between prayer and moral discernment?

Prayer is our way of communicating with the Lord, moral discernment on

the other hand is our ability to judge what is just and what is not. These two things

are relevant, prayer is the tool we need in order to help us decide or discern things

moral discernment on the other hand is more of like the outcome of our prayer.