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Rhetorical Devices and Persuasive Discourse Functions in Relation to Themes Rhetorical

3.2 Research proper

3.2.5 Presentation of data in tables

3.2.6.2 Rhetorical Devices and Persuasive Discourse Functions in Relation to Themes Rhetorical

Device A.LOGOS-BASED 1.Testimonial References

Persuasive Discourse functions

Validating messages

Token

Faith in Jesus Christ is a commitment that is to be nurtured so that it can grow…As faith is nurtured, the commitment progressively grows until it reaches the point where the believer lives with Christ, crucified with Him. Paul expresses this well in Galatians 2:20: ―And it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me…‖

The Council Fathers further made it clear that this love has to become a habit, a pattern of life, in fact, a culture when they insisted that this love is not something reserved for important matters, but must be exercised above all in the ordinary circumstances of daily life (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, 7 December 1965, No.38).

In accordance with Can. 1249, all Christ‘s faithful are obliged by divine law, each in his or her own way, to do penance at all times, but especially during Lent.

…baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental conversion. It is by baptism that one renounces evil and gains salvation, that is, the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new life (CCC 1427).

It would be a perversion of love to reduce it to sex and its

corollaries. Pope Benedict XVI speaks of this reductionist view of love as a ―debasement of the human body‖ (Deus est Caritas,

Theme

Faith

Love

Repentance

Repentance

Love

Text

(LTF, p.17)

(TML, pp.45-46)

(CTC pp.

13-14)

(CTC, p.7)

(LALG, p.

8)

53 2.DeductiveR

easoning

Appealing to the rationality of the audience

5).

According to St Ignatius of Antioch, where there is Christ Jesus there is the Catholic Church (Ad Smyrrn. 8, 2)

Since without faith, we cannot hope to please God and if we have faith we can move mountains, let us always pray Almighty God to give us that faith which shows itself through good works.

Since love is basic and fundamental in every activity of our life, it follows that the authenticity of our lives depends on the extent of our love. To the extent we love, to that extent we are Christians, to that extent we are children of God. Love therefore is the measure of our life.

Because the people of God, that is, the Church of the Living God is a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people (1Peter 2:9), and because He who called them is holy, they must be holy in all their conduct because it is written, Be holy, I am holy (1Peter 1:15-16).

There is no Church of Christ which is not historically built on the foundation of Peter. Peter definitely died but his authority to strengthen the brethren, to feed the flock of Christ, to safeguard the keys of Heaven and to bind and loose in the Church would not have died with him. This authority passed on to his successors…the Bishops of Rome. They have by unbroken tradition inherited the authority of Peter. Thus the Bishop of Rome called the Pope…is the visible symbol of the authenticity of the Church founded by Christ which subsists in the Catholic Church…

Loyalty

Faith

Love

Repentance

Loyalty

(FFF, p.23) (IYHF, p.52)

(TML,p.40)

(FFF,p.43)

(FFF,pp.11 -12)

54 3.Inductive

Reasoning (Examples)

4.Definitions

Appealing to the rationality of the audience

Supporting

theses of

arguments

Your faith has saved you! Many people heard these words from the mouth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Centurion who showed such a faith that was not found in Israel heard:

….The Canaanite woman‘s faith in Jesus drew the response from the Master…. The woman who had haemorrhage for twelve years and had spent all her money on doctors without getting well put her faith in Jesus…and heard the words…Jesus healed people because of their faith…

This endeavour of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a ‗contrite heart‘ drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first (CCC.1427). St Peter‘s conversion after he had denied his master three times bears witness to this. Jesus‘ look of infinite mercy drew tears of repentance from Peter and, after the Lord‘s Resurrection, a three-fold affirmation of love for him.

Out of love God created the world (Wis. 11:24)…Even while regretting having made human beings because of their wickedness…God still saved Noah from the flood…Still in pursuit of the desire to relate intimately with human beings, God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. In spite of their infidelity to the terms of the covenant, God remained faithful…God promised to make a new covenant…In Jesus, God took human flesh and dwelt among us…From the above, one sees that God…is like a father who out of love cares for and follows up his children.

The Christian faith is more than a persuasion of the mind to accept or rely on a certain truth. It is primarily a conversion of souls to accept the Spirit of God through Christ, live in the truth of such acceptance and bear fruit of such acceptance in order to convert the world for an ultimate paradise/heaven.

Faith

Repentance

Love

Faith

(WWF, p.70)

(CTC, p.7)

(RBGN, p.12)

(OEO, p.6)

55 5.Compariso

n (Analogy)

For vivid

explanations

Holiness does not require some kind of extraordinary existence possible for a few uncommon heroes. Holiness demands the fidelity of each Christian to his/her vocation…Christian holiness contributes to human progress by showing the people of our times the proper scale of values and the supremacy of light over darkness, life over death and eternity over time.

Love of neighbour means seeing the image and likeness of God in my fellow human being, seeing him or her with and through the eyes of God. Love of neighbor is recognizing and respecting the uniqueness and otherness of the person of the neighbour as a human being and an image of God. It is in effect seeking and willing the good of the person…

Religion is not a question of making God an instrument of satisfying a person‘s needs. Religion is a person‘s complete submission to the Truth, to the will of God…the truth is: ― For it is through Christ‘s Catholic Church alone, which is the all-embracing means of salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained‖ (Unitatis redintegratio, no.3)

An attempt to limit the transformation of the world to only her material conditions is like growing a child without building his mind and spirit upon which real growth and maturity are measured…A man can grow tall and strong enough to lift an iron. He may have the intelligence to construct a machete. But he needs the guidance and power of the spirit to know when, how, and what to use it on. It is the mistake of our present day to dream of a world where God is either forgotten or denied.

Living without faith is one of the sins of our materialistic world However long and detailed our plans for a journey may be, it is

Repentance

Love

Loyalty

Faith

Repentance

(GCTR, p.19)

(LALG, pp.37-38)

(FFF, p.60)

(OEO, p.14)

(RBGN,

56 (Metaphor) For vivid

explanations

only when we step out and embark on it that one can be said to be on a journey. Similarly, repentance is not about wanting and planning to turn back to God but actually making a decision and taking steps to live up to that decision.

Interestingly, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus appealed to His Father to spare Him from the Cross… God heard His prayer by ‗refusing Jesus‘ wish…and seemingly abandoning His only begotten Son. Like Jesus, the groans and sighs of the sick, the barren, the bereaved, the oppressed, etc., rise up daily asking

―my God, my God, why have you forsaken me.‖ But as in the case of Jesus, we see that God never abandons His people…we have the assurance of His Word, that for those who love Him, God turns everything, whether felt as good or evil byus human beings, for their good (Rom. 8:28).

He [Esau] surrendered his birthright to Jacob for a mess of pottage! Later, their father through the ruse of Jacob and their mother gave the blessings of the firstborn to Jacob instead of to Esau. The girls who because of marriage abandon their Catholic faith can be likened to Esau. They sell their birthright and title to eternal salvation for marriage.

Under the difficult and dangerous circumstances, they [the early missionaries] sowed the seed of faith and nurtured it. It germinated, blossomed and borefruits in our first Christians_

the pioneers of faith in Awgu diocese

There are abundant warnings in the New Testaments against the poisonous weeds of false doctrines and teachings

…His Holiness, Pope John Paul II calls us to win the world with the weapons of love

Love

Loyalty

Faith

Loyalty

Love

p.20)

(RBGN, p.17)

(FFF, p.

78)

(LTF, p.4).

(FFF,p.48)

(TML,p.11)

57 6.Nominalisa

tion

7.Passivisatio n

Objectifying the validity of ideas

Objectifying the validity of ideas

Our Christians must swim against the prevailing current of moral and spiritual decadence by mounting the noble platform of true Christian living.

The present challenge of the Christian faith among our people is no longer mere adherence. The challenge is not just to believe or to be baptised. Majority now profess to be Christians.

What remains is to bear fruit, fruit of faith which shows itself in good works of love and hope. The challenge is to deepen our faith, and bear witness to the great treasure which is the gift of faith we have received both individually and collectively.

.

The call for ongoing conversion as the indispensable condition for authentic Christian witnessing in our society is very important because we seem to be destroying the very foundation of an ethically correct version of human existence.

This Lenten Pastoral is an invitation to open ourselves to God who is love and to renew our love commitment at every level of personal and societal life.

Hold on to the Catholic Church, ―the Church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth‖ (1 Tim. 3:15) and the Ark of Salvation. In the age of confusion and various attractions to cheap practice of religion, this call to fidelity and steadfastness becomes all the more urgent and important.

As children of God and more so, as members of God‘s family, we are called to walk by faith and live by faith.

By repentance, weare all invited to change our mentality, our

Repentance

Faith

Repentance

Love

Loyalty

Faith

Repentance

(GCTR, p.15)

(IYHF, pp.27-28)

(GCTR) p.15

LALG, p.48)

(FFF, p.82)

(IYHF, p.20) (WWF,

58 8.Syntactic

parallelism

Emphasising ideas for easy grasp

way of thinking and seeing things. There has to be a radical transformation of the whole person to align the person properly in the way of the Lord.

On the cross…we see clearly the cost of God‘s commitment of love to humanity. In like manner, we are challenged to commit ourselves to the good of others even to the point of shedding blood.

We are called to embrace and remain faithful to the Catholic and Apostolic Faith handed over once and for all to the Apostles.

Indeed we have many fears: we fear evil spirits and evil men;

we fear witches and wizards; we fear ghosts and goblins; we fear sorcerers and medicine men; we fear pain, sickness and suffering; we fear childlessness and lack of male children;

finally we fear death.

Theirs was a community under obedience and willingly learning in trust and belief the teachings of the apostles. Theirs was a community where brotherly love (Philadelphia) thrived.

Theirs was a community of prayer, and constant prayer meetings in the temple and in the homes. Theirs was a reverent society living in an awe of the sacredness that was their faith and hope. Theirs was a community of sharing benefits and burdens without deceptive exploitations and lies.

Theirs was a community of worship and praise to God for his goodness. Theirs was a community of miracles both by God directly and through them (Acts 2:4-7)

There may be no easy solutions to the many problems of life as long as we continue to abhor the virtue of love. There may

Love

Loyalty

Faith

Repentance

Love

p.58)

(RBGN, p.27)

(WWF, p.36)

(LTF, p.33)

(OEO,p.10)

(TML, pp44-45)

59 9.Antithesis Emphasising

ideas for easy grasp

be no end to wars and tumults among the nations; there may be no end to destructions of lives and property; there may be no end to shamelessness, foolishness and ignorance; there may be no end to the culture of impunity; there may be no end to armed robbery and such destructive tendencies, yes, there will be no end to the troubles and cares of our lives until we live lives of love or allow love to influence the principles of our existence.

I believe in theHolyCatholic Church. I believe in the Church founded on Peter. I believe in the Church which has remained faithful to the patrimony of Peter. That Church called by the Fathers, the Catholic Church, is the object of my faith.

…we walk by faith not by sight. If we have the eyes of faith, we will see miracleswhich happen every minute of the day.

But if we have no faith, we may only look for sensuous miracles which we may not see.

The mourning meant…is not one caused by bereavement, affliction or loss; but a mourning induced by an awareness of one‘s infidelity through sin and rejection of God‘s love and goodness by others.

Without love our societies will turn into a nursery for crime and injustice. With love we can evolve human societies and culture, which will be founded on truth, built on justice and enlivened by love.

God calls us to peace not to disorder. (1 Cor. 14:33). When the manifestations produce peace and unity, they are from God for God‘s work…When they produce hatred, dissensions, antagonisms, rivalry, bad temper, quarrels, disagreements,

Loyalty

Faith

Repentance

Love

Loyalty

(FFF, p.28)

(IYHF, p33)

(RBGN, pp.28-29)

(TML,p.42)

(FFF, p.73)

60 10.Obligation

/Necessity modals