Category: Catholicism

Sunday Lectionary: Death, where is thy sting?

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Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: July 1st, 2012

There are a number of common themes found among the Reading for Mass this week. Death is the subject our First Reading from the Book of Wisdom and it is found again in our Gospel. The theme of Faith in God’s saving power is also present. In our psalm we sing “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me” and in our Gospel Reading we hear of two such individuals who reached out to Jesus in faith and were blessed.

As we come to the Eucharist this week, let us fall at the feet of Jesus, reach out with expectant faith, praying for the Lord to restore us to the fullness of life.

In times of spiritual cooling and laziness, imagine in your heart those past times when you were full of  zeal…remember your past efforts and the energy with which you opposed those who wished to obstruct your progress. These recollections will reawaken your soul from its deep sleep, will invest it anew with the fire of zeal, will raise it, as it were, from the dead and will make it engage in an ardent struggle against the devil and sin, thus returning to its former rank. -St. Isaak of Syria

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Leading Bible Study

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Saturday was the last installment of my “Do’s and Don’ts of Leading Bible Study” series. I’ve decided to create this short post to aggregate all the different entries in the series:

Part 1: Preparation
Part 2: Beginning the meeting
Part 3: Starting the discussion
Part 4: Fostering discussion
Part 5: Tricky issues
Part 6: Concluding thoughts

Bonus: Feedback #1
Bonus: Feedback #2
Bonus: Feedback #3

I have used this blog series to capture some of my experience in leading Bible study, as well as record some of the hard lessons I’ve had to learn. It is my hope that this will be a useful resource for anyone new to leading a Bible study group, such as the many new people we’ve recently had leading in the JP2 Group.

DO: Be welcoming…just not too much…

When I began this series, I had hoped that there would be more discussion. Unfortunately, despite these posts getting a large number of hits, there was fairly little feedback in the Comment Boxes.

Therefore, over the next few days I’m going to be emailing this post to everyone I know who has been involved in leading Bible studies, discussion groups or are involved in leadership in some kind of way 🙂

I invite you to do the same 😀

Even if you’re not a Bible study leader, what have been some good experiences and bad experiences you’ve had in a Bible study group?

What, in your opinion, makes for a good Bible study?

Leading a Bible study: Part 6

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Today is the final post in my series on leading a Bible study (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5). Here are my concluding Do’s and Don’ts:

DON’T: Forget the heart
I’m a very “head” oriented person. When I study the Bible I like to pull apart texts, examine the words, look at the historical background and get straight to the meaning of the text. It is only after I’ve done all this that I’m ready to engage with the Scripture on a “heart” level. However, I know that in this I am an oddity! I find that most people engage with Scripture on an emotional level much earlier in the process. Therefore, to lead an engaging bible study I must accommodate this and allow people to respond emotionally to the Scripture before we’ve dissected every technical detail of the text.

DON’T: Forget the head
…having said that, don’t neglect the exegesis. I have been to Bible studies before which have been nothing more than a “feeling sharing group”. That was all anyone ever talked about, how they felt about the text! The actual meaning of the text wasn’t even examined.

DO: Keep the hippy, tree-hugging stuff to a minimum… 😉

A balance must be struck between head and heart.

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Sunday Lectionary: Called, sanctified and sent

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Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist: 24th June, 2012

After being “fearfully, wonderfully made…knit…in [his] mother’s womb”, we read in this week’s Gospel of how Elizabeth gave birth to a son and how he was named “John”.  It’s a solemnity again! This week we celebrate the birth (“nativity”) of the one who would be the herald of the coming Messiah, John the Baptist:

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”

Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. – Matthew 3:1-6

As we celebrate Mass this week, let us pray for courage to step out boldly as prophets, to speak truth to our world and to prepare the way of the Lord.

The baptized have become “living stones” to be “built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.” By Baptism they share in the priesthood of Christ, in his prophetic and royal mission… “[They] must profess before men the faith they have received from God through the Church” and participate in the apostolic and missionary activity of the People of God. – Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraphs 1268 and 1270 

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Leading a Bible study: Part 4

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Today I thought I’d post the fourth part of my five-part series on leading a Bible study. In the earlier posts (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3) I discussed some Do’s and Don’ts of preparation, beginning the meeting and starting the discussion. Today I would now like to continue to discuss some suggested Do’s and Don’ts of guiding the discussion…

DON’T: Sit inappropriately close. It’s kinda creepy 😉

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