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Archive for the ‘Desire’ Category
Printable Discussion Guide is HERE
Reflection and Questions
• The Book of Wisdom was written for Jewish people living in cities heavily influenced by Greek culture and philosophy. Wisdom teaching was to remind them of their history and relationship with God. People are to learn from the patience and gentleness and forgiving nature of God and show this in their own lives. How can you be both ‘just’ and ‘kind’? Does your use of power show itself in being ‘lenient’ and gentle to all?
• Last week the Spirit dwelling within us was referred to as a ‘first-fruits’. A first installment. An engagement ring looking forward to the promise of the wedding day! St Paul today provides a beautiful image of the presence and power of the Spirit at work in us. The Spirit prays within us in a unique way
to God. Have you experienced a time of wanting to pray to God but not having words to describe how you
feel. What prayer intention does your body and spirit ‘groan’ with to God? Do you recognise that this experience can be a powerful prayer? Offer this groaning today to God in prayer.
•Weeds. Seeds. Yeast. Each image expresses something of the way that God and God’s project (growing the Kingdom of heaven) is present and alive in the world. Allowing wheat and weeds to grow together is risky farming. What is your emotional reaction to the presence of good and evil existing alongside each other? Within you? Can you glimpse the patience of God?
• The mustard seed is the smallest seed, yet within a year it can turn into a shrub large enough to be mistaken for a tree. From very small beginnings it becomes something extraordinarily large. Can you identify a small action of love and service that made a profound impact on you? Can you recognise that your daily ‘sowing’ mustard seeds of justice and forgiveness and gentleness, builds the kingdom of heaven? What ‘seed’ needs to be sown most in your workplace / home today?
• The humble presence of a small amount of yeast in a large quantity of flour dramatically transforms a flour mixture into bread (three measures would feed 100 people). Jesus challenges disciples to be this type of ‘presence’ in the world. Yet the kingdom requires a person to be completely possessed by a small
seed: love your neighbour as yourself.
• Parables often hide a challenging message. The apparent power of evil. The littleness of the ‘seeds’ of our loving. The small amount of our ‘yeast’ in the vastness of the world and its problems. Yet the mustard
seed is tremendously fruitful. The yeast succeeds in transforming flour. Hope is at the centre of kingdom
living. The ‘righteous will shine’. Can you live full of hope – refusing to be beaten by the reality you see?
• What is one action that you will do to ‘livetheword’ this week?
Printable Discussion Guide HERE
Reflection and Questions:
• Zechariah makes a prophesy that the Saviour will enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Horse and Chariot were symbols of power and war. A donkey was a symbol of humble work and peace. Horse and Donkey. Power and Humility. Violence and Service. Why does the world favour a horse, God a donkey?
• “Meek” is a word mentioned twice in todays readings. It comes from a Greek word meaning ‘not easily provoked’. It can also be translated as ‘teachable’. Think of a person feeling anger yet staying in control, open to listen and learn and respond with justice not violence. Meek people lead the way in reconciliation, healing. They are open to learn rather than being locked into a closed thinking pattern. Who could you identify as ‘Meek’? What practice could you adopt to develop a meek (teachable) character?
• ‘Flesh’ is Paul’s expression for a life lived without God, like an animal just following its senses. A ‘Spirit’ led life is open to God and turned outward in love. How do you experience the disciple’s tension of ‘flesh’ and ‘spirit’? Which life do you feed and nourish?
• In chapters 11-12 Matthew is teaching about Jesus’ identity as Messiah. Matthew has Jesus replace Moses as the great teacher. Jesus is the Wisdom of God; greater than the Torah (Law given by Moses) and all the Prophets. ‘No one knows the Father except the Son and to whom the Son wishes to reveal him’ is a knowledge claim by Jesus. He challenges the idea of Jesus as a comfortable teacher or earthly King. What is Jesus claiming? How does his claim challenge me today?
• Jesus says learned religious figures struggle to accept him, yet ‘little ones’ (the poor, unlearned, simple folk, manual workers) accept him. Jesus was shaking up all the accepted patterns of religion and society. Why do you think learned people found his claims so difficult? How does pride and position impact our ability to be meek (teachable) and humble? When we are heavily invested in our understanding of life we can become ‘comfortable’ and ‘satisfied’. How does that block our ability to be ‘open’? Are you satisfied with the answers about your life? How have you made Jesus comfortable? What challenge of Jesus is
hardest to be ‘open’ to?
• The Torah (OT Law) handed down by Moses required knowing and being obedient to 613 laws. This was a ‘heavy burden’. People felt oppressed by the rules and those enforcing them (Sadducees, Scribes, Pharisees). Jewish people referred to this as the ‘yoke of the law’. Jesus invites a radical change. ‘Come to me’ all who are feeling heavily burdened. I will give you rest. Put on my yoke. Learn from me’. The Torah is being replaced by relationship with the person of Jesus who is choosing to be yoked with us. A wooden ‘yoke’ put around the bullocks neck was tailor made, avoiding painful imbalance or abrasions and it
evenly distributed the load. An experienced bullock was paired with a young one to teach it how to work in tandem to bear far more than it could do on its own. What does this image convey to you? How are you experiencing the ‘yoke’ of Jesus? Are you trying to go it alone or are you working with Jesus?
• What is one action that you will do to ‘livetheword’ this week?
Printable Study Guide and Resource is HERE
Reflection Questions 
• In this key reading from Exodus, we enter that special moment in the growing covenantal relationship with God when the LORD tells Moses on Mt Sinai, that he has chosen Israel to be his own possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation formed of the twelve tribes. This covenant is an outgrowth and extension of the Lord’s covenant with Abraham 600 years earlier. (Gen.15:9- 21, 17). God remains true to His covenant no matter how people may fail. What does that tell you about God’s character?
• The imagery calls the people to remember God’s faithfulness in freeing them from slavery and raising them up on Eagles wings. They would have been familiar with Eagles nests on craggy peaks where chicks were tenderly kept safe and cared for. They would have also seen Eagles teach their young to fly by bearing them on their wings, releasing them and then swooping underneath them to gather them onto their wings if they floundered. Living in God’s love involves ongoing growth, failure, and return. When have you sensed God keeping you safe or challenging you to stretch and grow?
• The authority of God, (… all the earth is mine), is clear, yet God views Israel as precious and holy treasures even when they fail to uphold the covenantal relationship. God’s mercy is always underneath our failures, calling us to trust and try again. Share or talk with God about your fears and failures, and your desire to fly high. How are you being encouraged to holy living and freedom in your life?
• St Paul uses the terms ‘reconciled’, ‘justified’, and ‘saved’. What do these mean to you? To reconcile is to end separation and hostility. God is not hostile to us, but humanity is often hostile to God. Because of that hostility and sin, we fail the human side of the covenant. We are not ‘right with God’ (righteous). God’s faithfulness to the covenant results in Jesus becoming one with us. Jesus enters our human condition and reconciles us to God and one another within himself. Jesus overcomes our sin and its consequences through his love and obedience as both God and man. Only in Jesus, can we be ‘right with God’. In his absolute self-giving love for both God the Father and sinful humanity, we can be made holy and justified. Sharing in the Resurrection life of Christ will lead us to share in his glory. We are saved with Christ; we are being saved day by day through Christ and we shall be saved in Christ at the
final judgement. Where do you hear those three words ?
• God was always the shepherd of Israel. When Jesus called the twelve, he formed the new Israel, a new ‘twelve tribes’ to make God’s Kingdom of mercy, healing, peace, love and care available to all. This is the mission of every Christian. God calls each of us by name. How open am I to responding to God’s call to serve those around me with care and courage in Jesus’ name?
• How does knowing God’s tenderness toward you help you share the Kingdom?
• What at is one action you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?
Pope St John XXIII said, “Consult not your fears, but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”
This resource prepared by Bev McDonald, Lay Marist in the Auckland Diocese; ACSD.
Discussion Guide: 3rd Sunday Yr. A – Follow Me
![Daily Bible Reading Devotional [Matthew 4:12-23]-January 25, 2017 – Dust Off The Bible](https://dustoffthebible.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Matthew-4.19.jpg)
Reflection Questions: • The Prophet Isaiah remarks that the land called ‘District of the Gentiles’ (the area around the sea of Galilee) will see ‘a great light’. Imagine a small narrow road linking one part of the world with the other. This is the ‘Holy Land’ (Israel). It was a very busy trading route. Consequently there were many ‘foreigners’. For Jewish people it sometimes felt like a curse. However in God’s plan the light shines brighter in the darkness. Have you ever experienced being lost in darkness and then helped by a light? What happened. What is Isaiah trying to teach us about God?
• St Paul continues his writing to the people of Corinth. He is upset that their witness and service to Christ has turned towards arguments rather than charity. Have you ever felt a group of people wanting you to ‘belong’ to ‘their idea’? Have you had an experience of ‘division’ in the community or workplace or parish, people claiming the same purpose but not united in ‘mind’? Did you seek to understand ‘both sides’ and seek unity, or, did you grow division?
• Today in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus leaves his home town of Nazareth and arrives in Galilee. Fulfilling the 1st Reading prophecy of Isaiah, Jesus spends most of his 3 years of public ministry between 3 towns in Galilee. As the new year begins do you feel it is time to leave your ‘Nazareth’, your place of comfort, and enter ‘Galilee’ to undertake a new challenge? How could you be a light to ‘people who sit in darkness’? Those overshadowed by death, sickness, sadness?
• In the time of Jesus, the phrase Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom of God were special. Everyone was waiting for the time when God would finally overcome the power of evil. Essentially Jesus begins preaching a ‘wake up’ call: ‘change your mind (repent), take notice, God is now showing victory over evil! This is the good news. Have you ever noticed Jesus both preaches and heals. Words and actions go together. How does your life bring the kingdom of heaven and contribute to the overcoming of evil? Is your faith words and actions?
• Fishing was the main industry around the sea of Galilee. Peter, Andrew, James and John were probably not ‘poor’. Boats, nets, family, work colleagues, commitments and bank accounts are significant for them (and us!). Yet they are placed second to Jesus’ invitation to follow. Is the presence of your life curing and comforting (disease and illness?) or comfortable and callous? If you had to write a sentence of what you thought God would personally like you to do / be, what would you write?
• What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?
Discussion Guide: 3rd Sunday Advent Yr. A : Sorrow and Mourning Will Flee
Reflection Questions: • The 3rd Sunday of Advent is known as ‘Gaudete Sunday’ because a joyful first reading always points to the joy of Christmas about to arrive. The Prophet Isaiah has images of people being returned ‘home’. Isaiah 35 paints a picture of exiles being returned back to Jerusalem. But they were a little scared of all the hard work ahead of rebuilding homes, growing crops. Do you look into the future feeling afraid? Have you been able to see ‘parched land’ this year change to ‘abundant flowers’?
• God ‘saving’ his people is prophesied to take place with wonderful ‘signs’. The blind see, deaf hear, lame leap, mutes sing. Can you imagine these are the most life changing events that could take place for someone. What would need to happen to cause you to ‘leap’ and ‘shout’ for joy? Does Jesus bring this experience into your life? How? Why not? Share this conversation with God for an advent prayer. There are many tragedies in our world. How do you live in the hope and joy of Christ’s return in glory, while sharing care & solidarity for the suffering?
• Patience is needed when you wait for someone or something that does not come at the expected time. You quickly realise you need to hold on to a positive attitude or frustration even anger will creep in. Trusting in the faithfulness of a friend, or remembering their strong relationship with you, allows you to endure the hardship and maintain hope that they will ‘arrive’. Can you remember an experience of waiting for a friend to arrive? What happened? In your life what gives you confidence and trust in God? What does God’s future ‘coming’ mean for you?
• John the Baptist has a special friendship with Jesus. Yet, John is confused. Jesus is not ‘fighting’ the military powers of Rome. And certainly not breaking John out of his imprisonment. He asks painfully: ‘Are you really the one we are waiting for’? Jesus refers to the prophesy above of Isaiah. Special signs are being shown but they are different from what people wanted or expected. Do you sit back ‘waiting’ for God or get involved in completing the work of God… helping people regain their life, sight, walk, cleanse peoples lives of a leprous state? Stand by or Stand in for God?
• When people were normally expected to go to the Temple, many walked in another direction out to the ‘desert’ to hear a different message. How could you prepare for Jesus at Christmas differently than you have ever done before? Reconciliation? Shopping? Fasting? Slowing down? Sharing with your children?……
• What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?
Discussion Guide: 32nd Sunday Yr. C – Walk worthy – Glorify Him
Reflection Questions: • The stories of the Mother and 7 Brothers in the book of Maccabees aims to share Jewish Hero stories. While under persecution from Roman Emperors it was helpful to look to examples of great courage and faithfulness to Jewish teaching and tradition. It is best understood not primarily as exact history, but faith lessons taught via story. It was the Macaabean family that stirred up a revolt against Syrian authorities and drove them out of Israel. These young brothers along with their Mum defiantly proclaim their belief in the resurrection. If in the midst of a violent persecution, where would your heart and thoughts turn to?
• St Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they are not to sit idle, waiting for the end of time. They are to do all they can so that the Word of the Lord may speed forward… and keep on ʻdoingʼ what they have been instructed to do by Paul. This requires the ʻendurance of christʼ. How would you rate your discipleship journey at present. Idle? Speeding forward? What do you require endurance in?
• Sadducees were the elite priestly class that served in the Temple. They only believed in the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and did not consider other writings or oral traditions as binding. Consequently they did not believe in the Resurrection. They sought to involve Jesus in a conversation that would cause others to ridicule him. Their view of marriage was a Levirite view. Marriage continued the family line and stopped a family dying out. Jesus challenges the Sadducees not to think so narrowly. In death we are changed, not ʻdeadʼ. And there is more to marriage than maintaining children. Have you ever considered that Marriage is to symbolise the union we will have with God in heaven?Marriage is a sign pointing to a heavenly reality. When you are in the ʻrealityʼ of the restaurant you no longer need the ʻsignʼ for the restaurant. What does this teach you about Christian Marriage?
• Celibacy and Chastity are connected with Marriage as they seek to live the ʻrealityʼ of union with God in heaven instead of living the ʻsignʼ of God in marriage. Can you see how priests, sisters, brothers, consecrated lay people, married people are all ʻpointingʼ to the same reality? Have you ever had difficulty understand the vow of ʻchastityʼ that religious people make? Do you understand a little more now?
• In celebrating the recent All Souls Day (November 2nd) did it stir up within you thoughts of resurrection and your belief in the after-life. How would you say the Resurrection affects your life ʻnowʼ?
• What is one action that you will do to ʻlivethewordʼ this week?