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Posts Tagged ‘12th Sunday Yr B’
Reflection Questions
- The Book of Job shares the deep and painful reflection of suffering with a God who is supposed to be all powerful. Job is invited to look to creation to see just how powerful God is. Have you taken the time to look intently at creation, the sea, the clouds, birds, trees, and your life. Are you small or big?
- St Paul shares a profound spiritual experience that shapes Christian living. The love of Jesus is a presence and power within us. It is based in knowing a love so personal; at the expense of one ‘dying for you’. Life now is so under the influence of this love that we mirror this radical love. We no longer life for ‘ourselves’. What do you really live for? Is flesh your guide? Is love your guide?
- Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. Have you ever pondered the depths of this to recognise what a new creature is? Something new. Something different. God seeks to shine through your life, gentleness, forgiveness, holiness, purity, actions to lift up the poor. Do people see the qualities of Jesus in you? ‘God’ in you? What ‘old qualities’ do you wish to leave behind?
- The Gospel of Mark reveals Jesus extremely busy and so many people coming to him that his Mother and cousins were worried about him. We see Jesus take time to pray early in the morning and ‘leave the crowds’. Do you ‘cross to the other side’ and go to quiet places for rest and reflection? Do you create a regular ‘space’ and ‘place’?
- The image of Jesus in the boat has always been understood as an image of the Church. Sometimes the Church experiences violent storms, great waves smashing the boat, the feeling of sinking and disaster. Cries and prayers have gone up to Jesus throughout history ‘do you not care’…. ‘we are perishing’. What waves can you name entering the boat of your life? The Church? Which attitude lives in your heart, fear or trust?
- In the gospel stories the Disciples were so stunned by Jesus calming the storm, they bowed down and worshipped him. Consider great struggles in your life, moments of feeling ‘terrified’. What happened? Can your faith help you to see and believe all of creation ultimately ‘obeys’ God. Does this make you feel calm?
- As Jesus commands, so can you in prayerful union with Jesus command Quiet. Be still. Can you be truly quiet and still, at peace, conscious of living in the world of God’s chapel / presence. The experience of many is 20-30mins is the start of stillness and resting. How could you respond to the challenge of becoming ‘quiet and still’?
- What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?
Download Reflection – 12th Sunday Yr B – Feast of John the Baptist
Reflection Questions
- The celebration of the Birth of John the Baptist is a very early christian celebration dating back to the 4th century. John is like a bridge, linking the Old Testament and the New Testament. He is the greatest of prophets pointing to the promised Messiah – Jesus. Today we are reminded of the importance of prophets and people who ‘point the way’. Are we willing to enter the discipline of prayer and having an open ear and heart? Undergo ‘desert training’ of purification and moulding? Are we willing to speak the ‘hard word’?
- Isaiah writes of 4 poems or songs of the ‘suffering servant’. The third song is presented today. Have you ever felt like you had ‘toiled in vain’, ‘spent all your strength’ felt as good for nothing and ‘useless’? Yet God has been gradually using these experiences to make you ‘sharp’. Sanding and polishing you into an arrow, storing you in his quiver, ready to be used to bring God glory. Consider the hard times of suffering. How has this strengthened and sharpened and polished you?
- What do you consider is your ‘calling’ from God. Are you thinking ‘too little’, just being a servant when in fact God wishes you to be a ‘light to the nations’?
- Paul is speaking to Jewish listeners in a town called Pisidia. They understood they were waiting for the promised Messiah, a descendant of David. Paul shares with them this long awaited person – Messiah – has already been and gone! Did they not know!? Many people ‘wait’ for salvation and healing of the world. Have you considered what they ‘wait’ for? Hope to ‘see’? Could they see this in your life?
- An incredible amount of silent work of the Holy Spirit takes place with Elizabeth and Zechariah and John. Naming their new-born boy ‘John’ breaks from custom and shows they are obedient (to the Angel and the Spirit) and open to the new way of God working. Painfully, John will not follow his Father and be a priest in the Jewish Temple. Instead he will leave the city and be part of the Qumran community in the desert. He will eventually emerge as a prophet calling God’s family to wash again in the waters of the Jordan – renew and start again the entry into the promised Land, this time truly becoming a ‘light for all nations’. Consider the experience of Elizabeth. Zechariah. John. Disciples of John. Jewish people. What part of John’s life can you identify with? What part do you rebel from?
- ‘What then will this child be’? Circumcision, 8 days after the child is born, marked ‘baptism’ and ‘belonging’ to God. Have you prayed openly to God for your children, brothers, sisters, for the grace of baptism and their ‘special calling’ to be stirred up and real? To become strong in spirit? What gifts do you see in them? Have you spoken to them about this?
- The desert has a special place in the memory of Jewish people. It was a place of God luring his chosen bride and people closer to him. It involved testing, proving, preparation. Could you create more desert time in ‘prayer’ so you can hear from God how you are to ‘manifest’ ‘show’ and live your life in the Church (Israel)?
- What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?