5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Background: There is an ambiguity about Jesus’s mission. As God’s beloved Son upon whom the Spirit has come, both his words and actions have power. And so today we see his compassion towards those suffer in body and spirit. Yet his ministry as healer sometimes seems to get in the way of his call to proclaim the Good News of the kingdom/reign. And so he goes off, alone, to pray and renew his mission.
Discussion Questions
- How have Jesus’s words already brought you healing?
- How does prayer bring you inner renewal?
- Which people need you to bring them healing right now by telling them Good News?
- How can you bring healing to our divided country—not solutions to problems, but healing?
Practice: Find a copy of the song “Here I Am, Lord,” and each day this week spend time in prayer with one of its verses and the refrain. Let the Spirit lead you.
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Background: The lepers were the literal outcasts of Jesus’s society; they “dwelt apart, making their home outside the camp.” So isolated were they that this leper’s first question is not a request for healing but instead: Do you want to heal me? Jesus seems to be trying to teach us not only about healing of the body but also that the Good News is for everybody! God’s compassion is all-embracing.
Discussion Questions
- Have you ever been ostracized? Do you still need healing for that experience?
- Have you ever stereotyped and ostracized others? What might you do to bring about reconciliation?
- Whom has our society ostracized? How can we bring these individuals compassion— even if they are not Christians?
- Whom do you feel our church has ostracized? How can we bring these individuals compassion?
Practice:It is easy to make a donation to United Way or the St. Vincent de Paul society. Consider in prayer this week how you might concretely support the efforts of those who work with the marginalized: single moms, former prisoners returning to society, teenage runaways—especially LGBTQ+ kids. Do you have time or a talent that could help them know that they are not alone?
1st Sunday in Lent
Background: To understand this Sunday’s Gospel, we need to realize that we are jumping back over the unfolding of Jesus’s ministry in Galilee that we have been reading in the early Sundays of Ordinary Time and returning to his baptism in the Jordan. Having received the overwhelming awareness that he was God’s beloved Son, he needs to ponder the implications of that calling. And so he heads out into the desert to pray and there he is tested and tempted. What does this mission involve; and, perhaps more importantly, what does it not?
This is the day when the catechumens publicly state their desire make the promises of baptism, to be reborn by water and the Spirit, and to share in the Eucharist. Hence the references to Noah’s deliverance from the waters of the Flood. Yet it is also the day when the candidates express their desire to be received by renewing their baptismal promises before being sealed with the Spirit and sharing the Eucharist. As we the faithful accompany them on their Lenten journey to initiation, we must join them in that renewal since on Easter we too will be asked to reaffirm our baptism by renouncing sin and professing faith.
Discussion Questions
- How have you already been tested and tempted in your life of faith?
- When did you realize that it was God’s Spirit leading you through that experience?
- How you best bring the Good News of the kingdom/reign to the people in your life who don’t seem to feel any sense of purpose in their lives?
- What temptation has our society fallen into? How can we as citizens bring healing?
Practice: As the journey of Lent begins, find at Online Ministries the prayer that begins “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts…,” and every day picture to yourself the catechumens and candidates in your parish and say this prayer for them and for yourself.
2nd Sunday in Lent
Background: This Sunday’s Gospel recounts the last of three successive episodes that center on Jesus as God’s beloved Son: his baptism, temptation, and transfiguration. Having successfully met the temptations to misunderstand what that calling might mean, Jesus today hears God reaffirms for the disciples that they must “listen to him.” The road of discipleship leads to an awareness of how we are already being transfigured if we follow Jesus.
Discussion Questions
- When did Jesus stop being merely your teacher and became also your savior and Lord?
- When have you seen his power transfigure other people? How has faith transformed them?
- What do you want this Lent to transfigure in you?
- How good are you at bringing what you seen on the mountaintop with you down into the plain of ordinary life?
Practice: Find the icon of Christ the Teacher online. His right hand is preparing to make the sign of the cross in the way that Eastern Christians use with three fingers joined to profess the Trinity and two joined to profess that he is both divine and human. His left hand is holding the Gospel out to you. Each day meditate upon this image; then pray for the catechumens, candidates, and yourself. When you finish, pray Ps. 25, 4-10.
