Week Six

Prayer Before Study and Reflection

COME, HOLY SPIRIT

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the Hearts of Your faithful and kindle in us the Fire of Your love.
Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be recreated
–And You will renew the face of the earth, (Ps 104:30).
Let us pray:
O God, Who did instruct the hearts of Your faithful people by the Light of Your Holy Spirit, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer for Week Six:

Hail, Holy Queen

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To you do we cry,
poor banished children of Eve.
To you do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
your eyes of mercy toward us,
and after this exile
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.
O clement, O loving,
O sweet Virgin Mary.

Required Reading:

Compendium Questions 177-217

Suggested Reading:

Catechism of the Catholic Church 870-1065

Formulas of Catholic Doctrine

The three theological virtues:

1. Faith
2. Hope
3. Charity

Reflection Questions:

1. “By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will. . . . It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer.” (CCC 898) How do you illuminate and order your temporal things to glory of God? What might you need to do in this regard?

2. Lay believers are in the front line of Church life; for them the Church is the animating principle of human society. Therefore, they in particular ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the common Head, and of the bishops in communion with him. They are the Church (Pius XII, Cf. CCC 899) What are your thoughts on this?

3. Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit maybe produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit – indeed even the hardships of life if patiently born – all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives.” By so doing they will impregnate culture and human works with a moral value.” (909, 901) We could spend hours talking about this. Take this paragraph word by word. Pray with it and share your reflections.

4. How do you foster your communion with the saints: (1) those in heaven, (2) purgatory and (3) the faithful on earth? Address each individually.

5. In regards to the communion with the saints the catechism says: “In this solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the communion of saints, the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all. Every sin harms this communion” (953) Discuss this social element of charity and sin.

6. Penance has rightly been called by the holy Fathers “a laborious kind of baptism.” This sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation for those who have fallen after Baptism, just as Baptism is necessary for salvation for those who have not yet been reborn (Council of Trent). Do you take advantage of this God-given gift in a way that reflects that it is necessary for your salvation and for the charity/good of one another? How?

7. We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.” (1033)

8. Contemplate and discuss  these sayings/prayers about death and eternal life: 

I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die. ^– Theresa of Avila

I am not dying; I am entering life. ^– Therese of Lisieux 

Lord, for your faithful people life is changed, not ended. When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven. – Roman Missal 

How does your understanding and faith in death need to change?