Sunday Readings' Discussion Questions
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 10, 2011 (15A)
From the Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University
Sunday Mass Readings
Podcast of the Readings
Video of Reflections on Readings
Lecturas y Comentarios
Prayer of the Hours
BQ: Is it Better to Pray or To Study the Faith?
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Questions on Sunday's Readings for use by discussion groups,
prayer groups, or for individual prayer.
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First Reading
Is 55:10-11
1. Isaiah says that the rain and snow come down giving seed to those who sow and bread to those who eat. There is much to unpack in such a statement. What about the sacredness of creation? What about the action of God’s Word, which God says is like the rain and snow? And how does all this affect you?
2. Rain makes the seed germinate and grow. Apply this to God’s grace. Now apply it to God’s grace in your life.
Responsorial Psalm
65:10, 11, 12-13, 14
1. The Psalm says that 'the fields' and the 'valleys' shout and sing for joy. Do you also feel like shouting for joy after you have been showered with God's living water? Explain.
2. Even the seed that falls on good ground will require watering in order to yield a fruitful harvest. Where does the water come from that enriches our faith and inspires us
to be God's witnesses?
Second Reading
Rom 8:18-23
1. “All creation is groaning in labor pains.” Birth pains are inevitable, but why? Suffering is not necessarily a good thing, but what can make it good?
2. How can you help redeem the world? Do you jump at the chance to labor? Do you readily offer your suffering? How do you handle pain you can’t avoid?
Gospel
Mt 13:1-23 or 13:1-9
1. Jesus mentions “cares of the world and lure of wealth” as rocky ground and thorns that keep the seed from taking root. What is your “rocky ground”? Are you a busy pathway where the Word is sown but then is trampled? And can the thorns of worldly anxiety choke the Word when it comes to you?
2. How can you move toward being rich soil? Can you still have rich soil in spite of many obstacles? Name some people you know or some saints who still produced a hundredfold in spite of obstacles.
Online Sunday Bible Study Group
Please share below your reflections on the Sunday Readings. May we be blessed by God's words as reflected in your thoughts and experience-sharing.
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“The Lord has visited the land and watered it;
ReplyDeletegreatly has he enriched it.”
Water is so critical for a place like the Holy Land,
as it is here in the arid climate of Southern California.
Without water we could not produce any fruit.
We are blessed that “God's watercourses are filled;”
and he provides us with an abundant harvest.
We also depend upon the Lord to supply us with what
Jesus called the ‘living water’ that satisfies
our spiritual thirst.
Jesus is the Word that drenches us,
adorns our year with plenty.
How else could we bear fruit?
With his showers he softens the land,
blessing its young sprouts (that is us).
We are like untilled meadows without his word and his grace.
How else could we expect our pastures to be blanketed with grain?
The Lord prepares the earth;
he adorns our paths with fruitful rain.
The hills are robed in joy.
God’s Word is showered down upon us,
and does not return to God void;
we do his will;
we are his witnesses;
we keep the faith.
Amen