Discussion Questions

First Reading


Acts 8:5-8, 14-17

1. Why did the crowds “pay attention” to what Philip was saying? What gets your attention in spiritual matters?

2. The Samaritans saw many signs and were filled with “great joy.” What are the signs of the presence of God in your life? Do such signs fill you with joy? Can you think of these signs as “everyday miracles”? Is it a “miraculous” sign when you see people on the news taking truckloads of food to the starving children of South Sudan?

Second Reading


1 Peter 3:15-18

1. Does your life indicate that the Spirit inspires you? How do you “sanctify Christ as Lord” in all of life’s arena: home, government, church, world, and all creation?

2. St. Peter was the writer of this Second Reading. How does he recommend answering someone who asks about your hopefulness? In the gospels, do we find Peter always true to his advice? Did he do a lot better after he received the Spirit? Will the same Spirit help you?

Gospel


John 14:15-21

1.“Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” If studying or reading or discussion are your only approaches to God, what else is needed, according to this reading? How does love impact knowledge and understanding in any friendship?

2. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth. … ” According to Pope Francis—quoting St. John Paul II— is the Holy Spirit able to untie the most “knotted” human affairs? Is there some small way you can allow the Holy Spirit to use your creativity to help untie the knots of hunger, gun violence and climate change?

To believe that the Holy Spirit is at work in everyone means realizing that he seeks to penetrate every human situation and all social bonds: ‘The Holy Spirit can be said to possess an infinite creativity, proper to the divine mind, which knows how to loosen the knots of human affairs, even the most complex and inscrutable.’ (from St. John Paul II)

Evangelium Gaudium, 178

Anne Osdieck
 

**From Saint Louis University

Kristin Clauson