Discussion Questions

First Reading

Proverbs 8:22-31

F1. The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” If God’s love is the source, what has been poured into your own heart? Can you sense the presence of the Holy Spirit there?

F2. Why would God include us intimately in the divine love of the Trinity? Does that give reason to hope? What would the world look like without hope?

Second Reading

Romans 5:1-5

S1. “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” If God’s love is the source, what has been poured into your own heart? Can you sense the presence of the Holy Spirit there?

S2. Why would God include us intimately in the divine love of the Trinity? Does that give reason to hope? What would the world look like without hope?

Gospel

John 16:12-15

G1. Does the Spirit change your understanding of revelation? What is the source of your own sympathies? Can understanding of divine love be exhausted? Have you ever reached a place where “you could not bear” more knowledge of love?

G2. According to Pope Francis, what does the Trinity teach us about not being an island?

To understand this better, let us think of the names of the divine Persons, which we pronounce every time we make the sign of the cross: each name contains the presence of the other. The Father, for example, would not be such without the Son; likewise, the Son cannot be considered alone, but always as the Son of the Father. And the Holy Spirit, in turn, is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. In short, the Trinity teaches us that one can never be without the other.

We are not islands; we are in the world to live in God’s image: open, in need of others and in need of helping others. And so, let us ask ourselves this last question: in everyday life, am I too a reflection of the Trinity? The sign of the cross I make every day the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—is that sign of the cross we make every day a gesture for its own sake, or does it inspire your way of speaking, of encountering, of responding, of judging, of forgiving?

Pope Francis Homily
May 23, 2021
Anne Osdieck

**From Saint Louis University