Accountability and Support
“Two are better than one: They get a good wage for their toil. If the one falls, the other will help the fallen one. But woe to the solitary person! If that one should fall, there is no other to help. So also, if two sleep together, they keep each other warm. How can one alone keep warm? Where one alone may be overcome, two together can resist. A three-ply cord is not easily broken.”
– Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Monthly Focus on Action
“I will make you fishers of men.”
M1. What apostolic success did the Lord accomplish through me during the past 30 days to extend the kingdom? In my family? In my work? In my environment?
M2. With what apostolic failure did the Lord wish to test me during the past 30 days? In my family? In my work? In my environment?
M3. How did I fulfill last month’s plan?
M4. What do I need to work on?
Discussion Questions for June 28, 2019
Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time
First Reading
Genesis 18:20-32a
In those days, the LORD said: "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great,
and their sin so grave,
that I must go down and see whether or not their actions
fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me.
I mean to find out."
While Abraham's visitors walked on farther toward Sodom,
the LORD remained standing before Abraham.
Then Abraham drew nearer and said:
"Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?
Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city;
would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it
for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty
so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike!
Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?"
The LORD replied,
"If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake."
Abraham spoke up again:
"See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord,
though I am but dust and ashes!
What if there are five less than fifty innocent people?
Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?"
He answered, "I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five there."
But Abraham persisted, saying "What if only forty are found there?"
He replied, "I will forbear doing it for the sake of the forty."
Then Abraham said, "Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on.
What if only thirty are found there?"
He replied, "I will forbear doing it if I can find but thirty there."
Still Abraham went on,
"Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord,
what if there are no more than twenty?"
The LORD answered, "I will not destroy it, for the sake of the twenty."
But he still persisted:
"Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time.
What if there are at least ten there?"
He replied, "For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it."
First Reading Discussion Questions
G1. What do you learn about God in this reading? How does God respond to the persistence of Abraham, who keeps on bargaining? What does this tell you about God’s justice and mercy?
G2. What do you learn about Abraham in the story? What behavior of his would you like to imitate? How important were persistence and candor to him? What are God and Abraham willing to do because of their covenant?
Second Reading
Colossians 2:12-14
Brothers and sisters:
You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead
in transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.
Second Reading Discussion Questions
S1. Why would Christ’s action allow the children of God to ask the Father for all they need, or allow us to ask and know what we will receive, as in today’s Gospel?
S2. The reading refers to Jesus as “ … having forgiven us all our transgressions; obliterating the bond against us … ” The New Jerusalem Bible translates this as “ … he has forgiven us every one of our sins. He has wiped out the record of our debt to the Law, which stood against us.” Which translation makes it easier for you to appreciate what Jesus did for us?
Gospel
Luke 11:1-13
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test."
And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,'
and he says in reply from within,
'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.'
I tell you,
if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.
"And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
Gospel Discussion Questions
G1. How is the sleepy father an example of God in this parable? How are they different? Do you have confidence that God will hear you knock on his door? What do the readings this week do for your confidence? Do you think God already knows all your prayers of petition? Are your prayers of thanksgiving spontaneous?
G2. Reflecting on this Gospel of Luke during his daily Mass homily, Pope Francis tells us that prayer is a courageous “knocking at the heart” of God with a strong unwavering faith that he will respond. What is God’s ultimate gift to us when we do this?
Do we get ourselves involved in prayer? Do we know to knock at the heart of God? … The Lord never gives or sends a grace by mail: Never! He brings it himself!
What we ultimately discover in our asking for various things, (is that) the true grace and answer to our prayers is God's gift of himself to us.
When we pray courageously, the Lord gives us the grace, but he also gives us himself in the grace: the Holy Spirit, that is, himself! Who comes to bring it to me. It's him. Our prayer, if it is courageous, receives what it asks for, but also that which is more important: the Lord. …
Let us not embarrass ourselves by taking the grace and not recognizing him who brings it to us, him who gives it to us: the Lord.
Pope Francis, Vatican City, Oct 10, 2013
**From Saint Louis University & Anne Osdieck
Suggested Strategies for Managing the Clock
For those with smaller groups or those who have the luxury of enough allotted time, it is suggested that the group cover each question from the monthly focus through the Gospel discussion questions
For those with larger groups or don't have the luxury of operating on God's Time, it is suggested that the group cover the monthly focus question and then feel free to skip around and attempt to answer only a few questions - whether that’s just the gospel, or the second reading and gospel, etc.