Has the question ‘What is the meaning of my life?’ ever crossed your mind?
What are we here for?
What’s the reason behind this life?
It’s a big question. Whether you believe in God or if you're active or inactive in your faith, we all ask it. We all wrestle with it in one way or another. Subscribe now to receive weekly content related to this theme and how we can find the answers through Following Jesus.
Weekend Bible Readings to spend some time with the Word.
This Week's Homiles: https://sjlibertyville.podbean.com/
Reflection Questions
1) “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16). How do you react to this? How ought this impact what fills our time and lives?
2) What do you think makes it hard for some people to accept God’s saving love?
3) What are the top 3 challenges to following Jesus?
4) Do you agree with this statement: if we don’t start with God’s saving love, we fall into the trap of thinking that our faith is just a list of obligations and tasks to procure salvation like any other commodity. It’s so much more than that! It’s a response to the Love of God? What difference would an intentional awareness of God’s saving love make in a person’s Catholic faith?
Weekend Bible Readings to spend some time with the Word.
This Week's Homiles: https://sjlibertyville.podbean.com/
Reflection Questions
1.) All four: Pray and Worship, Connect and Invite, Serve, and Learn, have to be part of our lives in order to really fill our lives with what matters, and to live life the way it’s meant to be lived. How would you imagine someone engaging in all four steps in, say, the timeframe of a month?
2.) Off the bat, which step do you feel you can grow in the most? Why? Which are you most eager to learn about?
3.) Pope Benedict XVI said that the whole life of faith is grounded on the Greatest Commandment and the Great Commission (Deus Caritas Est 14). What is your reaction to this? How well are we doing as a church in regards to both of these? How are you doing?
4.) When you look at the “serve” step, see more than “volunteering”. It’s really about having a servant’s heart, a heart like Jesus. It’s about being a person who is there for others, being a champion of the people around you, in big ways and small. What can this actually look like for you? Your group? Where in your life would this be most challenging?
Weekend Bible Readings to spend some time with the Word.
This Week's Homiles: https://sjlibertyville.podbean.com/
Reflection Questions
1.) Think of the strongest relationships you have. What makes those relationships strong? Might some of these principles apply to your relationship with Christ?
2.) Is there a Scripture passage that has had a strong impact on your life or that you turn to in times of need? What is it about that passage that you connect with?
3.) When we are talking about learning about Jesus and His teachings, we are also talking about getting to know someone in a real, close, honest, and trusting relationship. Learning in the Catholic context is not just head knowledge. How do you deepen your relationship with Christ? Is there more you want to do?
4.) We bear more fruit through Jesus’ Word. It prunes us, his Word keeps us in shape so we produce fruit. Have you ever experienced this yourself? In others?
5.) Is praying with Scripture one of your daily habits? How might it fit into your daily routine? Is there another step you can take to grow through Scripture?
Weekend Bible Readings to spend some time with the Word.
This Week's Homiles: https://sjlibertyville.podbean.com/
Reflection Questions
1.) What is your reaction to the statement in the video: “Acknowledging God as God through worship is key to remembering who we are and why we are here”?
2.) We weren’t built for false gods or putting other things above God. Like anything else, when we do something we weren’t designed to do, we break. Have you seen this “breaking” in your family, your church, the world, or in yourself when other things are put above God?
3.) Have you considered yourself to be worshipping God at Mass? Which parts of the Mass feel worshipful for you?
4.) How can you be more intentional about worshipping God on Sunday? Daily? What’s your next step in Worship and Prayer?
Weekend Bible Readings to spend some time with the Word.
This Week's Homiles: https://sjlibertyville.podbean.com/
Reflection Questions
1.) Have you ever heard anyone give a powerful testimony about faith? What made it powerful?
2.) Have you ever articulated your own faith story? If you had to put together an “elevator pitch” of how your faith has impacted you, what are some things you might share? (Hint: “Cradle Catholics” also have a testimony through maturing in faith).
3.) Pope Francis once observed that “There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent Without Easter” (Evangelii Gaudium 6). What do you think he meant by that? What are the necessary ingredients for a joyful Church family that attracts people to be part of it?
4.) Is there someone in your life who is not Christian who you can start to pray for and eventually invite to the parish?
Weekend Bible Readings to spend some time with the Word.
This Week's Homiles: https://sjlibertyville.podbean.com/
Reflection Questions
1.) If we come to church only to receive, and not to give to God in worship and connect with one another in community, we are missing out on all that being part of a church family is supposed to be. We are supposed to be the ultimate place of community and belonging this side of heaven. What happens to our community, world, and Church when we don’t act like the ultimate place of community this side of heaven? What happens when we do?
2.) “As a body is one though it has many parts...so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). Currently, how would you describe your connection with the Body of Christ, the Church?
3.) What are the biggest barriers to strong church community? How can we work to overcome them?
4.) Wrapping up this series, what has left the strongest impression on you from these 6 sessions?
5.) What’s your next step after this series to keep Following Jesus?