Feast of the Holy Family

Our readings for Holy Family Sunday are:

1. 1 Samuel 1: 20-22, 24-28
2. Psalms 84: 2-3, 5-6, 9-10
3. 1 John 3: 1-2, 21-24
4. Luke 2: 41-52

• Avoiding attachments
• One of the central themes of Ignatian training is avoiding disordered attachments.  Essentially avoiding clinging to anything that at all.
• Have you ever had something perfectly healthy for you leave your life?  That could be a beloved friend, a job, a relative, your first Camaro.
• How did that separation make you feel?
• Why do you think that happened to you?
• Did you ever get "over" that loss?
• Should you?

• Dwelling with God
• If someone asked you to tell just who you are, where would you start?
• With your current career, your family background, where you live, ...?
• Why is it that those things define you?
• If any of them were to change, would that necessarily change you?
• Which communities, large or small, do you belong to?
• How do those define you?
• Did those connections come about because of who you are, or are you who you are because of those connections to others?

• Well I've gotten ...
• In the play The Man of La Manch, Don Quixote's loyal servant Sancho Panza is confronted by a friend who wants to know why Sancho is following this strange man.  Sancho begins to tell of all of the things that have come his way because of his devotion to Don Quixote.
• Why is it that you feel that you have a relationship with God?
• Is it because of things that you've gotten?
• Is it because of things that you feel, graces that you've received, accomplishments that God has given you ...?
• If any/all of those were to "dry up", would you abandon God?
• Why?

• What does it all mean?
• I find it funny (take that adjective in both senses if you will) that we never do anything to commemorate Jesus being found in the Temple.  After all, if they hadn't found Him, the Gospels might have been a lot shorter.
• Mary and Joseph ended up in Jerusalem to observe Passover.  What are some of the traditions that you observe in your family?
• What do those traditions mean to you these days?
• What did they mean to you when you were growing up?
• Which ones are worth passing along to the next generation?
• Why is that?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What in my life am I attached to that I should not be?
2. Where are the relationships in my life that I need to nurture more?
3. How unconditional is my love for God?
4. What traditions in my life need to be rejuvenated, passed along, abandoned?

Shalom!