Weekly Readings Reflections: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Our readings for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

As we mature in prayer, we gradually learn that God is far more than a vending machine, and prayer far more than merely putting coins into that vending machine and choosing what we want from it.
How do you decide what to pray for?
Think of a time when you desperately needed something from God, and prayed for that devoutly, for a long time.
Did your prayer change any along the way?
How?
Why?

Creative folk fear "writer's block", that horrible moment when they realize that they have nothing left to say, that no amount of discipline is going to rescue them, that they just need to ride it out.
What about God do you find inspiring?
What has God inspired you to do lately?
What do you think God might do to make that inspiration easier?

Hebrews 1: 1-3 describes Jesus as the refulgence of God's glory. When do you feel most in touch with that glory? Is it maybe in prayer, at the end of the day as the sun sets and you think back over how God was present with, in, and through you, when you gather around the table with family ...?
These epiphanies in your life, what do they have in common?
What makes you more open, more sensitive to those divine revelations?
How can you become more sensitive to God in the day to day?

Possibly the most corrosive thing that can happen to us is to lose our sense of purpose. Our days begin to melt one into the next with no accomplishments worth noting to punctuate the time, we feel worthless and useless.
Why do you get up in the morning most days?
What does that have to do with your faith?
How did you find your purpose in this life?
Do you think that purpose ever changes?

How has my prayer changed me lately?
What about my life could/should inspire others?
Where is God revealing Himself through me?
What am I doing to give the better parts of me a better chance to grown and develop?

Shalom!

Weekly Readings Reflections