27th Sunday in Ordinary TIme

Our readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Genesis 2: 18-24
2. Psalms 128: 1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
3. Hebrews 2: 9-11
4. Mark 9: 38-43

• Life with you is a gift
• If you knew that your spouse was going home to Jesus in a day, how would you spend that last day?
• If you knew that they had a week?
• How about a month?
• How much of that time would be spent thanking them for all that they have been for and to you through the years?
• What's to keep you from telling them that today?  Before you start that conversation, reassure them that you are feeling just fine.

• The fruit of your handiwork
• None of us likes to have the results of our hard work snatched away before we get a chance to enjoy it.  But sometimes, our work yields different fruit than we anticipated.
• When you were a teenager, where did you think that you would be by now?  For my part, I figured I would be dead of old age.  After all, to my mind at the time, why would anyone in their right mind even want to live to be 64?
• What do think would be a just reward for all of the work that you have put in over the years in your life?  Maybe a great retirement, the respect and admiration of your children, grandchildren coming by to visit regularly, a glowing article on you in Wikipedia. ...?
• How do you think that God rewards His children?
• Do you think that's just?

• You have a friend in me
• One of the things that I love at the Mater Dolorosa retreat center in Sierra Madre is their outdoor stations of the cross.  They are about 3/4 scale, and when I really give myself over to the experience, I feel a deep sense of Presence going through them.
• We are comfortable singing "what a friend we have in Jesus".  How are you a friend to Jesus?
• Have you ever just sat in His presence, just for the sake of being there?
• If you've never tried it, what do you think might happen?
• If you have tried it, what would you like to happen there?
• What do you think makes it a good prayer session from Jesus' perspective?

• In for the long haul
• I've often thought that it's a mercy that marriage is for life.  It's looking as though it's going to take me about that long to get the proper hang of it.
• For those of you married, how does your spouse complement/complete you?
• For the rest of you, what would you like to see in your spouse?
• How is your relationship with your spouse different from any other relationship?
• How does that relationship to your spouse color/change your relationships with others?
• If the two of you met each other for the first time today, and both happened to be single, do you think that you would strike up a relationship?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Where is love calling me to be appreciative?
2. How is God rewarding me right now?
3. Where is Jesus asking for my companionship?
4. Where is love calling me to be more generous of the both of us?

Shalom!