Fourth Sunday of Easter

Our readings for the 4tg Sunday of Easter are:

1. Acts 2: 14a, 36-41
   
2. Psalms 23: 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
   
3. 1 Peter 2: 20b-25
   
4. John 10: 1-10
   

• Courage of your convictions
• Renewal happens when God calls His faithful to find new, and more authentic ways, to celebrate their core identity.
• Do you think that your family could use some renewal?
• How about your parish?
• The whole Church?
• What role do individuals play in such renewal?
• Does renewal ever end?
  

• Transformation all around us
  
• Most of us would wish that our enemies, any obstacles to making forward progress, limitations on what we want to accomplish ... would all just go away.  But God doesn't seem inclined to work that way.
• Think of something/someone/some situation in your life that you thought was unbearable that you now see as gift.
• How did that transformation occur?
• Do you think that could happen to anyone?
• Do you think that such a transformation could happen to anything that comes into our lives?
  

• Drawing closer to Jesus, the hard way
  
• I think that the reasonable among us would wonder why we have to suffer since Jesus did such a thorough job of it in His life.  But it doesn't seem to work that way.
• Where have you found meaning in suffering?
• Is all suffering meaningful?
• Should we seek out suffering?
  

• Living abundantly
  
• If the abundance of God is not to be found in riches, fame, power, where is it to be found?
• What would you think distinguishes a person living an abundant life from someone who is barely surviving?
• How would you like to live more abundantly?
• What's holding you back?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
  

1. Where is God calling me to renewal?
2. Where might God be hidden in my life in plain sight?
   
3. Where is there suffering in my life waiting to be transformed into a grace?
   
4. Where might God be calling me to shed somethings to make room for abundance?
   

Smelling Like Sheep

Lord, grant me the piercing sight of humility,
That I may see myself the way that You do.

Here on this earth to be Your touch, your warmth,
Your mercy to those that you call me to serve.

Moment by moment, no matter how we meet,
No matter how we part.  The touch is all.

All that I have to offer another.
What Jesus offered those who came to Him.

Teach me to close the distance between myself,
And those that I am here to love.

So that I learn to share everything with them,
Especially your throbbing heart within mine.

That I may know and accept them in the way that You do,
And learn to forget they/them and become we/us.

Shalom!