- Acts 2: 14: 22-33
- Psalms 16: 1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
- 1 Peter 1: 17-21
- Luke 24: 13-35
- Finding your voice
- Peter must have felt himself a total failure at Jesus' crucifixion, but Jesus showed him mercy and forgiveness, and caused a resurrection in Peter that was a true transformation. Peter had been afraid to speak up, but he found his voice.
- Speaking up can happen in many ways. We can "speak up" by giving our time, talent, treasure away. We can speak up by written and other artistic forms of expression. We can speak up by helping the poor.
- How do you "speak up" about the Kingdom?
- Do you think that your voice is making a difference?
- Do you feel called in your work?
- If not, why not?
- My Body in Confidence
- Most of us have one of two relationships to our own body: it's working pretty well so we take it for granted, or for one reason or another, we're uncomfortably aware of it and it's slow evolution as we grow ever more aged. But there's a third option, we can learn to listen to our bodies.
- When you get tense, or tired out, or anxious, where does that emotion tend to center in your body?
- Do you ever stop to ask yourself why you are feeling that way, or do you just "power through it" since you probably don't have time to try to deal with such things as feelings?
- Have you ever "sat down" with your body and try to figure out why it's feeling the way that it does?
- What has it told you lately?
- Divine Mercy
- The Good News of Jesus resurrection is not so much an affirmation of God's power as it is a lesson in God's ability to transform disappointment, betrayal, suffering, death into abundant life. But we have to find hope first.
- When have your hopes been dashed in life?
- How did you handle that disappointment?
- How did you learn to hope again?
- What do you hope for lately?
- Faith sharing
- Things can happen in our lives that isolate us, and make us feel as though we're all alone. That could be a dire medical diagnosis, a death close to us, depression that won't go away. Those are the times that we must stand fast in our discipleship and weather the storm.
- Have you ever felt alone, as though you were going through something that no one else would really understand?
- What did you do to try to get through that time of isolation?
- How did you finally make it through?
- What did you learn about such occasions in your life?
- Do you think that you're prepared for the next one?
- Preparation for Reconciliation
- Where might God be calling me to work for justice in some small way?
- Where might God be speaking to me through my own body?
- What in my life makes me worry about the way that God sees me?
- Can I trust God enough to share my faith with others?
I'm Forgiven
We had set out for Emmaus to try to pick up the pieces.
Neither of us had any idea what lay ahead of us.
But Jerusalem, the defeated disciples, the triumphant Jews,
None of those had anything that either of us wanted going forward.
Most of all, I worried what I would say to my parents, my siblings.
I had left all of them to follow Jesus. None of them understood.
I could hardly articulate where I was going, why I was going.
I probably sounded mildly deranged to them back then.
Now, now I would be going back home, a mere shell of my former self.
I felt like I had aged twenty years in the past three.
The life had gone from my step, the light from my eyes.
Now, now I was just surviving, only because there was nought else to do.
But then Jesus came upon us, spent the day with us.
Broke bread with us, and in that moment of hospitality -
We knew Him for who He was, who we were with Him -
And who He is within us.
It wasn't until we were half way back to Jerusalem -
The shadows on the road growing longer, and the night growing chill -
That I realized that I had been as big a disappointment to Him -
As He had been to us. But He never left us.
And I realized then that He had forgiven me.
Absolved me of my despair, and doubts, and fears.
Entrusted us with the Good News for the rest of the disciples.
And all Jerusalem, all God's children.
I dropped to my knees and thanked God for seeking me out.
Finding me even as I fled the scene.
Knowing that I would not have the courage to stay.
Certain of my uncertainty.
He is alive.
He is alive in me.
Because I am forgiven.
And now, and now, I can even forgive myself.
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