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Tag Archives: spirituality
The Advent Season
22 OctAdvent is right around the corner! Check out our Advent Resources page to download free resources for your parish, family, and friends, order Sunday by Sunday, or to participate in a free online Advent retreat focusing on the holy women of the Gospels.
Prayer for the Burning Amazon Forest
16 Oct
Loving God, the Amazon is on fire!
We come before you with a heavy and contrite heart.
We know your heart must be deeply grieved
as you hear the cries of the innocent trees, creatures,
rivers and indigenous communities as their home burns.
We pray that in your mercy, you will forgive us
for our way of life, for we have created the markets
for beef, timber and minerals taken from the Amazon.
We pray that you will forgive those who have set the fires
in the Amazon, those who have cut down the ancient trees,
those who plunder its precious resources,
to fulfill human desire for things.
Oh God, your mercy is infinite.
Only your power can save us from choosing destruction,
Grant us your grace to turn to better and kinder ways of living.
Rain down your love to heal the scorched earth and its inhabitants.
May your love, justice and peace reign for all creation always.
In the name of your son, Jesus the Christ, we pray. Amen.
Prayer by Clare Westwood
Day 7 of the synod meeting in Rome features the indigenous peoples of the Amazon region. Follow this link to read what they say. Join your prayer with theirs.
Is Your Bible Study Ready to Go?
11 OctIf you mean to start a bible study in your parish or among your friends, we can help. This fall the Sunday Gospels are all from Luke. We have three books that are bible-study friendly.
Luke’s Gospel: Written for Us is a short, easy to use introduction to Luke’s best parables and stories. Guaranteed to make any bible group one people won’t want to miss.
Holy Women of Luke’s Gospel is a bible study, a prayer book, and a visual way to reflect on Luke’s gospel.
Holy Women, Full of Grace, profiles the unique women of Mark’s gospel. Read a few sample pages and you will see how this book helps a group pray and reflect together.
You do not need a trained leader for these bible studies. Just a commitment to time together. Let us help you make this fall a time for growth in the gospel.
Order online or call Lacy at 800-232-5533. Thank you!
Check out our website! Come to goodgroundpress.com for daily prayer, free online retreats, links to social justice websites, and free seasonal posters and family activities!
Gospel Reflection for October 6, 2019, 27th Sunday Ordinary Time
4 OctSunday Readings: Habakkuk 1.2-32.2-4; 2 Timothy 1.6-8,13-14; Luke 17.5-10
“Increase our faith, Lord.” – Luke 17.5
Faith is a setting of our hearts on what or who is ultimate. Faith has power. It lives in us. Like a seed it holds life and generates new life. A smidge can move mountains. The message speaks to our time when many confess they hang on to faith by a thread. Scandals in the church have disheartened many, and so has treatment of those in our families who are gay, lesbian, trans, Q. But a thread is enough, according to Jesus.
A question is enough, even a doubt. Curiosity, engagement, disgust can take us to a threshold that invites growth.
Faith lives in the currents of our relationships. Faith ties our lives to those we trust and thank. Faith grounds us in existence and purpose. Faith is about to whom and to what we belong.
Faith is to our conscious lives what blood is to the body; it sustains and animates our whole selves. Faith is our heart for embracing life, its giver and sustainer, the incomprehensible mystery of it all.
Often we inherit faith. In the sentence before Sunday’s second reading begins, the apostle Paul recalls how his protege Timothy came to believe in Jesus. “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I’m sure lives in you” (2 Timothy 1.5). Had there been a woman on the committee deciding the passages to read, the extra verse might have made the cut.
Why does so little faith go so far?
If you enjoy this Gospel Reflection, please visit the Sunday By Sunday page to order a subscription or to view sample issues. Start a small bible study. Be a leader.
What power does faith have?
3 Oct
How does our faith strengthen us? According to Jesus in this Sunday’s Gospel even a smidgen of faith is enough. Our part is to live the faith we have.
Sunday by Sunday has a reflection on faith that can hearten you. Consider becoming a subscriber. You will receive a reflection on the Sunday scriptures for the whole year, in the form of easy-to-use, 4-page handouts, one for each week. If faith is to sustain us in these chaotic times, we need to nourish it and share it with others. Sunday by Sunday can help do just that.
Call 800-232-5533 to place your order. We will send it out the same day, so you won’t miss a Sunday.
Visit our website—goodgroundpress.com—to explore our other spirituality resources.
Gospel Reflection for September 22, 2019, 25th Sunday Ordinary Time
20 SepSunday Readings: Amos 8.4-7; 1 Timothy 2.1-8; Luke 16.1-13
A rich man summoned his manager and said, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager anymore.” Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what I will do so that when I am dismissed as manager, people will take me into their homes.” – Luke 16.2-4
The dishonest manage forgives his boss’s debtors–50 of the 100 gallons of oil for one debtor and for another 20 of the 100 bushels of wheat owed. When the rich boss praises the dishonest manager, Jesus’ parable upends our usual way of looking at things. The self-serving manager does reduce the debts of the poor, carrying out what Catholic social teaching calls a preferential option for the poor.
The owner makes little of having his profits plundered for the sake of the powerless but instead admires the manager’s skillful exploitation of his accounts to create a future for himself. Luke’s gospel does not let the self-serving manager go without criticizing. Luke attaches a series of Jesus’ sayings to the parable, which pass judgment on dishonest people. The sayings insist that whoever is dishonest with a little cannot be trusted with a lot. No one can trust a cheater. No one can serve two masters.
The safest investment, according to the parable, is to throw in our lot with the poor–to serve God rather than pursue wealth. Jesus’ parables calls us to apply as much ingenuity for the sake of the poor as we do to exploit the poor for the sake of the economy.
How do you benefit from the labor of the poor? How do you invest in people in need?
If you enjoy this Gospel Reflection, please visit the Sunday By Sunday page to order a subscription or to view sample issues. Start a small bible study. Be a leader.
“Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.”
19 Sep
The feast day for St. Francis is October 4th. Francis lived a life of peace, joy, and simplicity. He loved and served the poor and throwaway people. He has made his way down the centuries into our hearts. Explore Francis’s practice of generosity, prayer, and more in Living Like Francis Today. Only $5.50. You can view a sample chapter and order online at goodgroundpress.com or give us a call at 800-232-5533.
