Summer Sunday Scripture: August 2, 2020
The preparation for Sunday scripture individual and/or Zoom group will be a little different for the summer The group would like to still continue meeting, but Marge and Debbie are going to take a break from curating the support materials. We will continue to provide a link to the readings, and also a link to the St. Louis University Liturgy website which provides a lot of background information on the Sunday readings. If in the course of our other work we come across a video that works for the readings we will put it up as well, but our discussion will primarily be a breaking open of the Word for the weekend.
Zoom Discussion Group
Thursdays 11:00 AM
A link will be sent to you prior to the session.
Please REGISTER HERE
Sunday August 2, 2020 LINKS
How do I approach the Sunday scriptures to prepare to participate in group sharing?
We gather with others with the purpose of hearing God’s voice speak to us personally and through the group. Reading the scriptures first gives one the prayerful opportunity to let God speak to one’s own heart and circumstances. This can be accomplished by approaching the scriptures through a process that leads us to Pray, Know and Follow. We read scripture to develop and deepen our relationship with God/Jesus/Spirit.
Pray - Read the scripture passage slowly and carefully, maybe several times. Notice your first impressions of the passage. Do certain words or phrases grab your attention? Does something make you curious and want to find out more? Does something challenge you?
Know - Even though our main purpose of reading scripture is to be in relationship with our loving God, that does not mean that we do not use our intellect in trying to understand what we are reading. Paying attention to our curiosity and asking questions of the passage can lead us to searching for more information about the book of the bible, the type of literature it may be, what was the history and culture of the time, etc. Reading the bible footnotes or using a bible commentary can help to learn new information to orient the passage. This is done so that we understand the message the author of the passage is trying to convey. Our understanding of this message keeps us from reading the bible literally and with a present day bias.
Follow - Once we have made the effort to Know the message of the passage, we return to our prayerful reflection from Pray. Now we can bring the passage to our own reflection in our everyday life circumstances or the situations of our parish, community and world. Some questions guide this reflection: What is God saying to me/us in this passage? How does this affect my/our life/lives? Do I need to make changes in my/our behavior, lifestyle, attitudes? Do I/we notice God calling me/us in a particular way?
Comments
Post a Comment