Discussion Questions for October 6
1. Confession: What insight from the video or the chapter made you rethink your attitude toward confession?
2. Do you have any questions or concerns about going to Confession?
3. Have you been using your Prayer Tracking Card? How has your life improved with a more consistent approach to daily prayer?
4. Do you feel empowered when you have the answers to questions people ask about Catholicism? What could you do on a regular basis to increase your knowledge about the Catholic faith so that you will have more and
more answers to share with others?
5. On page 115, Matthew Kelly says:
How hard is it to walk humbly with God? It is as if I lit a candle and gave it to you to hold, and told you to take it everywhere you go and never let it be blown out. You would have to protect it, wouldn't you? You would have to move slowly, thoughtfully, and deliberately. It would require conscious living: thoughts, words and actions that spring from an awareness of who we are and what we are here for.
This is what is required to walk humbly wit God. The candle is within you. When you have learned to carry and protect it, then you will be able to live justly ---to choose what is good, just, true and noble in every situation---and love tenderly.
The candle is within you. Protect it. Don't let the world blow it out.
Discuss the quote above.
6. Write down your habits. Are your habits helping you become a better-version-of-yourself or are they self-diminishing?
7. If you want your future to be different from your past, there is only on way: Change your habits. Discuss this.
8. What made the saints extraordinary was the ordinary. Kelly states this on page 121. Can you explain this?
9. Whom will God raise up to be great saints in our own day? Can you see any examples of holiness that you can share?
10. Matthew Kelly says that we become the stories that we listen to. What is he saying on pages 125-126?
11. Discuss: "Cahtolicism is not a lifeless set of rules and regulations; it is a lifestyle.
12. If you could change anything about the world, what would it be?
Kelly says "Whatever change you desire for the world, create that change in your own life. You are here for a purpose. Seek it out. Hunt it down."
13. Things that are self-destructive and that make me a lesser person are obstacles to my living the call to holiness and walking with God in my life. The secular culture propagates the myth that there is no such thing as sin or evil, no objective truth and no universal right or wrong. Some choose secularism over Catholicism. It is not that they do not see the difference. It is a choice we each have to make. Discuss this.
14. Why is the Sacrament of Reconciliation so difficult? Why is it a gift for each of us?\\15.
15. Does Kelly's analogy of driving from the car wash with a clean car and participating in the Sacrament of Reconciliation one that make sense to you? (pages 154-157.
2. Do you have any questions or concerns about going to Confession?
3. Have you been using your Prayer Tracking Card? How has your life improved with a more consistent approach to daily prayer?
4. Do you feel empowered when you have the answers to questions people ask about Catholicism? What could you do on a regular basis to increase your knowledge about the Catholic faith so that you will have more and
more answers to share with others?
5. On page 115, Matthew Kelly says:
How hard is it to walk humbly with God? It is as if I lit a candle and gave it to you to hold, and told you to take it everywhere you go and never let it be blown out. You would have to protect it, wouldn't you? You would have to move slowly, thoughtfully, and deliberately. It would require conscious living: thoughts, words and actions that spring from an awareness of who we are and what we are here for.
This is what is required to walk humbly wit God. The candle is within you. When you have learned to carry and protect it, then you will be able to live justly ---to choose what is good, just, true and noble in every situation---and love tenderly.
The candle is within you. Protect it. Don't let the world blow it out.
Discuss the quote above.
6. Write down your habits. Are your habits helping you become a better-version-of-yourself or are they self-diminishing?
7. If you want your future to be different from your past, there is only on way: Change your habits. Discuss this.
8. What made the saints extraordinary was the ordinary. Kelly states this on page 121. Can you explain this?
9. Whom will God raise up to be great saints in our own day? Can you see any examples of holiness that you can share?
10. Matthew Kelly says that we become the stories that we listen to. What is he saying on pages 125-126?
11. Discuss: "Cahtolicism is not a lifeless set of rules and regulations; it is a lifestyle.
12. If you could change anything about the world, what would it be?
Kelly says "Whatever change you desire for the world, create that change in your own life. You are here for a purpose. Seek it out. Hunt it down."
13. Things that are self-destructive and that make me a lesser person are obstacles to my living the call to holiness and walking with God in my life. The secular culture propagates the myth that there is no such thing as sin or evil, no objective truth and no universal right or wrong. Some choose secularism over Catholicism. It is not that they do not see the difference. It is a choice we each have to make. Discuss this.
14. Why is the Sacrament of Reconciliation so difficult? Why is it a gift for each of us?\\15.
15. Does Kelly's analogy of driving from the car wash with a clean car and participating in the Sacrament of Reconciliation one that make sense to you? (pages 154-157.
Discussion Questions for October 27
1. What was one thing Matthew Kelly said in the video that inspired you to engage more deeply in the Mass?
2. Use only if these items have been made available. Have you used the Magnificat or the Word Among Us to mediate on the Mass Readings? If so, how has that helped you prepare for Mass?
3. Have you used your Mass journal to help you engage with the Mass? What has that experience been like? How has God spoken to you in the Mass?
4. In Chapter 14, the author encourages you to rediscovering the wonder of Mass. Have you ever had an experience of marvel, wonder or mystery at Mass?
5. In the section “A Quick Journey through the Mass” the author gives some practical ideas to engage in each part of the Mass. Have you tried any of his suggestions? Did it help you engage more deeply in the Mass? Which of
these suggestions might be the biggest help for you?
6. We are all contemplatives because we are all thinking all the time, and what you contemplate will play a very significant role in the life you live. What does this have to do with prayer?
7. Are we living in a culture that is afraid of silence?
8. Prayer should spring forth from the daily events of our lives. We also need time to rest in silent prayer. Do you ever sense the need for these two kinds of prayer?
9. Is modern man filling his life with more and more noise and trying to absent God from more and more arease of his life? Why? or Why not?
10. What does the story on pages 189-191 suggest to each of us? How do we do it?
11. How does Matthew Kelly suggest that one can prepare for Mass? Do we not prepare for all other important things in our lives?
12. What does Matthew Kelly mean when he says that "Mass begins on Wednesday evening?"
13. What is Matthew Kelly's idea of a Mass Journal?
14. What does Matthew Kelly mean by our need to "rediscover the wonder" of Mass? (pg. 201)
15. "Our lives change when our habits change. The only way for the Church to become more spiritual is for the people who make up the Church to become more spiritual. We become more spiritual when we seek the will of God by establishing more spiritual habits. Participating in the Gift of Mass is one real and practical way to unearth the riches of Catholicism in our day-to-day lives."
Discussion Questions for November 3
1. Fasting: What would be the hardest thing for you to fast from for one day each week? Would you consider giving up that one thing for one day each week?
2. The Rosary: When was the last time you prayed the rosary? If it is not part of your spiritual routine, why don’t you pray it more often? Do you have any questions about how to pray the Rosary?
3. "For fifteen hundred years, when there were no Baptists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Methodists, Anglicans, Evangelicals, Non-denominationals or any other Christian Church of any type, the Catholic Church preserved the Scriptures from error, saved them from destruction and extinction, multiplied them in every language under the sun, and conveyed the truths they contained to people everywhere. Time and time again, people have tried to manipulate and corrupt these writings---and I some cases have succeeded --- but the Catholic church has preserved a version that is complete and free from human tampering." Discuss this excerpt from Rediscover Catholicism.
4. Do you know Jesus as a person or is he just a historical figure?
5. What is a "Gospel of convenience" that Matthew Kelly speaks about on page 226?
7. Do you think that Kelly's statement is realistic: Until you have learned to see yourself in every person in the Scriptures, you have not read the Bible.
8. What are the Bible stories that you are allowing to direct your life?
9. What does Kelly mean by saying "The very act of loving is an act of self-donation . . . in order to give ourselves, we must first possess ourselves"?
10. Read pages 236-237 again and comment on them.
11. How do you understand the concept of Fasting, after reading pages 235-252?
12. How can one personalize his or her fasting? (Pg. 248 - 249)
13. How would you define the concept of spiritual reading? Why is this a good spiritual practice?
14. Matthew Kelly states that "Books change our lives." His this book changed your life? Care to share?
15. Kelly outlines steps of evangelization for a parish to undertake on pages 288-293. Re-read these pages and discuss them. Do you think these are being done or could be done at St. Henry's?
16. What qualities is a Catholic leader called to live?
17. Like St. Francis, we have been called to "Rebuild my Church." Kelly states that the world needs the Church more today than ever before.
Discuss his point of view in this excerpt:
"The Catholic Church feeds, clothes, houses, and educates more people than any other organization in the world. And when the modern media and the secular culture have finished tearing down the Church as best they can, let me ask you, who will take our place? Who will feed the hungry? Who will closthe the naked? Who will visit the lonely and imprisoned? Who will house the homeless? Who will comfort the sick and the dying? Who will educate the masses?"
18. Discuss: "God uses those who make themselves available. How available are you willing to make yourself to God?" If we really understood the import of that statement, why would we truly agree with Matthew Kelly that "Something Wonderful Is About to Happen."?
2. The Rosary: When was the last time you prayed the rosary? If it is not part of your spiritual routine, why don’t you pray it more often? Do you have any questions about how to pray the Rosary?
3. "For fifteen hundred years, when there were no Baptists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Methodists, Anglicans, Evangelicals, Non-denominationals or any other Christian Church of any type, the Catholic Church preserved the Scriptures from error, saved them from destruction and extinction, multiplied them in every language under the sun, and conveyed the truths they contained to people everywhere. Time and time again, people have tried to manipulate and corrupt these writings---and I some cases have succeeded --- but the Catholic church has preserved a version that is complete and free from human tampering." Discuss this excerpt from Rediscover Catholicism.
4. Do you know Jesus as a person or is he just a historical figure?
5. What is a "Gospel of convenience" that Matthew Kelly speaks about on page 226?
7. Do you think that Kelly's statement is realistic: Until you have learned to see yourself in every person in the Scriptures, you have not read the Bible.
8. What are the Bible stories that you are allowing to direct your life?
9. What does Kelly mean by saying "The very act of loving is an act of self-donation . . . in order to give ourselves, we must first possess ourselves"?
10. Read pages 236-237 again and comment on them.
11. How do you understand the concept of Fasting, after reading pages 235-252?
12. How can one personalize his or her fasting? (Pg. 248 - 249)
13. How would you define the concept of spiritual reading? Why is this a good spiritual practice?
14. Matthew Kelly states that "Books change our lives." His this book changed your life? Care to share?
15. Kelly outlines steps of evangelization for a parish to undertake on pages 288-293. Re-read these pages and discuss them. Do you think these are being done or could be done at St. Henry's?
16. What qualities is a Catholic leader called to live?
17. Like St. Francis, we have been called to "Rebuild my Church." Kelly states that the world needs the Church more today than ever before.
Discuss his point of view in this excerpt:
"The Catholic Church feeds, clothes, houses, and educates more people than any other organization in the world. And when the modern media and the secular culture have finished tearing down the Church as best they can, let me ask you, who will take our place? Who will feed the hungry? Who will closthe the naked? Who will visit the lonely and imprisoned? Who will house the homeless? Who will comfort the sick and the dying? Who will educate the masses?"
18. Discuss: "God uses those who make themselves available. How available are you willing to make yourself to God?" If we really understood the import of that statement, why would we truly agree with Matthew Kelly that "Something Wonderful Is About to Happen."?