Looking Ahead: Ephesians

The topic of our 2011-2012 Solid Grounds Bible Study will be Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. Meetings are scheduled on a (somewhat) bi-weekly basis on Thursday mornings from 9:00-11:00 at the Church of St. Patrick. Our first meeting will be held on September 8, 2011. This will mark the 11th year of our study, and while we still have a few charter members, we always welcome any new members who are interested in joining.

Prior to our September 8 meeting, please:
1. Register for the class. Registration forms are available at the Church of St. Patrick. There are no fees apart from the cost of materials.
2. It has become our custom to read a book over the summer months and discuss that book at the first meeting of the year. This summer we are reading The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. Our summer book is not required for the group; it's just something fun we do to break the ice at our first meeting.
3. Purchase the materials. On this website, just to the right of this copy, are links to Amazon for the materials that we use for our group. You are welcome to purchase them on your own, or we can special order them for you at St. Patrick's Book & Gift. In addition to the two books that we use for the Bible study, we also use the U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults.

Any questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments section below, or contact the Church of St. Patrick.

Hope to see you in September!

Finishing Up

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's study of Paul's Letter to the Galatians. It's a commitment that can sometimes be a challenge to keep, so I appreciate the efforts that you make during the year to stick with the lessons. If asked, I'm sure most of us would say that the group discussions are our favorite part of the study, but I'm convinced that the work we all do at home brings about the most benefit.

Thanks again, and I hope to see you back in the fall.

Lesson Twelve: Focusing on the Eternal

It might be tempting to gloss over the last lesson of the year, but resist temptation! The final verses of Paul's Letter to the Galatians offer some excellent food for thought, and the review at the end of the chapter is helpful in putting the entire study into perspective.

Even though I mentioned it on the study guide, I'll mention it again here. Before you begin to answer the review questions, it's worth taking the time to re-read the letter from start to finish. In our weekly lessons we get so focused on one tiny section of the letter that it's easy to forget how it fits in context with the rest of Paul's message. Reading it in its entirety should help get that perspective.

Study Guide Lesson Twelve (basic)

Study Guide Lesson Twelve (formatted)

I don't know what I was thinking, but when I made out the schedule last year in addition to our lesson and the review, I also assigned a chapter in the US Catholic Catechism for Adults. Oh well, suck it up. You've got all summer. This week it's Chapter Ten which is all about the Church.

By the way, if you look at the post just below this one, I've included a link to an excellent article by Archbishop Timothy Dolan about the Sacrament of Penance that you might be interested in reading.

Update

As we approach the end of our Bible study, it's time to look ahead to the fall. At our last meeting I handed out a sheet of announcements. If you missed it, be sure to ask me for the information at our final meeting on April 21, or let me know and I can email the document to you. It covers our summer reading assignment, the date of our first meeting in September, and a request to show our support to the church for giving us space for our meetings.

At Thursday's meeting we had a brief discussion about the Sacrament of Penance. Once I got home, I continued to think about this great Sacrament and how important it is for us to take advantage of it when we can. I did not mention this while we were together, but participation in the Sacrament of Reconciliation at least once a year is one of the precepts of our faith--those most basic requirements of the faithful in maintaining a relationship with the Body of the Church.

On March 17, Archbishop Timothy Dolan released The Altar and the Confessional where he writes,"Our culture does not need to be taught how to confess; it needs to discover where forgiveness can be found. Our culture does not need to further expose the stain of its sinfulness; it needs to discover the only One who can wash it away. We Catholics have the blessing of teaching our “confessional culture” about true mercy, but we cannot give what we do not have! I challenge the Catholics of the Archdiocese to make a good confession this Lent and then to tell one other person – perhaps a friend or relative or colleague who has been away from the sacraments for a long time – about the liberating joy of God’s mercy!"

Making a good confession takes preparation, takes time, and takes courage, but it's so worth it! If you fell off the wagon on every single intention and sacrifice that you had planned for Lent, but you finish Lent with a good Confession, you've had a good Lent.

Lesson Eleven: Keeping On Track

It's hard to believe that we'll soon be coming to the close of another year of Bible study. Our next lesson will be the final one for the year.

This penultimate lesson is a very satisfying one because in it Paul gives us some completely practical advice about how we are to live out the law of Christ. It's been leaning to the philosophical and theological up to this point and now the rubber finally hits the road. Not that there's anything wrong with being philosophical or theological. You know I love that as much as anyone, but it's good to know what I'm supposed to be doing.

Study Guide Lesson Eleven (basic version)

Study Guide Lesson Eleven

See you on April 7.