Lesson Nine: Citizens of Heaven

We press on.  Paul wants to pass on the message of perseverance to the Philippians, and to us.  We know the goal.  Now we must, with the grace of God, do what needs to be done to get there.

I hope all of you are also persevering in your study.  We're nearing the end of this letter, so we need to keep our eyes on the goal of finishing out as strong as we started.  No spring fever or yearning for vacation yet! 

Study Guide: Lesson Nine

By the way, keep praying for our Church as the process of selecting our new pope begins. It's likely we'll spend some time talking about this at our next meeting.

See you March 7.

Lesson Eight: Profit and Loss

The rest is over.  This week's lesson dives back in to theology and many of the questions in our workbook are thought-provoking and sometimes hard to answer.  I think we will have a good discussion.

Don't forget to read the chapter in our US Catechism as well.  This time it's the Third Commandment to Keep Holy the Sabbath.  That might be a cause for self-reflection as well.  It was for me anyway.

Study Guide: Lesson Eight

We can also discuss how Lent is going as well.  As I write this, it's Ash Wednesday.  (Wasn't it just Christmas?)  Oh well, here we go!

See you all on February 21.

Lesson Seven: Co-workers

After two complex lessons, we get a break with Lesson Seven.  No deep theology.  Nice, straightforward advice for how to be good disciples.  Easy to understand; not always so easy to live out.  We try.

Study Guide Lesson Seven

I didn't get a chance prior to this to put up my notes from Lesson Six.
So...

Lesson Six Notes

Since this is an easier week for all of us, I will ask each of you to take on an extra assignment.  Believe it or not, Ash Wednesday is a mere six days after our next meeting!  Can we all try and bring some ideas on how we can make this a special Lent?  Lent during the Year of Faith should be a doozy!  I know I sure could use some inspiration.

See you on February 7.

Lesson Six: Working It Out

There are only two sentences for this week's study, but they are packed with good stuff.  I'm learning from Paul; this week's guide is only one page!

Lesson Six Study Guide

A few of you have expressed some problems with formatting and printing.  I think this is because you are sending the document to your printer from the commands in your browser (Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.).  If you are having problems, try this: once you click on the link above, print the lesson by clicking on the Printer Icon, which is highlighted by an arrow in the example below, right on the Google page in your window displaying the document.  This should resolve the problem, but if not, let me know and...well, to be honest, I don't know what else to say except that I'll just print you a copy myself and bring it to our group with me.  I joke, sort of.

FYI: If you click on the arrow next to the Printer Icon, you can download the document to your computer.  Then you can do whatever you want with the file.

See you on January 24.

Lesson Five

Thanks for putting up with my nasal voice yesterday.  Hoping this stupid cold moves on soon.

I don't have much for notes, but will put up what I have.

Lesson Five Notes

See you in two weeks!

Lesson Five: The Attitude of Christ

Yea, I know.  I'm a little late again this week.  Sorry.  Better late than never though, right?  It was Christmas.  You've got to cut me some slack.

Don't let this week's lesson fool you.  It's short, but there's a lot of theology packed into those verses.  And this is a very familiar passage of scripture, so try to read it with fresh eyes and ears.  You may be surprised by what you learn.

Study Guide: Lesson Five

See you all on January 10.

Lesson Four Update

I'm afraid this was another one of those sessions when I did most of the talking.  Sorry about that, but I couldn't let this catechism chapter on morality go by with just a passing mention when it's such an important part of how we live our lives as Christians.  How are we ever supposed to discern good from evil, right from wrong if we aren't given some objective direction by which to do that?

As I said during the course of our discussion, we've become of society of people who have forgotten how to think.  Unfortunately, more focus is placed on people--our government, our media, etc.--telling us what to think without giving any solid, rational reasons.  And if reasons are given, they're reasons that are based on purely subjective ends: personal happiness, temporal gains, false "tolerance" (which really means that we are just supposed to look the other way when we see sin).

Christian moral code is based on something greater than personal whim or current political or cultural trends.  Christian moral code comes from our Creator and is based on the inherent dignity all humans have by being created in the image of God.  Christian moral code is constant, eternal, and knowable.  We do not have to be slaves to the "dictatorship of relativism."  We can live in the freedom of seeking out the will of God which ultimately leads us to fulfill the potential we have to become saints!

Whether you attended our December meeting or not, I would encourage you to download a copy of my notes from that lesson in addition to the study guide that is linked in the post just below this one.  I did quite a considerable amount of research for this lesson and wrote it out as clearly as I could hoping that my notes would make some kind of sense even if I was unable to articulate it as well as I had hoped I could during our meeting.  This is a big and complex topic, so if you have questions about what you have read, please bring them to our next meeting, and we'll do our best to try and clear things up.  Moralality, ethics, and philosophy can be endlessly fascinating topics to discuss.  One day is hardly enough.

Lesson Four Notes: Morality and Worthy Conduct

Our next meeting will be held on January 10.  Enjoy your break.  Have a wonderful Advent and a Blessed Christmas! 

One last thing...Before we meet again, the 33 Days to Morning Glory Retreat that we discussed during our November meeting is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, January 2.  Meetings will be held every Wednesday morning from 9-10:30 from January 2-February 6.  You can register at the church, and the materials for the retreat are being sold at St. Patrick's Book & Gift.  The packet sells for $35+Tax.  This packet includes the book 33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitley, a companion workbook, a rosary, and a Miraculous Medal.  The members of this session will prepare for Marian Consecration on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.  Two of our Bible study members, Kandy and Patti, are organizing this retreat.  It should be a wonderful experience.  You can learn more about the program by Googling the title of the book and by watching the videos below.