Lesson Thirteen: Final Appeal, Admonitions, and Farewell

I just finished the study guide for our final lesson of Second Corinthians, and I'm not going to lie to you, I might do a little happy dance. Don't get me wrong, I love doing this, but a break will be nice.

This lesson is quite a bit easier than the final lessons for these studies have been in the past. There isn't the long review at the end of the entire work, so it shouldn't take any more time than an ordinary lesson.

Study Guide for Lesson Thirteen

For those of you who turned in your book orders, I placed the orders last week. I will let you know when they have arrived. If you have not turned in an order, and you would still like me to order your books for you, we can fill out order forms before our next meeting begins. (All book information is available if you scroll down to the post "Decisions, Decisions.")

See you on May 6.

Lesson Twelve: Boasting in Weakness

Sorry that this is getting posted so late. I've been working outside and kept thinking that I'd wait for a rainy day to work on this lesson. Still no rain, but I have finally gotten around to Lesson Twelve. With our fabulous spring weather, it's probably good that we only have one more left!

Study Guide for Lesson Twelve

We will also finalize our book orders at Thursday's meeting. You can find all the information about these materials in the post just below this one.

See you on Thursday!

Decisions, Decisions

This morning we spent the beginning of our meeting making some decisions about what we are going to be doing in the next few months in our morning Bible Study. Here's how things worked out:

1. Our summer book is going to be Life of Christ by Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

2. Beginning September 2010, we are going to begin studying St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians. We will be using LifeChange: Galatians and the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible for our scripture text. This can be purchased in a single booklet that contains both Galatians and Ephesians, or you may want to purchase the New Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament that comes in either paperback, hardcover, or a leather edition.

3. We will be supplementing the shorter lessons for this letter by adding The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults to our study. There is also an accompanying workbook for this text that is optional. (I see that there is also a Reader's Guide that has been published for this Catechism. I have not seen this guide, but thought I should mention it in case someone is interested.)

Since we are one of the few--if not the only--adult formation class at our church that does not charge a tuition fee, I have decided that, as a group, we will be placing our book orders through the church bookstore. This way the church will benefit from the profit that is made on the books. You are certainly welcome to purchase your books wherever you would like. If you would like to place your orders through St. Patrick's Book & Gift, let me know which books you would like by either emailing, calling, or giving me your list at an upcoming meeting. I will call you when your order has arrived, and you may pick up and pay for your books at your own convenience.

Just as an FYI, the book Life of Christ happens to be the Spring selection for St. Patrick's Seasons of Reading Book Club. It is available for purchase or special order at 20% off the regular retail price through the month of April, so you may want to hurry and get that book right away.

I think next year should be an interesting one. I am excited to explore the Catechism along with Paul's letter. And you can't go wrong with a book by Fulton Sheen! Now that we know what we're going to be doing next year, don't forget to mention our group to anyone you know who may be interested in joining us.

Lesson Eleven: Paul Chastises His Opponents

Happy Easter Everyone!

Sorry I'm a little late with this week's study guide. Kind of a crazy week. (What's new.) I have to confess that this guide was completed with several interruptions and plenty of distractions, so here's hoping it makes sense.
Lesson Eleven Study Guide

At the beginning of this week's discussion we are going to make some decisions about next year and the book we are going to read over the summer break. I will try to answer any questions that you might have, but then I would like to get right to it. If you could come with a clear idea of what you would like to do---as well as a willingness to compromise, it will help expedite the process.

See you on April 8.

Lesson Ten Update

This was such an interesting lesson. It's been a rough time to be a Roman Catholic, and I know I struggle with having this strong urge to defend the Church that I love while keeping the virtues that the Church professes. When we take the time to examine what some of these virtues mean--in this case "meekness"--we get a better idea about how we are to respond. Spiritual warfare with spiritual weapons!

In case you weren't able to make it this week, here is a link to the notes I made for our lesson.
Lesson Ten Notes

I'll remind everyone in the next post as well, but be prepared to come to our next meeting to make a decision about what we are going to read over the summer and how we are going to conduct our Bible study next year. If you would like to do your own research, there are some links in a post below that will take you to some pertinent web sites.

Have a blessed Holy Week and a Happy Easter!

Lesson Ten: Paul Defends His Apostolic Ministry

If you are in the habit of printing out our study guide after you have done your lesson and just before we meet as a group, I would ask that you change up your routine this week. It will help our discussion tremendously if everyone could follow the suggestion to do a little pre-meeting research and reflection about the Christian definition of the quality of "meekness."

Don't forget, there's an extra week between our next meeting. We will be gathering to discuss Lesson Ten on March 25. We also need to make a decision soon about what we want to do next year, so review those options we talked about last time. In the post just below this one, I have provided some links to information about the materials we are considering. Hope they are helpful.
See you on the 25th!

Study Guide for Lesson Ten: Paul Defends His Apostolic Ministry

Lesson Nine Update

Just a couple of quick notes regarding our last lesson...

If you are interested, I have posted my own notes for the lesson.
Lesson Nine Notes

And if you would like to learn more about the Shakespeare/Bible class lead by Jim Bofenkamp that Winnie had mentioned, I was able to locate a copy of the article online.
Shakespeare, Bible Meet in Class

Finally, here are a few links to some of the items we might want to consider using in our study next year:
Journey Into the Bible by Liguori Publications

Liguori Publications (Check out the section on "Pamplets" in the menu @bottom left)

Adult Catechism of the Catholic Church

Summer Book Suggestions:
Silence by Shusaku Endo

Life of Christ by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

We'll see you again on March 25th.