The 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time Background: The Sermon on the Mount continues; we are once again being taught the basics of life in God’s kingdom/reign. And they are not about kosher ordinances or other do’s and don’t’s but about love in action—which is why this selection from Isaiah was chosen to parallel this Gospel. …

Reflection Questions for RCIA Seekers: Year A – The 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time through the 1st Sunday of Lent

The 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Background: Ordinary Time gets its name because each year one of the three synoptic gospels is read “in order” starting with the Baptism of the Lord which marks the end of the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany season and going on through 34 Sundays to Christ the King. Only Lent-Easter-Pentecost interrupt the steady …

Reflection Questions for RCIA Seekers: Year A – The 2nd through 4th Sundays of Ordinary Time

Christmas Mass During the Day Background: This is the last and oldest set of readings for Christmas in the Roman Rite. It can startle us because there are none of the details about the baby and the manger that we are so used to from the Lucan infancy narrative. Yet a saying from St. Athanasius, …

Reflection Questions for RCIA Seekers: Year A – Christmas Season

Cycle A – DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Introduction to Matthew Matthew was writing for a predominantly Jewish audience, and so he occasionally presumes a bit of knowledge about the laws and customs of Judaism that many of us might be unfamiliar with. But it is easy for us to understand his references if we check the footnotes …

Reflection Questions for RCIA Seekers: Year A – The First Sunday of Advent to the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time Background: The pointless self-righteousness of the Pharisees is a dominant theme in Luke’s Gospel. This Sunday, though, it is the Sadducees’ narrow concept of God which is being portrayed for us. By setting up a rhetorical situation which can easily lead to ridicule, they try to diminish the overall credibility of …

Reflection Questions for RCIA Seekers: Year C – The 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time to the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time Background: Although much of the Old Testament tradition proclaims God’s love and care for the poor and the vulnerable, another strand in the tradition presupposes that wealth is a sign of God’s favor. On the road up to Jerusalem, Jesus continues to instruct his followers that in the kingdom/reign of …

Reflection Questions for RCIA Seekers: Year C – The 26th-31st Sundays in Ordinary Time

Twenty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time Background: Jesus is still on his journey to Jerusalem and continues to teach us what we need to do to make the journey with him. In this Sunday’s gospel selection, he is warning us to take the long and not the short view. There is nothing wrong with being …

Reflection Questions for RCIA Seekers: Year C – The 22nd-25th Sundays in Ordinary Time