presented by Fr. Richard S. Jones - Liturgical Publications · PDF filepresented by Fr....
Transcript of presented by Fr. Richard S. Jones - Liturgical Publications · PDF filepresented by Fr....
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presented by Fr. Richard S. Jones Pastor, St. Joseph Church, Coraopolis, PA
6:45 pm to 8:00 pm
Monday, September 11, 2017 – Spirituality
Monday, September 18, 2017 – Self-Esteem, Wonder, Friendship,
Courage
Monday, September 25, 2017 – Teachability,
Tolerance, Joy, Interdependence
Monday, October 2, 2017 – Perseverance, Freedom, Love, Generativity
Monday, October 16, 2017 – Balance, Prayer, Forgiveness, Gratitude
Monday, October 23, 2017 – Playfulness, Commitment, Hope,
Restlessness
Week 3
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Table of Contents
Opening Prayer 3
Opening Song – Lord, I Offer My Life to You (by Don Moen)
4
Scripture Readings – Sirach 6:5-17 and John 15:11-17
5 – 6
Teachability – Definition, Bible Quotes & Talking Points
7 – 8
Teachability Bell Curve 8
5 Ways to Wellbeing 9
Tolerance – Definition, Bible Quotes & Talking Points
10 – 11
The Triangle of Tolerance 11
Song - Forever God is Faithful (by Michael W. Smith)
12
Joy – Definition, Bible Quotes & Talking Points 13 – 14
Quotes from The Gospel of Joy by Pope Francis 14
Prayer for Parish Priests 15
Joy Map 16
Quote from Pope Benedict XVI 16
Interdependence – Definition, Bible Quotes & Talking Points
17 – 18
Theology of Interdepence 18
Dupont Bradley Curve 19
Interdependence Quote by Thomas Merton 20
Closing Prayer 21
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Opening Prayer
Dear God,
You have done such a marvelous job
of creating us and the world around
us.
You have placed this creation,
including all the people we meet, in
our care.
We come to you now asking for the
grace and strength to be tolerant of
others.
We admit that we can never fully
know your plan for the people
around us.
Grant us the strength to admit that
our role is to invite others to
participate in your saving plan and
then to accept the choices they make
in their own lives.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, who
lived to show us your way. Amen
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Opening Song
Lord, I Offer My Life to You (5:30) by Don Moen
Verse 1 All that I am, all that I have I lay them down before you, O Lord All my regrets, all my acclaim The joy and the pain, I'm making them yours
Verse 2 Things in the past, things yet unseen Wishes and dreams that are yet to come true All of my hopes, all of my plans My heart and my hands are lifted to You
Verse 3 Lord, I offer my life to you Everything I've been through Use it for your glory Lord I offer my days to you Lifting my praise to you As a pleasing sacrifice Lord I offer You my life to you
Repeat Verses 1, 2 & 3
Final Verse Lord, I offer my life to you Everything I've been through Use it for your glory Lord I offer my days to you Lifting my praise to you As a pleasing sacrifice Lord I offer you my life Lord I offer you my life
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Week Three – Scripture Readings
Sirach 6:5-17
Pleasant speech multiplies friends, and gracious lips, friendly greetings. Let those who are friendly to you be many, but one in a thousand your confidant. When you gain friends, gain them through testing, and do not be quick to trust them. For there are friends when it suits them, but they will not be around in time of trouble. Another is a friend who turns into an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your disgrace. Others are friends, table companions, but they cannot be found in time of affliction. When things go well, they are your other self, and lord it over your servants. If disaster comes upon you, they turn against you and hide themselves. Stay away from your enemies, and be on guard with your friends.
Continued on next page
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Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter; whoever finds one finds a treasure. Faithful friends are beyond price, no amount can balance their worth. Faithful friends are life-saving medicine; those who fear God will find them. Those who fear the Lord enjoy stable friendship, for as they are, so will their neighbors be.
John 15:11-17
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.
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Teachability is the ability to learn by instruction.
Instruct the wise, and they become still wiser; teach the just, and they advance in learning. (Psalms 9:9) We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms. Now the natural person does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. (1 Corinthians 2:12-14) Make known to me your ways, Lord; teach me your paths. Guide me by your fidelity and teach me, for you are God my savior, for you I wait all the day long. (Psalms 25:4-5) Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may eventually become wise. (Proverbs 19:20)
Three pillars of learning (by Benjamin Diraeli – (1804-1881))
1. Seeing much
2. Studying much
3. Suffering much
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Mistakes and Failure
o If we have a healthy spirituality in life, we will have a healthy attitude
towards the falls we take
o And if our spirituality is healthy, we will not be devastated when we
experience failure
o Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., who lectures on spirituality said, “The mistakes
we make are the best teachers in the world.”
o Don Shula, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins said, “Success is
not forever; failure is not fatal.”
Teachability and the Gospels
o Gospels tell us that Jesus himself was teachable
o Jesus was always using his disciples to “study” life and thus learn from it
o Jesus shows us teachability through his willingness to suffer
o Teachability is the prerequisite for conversion
Joy is a condition for the possibility of virtuous living.
Joy may be a byproduct of a loving, cheerful, and generous heart.
If we lose joyfulness, we risk becoming depressed, suicidal people for whom existence holds little or no meaning.
When we reduce who we are to what we do, joy begins to melt away.
from freeyourmindga.com
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from http://jodiegale.com/addiction-recovery-the-starting-point-for-recovery-is-hope-
not-abstinence/
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Tolerance is the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the
existence of opinions or behaviors that one does not necessarily agree with.
Instruct the wise, and they become still wiser; teach the just, and they advance in learning. (Psalms 9:9) We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms. Now the natural person does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. (1 Corinthians 2:12-14) Make known to me your ways, Lord; teach me your paths. Guide me by your fidelity and teach me, for you are God my savior, for you I wait all the day long. (Psalms 25:4-5) Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may eventually become wise. (Proverbs 19:20)
Ambiguity
o On more than one occasion, Jesus urged his disciples to keep an open
mind and not to jump to conclusions
The Gift of Diversity
o One indication of how open-minded and patient we are is how tolerant
we are of diversity
Celebrating Diversity in People
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o Ways in which Human beings have great diversity:
Physically
Size
Body
Structure
Skin Color
Facial Features
Mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually
o Challenge of healthy spirituality is learning to tolerate the differences we
find in each other and not to view these differences as threats to
ourselves
— by Scott Lively, American activist and attorney
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Song
Forever God is Faithful (5:37)
by Michael W. Smith
Give thanks to the Lord, Our God and King
His love endures forever
For He is good, He is above all things
His love endures forever
Sing praise, sing praise
With a mighty hand and outstretched arm
His love endures forever
For the life that's been reborn
His love endures forever
Sing praise, sing praise [2X]
Forever God is faithful
Forever God is strong
Forever God is with us
Forever and ever, forever
From the rising to the setting sun
His love endures forever
By the grace of God we will carry on
His love endures forever
Sing praise, sing praise [2X]
[CHORUS] 2x
His love endures forever [8X]
Sing praise, sing praise [2X]
Forever You are faithful
Forever You are strong
Forever You are with us
Forever and ever. [4X]
Forever
[CHORUS:]
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Joy is a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.
The hope of the just brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked perishes. (Proverbs 10:28)
When cares increase within me, your comfort gives me joy. (Psalm 94:19)
. . . For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
He continued: “Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our LORD. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD is your strength!” (Nehemiah 8:10)
Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. (John 16:20)
One of the hallmarks of our christian faith is joy
Joy was a major theme of Jesus’parables
o Cal Samara, in his book, The Joyful Jesus said, “There is an old saying
that says ‘He who laughs last, laughs best’.”
o Fr. John Powell, SJ said, “If you are happy, let your face know.”
o St. Teresa of Avila said, “From silly devotion and from sour-faced saints,
God Lord, deliver us.”
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Faith and Humor
o True humor sees the incongruities of life against the backdrop of the
mighty incongruities of life
Growing in joy and laughter
Pope Francis’s First Encyclical, The Gospel of Joy
Quotes from The Gospel of Joy by Pope Francis
“Sometimes we are tempted to find excuses and complain, acting as if we
could only be happy if a thousand conditions were met. To some extent this is
because our ‘technological society has succeeded in multiplying occasions of
pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender joy’.”
“An evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!”
Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that “delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow.”
“Instead of imposing new obligations, (Christians) should appear as people
who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite
others to a delicious banquet.”
“Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born
of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are
infinitely loved.”
Finally an evangelizing community is filled with joy; it knows how to rejoice
always.”
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Prayer for Priests
The following is a prayer Fr. Rich prays daily:
No matter where he is located, the parish priest has to be the
sharer of secrets, the carrier of burdens, the fountain of
consolation and the pillar of strength. Solitary, he is called father
by thousands; poor, he enriches the lives of thousands; weak, he
gives strength to thousands; unimportant, he does things each day
whose importance cannot be told in any tongue on earth. He is
never too busy to hear another’s sorrows; often too busy to realize
his own burdens. He is a 24-hour-a-day man. He is called from his
dinner; wakened from his sleep; disturbed at his prayers. He is at
the beck and call of any of his people. He is the target of God’s
enemies; the magnet of God’s needy. Occasionally, he attracts
attention; but usually he works unnoticed and unacclaimed while
he does the noblest work on earth – keeps Christ in the lives of
people.
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— from Healing Through The Arts
When joylessness reigns,
where humor dies, the
spirit of Jesus Christ is
assuredly absent.
—Pope Benedict XVI
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Interdependence is the dependence of two or more pople or things on each other.
Instruct the wise, and they become still wiser; teach the just, and they advance in learning. (Psalms 9:9) The whole world had the same language and the same words. (Genesis 11:1)
Then the LORD said: If now, while they are one people and all have the same language, they have started to do this, nothing they presume to do will be out of their reach. (Genesis 11:6) Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
All creation is interconnected
New sin, new virtue
o New sin is the inability, or the refusal, to look at the implications of
everything we do in a very much wider context than in the past
o New sin is our refusal to be mindful of interdependence
o With every new sin comes the need for a new virtue
Three ways to practice this new virtue
o Listening
the stoic philosphopher Epictetus said, “God gave us two ears and
one mouth so that we would listen twice as much as we speak.”
The well known psychiatrist Karl Menninger believed that not to
listen actually made people unwell.
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o Living in community (we live in a culture that deifies autonomy and self-
sufficiency in a world that downplays the common good, narcissism runs
rampant)
o Growing in compassion (Jesus’ greatest attribute is compassion,
especially for the hurting, the wounded, the little, the lonely and the lost)
from: HTS Theological Studies
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Bradley Curve
from the Society of Petroleum Engineers
Baker Hughes incorporated elements of the Bradly Curve, a safety consulting tool,
into its health, safety, and envinronment strategy
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The whole idea of compassion is based
on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all
involved in one another.
— Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
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Closing Prayer
Father,
Please help me to rest in your happiness,
To allow a smile to linger on my lips,
To dwell within a wonderful memory,
To walk back through sunlit places.
Please help me to awake with hope,
To engage with life in all its variety,
To take in the beauty of others joys,
To touch the souls of those I meet with thankfulness.
Please help me to sing with faith,
To carry the truth close in my heart always,
To rejoice at new life and
To have peace as I age.
Please help me to indulge in love
To breathe in the sweetness of intimacy,
To taste the kindness of friendship,
To feel the warmth of embrace.
Please help me not to miss
A single drop of heaven,
To catch each moment
And drink in the great joy of life.
Amen.
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Join us next week (October 2)
as Fr. Rich discusses
This series has been based on: Traits of a Healthy Spirituality by Melannie Svoboda, SND
Filled with the utter fullness of God: Caring for the one who ministers by Sr.
Carla Przybilla, O.S.F., Ph.D. (1935-2004)