(This guide is designed to give helpful hints in preparing & leading your group in discussion)
REAL LOVE – Part 3: Love has a Definite Shape
ANNOUNCEMENTS
LEADER NOTE: Go over the Agreement with anyone who missed the first week. Remind anyone that hasn’t signed the Agreement to do so. Drop in the Impact Group drop box at the Welcome Desk by Sunday 28 February.
NAME TAGS: Remember if you have anyone new in your group use name tags for at least the first 3 weeks.
BEGIN TO MAKE PLANS FOR SOCIAL OR SERVICE PROJECT: Begin to think about what project you would like to do. Check our website for some options – TheCatholicGuy.tv/CommunityService
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
Special Note: Remember we are on week #3 with your group. People are still acclimating, especially new people. Lead your group through the questions according to how well everyone knows each other. We have included one “Getting to Know You” question that new groups and groups with new people can use as ice breakers. Next week these questions will tie in more with the Message. You may not have to ask the first questions but make sure you ask #3.
- Is what you are doing now what you thought you would be doing when you were at school?
Have fun with this question. Good one to have everyone answer.
- In what ways have you ever helped those in need? Why did you do it?
This question continues getting to know each other while turning the conversation toward the current Message.
- In Matthew 25:31-46 when speaking of God’s judgment, it indicates that the ways we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, are kind to the stranger, clothe those without and look after the sick and imprisoned will be factors in how God sees us. Do you think it just something to be reminded of or will it really affect people’s eternity? Was this new information to you?
Often we can think that Messages like that on Sunday are just reminders but the truth is once they are heard and understood it becomes part of the way we make conscience decisions in the future.
- Pope Francis is well known for caring for the poor and needy. In his letter EVANGELII GAUDIUM he writes the following.
Are these realistic?
In a Church community that holds one of its Core Values as being that: we value the poor, the weak, the hidden and the hurting, are these quotes realistic for you and me?
This is a question of application for our own personal lives and also that of the community we belong to. At a surface level we might answer yes but this then leads to how. Discuss how it might occur.
53. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.
57. I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs”.
188. In this context we can understand Jesus’ command to his disciples: “You yourselves give them something to eat!” (Mk 6:37): it means working to eliminate the structural causes of poverty and to promote the integral development of the poor, as well as small daily acts of solidarity in meeting the real needs which we encounter. The word “solidarity” is a little worn and at times poorly understood, but it refers to something more than a few sporadic acts of generosity. It presumes the creation of a new mindset which thinks in terms of community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few.
- Looking back at your notes from this week’s Message, was there anything that particularly caught your attention, challenged or confused you?
Good question to ask to give people a chance to talk about topics that caught their attention or aren’t addressed in the Homework. The number of responses to this question will vary from week to week.