Lead in #1: Mark 1:29-39 gives us a good picture of what might have been a typical day in the busy life of Jesus. After a request for a home visit to a sick in-law, later that day they bring to Jesus all who were ill or possessed by demons. As his disciples, the healing ministry of Jesus is something that all of us can participate in. But if healing is to happen, we need to show up with love in our hearts.
Prompt #1: What are the relationships in your life where healing might happen if you could show up with more love and less indifference?
Lead in #2: If we’re to live life as a sacred journey, we need to find a sacred space within our day for prayer and quiet. It’s prayer that helps us re-center our lives so we can hear the voice of God calling us to lives of grateful joy. Most of us would readily acknowledge the benefits of prayer. Yet there are things that get in the way of prayer.
Prompt #2: What are the obstacles that get in the way of finding your way to that deserted place?
Lead in #3: In the first reading taken from the Book of Job, we hear a parable which grapples with why bad things happen to good people. Job has lost his children, his property, and his health and is living at the city dump. Can we blame him for giving such a pessimistic evaluation of life?
Prompt #3: What do you do with life’s vexing questions that you don’t have answers for?
Lead in #4: With one calamity after another, everything seemed to be falling apart for Job.
Prompt #4: Has there ever been a time in your life when, like Job, everything seemed to be falling apart on you? How did you deal with it?
Lead in #5: Paul was criticized for not accepting financial support from the community. For that reason, there were those who questioned if Paul was a legitimate apostle. In today’s second reading from I Corinthians, we hear his response, “ I do all for the sake of the Gospel so that I too may have a share in it.”
Prompt #5: What are the things in life that you have sacrificed for so that you might have a share in them?
