Part II: Reflecting & Discerning - Catholic Rural Life

Part II: Reflecting & Discerning

There are three sources to this section on faith-based reflections: Biblical Scriptures, the Holy See, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. As time allows, you can closely review all three, but be sure to give most attention to section A on Scriptural passages. The important factor here is to generate reactions from group participants as they go over the questions on page 23 of the Study Guide.

You may also want to go back to pages 18-19 and discuss some of those questions again. Ask the group how the Church might answer these. Or, in fact, how the Church has answered these, based on the reflections by the Holy See and the U.S. Bishops (pages 24-28 of the Study Guide).

There are various ways to highlight the reflections in this part of the Study Guide. One is to ask participants in the group to read aloud select passages from the words of Pope Benedict XVI or the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Then hold a brief discussion about the meaning or intent of these words. Which passages strike a chord with the participants? Why? What do these words call each of us to do as faith-based followers?

Another way is to review the reflections presented in sections B and C is to ask everyone to read silently, then discuss or share reactions in groups of 3 to 4 people. After a few minutes, ask each group to share their more interesting or pressing reactions.

Be aware that additional discussion questions will be asked on pages 31-32 of the Study Guide, so don’t take too much time on this part. The idea here is to refresh everyone about their faith tradition and what we are taught about caring for the hungry and doing justice on behalf of the poor.

This part of the study discussion is also an opportunity to review the principles of Catholic social teaching (see pages 12-13 of this handbook). These principles can inform the group’s discussion on how to discern and then how to act.

Approx. Time: 30-45 minutes

People love being members of the Catholic Rural Life community.

View member benefits