HOW TO: FAMILY BIBLE READING AND REFLECTIONS

CLARIFICATION FOR FMAILY BIBLE READING/REFLECTION, 1/30/10:


1. STUDENT: FIND JUST THE GOSPEL READING AND THE ONE OTHER NEW TESTAMENT READING FOR UPCOMING SUNDAY HERE.  MARK THOSE IN THE BIBLE I GAVE YOU.

2. READ JUST THOSE TWO READINGS WITH YOUR FAMILY.

3. DISCUSS.

4. WRITE JUST ONE, SIMPLE PARAGRAPH ABOUT SOME THEME THAT'S STRUCK YOU ALL, FROM ONE OR BOTH OF THE READINGS.  JUST ONE PARAGRAPH TOTAL.

5. TURN THAT IN EACH MONDAY.



If you want more detail, read below.
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"THE FAMILY THAT PRAYS TOGETHER STAYS TOGETHER."


It's tried and true.


As a part of the course, you'll take a small portion of time weekly, probably less than just one TV show, and spend it with members of your family reading the Scripture passages that will be read in the Mass for the coming Sunday.  A list of those readings is found here: link


Read from your Family Bible or from the Bible I gave you.  Please don't just read them from online somewhere but actually from the Bible!


We should become comfortable praying together if we're not already.  It's an intimate and deeply spiritual thing, so it can be a bit awkward at first.  So is football.  We just get good at it over time.


When the reading is over, I invite you to make any family prayers you'd like, and then together agree what you upon a main theme or point that is especially highlighted by these readings and WHY.


Parents, I ask that you'd be the "Scribe" and scribble down the family's ideas.  It should be a medium-length paragraph with a clear theme that you support from ideas in the readings.  This is like a tiny version of a homily.  A homilette.


This should be turned into me every Monday, starting Monday, February 1.


After Mass that Sunday, it is the student's responsibility to compare the homily they heard in Church to their family's ideas.  (Family: you may choose to help them with this/give ideas on the drive home).  This comparison must be at least a few sentences written beneath where your parent wrote your family's ideas.  If the priest's homily was difficult to follow, explain exactly why.  If it is too "difficult" to follow each week...that would be suspicious...

If in some rare instance you were unable to attend Church on Sunday, listen to any one of the homilies on these pages that are from THAT Sunday:

www.piercedhearts.org/multimedia/audio/homilies/@_homilies.htm

www.wordonfire.org

This handwritten comparison sheet should be turned into me every Monday, starting Monday, January 25.


Thanks for working on this together as a family, and please let me know what effect that has on you all as time progresses, good and bad.