LARRY BRODING

What Do We Expect
from God

Video  | 1st Reading | Psalm  | 2nd Reading  | Gospel

3rd Sunday of Advent (A)

Have you caught the “holiday spirit” yet? How do you get into the holiday mood? Do you rely on others or events to spark your “Christmas feeling?”

Christmas is coming soon. The lights, the sounds, the smells of the holidays are in the air. No matter where we go, we are reminded of holiday cheer. In fact, many of us rely on this atmosphere to bring us out of our doldrums. We expect people, places, or events to create the mood that Christmas brings.

Children’s Reading | Catechism Link | Family Activity

SOURCE: WORD-SUNDAY © Larry Broding

VINCE CONTRERAS

3rd Sunday of Advent (A)

1. The 1st Reading from the prophet Isaiah describes a time of renewal, rest and refreshment in the age of the Messiah. How has Christ at least begun to fulfill these promises since his coming? In your life and the life of believers today? In a completed way at the end of time?
2. In the 2nd Reading, for what event is St. James urging his readers to patiently await? For what reason are they to exercise this patience? What OT examples can you think of (verse 10)?
3. In the Gospel Reading, who questions Jesus (verse 2)? How did John wind up in prison (Matthew 14:1-5)?
4. Why did John send the questions that he did? Does Jesus answer John’s questions more with promises or with evidence? Why? How might John, who knew the Old Testament well, have interpreted Jesus’ reply (see Isaiah 35:5-6; 61:1)?
5. How was John unlike a weak reed or a well-groomed politician? What does Jesus say about John (verses 9-11)? Why was he greater that the Old Testament prophets? How is a New Testament believer greater than John the Baptist (verse 11; see Matthew 18:3-4)?
6. What kind of “prisons” tend to bring out doubts for you regarding Jesus? In those periods of discouragement and doubt, what most renews your courage and faith?
7. In what specific way can you be an encourager to someone in Church ministry? In your family? Among your friends?

DON SCHWAGER

3rd Sunday of Advent (A)

SOURCE: Sunday Scripture Study for Catholics

MICHAEL MARCHAL

Only Jesus Can Give Us, By Baptism, the Power of His Spirit

3rd Sunday of Advent (A)

BACKGROUND: Once again John is pointing out the difference between his ministry and that of Jesus. Both are proclaiming that the kingdom/reign of God is right at hand. But only Jesus can bring radical transformation to the hearts and lives of his disciples. Only he can give us, by baptism, the power of his Spirit.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. How has Jesus already healed and empowered you?
2. What within you is making you still resist the Spirit’s transforming power?
3. To whom is Jesus sending you to be the messenger of good news and transformation?
4. Why is the message of Jesus still not transforming the world?

SOURCE: TEAM RCIA

ANNE OSDIECK

Recognizing New and Different Ways Jesus Comes into Our Lives

3rd Sunday of Advent (A)

Does God always come into your life the way you expect? John the Baptist might have expected a mighty one and was confused by the gentle, healing Jesus. Was he called to conversion? Can Advent be a time of conversion for us to recognize new or different ways Jesus comes into our lives?

[Jesus’] description shows us that salvation envelops the whole person and regenerates him. But this new birth, with the joy that accompanies it, always presupposes a death to ourselves and to the sin within us. Hence the call to conversion, which is the basis of the preaching of both the Baptist and Jesus; in particular, it is a question of converting our idea of God.

And the time of Advent stimulates us to do this precisely with the question 2 that John the Baptist poses to Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Mt 11:3). We think that all his life John waited for the Messiah; his lifestyle, his very body is shaped by this expectation. This is also why Jesus praises him with those words: no one is greater than him among those born of a woman (cf. Mt 11:11). Yet he too had to convert to Jesus. Like John, we too are called to recognize the face that God chose to assume in Jesus Christ, humble and merciful.

Pope Francis, Angelus
Dec 15, 2019

MORE QUESTIONS

SOURCE: Sunday Web Site – Saint Louis University

MONIKA KORZEC

The Grace of Firmness of Faith

3rd Sunday of Advent (A)

…the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.

1. Take a look at the list, and think about your own life. Were you physically or spiritually affected by any of the conditions?
2. Have you experienced a miracle of healing from any of those conditions? Have you recognized the work of Jesus in those moments? Or, are you still blind, lame, deaf, sick/dead, and poor either spiritually or physically? Are you still waiting for a miracle?
3. Are you hopeful that Jesus can perform a miracle in your life? Or have you lost your hope?
4. As you are thinking about those questions, what emotions and feelings awaken in you now?

MICRO RETREAT

SOURCE: CONTEMPLATIVE RETREAT | Recent Retreats