Life Giving Bread

How often do you think about Heaven?  This life is fleeting, but our life after death is everlasting.  Therefore, what priority do you place on working for the next life?  How will your life on earth be judged when you die?  Furthermore, are there people in your life that help you on your quest for Heaven and/or people who are steering you down the wrong path?

For this week, please read 2 Corinthians 5:1-7:1.  Thankfully, a study bible can help guide us through our study for this week.  I don’t know about you, but I found the verses a little more challenging at first.  It may take a few times of reading them and reading the study notes to grasp what Paul is trying to tell us.  Please feel free to share your thoughts or questions regarding the readings by posting your comments on the Week 3 page under 2Corinthians or on the LGB Facebook page.

CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY!  ALLELUIA!

For this week, we will read the last two chapters of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (Chapters 15 and 16).  In chapter 15, we will read about Paul’s address of Jesus’ Resurrection.What a wonderful reading for this week!

Next week, we will move on to Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians.

HAPPY EASTER!

We are each special.  Our gifts, our talents, were given to us by the Holy Trinity.  There is a reason for why we receive the gifts that we do.  Furthermore, one person’s gifts are not better than another person’s gifts.  Each gift is special and important.  It is our job to utilize them to uplift the Church, to do good for others, and to help ourselves become closer to God.  Therefore, know that you ARE special.  God made you that way.  Rejoice and use your talents for the betterment of all!

For this week, we are reading 1st Corinthians 11:2 through 12:31.  In these verses, we will read about St. Paul’s view on public worship (head coverings, abuses at the Lord’s Supper), how important it is to receive the Eucharist only while without sin, and how we are given spiritual gifts that make each one of us special.  On the LGB Facebook page or on the Week 6 page, please feel free to share your thoughts regarding this week’s readings as well as your answers to the study questions.

We are half-way through St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. This week, we will study chapters 9 and 10, through verse 11:1.

Last week, I wrote about how our actions are examples of our Christian faith and love for our neighbors.  This was based on our readings last week when Paul writes about how we are responsible for how our actions affect others. I want to take that a step farther this week and suggest that we try to imitate those who we know imitate Christ . . . St. Paul for example. So that, in turn, we too can imitate Christ. Is there someone in your life, or a person you know (past or present), that you would say lives, or lived, how Christ would live?  Furthermore, if you have children, are you setting a good example for them?  Are you imitating Christ?

Our actions do affect others.  Have you ever heard the saying “Actions speak louder than words?” This week, please look at yourself through the eyes of others. How do they see you? Are there things you are doing right? Are there things that you should change?  In all, can others tell that you are a Christian just by your actions? Do YOU imitate Christ?

Have a wonderful week!  God bless you all!

We sure did get a LOT of snow this week in Kentucky!  Did you go out and play in it?

We all have a small child within each one of us.  Sometimes, this child wants to come out and play.  The problem, though, is when this inner child causes us to do something that is not nice or when we set a bad example for our kids, grandkids, or others around us.

This week, we will read chapters 7 and 8 of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.  Within these chapters, Paul discusses Jesus’, as well as his own, instructions regarding marriage, celibacy, and widowhood (see 1 Corinthians 7).  In addition, Paul discusses idol food and how important it is to not cause your brother (sister) to fall back into idolatry or other bad behavior (see 1 Corinthians 8).  In other words, we are responsible for how our actions affect others.

So . . . if you DO choose to go out and play in the snow, please watch what you do.  In other words, stay away from the yellow snow :-), don’t throw snow balls in someone’s face, and maybe use some of your energy in helping someone shovel their driveway/sidewalk. How we act is an example of our Christian faith and love for our neighbors.

Any comments or insights?  Please post them on the Week 4 page or on the LGB Facebook page.

Stay safe and warm!

When considering a  course of action, one that seems a little shady or wrong, have you ever asked yourself “What will it hurt anyway?”  What you may want to ask instead is “Who will it hurt?”

This week, in our study of 1st Corinthians, we are reading chapters 5 and 6.  Within these chapters, St. Paul stresses that our actions do affect other people.  They also affect our relationship with God.  Therefore, we must be mindful of what we do and say, especially when it comes to the use of our bodies.

Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, which can really put into perspective how wrong our actions, as mentioned above, could be if we choose to follow through with them.  How do you glorify God in your body?

Please feel free to comment on the Week 3 page or the LGB website regarding what verse(s) stood out to you this week and on your answers to the questions found in your study guide and/or in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible – The First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.

You are God’s temple!

God’s spirit dwells within each one of us.  We must take care in how we build upon God’s building.  

This week, we are reading chapters 3 and 4 of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.  In these chapters, we will be reminded that we are servants of the Lord and that we owe our success primarily to God.  Teachers/catechists/pastors are servants of God and must take care in how they fulfill their responsibility as such.  Furthermore, our work in this life (i.e.how we build upon God’s building) will be judged by God when we die (Paul mentions purgatory).  In the end, the Lord (not others; not ourselves) is our judge. To prepare for Judgement Day, we must make sure our foundation is Christ and that we build upon this foundation according to God’s will.

In this week’s readings, Paul once again addresses pride (see 1 Corinthians 3:18-21), a theme found within 1st Corinthians.  

Please feel free to comment on the Week 2 page or the LGB website regarding what verse(s) stood out to you and on your answers to the questions found in your study guide and/or in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible – The First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.