First Reading
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
1. Why did the crowds “pay attention” to what Philip was saying? What gets your attention in spiritual matters?
2. The Samaritans saw many signs and were filled with “great joy.” What are the signs of the presence of God in your life? Do any signs fill you with joy? Could you think of these signs as “everyday miracles”?
Second Reading
1 Peter 3:15-18
1. How do you indicate by your life that the Spirit inspires you? How do you “sanctify Christ as Lord” in all of life’s arena: home, government, Church, world, and all creation?
2. St. Peter was the writer of this Second Reading. How does he recommend answering someone who notices your hopefulness and asks why? Was Peter always true to this advice in the Gospels? Do you try to be faithful to it?
Gospel
John 14:15-21
1. “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” If studying or reading or discussing are your only approaches to God, what else is needed, according to this reading? How does love impact knowledge and understanding in any friendship?
2. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, …” What is it that Pope Francis says the Holy Spirit seeks to do with his/her infinitely creative mind?
To believe that the Holy Spirit is at work in everyone means realizing that he seeks to penetrate every human situation and all social bonds: ‘The Holy Spirit can be said to possess an infinite creativity, proper to the divine mind, which knows how to loosen the knots of human affairs, even the most complex and inscrutable.’ (St. John Paul II.)
