First Reading
Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14

1. “Those who would speak the truth of the storm from inside the center of it cannot expect to live without being tossed around by winds.”* Can you think of others besides Oscar Romero and Dorothy Day who have suffered because they have spoken out for reform and who might now stand before the Lamb? Do you encounter resistance to the values of Christianity in your life?

2. Do you find opposition or indifference to Catholic values of social justice? What do you do, especially when people are suffering because of this unconcern? What would you like to do?

Second Reading
1 John 3:1-3

1. In Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town, Emily says, “Does anyone ever realize life while they live it. … every, every minute?” The stage manager responds, “No. Saints and poets maybe ... they do some.” Why might saints understand every minute of life? Can you relate it to the line from this reading, “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”? Do the saints and poets know God?

2. God is always present to us, hovering like a mother hen. Why does God not jump right in and save us from all the messes we get into?

Gospel:
Matthew 5:1-12a

1. Moses received the ten commandments on the mountain. Compare and contrast this with Jesus giving the beatitudes in his sermon on the mount. Does Jesus define his own life with the beatitudes? What part of your life do you define with beatitudes?
                            
2. In recalling the beatitudes in his homily, Pope Francis pointed out that our Heavenly Father sows peace, always and only, to the point that he sent his Son into the world as the seed of peace. In what small or large way can you work for peace? Vote? Recycle? Donate food for the hungry? Volunteer in a shelter? Participate in a peace march? Run for political office to make change?

Dear brothers and sisters, this is the way of holiness, and it is the very way of happiness. It is the way that Jesus travelled. Indeed, he himself is The Way: those who walk with him and proceed through him enter into life, into eternal life. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to be simple and humble people, the grace to be able to weep, the grace to be meek, the grace to work for justice and peace, and above all the grace to let ourselves be forgiven by God so as to become instruments of his mercy.

Holy Mass of His Holiness Pope Francis
November 1, 2015