Adventus Domini

Advent Faith Formation

Session III

Prayer For Formation: 

 

Day by day, dear Lord, of thee three things I pray: to see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly, day by day. 

Part I:  Is Christ the King of Your Life?

 

Watch:  Robert Barron on the Book of Revelation

 
 

For Reflection:

Christ in the Book of Revelation: 

The book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible. The author, John, writes of the end times and the Second Coming of Christ.  The book is apocalyptic literature and is filled with powerful imagery and symbolism. It provides us with the spiritual themes of the truth of Christ’s authority and ultimate power over evil. The book of Revelation is eschatological in nature, meaning that it deals with topics of death, judgment, the end times, and the human soul. Ultimately, Revelation makes clear that at the end of time, the Lord’s salvation and victory will come and put an end to the current struggles we face in our world because of the powers of sin and evil. With his return in glory, Jesus will overwhelmingly defeat Satan and all evil, bringing forth the everlasting kingdom of heaven. 

  • How familiar are you with the Book of Revelation and its apocalyptic symbolism? Are there any images that you find particularly meaningful or helpful?  
  • Read Revelation 3:7-13  reflecting on how Christ identifies himself as the new David, as “holding the Key of  David”.  Bishop Barron highlights the place that King David holds, as someone halfway between Adam and Christ, who helps us to understand the both the Fall that takes place with Adam and the Kingship of Christ.  How are human beings connected to the Kingship of God? 
  • What aspects of David’s reign are fulfilling the tasks of what Adam was to do?  How does David pre-figure Jesus in his messianic role?       
  • According to Bishop Barron, how does St. Paul understand what evangelization is?  
  • How do we meant to participate in the work of evangelization – proclaiming that Christ is Lord?  
 

Jesus Christ is Lord

  • Is Christ the Lord of your life?  How do understand God’s dominion over you?  How do you experience Christ’s Lordship over the different aspects of your life – your work, your family life, your values, etc.  

 

The Open Door

  • Reflect on image of the door: what comes to mind for you?  How is the image of the open door meaningful to deepening your relationship with Christ? 
  • Bishop Barron highlights two important connections that come from the image of the door in his passage:  the doors to  Mission and the doors to the heavenly Mass.

 

    • The Door of Mission  reflects our discovering that Jesus Christ is our Lord.  We are then moved through the open door of Mission to announce that Lordship to the world.  How is your faith and acceptance in the Lord Jesus reflected in your daily life?  How do you participate in Christ’s mission to restore all things back to the Father? 
    • The Door to Heaven is a vision of the heavenly liturgy.  Bishop Barron says: “We become properly aligned under the lordship of Christ the King when we look through the open door of the Mass into heaven.”   Is this reflective of your experience of the Mass?  
 
 
 

Radiant with the Presence of God

  • In speaking to the Church in Philadelphia, Christ commends them that in spite of their human weakness, they have kept his word.  How does our experience of our own frailty or brokenness help to increase our dependence of God and a recognition of his providence and lordship?  
  • What is your relationship to the bible? How is the word of God personal, powerful, and performative in your life? What can you do to better recognize and appreciate the intimacy, power, and transforming nature of God’s word?
  • How free do you feel to call on the name of Jesus, not only in the quiet and privacy of your own prayer, but out-loud in the everydayness of your life?  
  • How is this a time of testing and purification?  
  • All baptized believers are called to the “universal call to holiness”  to join in Christ’s mission of sanctifying the world – making it radiant with the presence of God.  In what ways do respond to this call to mission?  How is the Lord calling you?  
 

Part II:  The Command to Rejoice

Watch:  Joy for the Broken Hearted

For Reflection: 

The Command to Rejoice:

  • What causes you to rejoice?  Where is your joy?
  • Isaiah 61 gives us the reasons to rejoice:  In the Gospel of Luke we hear Jesus take up the messianic mantel of Isaiah to reveal who he is and what he does (Luke 4) Compare the features as they appear in Isaiah and in Luke and reflect on what they reveal about who Jesus is and what his mission is:

 

    • “Bring glad tidings to the poor” – good news (gospel) to the economically and spiritually poor.  
    • “To heal the brokenhearted” (consider the heart – in the bible the heart names the deepest center of thought and action –  the soul)  The heart is meant to be in union with the heart of God.  It is meant to inform all of what we do.  We are all brokenhearted.  To heal means to save,  to restore us to friendship with God — rejoice
    • “To proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoner”  Captivity and imprisonment are metaphors for sin.  The soul is meant to fly — we need freedom to to reach out to the world, to the transcendent – to reach for God.  
    • “To announce a year of favor from the Lord” The year of the Lord’s favor was a time of grace, a jubilee in which freedom was given and debts were forgiven.  Jesus’ Cross and resurrection  brought with it completely unmerited forgiveness of sin and liberation from death.
    • Messiah — will come clothed in a robe of salvation (which brings the balm of healing) and with a mantel of justice (to set things right).  He will wrap us in these things.  

 

  • Bishop Barron encourages us to go through the passage in Isaiah step by step – to enter into the darkness of each place of oppression and brokenness and then rejoice for the Lord has come and is coming to wrap us in His robe and place his mantel up on us.  Spend some time reflecting on the passage.  Consider the things that have caught you up in your own life.  What self-imposed prisonment has Christ come to liberate you from?    
  • Christ enters into our poverty in order to make us rich – that is why we rejoice.  How does knowing our poverty, our brokenness and our lack of freedom help us to enter into the joy that the Lord calls us to?  How can we share that joy?  
  • Rejoice!
 

Lord Jesus, I believe in your love for me! Come, Lord Jesus, come!

This concludes the 2nd Session of our Advent Faith Formation.  We hope you found it helpful in the midst of a busy season. 

We look forward to future faith formation opportunities at Divine Mercy Parish.

If you have any suggestions or questions, contact us at faith.divinemercynl@gmail.com

We would love to hear from you.

Merry Christmas