Personal Study 13

Thirteenth Symbolon episode (“Living the Faith 2: The Mass...")

• both parts of the episode available on Formed.org

• Questions to answer:

1. What are some examples of words in the Mass that come directly from Scripture? What are some examples that come from the earliest days of the Church?  
2. In the video presentation, we learned that in the Mass, Christ’s sacrifice
   is made present. In what ways are we called to unite our lives to Christ’s sacrifice made present in the Mass?  
3. We are obligated to eat, drink, and breathe in order to stay alive. We should think of our Sunday obligation to attend Mass in the same way. God gave us the commandment to “keep holy the Sabbath” because he knows that without it we will die.

*E-mail answers to vincent@catholicgators.org

1. What distinguishes Christian discernment from normal good decision-making?
2. What is meant by "spiritual exercises" generally?  Also name examples.
3. What is the right disposition of heart for discernment?
4. What is the first principle of discernment?  How can morality help us discern in some cases?  Where can we find clarity in times of doubt about the morality of certain courses of action?
5. What is the second principle of discernment?  How can fidelity to our duties of our state in life help us discern in some cases?
6. What is the role of the review?
7. What does Fr. Gallagher mean, to ask for a heart like Mary's?

1. What are three broad steps of discernment that emerge from the first few examples?
2. What is the foundation of discernment?
3. Using the criteria articulated so far, describe the sort of choices which St. Ignatius intended the spiritual exercises to help us to decide.