Catholic Faith Formation Resources

OPENING PRAYER The Gift of Story Holy One, you have given us the gift of story in our lives, ways of understanding who we are, ways of making sense of our world, of finding meaning and knowing how to respond to all that happens in our lives. Please show us where our stories fall short or are too narrow, where they exclude rather than include, where they divide rather than unite. Help us to see where a story we live out of may go amiss of what is real, where it allows us to escape becoming whole, where it lets us live comfortably in fear. Fill us with your story, the story of unity and compassion and love. Fill us with images that energize us and give us hope and lead us to the fundamental truth that you have tried to teach us all along: we are all one. Amen. —Judy Cannato (d. 2011) Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology Is Transforming Spiritual Life (Notre Dame, IN: Sorin Books, 2010), 23. "THE GOOD NEWS: GOD HAS SENT HIS SON" — CCC ,...

Let us offer prayers of remembrance and gratitude this Memorial Day weekend for those women and men who gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives in the military service of our nation since its inception, and for their families, friends, and other loves ones who have suffered as a result. May we allow the Holy Spirit to empower us, guide us, transform us, and act through us to bring peace to all peoples of the world.

We may believe that we cannot individually or directly effect change in the life of someone who lives across the world. However, we can individually and with others offer prayer, post on social platforms, contact and persuade decision makers, or make financial contributions to organizations that do serve people in other areas of the world. We can also personally and selflessly offer ourselves, our time, our talents, and our gifts now, in loving service to God's reign in our own time and place in the world. Acting individually, and in concert and solidarity with others for the common good, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can contribute in creating ripple effects of God's reign of love, joy, justice, peace, truth, healing, mercy, compassion, friendship, hope, faith, and salvation to those in need, that will enlarge and expand outwardly, and eventually become embraced throughout the entire world.

You may find it helpful to reflect on the following passage by Thomas Merton, where he discusses “Le Point Vierge” ("virgin point"): At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak His name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely ... I have no program for this seeing. It is on...

OPENING PRAYER Susipe Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will. All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours, do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me. St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) "THE CREATION OF MAN AND WOMAN, THE FALL AND THE PROMISE" — CCC , Nos. 355–421 Do you see or experience the presence of God in others? What about in yourself? God created humans in God’s image and likeness. We were created for friendship with God, to share in God's own life, and to live in harmony with one another and with all of God's creation. God's image is a dynamic source of inner, spiritual energy that draws our hearts and minds to the source of ultimate truth, love, goodness, and beauty—who is God. Created in God's image, we are all capable of self-knowledge, free will, uniting...

Who or what is guiding the choices you make in your life? We don't always have control over what happens to us. One of the many gifts given to us as humans is the freedom to choose how we respond to our life experiences. All choices have consequences and we must accept responsibility for the choices we make. Too often we allow our choices to be made by others, by knee-jerk reactions to our emotions, or by our habitual patterns of thought. We may forget that we are also spiritual beings. Therefore, pray and seek guidance, discernment, and strength from the Spirit within you to guide and empower you in choosing appropriate responses that are grounded in love. Be forgiving of yourself when you fail to choose an appropriate response, but resilient and trusting in the Spirit enough to begin anew.

All creation is called to be one with the One who is infinite, eternal, and Ultimate Reality of Love, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and through whom “we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). We ultimately desire “to be,” in essence, the "true self"—who we are already created to be—one with God. This desire is imprinted in our heart and soul by God and can only be satisfied by and through God. Our task in life is to recognize this and to embrace it. When we fail to do this, a void or emptiness is created in our heart and soul that our self-limiting and dualistic ego-driven mind of our "false self" (me–you, us–them, good–evil, right–wrong, etc.) unsuccessfully seeks to fill through the addictions of control, power, pleasure, prestige, possessions, or by other means. This emptiness still remains until we freely choose to start trusting in God, surrendering our will to God’s will, emptying ourselves from the control of our ego, and allowin...

OPENING PRAYER Apostles Creed I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holdy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. "I BELIEVE IN GOD" — CCC , Nos. 199–349 What do you and your closest friends do to grow and deepen your relationship with one another? Although you are distinct from one another, what is it about your relationship that also binds you to one another? God is the creator of "all that is seen and unseen....

Throughout our lives we experience many kinds of limitations. For example, we are subject to the laws of physics. Our bodies are finite and will eventually cease to function and we will die. We may also experience certain limitations in our physical, cognitive, psychological, or emotional capacities and abilities. Limitations may also be imposed on us by the expectations, words, or actions of others, or by social groups to which we belong, organizations who employ us, and by the laws of governments. Just as important are the limitations we perceive, create, or maintain for ourselves in our own minds. Some of these limitations we cannot change, and some we can and should seek to change, whether individually or collectively with others, such as when we see injustices occurring. One of the difficulties is being able to properly discern those things we can and should change, and those that we cannot or should not change. This requires wisdom. It also takes determination and courage to...

At times, we may believe our faith tradition is just about God and me or Jesus and me. We may fail to realize that we are social beings who are in interdependent relationships with others and with creation itself. What we believe, think, or do affects these relationships to some extent, regardless of whether we realize it or not. Many scripture scholars agree that Jesus understood that the primary mission and purpose of his ministry was the coming of God's "kingdom," reign, or Way of love, truth, freedom, justice, peace, hope, healing, mercy, forgiveness, and salvation for all, not just ourselves. Throughout the Church's history, six Greek terms have been primarily used to summarize the dimensions of Christian ministry necessary to continue Jesus' mission to the world: being a life-giving community of faith ( koinonia ); proclaiming the Good News ( kerygma ); bearing witness to our faith ( marturia ); teaching the faith ( didache ), worshipping as a community...

OPENING PRAYER Christ Has No Body Christ has no body but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) "BRING ABOUT THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH" — CCC , 142–197 What qualities do the people you trust have that allows you to give them your trust? God is Truth and Love. How do you respond to God’s Love and Truth in your life? Is there any reason that prevents you from trusting and committing yourself to God? Faith is God’s gift of revealing and calling us individually and communally into a lovin...

Today we celebrate "Mother's Day." Blessed be all Mothers, since the advent of humanity, who like Mary—the "Mother of God"—have accepted and participated in God's generative act of love, and have given the gift of life to their children.

Christ asks each of us the same question, "Do you love me?" Before you answer, think what this entails. For Jesus said, If you love me, you will keep my commandments....They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them....Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me (John 14:15, 21, 23–24). "Love" is more than an emotion or feeling. We are called to "love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7). It is Jesus' commandment that we love one another as Jesus loved us (John 15:12). How did Jesus express this love? "No one has greater love than this, to lay lay down one's life f...

One of the most important questions we each need to decide is who or what is the center or focal point of our life? If we are honest with ourselves, it is usually through our ego ("I") consciousness that we measure everything and everyone else. As Beatrice Bruteau wrote: Ego-consciousness is that which judges everything in our experience according to whether it is good or bad for me as a private, separate individual, rather than according to whether it is good or bad in itself, or within the context of some greater whole, or from God's point of view. It is the consciousness that identifies us with our description, with all the things that can be said about us in comparison with others—that we are taller or handsomer or smarter or richer, or of the opposite sex or the adverse political party, or inside or outside the right church, or more extroverted or less sensitive, or whatever. It is the consciousness that makes us feel the need to insist on getting our way and def...

OPENING PRAYER God of All Creation, you call each of us to evolve, to recognize that you hold all that is in your loving embrace. As we grow in your love, may we learn to hold others in an ever expanding embrace as well. May we see the entire sweep of history as your self-communication that calls us to awake to who we are in you--and who you are in us. In the mutual embrace that we share, may we together hold the entire cosmos, each and every person, each and every creature, in a way that nurtures and sustains and calls forth the gifts that are given for all. May each of us participate fully in a personal evolution that transforms us and transforms the world. Amen. —Judy Cannato (d. 2011) Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology Is Transforming Spiritual Life (Notre Dame, IN: Sorin Books, 2010), 114. "PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE (Mk 16:15)" — CCC , Nos. 74–133 Who taught you about the best ways to live, ways that bring life and meaning to you a...