Sunday Readings
March 29, 2009 :: Fifth Sunday of Lent
Scripture
JEREMIAH 31:31 — 34
You will be our God, we shall be your people.
HEBREWS 5:7 — 9
Jesus is the source of eternal salvation.
JOHN 12:20 — 33
Only the seed that dies can produce fruit.
THEME
Being people of God means being people who have faith in life after death. Jesus taught us this with his story of the grain of wheat that dies and then produces new life in its fruit. He also shows us life after death by rising from the dead.
FOCUSING OBJECT
Wheat seeds, or any type of seed
REFLECTIONS
Part of growing older is learning how to accept the experiences of loss in our lives, and to have hope in the experiences of growth and new life to come. Experiences of loss could be felt when moving to a new town, after the breakup of a close relationship, or after the death of a friend or relative. Experiences of growth and new life could include meeting new friends in a new town, having a different but honest relationship with someone you care about, or feeling peacefulness in your heart with the memory of someone who has died.
• What are some experiences of loss in your life that have been followed by experiences of growth or new life?
Jesus said the ones who serve would follow him and the ones who would lose their lives would live forever.
• What do you think these words of Jesus are all about?
• What does it mean to follow Jesus?
• What do you think it means to lose life in order to live forever?
CLOSING
The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hardworking farmer, it will thrive and grow up into God, whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God seeds into God.
— (One Hundred Graces)
For complete Sunday reading go to http://www.usccb.org/nab/
In Touch With the Word: Lectionary-Based Prayer Reflections, by Lisa-Marie Calderone-Stewart (Winona, MN: Saint Mary’s Press, 2004).
Copyright © 2004 by Saint Mary’s Press, www.smp.org.
All rights reserved. Used with permission of the publisher.