Hosted by the Faith To Go team in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, David Tremaine and Charlette Preslar, and joined the each week by a special guest, the Faith To Go Podcast highlights themes from the Sunday Gospel reading for you to take into your faith discussions and reflections throughout the week.
from La Jolla Light
Questions:
1) Where do you see a mindset of abundance operating in this local market exchange?
2) How does individual abundance lead to a greater sense of community in this story?
3) How does sharing, in this example, actually lead to people having more than they started with?
4) How might we be able to share what we have in order to create a greater sense of abundance and community?
5) What do you have an abundance of in your life? How might you go about sharing it?
Views and Qs: An Economy of Abundance
Watch this video together and then use the discussion questions below to reflect as a family.
Discussion Questions:
1) Why do you think over 1 billion people around the world live on less than $1 a day? 2) Where do you see a mindset of scarcity in your community? In your life?
3) How do you think we can create abundance as individuals and as a society? 4) How would a mindset of abundance change the way you see the world? 5) Why do you think it takes courage to live with a mindset of abundance?
Feast and Faith: Overflowing With Compassion
For this week's dinner discussion we will focus on Jesus' miraculous feeding of the five thousand.
Prayer -
Almighty God, whose loving hand has given us all that we
possess: Grant us grace that we may honor you with our
substance, and, remembering the account which we must one
day give, may be faithful stewards of your bounty, through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Discussion -
This week we are reflecting on the miraculous story in Matthew's gospel of Jesus feeding over five thousand people from just a few fish and a few loaves of bread. While his disciples urge Jesus to send the crowds back to the nearest town to take care of themselves and find food, Jesus demonstrates an imagination of abundance and desire to be in community:
Questions -
1) Have you ever experienced a "miraculous" event where you didn't think you had enough and you ended up having more than you needed?
2) What was this experience like? How did it change you?
3) Where in your life today do you feel like you don't have enough?
4) Can you imagine a world where everyone has enough? What kind of trust and compassion would be required for this world to exist?
5) What approach to life in community does Jesus model in this miraculous story? How do you think this event changed the lives of those thousands of people who were fed?
Final Nugget -
In this moment when we are struggling to respond to the coronavirus as a nation and as smaller communities, we are faced with a growing sense of scarcity, in our personal well being, in our local and national economies, and in our sense of communal possibilities. How, in this unique moment, might we live with a greater sense of abundance? How might we live out the same kind of compassion and desire to care for others that Jesus models in this moment?
Stay and Pray: A Devotion for Families at the Close of the Day Each week we feature a way for your family to reflect and pray together. For families with older children this is an at home liturgy for your family to participate in together. It is a daily devotion for families adapted from The Book of Common Prayer.
Before you begin, take a few moments to decide who will read the scripture reading and who will read the collect and closing.
Read the Psalm and Lord's Prayer in unison.
After a moment of silence, begin with the Psalm.
Psalm 17:1-7,16
(read in unison)
1 Hear my plea of innocence, O Lord;
give heed to my cry; *
listen to my prayer, which does not come from lying lips.
2 Let my vindication come forth from your presence; *
let your eyes be fixed on justice.
3 Weigh my heart, summon me by night, *
melt me down; you will find no impurity in me.
4 I give no offense with my mouth as others do; *
I have heeded the words of your lips.
5 My footsteps hold fast to the ways of your law; *
in your paths my feet shall not stumble.
6 I call upon you, O God, for you will answer me; *
incline your ear to me and hear my words.
7 Show me your marvelous loving-kindness, *
O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand
from those who rise up against them.
16 But at my vindication I shall see your face; *
when I awake, I shall be satisfied, beholding
your likeness.
Reading
(read by assigned person)
Matthew 14: 13-21
Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Prayers for Ourselves and For Others (take this time to each offer one person/event that you would like to hold in prayer as well as one thing you are thankful for)
Dear God, tonight I ask your prayers for.......
and I give you thanks for ..........
Amen
The Lord’s Prayer
(read in unison)
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen
The Collect
(read by assigned person)
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Share some of your conversations in the comments below: