On Monday, November 20, we’ll have our sixth and last Bible study session of the season. We’re meeting at 7:30 PM in the Spiritual Reading Room at St. David the King.
You can view the study guide for Acts 11:1—12:25 here: Acts 11-12 Study Guide
On Monday, November 20, we’ll have our sixth and last Bible study session of the season. We’re meeting at 7:30 PM in the Spiritual Reading Room at St. David the King.
You can view the study guide for Acts 11:1—12:25 here: Acts 11-12 Study Guide
On Monday, November 13, we’ll have our fifth Bible study session of the season. We’re meeting at 7:30 PM in the Spiritual Reading Room at St. David the King.
You can view the study guide for Acts 9:32—10:48 here: Acts 9-10 Study Guide
On Monday, November 6, we’ll have our fourth Bible study session of the season. We’re meeting at 7:30 PM in the Spiritual Reading Room at St. David the King.
You can view the study guide for Acts 8:4—9:31 here: Acts 8-9 Study Guide
On Monday, Oct 30, we’ll have our third Bible study session of the season. We’re meeting at 7:30 PM in the Spiritual Reading Room at St. David the King.
You can view the study guide for Acts 5:11—8:3 here: Acts 5-8 Study Guide
On Monday, Oct 23, we’ll have our second Bible study session of the season. We’re meeting at 7:30 PM in the Spiritual Reading Room at St. David the King.
You can view the study guide for Acts 3:1—5:11 here: Acts 3-5 Study Guide
On Monday, Oct 16, we’ll have our first Bible study session of the season. We’re meeting at 7:30 PM in the Spiritual Reading Room at St. David the King.
You can view the study guide for Acts 1:1—2:47 here: Acts 1-2 Study Guide
I hope you all had an enjoyable summer. We had a number of social events and it was good to see so many of you.
We will be resuming our Bible study next Monday, October 16. Our topic for the next six weeks will be the first twelve chapters of Acts of the Apostles. Bring a Bible if you have one, bring something to write with, and we’ll provide the rest.
Lent begins March 1st with Ash Wednesday, and goes six and a half weeks. The Easter Triduum begins on April 13th, Holy Thursday, and lasts through April 16th, Easter Sunday.
The day before Lent is known as “Mardi Gras” (“Fat Tuesday”), because it marked the last night until Easter when richer, fattier foods could be eaten. The traditional Lenten fast was much stricter than what we practice today: eggs, dairy, and meat were not eaten during all of Lent, so they had to be cleared out by the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. The Brazilian festival of “Carnival” is named for this same practice of “removing meat” (carne levare) from the household.
During Lent, Catholics are called to abstain from meat on Fridays, and to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (April 14th). Abstaining from meat means consuming no red meat, pork, or poultry; fish has has been a traditional replacement food on Fridays. Fasting means restricting your food to only one meal, keeping any other food consumed that day totaling less than a meal, with allowances made for water and medicine.
Lent is associated with three spiritual disciplines: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We’ll talk about ways to practice these disciplines over the course of our Lenten study, in addition to our main program, which will be watching and discussing the Catholicism series by Fr. (now Bishop!) Robert Barron of Word on Fire ministries.
We begin on Monday, March 6th, meeting in the Spiritual Reading Room at 7:30 PM. We will meet for ten Mondays during Lent and into the Easter season, taking off on April 17th (Easter Monday) because the church is closed that evening, although we could have a social event elsewhere that evenings.
There will be a three-part series on the Mass at the Great Hall at St. David the King in January. We will meet from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM on the following dates: Jan 5 (Thurs), Jan 10 (Tues), and Jan 17 (Tues).
In the first session, we looked at the Mass as re-presenting the last events of Christ’s early life, from his entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (in the Entrance Procession) through the Crucifixion (the Eucharistic Prayer) and the Resurrection (the Communion Rite) and finally his Ascension into heaven (the Final Blessing and Dismissal).
In the second session, we looked at four ways to prepare for the prayer of the Mass (“warming up” with personal prayer, familiarizing ourselves with the readings, abiding by the Eucharistic fast, and making sacramental Confession when necessary). Then we walked through the Mass from the Entrance Procession through the Creed, unpacking meaning found in the words, symbols, and gestures. We spent close to an hour on the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed together.
In our third and final session, we will pick up where we left off, starting at the Prayer of the Faithful and going through to the Dismissal. Close attention will be paid to the Eucharistic Prayer. If there’s time, we’ll look at the meaning behind the vestments and gestures of the priest.
If you’re interesting in bringing this series, or one like it, to your parish or small group, please contact me by leaving a comment below.