Chapters 8 and 9

Ch. 8
1.  How do you help your husband confront/overcome his fears?

2.  What significant things have happened in your life as a couple when you cast off fear?

Ch. 9
3.  How do you help your husband hear God's call?

4.  How are you called to help and support his purpose?

Personal Reflection-What is the purpose to which God has called you?  How does that mesh with your husband's purpose?

Action Point-Identify an area of fear in your life as a couple and take steps to combat it.

Chapter 9: The Samaritan Woman

Jn 4:5-42

1.  For what do you thirst?  What motivates you?

2.  Under the crucifixes in the Missionaries of Charity's convents is a quote from Christ on the cross, "I thirst."  For what does He thirst?

3.  How are you called to slake the thirst of others?

4.  The Samaritan woman becomes an unlikely evangelist.  What unusual sources have revealed God and His goodness to you?

Chapter 9: Why Does God Allow Spiritual Desolation (Rule 9)

1.  What means is God using to make your soul great?  How are you assisting or resisting?

2.  Consider times when God's healing love worked in your life through spiritual desolation.  What did you gain?

3.  Reflect on an experience that you felt unprepared to handle, but did by God's grace.  Did you recognize His work at the time?  Did you invite Him into the situation right away?

4.  Examine a personal experiences with each of the three main causes of desolation.  How where they different?  similar?

Chapter 9: Enough for a Lifetime-A Model for Faith

1.  Read Psalm 119:105 [Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.]  According to this verse, what will give our children a proper foundation and guidance on their path of life?  In what ways does this apply to our calling as ministers to our children?

2.  What role does scripture play in your spirituality?

3.  How do you read the Bible?

4.  What is your vision of Heaven?

5.  How do you strive to give your child(ren) an eternal perspective?

Action Point:
Read selections from John's gospel or the book of Revelation this week.

Chapter 9: The Spirit and Counseling

1. "He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand." Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part in me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean..." (Jn 13: 6-10) Like Peter, we sometimes struggle either acknowledging our sin or accepting forgiveness and feeling like we must do "more." How do grace, faith, mortification, and prayer each play a role in requiting our sense of guilt? Which do you struggle with/turn to most often? (page 149)

2. In our own time, how does our culture's interest in Satan manifest itself? What can we do to guard against his influence? (page 150)

3. Share a redemptive experience from your life. (page 153)

4. Have the fallen away Catholics in your life left because of the Creed or the Commandments? (page 153)

5. "Sins of pride are understood through the crown of thorns; sins of lust, through the torn flesh; sins of avarice, through the poverty of nakedness; and sins of alcoholism, through thirst. Moreover, sin must be seen as resisting the Spirit of Love (Acts 7:51), as stifling the Spirit of Love (1 Thess 5:19) and as distressing the Spirit of Love (Eph 4:30)." How does Sheen's meditation help bring into focus both our sinfulness and the immensity of God's love for us? (page 155)

6. Do you find it easier to recognize God's Providence in good times or in bad? How can we better see all things as a gift from God? (page 158)

7. Do you have a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Divine Mercy? What role do they play in your spirituality? (page 159)