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Parish
Academy
Class -
The Book of Romans - Taught by Fr.
Reid Hensarling
Text: Romans by
John Stott
January 11 - Review Chapters 1-8
January 18 -
Review Chapters 1-8
January 25 -
Chapter 9
February 1 - Chapter 9
February 8 - Chapter 10
February 15 - Chapter 10
February 22 - No Class - Ash
Wednesday
February 29 - Chapter 11
March 7 - Chapter 12
March 14 - Chapter 12
March 21 - Chapter 13
March 28 -
Chapter 14
April 4 - No Class - Holy Week
April 11 - Chapter 14
April 18 - Chapter 15
April 25
- Chapter 16 and Review
KEY SCRIPTURES:
Jesus
immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't
be afraid" (Matthew 14:28).
If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord,"
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved (Romans 10:9).
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved (Romans 10:13).
Those
who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what
that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the
Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires (Romans 8:5).
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot
please God (Romans 8:8).
If you really knew me, you
would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and
have seen him (John 14:7).
You may ask anything in my
name, and I will do it (John 14:14).
It is
written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that
comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).
For if, by
the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how
much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace
and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man,
Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).
Of
this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's
grace, which was given me by the working of his power (Ephesians
3:7).
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with
great joy (Matthew 2:10).
The
virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they
will cal him Immanuel - which means, "God with us" (Matthew 1:23).
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother
Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came
together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit
(Matthew 1:18).
He will be great and will be called
the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the
throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of
Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end (Luke 1:32-33).
SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
The following are favorite quotations that highlight the
Christian faith and hopefully lead us to reflection and
contemplation and perhaps change and transformation. Enjoy!
Toward God: The
Ancient Wisdom of Western Prayer
by Michael Casey:
There is no perfect prayer - except
insofar as it corresponds to one's real situation and represents a
total turning toward God.
Above all, we desire
to be whole.
At some particular state of life we have
to make a deliberate decision to turn toward God, leaving aside any
goal that draws us in other directions.
For God
alone is greater than the human being.
Prayer
will carry us if we relax and do not struggle against it; if we try
to conquer it or control it we will get into difficulties.
The real problem many people have
in prayer comes from the fact that to be authentic prayer must be
grounded on truth. If it is not, it is spurious.
Prayer means not fleeing from the worst but
doing battle with it, empowered now with the strength of God.
Without an inner certainty about the
direction of the journey, our choices are constantly weighted toward
sources of comfort. Disturbing thoughts can be blocked.
By a sustained round of work and play, one can manage to leave no
moment for reflection. It is possible to evade the warning
intuitions, but at a cost.
One never enjoys life while holding the door
closed against reality. When we find ourselves anxious or
angry or fearful, the object of these negative emotions needs to be
faced. Otherwise it will dominated our thoughts and absorb our
energies. Then life becomes a sustained effort at avoiding
real issues. If the thing we dread is true, then accepting it
gives us vitality, while deferment is deadening.
To accept an unpleasant truth about ourselves, an
ugliness from deep inside, is very hard. But after acceptance
we have the chance to offset its influence. This may not mean
an easier life, but certainly a radically freer one.
The test of authentic prayer is growth:
growth in goodness, growth in humanity, greater serenity in living
and in facing hardship. Above all genuine contact with God
effects a real displacement of self as the center of our existence.
Discontent is the force that makes us search
persistently for an answer to our deepest aspirations. The
experience of difficulties invites us to turn to God, seeking a
strength beyond our habitual reserves.
While self
triumphs, prayer is impossible.
To pray well I need to face up to
realities about myself, that I would prefer to ignore: my anxieties,
fears, private griefs, failures, lovelessness, my utter lack of
resources.
To accept the truth about what I am, as
also the truth about other human beings, demands courage. If I
do not pray well, it is usually because I lack that kind of courage.
It is not faith in God that is hard, but the renunciation of
illusory faith in myself. To turn toward God means, first,
turning away from whatever is untrue or delusory - no matter how
much comfort it brings.
Prayer introduces us to the
reality of God's life. We are put in touch with the persons of
the Holy Trinity, not through words but at a deeper level.
In following Jesus, we are shown the
way that leads toward the Father. Our life is not aimless; it
has a destination. We have not been left to wander in the
desert; the Shepherd has come to seek what is lost and bring us
home.
Opening ourselves to God is what makes us come
alive.
Prayer is inseparable from living. It
takes a lot of courage. To pray well I must first find out
where I am. Self-knowledge is never procured cheaply.
Renovation of the Heart by Dallas
Willard:
For good or for evil, the body lies right at at
the center of the spiritual life - a strange combination of words to
most people.
Our body is not just a physical system, but is
inhabited by the real presence of Christ.
The condition we must move to is that of
single-minded focus upon doing the will of God in everything,
distracted by nothing.
Character is revealed most of all in what we
feel and do without thinking.
The centrality of
will to personhood is what makes it immediately and strongly
precious and gives the person dignity.
The
constant character of the will apart from God is duplicity.
Joy is a pervasive sense - not just a thought -
of well-being; of overall and ultimate well-being.
Character can be changed. And that, of course, is what
spiritual formation in Christlikeness is about.
We know that
feelings move us, and that we enjoy being moved. They give us
a sense of being alive. Without feeling we have no interest in
things, no inclination to action. So feeling is essential to
life.
Healthy feelings, properly ordered among
themselves, are essential to a good life. so if we are to be
formed in Christlikeness, we must take good care of our feelings and
not just let them happen.
The proper course of action is to
replace destructive feelings with others that are good, or to
subordinate them - anger and sexual desire, for example - in a way
that makes them constructive and transforms their effects. The
process of spiritual formation in Christ will do this by grace -
effectively and intelligently received, and put into constant
practice.
If we allow certain negative thoughts to
obsess us, then their associated feelings can enslave and blind us -
that is, take over our ability to think and perceive.
The opposite of peace is really not war, but deadness.
The addict is one who, in one way or another, has given in to
feeling of one kind or another and has placed it in the position of
ultimate value in his or her life.
Self-control is the
steady capacity to direct yourself to accomplish what you have
chosen or decided to do and be, even though you don't feel like it.
In people without rock-solid character, feeling is a deadly enemy of
self-control and will always subvert it. The mongoose of a
disciplined will under God and good is the only match of for the
cobra of feeling.
The
Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis:
Neither skills nor riches,
neither beauty nor strength, neither talent nor eloquence carry any
value in Your sight unless grace be joined with them.
Follow Me. I am the Way, the Truth, and the life.
Without the Way, there is no going; without the Truth, there is no
knowing; without Life, there is no living. I am the Way you
are to follow; I am the Truth you are to believe; I am the Life you
are to hope for.
Where You are there is heaven, and
where You are not there is death and hell.
You are my sole
desire and therefore I long for You, cry out to You and beseech You.
You are my hope and my trust; You console me and You are faithful in
everything.
Whatever may seem good for our peace and
happiness is really nothing if You are absent from us; of themselves
all these things can do nothing for us.
You are the
end of everything good, the highest point of life and the depth of
wisdom.
How People Grow by Henry Cloud and John
Townsend
Reality is a source of discipline constructed
the universe to operate with certain laws. when we disobey
those laws, we feel the pain of the consequences.
Denial is not admitting the truth about a problem. People
project so that they will not have to experience the discomfort of
their own weaknesses and sins. When you become aware of
denial, rationalization, minimization, or blame, you must lovingly
but directly confront it.
Yes, discipline is painful. Discipline
generally requires pain to be effective. Pain signals a
problem to which we should pay attention.
Submitting to discipline is difficult because we
must allow something to be done to us. We are being
disciplined. We have to let it occur to us, and then we grow
from it.
We need to seek
God's kingdom and righteousness, not to be good, but to stay alive.
Changing meant turning from doing things my way to doing things
God's way.
Commit to the pain of discipline in order
to grow.
To live - to have the life we desire - we
have to live according to God's ways.
To find his ways is to
find the kingdom; to live his ways is to find righteousness.
Only the ways of the kingdom work.
Remember that the path to
real life is not easy and not a lot of people find it.
Getting righteous and aligned with the ways of the kingdom and
getting healthy are one and the same thing.
People are never
going to grow by listening to a sermon once a week and then just go
about their business. They must gain deeper knowledge about
God's ways (his kingdom) and also find out how those ways apply to
their own issues in life (his righteousness).
To humble ourselves
constantly and to take the role of God's bond-servant is the path of
all growth. When we become a servant and take the obedient
position, we grow by getting smaller. We ascend by descending.
This begins it all.
Life only works when we are being human.
It does not work when we are playing God.
The most basic
means of choosing our own way and not God's is to decide not to
suffer. Instead, we choose our own way by taking Satan's
solution and giving in to the temptation to medicate the pain
instead of dealing with it. Sex, substances (the lust of the
flesh), performance (the pride of life), and materialism (the lust
of the eyes) help us avoid suffering.
To choose God's
will and not our own is to face our defense mechanisms and give them
up. When we do so, we find that we have to deal with our
problems. Then some of the deepest character growth happens.
We have to give up our own defensive and offensive attempts to save
ourselves.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The Lord asks only two things of us: love for God and love for our
neighbor. We cannot be sure if we are loving God, but we can
know quite will if we are loving our neighbor.
Teresa of Avila
To be a saint does not mean never to sin.
It means to start again with humility and joy after each fall.
Dom Helder Camara
I ready myself for the birth of Christ by
getting rid of the clutter in my heart. Advent is about making
room in my life - my heart, mind, and spirit - for God's blessing
through Jesus' birth. Beth Richarson
In the light of faith, I hope. Do not allow me to faint by the
way. This light, without which I should still walk in
darkness, teaches me the road. Truly this light is a sea, for
the soul revels in you, eternal Trinity, the Sea of Peace.
Catherine of Siena
We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises,
or for the other beautiful attractions in life - those are simply
intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the
valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to
prove our stamina and strength. Oswald Chambers
Do not
worry about the tensions and struggles in your life, because the
same loving Father who takes care of you today will take care of you
tomorrow. Saint Francis De Sales
Forgiveness is a gift, God's gift, first of all,
to each of us. And then a gift we give to others, a gift that,
in the giving, brings to the giver unexpected and undeniable
blessing. Kenneth Gibble
None of us can describe God, exactly, but we
know when we have God moments.... They are moments of recognition
when we know what is true, realize what is real, and experience what
is good. Go moments are rare glimpses into eternity.
Jeremy Langford
When you know how much God is in love with you then you can only
live your life radiating that love. Mother Teresa
Faithful discipleship includes fidelity and loving
attention to our closest relationships. Close relationships
offer us special opportunity to grow in faithfulness precisely
because they challenge us over long periods of time.
Mary Lou Redding
To cling always to God and to the things of
God - this must be our major effort, this must be the road that the
heart follows unswervingly. John Cassian
God is the friend of silence - we need to listen
to God because it's not what we say but what He says to us and
through us that matters. Mother Teresa
The elevator that must lift me up to heaven is
Your arms, Jesus! For that I do not need to become big.
On the contrary, I have to stay little - may I become little, more
and more. Therese of Lisieux
Prayer and love are really learned in the hour
when prayer becomes impossible and your heart turns to stone.
Thomas Merton
We tend to emphasize the distance between Jesus and ourselves.
We see Jesus as the all-knowing and all-powerful Son of God who is
unreachable for us sinful, broken human beings. But in
thinking this way, we forget that Jesus came to lift us up into
loving community with the Father. Only when we recognize the
radical purpose of Jesus' ministry will we be able to understand the
meaning of the spiritual life.
Henri J.M. Nouwen
Transformation comes about when we are
willing to admit God's word into our lives, to hear God's voice and
to act upon it...When I admit that God is in charge I am willing and
ready to change. Esther De Waal
We
make the decision as to whether the events of our lives will serve
as stepping stones or stumbling blocks.
Maxie Dunnam
Hope opens something in the
human heart. Like shutters slowly parting to admit a winter
dawn, hope permits strands of light to make their way to us, even
when we stand in cold darkness; but hope also reveals a landscape
beyond us into which we can live and move and have our being.
Pamela Hawkins
It is the vocation of all baptized Christians to become living
icons, transparent windows through which the light of divine light
pours. this is the ultimate search of human life, to become
seers and bearers of that light.
Wendy M. Wright
I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally.
I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest
depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go
wrong, when the good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to
have been lost, that God is most present.
Madeleine L'engle
By praying with every part of who we are,
we allow the grace that pours from the well of living water to
trickle through all aspects of our being, nourishing and hydrating
that which was parched and dis-eased.
Daniel Wolpert
O God, I surrender to you the habits and sins
that, like frost, chill my soul and cause your life-giving energy to
case its flow in me. Uproot me from the weed patches of evil
wherein I have chosen to sink my roots. Plant me instead in
your field of righteousness. Norman
Shawchuck
Christ's love is so great, it must lift our minds above our little
struggles - and any preoccupation with our own salvation - so that
we can see the needs of others, and beyond that the greatness of God
and god's Creation. J. Henrich Arnold
Listen to your
heart. It's there that Jesus speaks most intimately to you.
Praying is first and foremost listening to Jesus, who dwells in the
very depths of your heart. He doesn't shout. He doesn't
thrust himself upon you. His voice is an unassuming voice,
very nearly a whisper, the voice of a gentle love. Henri
Nouwen
There is nothing you can do to earn your way into
heaven. God is perfect, and when we return to God, we shall be
perfected in God's love....Our reunion with God is assured by God's
mercy, not by any state of holiness or grace that we can achieve on
our own. Christopher Maricle
When we are in touch with pain in the world, we
increase our opportunities to serve others.
Amy Lyles Wilson
If you have God, you will want for nothing.
Teresa of Avila
My spiritual life is always in process.
I never come to the point where I am finished with it.
Spirituality is not a matter of doing things right so that I can get
to a place of perfection and not have to grow anymore. Rather,
I am always moving into new realms of transformation.
Joyce Rupp
We need silence to be able to touch souls.
Mother Teresa
Keeping company with Jesus is not just a
private spiritual act, it is the way we share the Trinitarian life
of God with others. We are meant to live in community in the
same way God does. In the company of others we make our
journey and learn to tell the truth about ourselves. Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
Do not be
disturbed by the clamor of the world which passes like a shadow.
Do not let the false delights of a deceptive world deceive you.
Clare of Assisi
The Easter story assures us that we need
God's guidance and strength and we need to let go of our own efforts
to try to control life by ourselves.
Joyce Rupp
BOOK OF THE MONTH - Devotional Classics
How long has it been
since you have had an intimate conversation with Jesus Christ?
What have you been doing with your life?
The work
is all of God, but strangely we have a part to play; a paradox to be
sure, but ne that gives us proper balance.
We do not
need elaborate plans or erudite speeches. We need only love.
We ascribe nothing to ourselves and everything to God.
ALL-TIME FAVORITE CHRISTIAN BOOKS
The True Image - P.E. Hughes
The Imitation of
Christ - Thomas a Kempis
The Valley of Vision: A Collection of
Puritan Prayers and Devotions
Christianity for
Modern Pagans - Peter Kreeft
The Book of Common Prayer
Daily
Office Book - Year One and Year Two
Theology of Word and Spirit -
Donald Bloesch
Holy Scripture - Donald Bloesch
God the
Almighty - Donald Bloesch
Jesus Christ - Donald Bloesch
The
Holy Spirit - Donald Bloesch
The Church - Donald Bloesch
Above All Earthly Powers - David
Wells
Total Truth - Nancy Pearcey
The Care of Souls - David
Benner
The Gospel of John - Leon Morris
The Mortification of
Sin - John Owen
Essential Monastic Wisdom: Writings on the
Contemplative Life - Hugh Feiss
The
Cross of Christ - John Stott
Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
Institutes of the Christian Faith - John Calvin
Hebrews - P.E.
Hughes
The Gospel of Luke: Volumes I and II - Darrell Bock
The
Gospel According to Mark - David Edwards
The Gospel According to
Matthew - Leon Morris
Creation and Blessing - Allen Ross
Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home - Richard Foster
Devotional
Classics - Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith
Bonhoeffer - Eric
Metaxas
Amazing Grace - Eric Metaxas
ADDITIONAL FAVORITE READINGS
Hamlet -
William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare
Henry V - William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar - William Shakespeare
The Constitution of the United States
The Declaration of
Independence
The Gettysburg Address - Abraham Lincoln
The Hobbit -
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings - Volumes I, II, III -
J.R.R. Tolkien
Up From Slavery: The Autobiography of Booker T. Washington
- Booker T. Washington
The Road Less Traveled - M. Scott Peck
Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning - Douglas Wilson
Animal
Farm - George Orwell
America - The Last Best Hope - Volume I -
Bill Bennett
America - The Last Best Hope - Volume II - Bill
Bennett
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