Please answer these questions using the Comment Section:
1.  What analogy does Paprocki use at the beginning of this Chapter?

2. How is the Church different than a club? Are there times that you sometimes see it as a club? How so? What can you do to strengthen your relationship to the church so that it isn’t seen as just a club?

4. What do you make of the saying that we are spiritual beings who have a physical experience in this life? How might this change some of the things that you do? How does it help you see religion or being Catholic as more than just “getting sacraments” or “going to church” (as important as those pillars are)?

Please answer the questions below using the Comment Section:
6. Under the title of Stewardship, you are instructed to share time, talent, and treasure with the faith community, not only in church specific activities but in the wider world. What would you share with the world that has come from your relationship with Christ given to you in specific sacramental forms and in other ways?

8. What do you make of the sidebar about Salvation Outside the Church? If it is indeed possible, why be Catholic? If you are Catholic, what will your relationship be to those who are not and do not appear to want to be?

10. Take a look at some of the Liturgical celebrations for Mary during our Church Year and the scriptural passages associated with them. Which ones are you most familiar with and least familiar with?

Please answer these questions using the Comment section:
11. There is a lot that is covered in the last part of this chapter under COMMUNION OF SAINTS and the AFTER LIFE. What questions does it raise for you? (It must, because it is far too simplistic to seem like our entire earthly life is headed toward this).

12. Under SO WHAT? What do you make of the notion that “Eternal life or salvation is not an individual goal but is a social reality.” How does that change how you live with other people and in the world? How does it change how you relate to those who have gone before you?

13. Under the LAST JUDMENT sidebar there is talk about individual and general judgment. First, does this raise any questions for you? Second, keep this image in mind when we talk about Sacraments. For now, I have talked about individual/face to face confession and Parish Reconciliation Services.

For those who are already baptized and have experienced the sacrament of reconciliation, can you relate the sidebar descriptions to that sacrament?

I wanted to make sure that we adequately reflected upon the following questions. So I am listing them here. In the Comment Section I will place my "answers". You can use the comment section to place your own answers or you can click on reply under mine to reply to my comments..

Who's the Boss?: Scripture and Tradition

Question #4: What do you make about the paragraph on the bottom of page 22 regarding creationism and the theory of evolution? How do Catholics deal with this seeming conflict? What do you believe? How would you explain the catholic position regarding religion and science?

Click for a current story on creationism in the news.

Please use the COMMENT button below to post your answer.

You may or may not have heard a Homily this Sunday on what the Feast of the Epiphany means. You might have looked up the word yourself online or in one of your reference books.
I hope listening to this song gives you a sense of what Christmastime and this whole seaon is all about.
To learn more about the song, including the lyrics, click here.
Please add your comments or reflections below.