Humble Confidence: Ch 2 - I Believe in Love

For a limited time, as a "Christmas gift" to our listeners, please enjoy our full discussion from our I Believe in Love book study on the first chapter of this life changing book. Here we discuss times in our lives when we have needed his mercy, when we have felt alone and afraid and like God is far from us, and what it means to have a "living faith." Shorter than a typical episode of Draw Near, but also a bit more personal at times, we hope and pray, but also believe, that these discussions will be a blessing to you (whether you have read the book or not - but we hope you will!).

For the Book Study (or for going deeper):
This book, "I Believe in Love," is a personal retreat based on the teachings of St. Therese of Lisieux written by Fr Jean C J D'Elbee

1. Read Chapter 2 (Pgs 25-53)
2. Listen to this discussion of Conference 2 between Fred and Kara from [Draw Near](drawnear.me)!
3. Discuss the following discussion questions with a friend OR in the "discussion" feed within the book study on Suscipe You can also click on this link to join the study! It's not too late!

For your convenience, here are the questions:

1. "The elevator which must raise me to the heavens is Your arms, O Jesus! For that I do not need to grow; on the contrary, I must necessarily remain small, become smaller and smaller. O my God, You have surpassed what I expected, and I want to sing Your mercies" (pg. 28). Read and re-read this quotation. Meditate upon it. What strikes you about these words of St. Therese? What is God saying to you through her words?

2. Fr D'Elbee asks the question, "How many young people have lost the Faith, not from having fallen, but from not having been helped, with love, to pick themselves up again as many times as was necessary?" In what way have you experienced this loving help in your own life? How can we be that loving help to others, substantially, in our daily lives?

3. The words "mercy" and "misery" both derive from the Latin root "miseri." Meditate on how these two words relate to one another; how do they relate to you? To God?

4. Jesus slept in the boat. When he awoke to fearful disciples he asked, "Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?" Have you ever felt as though Jesus was asleep in your spiritual life? Did this cause your faith to wain? How can you get to a place of faith to say, "You are always in the boat with me... You may sleep; I shall not awaken You... I shall remain in peace" (pg. 41).

5. "In a living faith, you will not approach the confessional with dragging feet, but as if you were going to a feast, even if you have to make a great effort each time to humble yourself and to conquer the monotony of the routine" (pg. 35). Put this in to practice this week by going to confession. Receive this Sacrament as if you were going to a feast.

In what ways have you allowed past faults, struggles, failures and sins to be an obstacle in receiving the love and mercy of God? How might this be overcome?

Learn more about (or purchase) the book, I Believe in Love here!

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