Ordinary time 31st Sunday Cycle B - Worldwide Marriage Encounter

Living Our Vows EverydayCycle BDialogue Question20 minutesWhat does my personal relationship with God feel like?Refreshment breakSharing Questions10 minutes20 minutes• Share a time when you felt very close to God.• Reflect and share on the statement “To love God, I must feel God’slove for me.”Call to Action:15 minutesDetermine a specific action (individual or couple) that flows from yoursharing. This should be your primary consideration. When choosing anindividual action, determine what you will do and share it with the group.When choosing a couple action, determine what responsibility you eachshare. The following are secondary suggestions:• Choose a book by a saint or other writer to read over the next 30days. Dialogue with your spouse about how the writer’s relationshipwith God makes you feel.• Describe to your spouse your relationship with God. How has itchanged over the years? Where would you like it to go in the nearfuture? Spouse: how does it feel to hear your spouse share this?• Take specific steps to get closer to God. (Talk to Him out loud, listenfor Him in the silence, write Him loveletters, look for Him at table etc.)Closing Prayer:5 minutesGive thanks to God (aloud or silently) for insights gained, for desiresawakened, for directions clarified, for the gift of one another’s openness andsensitivity.Conclude with the following:Leader: When we feel loved, we can give love. We know then forget thenremember again that God wants us to be close to Him. He wants love forHim to flow freely from us.ALL: God in Heaven, you have loved me from before I was born.Your love never wavered through all of my ups and downs. Youknow and love every part of me, even the parts I think areunloveable. Continue to be close to me.Worldwide Marriage Encounter, San Bernardino, CA 3

Living Our Vows EverydayCycle BLeader: When we feel loved, we can give love. That outpouring of lovecomes as a consequence of a powerful bond with God. To do as Jesus asks,and love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, we must feel the power ofGod’s love for us.ALL: God in Heaven, you are all powerful. Bind me close to you. Ipray that I may drop my barriers so I can see you fully and hear youclearly. I pray that I may feel your powerful love beating in my heartand filling me to overflowing.Leader: When we feel loved, we give love. That outpouring of love comes asa consequence of the personal bond with God. It is that love from God thatpasses through us to another person. With God’s help we can love, evenwhen we don’t feel very loving, even when we feel unloveable. Only then,can we love our neighbors as ourselves.ALL: God in Heaven, continue to be close to me. I want thatreverent, blessed, intimate interaction that others have made withyou. I pray that I may love you with all my heart, with all my soul,woith all my mind and with all my strength. Amen.Worldwide Marriage Encounter, San Bernardino, CA 4