Theme:

The theme for this Sunday is water. The first readings speaks of God providing water to his people in the desert. The psalm also recalls this event. The gospel reading has Jesus revealing himself as the Living Water.

Questions

Day 1: The setting for the first reading is the desert. God has led his people from Egypt into the desert. They have crossed the Red Sea and are now on their way to the promised land.

• Verse 3 says that “the people complained against Moses”. What can you say about their complaint?

• How do you think should they have reacted?

• Has there been an occasion where the Lord had given you something that you did not like? What did you do?

Day 2: After the people complained against Moses, they threatened to kill him.

• What did Moses do when people were ready to stone him? What did the Lord tell him to do?

• When confronted with a situation which threatens you, what should you do?

• The last verse of the reading says, “The Israelites quarrelled and tested the Lord”. How did they quarrel and test the Lord? Have you ever done that to the Lord?

Day 3: The psalm recalls the time when the first reading occurred. The rock of salvation can refer to the rock that Moses truck to produce the water.

• Verses 1 and 2 invites the readers to make a joyful noise to the Lord. What does it mean to make a joyful noise to the Lord?

• According to the responsorial psalm, why should we praise the Lord?

• What is the Lord's advice to us in verse 8? What does it mean?

• Do you think you have a hard heart? What do you want to tell the Lord?

Day 4: The second reading is St. Paul's discussion about justification by faith. The dictionary defines justification as the act of being proven right or the act of God where he deems us righteous. Sin separates us from God. But when God deems us righteous, we are united with him again. This is a gift from God.

• St. Paul says that faith justifies us before God. But James says that believing in God is not enough because even demons believe in God. What is the difference between your belief in God and the demons' belief in God?

• How can justification give you peace?

• Faith is a gift from God. How will you ask God to give you faith? What will you tell him?

Day 5: St. Paul tells us to not only boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God, but to boast in our sufferings.

• If Christians are called to be humble, why did St. Paul tell us to boast about our sharing the glory of God and in our sufferings?

• How can sufferings make us boast of our hope of sharing the glory of God?

• What did St. Paul mean when he said that God proves his love in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us?

• Do you realize how much God loves you? What will you tell the Lord?

Day 6: The gospel scene happened when Jesus just started his ministry. Notice how Jesus started the conversation with the Samaritan woman.

• How did Jesus lead the woman to ask for the Living Water?

• What was the Living Water that Jesus was referring to? How did Jesus describe the Living Water?

• In John's version of the gospel, Jesus is always pictured as one who always gives what someone asks from him. With this in mind, what did Jesus ask her to do when she asked for the Living Water, ?

• How is this relevant to her receiving the Living Water from Jesus?

Day 7: When Jesus was giving the woman the Living Water, the woman had other questions and Jesus answered all of them.

• Jesus told her that true worshippers will not worship in places (the mountain or Jerusalem). They will worship the Father in spirit and truth. What did he mean by this?

• The woman went back to the city and talked to the people and the people left the city and went to Jesus. Vers 39 says, “Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony”. Considering that they have not met Jesus yet and just heard the woman's words, what does believing in Jesus mean?

• When the Samaritans believed, they asked Jesus to stay and he stayed for two days. Do you believe in Jesus, as defined in scripture? Do you want to ask Jesus to stay with you? What do you want to tell him?