Rita Ford - I Believe in Love Study Guide

I Believe in Love
Study Guide

For I Believe in Love
by Fr. Jean C.J. dElbe

by Rita Brandt Ford

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 2014 by Rita Brandt Ford

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved

The quotations in this guide are taken from Father Jean C. J. dElbes I Believe in Love (Manchester, New Hampshire: Sophia Institute Press, 2001), copyright ditions Pierre Tqui; English translation copyright 1974 Marilyn Teichert and Madeleine Stebbins.

Cover design: Coronation Media in collaboration with Perceptions Design Studio.

On the cover: Image of St. Thrse Office Central de Lisieux; Country road (78600310) Qba from Poland / Shutterstock.com.No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108
1-800-888-9344

www.SophiaInstitute.com

Sophia Institute Press is a registered trademark of Sophia Institute.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ford, Rita Brandt.

I believe in love study guide : for I believe in love by Fr. Jean C.J. dElbe / by Rita Brandt Ford.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-62282-250-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) ePub ISBN 978-1-622822-515

1. Christian life Catholic authors Miscellanea. 2. Love Religious aspects Catholic Church Miscellanea. 3. Thrse, de Lisieux, Saint, 1873-1897 Miscellanea. 4. Elbe, Jean du Coeur de Jsus d. Croire lamour. I. Title.

BX2350.3.F67 2014

248.4'82 dc23

2014040332

Contents

Before You Begin

As you start this book, consider:

1. Where do you feel you are on your spiritual journey?

2. What are you hoping to get out of this program?

Conference 1

Love for Love

Questions for meditation and discussion

1. St. Thrse said, In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands. (page 7)

What does this mean to you? How can you begin emptying your hands?

2. As if that were not enough, He invented the Eucharist: a God who makes Himself into bread, a little host, in order to descend onto our lips and into our hearts, to bridge all distance between Himself and us. (page 9)

Does reading this give you a different understanding of the Eucharist?

3. Never let your past sins be an obstacle between you and Jesus. (page 12)

How have your sins been an obstacle? How can we overcome this?

4. If you have been loved like this, you must love in return, give love for love. I have loved you; you must love. I have given you my Heart without reserve, in order to have your heart without reserve. I have put no limit on my love; you must put no limit on yours. (pages 1314)

How are you giving love for love? Where are you putting limits on your love?

5. Father dElbe points out all the things Jesus did not ask Peter (are you wise? virtuous? capable of leading? and so forth). He asks only, Do you love me? (page 14)

Because doubting who we are keeps us from fully loving God, what reasons do you give yourself for not completely loving God? (I am not _______________ enough.)

6. The Cross, taken up hesitantly, is crushing; taken smilingly, by free will, and with love, it will carry you much more than you carry it. (page 18)

What are your crosses taken up smilingly? What are your crosses taken up hesitantly? How do they differ?

7. Do you fear what God will ask you to do? If yes, why? (page 21)

8. Do you think you are a joy for Jesus? In what ways do you bring Him joy? (page 22)

This weeks challenge

Choose one hesitantly taken-up cross in your life and carry it smilingly. What difference did doing this make?

Conference 2

Humble Confidence

Review the challenge from conference 1: Choose one hesitantly taken-up cross in your life and carry it smilingly. What difference did doing this make?

Questions for meditation and discussion

1. This word, confidence , summarizes the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity sovereign virtues which bring all the others in their train. (page 25)

How do faith, hope, and charity relate to confidence? Is it possible to have confidence in Gods love for us without these virtues?

2. I, too, would like to find an elevator to lift me up to Jesus, for I am too little to climb the rough stairway of perfection. (page 27)

What is your rough stairway? How can we find the gentle elevator?

3. We have been trained in the habit of looking at our dark side, our ugliness, and not at the purifying Sun. (page 29)

Under what circumstances do you most often look at your dark side? In what way can we minister to those in our lives (children, spouses, and friends) to look to the purifying Sun?

4. Remember that each time you pick yourself up after a fall, the feast of the prodigal son is renewed. (page 34)

How do you approach the confessional?

5. We do not dance enough in the spiritual life. (page 35)

Can you think of a time when you were moved to dance in the spiritual life?

6. 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? (page 35)

The primary goal of parents is to get their children to heaven. Are you teaching your children, your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews, or any other children in your life about Gods infinite mercy so that when they fall, they will have the humble confidence to rise up and go to my Father (cf. Luke 15:18)?

7. Regarding the good thief: A whole life of sin, one humble and confident look toward the Crucified, and there was the first canonized saint, and canonized by Jesus Himself! A thief who stole Heaven! (page 36)

Jesus is telling us that there is always hope and a way to Heaven. Is there some stumbling block in your life that you have given up on correcting?

8. We sometimes make a prayer of the words for which He reproached His Apostles: Lord, save us; we are perishing! (page 41)

Do you pray with confidence?

This Weeks Challenge

Your Father in Heaven clothes you again in His most beautiful cloak, puts a ring on your finger, and tells you to dance with joy. 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. After the absolution, you should dance like the prodigal son did at the request and for the joy of his father. (pages 3435) Approach the confessional as if you are preparing for a feast.

Conference 3

Unshakeable Confidence

Review the challenge from conference 2: Approach the confessional as if you are preparing for a feast.

Questions for meditation and discussion

1. St. John Vianney said, Gods greatest pleasure is to pardon us. (page 56)

Have you felt Gods pleasure after receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation?

St. John Vianney also said, The good Lord is more eager to pardon a repentant sinner than a mother to rescue her child from the fire. (page 57)

This statement expresses Gods great urgency to forgive us. Do you feel a sense of urgency to forgive and to be forgiven?

It is good to say, Jesus, make reparation for me; supply for me. It is better to say, Jesus, I know I am sure that You will do it. (page 60)

Which version better reflects the way you pray?

Therefore, never be discouraged by your faults. Begin by not being astonished at them. A little child who does not know how to walk is not astonished at stumbling and falling with each step he takes. (pages 6465)

Are you astonished at or discouraged by your faults?

Let us love our littleness. (page 72)

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