Today's readings show the special place the poor and the just have in God's heart. Consider the following questions as you ready yourself to preach on this week's readings, which include the Beatitudes, one of the great passages from all of religious literature:

• How can you lead the members of your parish to be even better ministers to the hungry, the poor, the abandoned, the disabled?
• In what ways have the times you felt weak actually made you stronger?
• "The Lord protects strangers," says today's psalm. Are there strangers in your community who need your and your community's protection? Are there others, like Catholics who have left the church, whom you could welcome and thus make them "strangers" no more?

Today's readings show the special place the poor and the just have in God's heart. Consider the following questions as you ready yourself to preach on this week's readings, which include the Beatitudes, one of the great passages from all of religious literature:

• How can you lead the members of your parish to be even better ministers to the hungry, the poor, the abandoned, the disabled?
• In what ways have the times you felt weak actually made you stronger?
• "The Lord protects strangers," says today's psalm. Are there strangers in your community who need your and your community's protection? Are there others, like Catholics who have left the church, whom you could welcome and thus make them "strangers" no more?

• Which Beatitude speaks most forcefully to you at this moment in your life?
• At different points in our lives, different Beatitudes will seem to jump out at us. In a time of strife, perhaps you have been a peacemaker. Perhaps at one time or another, you have felt “poor in spirit” or “pure of heart.” Surely, there has been a time of mourning at some point or another. The Beatitudes are there to carry us through all of life’s seasons. Use them to reflect on the seasons of your own life.