Week 5 Questions

Question 1

Dona Lucilia’s era – the refinement, the serenity – seems picture perfect, and it was the ideal setting for her to grow into the person she was to become. It is hard to realize that our time is also perfect – that is, perfect for us, since Divine Providence has placed us exactly in this time in history for what He requires of us.

Let us think of an exchange of times; how would Dona Lucilia survive and thrive in these times, to do God’s will, and how would we do in her time?

Question 2

Note that Msgr. João sees this era as “drab and chaotic”. So many people would describe these times as exciting and fulfilling.  

Is Msgr. João deluded?  To what good end, if any at all, has all this the progress brought us?

Question 3

Dona Lucilia showed compassionate and conscientious care to the visiting patient despite the callous trickery of her companion “nurse.” 

How similar to the attitude of the world and its rewards is this incident? Does the world reward the good and shun the bad?

Question 4

Dona Gabriela had introduced Dona Lucilia to the Luz Convent and it became a “wellspring of Blessings” for her spiritual life. What an example of faith-filled piety was represented in the “paper pellets”; the beautiful Shrine of the Immaculate Conception being displayed and honoured in their home; the value attached to prayer and good works – these and so many others were the ways her parents “sought to transmit the precious gift of Faith to their children.”  

In our own homes, what beautiful objects of devotion, pious practices and traditions do we embrace for this purpose, or how could we inaugurate them?