July 21.  The elderly ladies knew their Bible quite well so Joan did a little quiz with them. “Who knows the 9 plagues that God sent to the Egyptians to try to persuade them to let the Israelites go?”  Veronica did but said what she thought was more relevant. “How important are the details of religious practices to people these days?  I believe one can commemorate the spirit of an event and then try to relive it in a present-day setting?”  Some agreed that rituals can lose their meaning, others not.  All accepted that the actual content of a celebration still has important symbolic meaning but it is necessary for people understand it in a context too to more fully gain its benefits. “It’s like the paschal meals that are now becoming popular. What do we understand?”

Reflect, share, act. Scripture:   “Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of the month they shall take, every man, a lamb according their father’s house, a lamb for a household. Kill the lamb in the evening, eat the flesh that night, roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. From Ex 11:10 to 12:14. Pope Francis.  We must be bold enough to discover new signs and new symbols, new flesh to embody and communicate the word and forms of beauty which are valued in different cultural settings.  EG167.