Question

 How does the foreman on a jury get picked?  Do certain people have an aura of leadership?  Is it intelligence?  Alertness?  Poker face?

Just wondering. 

Whenever I am in a role where I am placed in the front of an audience, I look over the crowd of faces. I see some that look very attentive. Are they more intelligent than the others?  When the speaker tells a joke, they laugh out loud. Others don’t. Why?  Didn’t they get the joke—weren’t they listening—are they thinking about it—just naturally poker-faced?

What do you think?  

Thought Experiment

 What if Jesus loved you just as much as you love Him?

Stupid Questions

Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question, must have never given a lecture and then asked for questions.

Ugh!  Today, the majority of the questions had nothing to do with the subject.

The rest made me think, "Weren't you listening? This was addressed!"

Then the last one made me hit my head with my book.  She just asked what was spent an hour explaining NOT to do.

What's the One Question You Would Ask God?

Sherry Weddell asked this question in her seminar.  What is the one question you would ask God, if
you could?

At first, I didn't think too much about it.  I quickly answered, "When will I die?"  But the answer was another question.  "Why do you want to know?"  Hmmmm, "Well, so I can be prepared."  But shouldn't we always be prepared?

So maybe I was too hasty in asking about dieing.  That would have been a wasted question.  I thought some more.

"Am I doing what you want me to do, Lord?"

That's my real question.

Important Questions

Yesterday, I posted about Impossible Questions, today I'm posting about an Important Question.  August 14 is the Feast of Saint Maximilian Kolbe.  Father Lobert, in his homily, talked about martyrdom.  He taught us that martyr = witness.  He told us the story of how Saint Maximilian Kolbe gave his life for another, copying Jesus.  Then he talked how we could give witness, nowadays.

Can you give witness to your faith?  Then he called us on it.  He distributed these pins and asked us to go forth and spread the Good News.

Are you willing to be a martyr? 

Impossible Questions

How is one to answer questions like "Why do you love her?"  Any answer is unsatisfactory because it's not comprehensible to the questioner.  If one asked, "Why do you like chocolate?"  The answer, "because it taste good" would be accepted because it is true to the questioner.  But a question like "Why do you love her?", will never be satisfactory because the questioner hasn't experienced what you have.  Consequently, the questioner just doesn't understand it.

Maybe if you answered, "It's not her I love.  It's her money," they could understand that.  But not, "I love her cute lisp."

It's an impossible question.  There is no answer to a question like this one.  Why did you become a nun?  Why did you become a monk?  Why did you become a Lay Dominican?

The true answer, the most meaningful answer, is incomprehensible.  I became a Lay Dominican because as a lay person I wanted to do more for God than I was doing.  And God placed me in the Dominican family.

Why is that so impossible to accept?  Answer that question.

How do you tell if a Question is Worthwhile?

Last night, in Study Group, my "cloistered" brothers pounced on a question I posed. It doesn't matter what the question was. That's not my point. My point is what they said to me because I asked a question.

I was accused of being a pharisee.

Yes, because I question.

You can tell that this bothered me because here I am blogging about it. After a good night's sleep, and reflection, I've come to the conclusion that questioning is not wrong, and I'm sure they'll agree. It's the type of question.

But that's so subjective!

How to tell if a question is worthwhile is the question! :-D

Some teachers say that all questions are good questions. All students know that's B.S. because we've all been bored by stupid questions by the some "stupid" students. Some people just like the attention and so ask questions. Some want to side-track the instructor so he won't have time to cover the material and so postpone the assignment or test. Some students truly ask dumb questions.

Do my "cloistered" brothers think my questions are dumb?

Mmmm, possibly?

Nah! Perish the thought.

Though, come to think of it, in this particular group, quite a few think some things are NOT to be questioned, i.e., Eucharist, Trinity, BVM, etc.

Ah......that's the rub. It was a question on the Eucharist. Actually it wasn't. I was looking for suitable responses to a question on the Eucharist. But they took my question as questioning the dogma. I wasn't questioning the Eucharist, but a question on the Eucharist. Get it?

They didn't.

Teachers encourage questions. Even teachers who want students to hold their questions to the end. (And I use to do that.) It's a method of gauging how the material is going over. So of course it's good to question.

What separates dumb questions from good questions is the value of the question. Brother Augustine Marie Reisenauer, O.P. (above picture) encourages questions. He uses questions to engage everyone in the learning process. A good question is one that is of value to the group as a whole.

That was the problem last night. My question was not of value to that particular group.

That particular group is challenging, in many ways.