Mission Video

Viewer Questions

Grades 6-12 &

Adults

The Maryknoll Mission Video is a free resource available online or by DVD.  It offers a great introduction to and way to reflect on mission for people of many ages, from young adults to adults.

The video is divided into 10 sections, 1-3 minutes each.  Use clips from this video to introduce a lesson or to spend a few minutes each day reflecting on mission.  Have students answer the questions below during and after viewing.

(View a Clip)

Sections

• Church is Mission (1 min 7 sec)
• The Heart of Mission (1 min 17 sec)
• Who Are We? (1 min 8 sec)
• What Do We Do? (2 min)
• Crossing Borders (1 min 23 sec)
• Opening Up (1 min 28 sec)
• Coming Together (1 min 55 sec)
• Growing in Faith (1 min 48 sec)
• Challenges and Joys (3 min 1 sec)
• Answering the Call (2 min 50 sec)

Church is Mission

(1 min 7 sec)

Viewing Questions:

• What is the purpose of the Church?
• Can the Church exist without mission?  If so, how?  If not, why not?

Discussion/Critical-Thinking Questions

• What makes us a Church? What role does the Church play in the world? In our society? In your community? In your family? In your personal life?
• One missioner observes, “Mission means ‘going out’, and Church means ‘us’ – we can’t be ‘us’ unless we go out to others.” What do you think he means?  What does it mean to “go out”?

The Heart of Mission

(1 min 17 sec)

Viewing Questions:

• What sacrament commissions every Christian to be a missioner? How so?

Discussion/Critical-Thinking Questions:

• Using one-word or two-word responses, what do you see as the heart of mission?
• One missioner explains, “All Christians through their baptism are called to the mission of Jesus Christ”. What is His mission? How is the mission of Jesus Christ lived out in your parish community? In your diocese?
• Another missioner says, “Jesus showed us our role as a missionary. Jesus lived it.”  In what ways is Jesus an example for missioners?  What kind of life did Jesus live?  What did He do/say?  How does this influence our understanding of “Church” and “mission” today?
• One missioner says, “We are called to transform society.”  Do you agree? If not, why not? If so, how do we transform society? As you think about “church”, “mission” and your own life, fill in the blanks and explain.

• Society: We are called to ______________________.
• Church: We are called to ______________________.
• Yourself: I am called to _______________________.

• Bishop Walsh explains that mission involves “bringing the Good News of salvation.” What is this Good News and how do we share it with others? Relate an experience when you shared your faith with someone, or when someone shared their faith with you. What did you think? How did you feel? Did your perspective change? If so, how?

Who Are We?

(1 min 8 sec)

Viewing Questions:

• Who is called to be a missioner?  What personal qualities are needed to be an effective missioner?
• One missioner observes, “Anyone can be a missionary.” Do you agree?  Why or why not?

Discussion/Critical-Thinking Questions:

• One missioner observes, “Our Church is not just the priests, not just the pastors, but so many different people participating.”  What are some of the different roles people have in your church?  

• List the ways that people participate in your own parish community.  What do they do?  How do they work together?  How do you participate?

• The apostle Paul speaks of the Church as body with many parts (I Corinthians 12:12). What are the different parts you see? In what ways do these different parts work together? In what ways do they work against one another?

What Do We Do?

(2 min)

Viewing Questions:

• Where is mission done?  Where do you think missioners are needed, and why?

Discussion/Critical-Thinking Questions:

• What is the work of modern-day missioners? List activities that they do. How are they different from what missioners have done in the past?  Which of these activities might be different from those in your parish or school?
• In the video Bishop Walsh explains, “Everyone who knows Christ, who accepts Christ, has that urge to share Christ with others.” Do you feel this urge and act on it? If not, are there other things you feel in response to your faith?
• One missioner discusses his hopes that, through mission, people see “the living Christ at work” in him. In what ways do you hope people can see “the living Christ” in you?
• What are some of the fears you or others might feel in sharing Christ?
• Using the words of one missioner, what does it mean to feel and express “the Spirit alive in us”?  How can this be a gift to others?

Crossing Borders

(1 min 23 sec)

Viewing Questions:

• A missioner observes that mission is not as much about “place” as it is a “state of mind or a state of soul,” and about “how open we are wherever we are.”  What do you think he means by this?
• Can a missioner work in his or her own country?  If so, what makes that person a missioner?

Discussion/Critical-Thinking Questions:

• A missioner observes, “From the moment of baptism, we are all on mission, moving out to minister to the whole world…we should always be moving.” In what ways do you see the Church active and moving in the world?  What boundaries do you see the Church crossing?
• Describe an occasion when you crossed national, cultural or even personal boundaries. What happened? What was it like for you? What did you feel in those moments?
• What are some of the key ingredients we need to move out into the world to share the Gospel?
• How is the journey of a missioner both an inward journey and an outward one?
• If possible, describe an occasion when you have encountered a missioner at work.

Opening Up

(1 min 28 sec)

Viewing Questions:

• Why is it important to be “open” as a missioner?

Discussion/Critical-Thinking Questions:

• One missioner observes, “One of the hardest things to develop in mission and be aware of is our own limitations.”  What are some of the limitations you recognize in your own life as a Christian? How do you step beyond these limitations? What helps you do this?
• Another missioner observes that mission involves “letting go of myself, my ego, my agendas.” What do you need to let go of to become the person that God is calling you to be?

Coming Together

(1 min 55 sec)

Viewing Questions:

• How do missioners “accompany” people?  What qualities do they need to accompany others?
• One missioner remarks, “Our work as missioners is to bring people together as Jesus did.” How did Jesus bring people together? What example does Jesus set for us?
• What qualities enable people to come together? What drives people apart? What can be done to overcome those tendencies that drive people apart?

Discussion/Critical-Thinking Questions:

• One missioner observes, “As Christians we have to form bonds with other people.”  Describe some of the bonds that you have formed with others through your faith.
• What are some of the bonds formed by you or people around you that connect you with people who live in distant lands, or who are from other cultures?  By your parish?  By your school? By your diocese?  What are the rewards of forming such bonds?  What are the challenges?

Growing in Faith

(1 min 48 sec)

Viewing Questions:

• In this section, several missioners describe something they have found or learned through their experience in mission. Can you name some of them?

Discussion/Critical-Thinking Questions:

• Discuss one of these. What do you imagine the impact of this on the missioner? What would you hope to discover or learn as you venture out into the world as a Christian?
• What does a person need to grow in faith?
• How does mission enable individuals and communities to grow in faith?

Challenges and Joys

(3 min 1 sec)

Viewing Questions:

• What are some of the personal challenges that missioners may face living and working in other cultures?

Discussion/Critical-Thinking Questions: 

• Missioners often describe how they have received far more than they have given in mission. What do you think missioners give in mission? What do they receive?
• Several missioners spoke of the challenges and joys they have experienced in mission. Relate some of these. Do any of these challenges and joys resonate with you? If so, how?
• Describe a challenging experience you had as you grew in faith or shared it with others. What made this experience challenging? How did you overcome these challenges?
• Relate an experience of sharing faith or growing in faith that moved you or left you feeling joyful. What was it about this experience that brought such joy or deep feeling?
• Missioners often describe how they have received far more than they have given in mission. What do you think missioners give in mission? What do they receive?
• What keeps you going when your Christian journey seems, at times, difficult or even barren?

Answering the Call

(2 min 50 sec)

Viewing Questions:

• One missioner observes, “I think we’re all missionaries in some way, we just have to realize it and where we respond to the call.” How does a person become aware of God’s call? What does it take to respond?
• One missioner quotes a favorite prayer, the prayer of St. Teresa of Avila -- “Christ has no body now but yours . . .” How are you, now, the hands, the feet, the eyes, the body of Christ?

Discussion/Critical-Thinking Questions: 

• Relate an experience where you felt God’s call. What did you feel that God was saying to you? How did this seem different from other thoughts or feelings? How did you respond?
• One missioner asks early in the video, “What is Jesus asking us to do?” How would you answer?  How would you answer the question, “What is Jesus asking you to do?”
• Imagine that someone from another country has written you asking you to describe Jesus and to explain why you are a Christian. Write a one to two page letter in response.