1. True compassion of one person for another can change a situation. When has the capacity of another person to empathise with you, and feel with you in a situation, made a difference? When has your compassion been a source of comfort and strength to another?

2. After Jesus had visited their town the people in Nain thought: ‘God has visited his people’. Bring to mind encounters you have had, or events you have attended, that left you with a greater than usual sense of the presence of God in that experience.

3. The miracle is a reminder to us of our belief that Christ has conquered death and because of that our mortal death is not the end. How does this belief affect your attitude towards your own mortality, and to the deaths of significant people in your life?

4. This was not the final raising from the dead for this man. He would die again. In a less dramatic way we can all experience times when we feel dead, and later come back to life, to great vitality. What has helped you to come to life again after a period when you felt down, dispirited or apparently lifeless?