Listen to the Spirit… adapt as needed…
stay longer where you are drawn…
Ignatian Roots
“I so much want the truth of Jesus’ life to be fully the truth of my own that I find myself, moved by grace…[asking] to follow Jesus Christ in the most intimate union possible, that his experiences are reflected in my own. In that, I find my delight.” – Spiritual Exercises #167
Opening Prayer
Grace to seek/ask: To experience God as a community of self-giving love.
Scriptures
Romans 8:14-17 – By the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we become children of the Father, and co-heirs with Christ his Son.
Matthew 28:16-20 – Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Corinthians 13:11-14 – “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
Check-In
Invite members to reflect on how they come to the meeting. Try to keep this short, focused on how people’s hearts are as they come to the meeting. Pose one or two questions that encourage people to look back on their week and also help to set the theme for the meeting.
Focus Exercise
“God is Holy Mystery, beyond the horizon of our knowing and loving” – Karl Rahner SJ
We begin and end each Eucharist with the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit on our lips. Not only is God a father to us, but also a brother, consoler, and guide as well. This should be the atmosphere in which we live, move, and have our being. Yet, we sometimes relegate the Father, Son, and Spirit to the margin of our lives.
Isaac Newton was one of the greatest mathematicians and scientists who ever lived. Towards the end of his life, he said of his achievements:
“I do not know what I appear to the world, but to myself… I was like a little boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
Even when we think we understand the mystery of God, we are still only beginning…we are still only children playing on the shore. But Jesus has lifted the veil on the mystery and so we know that our games have a meaning and our lives have a goal. We have a Father, who cares about us. We have a Brother, who dies for us. And, we have a Spirit, a Comforter, who will guide us to the shores of eternity.
Our God is rich in relationships, communication, and love for all people. The quality of our Christian life is based on imitation of the interior life of the Trinity. It provides a model for the ideal human community, in which people are united by mutual love, work together in harmonious consensus, and the equality and dignity of each person is respected.
Use this attached skit as a way of entering into the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The dialogue involves the three persons of the Trinity looking down on humanity (as Ignatius describes in the Second Week of the Exercises #101-109). We invite you to use your imagination as well as we enter into what this relationship and conversation might look like. We need four people to serve as readers.
Listening and Sharing
Reflection Questions
- Do I have a particular draw towards any of the persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, or Spirit) in my own prayer?
- Do I notice any reactions to the skit: to the images presented or the nature of this communion?
- What does this image of the Trinity – as a family looking at the world and deciding how to help it- say to you about the Church as a community? What has your experience of a community of faith been?
- Are there any ways that God has been revealed to you by the way we support and challenge one another in our group?
Listening Deeper
These are questions that allow community members to listen to and share about what is moving within them after the focus exercise. Specific questions about the focus exercise can be included here, but facilitators may choose to approach it differently such as with more open ended questions.
- What has struck you as you have been listening to others share? Do you notice any patterns or similarities?
- How have you been feeling throughout the meeting? Comfortable? Anxious? Curious?
- Is there anything you would like to share after listening to another person share?
- What is remaining with you? What do you hope to return to in prayer at another point in the week?
Moving Forward
Thank you to those who hosted the meeting. Thank you everyone for being present and participating. Let us remember and lift-up one another in prayer, especially for any special intentions which may have surfaced through our conversation tonight.
Closing Prayer
Father,
You sent your Word to bring us truth
and your Spirit to make us holy.
Through them we come to know the mystery of your life.
Help us to worship you, one God in three persons,
You reveal yourself in the depths of our being,
by proclaiming and living our faith in you.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God forever and ever. Amen.
