Meeting 1 — Why Must Love Be Sought?
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Introduction for Animators to the Retreat
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It is very important that each animator reads the Song of Songs IN ITS ENTIRETY (INCLUDING THE INTRODUCTION AND FOOTNOTES) before the group meetings. Over these two days, we will be carefully examining this book during the meetings and reflecting on it together with the participants, so it is worth knowing what will be discussed and not being caught off guard during the meeting.

The Saturday and Sunday meetings form a whole, and their separation is more of an artificial construct than an intentional arrangement. On Saturday, I propose analyzing chapters 1 to 5; on Sunday, chapters 5 to 8.

**Method**

During group meetings, we will use the method "see – judge – act". I find it difficult to identify the "act" element, so any resolutions, etc., I leave to the animator's discretion. At the same time, I would not want these to be great resolutions that change one's entire life. Rather, some small gesture, prayer during these retreats or directly after returning home.

During group meetings, we will want to better know and understand the Song of Songs and the idea of love contained in it together with the participants. We will read it on 2 levels: human (literal reading) and divine (metaphorical reading) /in younger groups, the literal reading can be marginalized if participants are not mature enough to look at Scripture in this way – which does not mean it should be omitted entirely /.

As far as possible, we should avoid treating the meetings as lectures, but try to arrive at certain matters TOGETHER with the participants. I do not want this to be only an intellectual analysis of the text, but I propose including imagination, feelings, emotions, empathizing with the characters.

Goals
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1. Introduction to the Song of Songs; presenting this book as extraordinary and unparalleled in all of Holy Scripture.

2. An attempt to reflect on seeking love both in the dimension of person – person, and person – God. What are we seeking? What does seeking look like? Conclusion: to find love, one must seek it (seems banal). And this seeking entails toil and effort.

3. Love carries with it the drama of separation, pain – without this, one cannot find love and value it.

Prayer
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Any prayer to the Holy Spirit for His gifts during this meeting and the entire retreat.

Introduction to the Book of the Song of Songs and Text Analysis
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Let us begin a conversation with participants on the topic:

*Where do they currently get knowledge about love – its appearance, character, etc.? Are works like "Romeo and Juliet", "Iliad", "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (you can mention others) helpful to modern people in answering the question "what is love?"? Do modern people try to find an answer to this question in these texts? And if not, what has replaced them, what currently constitutes the greatest source of knowledge about love?*

Let this be a loose conversation on the topic indicated above. If someone mentions the Bible as such a source, you can ask:

* Where in the Bible is there talk of love? What books, passages, etc. do you know concerning this topic?

If the Bible does not come up on its own during the earlier discussion, it is worth asking about its role.

From this question, let us arrive at introducing the Song of Songs as an extraordinary biblical book. A book that is a song of praise in honor of love – a song above all other songs, the best, the most magnificent. This is so both because of the topic and the form of this book. You can ask here how many people knew about this book, how many have read it, how well-known it is.

After this brief introduction, let us ask how participants think a modern wedding should look – their dream wedding. What elements would necessarily have to appear. Let us confront their vision with the wedding ceremony in Israel: a woman already became a member of her husband's family during the betrothal, but they did not yet live together; she moved in with her husband after the wedding ceremony, during which she was led in a procession to her future husband (with her face veiled), then a wedding feast took place, which could last several days; a woman was treated as goods that the groom's family purchases from another family by paying them compensation for losses caused by giving away the daughter (dowry), therefore weddings were preceded by quite lengthy trade negotiations; marriage was very often a trade agreement signed by 2 families.
Let us also draw attention to the extraordinary descriptions appearing throughout the book, its extraordinary language, the plants, animals, etc. that appear.

After this general introduction (you can also touch on other general issues related to the Song of Songs, this depends on the animator), we will read and discuss individual chapters of the Song of Songs through conversation. I would like to strongly engage the imagination, to try to empathize with the events happening on the pages of the book (especially in younger groups, one should proceed in this way). During today's meeting, we will read and reflect on chapters 1–5.

Based on the first fragment, I will show how the work on the text should look more or less:

* let participants first try to determine who appears in a given scene and what they do; and so in the first scene we see the bride, who walks among groups of resting shepherds seeking her beloved; the bride abandoned her brothers and mother, who are angry with her, and went to seek the bridegroom, because he is most important to her (the amount of details is not most important here, it depends on how much participants can extract, we are not at all aiming to provide all details, if only for time reasons);

* if we have already established who does what, let participants try to imagine such a scene. In this case, let them imagine the desert, noon, heat pouring from the sky. Shepherds who graze their flocks rest in the shade and talk among themselves. The temperature does not allow for greater movement, effort; everything is calm, lazy at this time of day. And in this heat, a woman can be seen, who goes from one group of shepherds to another, asking and seeking her bridegroom. (For Eastern peoples, the lighter someone was, the more beautiful they were; therefore the woman complains that she is dark). Let participants try to say *why is this woman seeking her love at this time? What must be driving her? What can we say about her?*

We will use this method when reading individual fragments of the book. Of course, we do not have to discuss all of them so very thoroughly. Today, I particularly want to draw attention to the bride's first statement and to her statement at the beginning of the fourth song, i.e., from verse 5:2. We read the remaining fragments, of course, but we do not have to reflect on them so much.
On the occasion of earlier fragments, you can touch on the topic of the language of love used by lovers in this book. It is worth explaining the origin of these comparisons, metaphors. Then ask what language we currently use to speak of love. (Of course, the animator does not have to take up this thread, but it is worth providing an explanation of metaphors and comparisons, or at least their origin; i.e., the cultural and historical conditioning of comparisons, e.g., to a sheep.)

Why Must Love Be Sought?
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When we have already read this part of the Song of Songs, let us reflect on why the bride always seeks her bridegroom, why moments of separation occur? What purpose does this serve?

Especially in the case of the fourth song, it is worth asking why the bride delays opening the door to her beloved? Does this mean she stopped loving him, that her love has faded? (answer: No, because: see verse 5:2a and 5:4b).

Let us ask participants whether by not listening to parents; by hurting those closest to us, do we stop loving them? By sinning, do we stop loving God?

Well, it does not always have to be so. After all, many of us, not being obedient to parents, still want what is best for them. If we love someone, it is not so easy to remove that love from us. Yes, sometimes we cover it with other matters, problems that seem more important to us. But one must work very hard to completely remove love from us. Similarly, one must try very hard to find this love – just as the bride works very hard seeking her beloved at the beginning of the book. (It would be very good if what I wrote above came out during the conversation, and was not just the animator's lecture.)

Why Do We Come to Love from a State of Lack, Emptiness?
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During the conversation, let us try to answer this question. Let us present participants with 2 possibilities:

* love comes suddenly, unexpectedly and remains with us until the end;
* love may sometimes come suddenly and unexpectedly, but one must try and work so it does not leave; and in most cases, one must search a lot to find it

Let them try to say, based on the text of the Song of Songs, their intuitions, which option would be closer to a true definition of love and why this is so.

When we have convinced them that option 2 is correct, let us try to draw conclusions from these statements. The conclusions will concern 2 levels of interpretation: the dimension person – person and the dimension person – God (here also Church – God).

Questions for participants. In the dimension person – person:

* Do I really think that love should be sought, or do I wait for it like a princess locked in a tower waiting for a prince who will rescue her?

* Do we believe fairy tales too much, wanting to see love as it is described in them?

* Can we connect the word "love" with the words "work", "toil", "effort", or do we only associate it with a state of happiness that falls upon us and requires no work from us?

In the dimension person – God:

* Can love for God be awakened in me just from talking about love in church? By reading "the hymn of love" by St. Paul many times, must I necessarily love God strongly and truly?

* Does being members of the church automatically mean that we love God?

I think it is worth looking at these problems especially in the dimension person – God. Let participants be aware after this meeting of the work that must be done to love. Each of us individually must set out in search of God and discover this love in ourselves. No one will do this for us. Each of us must accomplish this. Of course, the example of the bride shows that once found, love does not remain unchanged all the time. There will always be a moment when we will have to suddenly (like the bride) set out again in search of our love. And it may happen that this second search will be more difficult and more painful than the first.

Closing Prayer
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Prayer of petition for strength to walk the path of love, for strength for its constant seeking.