Meeting 2. - For You Created Us Directed Towards You Lord ********************************************************** .. tags:: content|love|Love, content|desires|Desires, content|word-of-god|Word of God, content|cross|Cross, method|praca-z-tekstem|Working with text, method|discussion|Discussion, type|ewangelizacyjne|Evangelical Goal of the Meeting =================== 1. To see God as the one who above all desires man and longs for him 2. To see God as a PERSON, someone concrete 3. To be amazed at the miracle of the Incarnation – Jesus – Emmanuel – who is proof of God's Love Introduction for the animator ============================== Actually, in the meeting, the most important thing is to see the situation "after sin" not only from the perspective of man's sinfulness, but also from the point of view of the "lonely" God, who in creating man revealed his immense Love for him. This problem is somehow solved in Christ and this should be presented very clearly. I also propose a few more "philosophical" issues (according to my personal preferences), I give them in parentheses, they are of course not obligatory, but I encourage, even with a less ambitious group, because they stimulate thinking. The meeting has quite a few "applications" - the animator must reasonably choose some of them so as not to overload the group and so that in effect it is not the case that no task will be completed. Quotes to use: The source desires to be drunk from -- St. Gregory of Nyssa For the same God, who declares that He does not need to tell us at all whether He is hungry, did not hesitate to beg the Samaritan woman for a little water. He was thirsty... But saying "Give me a drink", the Creator was demanding love from His poor creature. He was thirsty for love... Ah! I feel it more than ever: Jesus is thirsty -- St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta It is very clear to me that among the Missionaries of Charity (M.C.) everything is aimed solely at quenching the Thirst of Jesus. His words, written on the wall of every M.C. chapel, do not belong to the past, but are alive here and now, are spoken for You. Do you believe this? If so, you will hear and feel His presence... if you were to remember only one thing from this letter, let it be this: "I thirst" is a much deeper word than if Jesus had simply said: "I love you". Until you know, and in a very personal way, that Jesus desires You, you will not be able to know who He wants to be for You; nor who He wants You to be for Him -- St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta Opening prayer ============== Adapted to the group's capabilities. Sharing the experience of night adoration ========================================== * What are your "impressions" after night adoration? Do you think you used this time well? * Did you complete the task you received? Longing ======= A loose conversation about longing in our life, experiencing it, what it is. * How does longing stand out among other feelings? * How do you recognize it? * By what emotional states? * Is it a positive or rather negative experience? | **How longing is born** | We write on a card the elements that a given relationship, a given person, situation must fulfill for us to experience longing (e.g. close relationship with someone, distance, absence of that person, etc.) /card no.1/ | **Letter (very important)** | Within a few minutes, participants are to write a letter to the person they long for. If there is no such person, there is still imagination. The letter should be short and contain about 8 sentences, and each of them should concern my longing for that person – how I feel without that person, etc. The letter is private, no one MUST read it – of course we encourage. | **Longing for God** | looking at card no. 1, we ask ourselves why must a person experience longing for God? Where does it come from? When did it appear? (it is important to lead to the observation that sin and exile from paradise is the beginning of longing for God) * Does such an experience of longing for God concern me personally? Change of perspective ===================== .. note:: Exercise on imagination We close our eyes and try to imagine the scene of exile from paradise, following the first parents with our eyes, and when they leave paradise, we try to see GOD who walks alone through Eden. (this, perhaps naively sounding exercise, thanks to the wonderful gift of empathy, should make us think for a moment about sin also from God's perspective. In the background, the animator can read the fragment Gen 3, 21-24, though I would be a bit afraid in connection with this fragment of difficult questions of a theological-exegetical nature and going off-topic) * How do we imagine God's "feelings"? * Does God long for man? * How does the rest of salvation history answer this? (we try to recall known fragments speaking of God seeking man – at the beginning the animator can recall God who seeks Adam ("Adam, where are you?") or Abel ("where is your brother, Abel?") because I suspect that the participants' associations will rather go in the direction of the Gospels – which is highly recommended) * which of these fragments particularly strike us? What moves us in them? We read the following fragment and start a discussion about how we understand it: Perhaps God could be God without us. But Jesus revealed to us a God who wants to be God with us -- Fr. Tomasz Jaklewicz Jesus – Emmanuel – God with us =============================== We read Jn 3,16 – pointing at the same time with all force at JESUS as PROOF of God's Love * what does it mean that God decided to become man? What does this testify to? * what consequences flow from this for my longing for God, is this a chance to satisfy this need? .. note:: ATTENTION! we try to lead in this part to the participants noticing that the phenomenon of INCARNATION is something incredibly distinguishing Christianity, that thanks to this mystery we become people who can commune with God Himself, that incarnation changes literally EVERYTHING in our view of the world and life! JESUS is a man, so we show Him in the perspective of His desires. In these three images, we try first to see purely human physical-spiritual desires (referring to yesterday's meeting). Then we try to see in them the desires of GOD. God desires man. * Jn 4,7 (Samaritan woman) * Lk 22,15 (supper) * Jn 19,28 (death on the cross) For reflection and possibly application in conversation: I thirst is a much deeper word than if Jesus had simply said: I love you. Until you know, and in a very personal way, that Jesus desires You, you will not be able to know who He wants to be for You; nor who He wants You to be for Him" -- St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta God is a Person! - that is, application ======================================= God very concretely shows His feelings, His longing for man, has a very concrete desire (He desires me), became a concrete man, Jesus, Emmanuel. We often do not use this truth that our God is God with us and make Him a God closed in an empty paradise, separated by the shining swords of cherubim. We forget about His REAL PRESENCE among His people. We treat Him IMPERSONALLY, like a force, energy. Therefore: 1. We propose making a short EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE, whether in my life I try to treat God as a partner, whether I am aware of His VERY CONCRETE PERSONALITY. What can I change in this matter? 2. The letter written to the person we long for should help us with this. At the end of the meeting, we encourage everyone to cross out the name of the person to whom they addressed it and write their own name, and in place of the signature write: GOD and in this way read it to themselves in prayer. 3. Let everyone think in a moment of silence about one desire that seems so "secular" in their life and noticed that it may lead them beyond temporality. In a moment, during the final prayer, each of us will thank God directly for this thing (maybe explain why exactly for this). We will share in this way very concretely the fruits of night adoration. If someone "doesn't see anything" or doesn't want to speak in the forum, let them simply say "thank you" to God - there is certainly something to be thankful for. Example (rather for the animator than for the participants, so as not to scare :D): "Lord God, I thank You with all my heart for pouring into my heart the desire to be valued, admired and respected, because You allow me through this to see that I am Your work, worthy of respect and attention, that I am SOMEONE and not no one, and allows me to trust that You look at me in exactly this way - with attention and loving admiration."