Meeting 3 — Being a Servant of God and People *********************************************** .. tags:: content|service|Service, content|love|Love, content|vocation|Vocation, content|responsibility|Responsibility, method|group-work|Group work, method|spatial-activity|Spatial activity, type|formative|Formative Goal of the meeting + introduction for the facilitator ====================================================== The goal of today's meeting is for each participant to work out a verifiable concrete of life in which they will want to "be more, than to have". We want to face our fears and motivate our potential change well. This meeting lasts 1 hour 20 minutes. Today's group meeting does not have a prayer before the meeting. It has a prayer in the second point of this meeting. Introduction ============ Yesterday at evening prayer each of You was sent to do mercy. You symbolically received a lit candle. The Church interceded with God for You, so that you would realize your vocation. * What does this event mean to You, what did you feel when you received the candle? * What hopes do you have associated with this time? * How do you feel at this retreat? Prayer ====== The Church that supported us in vocation is not only "special authorized ones". The Church is us. We experience this retreat together and as we said at the first meeting - we are responsible for each other. Let us pray now in our intentions that descending from this mountain today we transfer one thing into our life in a lasting way. I am called =========== We were sent. We were called. This is one of the basic truths of faith - God loves us and has a plan for us. Notice that until now we did not ask You about what vocation you have. We did not have to, because God calls us all to some things. So it is e.g. with doing mercy or striving for holiness. Still, it is a vocation - which must be heard, and then voluntarily answered. Although it is universal/mass, it respects the freedom of each of us. * Do you feel called to serve another person? In what way? .. note:: One might not know yet! At the turn of 1997 and 1998 a congress dedicated to vocations took place in Rome. We will try now to reach for this official text of the Church and measure ourselves against it. Let us read: “This simple fact of existence should above all fill everyone with delight and immense gratitude to Him who in a completely free way called us from nothing, pronouncing our name. **Understanding, therefore, that life is a gift should not only arouse an attitude of recognition, but slowly should suggest the first great answer to the fundamental question about its meaning**: human life is a masterpiece of God's creative love and is in itself a call to love. **The received gift by its nature tends to become a given good.** Love is the full meaning of life. God so loved man that He gave His life for him and made him capable of living and loving in a divine way.” -- Congress on Vocations to the Priesthood and to Consecrated Life in Europe * To whose/what service would you like to dedicate your life currently? Why? * What do you think about the fact that you are capable of loving in a divine way? What does this mean to You? Let us read: “Just as holiness is for all baptized in Christ, so also **there exists a specific vocation of every living person;** just as the former is grafted in Holy Baptism, so the latter is connected with the very fact of existence. Vocation is the providential thought of the Creator regarding every creature, is His idea-project, as if a certain dream that is in God's heart, because the fate of the creature lies on His heart. **God the Father desires it to be different and specific for every living person. The human being is in reality «called» to life and, when he begins to live, carries and finds in himself the image of Him who called him.**” -- Congress on Vocations to the Priesthood and to Consecrated Life in Europe .. note:: Let's not miss this moment - here we dig down to the concrete. The whole value of this retreat may depend on this. It is a moment of specific verification and the "last call" for us to try to help participants experience the retreat once again. We are not all supposed to be the same even though we all have the same vocation to the ministry of mercy. This must mean that the ministry of mercy must have very many manifestations. Let's show mercy broadly! Let's not reserve the word "mercy" only for helping poor children on the street by buying them a bun (although that is also important!). Teaching something is a ministry of mercy. We dedicate our time and resources to it doing it with love for their good. An honest conversation with someone over coffee when this person has a need to talk to someone is a ministry of mercy. Let's divide our life together into certain spaces. For example: #. School/Learning #. Family #. Home environment #. Work #. Rest #. Hobby #. Sport #. Friends #. Travel #. Politics Let each group choose their 10 spaces writing it on a sheet of paper so that 10 columns are created. Then on "post-it" notes let's write together ideas on how one can be an apostle of mercy in each of these spaces sticking it in the appropriate place. * Which "note" is closest to You? Why? * Where in the environment in which you live is the ministry of mercy most needed? What would it consist of? * How can You "burn out for others" in this scope? .. note:: This is a place where as animators we can testify about this "finding in oneself the image of Him who called us" in the diaconia. It is personal, but probably necessary. I received so I give ==================== Let us read: Freely you received, freely give. -- Mt 10:8 * What are Your "specific gifts" that you can use? In which spaces from the previous exercise does it seem most natural to You? * What is most important to You in giving? * How do you accept gifts from others? Is it a problem for You? Seeing oneself as someone gifted, someone happy helps very much to see a brother and sister next to us. This feeling of low value makes "paradoxically" that we are often focused so much on ourselves that we cannot fully see the needs of people around us. God sees valuable and gifted people in us. If we look at ourselves in this way giving others what one received oneself becomes something natural. * What is the most important thing/matter you can give another? * To whom do you dedicate most of your time? To people or matters? * What in life are you most grateful for? See a brother and sister ======================== Let us read the last fragment: “**Part of the vocational culture is: the ability to dream and have great desires;** astonishment that allows to appreciate beauty and choose it for its own intrinsic value, because it makes life beautiful and true; altruism that is not only solidarity in need, but is born from the discovery of the dignity of any of the sisters and brothers. The culture of pleasure, which risks losing from sight and annihilating serious questions, is opposed by a culture capable of finding courage and liking in the great questions of man, referring to his future.” -- Congress on Vocations to the Priesthood and to Consecrated Life in Europe * What fears do you have associated with "being for"? * What does "the dignity of any of the sisters and brothers" consist of? (Everyone belongs to God) Let us read: Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ -- Mt 25:34-37 * To what extent can you live in the perspective that in every human being we can meet Christ? * What does such a perspective that Christ brought change for the world? * What does the fact mean that the righteous were surprised by such a turn of events? Being good is not a huge effort. "Blessed" have it written in their DNA, they are such "casually". How else could they be happy if every smile, handshake or other help was an effort with sweat on the forehead. We received a candle that burns out. This burning out in Christianity is joyful, is natural. Otherwise no one would be a Christian for longer than a few years due to mental exhaustion :). .. note:: Let every animator find their own example here. I give KWC (Crusade for the Liberation of Man), because it is commonly known. The key is exactly the change of perspective from Friday. Someone from work once told me: "I admire You for this effort of not drinking alcohol for 17 years. You must have some amazing and complicated motivational techniques". The point is that I don't. Christianity is not complicated, there are no advanced mechanisms. What from a secular perspective looks like complicated machinery can be seen exceptionally simply. Let's change perspective for a moment and see Jesus in every alcoholic (or simply a human with the same dignity as my mother) and think that one can help him by not drinking. So I don't drink. * In what way does Your faith change the perspective in looking at other people? * In what way does Your faith change the perspective in looking at life? Serve in the community, to the end and… from now ================================================ In the Message for this year's Lent Francis reminded: „I desire that **the places where the Church manifests itself, in particular our parishes and our communities, may become islands of mercy in the midst of the sea of indifference!**" * The Pope speaks of communities, groups. Why? We spoke about this yesterday interpreting the symbol of the candle. It is easy to lose zeal. If there are others around us who "are lit" then we will keep the flame. * Do you have a group that can help You serve? What is it like? * In what way can you maintain your zeal in it? As the classic said "it takes two to tango". The very fact that we want to be in a community is not enough to automatically not weaken our zeal. The openness of this community to help us is also needed. So we can stand on the other side, right? We already know how to change perspective! :). * What do you do to maintain the zeal of others in Your community for service? * What could you do additionally? Ministry of mercy is something one chooses permanently. If one sees this evangelical perspective we are talking about here all the time then it leaves a lasting mark. Therefore in such a case "one returns from the mount of beatitudes already a different person". Let us read a further fragment of the homily, fragments of which we read yesterday at the meeting: | “We know that here, in this place, on Westerplatte, in September 1939, a group of young Poles, soldiers, under the command of Major Henryk Sucharski, persisted with noble obstinacy, undertaking an unequal fight with the invader. A heroic fight. | They remained in the memory of the nation as an eloquent symbol. It is necessary that this symbol continues to speak, that it constitutes a challenge for ever new people and generations of Poles. | **Each of you, young friends, also finds in life some 'Westerplatte' of your own. Some dimension of tasks which must be undertaken and fulfilled. Some just cause, for which one cannot but fight. Some duty, obligation, from which one cannot shrink. One cannot 'desert'.** | Finally — some order of truths and values, which one must 'maintain' and 'defend', like this Westerplatte, in oneself and around oneself. Yes, defend — for oneself and for others.” -- Homily during the liturgy of the word addressed to the youth gathered on Westerplatte -- June 12, 1987 Although we have been with each other for less than two days we will try in the spirit of Christian trust to open up to each other. Let's face such questions? .. note:: Animator, you know your group and discern whether you want to realize this at the meeting. * What is Your Westerplatte? How does it look from the perspective "more to be than to have"? * What can we do as a small group to help You defend it? .. note:: This is the animator's place for testimony about finding "their place on earth" in diaconia (provided it is true!) Let's encourage the group to act. Let's move from talking about mercy to doing it. Here and now. **Variant 1 (hotheads):** * What can we do now as a small group to help You? Someone wants prayer? Let's pray over our brother (common Our Father). Someone would like to see what good traits they have? We take papers and everyone writes one trait and hands it over. Someone wants to talk about something? We make an appointment now for tea before leaving. **Variant 2 (deferred effect):** Each participant tries to perform a mature service of mercy towards everyone. The participant reminds what is their "Westerplatte" and then everyone (except the author) writes on a piece of paper what they will do in this matter for them to help them in this and hands it to them. In this way the group binds a specific "contract" that it will support each other in the near future. Summary + Application ===================== On January 11, 2016 during the Angelus prayer Francis said: “Mercy is needed today and it is essential that the lay faithful live it and bring it into different social spheres. Go ahead! We are living the time of mercy, this is the time of mercy.” Let's choose one thing each that we will do in an act of mercy: #. At this retreat #. After returning home #. In the coming week Let's write these things down in our notebooks (or if someone prefers - put them on pieces of paper into the Holy Scripture). As part of prayer let us each make a sign of blessing on our forehead and read Rom 8:28-30.