Meeting 1. - Life as a Response to the Call to Service ****************************************************** .. tags:: content|vocation|Vocation, content|service|Service, content|responsibility|Responsibility, content|community|Community, content|love|Love, method|text-work|Text work, type|formative|Formative Introduction (not) only for the animator ======================================== Every creature speaks and is called to express a particular aspect of God's thought. There it finds its name and identity; it affirms and secures its freedom and originality. -- John Paul II -- *Final Document of the Congress on Vocations in Rome* To begin with, it is worth quoting a few passages that will clarify somewhat what we will be dealing with. It is, of course, worth using them during the meeting. They should be thought through beforehand by the animator, this is the basis thanks to which we will gain confidence in the topic. * "This simple fact of existing should above all fill everyone with wonder and immense gratitude to the One who, in a completely gratuitous way, called us from nothingness, pronouncing our name. Understanding, therefore, that **life is a gift**, should not only arouse an attitude of recognition, but should slowly 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 good given**. 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." (Final Document of the Congress on Vocations) * "Just as holiness is for all the baptized in Christ, so there is a specific vocation for 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, it is His idea-project, like a certain dream that is in God's heart, because the creature's fate 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, he carries and finds in himself the image of the One who called him. Vocation is a divine proposal to realize oneself according to this image and is unique, singular, unrepeatable, and therefore such an image is inexhaustible. Every creature speaks and is called to express a particular aspect of God's thought. There it finds its name and identity; it affirms and secures its freedom and originality." (Final Document of the Congress on Vocations) * **"Part of the vocational culture is: the ability to dream and have great desires; wonder that allows one to appreciate beauty and choose it for its own intrinsic value, because it makes life beautiful and true; altruism, which is not only solidarity in need, but is born from the discovery of the dignity of any sister and brother**. The culture of pleasure, which risks losing sight of and annihilating serious questions, is opposed by a culture capable of finding courage and delight in the great questions of man, relating to his future. **In reality, those questions are great which make even small answers great**. Nothing and no one can stifle in man the question of meaning and the desire for truth." (Final Document of the Congress on Vocations in Rome) | *Notes:* | Fr. Dr. Marek Dziewiecki has been the national chaplain for vocations since April 1999. That is why his words are often quoted here, as I assume he is one of the most competent people writing in Polish on this subject. | *Reminder:* | **Light-Life Movement meetings are sharing-based, not lectures. We are to enrich ourselves. The value of the meeting is not to be the content of the outline but the meeting with another person in a spirit of trust and sharing oneself.** Opening prayer ============== Any prayer, taking into account especially the Holy Spirit. The prayer should be adapted to the level of the group. Introduction to the group meeting ================================= Perhaps at this point it is worth asking the group what their expectations are for this retreat time – this would fulfill an integrative role instead of sharing information about oneself that is not always interesting from the point of view of the retreat. Reading the Passage, and then placing it in a visible place so that it "accompanies" us in this meeting: Creating man in His own image and likeness and constantly sustaining him in existence, God inscribes in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility for love and communion. Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. -- John Paul II - *Apostolic Exhortation "Familiaris consortio"* This passage is also an introduction to the topic of the meeting – ask someone specifically how they react when they see such a text, are these "clichés" for them or perhaps unlifelike considerations, or maybe something that moved them? The gift of life: what to do with it? What is it? ================================================= Without an answer to the questions: what is my life, what does the fact that I exist testify to, what do I live for, etc., there is no possibility of going further. Man usually either avoids these questions because they are too difficult for him, or pushes them into the "space of obviousness". * What is our awareness of this absolutely non-trivial fact that we exist, feel, breathe, create? Have we ever thought about this? Our life is placed in time, the stay here on earth will last a specific, finite number of seconds. We did not give ourselves life, undoubtedly we received it from someone. It is therefore a gift. This obliges us not to waste such a precious thing that was entrusted to us (and for free). Our earthly time is therefore very valuable – it serves us to nurture life. * Does the awareness of the gift of life result in care for our actions? Do we ask ourselves questions like "how do I use my own time?" Do we look for a way to use it best? This is a very serious and fundamental matter – breaking out of pragmatic thinking to thinking about the meaning of one's own life. Life can be realized in as many ways as there are people in the world. One can try to search for its meaning absolutely from scratch on one's own. However, this is a path rather for few. The Church, proclaiming the Good News about Christ, shows a very clear direction-proposal for us. Vocation: what to do with my life? What is my path? =================================================== God chooses each of us. He created us and did not do it "just like that without an idea", giving us the gift of life He had a specific plan. He wants us to be beautiful, to be in His likeness. The love of God the Father, which created every human being, means that no one should feel unnecessary, lonely or forgotten, because everyone is called to a life of love according to God's plan, arranged just for them, that is, in accordance with their unique history, aspirations and possibilities. An individual person has a chance to feel loved, safe, fulfilled and fully satisfied only when they discover and accept God's plan, God's dream about their life and future. For this reason, God the Father is the best educator of man, because only He can fully bring out of the human heart what He Himself placed there. Only God can effectively help man to become the most beautiful version of himself. -- Fr. Marek Dziewiecki * Do we agree with these words? Can we share an experience of precisely such an action of God, that He brought out of us things that amazed us ourselves? * What does our faith look like that this "most beautiful version of oneself" exists and we have a duty to strive for it? A perspective arises that this gift of life we spoke about at the beginning has a specific goal. We are not what we could be. There is someone besides ourselves who cares that we be that. He has the possibilities to help us, but we must cooperate with him. Service: an attitude to imitate =============================== God came to earth as a man to help us. He showed us the perfection we are to strive for with our lives. He said repeatedly that we are to imitate him. * Read Phil 2:5-11 * Emptied himself, took the form of a servant, humbled himself, was obedient * Read John 13:1-17 * Washed feet * Why did the apostles, even though they wandered with Jesus for so many months and listened to his teachings, not understand what he did? Is and why is the attitude of service so "counter-intuitive" for us? Service is an expression of love. It directs us to the other, not to ourselves, it excludes selfishness which is after all "innate" in us. * What are our biggest problems in service? To serve others (to gift them with our love) we must also know how to receive – otherwise we will not give our neighbors the opportunity to serve. This is a very important issue. * Have we experienced in our lives something like discouragement in the giving person due to the inability (ours/others') to receive? (e.g. due to false humility) Vocation to service as a consequence of the gift of life ======================================================== To realize God's vocation in one's own life is to become a faithful disciple of Christ, to become an extension of His words and His deeds, to become an extension of His presence on this earth. It is to lead to a situation in which, after St. Paul, we can say that it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. It is to give oneself to Jesus for complete disposal, so that through us His heart and His hands can continue to embrace the small and lost, the sick and rejected by people, the weak and sinners. -- Fr. Marek Dziewiecki Giving oneself to Jesus for complete disposal is nothing else but becoming His instrument, and a servant to the neighbor. However, it is not so that we will immediately know how to be at *"complete disposal"*. Throughout our whole life we fight for it to be so. Deciding therefore to serve another, we must be aware that we will not be able to serve him perfectly! We will wound with our own selfishness, our own politeness, we will disappoint! Here lies a dangerous trap of resigning from service for the seemingly greater good of the neighbor! * Do we notice in our lives discouragement caused by the awareness of our imperfection, by the fact that deciding on love we automatically introduce pain? How do we fight this? This is exactly the Church – a sinner serves a sinner. Instead of pushing this truth as far away as possible from the people we love, we should explore this mystery together with them, even though it is often painful. Then we express our greatest care for this person, and not when we withdraw and leave him alone "so that he does not suffer". * Do we experience our vocation as joy from the possibility of serving, that is, becoming like Jesus? Do we see that love is most fully expressed in service, that is, in deed? Application =========== The Light-Life Movement method does not allow us to remain only at the level of knowledge and information. Every meeting should end with an "application", that is, a concrete implementation of the content into life. A proposal that each of us now make one small resolution in connection with the discussed topic, which we hope to be able to implement still during this retreat. Closing prayer ============== Any prayer for perseverance in our resolutions.