Meeting 4 — Communio ******************** .. tags:: content|eucharist|Eucharist, content|community|Community, content|unity|Unity, content|church|Church, method|text-work|Text work, type|mystagogical|Mystagogical Goals of the meeting + introduction for the facilitator ======================================================= .. important:: At the end of the outline there are attachments which should be printed before the meeting for each participant! The last group meeting focuses mainly on the community aspect. It is "We have known and believed". We have lived through the retreat. During the meeting time was specially set aside for testimonies, because not everyone feels comfortable during the general summary at the end of the retreat. This is an important part of this meeting, therefore it can be extended at the expense of e.g. the form of activation. It is also important that each participant leaves with an application from the retreat chosen by themselves and written down. The questions found in this outline are only guiding, you don't have to ask them all. Sometimes there are so many of them to "pull someone's tongue", illustrate exactly what is meant. Goals: - Showing how Jesus becomes present during the liturgy - Showing the community as a place of love development. - Summary of 3 days and sharing personal experiences regarding the retreat. Prayer and introduction ======================= Spontaneous prayer or any form of prayer chosen based on observation of your group. Asking about impressions regarding the prayer which we started yesterday and finished today at Mass combined with Lauds, let's remember not to exert pressure regarding the answer expected by us. Not for everyone this moment of the retreat had to be a breakthrough moment. * How did I experience this event (prayer extended to Holy Mass)? What stuck in my memory? What was important to me? What moved me? * In what way do I accept the presence of Jesus Christ in such forms of prayer? Christ present in the Eucharist =============================== The center of this part of the meeting focuses on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist (Gr. eucharistía ‘thanksgiving’). Holy Mass is a special event in which Jesus Christ unites with us in the form of Bread and Wine, and also becomes present in the Holy Scripture, in the person of the priest and the gathered people. «The Eucharistic sacrifice is the source and summit of the whole Christian life. In this sacrifice of thanksgiving, propitiation, petition and praise the faithful participate more fully when they not only offer to the Father with all their heart, in union with the priest, the sacred victim, and in it themselves, but also receive the same victim in the sacrament» (Sacred Congregation of Rites, Eucharisticum Mysterium, 3 e). We can read at this moment what the saints of the Church said about the Eucharist: The real presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist cannot be perceived by the senses or reason, but only by faith. -- St. Thomas Aquinas Natural love demands three things: the presence of the beloved person, their complete possession and perfect union with them; Jesus fully satisfies in the supernatural order this law of love in the Eucharist. -- St. Peter Julian Eymard God never unites us so much with himself as when he is in us sacramentally, in person, and we are spiritually incorporated in him; we are then so strongly attracted by him and united with Him by a bond of indissoluble love that we constitute one. -- St. Albert the Great * What role does the Eucharist play in my life? How does Jesus speak to me during Holy Mass? What significance does the Eucharist have in my relationship with God? * Which of these quotes is closest to me? Why? * Why is the Eucharist simultaneously the source and summit of the whole worship of the Church? * What does it mean to be spiritually incorporated with Christ? * In what way has Jesus been present so far during the retreat? Variant 1 - activating form Wanting to look at how Jesus appears during Holy Mass, we distribute in the group cut out fragments from attachment number 1. Each "strip" contains a graphically presented symbol concerning Jesus' presence in the Eucharist and an explanation acc. to the Catholic Church in what way a given "form" of presence is realized. We ask that a selected person reads the quote aloud. Then the group answers in their own words how they understand it and shares personal experience of experiencing this "form" of God's presence. Variant 2 - see footnote "Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us" (Rom 8:34), is present in many ways to his Church (Cf. Vatican Council II, Const. Lumen gentium, 48): in his word, in his Church's prayer, "where two or three are gathered in my name" (Mt 18:20), in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned (Cf. Mt 25:31-46), in the sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass and in the person of the minister; but "he is present... most especially in the Eucharistic species" (Vatican Council II, Const. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7). CCC 1373 The ways of God becoming present discussed by us we observed at different moments of the retreat. And even when it might have seemed that He is not directly with us (for example during Saturday evening, when the Blessed Sacrament was not exposed) essentially we celebrated His presence, but in the Word, which today during the Eucharist became Flesh. We could perceive Him in the priest celebrating mass and preaching the Homily. We experienced Him among ourselves, gathered in His name. Eucharistic species CCC 1374 The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, III, 73, 3). In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained" (Council of Trent: DS 1651). "This presence is called 'real' - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present" (Paul VI, Enc. Mysterium fidei). Word of God We meet God speaking to us during the celebration of the liturgy, as Vatican Council II teaches about this: “For in the liturgy God speaks to his people and Christ is still proclaiming his gospel. And the people reply to God both by song and prayer.” (SC 33) CCC 104 In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength (Cf. ibid., 24), for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God" (1 Thess 2:13). "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them" (Vatican Council II, Const. Dei Verbum, 21). In the person of the Celebrant Through the ministry of priests, the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful is completed in union with the sacrifice of Christ the only Mediator, which in the Eucharist is offered through the priests' hands in the name of the whole Church in an unbloody and sacramental manner until the Lord himself comes (Vatican Council II, Decr. Presbyterorum ordinis, 2). In the assembly CCC 1368 The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. The Church which is the Body of Christ participates in the offering of her Head. With him, she herself is offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ's sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering. "We have known" =============== Communion unites us not only with Jesus, but also with each other. We are connected by His ties of blood. In the fragment which is the leitmotif of this retreat for us, St. John writes „WE have known and believed (...) ”. He does not speak only in his own name, but accents the fact that it happened in a group, community. Let's read a fragment from the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium: “He has, however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge Him and serve Him in holiness.” * Why did it please God to sanctify and save us in a community? * How does the community of the Church differ from other communities? The Church is not only a group of people having a common goal and heading in the same direction. The Church is a mystery, a secret that can be known only through faith. The mystical body of Christ, which is every baptized person: For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part which lacked it, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. -- 1 Cor 12:13-27 * What does it mean to be the Body of Christ? * In what way does the vision of the Church as One Body of Christ influence my perception and treatment of its other members? We are the body of Christ. That is why St. Paul can say: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. This is an element of our identity, Christian dignity. That is why we are to surround what is less honorable, shameful in the Church with special care and greater respect! * What does it mean to me that I am not so much to imitate Jesus, but to be Him? Community is also inscribed in who we are, in our nature. We were created in the image of the Triune God and invited to the relationship that the individual Persons of the Trinity have with each other. Fr. Piotr Sękowski describes it in a beautiful way in a fragment of his book "The Cross of Jesus Christ. A Tale of the Tree of Life": „I once read such a sentence of a French Jesuit, Pierre Varillon: „If God were not Trinity, I would understand nothing anymore”. What does this mean? Simply put, that God can love. The Father loves the Son, i.e. Jesus, and the Son loves the Father. The love between them is so great that it is a separate Person, the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life. God is constructed of Love itself. And He constructed us in His image. Therefore the deepest string in us is the need, desire for relationship, love, friendship of another human being. Moreover: when we love someone, we have a need to completely give ourselves to that person. When a husband loves a wife, when a mother loves a child, she will gladly give him/her everything, leave nothing for herself. In such a case the Trinity happens in us. ” * When can I experience that the Trinity is happening in me? * What helps me make my love concrete? * What role do relationships I have with others play in my life? * To what communities do I belong? Which are closest to me? * In what way do I realize the vocation to love in these communities? Community helps us concretize the ideal of love, becomes a space to fulfill the vocation that each of us has. Thanks to it we can develop, grow, mature. Testimonies =========== Giving testimony to others can also be an expression of love, so let's give ourselves space now to share how God worked during this retreat. Each of us came here with some expectations, we can ask at this moment if and how they were realized. Helper questions: * What was most important for me on this retreat and aroused the most reflection? * What did God transform in me? What did he show? * At what moment of the retreat did I experience God the most? * In what way will what I experienced on the retreat influence the experiencing of the current Advent? Application =========== Everyone alone, based on the most important experience for them from the retreat, chooses an application for themselves and writes it down in a notebook. If someone has a problem inventing an application, one can propose prayer for the intention of the members of their retreat group as part of concretizing love in the community. Prayer of blessing for each other. We stand in a circle and everyone aloud (or not) blesses with their own words the person on the right. If Your group is not ready for this, you can together read Psalm 67 in Your intention.