Meeting 1. - Although Time Chases Us ************************************ .. tags:: content|time|Time, content|decisions|Decisions, content|church|Church, method|definition-work|Definition work, method|discussion|Discussion, type|formative|Formative Goals ===== Showing the value of time, emphasizing its role, understanding its influence and action. Starting from its role in 'everyday' life, passing through the meaning of time in the Church. Participants should be aware that time enables Us to develop through making decisions and changes in life. Tips for the animator ======================= This outline is quite short and at the same time concise. It is important that it is not just a talk about various definitions of time - we want to get to know its real influence and action. Fears: treating the outline not as a whole, but as a set of points that need to be ticked off one by one. Due to limited time, try to maintain the dynamic fluidity of this meeting. Below is a suggestion/proposal for conducting it. If something doesn't suit you, you get lost, etc., look at the goal of the meeting. It may happen that participants' answers will not agree with the "expected" ones, you can guide them slightly, but not force our way of thinking. In the outlines, some chapters have an approximate duration of this point of the meeting marked in brackets. It is solely a suggestion of the outline author - the animator being at the meeting and seeing its development will best adjust the time accents. Prayer ======== .. note:: ~5 minutes Spontaneous to the Holy Spirit for a good experience of the retreat time. Request for strength so that we know how to use this time from the beginning 100%, without letting go, without waiting for moments of elation. We want to fight for every second. Request for openness and forming a community in the group. Introduction to the meeting =========================== .. note:: ~5 minutes Short getting to know the group: * Your day has 1h more. How would you use this time? .. note:: Version for students: How would you use this time if you didn't sleep through it? At this moment you can ask a question: * Does any of You have a watch? If so, why? (Because it looks nice, not to be late, to know what time it is - that is generally to be aware of time.) * What does it mean to be aware of time? Does it only concern knowing the current time? * What is time anyway? With this question we move to the further part of the meeting. What is time? =============== .. note:: ~10 minutes To make the matter easier: we take out a large sheet of paper with the inscription “Time”, everyone adds free associations on the branches e.g. calendars, watches, time planning, time games, “time is money” and everything else. Together we build a common definition and characteristic of time: irreversible, flows for everyone, flows on earth etc. * What does “a lot of time” mean? * When is it easier for you to organize yourself for something? (Do you get to work immediately, or wait for the moment when time chases you a bit? E.g. studying for an exam) * What does your respect for your own and others' time look like? Can you respect it more or less (e.g. A week before, and a day before the exam)? What does it depend on? * Why is time so important to us? * What role does time play in the Church? (e.g. in the context of the liturgical year - marks individual periods; liturgy of the hours - celebrating time; holidays mark the passage of time; the Church waits for the end of time.) The Church measures time very meticulously - this means that it is very important. We come to the conclusion that time has great significance. Consequently: the other person's time and mine is important. Because of this, we should respect it, appreciate it and take care of its good use. You can additionally ask/write in the notebook: * How can I use the time of this retreat? Time enables change ===================== .. note:: ~10 minutes. We are still in considerations regarding time. * Why is it worth measuring something? * How was time measured in the past? - Gnomon. Probably invented by the Chinese. Approx. 2500 BC. It was a vertically placed pole or rod, at the base of which hours were marked. The shadow moving during the day acted as a hand. - Water Clock. Constructed by Egyptians. It was a simple and at the same time inaccurate device. It consisted of a vessel filled with water, from which water leaked through a bottom hole. - Hourglass. Invented by Greeks. It was based on the same principle as the water clock in which sand took the place of water. It was characterized by greater precision. * On what basis was it measured? What does time enable? (Change) Based on examples we can conclude that time was measured based on the observation of change e.g. the level of sand in the hourglass. **Time enables change**. Apocalypse! Change through decision =================================== .. note:: ~15 minutes One of the important features of the world is that time exists in it. Time flows only in our world, Heaven is outside of it. A moment ago we said that the Church waits for the end of time i.e. waits for Heaven, because it is a place outside of time. And when time ends, there is no other option. Let's present a simple comparative characteristic of Heaven and Earth. Heaven (outside time): without sins, infinite happiness, does not pass - **ideal place**. Earth (time): sin, cataclysms, wars, hatred, violence, besides there are also some positives, but we come to the conclusion that... - **it is not ideal**. Let's read: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. -- Eccl 3:1-11 We ask participants to write down/list from the text all opposing times (the first is the one we want to change). Then we ask them to explain what steps need to be taken, what must happen for such a change to occur. e.g. time to die → time to be born (e.g. abandon old thinking in favor of a new idea - make a decision) * What does change require? * How does time enable changes? Change requires a decision. If the motif with the decision does not appear: You gained a huge amount of weight. You want to lose weight. You can lose weight through rational nutrition and doing sports. So? You make a decision to change your lifestyle. * What things require changes? If something requires change, it is by definition not ideal. If there is time on earth, and time enables changes, it means that something requires this change. Summary - maturing through change ======================================= .. note:: ~10 minutes Let's read: | For a thousand years in your sight | are like yesterday when it is past, | or like a watch in the night. | You sweep them away; they are like a dream, | like grass that is renewed in the morning; | in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; | in the evening it fades and withers. | | For we are consumed by your anger; | by your wrath we are overwhelmed. | You have set our iniquities before you, | our secret sins in the light of your countenance. | For all our days pass away under your wrath; | our years come to an end like a sigh. | The days of our life are seventy years, | or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; | even then their span is only toil and trouble; | they are soon gone, and we fly away. | Who considers the power of your anger? | Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. | So teach us to count our days | that we may gain a wise heart. | | Turn, O Lord! How long? | Have compassion on your servants! | Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, | so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. | Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, | and as many years as we have seen evil. | Let your work be manifest to your servants, | and your glorious power to their children. | Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, | and prosper for us the work of our hands— | O prosper the work of our hands! -- Ps 90:4-17 * What according to the author guarantees gaining a wise heart? (Counting our days - time, awareness of time) * Can we insert “maturity” instead of “wise heart”? How to understand this? * Can I say “From today I am not aging.”? (No, everyone is dependent on time. A stay on earth is a path in which everyone participates.) .. centered:: time: decision → change → maturing A stay on earth is quite a field to show off. We get the opportunity to change something for the better, maturing - you don't change something that is ideal. From the top we are not ideal, we landed in a world that gives the possibility of changes. But we are not to moan because of this, just get to work. You can ask each participant to summarize in one sentence/share what spoke to him most. Prayer + application ======================= Places, planes, spaces in my relationship with God, to which I devote too little time - specifically name them. What exactly can I do during this retreat to fix it - write the resolution in notebooks. Prayer of entrustment. We want to give God the whole time of the retreat, we entrust our intentions, everything that sits in us. We ask that He transform us and enable us to make difficult decisions.