Meeting 4. - The Holy Spirit as the One Who Changes

Tags: Holy Spirit, Conversion, Truth, Group work, Text work, Prayer meeting

Necessary aids

Texts of the “Akathist to the Holy Spirit” for each participant.

Goals of the meeting

Sharing experiences related to the Saturday prayer for the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and Sunday Matins at sunrise (with particular emphasis on the CHANGES that took place, big, small and even smaller changes, but also those that remain unnoticed e.g. “Matins made no impression on me - okay, but you experienced it, you were there, you took part in it. This is already a different reality even if you don’t feel it now, you don’t understand”).

Introduction for the animator (and not only!)

Yesterday’s afternoon meeting already shed quite a lot of light on the person of the Holy Spirit. We supplemented our knowledge about Him. We prepared for the meeting with Him in the evening. It can be compared to reading a description of wonderful music before going to a concert. We learn something from it, but music cannot be captured in words.

During the evening prayer we experienced an extraordinary Meeting with Him. We heard the melody we had only read about earlier. It is something completely new, qualitatively different. That is why at this meeting we will reach for the Akathist to the Holy Spirit - a wonderful hymn of the Church about who the Spirit of the Times is and what significance He has. It is not a text created from theological deduction, but precisely from listening, from the Meeting of people with the Spirit. We will try to find something close to us in it. If we find it, it will mean that tonight we experienced the same power that the Church discovered already 1600 years ago composing these words. Because the Spirit constantly leads His people… and constantly surprises.

Sharing what is behind us

Sharing experiences of the previous evening and morning, consistent with the suggestion given in the goal of the meeting - feelings and elations are important and valuable, but if they are absent it does not mean that everything was pointless and gave me nothing. It could have been stupid, cold and boring, but IT WAS, it is a fact and not playback. Since there was a lot of it (prayer and matins!) this part of the meeting may take more time.

We try to find a deeper meaning in “normal” observations:

  • before the light we saw shapes, but they were gray, as if lifeless. Only the Light allowed us to see life as it is.

  • it was cold. It seemed to me that it was already sunrise and still it was not there. Such waiting is terrible, but rationally I was sure that it must rise!

Akathist to the Holy Spirit

Theoretical explanation:

Akathist (from Greek akatihstos – not-sitting) – is a type of liturgical hymn… (see: inside cover)

Division of participants into pairs, assigning each pair 2 kontakia and ikoi for analysis, explaining the rules of text analysis using the Västerås method

Note

In some groups the animator may discern whether it is better to work individually. Then he distributes the texts to the group accordingly. The Västerås method consists in noting one’s relation to the read fragment using three signs: question mark (?), exclamation mark (!) and arrow (<-).

  1. Make a question mark in the margin if you do not understand something or if something provokes you to ask yourself a question

  2. exclamation mark, if a given place brings you special enlightenment (you discovered in it a truth new to you, which you were not aware of until now or were aware of it vaguely, or you discovered it anew and consider it important);

  3. arrow, if you receive a given word as a call, addressed to you personally by the Lord.

In younger groups let’s give an example of using these markings, with humor and not entirely seriously:

What a coincidence! A left sandwich and a humid environment favors the formation of mold. Undoubtedly, it is worth that the occurrence of such a situation motivates me to go outside with the garbage”

  • I mark with a question mark: “coincidence” - WHAT IS THIS WORD?!

  • I mark with an exclamation mark: “sandwich and humid environment favors the formation of mold” - Oh yes, that’s what they said in biology once. A truth worth remembering.

  • I mark with an arrow: “going outside with the garbage” - oh yes… this is a sentence definitely addressed to me.

Everyone reads the text individually and then shares with a person from the group and discusses what they marked. At the end, pairs present the effects of their work to the group. Note: it is important that during sharing participants quote the marked fragment of text literally, and then justify why they chose it (because the others do not know the text!). In this way everyone will become familiar with fragments from the whole text.

It is worth gathering everyone after individual work with general questions introducing detailed analysis:

  • How did you read this text? What are your feelings?

  • How would you describe it? What is it like? Boring? Difficult? Sublime? Long? Joyful? Strong?

Sharing marked fragments in a specific order:

Note

Such a form will allow maintaining the dynamics of the meeting and it will not be the case that one group speaks for 8 minutes and gets bored.

  • What did you mark with an exclamation mark? Why? (everyone speaks)

  • What did you mark with a question mark? (everyone speaks, the animator’s role is not to be an omniscient master [I recommend leaving this role to Jesus] - a climate of joint inquiry. This is poetry, not digging ditches. It would be great if the group started discussing with each other.)

  • What did you mark with an arrow? (everyone speaks)

Summary

One can live stronger and more! However, it is a pity for us to try to penetrate the depths of the world without the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who searches the depths of God Himself. He has been given to us! He wants to act and acts. Two thousand years of the Church’s existence is His doing. The Spirit who hovers over the waters before the creation of the world, who anoints kings, who is the inspiration of prophets and poets, who is the cause of all movement and life, the same Spirit, wants to constantly start cooperation with You. Do not ignore Him! Let yourself be carried away by Him.

Application and prayer

Prayer of the group for each other for good preparation for the Solemnity of Pentecost!