Meeting 1 - The Beginning of the Journey¶
Goal of the meeting and introduction for the animator¶
The Friday meeting is an introduction to the retreat, the first meeting place for the animator with their group, and the start of a journey together. Each of us is in a different place in our lives, each has a different path behind us, but together we want to take the risk of going into the unknown.
The most important thing on this retreat is “to be for”. We want to create a space of mutual trust and safety, where everyone who comes to the retreat, whether a participant, an animator, or a priest, has clearly heard “I want you to be”.
Take care of your group, be a father, mother, and guide for them on this retreat. Spend time with them, be interested in their lives, give them the feeling that it is no accident that they found themselves in this place, time, and in this particular group. Throughout this weekend you are particularly responsible for them and for their good experience of this time. Give them your time, attention, listen to what they have to say. At any moment of the meeting, you can give a testimony regarding the given topic. It may seem to you that they are not experiencing the retreat at all, that this time gives them nothing, that the content is too easy, too difficult, or completely irrelevant to their life experiences for them. It doesn’t matter. Make the best use of this time together as possible. Sow the seed, and perhaps someone else will reap the fruit. Let yourself be led by the power of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to work through you. Good luck!
Prayer and getting to know the group¶
The goal of this point is to get to know each other and create a “small community”. The retreat is too short to integrate for a long time, so every moment must be used. It can be emphasized that in the group one can feel at ease, that the content of the sharing does not go outside.
Prayer to the Holy Spirit for a fruitful retreat experience (any form - adapted to the group);
A few words about yourself (name, where you are from, what you do in life, passions, etc.);
Getting to know each other referring to the theme of traveling:
do I like to travel, where have I already been?
am I more of a traveler or a homebody?
do I take more risks, go with the flow, or must I have everything planned and calculated?
do I prefer to fill my time with sightseeing or lounging on the beach?
how does this translate into my life? - do I sit in the warmth or do I take risks and go forward?
is the journey itself important to me or its destination?
Travel has value in itself, the destination is not always the most important thing (hiking in the mountains, hitchhiking, kayaking, etc.).
Each of us is different, has different experiences, dreams, interests, but what connects us is that we are all constantly on a journey. We travel to school, to university, to work, to family, by car, bus, train. Some like to travel more, others less. Some love flying by plane, others are afraid of it. We want to experience the time of the retreat based on the description of the life of one of the travelers from the Old Testament.
Introduction to the Book of Genesis¶
Warning
if there is such a need in the group, you can briefly introduce the character of the Book of Genesis here (not everything should be understood literally, the Holy Scripture is a book of faith, not a history or biology textbook).
Each of us has certainly heard of Abraham. His story is described in the Book of Genesis, in chapters 12 to 25.
Brainstorming: what do we know about Abraham?
Note
Participants say what they know, the animator adds, you can use the written story from the briefing - attachment. NOTE! We talk about a few most important events, not all of them and absolutely not about their interpretation, because we will spoil the whole retreat :)
Abram goes on a journey into the unknown - he had a settled life, a house, a wife, wealth, reputation, but he had a desire for something more within him.
Let’s read the fragment just before the beginning of our story:
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.
—Gen 11:31-32
Canaan is the biblical “Promised Land”. Abram’s father also wanted to get there, but he failed because after reaching Harran he decided that it was “good enough” there. He was satisfied with a half-measure, but the desire to reach the original destination remained in Abram, he dreamed about it long after. God’s calling does not come from nowhere, it is always based on some desire that has been in us for a long time, but perhaps we do not always realize it.
Although Abram lived about 3800 years ago, he is closer to us than it seems. We walk on the same earth, we have the same stars above our heads, and in our hearts the same dreams, fears, hopes.
Faith is an adventure¶
Let’s read:
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem.
—Gen 12:1-6a
Let’s ask:
In what life situation is Abram at the moment when God speaks to him?
Imagine what was happening in Abram’s heart, what he felt, what he thought, what were his hopes, doubts, fears?
What could he gain, what could he lose?
Let’s imagine Abram before the beginning of our story. He is 75 years old, has a settled life, a wife, lives among family, is rich. On the other hand, he was never given to see Canaan, the promised land that his father wanted to reach. He also has no descendant, whom he always dreamed of, his life is incomplete.
Contrary to appearances, God does not demand who knows what. Abram was used to wandering, his people were often on the road, he himself had previously traveled from Ur of the Chaldeans to Harran with his father. Moreover, God does not order him to leave his family or belongings, only allows him to take everything with him. He does not want to take anything away from him, does not order him to renounce who he is, changes are gradual, the moment of setting out on the road is important.
God builds on our dreams. Abram dreamed of a son and a promised land. As we know, both of these things were to come true in his life, but not immediately. God comes out with a proposal and waits for our move. We must decide if we want to answer Him and set out on the road to which He invites us.
To experience an adventure, you must first move, take a risk, a decision to leave home, the “comfort zone”.
Faith is a decision¶
We make many decisions in life with different consequences. We are more satisfied with some, less with others, but they move us forward in our journey.
What decisions did I have to make recently? What changed as a result of them? Was it an easy or difficult choice?
What decisions do I have to make in the near future? What is associated with them? What hopes and fears do I have related to them?
Abraham made the decision to set out for Canaan, but it turned out that there is a famine in his dreamed promised land, that it is not so beautiful there at all and he was forced to wander further:
Now the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev. Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
—Gen 12:7-10
Going out on the road, making decisions, we take the risk that something will be wrong. Our expectations may not come true, we probably imagined this journey differently, the backpack was lighter, the road not so rocky, and in our promised land there was abundance, not famine.
Summary and application¶
Each of us has already taken the first step by coming to this retreat. This means that there is a desire for adventure in us, a willingness for some change, to take a risk. It is not easy to break away from your life and come to a place full of strangers to dedicate two days to God.
The next point in the plan is evening prayer, during which we want to reflect on the journey of our life. On what is already behind us, what we have already gone through and for what we can thank God, but also on what is just awaiting us, where God sends us and how we can answer his call.
Application: I will think today about whether God wants me to go somewhere now, make an important decision? What do I come to this retreat with? What stops me in my Harran? I will offer this to God today at evening prayer, I will ask Him for good discernment and I will pray for my small group.