Meeting 3. - Responsibility for Space¶

Tags: Responsibility, Parenting, Jewish traditions, Reinterpretation, Discussion, Multimedia, Reflective

Introduction for the animator and goals¶

This meeting follows the conference and the workshop in which participants practiced writing Hebrew letters by hand. These events are our closest points of reference. During the meeting we will continue working with the written letters: we will join Alef and Bet, and then reflect on the meaning of the resulting word ‘AW’ – Father. That becomes the starting point for considering how each of us is called to be a parent, understood as someone who fosters growth. Our task is to keep shaping the space entrusted to us so that the people we meet can grow. We also want participants to see that interpreting spiritual content in their own way can give life and inspiration to others – and so genuinely build up the Church. With that in mind, we send them on to prayer, when they will write the ‘Our Father’ in their own words.

Materials for the meeting:

one of the multimedia options, selected in advance and downloaded to a phone or computer
recordings ready to play: musical interpretations or a film clip – choose among three options: the monologue from Hamlet (in English; fairly long, over four minutes), Dziwny jest ten świat, and Nic dwa razy się nie zdarza; each set contains several interpretations of the same piece
sheets from the workshop ‘Letters of the First Covenant’ with the letters Alef and Bet written side by side

The first word – Father¶

Let us recall the meaning and symbolism of the letters and words that we have already encountered. Alef means head, beginning, and turns our attention toward infinity and toward what surpasses us. Bet means house and points us toward openness.

Note

If needed, read once again the book Awinu – the chapters ‘First Letters’ and ‘Letters from the Father’s House’ contain passages concerning the letters Alef and Bet.

House and infinity together form the word ‘AW’ – Father. Let us not remain closed only to the literal meaning of this word, but look a little more broadly. The word ‘parent’ can help here, but also ‘teacher’ and ‘friend.’ Each of us carries within ourselves the identity of a father-parent whose task is to make a home for, and to bring closer, what is abstract, infinite, and surpasses us.

We can understand parenthood more broadly than literally being a mother or father. What do I associate it with?
For whom am I a parent in that sense?
What kinds of spaces is it easiest for me to make into a home for others?

We can make infinite realities familiar for others because someone once made them familiar for us, and they became close to us:

Let us recall a situation in which someone made something overwhelming or surpassing accessible for us. What was it, and what did it change for me?

Taking responsibility for space¶

Creating a space of growth that allows real development and deep experience requires receiving the space given to us by God and actively taking responsibility for it. Learning is a process that every person must undergo more than once as an individual experience. We do not learn to ride a bicycle by hearing a story about how to do it. A parent or teacher gives space for growth, but arranges only as much as is needed, leaving room for independent experience.

Let us notice that God invites Adam to co-create the world by naming the animals. Let us read a passage from the Book of Genesis:

So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.

—Gen 2:19-20a

The Jews are a people of the Word and pay special attention to its effectiveness. So giving Adam the task of naming the animals is handing over great responsibility and is a gesture of great trust from God. God gave Adam real influence over what the identity of the created beings would be. We too are invited to define the identity of the space around us. This may take the form of arranging physical space, giving time for reflection, inviting others into a deep and honest conversation, or allowing ourselves and others to explore the outer and inner world together.

What kind of space am I most focused on creating in my life right now?
In what way do I take responsibility every day for the space shared with other people?

By bringing our individual perspective, interpretation, and sensitivity to the world into dialogue with others, we can create new qualities. Then our individual potential has a chance to stimulate the growth of others, and vice versa.

How do I feel about the thought that I can put myself in the place of one who creates space for others?

Reinterpreting as a path of shared growth¶

Let us consider in what other way we can co-create the world entrusted to us – especially the spiritual one. In order to find new quality and freshness, we do not always have to build from scratch or turn everything upside down. The most everyday form of interacting with space that brings something new is filtering things through our sensitivity, our way of seeing the world, and our experience. Notice that this often happens in art, especially in music. Many artists play covers or rearrange well-known standards. Let us listen to an example:

The animator plays a chosen musical or theatrical example of a reinterpretation of a well-known work.

Each subsequent arrangement or interpretation of a work written once undoubtedly creates something new, and yet underneath there is still a melodic line or an idea that arose earlier. This constant return to classics and standards and the constant reinterpreting of them is the way later artists bring their own sensitivity, aesthetics, and sound.

Spirituality is also a sharing of space, a creating of it for one another. In the same way, we process through ourselves different contents: Sacred Scripture, prayers, conferences, podcasts, and so on. Sometimes we simply reproduce a certain content, for example prayers, but it has ceased to have flavor for us or to inspire us.

What has been such a stage in my spiritual development and no longer speaks to me?

Let us put ourselves in a place similar to artists who reinterpret and rediscover some previously known work or text.

Where is my place in the Church for reinterpreting what I already know?
What inspires me to tell in my own words what I already know?
What already familiar part of my spirituality have I rediscovered recently? How did that happen, and did someone help me?

Conclusion and application¶

Each of us is called to a living relationship with God, and therefore also to seek and discover him actively every day through our individual sensitivity. There is great value in the fact that we can give this to one another, and fuller interpretations and thoughts arise between us. Let us approach in this way the prayer in which we are about to participate. Let us not be afraid to write in our own words, to share what we feel and how we feel it, and to share our relationship with the Father.

At the end, let us briefly pray for one another in intercession, asking for the courage to live an individuality that inspires others.