11/16/15

Today we had our first Discipleship Training session. The focus was communication, particularly listening. There were six of us, so Fr. Bill had us break up into two teams of three, with one speaker, one listener, and one observer. In my group, I was the listener, Irene was the speaker, and Dan was the observer. Irene told a story about a recent experience she had at work. She's an occupational therapist at a hospital, and she told me about a particularly challenging encounter with a patient that was having a lot of trouble emotionally and psychologically. I did my best to listen and respond as best I could to show that I was listening and interested; and when she was finished, I shared an anecdote of my own to help show that I could relate with her, at least on some small level. When each team was finished, we regrouped and discussed how the exchanges went.

Afterwards, we went through and read a few sections of The Way: A Catholic Small Group Bible Discussion Guide and talked about them. The first was a quote from Pope Benedict:

And once again the Pope (John Paul II) said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life. Amen.

Fr. Bill had us pick out and answer one of the four questions that followed. I never got a chance to answer (which was ok by me), but I'd mentally picked question one: What spoke to you from this passage? For me, it was the idea that "the great potential of human experience" is truly revealed in our friendship with Christ, as Christ is always pointing us towards other people. To love God and others as ourselves is the greatest commandment. And Jesus said that, "If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love" (John 15:10). So, ultimately, the great potential of human experience is to abide in love and friendship. For me, this is the real heart of Christian spirituality.

The second reading was John 15:1-11 followed by a section from a handout Fr. Bill gave out dealing with reflecting skills, i.e., the restating and paraphrasing of both the feelings and the words of the speaker, which helps the speaker 'hear' their own thoughts and focus their ideas, lets them know you're trying your best to understand their message, and encourages them to continue talking. All in all, it was an interesting session; and while I'm not sure evangelization and leading small faith groups is my calling, I like the fellowship aspect of it, and think it'll be worth sticking around to see what I might learn.