Description: Be part of a scripture reflection group and take advantage of this opportunity for prayer, scripture study, and intimate faith sharing in a season that lends itself to deepening a spiritual practice.
Get Ready
- Prep Time: 30 minutes-one hour each week.
- Volunteers Needed: One planner/facilitator (though the group can rotate this responsibility). Optional: One volunteer to arrange/prepare the snack or light meal each week.
- Ideal Group Size: Five-10 people, including the facilitator.
- Who Is This For? All young adults can enjoy this program!
- Reserve the Space: Meet in a room that is large enough for your group to gather comfortably in a circle of chairs or around a table.
- Supplies: For each meeting, you will need a worksheet for each participant (see below), pens, and Bibles. Bring a candle or other focus image (maybe a sculpture of praying hands or a prayerful image) to create a more prayerful and reflective ambiance. Optional: Snack or food for a light meal (for example, soup and bread).
- Weekly Worksheet: Each week, the planner should create a worksheet to guide the group. For each week’s worksheet include Sunday’s Gospel passage (you can find those here) and questions to guide the group’s reflection. The questions can follow this basic format:
- What are the messages that you find in this passage?
- What characters in the gospel scene do you recognize as characters in your own life?
- How are the messages of this passage relevant to your life?
- What actions can you take, individually and as a community, to live out the messages of this gospel passage?
You might use these exact questions or add your own twist or original questions. If you choose to tailor the questions to the specific scripture passage from week to week, make sure that you leave them open-ended. The goal of the group is to generate personal and group reflection during the Lenten season. In other words, don’t force the conversation with “guiding questions.”
- When Is a Good Time? This program has been successful after Sunday liturgy as an extension of the scriptural reflection that happens during the liturgy.
Prayer for Program Planner: God of desert seasons, you call us to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during Lent season. Guide me as I guide others through the challenges of this desert so that we can walk together in your path.
Community Building: Provide a snack or light meal for participants to share as the program begins. This will create a sense of hospitality as you enter into a more intimate time of sharing together. Also, the facilitator should exemplify vulnerability and good listening skills throughout the gathering so as to exemplify the community ideals of interaction and support. In other words, the facilitator should do what he/she can to make the group a welcoming environment for all.
Make It Happen:
- Each gathering should be 45 minutes to one hour long.
- As participants arrive, invite them to enjoy a snack and socialize.
- Start the group with a brief prayer.
- Pass out the day’s worksheet.
- Ask a participant to read the gospel passage aloud.
- Read the questions aloud.
- Invite participants to spend 10-15 minutes reflecting on the passage and the questions individually, writing down responses to the questions on their worksheets. Also invite participants to utilize Bibles during this time if they would like to see the context of the passage or another translation.
- Invite participants to return to group discussion and share their reflections on each question. Let the group conversation move naturally from question to question, allowing conversation to flow into other areas if necessary. (If you choose to meet after a Sunday liturgy, consider connecting people’s comments and reflections to the homily.)
- At the end of your time together, try to summarize some of the conversation’s main points.
- Close with a brief prayer in thanksgiving for the conversation, also petitioning God for the strength and courage to make real the gospel message as the group moves out into the world and further into the Lenten season.
Ideas: Instead of preparing a weekly worksheet, write the scripture passage and reflection questions on large flip chart paper or a whiteboard. Invite people to bring their journals or a notebook for their answers/reflections.
Promote
- Mass is a great place to promote this program because it focuses on the gospel readings of the Lenten season.
- In the weeks approaching Lent, make bulletin and liturgy announcements inviting young adults to join the reflection group to supplement their liturgical engagement of scripture.
- Send out reminder e-mails about the small group each week, if there is a church or young adult e-mail list available.
- Send out reminders via Facebook and Twitter.
Help
- Find each Sunday’s gospel reading online.
- The planner/facilitator may want to refer to these scripture resources: The Five Gospel Parallels, Introductions to the Books of the Bible (click on the book, and then introduction) and the Center for Liturgy at St. Louis University.
- To give young adults a quick refresher on Lent, show them this 3-minute video.
