Description: Throughout four gatherings during Lent, participants watch Henri Nouwen’s “Becoming the Beloved” sermon, explore the theme of becoming the beloved, and reflect on their relationship with self, God, and others.
Get Ready
- Prep Time: Up to three hours to organize and publicize the program. Up to one hour each week prior to the program (or as long as it takes) for the facilitator to become familiar and comfortable with the materials (See the “Recommends” section).
- Volunteers Needed: One young adult facilitator per small group of three-nine participants. One volunteer host (if you have this program in someone’s home). The host might be a different person than the facilitator. You might also want to arrange for childcare in order for parents of young children to participate.
- Ideal Group Size: The ideal size for a small faith-sharing group ranges from four-10 (including the facilitator). If more people are interested, consider asking someone to facilitate a second group.
- Who is this for? Appropriate for young adults in various stages of life.
- How long is this program? One hour-90 minutes for each faith-sharing group.
- Reserve the Space: It is ideal to host these programs in someone’s home. If that isn’t convenient, you could reserve a space at your church for the expected size of the group.
- Supplies: Laptop, external speakers, or possibly another device to show the YouTube videos featured in this program (see “Recommends” section for links); Bible; a loaf of bread for sharing (weeks one and four); copies of each week’s handouts for the group (see “Recommends” section below); and food for a light meal for week one (order pizza, serve soup and fruit, or invite young adults to bring a dish to share). Invite participants to bring their own personal journals each week. Provide some blank paper and pens in case someone forgets. (Note: You might serve light refreshments at every gathering. Consider the timing of your gatherings — If they are scheduled over/near a mealtime, offer some food to make attendance more appealing.)
- Ideal Time: Begin the faith sharing groups during one of the first few weeks of Lent. The program can be scheduled at a time convenient for the facilitator and participants, possibly a weekday evening.
- Publicize the Program:
- Contact your parish secretary for permission to invite folks from the pulpit during Mass and stand at a sign-up table after Mass to answer questions and welcome people.
- Ask the director of faith formation at your parish for contact information of young adults in the parish: catechists, parents of children in any faith formation programs, and those who have recently been married or had their child baptized in your church. Reach out to these people with an invitation to be part of the Lenten faith-sharing group.
- Ask for permission to post a flyer at local coffee shops or gyms.
- If you are able to offer childcare at the time of this event, advertise that with information about the Lenten faith-sharing group.
- Personally invite people, including your friends, using Facebook and e-mail.
Prayer for Program Planner: I am the beloved (daughter or son) of God. I am not what I do. I am not what I have. I am not what others think of me. I am beloved. Amen.
Community Building: This program builds community through weekly faith sharing. Some ways to help make this community building more social:
- Invite small groups to meet each other for dinner or drinks one additional time (this is also a great way to break the ice if people don’t already know each other).
- Get to know your community mates, and encourage them to do the same!
- From the outset, emphasize confidentiality and that the community is intended to be a safe place.
- Please respect timeliness! It’s important to not keep folks over time without discussing it first. At your first meeting, you might want to set both a start and end time. Meeting length can be adjusted as needed after the first gathering.
- If interesting events pop up, feel free to share them with the group.
Make It Happen
- Read this Introduction from the Romero Center to help you facilitate each week’s faith-sharing group. Review each week’s handouts (see “Recommends” section) in advance to familiarize yourself with the flow of the gathering.
- At the start of the first faith-sharing group, welcome all participants and share how excited you are that you’ll be walking together on your journeys through Lent. If you don’t know who the participants are, be sure to introduce yourself to them.
- Reassure them that anything shared in the group will remain confidential, and that everyone is invited to share as much as they feel comfortable sharing.
- Share the arch of the four weeks, both in terms of content and format. We will meditate on the movements of the Eucharistic Feast.
- Introduce CRS Rice Bowl. Because the community that we form here is not isolated but participating in the world in many different ways, CRS Rice Bowl is offered as a way to expand the reach and depth of the life of this small community. Encourage young adults to make CRS Rice Bowl part of their Lenten practice.
- Tell young adults that they can expect each session to run between one hour-90 minutes.
- Explain the focus of the particular week.
- Continue to follow the handout for the week, which includes links to YouTube videos of Henry Nouwen’s sermon, which you will discuss (also see “Recommends” for links).
- Share the Weekly Guide (see “Recommends” section) with young adults and remind them of the ways they can take a deeper look at their spiritual lives during the Lenten season.
Ideas
- Diocesan or parish leaders might organize multiple faith-sharing groups:
- Personally invite young adults leaders to serve as facilitators of a small group.
- Invite the facilitators to decide where and when they would like to have their meetings (e.g. at a coffee shop Tuesday evenings, starting the second Tuesday of Lent; at their home Wednesday evenings, starting the first Wednesday of Lent.)
- Set up a meeting with the facilitators before the first group is scheduled to meet to: Give them copies of the Introduction and weekly handouts (see “Recommends” section). Walk through the program and work with them to prepare for leading a small group.
- Create a Facebook group for facilitators to encourage sharing of ideas and resources. Facebook can also be used to create and promote upcoming events.
- Use Google forms and embed a sign-up form on your website’s home page or link to a sign-up form from Facebook. Here’s information from Google on how to create a form.
Recommends
- Introduction to “Becoming the Beloved” for facilitators
- Week One Handout for facilitator and participants
- Week Two Handout for facilitator and participants
- Week Three Handout for facilitator and participants
- Week Four Handout for facilitator and participants
- Weekly Guide for facilitator and participants
- Links to Henry Nouwen’s “Becoming the Beloved”
- Week One (STOP after five minutes)
- Week Two (same video as last week — START at five minute mark)
- Week Three
- Week Four
