STAGE I: Our journey in life, is it a Wisdom journey? 2nd MEETING

 STAGE I:  Our journey in life, is it a Wisdom journey?

 2nd MEETING

TITLE OF THE MEETING: 

 Our journey in life, journey of faith // LET US LIVE

1.Welcome Review and link with last session

Sharing on the exercise of the tree 

  2. Theme of meeting:

Find a picture, symbol, saying, or proverb to express what I can say about my faith today?

 

Read Psalm 106 Relationship of God with His people, 

 

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the LORD or fully    declare his praise?
Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right.

Remember me, Lord, when you show favour to your people, come to my aid when you save them,
that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen ones,
that I may share in the joy of your nation and join your inheritance in giving praise.

  

Share on a moment in my life when I called out to God.  Did God answer me?  How?

3. Time for quiet prayer and reflection: 

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the    Jordan to enter and possess.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

LEW 65, 66: Wisdom wants us and looks for us

65        This supremely beautiful and attractive personage desires our human friendship so ardently that she deliberately wrote a book to

attract us. In this work she unveils for us not only her qualities but also her heartfelt desire for us. Her book is like a love letter designed to win the affection of the beloved of her soul.  

So urgent are Wisdom's desires for the hearts of humans, so tender are her advances, so loving are her      appeals and promises, that to hear Wisdom speak you would not think she was the queen of heaven and earth, but rather you might imagine that she needed humans in order to be happy herself. That, however, is not the case.

66        At times she seeks humans on the highways and byways; at other times she climbs the mountain peaks; sometimes she comes to the city gates; or else she enters the marketplaces or the courts, crying out as loudly as possible: O you humans, you children of humankind! It is you I have been calling to for so long! To you I lift my voice; you are my desire; it is you I seek; it is you whom I claim for my own. Listen and come to me; I want to make you happy.

True Devotion 214: participation in Mary’s faith 

 

Our Blessed Lady will give you also a portion of her faith, which was the greatest of all faiths that ever were on earth, Nevertheless, with the consent of the Most High, in entering into glory she has not lost her faith. She has kept it, in order that she may keep it for her faithful servants. The more, then, you gain the  favour of that august Princess and faithful Virgin, the more will you go by pure faith in all your conduct; a pure faith which will make you hardly care at all about the sensible and the extraordinary; a lively faith animated by charity, which will enable you to perform all your actions from the motive of pure love; a faith firm and immovable as a rock, through which you will rest quiet and constant in the midst of storms and hurricanes; a faith active and piercing, which, like a mysterious pass-key, will give you entrance into all the mysteries of Jesus, and into the Heart of God; a courageous faith, which will enable you to undertake and carry out without hesitation great things for God; lastly, a faith which will be your blazing torch, your divine life, your hidden treasure of divine wisdom,  which you will use to enlighten others... 

 

Meditate on one or other of the texts above. Say a thanksgiving prayer for the ground already covered and recognised with God. You could take Psalm 106 again which expresses our trust in God.

Then confide to Him all our requests to progress in knowledge of Him.

 

 4. Going further: time to integrate

Go over my day (c.f. grid) and be particularly attentive to the way in which I hear the invitation of God and my response (1^st element of the identity of the Friends of Wisdom).  With whom have I already responded?  

DAILY PERSONAL INTEGRATION EXERCISE

 

Goal

· To seek and contemplate Wisdom at work in our lives

· To develop a habitually contemplative way of seeing things and a discerning heart in the events of everyday life. 

 

Steps of the Process (in a prayerful atmosphere):

à I take time to place myself in Wisdom’s presence. I place myself in the hands of Mary and pray for the light of the Holy Spirit.

à I accept everything that has happened today as a gift from Jesus, Incarnate Wisdom. I give him thanks for the gift and for who He has been for me today. I thank him also for all that he has revealed to me in the simple events of this day.

à In my memory I relive what has happened today,  allowing the film of today’s events to unwind spontaneously in my head.

à I welcome whatever feelings rise up spontaneously in me, recognizing what I find delightful, what energizes me, what is upsetting to me, what I find painful…

à What responses have I given as Wisdom has passed through my day?

At the end, I note down what I have discovered within myself.