STAGE I: Our journey in life, is it a Wisdom journey? 5th MEETING

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

5th MEETING

TITLE OF THE MEETING: Evaluation of Stage I

1. Welcome: Take time to greet one another.

2. Review A time of group sharing using the following grid.

Grid to Re read the Experience

During the first stage of our programme, we have discovered where we are in our journey of faith.

It is good now to look at this programme, to see what we have received to nourish our journey as a Friend of Wisdom.

A) How, during this stage, have I listened to and heard the invitation from God to me? Through the sharing of the members? Through the way the group lived and the place where I found myself? (listening attentively, taking the Word, initiatives?) Through one or other of the Bible texts that spoke to me.

B) Do I want to respond to Him? What have I discovered in the relationship of Jesus with me and I with Him?

C) How can I grow in my search to know and follow Jesus wisdom? What did I discover which will help me to grow in my faith? Which attitudes of Mary help me? How can Mary help me on this journey?

D). Since the International Meeting of 2008, the Friends of Wisdom have recognised “to hear the invitation of Wisdom” as a determining element of identity. How does it strike me or question me?

3. Quiet prayer and reflection

Prayer using Proverbs 8

Does not wisdom call out?

Does not understanding raise her voice?
At the highest point along the way,
where the paths meet, she takes her stand;

beside the gate leading into the city,

    at the entrance, she cries aloud:
“To you, O people, I call out;
    I raise my voice to all humankind.
You who are simple, gain prudence;
    you who are foolish, set your hearts on it.
Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say;
    I open my lips to speak what is right.
My mouth speaks what is true,
    for my lips detest wickedness.
All the words of my mouth are just;
    none of them is crooked or perverse.
To the discerning all of them are right;
    they are upright to those who have found knowledge.
Choose my instruction instead of silver,
    knowledge rather than choice gold,
for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
    and nothing you desire can compare with her.

Give thanks for the way in which God looks for and calls humanity, in which God looks for and calls me.

Love of Eternal Wisdom 64-66

64 There is a bond of intimacy between humankind and Wisdom that is so deep that it is absolutely beyond human understanding: Wisdom exists for each one of us; and each one of us exists for Wisdom. “Wisdom is an infinite treasure for humankind” (Ws 7:14) in ways that are not so evident for angels or other creatures. This friendship of Wisdom for humanity is based on the fact that by their very creation humans sum up in themselves all her marvellous qualities. A human being reflects the ‘big world’ or universal dimension of Wisdom by being her living image; at the same time every human person is, in a sense, a ‘little world’ of Wisdom, her representative here on earth. Out of her great love for humanity, she took on our human nature by becoming incarnate and she even delivered herself up to death for the salvation of mere human beings. Thus, she shows how deeply she loves each human being as her brother or sister, as her friend, her disciple, her pupil, the gift won by her blood sacrifice, and the co-heir of her kingdom. So true is this that whenever one refuses her love or snatches from her the heart of any human being, she feels it as an immeasurable violence done to herself.

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 market places 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; (Pr 8: 4) 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.