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Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Method: Spiritual Conversation in Small Groups


Spiritual conversation is an important form of group prayer. "Those who feared God spoke with one another, and God listened attentively (Malachai 3:16)." This conversation is deeply rooted in faith - humble, poor, open and willing to learn or to teach, to forgive and to be forgiven, to be loved and to love.


The following reminders facilitate the mode of expressing and listening:

  1. The major activity of any small group sharing is grateful listening.
  2. Every person is an expert on his or her own experience.
  3. Times of silence are very appropriate and needed.
  4. Confidentiality is important. No one should be "quoted" outside the group conversation.
  5. Participation in a small group is not a communal performance. Share what you can but not what you can't. Listening is an important form of participation. As you go around the circle if you choose not to share simply indicate this by saying: "I'll pass for now."
  6. Describe your experience, views, concerns, questions, etc., in a brief, clear manner. Small group interchange is not the place to homilize, monopolize, convert others to your point of view or continually "impose" your favorite topic or idea upon others. Make "I" statements not "we" statements.
  7. This is not the place for extended discussions, solving problems, rescuing, deciding, debating, interfering with another's contribution.
The prime purpose of our sharing is to listen to each other. We are not a study group or a discussion group, so we do not make judgements on each other's responses. Our purpose is to obtain a heightened awareness of our own experience of prayer through a comparison with the experience of the others in the group. We do this by listening to what the others found in their prayer. We are not to dominate the group's time. The emphasis should be on listening to and absorbing what has been said and then someone speaks.

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