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Perspectives on Prayer - Session 3 PDF Print E-mail
Silence in Groups

Session 3: Images of God

N.B. Have to hand a colour magazine for each person plus one or two extras.

Starting Prayer (5 Minutes)

Design this as you wish.

Reflection on Our Experience (15 minutes)

As a child, how did you think of God?.Make a drawing and put yourself in the picture too.It can be done sketchilyand, for best effect, can be done without too much consideration.Does your drawing express anything of what you felt about God or yourself at that time?

Now take a colour magazine.Hold in your mind and heart the question “Who is God for me today?” and tear out anything from the magazine which seems to you to be part of the answer.It might be an image, a word, a splash of a particular colour.Tear things out of the magazine quite freely, and without too much consideration – there is no time to read the small print!!

After 10 minutes or so stop tearing, and arrange the various pieces of paper in a collage on the floor.Arrange them in any way which make sense to you.A beautiful arrangement is not the point of the exercise.You may want to put some bits out of sight.

When you have arranged it to your satisfaction, dwell with it quietly for a few moments.During this time, new meanings may begin to emerge; you may find that you chose a piece of it for one reason, but now something else about that piece occurs to you.

Remember – “no praise, no blame, it just is so.”You do not have to share everything about why you chose your pieces.

Sharing (allow 15 minutes)

Work in pairs, each sharing what you wish about your collage.Decide how much you feel comfortable with sharing.

Notice what you have chosen not to share.Pause for reflection; is it possible for you to “tell God the way it is?”If not, do you have a sense of why this might be so?

Experience from the Church (10 minutes)

The Christian faith community has called God by many names and described God in very many ways to take account of their vast and varied experiences of Him.

A group was asked to work from memory to make a list of 25 names for God and 25 words which describe God – all of which had to be found in the Bible.They came up with:

NAMES FOR GOD :

SPIRIT CREATOR BREAD REDEEMER WATER
FRIEND HOLY ONE ROCK LOVE STRENGTH
WAY VINE COUNSELLOR RESURRECTION SERVANT
LAW GIVER LIFE I AM FIRE HEALER JUDGE TRUTH EMMANUEL DOOR HUSBAND

Work together to add any more of your own to this list.

WORDS TO DESCRIBE GOD:

MERCIFUL SUFFERING HOLY STEADFAST TRUE ANGRY RIGHTEOUSF ORGIVING STRONG LIVINGH IDDEN ALL-KNOWING POWERFUL COMPASSIONATE ETERNAL HIGH FAITHFULL DEVOURING

MIGHTY GOOD TENDER EVERLASTING WONDERFUL TERRIBLE REDEEMING

Work together to add to these lists other names for God and words to describe God.

Then on your own look again at your collage and choose just two words, one from each set, which most closely expresses who God is for you today.

Go round the group allowing everyone to say which two words they have chosen (without explanation) if they wish to do so; anyone can “pass”.

Then talk together generally, perhaps about the process people went through to make their choice of two words. (15 minutes)

New Directions

 

Someone reads through the following short quotes.They come from the experience of the Christian faith community after bible times.Watch for the way in which the person writing has experienced God.

Praise to my Lord for Sister Water Be;
Most useful, humble, precious, chaste is she.
Praise to my Lord for Brother Fire, so bright;
By whom thou dost illuminate the night;
For he is lively, and most beautiful;
And most robust withal and powerful.
Praise be my Lord and God for Mother Earth,
Who governs and sustains us; who gives birth
To all the many fruits and herbs that be;
And coloured flowers in rich variety.
Praise be my Lord for those who pardon wrong
For love of Thee; enduring sorrow long;
Bearing their woes in peace – blessed are they!
(from the opening poem; CanticlesSt Francis 13C)

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The human mother will suckle her child with her own milk, but our beloved Mother Jesus feeds us with himself, and with the most tender courtesy does it by means of the Blessed Sacrament, the precious food of all true life…The human mother may put her child tenderly to her breast, but our tender Mother Jesus simply leads us into his blessed breast through His open side… (Mother Julian 14C)

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Lead Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, lead Thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on.
Keep Thou my feet; I do no ask to see the distant scene;
one step enough for me.
(Hymn – Newman 19C)

When I needed a neighbour were You there, were You there?
When I needed a neighbour, were You there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter were You there?
(Contemporary hymn)

Talk together about these further ways of meeting God and how they fit with your earlier work.(10 minutes)

Ending Prayer (10 minutes)

Return to the prayer focus.You might find it helpful to attend to the living flame of the candle and recall the striking image that Jesus uses “I am the Light of the World”.After a minute or so, if you find it helpful, close your eyes, take your attention within, and imagine an image of the flame inside your heart.Spend a few further minutes praying silently “Kindle a flame of sacred love, on the mean altar of my heart” if you find it helpful.

Towards the end of this time, people could be invited to speak into the silence a short bit from a favourite hymn, a simple thought, or anything else.

End by saying together the Lords Prayer and the Grace, or another suitable prayer.

Between meetings

During the week try to linger with those moments when you get a flashback to the work of this meeting.What was it that activated the memory… a situation… a daydream… a person… a time of prayer… an image… or… ??

In your private journal as you record your ongoing reflections and connections you may make to the work of this course in the time between meetings, you might like to make jottings of other striking images of God in your church worship, in the hymns or in things you read.Look out for artists’ work as well… a drawing… a sculpture…