My Relationship With God (1)

Introduction & Welcome (1 min.)

I. Opening Prayer (5 min.)

Grace: To identify our past experiences of God and our Church

Use the grace or a suggested scripture above to create your own prayer, or use the prayer below. After reading the scripture above, say:

Almighty God, we thank you for gathering us tonight. As we begin the new quarter, help us to continue to focus on you and take advantage of what CLC offers. Just as you have challenged the young man to grow deeper in relationship with you by going beyond following the Ten Commandments, please grant us the grace to grow deeper in relationship with you and one another in this quarter. Amen.

II. Check-In (5 min.)

• What were some of your high and low points of the week?

III. Focus Exercise (40 min.)

Materials Needed: CLC Journal booklets, papers, markers, instrumental music, My Faith Journey (in journal booklet)

Introduction

Tonight, we are going to reflect upon our experiences of God since our birth up to now. Like human relationships, we have many experiences of God that are both good and challenging. Sometimes they were wonderful—full of laughter and joy. We experience God’s love through our family and friends. We get along and love our families. We do well in school. We enjoy engaging in our church community: going through religious or bible studies, receiving first communion and confirmation, going on retreats, volunteering in soup kitchens, and so on.

Other times, we experience God as absolutely silent or absent. God seems not to care for what was going on in our lives. Some of our families might have experienced divorce or separation. Some of us might have difficult times in school. Some of us might struggle with our church community. Some of us might experience depression and feeling lost and confused when we go to college. Whatever our experiences were, we want to honor all of them because they already happened and became part of us. Like human relationships, we want to learn from them and see where we want to go from here.

Exercise: My Faith Journey (30 min.)

Invite members to pray with “My Faith Journey” in their journal booklets. Provide papers and markers for them to illustrate. Give them about 10-15 minutes to pray. You may play some instrumental music during the prayer.

Sharing

Invite members to share. (Note: Don’t rush them because you have 2 or 3 meetings for the sharing.)

The following questions might be helpful during the conversation.

• What were some of your feelings and thoughts throughout the prayer period?
• Was there anything that surprised you?
• Do you see any patterns in how you experience God?

Listening Deeper

• What has struck you as you have been listening to others share? Do you notice any patterns or commonalities?
• How have you been feeling throughout the meeting? Comfortable? Anxious? Curious?
• Is there anything you would like to share after listening to another person share?

IV. Moving Forward (5 min.)

• Wrap-Up: Thank members for their openness and participation. Tell them that we are going to do a longer version of Spiritual Autobiography in our junior or senior year.
• Action:
  1. Encourage members to pay attention to how they experience God and pray with the question, “What would I like to see in my relationship with God by the end of this year?” “Do I have any concrete habits or actions to work on in my relationship with God?” (see CLC habits)
  2. Share with your prayer partner.
• Announcements: Topic for next meeting and upcoming CLC events

NOTE TO COORDINATOR

Look ahead to meeting #5 (My Hands, God’s Hands). Perhaps start asking the group to think about what they would like to do for this meeting focused on service (i.e. When would everyone be able to go? Where would they like to go? The CLC service site or somewhere else? Would they like to team-up with another group?)

V. Closing Prayer (5 min.)

Invite members to lift up their hopes for their relationships with God before or after reading the poem/prayer.