Group Spiritual Companioning Outline and Helpful Information

Welcome to Group Spiritual Companioning through the Journey Group Program at the College of Saint Benedict.

You are invited to help create and nourish a distinctive space for yourself and others, an intentional and sacred space for attending to the presence of God in everyday life.  The purpose of the journey program sessions is to use the skills of spiritual companioning for supporting and challenging each member on her life journey.

We recommend meeting regular each month as well as following the outline as noted below to experience the full potential of the process.  With time and consistency your group will grow in trust, openness, and awareness.

Preparation

Each participant is invited to respond to the assigned reflection questions before the session.  Taking 15 to 20 minutes once or twice a week to reflect on the questions enhances the experience allowing the participant to be more present to and experience the journey in day to day life.

Environment:

The environment is as important to the process as is prayer, silence, and contemplative listening.  The proper seating and lighting allows for openness, sharing, and listening to flourish.

Seating
Use comfortable seating.  Begin by arranging the seating in a circle.  A circle encourages unity and allows all the group’s members to see one another, enhancing openness and respect.

Lighting
Dim the lights.  Light a candle.  Bright lights can take away from the experience.  A couple of table lamps set on a lower setting yet with enough light to read will provide ample ambiance for a quiet, contemplative setting.

The Skills:

The skills of Group Spiritual Companioning are Sharing, Listening, and Responding.  For information on these skills refer to the training section of your Group Spiritual Companioning Manual.  Mutual Invitation and Silence are also key to the process.  Before you begin here are some basic tidbits about Silence and Mutual Invitation.

Silence
Silence is a basic element of contemplative reflection.  Often, intentional silence is an unfamiliar concept for us and can seem uncomfortable at first, especially in our busy lives!  However, silence is a fundamental discernment tool that can help us increase our receptiveness to the “still, small voice within.”  Silence helps to quiet us and “hear with the ear of our heart” what Christ's Spirit may be telling us.  The greatest teacher is silence and encourages a calm that is a stabilizing force in whatever environment we may be in.

Discipline/Mutual Invitation - Listening, Sharing, and Responding
Mutual Invitation is another essential element of group spiritual companioning.  Our natural tendency is to want to discuss our lives with one another and to share our support through conversation.  One of the ways that group spiritual companioning is distinct from other group gatherings is that each person is invited to share without interruption.

As each participant shares, other group members practice contemplative listening:  attending to what the speaker is communicating (verbally and nonverbally) and to one’s own inner movements (feelings, thoughts, desires, images, physical reactions) that emerge as one listens.  The listeners will have an opportunity to respond to the person who is sharing only after the person sharing has completed.  The intention of responding is to help the person who is sharing go deeper and is not, for example, to offer an opinion, solve a problem, or ask a question out of curiosity, such as one does during a discussion.  After the member has shared and the explorative questions have been asked, the sharer then invites a member to share.  

For more information on the practice of Mutual Invitation see our webpage “Mutual Invitation” at http://www.csbsju.edu/journey/students/JourneyGroupMutualInvitation.htm

Outline of the Group Session

The Group Spiritual Companioning session lasts about 2 hours depending on the number of members in the group and the amount of sharing and responding that takes place during the session. 

Opening Ritual:  5 minutes

Focus: To invite participants to enter into a contemplative attitude.  To center and focus one's self to the process.

 Facilitators or student(s) will open the session with a prayer, reflection, scripture reading, or silence to help set the context and tone for listening to what God might be communicating.

Check-in Meal:  25-30 minutes

Focus: To briefly acquaint one another with key movements that have occurred in one’s life since the last meeting.

While eating, each member is invited to:

·         Respond to one of the questions listed on the handout “Examen of Consciousness”.  No responses are offered at this time; rather, a brief pause of silence marks the time before the next person shares.  As each person shares, the other group members are invited to listen openly and reflectively.

·         Casual conversation.  This can help people connect with each other before beginning to share.  This is especially helpful for energetic individuals or extraverts to help them quiet themselves in preparation for the session.

Session Theme Reflection:  2-3 minutes

Read the text for the session from the Group Spiritual Companioning Manual.  You may read all of the text, the italicized text, or the questions.  Ask each participant to spend a minute or two in silence reflecting on the message and its meaning in their lives.

Responding to the Theme (Sharing, Listening, and Responding):  70 minutes

Focus: To practice spiritual companioning skills, particularly contemplative listening and responding in order to support and challenge other group members on their life journey

Sharing:  Each participant is invited to respond to the assigned reflection questions by sharing an experience in his or her personal life and how the theme is reflected in the experience. (Each member shares for about 5 minutes)

Silence: A period of prayerful silence follows the speaker’s response. (about one minute). 

Listening:  Participants remain attentive to the person sharing.  Taking notes while listening can be a helpful tool for asking questions or an observation later in the responding

Responding Group Companioning:  (about 5 minutes) The other group members use spiritual companioning skills and invite the person who is sharing to go deeper by:

·         posing evocative questions (questions that encourage the sharer to enter more deeply into her experience).

·         noting observations (calling to the presenter’s attention a word or statement that seemed to be particularly salient; noting the presenter’s non-verbal cues as she spoke, etc.)

·         describing one’s own inner movements (feelings, thoughts, desires, images, physical reactions that emerged while listening)

·         Note:  the focus remains on the person who has shared, e.g. “When you said___.”  Or another appropriate response “it stirred___ within me”. Even a response such as “what does that speak to you?” could engage the person to explore more deeply.

Reflection:  A brief period of reflection follows the responding.  The reflection is to offer our prayer to the person who shared.  After the reflection the person who shared invites the next member to share.

Closing Ritual Silence/Intercessory Prayer:  5-10 minutes

Focus: To allow for closure to the contemplative group experience and to move the participants to care for the broader world.

Allow a few moments of silence so that each person can focus on one or two words in response to one of the following questions.  Each person briefly shares the word(s) that speak to her.

·         What am I feeling now?

·         What touched me?

·         What did I learn and notice about myself?

·         What do I carry away with me?

·         Is there any particular awareness or prayer that I take from our time together?  If so, what is it?

·         Is there any particular way I would like the group to pray for me?  If so, what is it?

After sharing the facilitator can add a brief prayer such as those listed below.

·         In the presence of God and one another, we pray for each other as a way to offer ourselves as part of God’s redemptive process

·         God, I pray that the reign of your love live in __ in the way you intend.

·         God, I pray the prayer you want for __.

·         God, I pray for the world that it may receive the gifts __ has to give to it.