In the January Commonweal, Katherine Kaveny has an article:
A Defense of Casuistry: Casuistry doesn’t have to be rigid.
I have written a reply to that article on the blog of the Cleveland Commonweal Local Community
Casuistry and Clericalism: A Reply to A Defense of Casuistry
in which I go deeper into the issue of confession as the origin of both casuistry and clericalism.
When I joined the Commonweal Local Community, I intended to participate in their meetings only until age eighty which happened last year. The community of about thirty members has ceased to meet since the pandemic began. I haven't received anything from anyone or Commonweal about plans to reactivate CLCs. Commonweal's new Executive Director was once the CLC person.
Now that I am eighty, I hope to activate my post-eighty plan which has been to invite people to my house for vespers and a discussion of a Commonweal article or two. So, I plan to go down the list inviting two or four people at a time to join Betty and I in a discussion of one or more of the articles I have posted on the CLC website.
I am posting this now in the hope that those of you who do not get Commonweal will not have exhausted your free five articles this early in the month.
It seems like causistry could be understood as legalism.
ReplyDeleteJust an observation of changes since the fourth Lateran Council, confession is only mandated once a year if one is in mortal sin. And the "Easter duty" is mandated, which would be Communion during the period between the first Sunday of Lent and Trinity Sunday. There is no longer any requirement to confess to one's pastor, it can be any priest with faculties.
As far as general absolution, it already exists to a degree; the penitential rite at Mass. One would still need to confess mortal sins.
It seems like the practice of sacramental confession as it has evolved is getting blamed for causistry and clericalism It seems to me that this is correlation rather than causation; legalism is pretty much a default setting for religion after a certain point.
As far as what the sacrament of Penance means in the present, there is a great deal of room for personal discernment. Some people don't make use of it at all. Others go to confession as an act of devotion, for the grace of the sacrament. I have heard it taught as an encounter with the Holy Spirit. Really, it's what we make of it.
ReplyDeleteOn a somewhat related subject, Cardinal MacElroy is getting raked over the coals pretty badly for suggesting that all sexual sins are not necessarily mortal sins. Which seems reasonable to me, otherwise it puts something like an impure thought on the same level as adultery.
Jack The second paragraph also underlines the practical problems of private confession, namely the competence of the priest as both judge and physician
ReplyDeleteThe church tries desperately to describe confession in positive terms - a source of grace, healing. However the real experience of confession of the vast majority of Catholics is not positive. When people have a positive experience they generally want to repeat it. The data tell the story of the reality of confession for most, and it’s not a good experience for most. Very little healing going on, and very little effective guidance based on deep insights. Few priests are “good” confessors. The church should drop the emphasis on individual confession to a priest and move to penance services (to help with examination of conscience) and general absolution. It should also work to develop a large group of well trained spiritual directors/ guides, especially lay people who live the same kind of life as everyone else, and encourage spiritual direction/ guidance instead of confession. The book of sins and penances should be trashed.
So, the issue of enumeration of particular sins needs to be faced. Is it that important?
Generally No - not important. Learning how to regularly examine one’s conscience is important l Spiritual guidance is important. It’s likely that fundamental weaknesses that lead to repeated “sins” would come out, and the in-depth conversations might help the person to understand his/ her behavior and lead to change. Sort of religious therapy. Once out of living situations that included pressure to go to confession (home, Catholic college) I believe I only went twice - in my 30s after marriage. Then I was reminded about what a waste of time it was and never returned. My closest friend (the one who may be in early Alzheimer’s) was my spiritual guide (and “confessor”, for all practical purposes) - far better than any priest. God does the forgiving part.
Some Catholics seem to believe that they should go to confession often to top up their tank of grace, like going to the gas station with the car. They also seem to believe that God’s grace isn’t accessible everywhere, at all times. Nor do they realize that God will hear their confessions and forgive. No intermediary needed. Those who see the mandating of confession as a tool of control are right in many ways.
Sadly, to continue the gas station analogy, many who regularly go to confession seem to think that grace comes in octanes - that some of God’s grace is better than the regular grace of God. So they recite the basically same list of transgressions every week or month to the same incompetent priests and remain stuck in a web of harmful behaviors.
Yes - there are a few exceptions to the essentially incompetent priests who hear confessions, but most priests should not be allowed to hear confessions.
I don't think the gas station analogy quite describes the mind of all people who go to confession. As I mentioned, some of us go as an act of devotion, and a way of working on one's faults. Similar to the Jesuit examen. Of course one could also do that without the sacrament of penance. Most of us know where the fault lines are in our characters. Confession is a way of admitting that we are still works in progress.
DeleteAs a young teenager I needed some help straightening out some messed up thinking, some scrupulosity, and I am grateful to a couple of priests who were able to point me in a better direction in confession.
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DeleteKatherine, note that I said “some” Catholics, not “all” go to confession to top up their reservoir of grace. Based on what I read online, way too many have this mindset. And a few priests may provide sound spiritual guidance, but very few.
DeleteThe church should teach examination of conscience better, perhaps using, or adapting, the Jesuit Examen. It should also point parishioners to spiritual guidance resources, including competent lay people. Some spiritual directors apparently limit their guidance to helping people with their prayer lives. That is good, but others are needed who could incorporate teaching directees how to examine their consciences thoroughly, who have the insights and skills to help people learn to see where they are hiding the truth about themselves from themselves, and provide guidance in learning how to catch themselves when they begin to slip into the same patterns. So some spiritual guidance combined with a bit of therapy perhaps. It’s hard to find this in a stranger. It’s really hard to find this in random celibate parish priests whose own lives are so very different from those of the parishioners. You have had positive experiences in confession. However that seems to be fairly rare experience. The repetitive recitation of the laundry lists of petty sins, followed by a penance of three Our Fathers or a rosary seems to be the standard.
Some years ago the pastor (now retired) of my second local Catholic parish put out a guide to examination of conscience. He did this because the Archdiocese puts out pamphlets for this every Advent and Lent that the parishes have to provide and refer to in announcements. They are pathetic. I don’t know if the current Cardinal uses the same one the Archdioceses used for years and years or if it’s been replaced. Anyway, the pastor wrote another guide to the examination of conscience, printed them up in another more comprehensive booklet, and placed them on the rack right next to the official archdiocesan pamphlets. His was so far superior for anyone over the age of 12 that they should have been the standard guide for the Archdiocese rather than available in only one parish. I don’t know f the current pastor of that parish uses the booklet written by the pastor of a dozen years ago. That pastor was a Vatican II pastor. The current is apparently a JOII/Benedict type, so he may be back to using only the official dioscesan guide. I’ll have to stop in when I’m passing that parish to see, since Lent was when they do the big push to confession. “The Light is On for You” annual program. They even plastered that on the sides of the metro buses a few years ago. I don’t know if they still do that.
I sure wish comments still had an edit capability.
DeleteMy closest friend (the one who may be in early Alzheimer’s) was my spiritual guide (and “confessor”, for all practical purposes) - far better than any priest.
ReplyDeleteThe practice of seeking out spiritual guidance from persons who are known for their wisdom and holiness is far older than the modern practice of confession of sins to a priest.
“Confessing” in this ancient tradition involved much more than listing faults.
Confiteror means “, to acknowledge, confess, own, avow (an error, mistake, or a fact previously denied or doubted, etc., implying a sacrifice of will or a change of conviction” So we can confess God’s great work in creation and in our lives if we have previously doubted them. Sometimes in the psalms this Latin word is simply translated as “praising God.”
When one went to a holy person for spiritual direction the purpose was to acknowledge one’s spiritual experiences in order to seek validation and guidance.
The church did not undertake any process to ordain or credential people to do this.
When Basil Pennington spent a year at Mt. Athos, the great complex of Orthodox Monasteries, he was preparing to be a novice master. However, the Orthodox did not understand the role of the novice master to be that of spiritual director. Spiritual director in the East is still freely chosen by each person because they believe the spiritual director has the qualities they are seeking. Agreeing to become a spiritual director of a particular person is considered to be a task that one should do in fear and trembling only after prayer and much discernment. It is considered a heavy burden rather that an honor.
I think there is great value in spiritual direction such as that found when making an individually directed retreat. However I have a lot of doubts about on-going spiritual direction. A renowned Jesuit spiritual director told me personally that he found many people became dependent upon their relationship to him. A psychologist friend said the same thing about psychotherapy. He called it the “silting effect.” While most of the people he met for therapy got help and moved on, there were people who kept coming back. His practice was beginning to be filled with the same people. The Jesuit director reported the same thing.
The dangers of private confession are not only incompetent and abusive priests but also spiritual dependency, feeling that one has to keep doing the same thing over and over again, or else feeling the need to talk to a particular person all the time about one’s spiritual progress.
In fact, becoming too concerned about one’s spiritual progress can become a problem. The one time I went for spiritual direction on a guided retreat, what I found was a profound experience of God’s presence in my life. It was like the transfiguration; but I realized I had to come down from the mountain. The women religious who gave the retreat told me that I did not really need spiritual direction, and that I did not need to ever make another retreat. I had received what I needed, the validation that God was at work in my life. I think she was worried I might fall into the wrong hands next time.
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DeleteJack, I agree with the most of your comments. I went to confession about two times after graduation from college. As I mentioned previously, the experience reminded me of why I had not gone to confession for more than a dozen years. So that was it fo confession even though I was still an active Catholic for another 25 or so years. I have never had a spiritual director, at least not an official one, nor have I ever gone on a retreat. If I ever go on a retreat it would probably be a silent retreat, without a spiritual director.
DeleteI generally turn to books for spiritual guidance. There are also many spiritual resources online. The Jesuits have a lot of them
I think Kaveny/Francis is saying that casuistry is simply applying a "penal code" with appropriate punishments after the fact of a sin, and that that does nothing to help the sinner avoid a pattern of sinning.
ReplyDeleteAlAnon, which I attended until after my mother died, seems to be a model that addresses patterns of "sins" in the way Kaveny's article suggests.
Embedded into the program is a "moral inventory and confession" that forces the participant to assess how dealing incorrectly with alcoholic family members has enabled addiction and damaged relationships. Apologies and atonement where possible are the next steps. You repeat these steps as often as you need to.
For all its flaws, AlAnon assumes that a) you will never be perfect, b) you need people to hold you accountable, and c) breaking dysfunctional behavior is a lifelong effort that requires humility (and humor).
I guess it's accompaniment. But I don't think there are anywhere near enough priests to provide this approach to helping sinners.
Jean
DeleteI think Kaveny/Francis is saying that casuistry is simply applying a "penal code" with appropriate punishments after the fact of a sin, and that that does nothing to help the sinner avoid a pattern of sinning.
That’s it in a nutshell.
Anne said:
ReplyDeleteI have never had a spiritual director, at least not an official one, nor have I ever gone on a retreat.
I generally turn to books for spiritual guidance. There are also many spiritual resources online. The Jesuits have a lot of them
Jean said:
I guess it's accompaniment. But I don't think there are anywhere near enough priests to provide this approach to helping sinners.
Jean said in a comment on books:
I'm pretty sure I could have read any religious narrative and got something from it. It was entirely what I made of Merton as a sounding board that was important.
Narratives (Bible, liturgical texts, books) Practices (worship, retreats, meetings, reading, prayer), spiritual leadership and spiritual discipleship (community) all play important roles in our lives. The average Christian, perhaps even more that the spiritual leader, needs to be aware of their interrelationships, especially now when there is a large supply of books and on-line resources.
Ignatius created the retreat (practices engaged with a spiritual leader with the focus on a narrative of the life of Christ) because he found it difficult to engage with other people without the common framework of the experiences that he had.
He instructed the guide to be brief in regard to the points about each episode in the life of Christ and leave the person who is making the exercises to be alone with God. The guide was not to encourage even positive things like a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, but rather was to listen carefully to the experiences of the person making the retreat in order to discover the presence of God in their lives.
While the personal experience of the Thirty Day retreat created community among Jesuits and their collaborators, there was no provision in the retreat structure for conversation over meals and group discussions even when retreats were given to large groups such as my novice class. In fact, total silence was considered essential to making the retreat. (We novices were given a break day between weeks where we all went on day long walks in groups of three. We were not encouraged to discuss our experiences.)
In his book American Grace, Robert Putnam did research as to why people who attended church regularly are far more likely to be healthier, happier, and give of their time and talents to others in both church and society. He found that although it was necessary to attend church (which provided a common narrative and practice) that was not sufficient. Only individuals who also had religious social networks composed of family, friends and small groups were healthier, happier and more loving of their neighbors.
Putnam demonstrated that simply knowing the narratives and engaging in the practice of worship was insufficient; it was like bowling alone. What you believed about loving others meant nothing in comparison to being with a personal religious network that tried to do this. If other people in that network were likely to give of their time and talent, so would you.
Yes, if we are to love God and our neighbor, reading books about religion and praying alone or going to Mass without engaging with others is only half the job.
DeleteChurches--doesn't matter what denomination--have their cliques and "cool kids." I have never had or been interested in acquiring the social capital to find a group.
Any "love your neighbor" work I may have done was with students, as senior project manager for younger workers, with individual friends and family, or with my cancer group.
I don't read many books about spirituality because it's abstract and theoretical, and I don't have much patience for that. Probably the reason I prefer memoir or hagiography that outlines what a holy life looks like.
Jack, why only religious networks? I know people who aren’t religious who develop strong support networks among those who share some other interest - hiking, or volunteer work, or pickleball (!), music - there are an endless number of possibilities for people to connect. Not just church. Not just religion.
DeleteSince Putnam’s work has obviously made a big impression on you, Jack, you may be interested To know that someone has made a documentary about him.
Deletehttps://religionnews.com/2023/03/02/documentary-on-robert-putnam-urges-americans-to-join-or-die/
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DeleteI don't define "spirituality."
DeleteI read "Cloister Walks." It was good. "Charming Billy" and "Are You Somebody?" were books that spoke specifically to the dysfunctionally religious Irish strain in my family.
I enjoyed Rumer Godden's nun books. I love Mark Salzman's "Lying Awake." I found "Silence" very profound. "Adam Bede" by George Eliot also had an affect on my early religious thinking. Have re-read all of these many times.
As far as I am concerned, Anne Lamott is a loathsome ghoul.
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DeleteYes, question mark about Anne Lamott? I have not read anything by her, but several (women) family members have said they like her books, and think I should read one. But I don't want to if she is loathsome.
DeleteKatherine, perhaps give her a try. She has a rather interesting conversion ( to Christianity) story, lived a rather unenviable life (raised by fairly uncaring parents - drug- addicted, Marin County atheist- intellectual- hippies - heavy use of alcohol, drugs, promiscuity, two pregnancies while single - abortion the first time, gave birth to the second, her son Sam, etc). She tells her stories with a lot of wry humor though, even though the reader does see the pain showing through also. Devout Catholics do not like that she is vocally pro- choice.
DeleteShe has deep faith, and her writing is as down to earth as it gets. Not to everyone’s taste, but I see nothing in her that is loathsome or ghoulish. Perhaps I’ve missed something which is why I hope that Jean explains.
I have not read "Adam Bede" by George Elliot, but I did like Silas Marner. I read Rumer Godden's nun books and liked her memoir of waiting out the war years in India.
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DeleteJack, why only religious networks?
DeleteWhile most social networks have positive effects upon health, happiness and giving, the effects of religious social networks have far stronger effects than most social networks.
Putnam does not speculate about why and admits the possibility that there might be some variable, other than religious attendance, that might help us local such networks.
My own speculation is anything that connects people to the transcendental (not necessarily a personal god or religion) both institutionally (narratives and practices) as well as interpersonally (friends who also experience the transcendental) might product similar results, e.g., people who experience music or art as a transcendental. It might be difficult to locate these people.
I’ve met very few weekly church attenders who experience religion in a transcendental way. But I do know people who experience music that way.
DeleteLamott offered to help a terminally ill friend die. This is not something a normal person does: Hey, I see you're terminal. I bet it's scary thinking about how awful the end will be! Want some help offing yourself? Cool! Then I'll write a sensational essay about how it all affected ME ME ME.
DeleteThe woman writes like a narcissistic drama addict. No topic is too trivial. If she runs out of abortions, drug parties, addictions, assisted suicides, or other people's catastrophes she's managed to crash, she'll tell you about her blonde dreadlocks.
She's made herself a millionaire by adding a flimsy layer of "what I learned spiritually" over reliving all this dreck.
Sorry, but I have a hard time respecting anyone who peddles her trash.
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DeleteThe suicide story has been widely covered, and garnered her lots of publicity and controversy. It was written back in 2006.
DeleteHere's a snip:
"One day over lunch, I told him that if he ever experienced too much pain or diminishment, I would try to help him die on his own terms, if he wanted.
"He was amazed, and so was I. I hadn’t particularly planned on offering this. I told him about the evening many years earlier when my brothers and I promised my father we would help him die if his brain cancer took him to a place that he could no longer endure. My father was relieved to the point of tears, but looking over the top of his Benjamin Franklins, he pointed at us sternly, and quoted Duke Ellington’s great song, Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me.
"We promised, but when he got to the point when we knew he would not want to be in that shape, he was no longer capable of making difficult decisions. Two months before he died, when he lay in a hospital bed in our one-room cabin in what amounted to a coma, my younger brother and I crushed up some barbiturates that his doctor had given him to help him sleep. But we couldn’t do it. We were too young."
I have no problem with hastening death in some circumstances if the patient makes that wish plain and brings it up himself. This set-up looks orchestrated to me.
Here's the rest. Judge for yourself: https://www.latimes.com/la-op-lamott25jun25-story.html
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DeleteRe: Jean's comment at 3:54, "She's made herself a millionaire by adding a flimsy layer of "what I learned spiritually". That kind of puts me in mind of the gal who wrote " Eat, Pray, Love", which I thought was pretty shallow. I didn't know about the euthanasia thing with Anne Lamont, nor about her views on abortion. That's kind of enough to make me give her books a pass. When I was young I would read anything and everything (and proceed to gripe about it if I didn't like it). But now I don't have enough time left, or enough patience, to sift through everything. Also I've gotten more picky in my old age.
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DeleteI am sorry to have upset you, Jean. The topic of assisted suicide can be dropped here..
DeleteLet me apologize for disrespecting Lamott fans. I have a strong visceral response to her for reasons I think are valid and insightful, but I make no claim to be an arbiter of anything but my own taste and opinions.
DeleteI am wary of spiritual writing, especially by people who have got rich off it.
I am done seeking and don't have a lot of patience with it.
You may be done seeking, but millions are not. Do they not have the right to seek until they are also done with it? Or are their doubts, questions, uncertainties unworthy of respect ful listening from those who don’t share them - those who are content in their religious certainties and dismissive of those who aren’t certain of anything related to God and the divine. Since I am a seeker, perhaps I should drop out of this group. Everyone else here is quite sure of what they believe, so I don’t fit in.
DeleteYour dislike of Lamott is completely understandable and I will be researching this incident before recommending her again. Unlike you, however, I don’t claim to understand her motives or the underlying reasons for them. I’m not prepared to judge her, even if it’s not something I would do. I find the issue of assisted suicide to be very complex.
Others certainly have a right, maybe a duty, to pursue their seeking. I am sorry if I seemed to say otherwise.
DeleteI am sorry that I am unnecessarily strident in my opinions.
I am sorry that in expressing my opinions I am often critical and divisive.
I am sorry that I give voice to prejudices that are grounded more in experience than larger understanding.
I am sorry I am resentful.
I am sorry I am not nicer.
Anne and Jean, both of you belong here. You may think the rest of us don't have doubts or issues to work through, but I assure you that's not the case, at least speaking personally. It would be very boring to exist in a bubble or silo, and never have any discussion of different points of view.
DeleteI am agree with Katherine, the diversity of viewpoints here is very important. You both belong.
DeletePerhaps what is more important the diversity of viewpoints has been accompanied by a lot of information, often things that I did not know.
DeleteI’ve never been able to get interested in the lives of (most) saints. They are too unlike me, and I can’t relate, so they don’t inspire me. Theology seems to be a lot of intellectualized musings in some ways. Defining the Divine is beyond human minds. So, down to earth spiritual writers (flimsy spirituality?) help to keep my minimal faith alive.
DeleteI mentioned once that I put the candle lights in the windows on the first Sunday of Advent. We put up the outdoor lights soon after. The imagery of light in the darkness is why the date of Jesus’s birth was put in December, rather than in spring, which is when the scriptures imply that he was born.
So I very much relate to this article
https://www.ncronline.org/spirituality/soul-seeing/we-ask-light-shine-darkness-when-we-cannot
I liked that article. Made me think of my mom, who always said, "I'll light a candle for you" if we were going through something difficult.
DeleteMy greatest experience of Christian community was in the voluntary parish ministry of a Catholic parish in Toledo. What made this experience particularly powerful was the diversity of talents, both spiritual and secular, among the members. There was a great diversity of spirituality which we shared by taking turns at leading the common prayer practice at the beginning of our biweekly staff meetings. Each person had complete freedom to use their own spirituality to shape that common prayer.
ReplyDeleteCatholics not only have the advantage of having a common Narrative and Practices (the Bible as shaped into the Liturgy of the Word and the Divine Office) we have through books and videos access to the great diversity of spirituality present both historically and current present especially in the religious orders. We should not be limiting our community to the pastor and the pastoral staff and maybe a few members of a discussion group.
Rather we should each be developing our personal religious networks composed of family members, friends, and participants in small groups. Putnam’s research makes it clear that the effectiveness of these religious networks does not depend upon how many are members of one’s congregation or denomination. The key issue was valuing religious experience even though it might be expressed in different narratives and practices.
In summary while it is important to have the large social structures that provide shared narratives and practices as a framework similar to the Ignatian retreat, it is even more important to have the smaller social structures of family. friends and small groups where we can share life’s experiences in the context of our relationships to the transcendent.
In both large structures and small structures, diversity of persons seems especially important. The more diversity of persons and experiences the better as long as there are some overarching narratives and practices that provide a framework for sharing.
What advice do you have, Jack, for those who no longer have such networks and have few opportunities to develop them? I simply can no longer participate in any small or large groups because of my hearing. Most of our longtime friends here in the DC area have either died or moved to Florida or somewhere else. Making new friends or developing new networks with people who share an interest is not always easy. Without books, without email, without a phone that streams conversations to my hearing aids I would be almost totally cut off from communicating with others or engaging in learning about new ideas in the larger world.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDeveloping religious networks among family is tough too, when most relatives have either left religion completely or succumbed to evangelical religion. Plus we are no longer comfortable with some people - family and friends- with whom we once spent time because they are MAGA. At best we now communicate with formal civility or via email about “ business”.
DeleteBTW - I mention my hearing loss as a major barrier to building new friendships and networks. But there are many kinds of barriers out there, especially for older, retired folk.
DeleteJack, fyi, we have a 2016 Honda HRV with 100k+ miles. I think you have a similar model to ours. Our transmission went out, but the dealership is fixing it free for vehicles purchased in the last 7 years.There is no recall as of now, but a service notice has been issued. Thought I would send you a heads up in case you experience problems. The dealership fix saved us a lot of $$.
ReplyDeleteI have a 2007 Honda CRV with 60,000 miles on it. Take it to the Honda Dealer regularly for oil changes and to be checked out. I look at the new CRVs and see no reason to trade mine for the latest.
DeleteI usually keep my cars for ten years. Since I no longer travel outside the Cleveland metropolitan area, I may keep this one for 20 years.
Betty has an Element which she dearly loves though it has a lot of problems. She mainly drives mine for the better heating and air-conditioning. But it is nice to have the back-up car so I have encouraged her to keep it.
Just thought I would pass along the info in case you had the same model and experienced trouble.
DeleteAnne askes how do we develop religious social networks. We need to cultivate an art and science of developing them before we can find solutions for particular persons.
ReplyDeletePutnam located religious social networks among family, friends, and small groups. While the congregations are where we find such networks, congregations do not give us families or chose our friends. They may be places where we find new friends. Putnam found that while two or three new friends are discovered within the first few years of being in a congregation, addition friends came only very slowly over many years. Putnam did not address the issue that friends are lost for many reasons, so the size of our networks increase only slowly if at all.
One way to develop personal religious social networks in congregations is through small groups.
RENEW is one such program widely used in Catholic parishes. It basically saw the parish as a community of communities. These groups encouraged Catholics to talk about their own religious experiences, something many Catholics had little experience in doing.
This model of faith sharing is basically therapeutic, people learn to accept themselves and others. The therapeutic model assumes an ideal state of health, people do things to obtain and maintain such a state. In practice for many people, it is a recovery model which assumes that one lives life with certain disabilities, the challenge is to manage them. The RENEW program emphasized process over content which meant people became bored after the initial year or two of getting to know one another.
There is ample warrant for this model in scripture and tradition. Jesus is the Divine Physician, healer of our souls. Pastors take care of souls. Religion is about salvation (Latin salve = health which was the common Roman greeting).
Not everyone is comfortable with this model. I offered a group called RENEW for music lovers. It attracted people who preferred a more positive model of faith-sharing and did not particularly want to hear about other people's problems.
BIBLE STUDY is another program which uses small groups. While faith sharing around the bible may develop into therapy, the basic model is educational. The assumption is the Bible is an endless source of wisdom. The anthropology is that we are disciples on the way accompanying one another to lasting human development.
There is ample warrant for this model in scripture and tradition. Jesus is the Divine teacher forming his group of disciples, Benedictines saw themselves as schools of wisdom formed about an abbot as teacher.
The main weakness in Bible Study is that it is all up to the participants as to how much they focus upon real life issues either in their personal lives or in the world around us. It can become too intellectual.
Both therapeutic and educational groups can lead to close friendships. While many of my friendships have formed around shared intellectual interests, I find people are also attracted to me because I am a good listener even if they first perceive me as too intellectual.
Ministry groups may also be sources of lasting friendships. Some however, like choirs, may be too large. A music ensemble may work better. My friendships with choir members have tended to be with those who are already my friends from small groups.
ReplyDeleteMinistry groups depend very strongly upon what is happening in a parish. The voluntary pastoral staff of which I was a member, formed a lasting impression on me even though it lasted for only four years. I might have been able to continue some of those relationships if I had not moved out of the parish or if I had invited some members of that staff to my house, which was in a neighboring parish.
One lesson learned from parish small groups is that those which meet in one’s home are more likely to lead to long term friendships than those meet in other people’s homes or on parish property. Whether or not parish groups continue to exist depends upon a whole host of factors in the parish. In the case of home meetings, the group can choose to continue. Many groups do want to continue but often lack the leadership to do so. My liturgical music collection made a strong impression on group members who met in my home. It was a strong incentive for people to continue to meet.
We can form small groups outside parish structures. That is a whole different ball game. I will have more to say about that in a comment later on today or tomorrow.