One of my volunteer gigs is facilitating for a spirituality study group at my church. We meet on Wednesday mornings to read and discuss a book on a spiritual topic. After a summer break, we met for the first time this part week to begin reading Between the Dark and the Daylight by Joan Chittister.
The subtitle of the the book is Embracing the Contradictions of Life. We all feel that we need help with this!
Sister Joan begins by explaining that life is full of paradoxes and then illustrates the point through a series of relatively short chapters, with titles like “The Poverty of Plenty” and “The Sanity of Irrationality” and “The Certitude of Doubt”. Not that I have read the whole book yet. I like to keep a bit ahead of the group so that I am prepared to lead discussion, but I don’t like to be so far ahead that I am throwing in concepts from later chapters before we get to them.
It is a bit odd that I am facilitating the group because I am its junior member. OK – in most contexts I am not considered a “junior” but, at 54, I am the youngest. Many of the women – and we are all women, even though, theoretically, a man could choose to attend – have children in my age cohort.
I wound up doing it because the IHM sister who began the group decades ago needed to move on to some other duties and asked me to take it on. Do you know how difficult it is to say no to a sister when she asks you to do something for the parish? So I said yes, even though I didn’t feel qualified. Part of what makes it work is that I facilitate discussion rather than try to teach. The wisdom of the authors of the books we read plus the wisdom of the group carries us through.
It’s enlightening.
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. The prompt this week was “light.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/09/04/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-515/
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Joanne Corey 
Good post JC and fun to try to be junior again.
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Thanks, Irene! It’s funny because the other women tend to think of me as a kid, but are finally coming to realize that I and their children have been adults for a long time.
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One time a parent – always parent.
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Definitely! I do try to treat my twenty-something daughters as adults, though… 😉
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Doing what you can to be enlightened is always an exciting process…
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True. Our group agrees that our discussion and sharing together help us reach deeper levels of understanding than just reading our books, as wonderful as they are, in isolation.
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Reblogged this on oshriradhekrishnabole.
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Thanks so much!
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Welcome..Namaste
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Contradictions=irony. Life is full of both and the same and though it can get a little tedious it still amazes me and makes me smile. (Always in retrospect though.) You have passion for what you learn and teach so its not surprising that that you are leading group discussions. Like anything the more you “feel” it the easier it is to share it.
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Smiling always helps! I do enjoy learning and growing and sharing. It is nice to have the opportunity. Thanks so much for reading and commenting.
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It sounds like a wonderful group! You’re very lucky to have a community with common interests. 🙂
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It is very important to us to have that sense of community support and sharing. Our group is the old-fashioned, low-tech type.
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Best kind. 🙂
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