Becoming Community

Becoming Community is year one of a five-year intergenerational program. Sessions within the program can be used independently from the whole. This year's sessions focus on revelation: the ways in which God "speaks" to us, and the God who is revealed. Each session includes a Background page for facilitators and a Take Home sheet for participants.

Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Year-long Program The entire collection of sessions for year one of FIRE: Becoming Community. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Covenant & Naming The aim of this session is to enable the group to look at the factors needed to become a community, and to commit itself to these conditions. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Communication The purpose of this session is to investigate the many ways we communicate with one another, and to practice our listening skills. Participants will look at the many ways in which God communicates with us, as well as address our difficulty in receiving that communication. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Prophecy We are all called in baptism to be prophets. But what does that mean? In this session participants will experience what it might feel like to be called to respond as a prophet to unjust situations present around us. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Jeremiah Jeremiah's message was one of repentance. He used many images to help the people picture how they were called to respond to God. In this session participants will explore the image of the potter and the clay and think about what it means to be clay in God's hands. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Ezekiel In this session participants will celebrate reconciliation. The hope is that participants will come to see how their hearts have been hardened, and to accept the new hearts that God wishes to give them. This session requires clay hearts. Instructions for making these hearts can be found in "Becoming Community: Jeremiah." • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Isaiah In this session participants will look at the signs of our times as Jeremiah & Ezekiel might have read them. Isaiah offers another message, one of comfort & hope. Participants will discover how the messianic poems in Isaiah were developed. Rather than reading them as a foretelling of the future, they will be understood as the celebration of the hopes of a people. This session refers to two other sessions - "Becoming Community: Jeremiah" and "Becoming Community: Ezekiel." • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE John the Baptist The purpose of this session is to deepen participants' understanding of the person and mission of John the Baptist. Unique among the prophets, he was called both to tell it like it is and like it could be. He prepared the way for Jesus, as each of us is called to prepare the reign of God. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Jesus as Human Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophets, the Word spoken by God. Because we know Jesus is God, we have difficulty understanding why the people of his day rejected him. In this session participants will experience Jesus as the people of his day might have experienced him. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Jesus the Affirmer In this session participants will experience the manner in which Jesus loved the people he met and the way he called them to greatness. Participants will do the same for one another. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Parables In this session participants will see the full strength of Jesus' stories. We will translate the parables into our own everyday life to become more acquainted with them and allow ourselves to be touched more deeply by them. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Jesus Taught Us to Pray Jesus came as the Word of God. Not only did he speak God the Father's Word to us, he taught us a way to speak to God. People were praying for centuries before Jesus came. People pray today who have never been taught. Jesus' teaching on prayer did not make prayer possible; it made prayer simple. Participants will experience how directions can make a difficult task simple. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Eucharist In this session participants will experience how Eucharist is a type of family reunion. We will focus on the importance of Jesus' command to remember him. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Calvary Walk The purpose of this experience is to enable all of us to realize that Jesus not only suffered and died in Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago, but that he continues to suffer and die in all the people suffering in our world today. It also hopes to familiarize participants with the ancient Catholic devotion of "Stations of the Cross." • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE Resurrection In this session participants will be able to recognize the deaths and resurrections in the ordinary moments of life, and to deal with the feelings that accompany them. This session is lengthy but can be split into two sessions if necessary. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE The Coming of the Spirit In this session participants will experience the first Pentecost. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE How Do We Know the Spirit? The Spirit cannot be seen or heard in the ordinary sense of those words. We experience the Spirit through what the Spirit does in our lives. In this session participants will compare their experiences of the Spirit with their experience of air. • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all
Inter generational Session	Becoming Community • FIRE The Reign of God In this session participants will explore the Beatitudes as actions that bring about the reign of God. This session refers to another session entitled "Becoming Community: Isaiah" as well as boxes from "Becoming Community: How Do We Know the Spirit?" • By Kathleen O'Connell Chesto		View all

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