Greetings, introductions, and overview
Opening prayer
Prayer for this New Beginning
Spirit of God, fill our hearts with a desire to seek truth and rejoice in beauty.
Help us to know what is pleasing to you
and to understand what is right and good in your sight.
Give us the spirit of learning that we may please you
by our thoughts and love you in your creation.
Give us your constant encouragement and guide us in this good work.
Spirit of God, make us effective witnesses of your truth
to all whose lives we touch.
We ask all of this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
Amen
Issue Identification Process Overview
Clarifications
Issue identification
Issue selection
The situation
What do you think are the two or three root causes of the current situation?
Are their regulations, policies, practices that affect this?
How does this situation and its causes affect people, their relationships, their environment?
Are people being denied basic rights?
What is not known about the situation that should be understood?
Who might be considered poor and vulnerable in this situation?
Reflection
What is God saying about Gods-self and this issue?
How does Catholic social teaching illuminate the issue?
Discernment
Personal Action
Collective Action
Closing prayer
Blessings of Seeds
Dear Lord, You are wonderful in everything you do. In marvelous ways You take the full, rich life of the plant and carefully fold it into tiny seeds. You form the seeds according to many different shapes and sizes and colors, so that we can know what kind of growth will come of them. When they are placed in the earth they may look dry and dead, but when they are watered by the life-giving rain and nourished by the warm sun, they lose their lifeless look and grow in an almost miraculous manner. By the power You gave them, they take the dead minerals of the earth and build up the nourishing, tasty foods that are needed to sustain our lives.
These seeds that we hold in our hands, Lord, will not be planted in your fertile soil, but rather will be kept prominently to remind us always of this gathering, our commitments, and the life-giving promise we hold within ourselves. In marvelous ways, you take the full, rich experiences and knowledge of our lives and fold them within ourselves into germs of ideas waiting to spring forth when nourished and, like seeds, grow in miraculous ways never before imagined.
Dear Lord, accept these seeds of ideas and actions that You have given us. Bless them, and watch over them, and bring them to the full growth and rich harvest that You wish to bless us with.
But, should You not allow them to come to full harvest, we accept Your will humbly. We trust that You will nevertheless watch over us and make the seeds of grace that You have given us grow to flower and fruit in the full Christian life that You intend for us here and hereafter. Amen
