SESSION SCHEDULE
The group leader opens the session by welcoming the participants.
He or she then says a short opening prayer, or calls on the week's `prayer leader' to say the prayer.
The group leader announces the theme of the session and calls on the week's `speaker' to introduce the material from the course book.
Video presents images of life. It cannot replace the voice of a living `speaker'. A speaker can impart information, explain new notions and relate to actual people much better than a video ever can.
Those members of the group who have the charism of being able to provide the instructional input, should be drawn in to fulfil this ministry. One does not need to have theological or religious training for this. Our experience shows that very 'ordinary' people can present the material in an excellent way.
In practice this means that the leader assigns portions of the course book to one or more `speakers' in advance (usually the week before), asking them to present the contents to the group. Which portions should be assigned can be seen from the outlines of the sessions in the Guide.
It is essential that the other members of the group also prepare themselves by reading the relevant chapters of the course book during the week running up to the session. Therefore, it is highly desirable that the members of the group should each have their own copy of the course book; or at least, that there should be enough copies among members for them to share the books in the course of the week.
The instructional portion should be presented viva voce even if all the members of the group have a copy of the course book and have read the text themselves. The presentation (in summary form, if needed) and the listening to it put the matter squarely before the group.
The main function of the video is to confront the group with actual life. The story on the video fulfils this role. Yes, here too logical arguments are presented, but they have now been set in the context of a story, of actual life.
Perhaps, you would have expected someone to talk to you from the screen. Many video courses employ such `talking heads'. We purposely avoid this approach. The `moving image' of video is capable of so much more. It can make us enter other people's lives. It can portray life as it is, with all its traumas, worries, emotions. And our search for God is ultimately not just an intellectual exercise. It involves us as complete persons.
The video presents a story. Note, however, that it is not an ordinary story. It has been scripted to be seen more than once. Because of the entertainment character of most TV programmes, people have become used to writing off a programme once they have seen it. This kind of story is different. It has been purposely made to achieve its highest benefit during a second and third viewing (and even more), each time seen with more insight and from a new perspective. This will become clearer to participants as they progress in the course.
Then there is something else. All visual media present images. Our instructional video gives the fullest possible scope to this dimension. Layers upon layers of images have been planned and `planted' as seeds in the story. Once people become aware of them, their own imagination can take over. For images are open-ended. They can become vehicles for a person's own thought in quite unique and unexpected ways.
We should not be afraid of working with images in such a way. All human thought ultimately rests on image, model, metaphor. Even physics, mathematics, economics and any other form of reasoning employs images. So we need images all the more to fathom and express the deepest realities of life.
Involvement by all members of the group in reflection and discussion is crucial for the success of the learning process. At the end of the day it is the change in perception and commitment of the individuals, and of the group as a whole, that will count.
The way to look on this is that people's personal experience forms a vital ingredient in the process of faith formation. The discussion should help to draw this out.
As a general rule room should be left for the group to react spontaneously as much as possible. When the teaching has been presented and therelated video section seen, the group will undoubtedly respond.
If questions do not arise spontaneously from the group, the group leader should introduce questions that achieve the desired result. He/she can resort to various strategies depending on the needs of the group. He/she will use relevance questions, telescoping questions or specific questions.
Relevance questions provoke the participants to a direct, personal response. They will be of this nature:
Another approach is as follows. In a sequence of telescoping questions, the leader gently steers the group from the general to the particular. Questions could concern:
The group leader may also enliven the discussion by raising some specific questions relating to the topic in hand. In the session outlines printed in the Guide, some such specific questions will be suggested. These are a handy 'reserve' at the leader's disposal, in case the discussion were to 'dry up'. However, this is not a likely course of events.
The various forms of questions are, of course, not mutually exclusive. Neither should they be taken too literally. Usually the participants raise such questions themselves, and all the group leader needs to do is to direct the discussion skilfully to a satisfactory, interim conclusion.
We should recognise that the group's response to the issues presented and discussed, will always remain inadequate if it misses the element of prayer.
We respond as a community of Christians by offering our thoughts and intentions to God who speaks to us through his Word, through the group and through life.
Various forms of prayer could serve this purpose, depending on the nature of the group. The prayer does not need to be long. Songs, readings from Scripture, reciting a Psalm, and so on, can be valuable parts of a short common prayer. It would be a pity, however, limit the group's prayer to texts from books. Meaningful elements for the prayer can be taken from the group's own reflection during the session.
Both moments of silent prayer shared by the group and spontaneous prayers by group members are powerful elements of a group's response in prayer.
The group leader assigns the tasks for next week's session. He or she indicates to the participants which chapters in the course book they have to read in preparation for the following week.
