Basic Meeting Format
 
This meeting format forms the core of the communal experience. It is structured to help individuals and communities address the individual, communal, and systemic aspects of our current reality using Ignatian processes and the lived community experience of Christian Life Community. CLC has called this process Discern, Send, Support, Evaluate (DSSE). It is important therefore that while the process can be adapted to meet the needs of the group, it should not be diluted in its intent. 
The groups are small, usually six to ten members. This allows adequate time for sharing and reflection while also allowing for diversity and interaction. The groups meet regularly, in order to develop friendship and a community spirit among ourselves by praying, sharing some of our life experiences together, helping and supporting each other in our Christian faith and our daily lives. Meetings are held, usually in our homes, at intervals decided by the group — usually biweekly, but sometimes weekly, and lasting one and a half or two hours.
The pattern of meetings varies, but most of the following are normally included in ongoing groups:

• Personal Sharing: How have I been called in my ministry, my prayer, and/or my relationships with God and others? Where have I felt consolation? Has there been times of desolation? (For new groups more time may be spent on this as the members are getting to know each other and level of sharing in the rounds has not reached the same depth as more experienced groups. For more mature groups this will be shorter focusing on sharing mission activities and experiences of God since the last meeting. Deeper personal sharing for mature groups happens during the three rounds  of sharing.)
• Opening Prayer: The facilitator provides the opening prayer that is appropriate to the focus of the meeting.
• Praying for a Grace: In praying for a grace, the individuals and community are opening themselves to God’s spirit working among them. The specific focus of the grace often varies according to the material being reflected upon. The community recalls the grace that it formulated at its previous meeting (once it has had its initial meeting) and how it has experienced that grace during the time since the last meeting. The grace may be as simple as “opening ourselves to God’s call” or may reflect the particular topic that is being reflected on such as, “being able to see God’s presence in all of creation”. (For new groups, the coordinator or guide may need to  provide a Grace until the community can discern this on their own.)
• Spiritual Conversation on the meeting’s topic in three rounds:
  • Begin with a brief review of the material reflected on and some time to settle into this mindset.
  • Round One: In praying with the material, what struck me? Was there something in particular that struck my heart? Was there something that caused me unease? There is no discussion during this round. The focus is on deep listening to the others. (As communities mature the sharing should come less from the head than from the heart.)
  • Round Two: There is a period of silence during which community members are pondering: What did I hear in the first round? What was the Spirit revealing during the sharing? The members then share their reflections.
  • Round Three: There is another period of silence in which the members reflect upon: Where is the Spirit leading me and/or us in response to what has been heard? Members then share this reflection. (This round may not be appropriate for new groups since it requires a sense of trust and openness necessary. As a group matures and the sharing moves from head to heart, the third round can be introduced.)
• Reflection on Grace: Did we receive the grace prayed for? Were there other graces received?  Should we continue praying for this grace or is the Spirit moving us differently?  After sharing, the group can either affirm the current grace or choose another as they feel called.
• Business: This should include concrete follow up to what arose in Round Three as well as addressing practical matters like dates and topics for future meetings.
• Review of Meeting: What interior movement or stirrings of the heart did I experience during this meeting? What word or phrase describes my overall feeling of the meeting? This should be a simple short (a word or phrase), not a lengthy sharing.
• Closing Prayer: This could include intercessory prayer for concerns or prayers of thanksgiving for joys in our lives as well as a communal prayer. Again, the facilitator prepares this prayer.
• Social

During the three rounds, it is important that members use deep listening or holy listening as they hear the sharing from the other members. That is, they are to hear beyond the words to what the Spirit may be saying to the group through these shared reflections.
Each community meeting aims to embody the characteristics of community, spirituality and mission. In each meeting, during the sharing and planning, members review their individual and corporate mission which is carried out primarily outside the meeting.