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:
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.