Communal Discernment Part II: Notes on Methodology and Capacities to Cultivate

1. CommunalDiscernment Part II: Notes on Methodology and Capacities to Cultivate Mary Pellegrino, CSJ Transformation of Religious Life in North America: An Action-Oriented Initiative

2. A Working Definition Communal Discernment: Process undertaken by a community as a community to discover God’s desire/direction within a particular set of circumstances leading to some sort of action by the discerning community. • Shared work • Seeking God • Here and now • Expressed in action

3. Notable nuance • A discerning community • Members are attentive and intentionally cultivating their capacities for discernment (noticing, naming and making meaning of the movement of the Spirit and call of God within and among them). • A community discerning • A community actively and intentionally engaged in a group process intended to discover for themselves God’s desires/direction within a particular set of circumstances.

4. Matters for communal discernment • Matters that involve the expression of mission/purpose/communal vocation for and in a particular time • Matters for which it is important that all group members be engagedand responsible, i.e. direction setting, disposition of corporate resources. . . • Matters that are worthy of the time, energy, discipline and rigor of communal discernment

5. Some Characteristics of A Discerning Community • Prayerful/Praying Community • Continually seeking God, God’s desires and the freedom to act on those desires • Contemplative prayer intended for listening for God/Spirit • Sense of Identity and Relationship • Growing in shared understanding of itself, its history, comprehension of its spheres of influence • Growing in comprehension of how it is influenced and how it influences

6. Learning Community • Open to change, transformation and the broadening of perspectives (personal and communal) • Names what is real; is honest toward reality (Sobrino) • Leaders and members growing in capacities to acknowledge, invite and consider diverse and new thinking

7. Capable of holding tension, tolerating ambiguity, chaos, unfinishedness • Recognizes itself, its members, the world as being in process • Encourages and cultivates imagination, creativity, personal initiative in service to the community

8. A Community Discerning • Engaged in deciding a matter of significance for the group • Believes that God has a desire/intent/purpose for them AND intends to follow God’s desire/intent/purpose • Devotes personal and communal time and resources to the discernment process

9. A Framework for Discernment: Preparation and Process • Seek interior freedom – personally and communally • Gather information • Prayerful consideration of the matter: alternatives, pros/cons, rational and affective experience • These elements may be serial through the process • Move toward consensus/decision • Make decision • Act on decision • Seek confirmation of decision: what are the fruits?

10. Fruitfulness relies on personal preparation/capacity • Personal capacities effect the quality of the community’s discernment • Personal is in service to the communal • Personal narrative, story, reality is read in service to larger social/communal narrative, story, reality • Order our personal preference for the greater, common good

11. Skills/capacities to cultivate for communal discernment • Self-Awareness • Know/claim your personal and communal stories • Personal and communal patterns of grace given/received • Identity and mission are inseparable • Learn to read our personal and communal narratives in service to the larger social reality

12. Appropriate self-disclosure • Allow ourselves to be known by others • Builds trust and confidence in self and others • Learn to speak about what is important and appropriate to matter at hand • Practice non-violent communication

13. Broaden thinking, expand consciousness, deepen understanding • Expose self/community to diverse thoughts and perspectives • Engage in social analysis, theological reflection, contemplative conversations

14. Notice interior movements • Personal and communal • What’s going on inside of me/among us? What meaning might it have? • Be honest toward reality • Speak the truth. . . even if your voice shakes.

15. Befriend resistances • Personal and communal • Resistance is valuable – has something to teach us • Learn to stay with resistance – without judgment – long enough to learn from them

16. Cultivate curiosity • Personal and communal • Curiosity and fear • biochemically the same – differ only in degree • Wondering about something, asking questions can dispel fear • Learn to ask good questions

17. Learn to take the long, broad view • The world, our communities, ourselves are unfinished • Perspective matters • Get comfortable with chaos

18. Cultivate patience, humility and openness to surprise • “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Eleanor Roosevelt Cultivate a sense of humor • The only thing we should take more seriously than we already do is God’s love. . . for us, for others, for all of creation • Learn to laugh at yourself and with others