Faith Sharing Guidelines
These guidelines may be shared with the team in advance of History Giving and Faith Sharing.
Sharing one’s journey of faith is a very personal thing. We share ourselves with confidence that our lives will be received and held in love. It’s important to prepare this sharing by praying to God and asking Him to help you know what to share to give the gift of yourself. Remember that God is our strength and we acknowledge our weakness and dependence on Him. Begin to trust in God. He brought you to this moment for you to grow in Him and with Him.
There are many way to share one’s faith journey. There is no one right way. Tell your own story in your own way. You can write it down, use bullet points or speak spontaneously. Do regard the time limit. You are not giving a witness. You are beginning to share you history and faith journey, and there will be more opportunities to share during formation.
Here are some reflection questions that may help you think about what you wish to share:
Think back over your life. Think about those times when you felt close to God or distant from God
o Pick two or three “close” times and two or three “distant” times that were, in retrospect, important to your life. For example, did a “distant” time turn out to be positive because it helped you make a needed change or choose a new direction in your life?
o Think about the presence of God in your life during the “close” and “distant” times. How do you think God was present in your life at these points? Did you have a sense that God was present? As you look back, do you now have a sense of the presence and activity of God, even though you may not have been aware of God at that time?
Think about the way your thinking about God and your beliefs have changed over time.
o How did you understand God when you were a child?
o What was important to you about God then?
o How about during your teenage years?
o Were there other experiences or times of your life when your thinking and beliefs changed and developed? (young adulthood, getting married, having children, career, growing older)
o Overall, how has your life experience shaped and changed your thinking about and understanding of God?
Some have a dramatic experience of God’s presence. If you have had an experience when God seemed vividly present to you, you might want to center your faith journey sharing around that experience.
o How did the experience happen?
o Were there other people involved?
o Have there been convictions or beliefs that you have been more confident of because of the experience?
o Are there action you have taken as a result of this experience?
Another way to think of your faith journey is to think about the different activities that have been important to you in the course of your life and how those activities have expressed or changed your sense of relationship with God.
o An example of works of mercy and how those activities draw you closer to God.
o How has service expressed your relationship with God?
o What impact have these activities had on your sense of being related to God?
What faith sharing is:
Speaking from your own experience, using concrete examples
Using “I” language
Speaking from the heart and your feelings
Sharing the gift of yourself, the joys, struggles and questions
Listening to others with reverence
Trying to hear what the other person is trying to say
Being in awe and thanking God for the unique way God works and for the gift of one another
What faith sharing is not:
Discussion or debate
Answering or responding to what someone says with negative comments
Being judgmental
Giving information (what experts say)
Giving advice
What is required:
Prayerful time
Active listening
Mutual trust
Confidentiality
Openness and vulnerability
Letting go of the desire to control or “fix” anything
What is gained:
Deepens each person’s own faith
Builds up community
Communicates respect for each person’s experience and journey as the only place they have to be right now
Increases understand of how God works
Encourages each person to be attentive and responsive to God’ call in the sacrament of human life
Provides a foundation for praise, wonder and thanks