No. 49 Looking Good

Facilitator______________
Date___________________

Group Session Plan from FUSN (developed by Noreen Kimball)

Chalice/Candle Lighting

Opening Words:

Oh God, we are a peculiar people, often doubting where others so easily trust; rejecting that salvation offered through sacrament and creed, bell, book, and candle, to seek we know not what; tentative and often contentious. Only save us from the false belief that any virtue lies in our peculiarity, and may our uncertainty not arise from indifference, of fear of commitment, but from a longing for and a love of the Truth.

Paul Carnes. Longing of the Heart

Check-in/Sharing

Topic/Activity:
We spend a good chunk of our lives working hard to “look good.” We need to look good to ourselves and to others. The reasons are myriad. Carried to extremes, this need can interfere with our spiritual growth and our ability to enjoy life. Have you ever been caught up in the need to look good? Is this an affliction you still live with? Tell a story about looking good or explain what it has been (or is now) like to be preoccupied with looking good. Understand that we are not talking about physical appearance, though that may be a part of it. This topic relates to our need, above all else, to appear to be always smart, always in control, never needing help.

Select the topic and location for the next meeting

Check-out / Likes and Wishes

Closing Words:

Oh god of work and leisure,
Teach me to shirk on occasion
Not only that I may work more effectively
But also that I might enjoy life more abundantly,
Enable me to understand that the earth
Magically continues spinning on its axis
Even when I am not tending thy vineyards.
Permit me to breathe more easily
Knowing the destiny of the race
Rests not on my shoulders alone.
Deliver me from false prophets who urge me
To “repent” and “shirk no more.”
I pray for thy grace on me,
Thy faithful shirker.
Richard S. Gilbert, The Holy Quiet of This Hour