Guidelines for Faith Sharing
 Telling Your Story

Faith‑sharing is central to the meetings you are about to begin.  It reveals the action of God in your lives and the quality of your response.  The sharings are about how you have encountered God in your everyday lives since the last meeting.  This can include how the theme in the previous exercise was, or was not, a part of your experience.  Faith‑sharing is only authentic when it comes out of prayer.

The fundamental rule in faith‑sharing is that each person's sharing be received without comment or critique.  Faith‑sharing is the experience of being invited into another's sanctuary where "God is."  If someone asks for questions or comments on their sharing, then a response is appropriate.

If discussion begins at some point in the sharing, it would be helpful to make some kind of observation like "We seem to be getting into discussion now.  Perhaps we can discuss this topic at another time."

The following are obstacles which interfere with sharing:

1.  Slipping into dialogue or making jokes between sharings
2.  Head‑tripping into abstract thoughts and treatises
3.  Forcing people to speak
4.  Rushing the meeting, not allowing time for things to penetrate
5.  Non‑acceptance of what a person is saying
6.  Talking too long, not allowing time for others to speak

Larry Gooley, SJ
Guideposts - A Resource Handbook for Christian Life Community, 2006