Perhaps I question myself: What is the use of my life? I pass the biggest part of my days working to gain a living or being busy with the children, caught up in the whirlwind of activity involving social obligations, leisure, family life. And yet if I manage to stop for a moment, I feel a certain emptiness.

I would like to do something worthwhile, something for the cause of justice, for others, but I feel myself hemmed in by my career or by the social milieu in which I live.

I have the impression that what I do is often in contradiction with the Gospel spirit. In the same way, when I have choices to make about the education of my children, my style of living, my social relations, I don't see things very clearly. Sometimes I don't even see very clearly any more what is meant by a "Christian" education ... And that leads me too, to pose to myself the question: what difference is there between my life and that of one who is not a Christian?

Or perhaps my situation is quite different: I am involved in social action or church activity. I find there reasons for living, but I don't have the strength any more to do it. What I am searching for is to deepen and probe my faith with others who have the same problems, regain my strength, renew and share with others my reasons for hope. I believe that God exists but I no longer know how to pray to God. I know that Jesus is living but I don't see how Christ is present in my life and in the life of the world that surrounds me. And though I raise these questions for myself when I reflect, I no longer see how to approach them, how to speak about them, still less how to give witness as regards them.

As for the Church, it seems to me too far removed from the real world or too concerned with its internal problems to help me. Sometimes it seems to be in such confusion that I don't see where these changes are going. Will the Church succeed in solving the problem of riches and poverty, of faith and politics?

A little over twenty years ago some men and women posed the same questions to themselves. They decided to meet with several members of the Society of Jesus. They agreed to open up to each other in order to make their path together. Their encounter with Ignatius of Loyola made them realize that their human tasks, so secular in appearance, had a meaning and value in the eyes of God. This new way of looking at life, while it called in question all the day long the attitudes and ways of acting they had acquired, gave them a new dynamism and let them assume a greater responsibility in the situation.

Little by little it is not only all the areas of life that begin to become unified, but even the most ordinary and most humdrum activity can become a means of meeting God, of finding Him in all things.

The Church too appeared to them with a new face, for they became aware of being themselves, as a community, a cell of the Church, with a mission: to help others, at the same time as themselves, become free to live fully, and to work to make Christ grow in themselves and in others. We in our turn are going to try to form a small community. This meeting will help us open ourselves to each other. One can do nothing without knowing one another, without getting rid of roles and masks of a conventional life. We propose a procedure. To prepare ourselves, let us take time to ask ourselves: What gives value to my life? How does my life - work - relationships - leisure - escape into insignificance? What am I searching for through all these, how do I see my future?

(Guideposts - WCLC)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND SHARING

1. What gives meaning to the things in my life? What am I living for?

2. What is the purpose of my coming to this group?