Preparation for Session 2
Prior to the session, all participants should read Deep Listening from the Self-Study Guide found here. In addition to the reading material, a focus of this session is the video In Defence of Life (33 mins). If participants were not instructed to watch the video prior to Session 2, arrangements should be made to watch it together during the session.
Choose one of the two options for opening prayer. There is a short prayer in the text of the Self- Study Guide for Session 2. There is also a longer prayer resource available here.
If you wish to extend the session, choose one of the additional resources listed at the end of this session’s Self-Study Guide to explore as a group.
Outline for Session 2
Welcome and Prayer
After a welcome and any initial business, lead the opening prayer you have selected.
Discussion
Discuss the reading material for Session 2. Give special attention to this excerpt from the reading:
As we listen deeply to the stories of trauma, we must engage our whole body in the process of knowing. Knowing is different from empirical knowledge; it is an “inner knowing.” When we move into the place of inner knowing, we engage our hearts, and we hear those who have experienced and continue to experience exploitation and violence. We hear the cries of Earth and those who have been made poor.
Engage the group in discussion around these questions:
- What are your thoughts about the concept of “Deep Listening”?
- What experience do you have with deep listening?
Video
If you chose to watch the video In Defence of Life together, do so now. Then use these questions for discussion.
After listening deeply to these voices:
- What is emerging from our hearts?
- What values are creating tension within us?
- What is clear in us, and what remains unresolved?
- What impacted you the most as you watched and listened to the voices in the video?
- How is extractivism challenging your complicity?
- Who benefits and who is harmed by extractive industries?
- Does this system support or destroy life?
Stories of Exploitation
With consideration for time, offer space for any participant in the group to share his/her story of direct experience with extractivism. Lay ground rules in advance to create a safe space for sharing. The goal is simply for others to listen. It is not an expectation that all or even any group member will have something to share, but this is a chance to hear participants’ own experiences. Any follow-up questions should be for clarification only.
After everyone has had a chance to share a direct experience, invite participants to close the session by sharing a brief sentence on one new understanding or insight gained from deeply listening to these stories. As they do so, ask participants to give responses that:
- Are centered in the experience of people, communities and Earth
- Avoid generalizations
- Focus on the specifics of what was heard
- Are not moving to answers but sitting in the discomfort and the understanding of the suffering
Preparation for Session 3
Participants will be expected to read Deep Reflecting Part 1 in the Self-Study Guide, found here.
For Mercy Groups: If your group is made up of participants affiliated with the Sisters of Mercy, they should read, reflect and journal on the Mercy theological lens material. They should also watch the video “Social Analysis and the Mercy Lens,” with Sr. Terri Bednarz and engage with at least one other lens.
If your group is not affiliated with the Sisters of Mercy, they should read, reflect and journal on at least one of the theological lenses. You are also invited to offer them another reading or video that connects to your group’s charism, scriptures or teachings.
Additional resources to go deeper:
Extractivism: Burden over Benefits Demands a Just Response, an article from the Sisters of Mercy
Extractivism: 500 Years of Devastation, an interactive timeline
A Just Response, a guide to reacting to extractivism