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Start a Mystagogy Group with Friends

This Rock Volume 17, Number 6   July-August 2006     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   Letters   Divorce, Dissolution, and Death: The English Martyrs By Bess Twiston-Davies   Further Reading   Being in, but Not of, the World By Donald DeMarco   Further Reading   Life Beyond Confirmation: How to Revive the Ancient Practice of Mystagogy By Stratford Caldecott   How to Overcome Obstacles to Faith   Start a Mystagogy Group with Friends   Further Reading   The Truth Will Make You Free By Christopher Kaczor   Inspired by the Holy Spirit? Or a Cult? By Pete Vere   Damascus Road After Years of Church-Hopping, I'm Here to Stay By Kyle Duncan   By the Book Authority to Teach By Jim Blackburn   Truth Be Told The Cathedral Setting By Matthew E. Bunson   Up a Notch Did the Church Change Its Stance on Usury? By Christopher Kaczor   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Subscribe    Permissions

Why not try to start a mystagogy group with some of your friends? All you need is a place to meet and a common intention that will bring you together. The aim is to help each other develop a closer personal relationship with Jesus Christ through the Church and in friendship with each other.

Whether you spend most of the time in silent prayer, or in discussion, or in socializing, or in study of a series of texts is up to you, but most likely you will find a balance of all four most helpful. In the case of Catholics, ongoing study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is essential. A Catholic never outgrows the Catechism but becomes capable of reading it at an ever deeper level. Normally, by the time someone seeks mystagogy, primary initiation has taken place within the parish, and the sacraments (along with some form of daily prayer) have assumed a familiar and important place in everyday life. Daily Mass is recommended if practicable during the course, together with regular confession and the use of some version of the Divine Office (the daily prayer of the Church).

Your group should probably have a convenor or chairperson to help you agree on background reading and private study between sessions. These might include some of the books listed in the bibliography, but there are many Christian classics that might be appropriate, depending on the group’s preferences and needs.

My suggestion would be to hold meetings in a friendly environment—in a private home or a room adjoining a chapel—and start with invited guests only. Some groups begin with a time of prayer, then some social time (cookies and coffee), followed by a talk or discussion. No more than half an hour is necessary for each section. Meetings should take place once every week or two weeks if possible in order to keep the momentum going.

The facilitator’s responsibilities are to invite the participants, to provide the venue and the structure for the sessions, to enable the group to follow an organized course of instruction, to introduce and close each session, to support the group in the use of traditional spiritual practices (Lord’s Prayer, rosary, icons, Divine Office, and so on), to help members to evaluate their experience with these practices, and to assist them in moving on to other things when the course no longer serves their needs.

But here is one final word of warning. If you have a facilitator who is not a priest, try to make sure that person does not usurp the priestly role or offer spiritual direction in the traditional sense of the phrase. The group should not become dependent on the facilitator’s personality or skills but should function simply on the basis of a common purpose and a growing friendship in the faith within the guiding framework of any course materials provided. The facilitator’s main role is to remind the group constantly of the living presence in its midst of Christ as the teacher and the in-dwelling, life-giving Holy Spirit.