Global justice Prayer stations

Transcription

1 Global justice Prayer stations OVERVIEW There are many situations when you might have the opportunity to raise some of the issues of global justice in the context of prayer and worship. On the following pages these prayer station ideas provide a range of interactive ideas that might be used as they are or they might stimulate your own creativity. group, asking all those gathered to take part at the same time. BE PREPARED Think about how you are going to introduce the stations perhaps begin with a Scripture reading. Many of the stations need a little time to set up. Make sure you collect everything you need beforehand and organise your time so that things can run smoothly once you start. HOW YOU MIGHT USE THE PRAYER STATIONS You might use these ideas to encourage young people to pray around a global justice theme. You may use one idea at the end of a workshop, or as part of a whole day looking at global issues. You may wish to use them as a series of Prayer Stations: interactive prayers which young people can engage with as they see fit. Most of the prayers are designed to be self-guided, but you could lead any of them from the front of the RESOURCES Other materials and ideas can be provided either by CAFOD Youth Team, Romero House, 55 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7JB youth@cafod.org.uk OR Your local CAFOD office, cafod.org.uk/uk 1

2 CONTENTS Page Content 1 Introduction 2 A note on prayer stations Content 3 Solidarity prayer wall 4 Newspaper prayer Globe prayer 5 Map of the World prayer 1 Map of the world prayer 2 6 We are one body 7 Prayer using the Romero cross Global prayer poetry 8 Lectio Divina Songs for one world Resource s file A NOTE ON PRAYER STATIONS Prayer stations can be set up in any space. It could be a church, a chapel, a classroom or even a parish hall. The concept is quite simple: different stations are set out in a venue, and people are encouraged to go along to them in their own time and spend as much or as little time at the prayer station as they feel comfortable. They do not even need to visit every station they may just visit one and spend the whole of the time at it. Space and atmosphere are an important part of prayer stations. How will you set the mood? See if it is possible to dim lighting and play music in the background for all the stations. to think about the umber of participants at any one time taking part in the Stations is there enough space and enough things for people to do? Start and end of the time: it s important to start the time together in some way, using Scripture to reflect upon and getting people in the right frame of mind. Additional resources for the stations can be found in the Resources File. They are presented on A4 size but could be printed A5 size for each prayer station. Whether you finish with a time of prayer, or allow people to finish when they re ready will depend on the group, and your time restraints, e.g. if it s in a workshop setting, getting them to finish at the same time may be important; if it s on a retreat you may have more flexibility over time. 2

3 SOLIDARITY PRAYER WALL A wall, noticeboard, free-standing board, flipchart stand, etc; Variety of paper (think textured, patterned, coloured); Range of coloured pens (fibre-tipped, but not too large but do think about whether they ll go through the paper and mark the wall) Way to attach the paper to the wall Starts of prayers (see below for ideas) People are encouraged to come up to the wall in their own time, to read over some of the starts of prayers on the wall, and continue the prayer with their own words. They can either complete the prayer, or write a line or two in continuation. The next person who comes to the prayer can then either add to someone else s, or continue a different prayer. By the end of the session, people will have read one another s prayers, reflecting and praying through them. Bear in mind the literacy levels of participants and provide starter prayers at an appropriate level. Encourage people to pray through the prayers as they read and add to them. Resources These might be good starters to your prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven Here and now, Lord, we place before you simply some of the six billion people with whom we share this world Compassionate and loving God, you created the world for us all to share God of peace and justice, you give us the capacity to change Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord Sun and moon, O bless the Lord, to him be highest glory and praise forever 3

4 NEWSPAPER PRAYER GLOBE PRAYER Newspapers preferably a variety of types, and national & local ones (you may need to do some filtering to check on appropriateness of paper/articles!) Felt tip pens/something to draw and write on the papers A focal point (eg globe with candle lit by it) Music for background (optional) People are encouraged to take a newspaper/magazine and look through it for people, situations, countries, etc., which they want to hold before God in prayer. They are invited to rip out the stories/pictures, and/or to write over the article/picture a prayer for that person/country/situation. As a symbol of placing the prayer before God, people are invited to place the ripped out page around the prayer focal point. An inflatable globe Some way to mark the globe finger paints, stickers, post-it notes and pens If using finger paints, think about how people will clean their finger afterwards (eg wet wipes) Background music (optional) Invite people to come forward and as a sign of their prayer for a particular person, community or country, invite them to make a mark on the globe where they are praying for. Think about how many people you are doing this with, and how big the globe is: is there enough room for everyone to make their mark? Is it big enough for more than one person to do it at the same time so people aren t waiting too long to have their chance to make their mark? Can you use washable paint so as to use the globe again? 4

5 MAP OF THE WORLD PRAYER 1 MAP OF THE WORLD PRAYER 2 A map of the world Candles: tealights are best. Try to ensure they re the ones in a case to limit safety issues. Matches for candles Music for the background (optional) Place the map in the centre. Invite people to come forward and place the candle on a country where they wish to pray for. They may be praying for one person, a community, or the whole country depending on what they know or have been learning about. You could encourage them to say the prayer out loud, or just in their own hearts. Think about where you place the map: do you need to put something underneath it to protect the surface from the candles and their heat? Alternatives Instead of using candles, you could use stones to place on the map, or stickers, or make a mark with a pen, or post-it notes, etc. A blank map/outline of the world (available from local CAFOD Office) Coloured pens or pencils or pastels Music for background (optional) Place the map in the centre. Invite people to come forward and to colour in the outline of a place/country in the world which they wish to pray for. They can shade the country in whatever way they wish (patterns, several colours, just shade it in a block). As they colour it in, encourage them to pray silently for that place/people. Think about where you place the map: do you need to put something underneath it to protect the surface from the pens? If you place the paper outline on the floor, is the paper strong enough or will pens go through onto the floor? Is it a carpet and difficult to colour-in on? If so, is there some cardboard or similar you can place underneath it? People may take different amounts of time to do these activities. Is there information about the world you could place around the map for people to read for inspiration, and if they finish before others? 5

6 WE ARE ONE BODY Masking tape and a floor you can stick it to without leaving a mark Images of people from around the world printed out (ask your CAFOD Diocesan Office or use images from newspapers or web) Mirrored card (available from stationers) cut into A5ish size Marker pens for the mirrored card (probably need to be permanent) Prayer cards (optional) Body of Christ from around the world. Invite them to hold the person they see in prayer before God. Next, invite them to pick up a piece of mirrored card and to look at themselves in it. Remind them that they, too, are a special, unique part of the Body of Christ, loved and cherished by God. Using a marker pen, encourage them to sign their name on the mirrored card and place it inside the body as a symbol of their part in it. As they leave the body they can take a prayer card, or it could be read together. Resource The prayer card could use this prayer: This needs some preparation. Mark out on the floor an outline of a body (a bit like a crime scene from a detective show!). It doesn t have to be beautiful or to scale, just obvious enough that it is a body. Lay out inside the body the different images of people. Read out, or have printed out around the body, 1 Corinthians Encourage people to step into the body and look at some of the images of other members of the Here and now, Lord, we place before you simply some of the six billion people with whom we share this world. Although we may never meet them, nor even know their names, we place them in your loving care. Guide them. Support them. Be with them. May they be full of your love, and share it with those they meet, as we, once more, commit ourselves to do the same. Amen. Stephen Davies/CAFOD 6

7 PRAYER USING THE ROMERO CROSS GLOBAL PRAYER POETRY Romero Cross (available from CAFOD Diocesan Office) Outlines of a Romero Cross (available from CAFOD Diocesan Office) Nice pens/pencils/pastels Romero Crosses come from El Salvador, Latin America. They have symbols of the lives of the community where the cross was made, with Christ at the centre of it, a sign of his presence at the heart of the community. Each cross is individually made by hand and is unique. Invite people to take an outline of a Romero Cross and colour it in. A series of words printed out on card (template at end of this pack) Possibly some blank cards for people to add extra words if needed Like fridge poetry, people are encouraged to use the words they have to write a prayer, or just a prayer phrase. They can start their own prayer, or add to other prayer phrases which have been created already. The words could just be laid out on a table. Alternatively, they could be put up on a wall using sticky-tac, or using spray mount on a large piece of backing paper so the cards can be moved around. At the end, you may wish to read aloud some of the newly created prayers, enabling the whole group to pray through the words. As they do so, encourage them to pray for the people of El Salvador, as well as any other people or situations they wish to pray for. You may wish to have the Romero PowerPoint or video on in the background as they do this, with info about Romero and El Salvador. Oscar Romero background: cafod.org.uk/secondary/romero 7

8 LECTIO DIVINA SONGS FOR ONE WORLD A series of justice-related Scripture passages on individual sheets (ideas of passages are found below) Background music (optional) Candle (optional) People are given space to pray through some Scripture passages which they choose at random. Spread the sheets with Scripture on them around the space. Encourage people to take one at random, to read it through, reflect on it, and pray through it. You may wish to add a series of reflection points to the piece of Scripture. These may relate to the individual passage, or be more generic. A set of example questions can be found on the handout in this pack. You need to think about the group you are with: are they used to silence and reflecting by themselves? If not, this may not be the prayer to use with them until you have done some work leading up to using it. Music devices and chosen songs, with a solidarity/world link, e.g. Coldplay, We live in a beautiful world, James, Sit down, Ash, Shining light Lyrics written out with reflection questions and quotes Through listening to music, people are encouraged to reflect on the lyrics, what it s prompting them to think about, and to hold the situations in prayer. Either playing the music on a CD player, or by borrowing CD/MP3 players, individuals can listen to the music and zone out for a while to have some space to reflect and pray. You can use as many songs as you like and offer the chance to pick one at random. You could do something similar to this using quotations from Catholic Social Teaching. 8