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The hearing Community
An evangelization experience
for adults

A FAITH WALK TO DISCOVER AGAIN GOD WORD
AND TO LEARN LIVING WITH THIS WORD

Hearing Community are not a movement: at the evangelization itinerary end they stop existing, but persons at Church, world, history, Kingdom service remain.

Historical outline

Hearing Community were born at the beginning of 1970's, in Genoa. In that period, at S. Siro Parish, at historical centre, for three years monthly encounters have took place all around the city to compare God Word and life, following a precise biblical itinerary, from Abram to Jesus and Church.

Thus it was born the need to transform done experience into a steady evangelization proposal, i.e. into a true gradual faith walk, serious and in-depth, for the duration of some years, creating small adults group inside parishes.

First Community were born in Liguria and Lombardia (Italy) and then extended toward Veneto, Marche, Abruzzo, Piemonte e Campania. Today Hearing Community are present at one hundred parishes in about ten Italian dioceses.

Purposes

Hearing Community propose two aims:

1. Person evangelization

that, had or had again with other brothers, becomes clerical fact in local Church tissue. Some fundamental aspects:

• Having God Word of our won, finding that God Word is really a God's one and it is a gift done to us, thus it is right "for us".
• Joining Word and life. Personal history is lighted by Word. We learn to recognise God presence in our route, mainly In difficult and painful situations. Even better, we gain certainty that our God intervenes and saves. We also have consciousness of our own resistance and incredulity and of the way in which God is still saving us.
• Walk is growth. Spiritual growth neither is automatic, nor does it have fixed time limits, but we can not neglect the Word exigencies and requests, either for single and for Community. Therefore we shall learn to "account" for received Word at least sometime. Walk purpose consists of learning to be servant, to give ourselves, to serve man, concrete situations, history.

2. The service

is fruit of evangelization gift. Everybody will answer the call of walking to serve Lord and brothers, according to personal gifts whom he received by Spirit and whom walk help discerning.

How a Community is born

• It is born inside local Church (parish - vicariate) when parish priest want to propose an evangelization systematic itinerary.
• He speaks with: neighbours, for diffusing and deepening faith; far people, for discovering faith and maturing belonging to Church.
• That proposal starts from Emmaus's disciples text, stating that we can open our eyes too, we can meet Christ, knowing Him, feeling our living and our dying lighted by His cross and resurrection and experimenting, also us like disciples, with "heart that burns in chest".
• After receiving proposal by a sufficient number of adults (of an age from 15 years old to 25, if married possibly with his spouse), Community takes some months to steady herself. So that experience is effective we can not join group and then leave it, but rather we should commit ourselves to performing together faithfully and perseveringly an itinerary that has a development and an its own continuity. For brothers the belonging to this little community will become pedagogy of universal Church belonging.

Walk contents

• The first year is propaedeutic: Community do first Word hearing experiences, it gets to grips with Bible, it experiment gradually prayer, it begin to put Word together with life. Central moment consists of announcements on Kingdom who light all the walk:
  Lc 4,16-30 (The Kingdom today);
  Lc 23,32-49 (the Kerigma);
  Lc 6,17-35(the Beatitudes);
  Lc 12,13-34 (the Kingdom first of all);
  Gv 13,1-17 (the agape).

• From second year we follow salvation history starting from Abram, throughout Exodus, Psalms, Prophets, so as to arrive at Christ and at N.T. So we underline gradually fundamental aspects of revelation: call, faith, fraternity (Genesis), alliance (Genesis and Exodus), liberation, Easter, solidarity and service (Exodus), prayer (Psalms), new justice (Prophets), New Alliance fulfilment, Church, disciple, sequence and mission (New Testament). All is Lighted by Christ Easter that is the base of every hope in personal Life and history.
• We will help our brothers to discover liturgy as educational moment toward faith and clerical communion expression.
• Finally we will accompany our brothers to maturing a base option in our own life about sense of giving work, about charisma commitment inside our environment and society.

The method

1. The Word announcement

Community meet once every week.

The evening presents three closely collected moments:

1. Word announcement, done at first by responsible who proposed walk, and then gradually in turn by one or more Community brothers.

Every evening: a text from A.T. or N.T.

We learn to search context, to report text, dwelling on single verses, for receiving message core (the real announcement), to bring up to date what we read.

All of us will learn, also that more simple and less prepared people. We will use texts and comments, but we shall ask the assistance of Spirit, with the necessity of doing silence inside us and passing over that moment moods so as to try to be humble and free tools.

2. Personal prayer, made by silence and internalising. It's the moment in which heard Word must be welcomed.

Somebody are already be able to pray, other people will find her gradually.

3. Life revision. Simply and concretely everybody will try to bring up to date Word on his life, starting from "new light" in which his own history and the world one come to take place.

This bringing up to date will be shared with other people: this will help receiving concreteness of what Word proposes and emerging, through brothers faith and life, the wonders made by Lord Word.

2. The accounting

At the end of each announcements cycle, Community stops for two days and it lives together one step.

It is the moment in which we summarise the route done and we try to check the occurred maturation.

3.The celebrating

Sometimes there are Word celebration evenings or mornings: moments who educate to praise and thank Lord for received gifts.

Celebratons of Easter triduum and of seventh day light walk and become reason to take part in liturgy with more consciousness, together with parish Community.

Everybody will learn to read and sing his own history as salvation history. Support and presence of presbyter, who accompanies Community brothers along walk, will be very important.

4. The duration

Some years, in respect of every Community times and rhythms.

5. The responsible

• For the whole time of walk, Community is guided by two or three persons, the walk responsible, who did already this experience or they are going to end it and they commit themselves to transfer received gift and to help Community brothers in check moments.

In communion spirit among Churches, sent by their Community, they are welcomed by parish priest who want to start up a walk and whom they will maintain close relations with.

• At the end of first walk year, Community elects, among her members, a internal responsible, whose duty covered is watching over Word announcement, walk participation perseverance, single and Community maturation, always together with parish priest, who personally, or through his substitute, will take part in meetings, steps, celebrations during the whole walk.

The walk and Community responsible take part in specific learning meetings, based mainly on S. Paolo letters.

The celebrating

• to learn praying and celebrating, Hearing Community try help of singing, liturgical signals and icons.
• singing God Word helps to fix her inside heart and mind joyously.
• signals and icons introduces us into transcendent and contemplation.

References

(edited by Hearing Community of Genoa)

edited by
fr. Paolo Benvenuto <donpaolo@gsi.it >
Via Salgari 4/4 - 16156 GENOVA PEGLI
ITALY

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