While our sharing based on our reflections on the Salesian Constitutions was good, it brought back to my mind some of the earlier sharings I was involved in, with members of my community wherever I was during my earlier years.
There was a time when I was 'all head' and would feel odd about people sharing their feelings and sentiments. I considered them as not strong people or those incapable of 'delving deep' into something profound. However over the years my perception has changed and today I hold quite the contradictory position. To share something of one's own feelings and emotions in all honesty require a great amount of courage and maturity. Only those who have a genuinely large heart for the group and are at home with the group and themselves can do so.
To expose one's vulnerabilities before others, one's own family members, does not make one more feeble or guilty; it actually strengthens one from within. Done in an ambiance of sincerity and openness, it gives one the courage to face difficulties, no more as individuals but as persons who enjoy the support and cooperation of a 'family'.
Once we taste this sort of sharing when in a small close knit group of persons, a very sound theological or doctrinal exposition of a concept does not touch anyone as much as a downcast look or a brief pause after narration of a very personal experience.
There was a time when I was 'all head' and would feel odd about people sharing their feelings and sentiments. I considered them as not strong people or those incapable of 'delving deep' into something profound. However over the years my perception has changed and today I hold quite the contradictory position. To share something of one's own feelings and emotions in all honesty require a great amount of courage and maturity. Only those who have a genuinely large heart for the group and are at home with the group and themselves can do so.
To expose one's vulnerabilities before others, one's own family members, does not make one more feeble or guilty; it actually strengthens one from within. Done in an ambiance of sincerity and openness, it gives one the courage to face difficulties, no more as individuals but as persons who enjoy the support and cooperation of a 'family'.
Once we taste this sort of sharing when in a small close knit group of persons, a very sound theological or doctrinal exposition of a concept does not touch anyone as much as a downcast look or a brief pause after narration of a very personal experience.
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