Tapestry of Faith: Exploring Our Values Through Poetry: A Program for High School Youth

Opening

Activity time: 5 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Chalice and matches

Description of Activity

Use the Opening designed by your group or the one provided below.

Gather around the chalice. As a volunteer lights the chalice, ask the group to focus on the word "me" in silence. After about fifteen seconds, invite participants to speak freely into the space a word or two that they associate with the word "me." When everyone who wishes to speak has had a chance to do so, close by saying,

May the space we create here today be wide enough to hold all our individual ideas and deep enough to allow those ideas to grow, to fruit, and to provide seeds for new beginnings.

Introduce today's workshop by saying,

Adolescence can be a time of ruthless, and not necessarily fair, self-examination. Most of us look in the mirror several times a day; but when was the last time you looked at yourself in complete acceptance of who you see? We are often ready to see flaws in ourselves rather than beauty, weaknesses rather than strengths. In Robert Graves' poem, "The Face in the Mirror," a man in his later years takes a cold, hard, retrospective look at himself as he shaves. He does so with honesty and, in the end, love and self-respect. May we all strive to see our true spirits in our own reflections.