Seeking Intimacy – Song of Songs
Readings: I encourage you all to read the Song of Songs before the meeting.
- As you discuss together remember the different circumstances of all your members.
- Spend time sharing reactions to reading the Song of Songs and giving opportunity to any single members to comment as well as those who are married.
- It is important to place sex in its proper place pursing appropriate values and seek appropriate laws but is it a good thing to act in a way that suggests that we are better than others? If not, why not?
- In the reflection I mentioned that I reject the idea of ‘give and take’ and replace it with ‘give and receive’. Do you agree with this and if so why? Is this principle relevant only to marriage or to all relationships?
- In his book, ‘A better story: God, sex and human flourishing’ by Glynn Harrison, he argues that abstinence is a way of honouring God’s plan for intimacy. Share what you think he might mean by this statement.
- If you have single, divorced or widowed members in your group give them an opportunity to share what their experience has been like for them. If they don’t want to share, that’s ok too.
- Discuss what it might mean to say that all human joys point beyond itself to the joy giver. How relevant is this to those married and those who are not?
Hugh Begbie