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Samuel Group

'Speak, oh Lord, your Servant is Listening'
 

LEARN THE ART OF DISCERNMENT

Samuel Group is a program open to young adults ages 20-30 (juniors and older) who seriously desire to discern God’s will for their lives. This program provides the tools for how to discern properly with peace, joy, and confidence. Through a journey of prayer, spiritual direction, self-knowledge, and purification, participants can grow in interior freedom in order to discover what they are truly made for and how to embrace God’s call in every stage of life. 

 

What Is the History of Samuel Group?

The program began in 1987, when Cardinal Martini of Milan led a group of 100 young men and women on a spiritual journey to discover their call in life. Cardinal Martini’s talks and spiritual direction were based on the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a master in the Discernment of Spirits. Cardinal Martini gave the Apostles of the Interior Life his blessing and encouraged them to teach discernment as part of their apostolate. Samuel Group was then brought to the United States in 2001 and has since been offered on several university campuses.

The commitment to the program lasts one year and helps give direction to a student’s freedom and creativity so that he/she may discover his/her role in the Church and in the world.

The Three-Fold Goal of Samuel Group:

  • to know oneself
  • to know Jesus
  • to know one’s role in the Church and in the world

These are attained through Prayer, Spiritual Direction, and Interior Discernment through three main aspects of meditation, purification, and scrutiny:

  • Meditation involves daily reflection on the Word of God and spiritual writings.
  • Purification is the process of detachment from sin, wrongful inclinations, selfish affections, and illusions.
  • Scrutiny involves spiritual direction and self-reflection on the interior movements of the soul where Jesus speaks to us.

Structure of the Program:

  • Six meetings throughout the year, rough on Sunday afternoon (typically 12:30-3:30 pm)
  • Each meeting involves a brief social period, a guided meditation, an hour of Eucharistic Adoration (with the sacrament of Confession available), a purification talk, small group sharing, and “spiritual homework” for the upcoming month.
  • Throughout the month the students should meet at least once with their personal spiritual director, develop a regular schedule of prayer, and abide by the guidelines of Samuel Group.

Requirements

Samuel Group is open to all young adults ages 20-30 (junior standing or higher) who:

  1. Have at least a minimal prayer life,
  2. Wish to seriously discern the will of God in their life, and
  3. Have a spiritual director (or find one to begin the program)

 

SAMUEL GROUP is currently available at St. Lawrence Catholic Center at the University of Kansas and in the Archdioceses of New York and Houston.

Please contact us to learn more if you are interested in participating or if you would like to purchase the manual and materials to lead Samuel Group in your own diocese. We look forward to sharing with you about Samuel Group. 

The manual is $30 and you can buy it online.  To purchase the whole package (manual + downloadable materials) it is $300 and we ask that you contact us directly to begin the ordering process: contact@apostlesofil.com