A clay pot is brought in by a dancer. As she moves down the aisle, pre-assigned sisters will put into the clay pot plants/flowers. The dancer goes up to the front and places the clay pot on a pedestal. The dancer arranges the flowers and plants.  Exits.

Silence for few a seconds.
 

Voice: And God said: It is good. Go forth and multiply and replenish the earth.

A person comes in, shakes the pedestal until the clay pot falls and breaks.

Silence for a few seconds.

The participants are requested to turn to a partner and take a few minutes to share with each other how they feel about the episode.

Silence for a few seconds.
 

Closing Prayer:   Let us pray with St. Mary Euphrasia: “Oh, my God, what are we doing in this world? Why are we here if not to contribute to the salvation of our neighbor?”

It is very clear that the Good Shepherd spirituality understands the Person of Jesus Christ as the WORD BECOME FLESH. In other words, Jesus Christ did not remain an abstract concept. “St. Mary Euphrasia was not concerned about theological speculation.” She embraced the love of God through Jesus Christ which was expressed in compassion for the poor and the suffering, in a violent dismay over the profanation (may be interpreted as corruption today) of the temple, in the outpouring of love for neighbor. And the challenge for all who wish to concretize the Good Shepherd spirituality is to “work toward a continuous conversion which calls for the victory of the cross over selfishness; that is, the cross of the renunciation of instinctive attitudes and responses which emerges from self-concern and self-centeredness.”

To me, it is interesting that your understanding of true love is a love that “always reaches out.” This resonates with what I have long believed in that love is a “through street”; it is not a U-turn for in a U-turn, the driver of the vehicle expects to go back to where he/she started. But a through street continuously moves outward. How unlike the attitudes and practices of people today who give only when there is “return on investment”. In a dialogue with Engr. Jun Lozada sometime in April, he shared a prevailing SOP in government where any and all government projects and transactions are evaluated on the basis of whether or not “mapagkakakitaan ang proyekto ng mga tao sa taas.”

In olden times, sheep pens were built like a letter “C”. There was an opening where the sheep could enter and exit. At night, when all the sheep were inside the pen, the shepherd would lie down on the ground in the pen opening. His body, therefore, would be like a gate protecting the sheep. When some animal or beast would attempt to enter the pen, it would first have to contend with the shepherd. More often than not, the animal would be killed or driven away by the shepherd before it could get to the sheep. That was the context of the verse that says: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Elsewhere in the Bible, we are called to lay down our lives for our friends.

In the context of the global situation and inspired by the Good Shepherd spirituality, what does it mean to lay down our lives for our friends? How do we approximate the self renunciation of your foundress? She said, at one time: “What I am doing is not for myself. I renounce whatever is not Christ’s will and accept beforehand what is Christ’s will.”