Day 1 · September 10, 2002 - Day of Prayer

A Journey of Remembering

We have come to the final preparation for our chapter/assembly. Our theme depicted in our Logo ushers us in our desire to search our hearts on how to live our aspirations as a Province and as Lifebearers with the Poor.

Meaning of our Logo

It is a symbol of our context: reality of lights and shadows, balance and harmony.

It is the MUTUALITY of ACTION and CONTEMPLATION, between the RGS and CGS SISTERS walking barefoot rooted onthe EARTH and its realities - symbolizes a MOVEMENT, A JOURNEYING with the POOR from BROKENNESS towards the FULLNESS OF LIFE!

The CIRCLE symbolizes the EARTH of WHOLENESS, of INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATION taking place on the intrapersonal, interpersonal, societal, global and cosmic levels of life.

The HEART and the STAFF symbolizes COMPASSION embracing the WORLD with the HEART OF CHRIST in the center of the Earth. IT IS the RGS/CGS ZEAL and COMPASSION for the WORLD - with its THRUST for JUSTICE, WOMEN and INTEGRITY OF CREATION.

Suggested Individual Reflection
During the Day:

Spend time to simply gaze at the Logo... Let the Logo speak to you... and take hold of you.

Gaze at the EARTH where you walk barefoot...As you journey the landscapes and the countenance of the poor in your ministry, as you recall the landscapes when you were a child and the looks of the children you play with and their families... be sensitive to the inner stirrings/the fire within you.

Gaze at the HEART and the STAFF... as you recall your journey for the past six years, what are your wishes and desires regarding our thrust for Justice, Women and Integrity of Creation. Ask the Good Shepherd to teach you how to be a life bearer in our present time.
 

Venue of Provincial Chapter/Assembly

MARYRIDGE

Tagaytay City

Maryridge renews and heals. It is a place where we enjoy the all-embracing security of God’s care beyond all sources of complexity and dread.

All of Maryridge is situated in an enormously remarkable garden in wide expanse of land with a spellbinding view of Taal volcano and lake. One needs to be there to hear mother earth speak to your soul to grasp and truly taste her message.

Maryridge offers holistic formation, healing and renewal through recollections, retreats, workshops on healing and wholeness, Asian and indigenous forms of contemplation such as Zen and shibashi, and seminars/workshops on parenting/marital empowerment workshop.

This Good Shepherd Convent in Tagaytay was established in 1958.

Its outreach program has succeeded in freeing poor people from perennial debt, in surmounting the limits imposed by ignorance and illiteracy, and in liberating women in marginalized communities. Bahay Pastulan generates income that sustains the outreach program by managing a community cooperative store and a bakeshop which employs workers and use raw materials from neighboring communities. The Scholarship Program provides for tuition fees, school supplies, uniform and daily allowance of at least 100 grade school and high school children. The children have Christian formation sessions. The Family ministry organizes activities for families like home visitation, Bible sharing and Christian value formation.
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Delegates to the 2002 Provincial Chapter / Assembly

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Excerpts from suggested readings

    Jesus the Good Shepherd, has called us to live in communion with him and continue this redemptive mission in the Church.

    The Father who is rich in mercy sent his Son to bring good news to the poor, to set free the oppressed, to heal the contrite of heart, to seek and save what was lost. Through the Church Jesus continues to encompass with love all afflicted with human weakness. He looks for the lost one, brings back the strayed, tends the injured and makes the weak strong. He reveals the Father's mercy through a love which overcomes all sin and infidelity.

     "The life and mission today of apostolic communities is to serve the Gospel in apostolates whose aim is to help people become more open toward God and willing to live according to the demands of the Gospel. This service demands a life in which the justice of the Gospel shines out in a willingness not only to recognize and respect the rights of all, especially the poor and powerless, but also to work actively to secure those rights."

    "In seeking to promote human dignity, the church shows a preferential love of the poor and the voiceless, because the Lord has identified himself with them in a special way. This love excludes no one, but simply embodies priority of service to which whole Christian tradition bears and witness. This love for the poor and the decisions which it inspires in us cannot but embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the hopeless, those without medical care and above all, those without hope for a better future.

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