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Share your faith – Join our Online Discussion! Build up others with your thoughts on our Sunday meditation. Three questions will be offered for reflection and discussion each week. Please pray through the questions and share your insights or what the Lord spoke to you in the comments area provided. Your words will inspire others in The Word Among Us community and encourage us all.
“Good Shepherd Sunday” is a traditional time for First Communion celebrations. If we are privileged to attend or to remember such an event, it’s easy to recognize as “children of God” those who dress in white, express eager reverence with their bodies, and draw near to the Lord’s table for their first encounter.
Yet this day isn’t the culmination of the journey or a one-time event. Although first communicants are truly children of God, there is more to come. They—and we—are not yet all we will be as we mature as human beings and grow in union with our Savior. One day, John promises, we will see him as he is. And we will be like him!
The journey to that day may involve unanticipated twists and turns. We may wander from the fold, questioning the faith we have inherited, even “dropping out” for a time. Still, the Good Shepherd is actively seeking us day after day. We may be called to suffer or watch others suffer, to lay down our own lives for someone else, sometimes without seeing any reward. In all these moments, the Shepherd continues to work, drawing us gently into closer and closer union with himself.
Just as he offers these precious children his own body and blood as food for their journey, Jesus wants to sustain us with the same food. As we receive the Eucharist, we are gradually transformed into what we eat, becoming more like Jesus—and, paradoxically, more like the person he loves and created us to be.
Where are you today in your relationship with the Lord? Where is he calling you? What step would he have you take today to move closer to all he has for you? Let go of the past and reach forward to what lies ahead, confident in God’s loving call and provision!
“Father, we are your beloved children, sisters and brothers to your Son. As we receive his body and blood today, open our eyes to the reality of his presence. Touch us and make us more like him.”
Discussion Questions
1. Reflect on and share one of the ways that you have experienced the Lord as your “Good Shepherd,” drawing you to himself. What aspect of this image speaks to you most deeply? Why?
2. How or when have you experienced the Eucharist as food for your life’s journey? As a source of personal transformation? As “communion” with others? Spend time in prayer thanking Jesus for the gift of the Eucharist.
3. The Sacrament of Reconciliation “makes sacramentally present Jesus’ call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed in sin” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1423). What impact has receiving this sacrament had on your personal relationship with the Lord?
One time when I received God, I felt as if I was part of the whole community. I felt they were part of my body in Christ. It felt as if there was no distances between me and any of the members of our Catholic church. I started thinking of all the people around the world that were receiving God and I felt part of them. I felt like the real body of Christ. I have felt that many times since then. I think the more we received him the closer and closer we get to him and to others. I cant wait for the day that everyone one in this world receives him then we will have completed his puzzle and we will be one. We will fanally meet the GOOD SHEPERD, or the GOD SHEPERD. Bless you all.
I agree with the last comment; as I journey closer and closer to God, I am drawn closer and closer to my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I begin to realize more with each passing day that when any one member of the Body--the Church--is hurt or insulted, it is as if I am wounded also. This makes it natural to pray intercessory prayers, in union with Our Lady and all the Angels and Saints, and to unite any small and insignificant suffering I may experience with the incomprehensible suffering of Christ, for the reparation of sins, my own and those of the world. With each reception of Jesus in the Eucharist, and with each Holy Hour, I feel nourished and strengthened. Now, if only I could learn to let go more completely and let the Holy Spirit guide me to share this with everyone!!!