Daily Meditation: Laying Down Your Life for Your Friends

Sunday April 14, 2013    Laying Down Your Life for Your Friends   Good Shepherds are willing to lay down their lives for their sheep (see John 10:11).   As spiritual leaders walking in the footsteps of Jesus, we are called to lay down our lives for our people.  This laying down might in special circumstances mean dying for others.  But it means first of all making our own lives - our sorrows and joys, our despair and hope, our loneliness and experience of intimacy - available to others as sources of new life.   One of the greatest gifts we can give others is ourselves.  We offer consolation and comfort, especially in moments of crisis, when we say:  "Do not be afraid, I know what you are living and I am living it with you.  You are not alone."  Thus we become Christ-like shepherds.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. New event posting: SAT Summer Sabbatical, June 2013. Click here for details. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

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