PRAYER SERVICE ON COMMUNITY 

LIVING:  How wonderful it is to see the harmonious way this plant is put together. The stem, the branches, the leaves, the flowers, the roots, all put together form a marvelous blend of living. They appear so different, one from the other. The stem is different from the branches, the branches from the leaves, the leaves from the flowers and the flowers from the roots and yet each one of these contributes to the growth and development of the other. None of these is superfluous and every one of them is necessary and important. Each one of them has their role to play. Different yet forming one entity, living together in harmony and co-ordination.

          This plant has been called into existence through tensions, struggle of failures yet the plant has grown beautifully.

Let us remember that through tensions, failures and struggles we grow to maturity in the community.

GIVING:  This plant is an ideal example of giving. The roots give themselves to the stem. Drawing energy from the soil. The roots transport this energy to the stem. The stem in turn conveys this life giving energy to the branches and the branches in their turn transmit this same energy to the leaves and the flowers. What an ideal example of giving. There is no question of clinging to their respective selves. It is in giving that this plant grows to the fulfill maturity.

          Our communities are called to give. Each one of us is called to give oneself totally to our communities. When this giving is selfless and generous, our community will thrive and grow to maturity. But if we refrain from giving our community will shrink and die.

          Let us question ourselves whether or not we give ourselves totally to our community?

SHARING:  Each member of this plant has its own function. In spite of the different role that each one plays yet are shares whole-heartedly with the other members. The food, the water, the air, the light, the beauty and the fragrance that it receives is shared with all the members. This sharing brings about inter-relatedness among all the members as though each member is concerned about the other. Without this life of sharing this plant would cease to grow and flourish. This plant depends totally and completely on its ability to share. By sharing this plant blossoms and blooms into full structure.

          Sharing has to he the foundation of any true and genuine religious community. How much of myself do I share in my community? Do I share something that is external and superfluous to me or do I share my very self?

RECEIVING:   Each branch, each leaf, each flower of this plant is unique. Each one of these receives support from the other and each one depends on the other for support. What marvelous interdependence. How intimately inter-connected one

Part is to the other. Each member of this plant cannot survive on its own what it receives from one; it gives to another and thus completes the chain of giving.

          We depend so much on each other and on our community. We could never develop and grow without this interaction of receiving and giving. This is to be the hallmark of our community. The readiness and willingness to receive and at the same time the generosity and preparedness to give.

LOVING: Beauty springs forth from love. Every plant is a thing of beauty which has sprung forth from the loving hands of a loving God. God’s beauty is reflected in every structure and shapely features of this plant. The beauty is enriched by the symmetrical make up of the leaves and the colorful charming delicacy of every flower.

          The plant in turn is full of love for each of its members. It is love that holds each part in place and each part together. Every plant is a symbol of love, loving itself as it clings to itself. Loving God as it raises its magnificent beauty heaven words and loving the world around it as it stretches out to embrace the whole world. How do we love our sisters in the community?

PRAYING: The very posture of this plant denotes an attitude of prayer. Taking its root in the soil, in the ground it tends to raise upwards to the heavens with its branches reaching out to the sky. A continual and continuous attitude of payer. It seeks to rise and ascend from the earthly to the heavenly in a perpetual stance of thanksgiving and prayerfulness. Thanking God for its very existence and for having been created for one ultimate purpose and that is to glorify God and to beautify this earth. All that it receives from God it gives back in a spirit of gratitude.

          Like the plant, our community must be rooted in Christ, tending upwards towards the heavens in a constant attitude of prayer in adoration; in exaltation; in supplication and in gratification. Like the branches of this plant every individual in our community must be transformed and changed into a prayerful persons.

BEARING: we see a variety of leaves, branches, flowers and petals. Some are old, some young, some half way grown; some are healthy, some not so healthy. Yet the plant is called to bear up with all the differences that are present in its members. The plant does not discard any one of these, no matter what they are. On the contrary, the plant embraces every one of these supporting them, nourishing them and clinging on to them. It takes into consideration so carefully the differences and the diversity that exists because the plant recognizes the important role of each member.

          Do we accept our complementarities and show respect for each one’s mystery as we journey towards the Lord, supporting and bearing with one another?

WORKING: The very life of plant shows that without it’s working, it cannot sustain the others. There is a marvelous co-ordination of work that goes on in the

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Plant. The part for the whole and the whole for the part. Each part knows well that it so much depends on the others. It has to work not merely for itself but also for sustain the others. The life of the each part of the plant is interdependent. The motto of the plant is: UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. What an excellent model of harmonious working in the plant. Do we work whole-heartedly and enthusiastically for the good of our communities? Do we make a justifiable contribution by working for our communities? Does my work, in any way, extinguish the spirit of my prayer life? Am I a workaholic or a work-shirks? Do I sustain my community and does my community sustain me?

          We thank God for giving us a plant as a symbol of what our community should be!