Brother in Christ & Punishment: Activities & Reflections
Brother in Christ
Objective
To show that God is present in all.
Participants: Indefinite.
Estimated Time: 20 minutes.
Material: A cross with Christ on it, large enough to clearly define the parts of the body.
Description:
The organizer asks for participants to form a line or circle, where each one is beside another.
The leader motivates people by saying, “Now you will kiss Christ on the part that you think He speaks most to you, the part where He most showed His love for you.”
NOTE: You cannot repeat where the other person has already kissed.
The animator presents the cross to each person, one by one, until everyone has kissed it.
After everyone has kissed the cross, ask this exciting question: “What is the main commandment that Jesus left us?” (Love God above all things and your brother as yourself).
The animator concludes the activity by saying: “So the part that you kissed on Christ, you will now kiss on the person beside you.”
Note: If someone does not want to kiss, show them that the person facing them is Jesus Christ.
Message: Christ is in the person of my brother.
Punishment
Aim
Love your neighbor as yourself; do not wish on others what you do not want for yourself.
Material: Pieces of paper and pen.
Development:
Distribute a piece of paper to each person.
Tell everyone the following: “We are all brothers, are we not? So no one here will get upset if they receive a punishment from their brother. You will choose one person and give a punishment to them.”
“This will be done as follows: on the paper, write the name of who will take the punishment, the punishment itself, and the name of who *should* carry out the punishment.”
Having collected all the papers, the animator tells the outcome of the dynamic:
“It turns out that the spell is reversed, so whoever *gave* the punishment is going to *do* it.”
Note: If the person does not want to carry out the punishment, they will receive a punishment from the entire group.
Message: What we do not want for ourselves, we should not wish for others.
Tribute to Parents
Who said that behind the back of someone who scratches our face, there isn’t a child’s heart wanting to play?
Who said that behind that gruff voice there isn’t a creative boy wanting to talk?
Who said that those big hands don’t know how to care if a child cries?
Who thought that those huge feet don’t slide smoothly in the dead of night to ensure the child’s sleep?
Who thought that deep in the broad and manly chest there isn’t a heart of pudding, when the beloved son, with a grin, gets called?
Who determined that that crown of white hair doesn’t know the life I want to teach?
Father, you chose me as your son; I made you my example! Happy Father’s Day, my FATHER.
FATHER!
Our Father of all days,
Image and likeness of Him from heaven.
A special, faithful companion…
Source of love, hope, and wisdom!
All we know and have, we learned from you. You taught us by giving examples, by doing! So we grew up, doing and learning, always seeing in you a model, a friend.
From you, we bring blood and names, drops and bits, true symbols of love and affection, which have been integrated into our lives, and are part of our being.
Being a father is more than a mission; it is the full exercise of love, through delivery and donation. It is to give one’s life so that children can live!
Father, thank you for LIFE.
Your hands, thick and blue veins like strings
against a background of color patches of land.
How beautiful are your hands —
by how they coped, caressed, or trembled
in the noble anger of the righteous…
Because there is in your hands, my old father,
this beauty is called simply life.
And at dusk, when they lie
on the arms of your favorite chair,
light seems to come from within them…
Did this flame come little by little, long ago,
that you were feeding in the terrible loneliness of the world,
as one who sticks them together and tries to turn them against the wind?
Ah, how did they burn, shining,
with the miracle of your hands?
It still is life
that transforms from your knotted hand…
this flame of life — that transcends life itself…
and the angels will one day call it the soul…