Aim: To get in touch with the unconditional love of God.

• Stones - at least one per participant
• Large plastic sheet to cover flooring
• Sand

Suggestion for focal point:   
Sand scattered across large surface, with pebbles / stones placed randomly in the sand.

Group conversation:   
Read from the Bible - John's Gospel, Chapter 8 - concerning the woman brought before Jesus.

• Ask participants what they make of Jesus' writing in the sand. What was he doing? Suggest he was a "doodler" - biding his time, embarrassed, keeping his head down. Why was he embarrassed? Because of the hypocrisy of his friends. Surely one of them, given time, would recognise the absurdity of it all ... but no! He has to point it out to them: "Let the one who is without fault throw the first stone at this woman."

• Talk about "boundary markers" - the easily identifiable markers that indicate whether a person is "in" or "out" - be it dress, speech, code of conduct. Reflect upon our need to operate within a secure universe where those within our boundaries are acceptable, those beyond are less so. Why is this?

• Compare Jesus who lived out the extravagant love of God and crashed through all boundary markers.

• Invite participants to reflect on our boundary markers - who is in and therefore acceptable, and who is out? Who do we continue to throw stones at? Are participants in agreement? If not, why not?

• Reflect upon our need for scapegoats. So much of this has to do with our inability to accept ourselves as good, beautiful, created in the image of God - valued and special. How many of us have been stalked by a beggar most of our lives - a beggar whom we've never loved and never given anything to? Until we learn to love the beggar within ourselves, we're not free to move on. How do we unlearn the defensiveness, the anger, the tendency to undermine ... ? We cannot learn self-esteem until we have learnt self-knowledge, until we have learnt to love the beggar that stalks us.

Suggestions for prayer and reflection:
Invite participants to reflect on their experience of life. Where/when have they felt unacceptable, not good enough? How has it affected them? When do these feelings resurface for them? Encourage participants to spend time on their own, and after reflection to enter into an imaginary conversation with Christ. They are asked to place themselves amidst a group of people, each speaking with different voices, holding different responses to their situation. Christ enters into the conversation. What is he saying? How does the individual respond? Invite participant to develop the conversation.

Liturgy, worship, sharing:
This section is a significant part of the day and it is important that ample time is given to it.

The focal point of the day (sand and stone) becomes the liturgical space. Participants are seated (preferably on the floor) around the large expanse of sand. Each of them has a stone that represents the hard and dispassionate part of themselves. The leader offers a meditation focusing on the unconditional love of God, pausing regularly for participants to reflect on all that gets in the way of self-acceptance. Participants should be encouraged to share their thoughts if they choose to do so as part of this meditation, but must not be put under any pressure to do so.

When the meditation is finished, music begins and each participant is invited to "doodle" a word in the sand, naming one thing that has held them back from generous, open-ended living.

The liturgy ends with each participant offering a blessing of affirmation to their neighbour and encouragement for the next step of their journey.

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