Only to this congregation in the Pauline Family did Alberione, from the very beginning, explicitly entrust a spirituality centered on Jesus the Good Shepherd; the rest of the Pauline Family lives the devotion to Jesus as Master. However, the Founder did not seem to sustain the idea that for the Shepherdess Sisters the devotion to Christ as Shepherd should take the place of Jesus as Master. The Shepherdess Sisters have taken it upon themselves to study in depth their spirituality, and what connection it has with Jesus as Master, and whether or not their spirituality is to be taken as a separate and parallel track, a second Alberionian Christology side by side with what is given to the rest of the Pauline Family.26 That Alberione himself was aware of the difficulty in situating the Jesus Good Shepherd devotion within a Pauline Family committed to Jesus as Master, is obvious from the following, taken from a homily to the Pastorelle in January 1955: You asked me: “Why do we honor Jesus under the title of Shepherd and not of Master like the rest of the Pauline Family?” The answer: “Because you should act like Shepherdesses. Jesus is always the same, but you should form yourselves for souls and, like Jesus, know how to give your life for the sheep.”
It would seem from this reply that the Pastorelle have to be given a spirituality that sustains their charismatic mission in the Church, which is to work closely with the pastors of the Church and take care of the flock; it is a pastoral task, the spirit of which is common to the various apostolates of the institutes that make up the Pauline Family, but which is to be more visibly incarnated in the Pastorelle.27 The Shepherdess Sisters are still continuing the work of establishing the links that bind them with the rest of the Pauline Family in terms of its common spirituality centered on Jesus Master, Way, Truth and Life. To them Alberione gives the task to articulate “Pauline spirituality according to the Good Shepherd.”28 To this Elena Bosetti responds: …the teaching of Fr. Alberione to the Sisters of Jesus Good Shepherd reflects the constants of that common patrimony which we call “Pauline spirituality”: the novelty consists essentially in the pastoral perspective within which the various elements are located.29
For instance, the indispensable link to “way, truth, life” is as much a part of Jesus Good Shepherd as it is of Jesus Master. The Pastorelle are exhorted to place “at the center of life Jesus Way, Truth and Life, Divine Shepherd.”30 And in a meditation to the Pastorelle in September 1942, Alberione asks: Who is the good shepherd?… It is he who makes himself so, for the sake of his fold, in imitation of Jesus Christ, Way, Truth and Life. …Way, that is, model. The Good Shepherd indicates to the people the way more with his life than with his words…. He tends to us with his holy examples. – Truth, Jesus taught the loftiest truths, necessary for all, in an easy, practical way.… Jesus tends with his doctrine. – Life, Jesus Good Shepherd makes us live with his own life. “My life is Christ” (Phil 1:21)… Jesus tends our hearts.31
During the Spiritual Exercises of December 1948, Alberione explicitly points out the connection: “The two definitions ‘Ego sum Pastor Bonus’ (Jn 10: 11) and ‘Ego sum Via, Veritas et Vita’ (Jn 14:6) complete each other.”32 The connection between the two selfdefinitions of Christ is easier to establish than that between “Master” and “‘Way, Truth and Life” because it has a liturgical precedent. In the antiphon to the Benedictus for Good Shepherd Sunday33 the Latin text reads: Ego sum Pastor ovium: Ego sum Via, Veritas et Vita. Ego sum Pastor bonus, et cognosco over meas, et cognoscunt me meae. (I am the Shep-
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