Good Shepherd Sunday (Year A) - 30 April
30th April 2023
Good Shepherd Sunday (Year A) - 30 April
“Know that the greatest service that man can offer to God is to help convert souls.” - St Rose of Lima
World Day of Prayer for Vocations
This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Every year it falls on Good Shepherd Sunday. The purpose of this special day of prayer is to publicly fulfil the Lord’s instruction to ‘Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest’ (Mt 9:38; Lk 10:2).
A reflection on the vocation of a priest by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"We priests are not only shepherds, but also lambs. Was not Our Lord Himself both the ‘Good Shepherd’ and the ‘Lamb of God’ (Jn 1:29)? As the Offerer, He is the Shepherd. As the Offered, He is the Lamb. It is this dual role of Christ that explains why He spoke at certain times during His trial and at other times was silent. He spoke as the Shepherd; He was silent as the Lamb.
"The priest too is not only the shepherd who cares for his sheep; he is also the lamb who is offered in caring for them. This caring is what distinguishes him from the hireling. One who cares for another assumes the weight of the other’s condition on his own heart and bears it in love. The parishioners are not disturbers; they are our heart, our body, our blood.
"The priest playing the role of a shepherd often goes to his death as a lamb. The shepherd who would give more abundant life to the lost sheep is bound to have wolves howling about him and thus be led ultimately to his death. It was only the sight of the Shepherd crucified that made the sheep realise how much the Shepherd cared. It is interesting that Saint Peter described Our Lord as ‘your Shepherd, who keeps watch over your souls’ (1 Pet 2:25).
"The shepherd’s primary duty is to search out the lost sheep and stay with it once found. This is what distinguishes the true shepherd from the hireling, the intellectual from the intelligentsia. Both are degreed, learned and scholarly. This difference lies in their relation to the people. The intellectual never loses that compassion for the multitude which characterised the Word Incarnate. The intelligentsia, on the contrary, live apart from tears and hunger, cancer and bereavement, poverty and ignorance. They lack the common touch. Only the cream of bookish learning, not the milk of human kindness, flows through their veins.
"So with the priest. Contact with people for Christ’s sake is the victimhood that makes the priesthood. Only by also being a lamb offered through forgetfulness of worldly superiority does the priest become the shepherd of souls." (The Priest is Not His Own)
The Good Shepherd Prayer
Lord, we are Your people, the sheep of Your flock. Heal the sheep who are wounded. Touch the sheep who are in pain. Clean the sheep who are soiled. Warm the lambs who are cold. Help us to know the Father’s love through Jesus the Good Shepherd and through the Spirit. Help us to lift up that love, and show it all over this land. Help us to build love on justice and justice on love. Help us to believe mightily, hope joyfully, love divinely. Renew us that we may help renew the face of the earth. Amen. 💖💐🙏
Prayer for Priests by St John Vianney, Patron Saint of Priests
Lord God, please give to Your Church today many more priests after Your own heart.
May they be worthy representatives of Christ the Good Shepherd.
May they wholeheartedly devote themselves to prayer and penance;
be examples of humility and poverty;
shining models of holiness;
tireless and powerful preachers of the Word of God;
zealous dispensers of Your grace in the sacraments.
May their loving devotion to Your Son Jesus in the Eucharist and to Mary His Mother be the twin fountains of fruitfulness for their ministry. Amen. 💖🙏💐
Food for thought
One of God’s greatest beneficial works is the creation of the Priesthood. It is the life blood of the Church. Without the priest there can be no Mass, no Eucharist, no administering of the sacraments. A priest requires more than normal virtue - more than normal fortitude for much is required of him. He is the one appointed to deal with spiritual diseases and sicknesses of unclean, accused mankind. He assumes the heavy responsibility of all souls placed into his care. His duty is to protect his flock from the snares of the devil. He must stand apart from the ordinary run of mankind, and his first love must always be the divine Author and God of the universe. A priest’s life is one of sacrifice and service. He represents Christ. The laity - whose spiritual welfare is the priest’s responsibility - should help him, for we cannot expect flawless Church leadership if we do nothing about it. Though set apart from the world, a priest is part of it and is vulnerable to all its dangers. This is why we must pray each day for our priests.