In the Old Testament, the Jewish nation was presented the model of the Good Shepherd. In the 23rd psalm, we are told: The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. The prisoners asked me about my favorite Bible verses, and after a lot of reflecting on that, since as a priest so much of Scripture speaks to me in different ways, the verses from the 23rd psalm and about Jesus being the Good shepherd speak to me.
Jesus as the Good Shepherd speaks to all of us, no matter who we are. We have Uno the lost sheep here with us every Sunday during Mass. I got the idea of having Uno when I visited a parish in New Hampshire in the town of Alton, on the shore of beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee. The priest there had a couple of stuffed lambs in the altar area, and I noticed that they moved places in between the masses there. I love having Uno here to speak to our children, to show them that they are important to us and are an important part of our Catholic community here in our parish.
In our Gospel today from John, Jesus tells us that he is the gate for his sheep and for his flock. He tells us that whoever enters through him will be saved. Jesus is the fulfillment of the good shepherd that is spoken about in the 23rd psalm and elsewhere in Scripture. The shepherd enters through the gate to take care of the sheep, not to oppress or harm them or lead them astray. The sheep recognize the authority of the good shepherd and they follow him. Jesus leads his people to salvation, to take them out of the darkness of the world. The work of the good shepherd is the work that was entrusted in him by the Father, the work by which Jesus was sent into the world. Jesus is the gate of salvation for all. We are called to trust Jesus and to follow him as the good shepherd.
We have a lot of voices around us that can challenge what we believe in our faith and lead us away from the path of the Good Shepherd. In movies and TV and songs and social media, we get the message that a lot of things that are against our faith are OK to do.
Do we listen to those other voices? Do we follow a path that leads us down a different road away from our faith? Or do we listen to our Good Shepherd and follow him?
This year is the 63rd anniversary of the world day of prayer for vocations. According to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the purpose of this day of prayer is to publicly fulfill the Lord's instruction to pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest.” This day of prayer affirms the primacy of faith and grace in all that concerns vocations to the priesthood, the diaconate, consecrated religious life, and lay ministry vocations. While appreciating all vocations, the Church concentrates its attention this day on vocations to the ordained ministries (priesthood and diaconate), consecrated life in all its forms (male and female religious life, societies of apostolic life, consecrated virginity, secular institutes), and to the missionary life. We pray for vocations today. We will have an ordination of a new priest, Will Foggo, on May 17 this year. We will have the ordination of our new deacons on July 17, including Hunter Yentzen and Chris Hallewell. We pray for all those men in a special way and for an increase in vocations.
I want to mention adoration of the blessed sacrament. The devotions of our Church help us deepen our Catholic faith and deepen our relationship with Jesus. Adoration is a special devotion where we spend time with Jesus in the Eucharist. We have an adoration room in our religious eduction building. That room is available 24 hours a day to be present with Jesus in the blessed sacrament of the eucharist and to pray in his presence is quiet holy space reserved for prayer and adoration. We have different times in our parish to pray as a part of our community with the blessed sacrament. We have adoration this upcoming Saturday from 8:00 am to 9:00 am in our first Saturday devotion, a devotion associated with the apparition of Mary in Our Lady of Fatima. We also have adoration on the first Wednesday evening of the month from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. This month, it will be May 6. When I first came to the parish, although everyone is invited to the first Wednesday adoration, we invite in a special way our children and youth and families. This month, we our youth trips coming up this summer, I am asking our youth who attended the youth convention this year and who are going to our trips to St Meinrad and Steubenville this year to come to adoration to experience that devotion in the context of your parish, since you will be having adoration in conjunction with your youth trips, and we want to pray for you and give you a special blessing in the context of your parish community. We want to invite all of you to join us for adoration and to experience Jesus in that special devotion of our faith.
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