GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY 3 MAY
Written by Rev Joe Stack, Diocesan Vocations Director
Lord Jesus, in your risen body you brought the good news of salvation to the women and the apostles; let us be your witnesses in this present age. Lord, grant us the blessings of your resurrection. You appeared to the apostles and breathed the Holy Spirit upon them; pour out on us the Spirit who creates and renews. Lord, grant us the blessings of your resurrection. You promised to be with your disciples until the end of time; stay with us throughout this day and remain with us forever. Lord, grant us the blessings of your resurrection. (Intercessions at Morning Prayer – Easter Tuesday)
You are reading this in the Easter Season, and hopefully not too far distant from the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, 3 May in 2020, a day of prayer for vocations on the National Calendar for New Zealand. The Pope publishes a reflection on this day, usually on some aspect of Christ the Good Shepherd, because the Gospel is always a passage from John 10, wherein the evangelist reflects on the Shepherd image as applied to Jesus. Not that it matters too much when you are reading this, as long as it encourages you to pray urgently, earnestly, unremittingly for vocations to the ministerial priesthood; especially, but not only, for our Diocese of Hamilton. You may also have an opportunity, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to talk to a (young) man and ask him a question. The question you would ask is, “Are you listening?” Not to you, but to the voice of God. Who is this man? Someone from your own family perhaps, an acquaintance, a work colleague, a locking partner in the scrum (when we get back to playing sport), someone you’ve met in the local hardware store queue; in short anyone! It is a common experience of those helping young men to discern a call from God that very few aspirants to the priesthood enter the Seminary out of a family experience that is a stable, harmonious, Catholic household where everything is tidy and perpetually
POPE FRANCIS NEVER MENTIONS SHEPHERDING... INSTEAD, HE HAS A WATERBASED FOCUS FOR HIS MESSAGE. cheerful! In brief, it may take years of prayer and discernment before your candidate may get to the Seminary and through the study to ordination. What a gift though to be able to introduce someone to the process that will lead him to the heart of Christ! May 3rd is the day that Holy Cross Seminary acknowledges as its foundation day. This year it is also Good Shepherd Sunday; ordinarily, it would be the Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles. When Holy Cross College was founded in 1900, it was a feast of the Discovery of the Holy Cross, acknowledging the uncovering of the cross upon which Jesus was crucified, by Saint Helena (mother of Emperor Constantine); at the site of the hill of Calvary in Jerusalem (now where the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre stands). And there is another change this year! Yes, the Gospel on the Fourth Sunday of Easter still takes up the Sheep and Shepherd imagery, but in his reflection, Pope Francis never mentions shepherding or the apparatus a shepherd uses to keep his flock safe and secure. Instead, he has a water-based
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Image: Lorenzo Veneziano: Christ Rescuing Peter from Drowning, 1336. Public Domain.
Day of Prayer for Vocations
