The Month of April Dedicated both to Devotion to the Eucharist and Devotion to the Holy Spirit
Good Shepherd Sunday
60th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, "Vocation: Grace and Mission"
In other years: Pope Saint Pius V (1504-1572); Saint Marie of the Incarnation (1599-1672); Our Lady, Mother of Africa
Readings of the Day
Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 72 The Good Zeal of Monks
Mass: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Resp Ps 23; 1 Pt 2:20b-25; Jn 10:1-10
Only goodness and kindness follow me.
MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,
SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,
PRAY FOR US.
JESUS, TRUE SHEPHERD,
SPIRIT OF GRACE AND PRAYER,
HAVE MERCY ON US.
I came so that they may have life and have it more abundantly.
(Jn 10:10)
Welcome to Good Shepherd Sunday and Day of Prayer for Vocations. On this busy day, and during this busy week with more saints to invoke, we continue to pray for Pope Francis as he returns to Rome after his 41st Apostolic Journey outside of Italy, this time to Hungary. May Saint Elizabeth of Hungary intercede for him. We also mark the last day of April 2023 and launch into the beautiful month of May, the month of Mary, dedicated to devotion to the Blessed Mother. And if that is not enough, we wrap up the first read through of the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict for 2023 and spend today with the most beautiful Chapter 72 on the Good Zeal of Monks. Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may He bring us all together to everlasting life (Rule of Saint Benedict 72:11-12).
On Good Shepherd Sunday we have my favorite Psalm 23, a psalm that got me through many a lift from here to there in rural South Africa when I served in the United States Peace Corps. When someone would kindly give me a lift, and as soon as I got in the car, I would pray from Psalm 23 in Zulu. All will be well and all manner of things will be well. A mantra for the week can be, then, Ujehova ungumalusi wami angiyikuswela The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Turn to the Lord, He is the gate - the only gate to enter. He will lead you and give you courage; only goodness and kindness will follow you, all the days of your life. United in faith and prayer, make friends with Psalm 23. And as I found it, it just may make you instant friends with strangers. Thank you, faithful readers, for being there.
Here are some voices to assist you in your life of prayer and work this week. We begin with a prayer for Eastertide, the Regina Caeli Queen of Heaven.
Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
The Son whom you merited to bear, alleluia,
has risen as He said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.
Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary,
alleluia!
For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia!
For the World Day of Prayer for vocations, and no matter our state of life, we are called to follow the Lord, to love Him with our whole heart and soul and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The Lord has called us out of darkness, into His wonderful light. He is our Light and our Life. Thanks be to God.
Our shared mission as Christians is to bear joyful witness wherever we find ourselves, through our actions and words, to the experience of being with Jesus and members of His community, which is the Church. That mission finds expression in works of material and spiritual mercy, in a welcoming and gentle way of life that reflects closeness, compassion and tenderness, in contrast to the culture of waste and indifference. By being a neighbor, like the Good Samaritan, we come to understand the heart of our Christian vocation: to imitate Jesus Christ, who came to serve, not be served.
(Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the 2023 World Day of Prayer for Vocations)
O Jesus, divine Shepherd of souls, you called the Apostles and made them fishers of men. Continue to draw to yourself ardent and generous souls among the young in order to make them your followers and ministers. Give them a share in your thirst for the redemption of all ... Open before them the horizons of the entire world ... By responding to your call, may they prolong your mission here on earth, build up your Mystical Body which is the Church, and be "salt of the earth" and "light of the world."
(Pope Saint Paul VI, First World Day of Vocations, April 11, 1964)
Monks and nuns are the beating heart of the Church's proclamation of the Gospel: their prayer is oxygen for all the members of the Body of Christ, the invisible source that sustains the mission ...
Monks and nuns, like Jesus, take on the world's problems, the difficulties, the illnesses, many things, and pray for others ... [cloistered religious] are always busy with work and prayer.
(Pope Francis, Wednesday General Audience, April 26, 2023)
In honor of Mary in this month of May, and also as we constantly turn to the saints for help and guidance, we hear from Saint Marcellin Champagnat (d. 1840), one of the founding members of the Society of Mary, or Marist Fathers, and the founder of the Marist Brothers.
A saint is a humble person, who constantly fights pride, who, far from wanting to dominate others, makes himself the least and the servant of all. Learn of me, says Jesus, because I am meek and humble of heart. All the saints attended the school of Jesus Christ; all of them learned humility from Him; all of them were models of this virtue.
And lastly, a few random voices, from here and there.
Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
(James 1:1)
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His footsteps.
(1 Pt 2:20b-21)
Know this, dear brothers and sisters, everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath ... humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you ...
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves ... the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, such a one shall be blessed in what he does.
(James 1:19-25)
Every time you begin a good work, you must pray to Him most earnestly to bring it to perfection.
(Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 4)
Do not speak evil of one another.
(James 4:11)
If you desire true and eternal life, keep your tongue free from vicious talk and your lips from all deceit; turn away from evil and do good; let peace be your quest and aim.
(Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 17)
You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading, and to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed in his progress.
(Saint Athanasius)
Listen carefully, my son, to the master's instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.
(Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 1)
It is to be hoped that the life of everyone will be a life sustained by passionate love for the Lord Jesus; a life capable of responding to suffering and to thorns with forgiveness and the total gift of self, in order to spread everywhere the good odor of Christ.
(Pope Saint John Paul II, May 20, 2000, to pilgrims on the Centenary of the Canonization of Saint Rita of Cascia, d. 1457)
They should each try to be the first to show respect to the other, supporting with greatest patience one another's weaknesses of body or behavior, and earnestly competing in obedience to one another. No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else.
(Rule of Saint Benedict, 72:4-7)
POPE SAINT PIUS V,
SAINT MARIE OF THE INCARNATION,
OUR LADY, MOTHER OF AFRICA,
SAINT JOSEPH THE WORKER,
SAINT ATHANASIUS,
SAINTS PHILIP AND JAMES,
THE ENGLISH MARTYRS,
BLESSED MARIE-LEONIE PARADIS,
SAINT CONLETH,
THE BEATIFIED MARTYRS OF ENGLAND AND WALES,
SAINT JOSE MARIE RUBIO,
BLESSED ANGEL PRAT HOSTENCH AND COMPANIONS,
BLESSED EMILY BICCHIERI, OP,
SAINT ASAPH,
BLESSED EDMUND RICE,
SAINT RICHARD REYNOLDS,
SAINT ANGELUS,
SAINT FRANCOIS DE LAVAL,
SAINT RITA OF CASCIA,
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: He refreshes my soul.
© Gertrude Feick 2023
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