AN ANNOUNCEMENT

FOR NEXT WEEK,

NOT "THIS WEEK"

I will be facilitating a retreat in Spokane and attending a meeting in St. Louis. Therefore, Mother Cecily Broderick, who has a Saturday night liturgy and a Sunday noon liturgy in Sag Harbor, has offered to supply here at St. Mary's. To facilitate that we will have ONE 9:00 AM SERVICE here at St.Mary's on next Sunday May 18th. 

Fr. Charlie

he Good Shepherd Jorge Cocco

The Collect

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The First Lesson

Acts 9:36-43

Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us without delay." So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.

The Psalm

Psalm 23

Dominus regit me

1 The Lord is my shepherd; *

I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures *

and leads me beside still waters.

3 He revives my soul *

and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; *

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5 You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; *

you have anointed my head with oil,

and my cup is running over.

6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

The Epistle

Revelation 7:9-17

I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,

“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing,

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom

and thanksgiving and honor

and power and might

be to our God forever and ever! 

Amen.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?" I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

For this reason they are before the throne of God,

and worship him day and night within his temple, 

and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;

the sun will not strike them, 

nor any scorching heat;

for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,

and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Good Shepherd Mandala Sahi

The Good Shepherd Sister Claire

Fr Plant's Gospel Commentary

Rev'd Up from St Mark's New Canaan CT

The Gospel

John 10:22-30

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one."

Good Shepherd Varghese

Some Quotes for Reflection

Stranger and Pilgrim Soul 

The symbolism of the shepherd also contains the sense of a wisdom which is both intuitive and the fruit of experience.  The shepherd symbolizes watchfulness.  His duties entail the constant exercise of vigilance.  He is awake and watching.  Hence he is compared with the Sun, which sees all things, and with the king.  Furthermore, since, as we have stated, the shepherd symbolizes the nomad, he is rootless and stands for the soul which is not a native of this Earth but always a stranger and pilgrim.  In so far as his flock is concerned, the shepherd acts as a guardian and to this is linked knowledge, since he knows what pasture suits the animals in his charge.  He observes the Heavens, the Sun, the Moon and the stars and can predict the weather.  He distinguishes sounds and hears the noise of approaching wolves, as well as the bleating of lost sheep.

  Through the different duties which he performs, he is regarded as a wise man whose activities are the result of contemplation and inner vision.

-Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant

 The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

The Beautiful One

The Good Shepherd: The shepherd, the beautiful one.  Of course this translation exaggerates.  But it is important that the word for “good” here is one that represents, not the moral rectitude of goodness, nor its austerity, but it's attractiveness.  We must not forget that our vocation is so to practise virtue that men are won to it; it is possible to be morally upright repulsively!  In the Lord Jesus we see “the beauty of holiness” (Psalm xcvi,9). He was “good” in such manner as to draw all men to Himself (xii,32). And this beauty of goodness is supremely seen in the act by which He would so draw them, wherein He lays down his life for the sheep.

-Archbishop William Temple, of Canterbury 1881-1944

Readings in John’s Gospel

Behold then the sheep with the immaculate lamb, behold the faithful soul with Christ, who is glad of that love, who desires it so much that he is always famished and can never be sated by it, for too little does he find of that milk of love.

-Umilta of Faenza, thirteenth century, Medieval Women’s Visionary Liturature, ed. Petroff, quoted in Easter, Liturgy Training Publications

I will feed them with good pasture,

and upon the mountain heights of Israel

shall be their pasture;

there they shall lie down in good grazing land,

and on fat pasture

they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep,

and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God.

I will seek the lost,

and I will bring back the strayed,

and I will bind up the crippled,

and I will strengthen the weak,

and the fat and the strong I will watch over;

I will feed them in justice.

-Ezekiel 34:14-16

Because of sin

you would not enter into your glory

in the way your truth had intended.

Your garden was locked up,

and so we could not receive your fruits.

This is why you made the Word,

your only-begotten Son,

a gatekeeper.

...

O gentle gatekeeper!

O humble Lamb!

You are the gardener,

And once you have opened the gate of the heavenly garden,

paradise,

you offer us the flowers

and the fruits

of the eternal Godhead.

-Catherine of Siena 1347-1380

The Prayers of Catherine of Siena

Suzanne Noffke, OP translator and editor

Jesus, the new Adam, is at once shepherd and Word, “Name” of God, who is sent to men and women, to call them by name – by their true names in the creative Word, which are godly names, generative of divine being.  Those who hear the Word of God are gathered into it and become “gods.” Those who receive the Son of God are gathered in to him and become children of God (1:12).  The violent compulsion which leads Jesus’ hearers to take up stones to kill him (10:31) comes from beyond themselves, from one who would only kill and destroy (see 8:40,44); what they rush forward to destroy is the divine-human life which is their own destiny.

   “I have other sheep…there will be one flock, one shepherd” (10:16) “The Father and I are one” (10:30). The sheepfold into which Jesus leads those who hear his voice, who hear him speak their new names – whether they have been Jews or Gentiles – is ultimately this One, this I Am, which is his own being.

-Bruno Barnhart

The Good Wine, Reading John from the Center

Good Shepherd Jan Takayama