Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Saturday, July 4, 2015
Jesus the Good Shepherd
by fleetofgypsies
Shepherd Me, Good Shepherd
Today’s New Testament Psalm is about Jesus, our Shepherd. I read this modern Psalm with great interest. I’ve always had a bit of feeling of kinship with the Shepherd/sheep analogy in the Bible. This topic seemed to be a natural for this book Praying the New Testament as Psalms, by Fr. Desmond O’Donnell and Sr. Maureen Mohen.
Two of the Psalm sections seemed to leap off the page at me. First, and most strongly, “As the sheep know the voice of their shepherd, may I know Your voice in the midst of life’s turmoil.” [1] This affects me, personally and deeply.
As I look back on my life, especially in the last three decades, I have been grateful for God’s guiding, shepherding hand. Even though I don’t always feel it, even though I have often been wandering in the wilderness, lost and alone, I still feel a kinship. And, I earnestly want to know God’s voice. My Good Shepherd’s voice.
A second section of this modern Psalm moves me, in a different way. It is adapted from Jesus’ words in John 10: “Help me to extend a welcome to all—‘one flock, one shepherd’—Christ’s prayer. [2] This touches the pastor and pastoral care-giver in me. Where the first section is focused inward, towards me in a distinctly interior way, this section is directed outward.
I feel I ought to ask for help. I want my Shepherd to help me to learn to be a shepherd, myself. I realize I will only make a halfway decent job of being a shepherd. However, with the Great Shepherd’s guiding, helping hand, I’ll do a better job than I ever would, doing it on my own!
Gentle Shepherd, thank You for Your help. Dear Lord Jesus, continue to shepherd me, please!
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[1] Praying the New Testament as Psalms, Desmond O’Donnell, OMI, and Maureen Mohen, RSM, (United States of America: ACTA Publications, 2002.), 42.
[2][2] Ibid.
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