The Good Shepherd

The parable of the lost sheep is one of the most powerful images from the whole New Testament.

Long before they hung crucifixes in their homes, first-century believers prayed before pictures and sculp­tures of Jesus carrying a lamb over his shoulders.

One of the most moving prayers to the Good Shepherd was written in the fourth century by St. Gregory of Nyssa:

“Where are you pasturing your flock, O Good Shepherd, who carry the whole flock on your shoulders? For the whole of human nature is one sheep, and you have lifted it onto your shoulders. Show me the place of peace. Lead me to the good grass that will nourish me. Call me by name so that I, your sheep, can hear your voice. And by your speech give me eternal life… .

“Show me then (my soul says) where you pasture your flock, so that I can find that saving pasture too and fill myself with the food of heaven … and run to the spring and fill myself with the drink of God. You give it, as from a spring, to those who thirst—water pour­ing from your side cut open by the lance; water that, to whoever drinks it, is a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

https://wau.org/meditations/current/