It seems to be very hard, and if that would do any good, might be a just matter of complaint, that we are fallen into so profane and skeptical an age, which takes a pleasure and a pride in unraveling almost all the received principles both of religion and reason, so that we are put many times to prove those things, which can hardly be made plainer than they are of themselves.
 - John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. I

(So if you think this way at times about this age, you might note that this quote is from the 17th C. As Qoheleth put it, "nothing new under the sun.")

EZ 34:11-16;    PS 23:1-6;    ROM 5:5B-11;    LK 15:3-7

R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.

He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.

You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows. 

Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.





In Ezekiel, the Good Shepherd brings back the scattered sheep: "I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. In good pastures I will pasture them. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up."

In Psalm 23, the Good Shepherd walks with  the sheep even amid dangers: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He guides me in right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk in a dark valley I fear no evil for you are at my side."

In Luke, the Good Shepherd risks everything to rescue just one sheep: "What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?"

Assurance of God's unconditional love is the deepest need of human hearts. The Good Shepherd is the scriptural image of this assurance.  Miraculously through his appearances to a French nun - St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) - Jesus himself gives the world the assurance of God's love by appearing to her as the Sacred Heart.  Could there be a more eloquent image!

- by Dick Hauser, S.J.

Selected Quotes from St. John of the Cross on the Journey of the Soul to God by Contemplation

- from Ascent of Mt. Carmel

Bk. 3. Ch. 5. #1. Moral good consists in the control of the passions and the restriction of the inordinate appetites. The result for the soul is tranquility, peace, repose, and moral virtue. The soul cannot control the passion without forgetting and withdrawing from the sources of these emotions. Disturbances never arise in a soul unless through the apprehensions of the memory. 

#3. The soul must go to God by not-comprehending rather than by comprehending and it must exchange the mutable and comprehensible for the Immutable and Incomprehensible.

- compiled by James and Tyra Arraj