Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Let us reflect on all that our priests do for us and give thanks to God for their many acts of service and love that they share with so many. May we truly see what a gift the priesthood is and pray fervently for our priests and for vocations. Please grab a prayer card in the gathering space as a reminder to continue praying for priests.

Read this Sunday Readings from USCCB

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Reading 1 Acts 4:8-12

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said:
“Leaders of the people and elders:
If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,
then all of you and all the people of Israel should know
that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
in his name this man stands before you healed.
He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”

Responsorial Psalm  Ps 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29

R.The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.

I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD;
we bless you from the house of the LORD.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his kindness endures forever.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.

Reading 2 1 Jn 3:1-2

Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.

Alleluia Jn 10:14

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Jn 10:11-18

Jesus said:
“I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd
and whose sheep are not his own,
sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father.”

Good Shepherd Sunday
The Shepherd’s Voice: Scott Hahn Reflects on the
Fourth Sunday of Easter stpaulcenter.com
Jesus, in today’s Gospel, says that He is the good
shepherd the prophets had promised to Israel. He is
the shepherd-prince, the new David—who frees
people from bondage to sin and gathers them into one
flock, the Church, under a new covenant, made in His
blood. His flock includes other sheep, He says, far
more than the dispersed children of Israel. And He
gave His Church the mission of shepherding all
peoples to the Father.


In today’s First Reading, we see the beginnings of that
mission in the testimony of Peter, whom the Lord
appointed shepherd of His Church. Peter tells Israel’s
leaders that the Psalm we sing today is a prophecy of
their rejection and crucifixion of Christ. He tells the
“builders” of Israel’s temple that God has made the
stone they rejected the cornerstone of a new spiritual
temple, the Church.
Through the ministry of the Church, the shepherd still
speaks, and forgives sins, and makes His body and
blood present, that all may know Him in the breaking
of the bread. It is a mission that will continue until all
the world is one flock under the one shepherd.
In laying down His life and taking it up again, Jesus
made it possible for us to know God as He did—as
sons and daughters of the Father who loves us. As we
hear in today’s Epistle, He calls us His children, as He
called Israel His son when He led them out of Egypt
and made His covenant with them .


Today, let us listen for His voice as He speaks to us in
the Scriptures, and vow again to be more faithful
followers. And let us give thanks for the blessings He
bestows from His altar.