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Friday of the Seventh week of Easter

Commentary of the day
Saint John Climacus (c.575-c.650), monk on Mount Sinai
The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Shepherds following the one Shepherd

The true shepherd is he who, by his goodness, zeal and prayer, is able to seek out and restore to the right way those reasonable sheep who are lost. The pilot is one who has obtained, by the grace of God and his own labors, a spiritual strength that enables him to rescue his vessel not only from tempestuous seas but from the deep abyss itself. The doctor is one who has achieved health of body and soul and has no need of any remedy for them.

A good pilot saves his ship and a good shepherd restores to life and heals his ailing sheep. When the sheep are out at pasture, let the shepherd not cease to make use of the flute of the word, especially when the flock are making ready to sleep. For the wolf fears nothing so much as the shepherd’s flute. Inasmuch as the sheep have faithfully followed the shepherd and made progress, so will he answer for them before the Master of the household.

It is charity that discloses the true shepherd since it is out of charity that the great shepherd of the sheep willed to be crucified.

'God wills only our good; God loves us more than anybody else can or does love us. His will is that no one should lose his soul, that everyone should save and sanctify his soul: "Not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance." (2 Peter 3:9) "This is the will of God, your sanctification." (1 Thes. 4:3) God has made the attainment of our happiness, his glory. Since he is by his nature infinite goodness, and since as St. Leo says goodness is diffusive of itself, God has a supreme desire to make us sharers of his goods and of his happiness. If then he sends us suffering in this life, it is for our own good: "All things work together unto good." (Rom. 8:28) Even chastisements come to us, not to crush us, but to make us mend our ways and save our souls: "Let us believe that these scourges of the Lord have happened for our amendment and not for our destruction." (Judith 8:27)'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori