Apparently, it's no coincidence that I planned to edit ordination photos today. Priestly vocations are all about God's call to shepherd his people - and today's psalm response at Mass was Psalm 23... "the Lord is my shepherd..." - and in case you're wondering, no, I didn't know that when I was planning to spend the day editing ordination pics.
It got me thinking.
For those of us who are Catholic, what do we call the priests who lead our parishes? Pastors.
Have you ever considered the root of the word pastor, and what it means? If you know Latin, or one of the Latin-derived Romance languages, you know that the word shepherd is translated as pastor (Latin and Spanish), or pastore (Italian). When we refer to a priest as the pastor of a parish, we are literally saying he is the shepherd of that faith community.
Good shepherds know their sheep, their needs and difficulties; they care for, and lead, their flocks.
I have known many such good shepherds - wonderful priests - in the faith communities I've been blessed to be part of in my life; I also know that to continue sustaining these communities, we need more men willing to respond to God's call in a spirit of counter-cultural love, faith, and self-sacrifice.
We need to pray for vocations. This is not optional. We need to pray for the priests who shepherd us today - for their faith, holiness, and strength - and we need to pray for many more of these good shepherds to lead us in the future, including those currently in formation. We need them to continue to do God's good work in bringing to us the light of the Word and the Eucharist.
+Peace and good.
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