Fourth Sunday of Easter (Ordinary Form)

Collect: Almighty ever-living God, lead us to a share in the joys of heaven, so that the humble flock may reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.

So here’s something I just found out last week. In the Extraordinary Form, the Sunday after Easter is treated as the end of the Easter Octave, and so is not called the Second Sunday of Easter. Which is why last week, when I attended the EF, it was the Second Sunday of Easter, and in the OF, it was the Third Sunday. Also, the readings in the OF for the Fourth Sunday are essentially the same Good Shepherd readings that I heard in the EF Second Sunday. I just thought it was pretty cool.

The homily that I heard yesterday touched a different theme than usual when it came to the Good Shepherd theme. Fr. spoke of the need for us to have good shepherds. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and priests do his holy work here on Earth. Without priests, there can be no Sacraments, and there will definitely be no Eucharist.

As such, it is our duty to not only consider the possible vocations called for us, but also to point out to others that they might make good shepherds of the Church. The Diocese of Metuchen, my home diocese, has over 600,000 Catholics, but last year, there were no priestly ordinations. This year, there will be 2. There is work to be done.

In my last blog post, I said that we must bring the lost sheep back into the fold by glorifying the Lord with our lives. Now on the flip side, let us pray for our shepherds and all those called to lead the sheep.

Have a blessed Easter season.