Dear friends in Christ

The earliest Christian iconography depicts Jesus as The Good Shepherd. This gentle image of the One who always leads us back to the fold, is the image which the Liturgy puts before our eyes on this particular Sunday of Eastertide. Psalm 23—perhaps one of the best known and loved of these prayers—expresses the confident optimism of the Christian soul as this representation of Jesus carries us home to the House of The Father.

By a long established tradition, on this Sunday we pray for the Shepherds of the Church: Her Bishops and Priests. Also, for vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life. Remember to implore God to send us Shepherds who have the Heart of Jesus Christ; faithful priests who will bring us the grace of God in the Sacraments and in the Word of Truth. Perhaps we think that priests will just materialise…that when I leave this Parish there will be another to replace me; please God, there will be! But in the meantime we have to invest in the formation of our young people, so that the seeds of the Faith are sown and that when God calls someone to follow Him in priestly or consecrated life, they have the support of their families and of their Parish Family. Such vocations do grow on trees! I thank God for the witness of the priests I knew when growing-up, and for the lived-out Faith of my family and friends who constantly encouraged me on my path to the Priesthood. It is the same for all of us whom God has chosen and called. We are ever conscious of those words of Our Lord: You did not choose me, but I choose you.

Our Diocesan Vocations Team has produced some prayer cards which are available for you to collect from the back of church. You will find further helpful resources on the Vocations website: brentwoodvocations.co.uk

This week we begin Mary’s Month of May: let us go to her, so that assisted with her Mothers love, we may live our Christian vocation with complete fidelity to Jesus her Son.

I wish you all a blessed week ahead!

Msgr kevin Hale