Novena in preparation
to the feast of Jesus Good Shepherd
first day – 20 April 2012
The Shepherd sees us and calls us
Invocation to the Holy Spirit
A Reading from the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 19,1-9)
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.”
From the Preaching of Blessed Alberione
Conversion means: to leave a road that is not good in order to take a good one. Sometimes when we go somewhere, we may take the wrong way, until at some point we become aware and then go back. We return back to find the correct road. The same happens in life: sometimes we take the wrong road for a while. Then at a certain point, with God’s grace, we realise what has happened; there stirs in us the desire to place ourselves on the way that pleases the Lord, which is the way of perfection, of holiness, of the apostolate. (AAP 1961, 2)
From the Magisterium of the Church
The profound truth of our existence is thus contained in this surprising mystery: every creature, and in particular every human person, is the fruit of God’s thought and an act of his love, a love that is boundless, faithful and everlasting (cf. Jer 31:3). The discovery of this reality is what truly and profoundly changes our lives. In a famous page of the Confessions, Saint Augustine expresses with great force his discovery of God, supreme beauty and supreme love, a God who was always close to him, and to whom he at last opened his mind and heart to be transformed: “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.” (X, 27.38). With these images, the Saint of Hippo seeks to describe the ineffable mystery of his encounter with God, with God’s love that transforms all of life.
(Message of the Holy Fathe for the 49th World day of Prayer for Vocations 29th April 2012 Fourth Saunday of Easter)
Let us pray: The first part of the Chaplet to Jesus Good Shepherd.
Second Day – 21 April 2012
The Shepherd is at the door and knocks
Invocation to the Holy Spirit
A reading from the Book of Revelation (Rev 3:15-20)
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
From the Preaching of Blessed Alberione
There are difficulties to be overcome in a conversion. The first is to know that we are not on track. If we, by making an examination of conscience, find that our conduct is not so good, if we find that we still live in apathy, if we find that we lack fervour, etc. Look: acknowledge it. (AAP, 3 1961)
From the Magisterium of the Church
Conversion (metanoia), to which every person is called, leads to an acceptance and appropriation of the new vision which the Gospel proposes. This requires leaving behind our worldly way of thinking and acting, which so often heavily conditions our behavior. As Sacred Scripture reminds us, the old man must die and the new man must be born, that is, the whole person must be renewed “in full knowledge after the image of the Creator” (Col 3:10). Strongly recommended on this path of conversion and quest for holiness are “the ascetical practices which have always been part of the Church's life and which culminate in the Sacrament of forgiveness, received and celebrated with the right dispositions”.(92) Only those reconciled with God can be prime agents of true reconciliation with and among their brothers and sisters. (Ecclesia in America cap. III, nº 32)
Let us pray the second part of the Chaplet to Jesus Good Shepherd.
Third day – 22 April 2012
Needing conversion
Invocation to the Holy Spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 15:11-32)
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
From the Preaching of Blessed Alberione
There are people who know themselves and recognize who they are. Some know their own flaws. There are others who do not know their flaws, but if they are told about them, these people recognise them and admit their mistakes. In doing so they make an act of humility, which attracts grace. To the humble person the Lord always grants His grace. Proud people neither know nor admit their mistakes. They do not know themselves because they use the examine of conscience very little and do not recognise their mistakes when others in charity point them out to them. They excuse and defend themselves. So no conversion because there is not even an opening to it. The starting point is always to know oneself or to recognise one’s state of being, in order to arrive at a true conversion. (AAP 1961, 4.5)
From the Magisterium of the Church
Therefore, Jesus in an original personal and incomparable manner, demands a radical loyalty that engages the whole person, all people and involves the whole world and the whole cosmos. This ‘radicality’ means that conversion is a process that is never final at a personal and at a social level. Because, if the kingdom of God passes through historical accomplishments, it is not exhausted nor identified in them. (Document of Puebla,1979 no 193)
Let us pray the third part of the Chaplet to Jesus Good Shepherd.
Fourth Day – 23 April 2012
The Good Shepherd invites us to personally change
Invocation to the Holy Spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John.(Jn 8:1-11)
1Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
From the Preaching of Blessed Alberione
You cannot always think of changing a ministry, a change of persons: we must think of changing ourselves. To change others can be a deception, whereas changing ourselves is always the right answer, we are never wrong if we change ourselves, if we become more humble, more prayerful if we are more zealous, more generous, more observant, if we apply ourselves more earnestly to our study, to learning, to progress in knowledge and in religious observance . Yes change ourselves! (AAP 1960, 249)
From the Magisterium of the Church
Let us then be shepherds like the Lord. We must meditate on the Gospel, and as we see in this mirror the example of zeal and loving kindness, we should become thoroughly schooled in these virtues. For there, obscurely, in the form of a parable, we see a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. When one of them was separated from the flock and lost its way, that shepherd did not remain with the sheep who kept together at pasture. No, he went off to look for the stray. He crossed many valleys and thickets, he climbed great and towering mountains, he spent much time and labour in wandering through solitary places until at last he found his sheep. When he found it, he did not chastise it; he did not use rough blows to drive it back, but gently placed it on his own shoulders and carried it back to the flock. He took greater joy in this one sheep, lost and found, than in all the others.
(From a sermon of Saint Asterius of Amasea, bishop (Hom. 13: PG 40, 355-358, 362) used in the Liturgy of the Hours on Thursday first Week of Lent)
Let us pray the fourth part of the Chaplet to Jesus Good Shepherd
Fifth Day – 24 April 2012
I begin today, not tomorrow!
Invocation to the Holy Spirit
From the Gospel according to Mark (Mk 10:17-23)
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.’ 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”