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Catholic Charities USA
Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter
Readings of the Day
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So often the Bible focuses on shepherds and their care for their
flocks, as in today's readings. However, years ago I heard
a wonderful homily focusing on the flocks, not the shepherds.
It seems that shepherds went about their day tending their individual
flocks throughout the fields. At night, several flocks would be
gathered into one pen, guarded by one shepherd to provide an
opportunity for the other shepherds to sleep. In the morning, each
shepherd would go to the pen's gate, call his flock, and his
flock would follow him out to the fields. The key to this system
was that each individual animal recognized the voice of a particular
shepherd: an ingenious way to separate the flocks at the start of each
day. However, imagine the racket every morning with a pen full of
bleating sheep, competing with several shepherds, all trying to make
their voices heard over the din.
I suspect that the shepherd system worked because each sheep stayed
with one shepherd throughout the daylight hours in the quiet of the
fields, where the shepherd's voice could be heard clearly. Sheep
were only able to recognize their shepherd's voice each morning
because they heard it in the quiet all day, away from the hubbub of
the morning routine.
This age of social media and information overload in all aspects of
life provide a steady stream of competing voices for attention, very
much like all the shepherds at the gate each morning clamoring for the
sheep's attention. Particularly during this unusual
pandemic year, we are utilizing these sources of "noise"
more than ever. How can I train myself to hear God's voice amid
all this noise? For example, I sometimes would like a clearer answer
from God when praying for discernment. Would I recognize God's
voice more readily if I spent some, or maybe half, of my regular
"noise" time in silence?
Lent gives us a reason each year to step away from the noise and
listen to God in the silence. Here are two ways: How about a
"quiet" 2021 Lent planning small time blocks each day to
spend silently with eyes closed sitting with God? Or how would
it work to turn off all the background noise and be tuned into God as
we go through our day, like the sheep in the quiet fields with their
shepherd? What would Easter look like then?
Therese Gustaitis is retired from Catholic Charities of West
Tennessee. During the decade that she served there, she was a
member of the Catholic Charities USA Leadership Team for Parish Social
Ministry for six years. Prior to this role she worked in social
ministry in a local Catholic church after a career in health care
administration. She enjoys her job description during this season of
life: volunteer, mother to two adult children, grandmother
"Mimi" and widow. Currently she resides in Memphis.
Sign up to receive the Daily Lent Reflection emails and other CCUSA
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