Reason #14 Daily Mass

So every four years we all ponder what the next four years will look like. What types of changes will happen and how will they affect us. We look for leadership and direction but are often disappointed as no one person can ever be the perfect leader for our country. No one human being will ever be a perfect human being except for the only human that was both fully human and fully divine. So after a day of concern and worry over what the future of our country will look like, I went to mass and heard the parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10) that I read so often to the kids in the Atrium for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. This time I noticed something that either we exclude from what we read the children or has never struck me (I need to check my album page to find out). The full reading says:

"I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep."

I had recently read a study that proved that nonprofit organizations run by volunteers are more effective than for profit or governmental agencies because the people are doing the work out of a love and concern for the cause not for a paycheck or their greater good or pride. I could go on for pages about how this passage makes my concern for formal public education starting at birth even more worrisome, but alas I have crabby kids.

Lord to you, I am ever faithful and in you alone will my heart always be full of joy even when my mind is not happy.

On a side note, it is funny that these were not the right readings for the day. The actual reading for today was supposed to be Phil 2:5-11 I will blog tomorrow about the actual readings from today as they are one of my favorite. And everytime I read them I praise God for the gift of David Rodriquez whose voice is always the voice my mind reads them in.