Me and My Sheep
This last Sunday we read the Gospel about the “Good Shepherd” at Mass and I got to give a homily to the children. I’ve preached to the school kids a couple times now, but this is the first time that I had just the little kids. So, I figured that if I was going to preach on the good shepherd to small children, I needed a sheep.
I went to Wal-Mart but they had no sheep. They had all kinds of bears and other stuffed stuff, but no sheep. So, I decided that perhaps Toys R Us would have some sheep. After driving all the way across town, I found that they also failed to stock a flock of sheep. I asked the clerk if he knew where I could get a stuffed sheep. He proceeded to page the entire store asking, “There’s a guy here looking for a stuffed sheep; can anyone help him?” …Nothing. At the last minute, I did find a little baby sheep for $3 which I decided to get just in case I couldn’t find anything else. As I was checking out, the guy saw the little sheep and looked at me, “So, you’re the guy that was looking for a sheep huh?” I said yes and he directed me to a Christian store where he said he thought had seen a sheep.
I went to the Christian store and got there 2 minutes before the store closed. My wild sheep chase had already taken me almost two hours, so I was determined not to come home without a sheep. After looking all over the store and talking with three clerks, I finally found a satisfactory sheep…not as big as I was looking for…but one that would work. Fr. Kent named my sheep “Binkles” and he is living at the rectory now with our chicken and other barnyard animals.
Speaking of good shepherds, we are doing something really awesome right now in our Archdiocese. Beginning on May 1st, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, we as a diocese began praying a 30 day prayer to St. Joseph for his intercession helping many young men to respond to God’s call to priesthood. St. Joseph has helped us in some pretty big ways in the past, so we could be seeing a lot of new seminarians. Even if we don’t get a single new vocation, I can’t help but think of the graces that will come just to know how many people are praying together this one prayer every day for a month.
Peace and all good,
Shawn
