Jesus, our true Shepherd, leads us through the dark valley to find new and eternal life in God.

Jesus gives us the paradigm for a truly missionary Church this weekend: a Church called and sent, a Church dependent totally upon Him, and a Church that imitates His call to repentance and new life.  

Each baptized Christian is called to share in the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ. We do so with receptivity, knowledge that we may be rejected, and ultimately with a spirit of renewal.   

The created world listens to the voice of its Creator.  When we listen to the voice of God we find that peace we long for, even in the midst of the storms of life.

The parables of Jesus about the Kingdom of God require that we have humility and faith, and that we become men and women of prayer.  Jesus wants us to enter fully into the Kingdom of God and to bear great fruit!

God calls us to much more than return to Paradise.  He calls us to share in His own Divine life and to share in the glory of the risen Christ.  He heals us of the wound of original sin and calls us to build up those around us.

Jesus fulfills the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant by sharing in our life, offering His body and Blood on the cross, and giving us Himself as a meal in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.

God has revealed Himself as an eternal exchange of love, Father Son and holy Spirit, and has invited us to share in that exchange. 

God wants to pour  the Holy Spirit into our hearts like honey, His sweetness and gentle new life.  Through prayer we expand our hearts and purify them to receive this great gift.

Jesus teaches us that we do not belong to the world anymore than He does, but also that "God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."  Christians are called to live differently than the world, but to also bring the message of the Gospel to the world that desperately needs to hear it.