Truly, truly I say to you, the one who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate but climbs in by another way – that one is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him, and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them., and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run away from him because they do not know strangers’ voices.
Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand the meaning of what he was saying to them.
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.