Gospel of the Sunday (John 10:11–16)
At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and flieth, and the wolf catcheth, and scattereth the sheep. And the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling, and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine, and mine know me. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
Divine Shepherd of our souls, how great is Thy love for Thy sheep. Thou givest even Thy life to save them. The fury of the wolves doth not make Thee flee from us; Thou becomest their prey, that we may escape.
Thou didst die in our stead, because Thou wast our Shepherd. We are not surprised that Thou didst require of Peter a greater love than of his fellow Apostles; Thou didst will to make him their and our Shepherd. Peter answered Thee without hesitation that he loved Thee, and Thou didst confer upon him Thine own name, together with the reality of Thy office, in order that he might take Thy place after Thy departure from this world.
Blessed be Thou, O Divine Shepherd, for having thus provided for the needs of Thy flock, which could not be one, if it had many shepherds without one supreme Shepherd. In obedience to Thy command, we bow down before Peter with love and submission, we reverently kiss his sacred feet, for by him we are united to Thee, by him we are Thy sheep.
Preserve us, O Jesus, in the fold of Peter, which is Thine. Keep far from us the hireling, who usurpeth the place and the rights of the Shepherd. He hath intruded himself, or hath been intruded by violence into the fold, and would have us take him as master, but he knoweth not the sheep, and the sheep know him not. Led not by zeal, but by avarice and ambition, he flieth at the approach of danger. He that governeth by worldly motives is not one to lay down his life for others. The schismatic shepherd loveth himself, he loveth not Thy sheep; how could he give his life for them?
Protect us, O Jesus, from this hireling. He would separate us from Thee by separating us from Peter, whom Thou hast appointed Thy Vicar, and we are resolved to acknowledge no other. Accursed be he who would command us in Thy name and yet is not sent by Peter. Such a shepherd can be but an impostor; he resteth not on the foundation, he hath not the keys of the kingdom of heaven, to follow him would be our ruin.
Grant then, O good Shepherd Jesus, that we may ever remain close to Thee and to Peter, that as he resteth on Thee, we may rest on him, and thus withstand every storm, for Thou hast said: A wise man built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. (Dom Guéranger)