The texts of this Sunday's liturgy form a chain of invocations to the Lord. We tell him that he is our support, our rock, our defence. The Collect also takes up the theme of the Introit: You never refuse your light to those who stand fast in the firmness of your love.

In the Gradual we continue to have recourse to him: In my distress I cry to the Lord… Deliver me O Lord from wicked lips, from a deceitful tongue. O Lord in thee do I take refuge. We are moved by the insistence of God our Father, who is determined to remind us that we ought to appeal to his mercy, always, no matter what happens. Now as well, at a time in which confused voices are rending the Church, many souls are going astray because they do not find good shepherds, other Christs, who would guide them to the Lord of Love. They find, instead, thieves and robbers who come to steal and kill and destroy.

Let us not be afraid. The Church, which is the Body of Christ must indefectibly be the path and the sheepfold of the Good Shepherd, the strong foundation and the way open to all men. We have just read in the Gospel: Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.