Dear Fellow Disciples, peace.

On this Fourth Sunday of Easter — Good Shepherd Sunday — the Church gives us one of the most tender images of discipleship: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

Discipleship begins with listening. Before we do anything for Christ, we learn to recognize His voice. In a noisy world, full of competing voices, the disciple is the one who learns the quiet, faithful art of hearing the Shepherd.

For our neophytes, newly reborn in the waters of Baptism at the Easter Vigil, this is the heart of mystagogy. The journey is not over — it is just beginning. Mystagogy is the time of deepening: entering more fully into the mysteries they have received, learning to hear the voice of Christ in Scripture, in the Eucharist, in the Church, and even in the hidden movements of grace within their own hearts.

Notice something important: Jesus does not say, “My sheep understand everything.” He says, “They hear my voice … and they follow me.” Discipleship is not about having all the answers; it is about trust. It is about a relationship. The sheep follow not because they know the road, but because they know the Shepherd.

This is also a word for all of us. We do not outgrow discipleship. Whether newly baptized or baptized for many years, we are always learning to listen more attentively, to follow more closely, to trust more deeply.

And there is a promise: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” The Shepherd who calls us is the Shepherd who guards us. The voice that invites us is the voice that leads us to life.

So today, let us pray for our neophytes, that this time of mystagogy may root them deeply in Christ. And let us renew our own discipleship: to listen again, to follow again, and to entrust our lives more completely to the Good Shepherd who knows us, loves us, and never lets us go.

May the Holy Spirit clear our hearing to listen and recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd and then to follow Him.

God Bless,

Father Chris

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