On this 4^th Sunday of Easter, we celebrate Shepherd Sunday.  Today in the United States, we also celebrate Mother’s Day.   Like a mother, a shepherd is nurturing.   This Sunday, as Mother’s receive flowers, we will be singing at most Masses, “Like a Child Rests” by Christopher Walker.  The refrain is based on Psalm 131.  It reads:

Like a child rests in his mother’s arms, so will I rest in you.  Like a child rests in his mother’s arms, so will I rest in you.  

Indeed, as a child clings to their mother, so too at the moment of death, our Lord awaits us to take us to himself in a warm embrace.  Jesus is the shepherd or our souls.  This is our hope that we will accept God’s embrace.  
In the Catholic church, we are members of apostolic church founded on the rock of St. Peter. 

 We ask the Holy Spirit to guide our new Holy Father, as Peter’s successor, to shepherd us with a shepherd’s care as he leads and guides our church in unity, love and peace!