Daily Reading for May 9 • Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople, 389

Will you think less of him . . .
because to seek for what had wandered,
the good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep
came on the mountains and hills
on which you used to sacrifice
and found the wanderer?

And having found it,
he took it upon his shoulders,
on which he also bore the wood.

And having borne the wandering sheep,
he brought it back to the life above.

And having brought it back,
he numbered it among those who have never strayed.

From On Holy Easter, Oration 45.26 of Gregory of Nazianzus, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament IVa, John 1-10, edited by Joel C. Elowsky (Downer’s Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2006).