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Office Of Readings | Week 33, Thursday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Commentary Of Saint Gregory Of Nyssa On The Song Of Songs | A Prayer To The Good Shepherd
‘A prayer to the good Shepherd.’
Saint Gregory of Nyssa reflects on the soul’s desire for Christ by placing the words of the Song of Songs on the lips of the believer. The soul addresses Christ as the Good Shepherd, the one who carries the whole of human nature on his shoulders. By doing so, Gregory emphasises both Christ’s universal work of salvation and the personal relationship he forms with each believer. The soul asks to be shown ‘the place of peace’ and ‘the good grass’, that is, the place where Christ nourishes, protects, and restores his people.
Gregory’s interpretation centres on the simple petition: Show me where you pasture your flock. The soul seeks Christ not out of curiosity but out of need—awareness that without his guidance, she cannot grow in holiness or attain eternal life. The ‘pasture’ is Christ himself, especially the grace that flows from his saving Passion. Gregory directly connects this nourishment with the water that flowed from Christ’s pierced side, the water that becomes in believers ‘a spring welling up to eternal life’. Salvation is not abstract; it is received through communion with Christ’s life-giving gifts.
The image of ‘noonday rest’ expresses the stability and clarity granted to those who live in God’s light. Noon has no shadow; it symbolises a state free from the darkness or confusion of sin. To rest in this light, Gregory says, one must be a ‘child of the day’, someone who has turned away from the beginnings and endings of evil—its first movements and its final outcomes. The noonday rest is not yet the final vision of God, but it is a share in his peace given to those who remain close to Christ.
The soul asks Christ to ‘show me how I should sleep and how I should graze’, meaning: teach me how to rest securely in you and how to live daily on what you provide. The concern is practical and spiritual: the soul fears wandering away through ignorance, losing the beauty that God’s grace has bestowed. Gregory thus highlights the need for continual instruction and continual dependence on Christ.
A Reading From The Commentary Of Saint Gregory Of Nyssa On The Song Of Songs | A Prayer To The Good Shepherd
Where are you pasturing your flock, O good Shepherd, who carry the whole flock on your shoulders? (for the whole of human nature is one sheep and you have lifted it onto your shoulders). Show me the place of peace, lead me to the good grass that will nourish me, call me by name so that I, your sheep, hear your voice, and by your speech give me eternal life. Answer me, you whom my soul loves.
I give you the name ‘you whom my soul loves’ because your name is above every name and above all understanding and there is no rational nature that can utter it or comprehend it. Therefore your name, by which your goodness is known, is simply the love my soul has for you. How could I not love you, when you loved me so much, even though I was black, that you laid down your life for the sheep of your flock? A greater love cannot be imagined, than exchanging your life for my salvation.
Show me then (my soul says) where you pasture your flock, so that I can find that saving pasture too, and fill myself with the food of heaven without which no-one can come to eternal life, and run to the spring and fill myself with the drink of God. You give it, as from a spring, to those who thirst – water pouring from your side cut open by the lance, water that, to whoever drinks it, is a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
If you lead me to pasture here, you will make me lie down at noon, sleeping at peace and taking my rest in light unstained by any shade. For the noon has no shade and the sun stands far above the mountain peaks. You bring your flock to lie in this light when you bring your children to rest with you in your bed. But no-one can be judged worthy of this noonday rest who is not a child of light and a child of the day. Whoever has separated himself equally from the shadows of evening and morning, from where evil begins and evil ends, at noon he will lie down and the sun of righteousness will shine on him.
Show me, then (my soul says), how I should sleep and how I should graze, and where the path is to my noonday rest. Do not let me fall away from your flock because of ignorance, and find myself one of a flock of sheep that are not yours.
Thus my soul spoke, when she was anxious about the beauty that God’s care had given her and wanted to know how she could keep this good fortune forever.
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
Lord Jesus Christ,
Good Shepherd who carries us in your mercy,
draw our hearts to the pasture where you give life.
Teach us to hear your voice,
to rest in the light of your presence,
and to remain close to you in all our ways.
Keep us from the shadows of sin
and preserve in us the grace you have given.
Lead us at last to the fullness of your peace,
you who live and reign for ever and ever.
Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Good Shepherd – A title for Christ, especially from John 10, emphasising his care, guidance, and sacrificial love for his people.
Pasture – Symbolically, the spiritual nourishment Christ provides: his Word, his grace, his sacraments, and his presence.
Eternal Life – The definitive life with God, beginning now through grace and fulfilled fully in the age to come.
Grace – God’s free and undeserved gift of his life and help, enabling us to believe, act rightly, and grow in holiness.
Noonday Rest – In Gregory’s imagery, the peace and clarity of living in God’s light, without the shadows of sin or ignorance.
Child of Light / Child of the Day – A biblical expression (cf. 1 Thess 5:5) for those who belong to Christ and live according to his truth.
Water from Christ’s Side – Refers to John 19:34; symbolises Baptism, the sacraments, and the life-giving grace that flows from Jesus Christ’s Passion.
Light of God – God’s truth and presence, which illumines the believer’s life and dispels spiritual darkness.
Song of Songs – A book of Scripture often interpreted spiritually as the dialogue of love between Christ and the soul or between Christ and the Church.
The Flock – The people of God, shepherded and saved by Jesus Christ.
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