THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PASCHA, CALLED GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY (MAY 4TH)

“I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His Life for the Sheep.” 

LITURGICAL PROPERS FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PASCHA ACCORDING TO THE LITURGY OF ST. JAMES OF JERUSALEM IN THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE WEST

INTROIT - PSALM 33:5–6, 1 

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, alleluia: by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, alleluia, alleluia. 

Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; 

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen. 

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, alleluia: by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, alleluia, alleluia.

THE COLLECTS

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an ensample of godly life; 

Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, 

and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; 

through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ALMIGHTY and Everlasting God, who didst raise up thy servant Athanasius as a champion of thy truth and a defender of the faith against heresy: Grant, we beseech thee, that, like him, we may ever hold fast to the confession of thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as very God of very God, begotten, not made; and may steadfastly proclaim his saving power, to the glory of thy holy Name; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

OLD TESTAMENT READING – EXODUS 12:1–14 

And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 

Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, 

according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 

And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; 

every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. 

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: 

And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 

And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. 

And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 

Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. 

And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. 

And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord's passover. 

For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; 

and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 

And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, 

and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. 

And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; 

ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

NEW TESTAMENT READING – ROMANS 4:13–25 

For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, 

but through the righteousness of faith. 

For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 

Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 

Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; 

not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, 

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, 

who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 

Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 

And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: 

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 

And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 

And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 

Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 

But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 

Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

EPISTLE – 1 ST. PETER II. 19–25 

THIS is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 

For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? 

but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 

For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 

Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 

Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; 

but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: 

by whose stripes ye were healed. 

For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

GRADUAL – PSALM 34:9, 10 

O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. 

They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.

ALLELUIA – JOHN 10:14 

Alleluia, alleluia. I am the good Shepherd: and know my sheep, and am known of mine. Alleluia.

GOSPEL – ST. JOHN X. 11–16 

JESUS said, I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 

But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: 

and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 

The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 

I am the good shepherd; and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 

As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; 

and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

THE SECRET PRAYER 

Receive, O Lord, these our oblations in this joyful time of the Paschal solemnity: 

and by thy great mercy vouchsafe to accept them, offered in remembrance of the holy Victim, 

who is both Shepherd and Sacrifice, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

COMMUNION SENTENCE – JOHN 10:14 

I am the good shepherd, alleluia: and I know my sheep, and am known of mine, alleluia, alleluia.

COMMUNION PRAYER 

O Lord Jesus Christ, who art the Good Shepherd of thy people, 

and in this holy Sacrament hast given thyself to us as the Lamb of God who takest away the sin of the world: 

Grant that we who have received thy Body and Blood may be strengthened to follow thee in love and obedience all the days of our life; 

who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

POST-COMMUNION PRAYER 

We beseech thee, O Lord, that we who have received these holy mysteries may thereby be quickened unto everlasting life; 

and being defended from all adversities, may walk in the footsteps of thy Son, our Good Shepherd, 

who laid down his life for the sheep, and now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

FINAL COLLECT 

O God, who by the Resurrection of thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ hast brought joy to the whole world: 

Grant, we beseech thee, that through the intercession of his most blessed Mother Mary, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life; 

through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.