In the fold of Peter, which is Thine.

The Good Shepherd-Pope

Divine Shepherd of our souls!

Divine Shepherd of our souls!
how great is thy love for Thy sheep!
Thou givest even Thy life to save them.
The fury of wolves does not make Thee flee from us;
Thou becomest their prey, that we may escape.
Thou didst die in our stead, because Thou wast our Shepherd.

...that he might supply thy place
after thy departure from this world...

We are not surprised at Thy requiring from Peter
a greater love than Thou didst require from his brother Apostles:
Thou didst will to make him their and our shepherd.
Peter answered Thee without hesitation, that he loved Thee;
and Thou didst confer upon him Thine own name,
together with the reality of Thine office,
in order that he might supply Thy place after Thy departure from this world.

Preserve us, O Jesus, in the fold of Peter, which is Thine.

Be thou blessed, O divine Shepherd!
for Thy having thus provided for the necessities of Thy fold,
which could not be one,
were it to have many shepherds without one supreme shepherd.
In obedience to Thy command,
we bow down before Peter, with love and submission;
we respectfully kiss his sacred feet;
for it is by him that we are united to Thee;
it is by him that we are Thy sheep.
Preserve us, O Jesus, in the fold of Peter, which is Thine.
Keep far from us the hireling who usurps the place and rights of the shepherd.
He has intruded himself, or been intruded by violence, into the fold,
and would have us take him as the master;
but he knows not the sheep, and the sheep do not know him.
Led, not by zeal, but by avarice and ambition,
he flieth at the approach of danger.
He that governs through worldly motives
is not a man to lay down his life for others.
The schismatic pastor loves himself; he does not love Thy sheep;
how could he give his life for them?
Protect us, O Jesus, from this hireling!
He would separate us from Thee, by separating us from Peter,
whom thou hast appointed Thy Vicar;
and we are determined to recognize no other.

Anathema to him who would command as in Thy name,
and yet not be sent by Peter!

Anathema to him who would command as in Thy name,
and yet not be sent by Peter!
Such a pastor could be but an impostor;
he would not rest on the foundation;
he would not have the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
to follow him would be our ruin.

...thus we may defy every tempest...

Grant, then, Good Shepherd, Jesus!
that we may ever keep close to Thee and to Peter;
that as he rests upon Thee, we may rest upon him;
and thus we may defy every tempest,
for Thou, dear Lord, hast said:
A wise man built his house upon a rock;
and the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house,
and it fell not ;
for it was founded on a ROCK.

[St Matt. vii 24, 25.]