4th Sunday of Easter

Date: May 3, 2009

First Reading (Acts 4: 8-12)
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: "Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed. He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."

Second Reading (1 John 3: 1-2)
A reading from the first letter of Saint John.
Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Gospel (John 10: 11-18)
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John.
Jesus said: "I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming so he leaves the sheep and runs away, while the wolf captures and scatters them. This is because he works for money and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this flock. Those also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. This commandment, I have received, was from my Father."