Song of the Found Sheep

Good Shepherd mine;

Whatever made You leave the ninety-nine

To come like this in search of one lost sheep?

What raging fire

Constrained Your loving Heart? What mad desire

Impelled You on to comb the mountain steep?

Strange mystery:

That you should find such joy in finding me

When it should seem the joy should all be mine.

Please hold me fast;

Don't let me stray again as in days past,

But hide me safe within Your arms divine.

When in the West

The sun of my life's day shall sink to rest,

Enfold me still, O Lord, in Love's embrace.

Then with the dawn

Of that new Day, when night fore'er is gone,

Dear Shepherd mine, let me behold Your Face.

By a Carmelite Nun

Published with the kind permission of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Rochester, NY