This lecture is an interpretation and application of the Shepherd Psalm (“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want”) to the pastoral care mission of the church, emphasizing the priest’s responsibility to meet the people’s needs in all aspects of spiritual, material, social, psychological and familial life. His Holiness Pope Shenouda III focuses on that care is not limited to rites only but includes practical concern and personal follow-up for the needy and the absent.

Dimensions of care
Care includes: providing spiritual “food” (his sermon, the holy mysteries, communion) and material food (helping the poor, treatment, housing, paying debts), and consolation and spiritual counsel that returns stray souls and guides them to paths of righteousness.

Methods of care and prevention
The priest must be soul-aware, seek the absent, follow up with the confessors, examine himself about the ministry, and use servants and officials inside the church to distribute tasks so that each person feels important and cared for.

Spiritual food and its content
The green pasture and the water of rest symbolize a strong and nourishing sermon, the holy mysteries, the Holy Spirit that gives new life. The priest must deliver a prepared and rich sermon with elements from the fathers, stories and explanations so that the worshippers find actual “green pastures” in the church.

Returning the lost and spiritual gifts
The shepherd seeks the lost and restores them; there is a difference between the lost and the expelled and the church is called to restore both. Care uses multiple methods according to the soul’s need: consolation, guidance, correction with a healing tone not vindictive.

Assurance and compassion
The people must feel “that the father is with me” in their joys and sorrows, in their illness and in their financial problems, and the priest’s language must be convincing and comforting, not rigid commands.

Practical conclusion
A call that the church be attractive and appealing by worship, teaching and service, and that available energies be engaged to activate the real care that makes everyone not lack anything.

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