Isaiah 40:11
The Good Shepherd—Clement of Alexandria
Feed us, Your children, as sheep. Master, fill us with righteousness from Your own pasture. Instructor, give us food on Your holy mountain, the church, which towers in the air, is above the clouds, and touches heaven.
“And I will be,” He says, “their Shepherd,” and will be as near to them as clothes to their skin. He wants to save my flesh by enveloping it in the robe of immortality, and He has anointed my body. “they shall call Me,” He says, “and I will say, Here am I.”
You heard sooner than I expected, Master.
“And if they pass over, they shall not slip,” says the Lord. For we who are passing over to eternal life will not fall into corruption because He will sustain us. For so He has said and so He has willed.
Our Instructor is righteously good. “I came not,” He says, “to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Therefore, He is introduced in the Gospel as “wearied,” because He toiled for us and promised “to give His life as a ransom for many.”
For Christ alone is the Good Shepherd. He is generous and gives us the greatest of all gifts, His own life. He is extremely good and loving to men, while, when He might have been Lord, He wished to become a brother to humanity. He was so good that He died for us.
Readings taken from Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers
The Good Shepherd—Clement of Alexandria
Feed us, Your children, as sheep. Master, fill us with righteousness from Your own pasture. Instructor, give us food on Your holy mountain, the church, which towers in the air, is above the clouds, and touches heaven.
“And I will be,” He says, “their Shepherd,” and will be as near to them as clothes to their skin. He wants to save my flesh by enveloping it in the robe of immortality, and He has anointed my body. “they shall call Me,” He says, “and I will say, Here am I.”
You heard sooner than I expected, Master.
“And if they pass over, they shall not slip,” says the Lord. For we who are passing over to eternal life will not fall into corruption because He will sustain us. For so He has said and so He has willed.
Our Instructor is righteously good. “I came not,” He says, “to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Therefore, He is introduced in the Gospel as “wearied,” because He toiled for us and promised “to give His life as a ransom for many.”
For Christ alone is the Good Shepherd. He is generous and gives us the greatest of all gifts, His own life. He is extremely good and loving to men, while, when He might have been Lord, He wished to become a brother to humanity. He was so good that He died for us.
Readings taken from Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers
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I just noticed this feature, I've been reading through this same book. It's been encouraging for me to learn to love these ancient brothers, even though they didn't have Luther's help on Sola Fide. They still showed great love for Christ and devotion unto death.