Search for the Lost Sheep

Seek me, Lord;  I need you.  Seek me, find me, lift me up, carry me.  You are expert at finding what you search for; and when you have found the stray you stoop down, lift him up, and place him on your own shoulders.  To you he is a burden of love, not an object of revulsion; it is no irksome task to you to bring justification to the human race.  Come then, Lord; I have gone astray, but I have not forgotten your commandments.  I still hold on to the hope of healing.  Come, Lord; none but you can bring back your erring sheep.  Those whom you leave behind will not be grieved, because the sinner's return will be a joy to them too.  Come, do your saving work on earth, and let there be joy in heaven.

Come in search of your sheep, not through the ministry of servants or hirelings, but in your own person.  Take my human nature, which fell in Adam.  Take my humanity, not from Sarah but from the spotless Virgin Mary, a Virgin preserved through your grace form many stains of sin.  Bear me on the cross where sinners find salvation, where alone there is rest for the weary, where alone there is life for the dying.  

Saint Ambrose

-Saint Ambrose (397) was one of the great figures of early Christianity.