How often in our lives do we feel like we are going through the motions but are perhaps lacking true direction, like sheep with no one to guide them. This can be something we experience in dealing with the day-to-day challenges of life, but it can certainly also manifest in our spiritual lives as well. In either case, our first thought should be to turn to Christ for the guidance and help that we seek.
When we turn to Jesus Christ, and we approach him with our needs, we can confidently do so in the plainest of language, and the utmost honesty about what we are dealing with. There is no need to “polish” our prayers, our Lord knows all that is going on in our lives anyway. What He seeks from us is simply sincerity and honesty, the things that are part of any relationship with true intimacy. He is not a distant or unapproachable god, He is rather the one who deigned to come to us in our own humble form, because He loves us so much that it was worth it to take on such a lowly state, the better to allow us to understand Him on a whole new level.
There is also another gift that our Lord provided us with, like any good shepherd, He knows the tendencies of His flock, and he put the needed resources in place to help guide them and to care for them. These resources are the laborers that the Master of the Harvest still employs among us to this very day. They help us in healing, in spiritual guidance, in providing counsel, or perhaps just a helping hand. These are the extension of The Twelve that He commissioned and gave authority to, for the care of His flock. We encounter them as those in religious life, as well as those who simply live their lives with Jesus Christ as their focus, and so draw others close to Him as well. We know them by the fruits of their actions, and through that quiet voice within that guides each of us if we will listen.
The Deacons Bench 