The sonnet, titled “The Tender Heart of Jesus Christ, Our Shepherd, Lord, and King,” portrays the boundless, gentle love of Jesus for His people. It depicts Him as a compassionate shepherd seeking the lost through difficult paths, offering mercy to the broken with wounded hands. His attentive gaze misses no sorrow, and His quiet voice calls wanderers home. The cross stands as a testament to His sacrificial love, cradling human pain, while His presence in the Eucharist renews hearts. The poem concludes by affirming Christ’s unending tenderness, eternally embracing His people in peace.

O tender heart, whose love does softly tread,
To seek the lost through thorn and shadowed vale,
Thy wounded hands extend where tears are shed,
Thy mercy holds when mortal hopes grow frail.
No sparrow falls unseen by Thy kind gaze,
No weary soul too broken to restore;
Thy voice, a whisper in our wandering days,
Calls gently home through every open door.
The cross, Thy vow, still stands where love was spent,
Its beams a cradle for our deepest pain;
In bread and wine, Thy presence, ever lent,
Renews the heart to rise and love again.
O Christ, Thy tenderness shall never cease,
Thy people held in Thine eternal peace.