Daily Writing
| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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October 2, 2009
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October 3rd Holy
Spirit Novena |
The Novena Rosary
Mysteries |
Retreat in Florida
October 2nd - 5th
1:30 pm & 6:20 pm
sessions each day
Please come & join us!
October 2, 2009
The purpose of the book of Judges
is to show how the prosperousness
of Israel depend upon their obedience
to God.
If they disobeyed as God's people —
they were oppressed by pagan nations —
when they repented, God raised up
judges to deliver them.
We see the story of the Old Testament where
the people rebelled against - God and they
suffered when they disobeyed God —
The Philistines took over — they worshipped
false gods —
Samson had such strength — he was to help
the people to begin to be freed of the Philistine rule —
Birth of Samson
Judges 13: 1-8
Again the Israelites began doing what is evil in Yahweh's eyes, and Yahweh delivered them into the power of the Philistines for forty years. There was a man of Zorah of the tribe of Dan, called Manoah. His wife was barren; she had borne no children. The Angel of Yahweh appeared to this woman and said to her, 'You are barren and have had no child, but you are going to conceive and give birth to a son. From now on, take great care. Drink no wine or fermented liquor, and eat nothing unclean. For you are going to conceive and give birth to a son. No razor is to touch his head, for the boy is to be God's nazirite from his mother's womb; and he will start rescuing Israel from the power of the Philistines.' The woman then went and told her husband, 'A man of God has just come to me, who looked like the Angel of God, so majestic was he. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name. But he said to me, 'You are going to conceive and will give birth to a son. From now on, drink no wine or fermented liquor, and eat nothing unclean. For the boy is to be God's nazirite from his mother's womb to his dying day.' '
Manoah then pleaded with Yahweh and said, 'I beg you, Lord, let the man of God that you sent come to us again and instruct us what to do about the child when he is born.'
Judges 13: 24-25
The woman gave birth to a son and called him Samson. The child grew, and Yahweh blessed him; and the spirit of Yahweh began to stir him in the Camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Judges 14: 5-6
Samson went down to Timnah and, as he reached the vineyards of Timnah, he saw a young lion coming roaring towards him. The spirit of Yahweh seized on him and he tore the lion to pieces with his bare hands as though it were a kid; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
Judges 14: 19-20
Then the spirit of Yahweh seized on him. He went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty men there, took what they wore and gave the festal robes to those who had answered the riddle, then burning with rage returned to his father's house. Samson's wife was then given to the companion who had acted as his best man.
Judges 15: 20
Samson was judge in Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.
Judges 16: 3
Till midnight, however, Samson stayed in bed, and then at midnight he got up, seized the doors of the town gate and the two posts as well; he tore them up, bar and all, hoisted them on to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill overlooking Hebron.
Judges 16: 17
At last he confided everything to her; he said to her, 'A razor has never touched my head, because I have been God's nazirite from my mother's womb. If my head were shorn, then my power would leave me and I should lose my strength and become like any other man.'
Judges 16: 20-22
She cried, 'The Philistines are on you, Samson!' He awoke from sleep, thinking, 'I shall break free as I have done time after time and shake myself clear.' But he did not know that Yahweh had left him. The Philistines seized him, put out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. They fettered him with a double chain of bronze and he spent his time turning the mill in the prison. But his hair began to grow again when it had been cut off.
The Death of Samson
Judges 16: 23-31
The Philistine chiefs assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god. And amid their festivities they said: Into our hands our god has delivered Samson our enemy. And as soon as the people saw their god, they acclaimed him, shouting his praises: Into our hands our god has delivered Samson our enemy, the man who laid our country waste and killed so many of us. And as their hearts were full of joy, they shouted, 'Summon Samson out to amuse us.' So Samson was summoned from prison, and he performed feats in front of them; then he was put to stand between the pillars. Samson then said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, 'Lead me where I can touch the pillars supporting the building, so that I can lean against them.' Now the building was crowded with men and women. All the Philistine chiefs were there, while about three thousand men and women were watching Samson's feats from the terrace. Samson called on Yahweh and cried out, 'Lord Yahweh, I beg you, remember me; give me strength again this once, O God, and let me be revenged on the Philistines at one blow for my two eyes.' And Samson took hold of the two central pillars supporting the building, and braced himself with his right arm round one and his left round the other; and he shouted, 'Let me die with the Philistines!' He then heaved with all his might, and the building fell on the chiefs and on all the people there. Those whom he brought to their death by his death outnumbered those whom he had done to death during his life. His brothers and the whole of his father's family came down and carried him away. They took him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel for twenty years.
The Book of Ruth
Ruth was a Moabite woman
who was joined to the Israelite people
by her marriage to Boaz of Bethlehem —
On August 21 this year the reading was
Ruth 1: 1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22
In the days when the Judges were governing, a famine occurred in the country and a certain man from Bethlehem of Judah went—he, his wife and his two sons—to live in the Plains of Moab.
Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she and her two sons were left. These married Moabite women: one was called Orpah and the other Ruth. They lived there for about ten years. Mahlon and Chilion then both died too, and Naomi was thus bereft of her two sons and her husband. She then decided to come back from the Plains of Moab with her daughters–in–law, having heard in the Plains of Moab that God had visited his people and given them food.
They started weeping loudly all over again; Orpah then kissed her mother–in–law and went back to her people. But Ruth stayed with her.
Naomi then said, ‘Look, your sister–in–law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go home, too; follow your sister–in–law.’
But Ruth said, ‘Do not press me to leave you and to stop going with you, for
wherever you go, I shall go,
wherever you live, I shall live.
Your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God.This was how Naomi came home with her daughter–in–law, Ruth the Moabitess, on returning from the Plains of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
August 22 this year
Ruth 2: 1-3, 8-11, 4: 13-17
Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, well–to–do and of Elimelech’s clan. His name was Boaz.
Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, ‘Let me go into the fields and glean ears of corn in the footsteps of some man who will look on me with favour.’ She replied, ‘Go, daughter.’ So she set out and went to glean in the fields behind the reapers. Chance led her to a plot of land belonging to Boaz of Elimelech’s clan.
Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Listen to me, daughter. You must not go gleaning in any other field. You must not go away from here. Stay close to my work–women. Keep your eyes on whatever part of the field they are reaping and follow behind. I have forbidden my men to molest you. And if you are thirsty, go to the pitchers and drink what the servants have drawn.’ Ruth fell on her face, prostrated herself and said, ‘How have I attracted your favour, for you to notice me, who am only a foreigner?’ Boaz replied, ‘I have been told all about the way you have behaved to your mother–in–law since your husband’s death, and how you left your own father and mother and the land where you were born to come to a people of whom you previously knew nothing.
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And when they came together, Yahweh made her conceive and she bore a son. And the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be Yahweh who has not left you today without anyone to redeem you. May his name be praised in Israel! The child will be a comfort to you and the prop of your old age, for he has been born to the daughter–in–law who loves you and is more to you than seven sons.’ And Naomi, taking the child, held him to her breast; and she it was who looked after him. And the women of the neighbourhood gave him a name. ‘A son’, they said, ‘has been born to Naomi,’ and they called him Obed. This was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
There is a movie about this —
Boaz was the father of Obed
Obed the father of Jesse
Jesse become the father of David —
These are the ancestors of Christ —
the Messiah
THE KING OF KINGS
JESUS our SAVIOR
Song: A Song for Jesus —
From Fr. Joe:
At today's Mass they read this reading from
Baruch —
Baruch helped Jeremiah, the Kings at the time
of Jeremiah would not listen to him and they were
taken over by the Babylonians —
King David was around 1000BC
2nd Sunday of Advent
INTRODUCTION: In today’s first reading, we hear from Baruch, the secretary of Jeremiah the prophet and apparently a prophet himself. He lived during the Babylonian exile over 500 years before Christ. When the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, they destroyed everything and took most of its citizens to Babylon as captives. The prophet Baruch addresses Jerusalem and tells the city to rejoice, God will bring back the captives and Jerusalem will prosper again.
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time
INTRODUCTION: Life is full of options for people in the world today, but the Bible tells us that all our options ultimately will be reduced to two. We either make God the center of our lives or we don’t. Choosing to make God the center of our lives will lead to true happiness, making any other choice may satisfy us temporarily, but it will in the end leave us disappointed and unhappy. This was crystal clear to Jeremiah the prophet who lived at the time of the Babylonian exile. His way of expressing this truth is crystal clear too.
Jeremiah 17: 5-8
A group of wisdom sayings
Yahweh says this,
Accursed be anyone
who trusts in human beings,
who relies on human strength
and whose heart turns from Yahweh.
Such a person is like scrub
in the wastelands:
when good comes, it does not affect him
since he lives in the parched places
of the desert,
uninhabited, salt land.
‘Blessed is anyone who trusts in Yahweh,
with Yahweh to rely on.
Such a person is like a tree by the waterside
that thrusts its roots to the stream:
when the heat comes it has nothing to fear,
its foliage stays green;
untroubled in a year of drought,
it never stops bearing fruit.
Help me get this book to
priests and people
Exodus 3: 1-8, 13-15
Moses was looking after the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led it to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame blazing from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing, but the bush was not being burnt up. Moses said, 'I must go across and see this strange sight, and why the bush is not being burnt up.' When Yahweh saw him going across to look, God called to him from the middle of the bush. 'Moses, Moses!' he said. 'Here I am,' he answered. 'Come no nearer,' he said. 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your ancestors,' he said, 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' At this Moses covered his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Yahweh then said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying for help on account of their taskmasters. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings. And I have come down to rescue them from the clutches of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that country, to a country rich and broad, to a country flowing with milk and honey,
Moses then said to God, 'Look, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your ancestors has sent me to you," and they say to me, "What is his name?" what am I to tell them?' God said to Moses, 'I am he who is.' And he said, 'This is what you are to say to the Israelites, "I am has sent me to you."' God further said to Moses, 'You are to tell the Israelites, "Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you." This is my name for all time, and thus I am to be invoked for all generations to come.
Third Sunday of Lent
INTRODUCTION – Our psalm refrain, “The Lord is kind and merciful,” describes our theme for today. We hear about God's desire to bring his people, suffering as slaves in Egypt, into freedom. He chooses Moses to be the one to demand and obtain their freedom. Moses wasn’t happy to have to do this. He had escaped from Egypt himself because he had killed an Egyptian who had attacked an Israelite. Now God tells him he has to go back and deal with the Egyptian king. God gives Moses a special gift, God’s name: “Yahweh,” translated as “I AM.” What is so special about that? It was like giving someone your private phone number. God was assuring Moses of a special relationship Moses would have with him and letting Moses know he could call on God whenever he needed him.
In our second reading Paul reminds us of how many blessings and marvels God's people experienced as God led them through the desert to the Promised Land. But in spite of all the wonderful things God gave them, they were unable to enter into the Promised Land. In the end they had failed to continue trusting in God. He tells us not to be like them.
The theme that “the Lord is kind and merciful” shows up again in the gospel in a short parable about a fig tree. It was given opportunities of every kind to produce fruit, but it failed to do so. “The Lord is kind and merciful,” but he expects us not to take his mercy for granted. With the help of his kindness, he expects us to grow in goodness and holiness.
Help me get this book to
priests and people
Sorrowful Mysteries
Agony in the Garden
(1) Jesus: I sweat blood for your sins.
(2) Jesus: I came to this earth and died for you.
(3) Jesus: I love you so much —
Why do you disobey God for your
foolish pride — to save face —
you are special because God made you —
focus on God
(4) Jesus: I am the King of heaven and earth —
I sweat blood for your sins —
Many lie to themselves about their sins —
I know your heart more than you —
Repent and be set free —
Lying to yourself about your sins
is like going through life in
chains
(5) Jesus: I am the God of your Fathers: Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob
(6) Jesus: I am all Powerful —
(7) Jesus: Satan wants you to give your power
to him —
Why are you giving into satan and
many lie to themselves about
their impure motives —
(8) Jesus: Structure is important —
Be obedient, don't offend your God
any longer
Repent and be saved —
Say you are sorry —
You must change your impure ways —
not try to get craftier to cover
them up —
This drives you from Me —
You were created for Me —
You were created to be obedient and loving —
Satan is the father of lies —
(9) Jesus: Harken to Me —
The foolish give into satan and sin —
More foolish cover up their sin and
wear 2 faces —
How pure is your heart —
Your heart is to be likened to Mine —
Song: Give Me Your Heart Oh Jesus —
(10) Jesus: You are here to grow in the spiritual
life —
You look like your parents, those
who raised you —
You are to see yourself, the product
of the past —
Not close the door and blame others
for your unfinished business —
You have persecuted those you live
with — while wounds from your
past are the issue and they are gouging —
Admit your faults
Forgive others
Love is given from My Heart to you —
Pray to be healed so you will obey
and do God's will —
I sweat Blood for your sins —
Scourging at the Pillar
(1) Jesus: You were wounded — admit your
bitterness — forgive those who
hurt you —
don't lie about it and never
really live in freedom
(2) Jesus: I was whipped for your sins —
My body lacerated —
I loved you to My death
I am Jesus your Savior
(3) Jesus: The seeds of time move
exceedingly slow —
Your life is so short —
You are here to be as God wills —
Instruments of love —
Spreading the Good News
Being good —
(4) Jesus: Acts that are performed with a
goal out of jealousy, possessiveness
blocking My will are evil —
A person can be unhappy —
They are not deeply one with Me —
Connected in real love in their
heart —
They carry a bag of anger —
because of love relationships where
they were, what they think, as
scorned
Growing in the spiritual life is healing
wounds and loving — giving —
not operating like empty
wells that are waiting for other humans
to fill you with love
(5) Jesus: I sweat blood for your sins
I died for your sins —
I rose on the 3rd day
You will heal when you tell yourself
the truth about your heart — your
bitterness, selfishness —
Live to love
Be filled by God
Only I can fill you
(6) Jesus: You are the temple of the Holy Spirit —
I give you baptism —
I come to you in the Eucharist
I give you confession
What do you want — you want to
disobey God and be happy
NO WAY
You are happy when you discern
the spirits and
do God's will
(7) Jesus: I am the God of your Fathers
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
(8) Jesus: I love you —
(9) God the Father:
I created you to love God and others —
Die to your selfish ways —
Live to serve God
(10) God the Father:
Die to yourself
Prayer for Union with Jesus
Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart.
I am Yours to possess. I am Yours to use. I want to be selfless and only exist in You. Help me to spoon out all that is me and be an empty vessel ready to be filled by You. Help me to die to myself and live only for You. Use me as You will. Let me never draw my attention back to myself. I only want to operate as You do, dwelling within me.
I am Yours, Lord. I want to have my life in You. I want to do the will of the Father. Give me the strength to put aside the world and let You operate my very being. Help me to act as You desire. Strengthen me against the distractions of the devil to take me from Your work.
When I worry, I have taken my focus off of You and placed it on myself. Help me not to give in to the promptings of others to change what in my heart You are making very clear to me. I worship You, I adore You and I love You. Come and dwell in me now.
-God's Blue Book, January 17, 1994
Crowning with Thorns
(1) Jesus: Who is on your throne?
Is it yourself?
(2)
From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius,
by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. p. 12
23. FIRST PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION
Man is created to praise, reverence and serve God
our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
(3) Excerpt of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius,
by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. p. 60-61
136. THE FOURTH DAY
A MEDITATION ON TWO STANDARDS
The one of Christ, our supreme leader and lord,
the other of Lucifer, the deadly enemy of our
human naturePRAYER. The usual preparatory prayer.
window at a former Jesuit Seminary
137. FIRST PRELUDE. This is the history. Here it will be that Christ calls and wants all beneath His standard, and Lucifer, on the other hand, wants all under his.
138. SECOND PRELUDE. This is a mental representation of the place. It will be here to see a great plain, comprising the whole region about Jerusalem, where the sovereign Commander-in-Chief of all the good is Christ our Lord; and another plain about the region of Babylon, where the chief of the enemy is Lucifer.
139. THIRD PRELUDE. This is to ask for what I desire. Here it will be to ask for a knowledge of the deceits of the rebel chief and help to guard myself against them; and also to ask for a knowledge of the true life exemplified in the sovereign and true Commander, and the grace to imitate Him.
FIRST PART
THE STANDARD OF SATAN
140. FIRST POINT. Imagine you see the chief of all the enemy in the vast plain about Babylon, seated on a great throne of fire and smoke, his appearance inspiring horror and terror.
141. SECOND POINT. Consider how he summons innumerable demons, and scatters them, some to one city and some to another, throughout the whole world, so that no province, no place, no state of life, no individual is overlooked.
142. THIRD POINT. Consider the address he makes to them, how he goads them on to lay snares for men and bind them with chains. First they are to tempt them to covet riches (as Satan himself is accustomed to do in most cases) that they may the more easily attain the empty honors of this world, and then come to overweening pride.
The first step, then, will be riches, the second honor, the third pride. From these three steps the evil one leads to all other vices.
SECOND PART
THE STANDARD OF CHRIST
143. In a similar way, we are to picture to ourselves the sovereign and true Commander, Christ our Lord.
144. FIRST POINT. Consider Christ our Lord, standing in a lowly place in a great plain about the region of Jerusalem, His appearance beautiful and attractive.
145. SECOND POINT. Consider how the Lord of all the world chooses so many persons, apostles, disciples, etc., and sends them throughout the whole world to spread His sacred doctrine among all men, no matter what their state or condition.
146. THIRD POINT. . . .
end of excerpt of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
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Prayer from St. Ignatius
Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not to seek for rest;
To labor and not to ask for any reward,
Save that of knowing
that I am doing your will.
(5) Jesus: Sin is putting yourself before Me.
(6) Jesus: Jealousy, possessiveness, pride, envy,
greed, slothfulness, gluttony,
control, seeking dominance for
dominance sake is
putting yourself before God and
others
(7) Jesus: Who is on your throne —
I have called you to help bring the
Reign of My Sacred Heart —
(8)
From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius,
by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. p. 12
23. FIRST PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION
Man is created to praise, reverence and serve God
our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
(9)
From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius,
by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. p.1121. SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
Which have as their purpose the conquest of self
and the regulation of one's life in such a way that
no decision is made under the influence of any
inordinate attachment
(10) Sing: Crown Him with Many Crowns
Carrying of the Cross
(1) Jesus: I am God and I came and carried the
cross laden with your sins—
(2) Jesus: Don't give into satan —
(3) Jesus: Live to serve God as He desires —
Be obedient
(4) Jesus: I am the Sacred Heart — I carried your
sins — I fell under the cross —
Many lie to themselves about
their disobedience and sin
(5) Jesus: Lead a virtuous life
(6) Jesus: Satan wants you to give into vices —
(7) Jesus: I bled for your lies —
I bled for your selfishness —
I cry to you to reach My souls
today as I have asked you
(8) Jesus: My face fell to the ground —
My chin was raw from
falling —
Bleeding like raw meat and
You worry about looking good
when your hearts are
not obedient to My will —
White washed tombs —
I fell under the cross —
laden with your sins —
(9) Jesus: My ways are not like your ways —
(10) Jesus: Forgive those in your past and
be healed
Crucifixion
(1) Matthew 27: 32-54
On their way out, they came across a man from Cyrene, called Simon, and enlisted him to carry his cross. When they had reached a place called Golgotha, that is, the place of the skull, they gave him wine to drink mixed with gall, which he tasted but refused to drink. When they had finished crucifying him they shared out his clothing by casting lots, and then sat down and stayed there keeping guard over him.
Above his head was placed the charge against him; it read: ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’ Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.
The passers–by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said, ‘So you would destroy the Temple and in three days rebuild it! Then save yourself if you are God’s son and come down from the cross!’ The chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him in the same way, with the words, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He has put his trust in God; now let God rescue him if he wants him. For he did say, "I am God’s son." ’ Even the bandits who were crucified with him taunted him in the same way.
From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of those who stood there heard this, they said, ‘The man is calling on Elijah,’ and one of them quickly ran to get a sponge which he filled with vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink. But the rest of them said, ‘Wait! And see if Elijah will come to save him.’ But Jesus, again crying out in a loud voice, yielded up his spirit.
And suddenly, the veil of the Sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, the rocks were split, the tombs opened and the bodies of many holy people rose from the dead, and these, after his resurrection, came out of the tombs, entered the holy city and appeared to a number of people. The centurion, together with the others guarding Jesus, had seen the earthquake and all that was taking place, and they were terrified and said, ‘In truth this man was son of God.’
(2) John 19: 25-27
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
(3)
