December 17, 2008

                    We are dependent on God's grace —
                Without Him we can do nothing —

                    God has blessed us in the Shepherds of Christ —
                today we need to pray as never before — as powerful
                intercessors — 12 years after Our Lady's
                image appeared at Clearwater.

                    God is love — Come Holy Spirit help
                us to walk in greater faith — to hope
                and to love - to love and to love.

                    Our love for the Eucharist empowers us
                to live to spread the "Good News" and
                live to help build the Kingdom of God.

                    We give ourselves deeply in prayer on
                this December 17, 2008 praying united
                to God to hear us and help this troubled
                world — It depends on God — our letting go
                and surrendering and loving the souls He died
                for.

January 5, 2001

                    We are called to beg God now in these
                times to help us spread His message to
                the world —

                    To beg for mercy from God
                    To beg for grace

                    We pray this day for all the funds to reach
                the priests and hierarchy with this message —
                to keep this building to worship and love
                our God as we pray from here for the
                priests, the Church and the world.

                    We pray for the Church and the world and
                we believe God will help us — we rely on
                God and His might — We pray for this mission
                for the Church and the world in this time of
                crisis —

                    Jesus came in the womb of Mary into
                this world — Mary gave herself purely to
                God — Mary is the perfect disciple of Jesus,
                we are to model ourselves after Mary
                the perfect handmaid and servant of the Lord.

                    Mary did the will of the Father —
                    Mary lived by God's Plan
                    Mary saw through the eyes of the
                        heavenly Father —

                    Mary pondered in her heart — Mary is
                loving. Mary is pure — Mary is our
                model — The devil wants us to get caught           
                in his fallacious reasoning - giving into him —
                Mary shows us her Immaculate Heart —
                Mary is full of wisdom — Mary is the Spouse of
                the Holy Spirit.

                    In the Litany in the Shepherds of Christ prayers in
                the prayer manual we sing the Litany to
                Mary — this is what God wants — to honor
                Mary —

                    Mary is pure gift —

                    We pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit

                        wisdom, understanding, counsel,
                        fortitude, knowledge, piety,
                        and fear of the Lord.

                    We pray for the fruits of the Holy Spirit

                        charity, joy, peace, patience,
                        benignity, goodness, long-suffering,
                        mildness, faith, modesty,
                        continency and chastity. 

                The incarnation goes on in us

                Mary is our spiritual Mother —

                Mary is full of grace

                God loved us first —

                We are to respond to this love of God —

                Our lives are a response to God's love —

                Jesus is the way, the truth and the life —

                God gives us the Word
                God gives us the Commandments

                To grow in holiness we are growing to be
                    more and more in the image of God —

                We love God so much — we ought to love
                    God for the pure sake of loving Him —

                God deserves our love —

                We abandon ourselves to God's will —

                Realizing the good we do is because of
                    His grace —

                We do good acts because God is
                    working is us.

                We give our lives and our wills to God.

                Who has the answers in this troubled
                    world —
                    God has the answers —

                God the Holy Spirit helps us to be fervent
                    in our prayer — the devil tempts
                    people to be selfish — focused on
                    self —

                    Jesus loved us so much He hung for
                        3 hours on the cross
                        Jesus gave Himself on the cross
                        for love of us.

                God is light and in Him there is no darkness —

                Mary appeared for 7 1/2 years in Clearwater —

                Our Lady clothed as the sun —
     

Revelation 12: 1-2

                    God flooded the earth at the time of
                Noah and only 8 people survived —

                    The water prefigures baptism —
                    Jesus came and died and rose — from
                        His pierced side the Church was
                        born

                        Water for baptism
                        Blood for the Eucharist

                CLEAR - WATER

John 4: 13-15

    ‘Sir,’ said the woman, ‘give me some of that water, so that I may never be thirsty or come here again to draw water.’

                God gives us Himself in the Eucharist —

                The Mass is the Sacrifice of Calvary —

                sacramentally made present.

                Most Sacred Heart of Jesus we trust in Thee.

                    Jesus died for all of us

                    Jesus gave Himself —

                Holy Spirit come and renew the face of the earth.

                We beg You Holy Spirit —

                We hope that we will have eternal life some day —

                We believe He will hear us and
                    shower us with blessings

                We must fight to do good —
                We are at battle with satan —
                We choose life or death —

                Our weapons are love of God — love of
                    one another, love of self —
                    things rooted in the heart —
                    living according to God's will in love.

                We must spread the devotion of the 2 Hearts
                    of pure and perfect love —

                We are to be witnesses in the world
                We are to be witnesses in the Church
                We are to be witnesses in our family —

                We beg God for the grace to live holy lives.
                God is all powerful —

                We must rely on His Might —

                We must have faith and pray
                We surrender our lives to God.
                We let God operate as He desires in us
                We rely on His strength —

                We are weak — He is strong

                We must keep trying to catch fish —
                    plant seeds —
                    beg God to protect the vineyard

                God is all merciful

                We live to be better members (as baptized
                    Catholics) of the Catholic Church —

                We live to build peace and harmony —
                    not discord, disorder giving
                    into satan —

                When we sin — we must tell God we are
                    sorry and try to make it up to
                    Him and others — not lie about our sin

                Sinning and lying makes us unhappy and
                    hurts our union with God

                God gives us this special sharing in
                    His life in baptism and He
                    feeds us with Himself in the
                    Eucharist —

                What a package!!!

                    We are called to go out of ourselves
                and love God and each other and
                love ourselves as God intends.

                    We must forgive our brothers and
                love them, if we are not to be with
                them — we can pray for them, but
                we don't hate them —

                    We beg to have a heart like Jesus
                and Mary — ready to love — we love
                as brothers — not like enemies we hate

                Jesus died on the cross for our sins —

                He shows us about forgiveness and
                    love —

                We are to walk hand-in-hand with
                    our neighbor

                Jesus died for us so we would be one

John 17: 21-23

May they all be one,
just as, Father, you are in me
   and I am in you,
so that they also may be in us,
so that the world may believe
it was you who sent me.
I have given them the glory
   you gave to me,
that they may be one as we are one.
With me in them and you in me,
may they be so perfected in unity
that the world will recognise
   that it was you who sent me
and that you have loved them
as you have loved me.

                God doesn't want us divided —

                Even if someone is evil — we still
                    must love them and pray for them
                    (but not necessarily be with them)

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 

                Loving helps us to seek good —
                Loving helps us be happy

                When we love we are likened to Jesus

                Mary called us at Fatima to

                    (1) Convert — We must convert ourselves
                                if we tell others to change
                    (2) Give our hearts to Jesus and Mary's Hearts
                    (3) Repent
                    (4) Pray the Rosary
                    (5) Make reparation
                    (6) Go to the Eucharist

                God calls us to be witnesses in the
                    Shepherds of Christ —
                    witnesses for these messages

                This is the good news

                The love we do goes with us if we
                    go to heaven —

                Be Peacemakers

                That is our call in the Shepherds of Christ —

                To spread the Good News —

1 John 3: 16

This is the proof of love, 
that he laid down his life for us, 
and we too ought to lay down our lives 
    for our brothers. 
    

John 3: 16

For this is how God loved the world: 
he gave his only Son, 
so that everyone who believes in him 
    may not perish 
but may have eternal life.

The Ten commandments

1 John 4: 10 

                            Love consists in this:
                            it is not we who loved God,
                            but God loved us and sent his Son
                            to expiate our sins.

                    Go to the heart of Mary — pray
                where you are blind to see
                as God the Father desires.

Matthew 16: 26

What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life? Or what can anyone offer in exchange for his life? 

Luke 14: 26

‘Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, cannot be my disciple.

Matthew 5: 40-41

if someone wishes to go to law with you to get your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone requires you to go one mile, go two miles with him.

Matthew 8: 20

Jesus said, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’

John 9: 39

Matthew 4: 17

From then onwards Jesus began his proclamation with the message, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.’

Matthew 24: 1-2

Jesus left the Temple, and as he was going away his disciples came up to draw his attention to the Temple

buildings. He said to them in reply, ‘You see all these? In truth I tell you, not a single stone here will be left on another: everything will be pulled down.’

Matthew 10: 16

Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be cunning as snakes and yet innocent as doves.   

Matthew 18: 3

   Then he said, ‘In truth I tell you, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.

John 15: 12

This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.

Luke 6: 27

‘But I say this to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

Luke 12: 37

Blessed those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. In truth I tell you, he will do up his belt, sit them down at table and wait on them.

Luke 24: 26

  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?’

Luke 12: 49

'I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!

Matthew 6: 25

‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing!

Matthew 10: 39

Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

Jeremiah 1: 4-8

John 1: 14-16

12 Years Ago Today

December 17, 1996

Come to Florida site to pray

                    1966 Fr. Carter had the vision God

                        developed in Shepherds of Christ

                    Here is the preface from a book

                        Fr. Carter wrote in 1966

                        and was published in

                        4 languages

Response in Christ

by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

Preface

to Revised Edition

The Church is presently experiencing a profound renewal in every aspect of her life. We have the new liturgy, a renewed interest in scripture and the new theology. These are some of the areas in which we can witness the change which is permeating the life of today's Church.

     It is not surprising, therefore, that we see a contemporary spiritually arising. What are some of the characteristics of this new spirituality? First of all, it is consciously rooted in liturgy and scripture. Contemporary spirituality is also significantly personalistic in its stress on the Christian's I-thou relationship with God and his fellowman. Present-day spirituality also is experiencing a strong incarnational trend as the Church calls her members to a more vital involvement with the temporal and terrestrial aspects of Christ's Kingdom. Contemporary spirituality further shows a keen interest in religious psychology and religious anthropology. These, then, are some of the characteristics of current-day spirituality which makes us aware that the Christian life of holiness is experiencing its share of the Church's universal renewal.

     Yet contemporary spirituality, despite its process of renewal and change, cannot sever itself from the authentic spiritual tradition which has preceded it. There is more than one voice in the Church today cautioning against the danger of cutting off from the past. For instance, Karl Rahner in his Spiritual Exercises (pages-65-66) gives such a warning.

      We must, then, learn how to unite the contemporary trends of the practice of Christian holiness with the authentic, essential elements which have constantly inserted themselves throughout the history of Christian spirituality. To unite the contemporary with the traditional is one of the aims of this work. This will be done as we give a survey of the various essential themes of the Christian life of holiness. Although these themes are not treated exhaustively by any means, it is hoped that their development  is sufficient to allow for an intelligent, unified view of the Christian life. The great source of such unity, of course, is Christ Himself. It is Christ who unites all the various truths and practices of Christian holiness into an organic and dynamic synthesis. Because of this centricity of Christ in the Christian's life, this work has been entitled Response in Christ.

     It is a difficult task for an author to attempt a comprehensive view of the Christian or spiritual life at the present time. The life of the Church is in a period of deep transition. This affects the work of theology, and, consequently, theology also is in a transitional and vastly expanding phase of its existence. The difficulties this situation poses for an author in striving to give a synthetic view of the Christian life are obvious. But despite the difficulties, it seems the effort should be undertaken. Every committed Christian of any age needs some sort of over all view of the essentials of full Christian living. It is hoped that this revised edition will continue to serve the worthwhile purpose of offering such a synthesis, brief though it may be, and that its overall value will outweigh its shortcomings. It is a book which is intended not primarily for the professional theologians, but rather for the general audience of committed Christians.

     The author wishes to take this opportunity to thank all those who in various ways rendered valuable assistance. Very, very special thanks is due to Sister Joan Guntzelman, S.C. Special gratitude is also due to Thelma Domenici, Sister Mary Ann Drerup, S.N.D., Father Daniel Foley, S.J., Sister Frances Marie Rapka, R.S.M., Mrs. Carl Shrand and Father Mark Schuler, S.J.

Edward Carter, S.J.

Xavier University
Cincinnati, Ohio
May, 1972

 

 

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the use of the following copyrighted material:

Excerpts from The Jerusalem Bible, copyright © 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd., and Doubleday & Company, Inc. Used by permission of the publisher.

The Teachings of the Second Vatican Council, Westminster, Maryland: Newman Press, 1966. Used with permission of Paulist / Newman Press of New York.

Mater et Magistra, Paulist Press edition. Used with permission of Paulist/ Newman Press of New York.

Munificentissimus Deus. Used with permission of NC News Service, Washington.

From The Theology of the Spiritual Life, by Joseph de Guibert, S.J., Copyright © 1953 Sheed & Ward Inc., New York, and Sheed & Ward Ltd., London.

From Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God by Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P., Copyright © Sheed & Ward Ltd., 1960, published by Sheed & Ward Inc., New York, and Sheed & Ward Ltd., London.

From Volumes I, II, III and IV of Karl Rahner's Theological Investigations, Helicon of Baltimore and Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. of London.

 

 

Contents

                Please help us get this vision

                    the writings and homilies

                    of Fr. Joe and Fr. Carter

       to the priests

                From Fr. Joe's Homilies - Cycle B

4th Sunday of Advent

2 Samuel 7: 1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16 

Once the king had settled into his palace and Yahweh had granted him rest from all the enemies surrounding him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, 'Look, I am living in a cedar' wood palace, while the ark of God is under awnings." Nathan said to the king, 'Go and do whatever you have in mind, for Yahweh is with you.' But that very night, the word of Yahweh came to Nathan: 'Go and tell my servant David, "Yahweh says this: Are you to build me a temple for me to live in?

"Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader of my people Israel; I have been with you wherever you went; I have got rid of all your enemies for you. I am going to make your fame as great as the fame of the greatest on earth. I am going to provide a place for my people Israel; I shall plant them there, and there they will live and never be disturbed again; nor will they be oppressed by the wicked any more, as they were in former times ever since the time when I instituted judges to govern my people Israel; and I shall grant you rest from all your enemies. Yahweh furthermore tells you that he will make you a dynasty. And when your days are over and you fall asleep with your ancestors, I shall appoint your heir, your own son to succeed you (and I shall make his sovereignty secure.

I shall be a father to him and he a son to me; if he does wrong, I shall punish him with a rod such as men use, with blows such as mankind gives. 

Your dynasty and your sovereignty will ever stand firm before me and your throne be for ever secure." '

    

Romans 16: 25-27

And now to him
    who can make you strong
in accordance with the gospel that I preach
and the proclamation of Jesus Christ,
in accordance with that mystery
which for endless ages was kept secret
but now (as the prophets wrote)
    is revealed,
as the eternal God commanded,
to be made known to all the nations,
so that they obey in faith:
to him, the only wise God,
give glory through Jesus Christ
for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Luke 1: 26-38

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, you who enjoy God’s favour! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Look! You are to conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ Mary said, ‘You see before you the Lord’s servant, let it happen to me as you have said.’ And the angel left her.

December 18, 2005

INTRODUCTION: (2 Samuel 7,1-5, 8b-12, 14a,16; Luke 1,26-38) Our first reading goes back 1000 years before Christ to the time of king David in Jerusalem. You need to recall that when Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt, almost 300 years before King David, God gave the people a special sign of his presence among them. That sign was the Arc of the Covenant. It looked something like this: a box in which were placed the 10 Commandments, a lid of gold and on the lid were two angels. The box was carried by two long poles because no one could touch the Arc. The two angels provided a throne for their invisible God, Yahweh. As Moses and the people moved through the desert and eventually into the promised land, the Arc was kept in a tent. Only designated people, and eventually only the high priest, could enter the tent and offer sacrifice to God. The Arc was still kept in a tent during the reign of King David. David had built himself a nice comfortable palace and he decided it was not right that the Arc, the special sign of God’s presence with his people, was still kept in a tent. So he told his prophet, Nathan, that he would build a temple, a house for God. Nathan said “good idea,” but God said “no.” God said David had shed too much blood in his role as king, so he would have David’s son, Solomon, build the temple after David died. But God was pleased with David’s idea and blessed him. One of the special blessings David received was that David’s line would never die out. One of his descendants would always be king over God’s people. That’s what is meant by the statement that God would “establish a house” for David. For about 400 years this proved to be true. Always the king of Judea was of the royal house of David. When the Babylonians conquered the Jews, that was the end of the kingship. But the Jews never forgot the promise God made to David and always waited for one who would come from David’s family who would rescue God's people from their enemies and restore the kingdom to Israel. Since kings were anointed when they assumed power, the king they looked for was called the anointed one – the Hebrew word for “anointed one” is Messiah, in Greek the word is Christos. In the gospel of the annunciation, the angel Gabriel informs Mary that her son would be the fulfillment of these hopes. “The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

HOMILY: The angel Gabriel announced the birth of a king: “the Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” I love the interesting way St. Luke begins to tell us about this. He first of all introduces Mary, but not in the usual way we introduce someone. We would have said, “I would like you to meet Mary. She’s from Galilee and engaged to be married to Joseph.” None of us would have dared to add to our introduction: “She’s a virgin!” But it’s a very important thing St. Luke wants us to know and he tells us she’s a virgin even before he tells us Mary’s name. Why? Because Mary would conceive in a miraculous way, through the power of the Holy Spirit. That alone was spectacular, but that was only the beginning of the most unique and wonderful event this world would ever see. This king, who would be conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, would be more than the ordinary, run of the mill king. This king, the messiah, the christos; that is, the anointed one, would be king over a kingdom that would never end. To top that, because he was conceived by God’s own Spirit, he would be the “Son of God.”

This is an awesome mystery that God took on our human flesh and became like us in every way except sin. There is a special theological term for it: the Incarnation. The God, who dwelt among his people housed in a tent for many generations, now comes to live with his people as one of us, taking on our own flesh and blood. Sometimes people like to say Jesus was a great prophet or a great teacher or a great humanitarian but that’s all he was. The gospels tell us he is the Son of God. If he was less than that, there was nothing great about him because he was a crazy man, full of delusion and paranoia. There is no in-between position we can take on Jesus. [In today’s bulletin is a copy of the Catholic Update that gives a beautiful explanation of today’s gospel. I highly recommend it.]

How we live our faith depends on how firmly we believe in this wonderful event. If we truly believe God has come into our world and into our lives through Jesus, shouldn’t we try to spend time with him, shouldn’t we try to get to know him better and follow him as well as possible? If we are not ready to do that, could it be that our faith is little more than a lot of words?

One last thought. I would like you to notice the respect God showed Mary in the annunciation. God didn’t just tell her she would be the mother of such an awesome person. God asked her if she would be and waited for her answer. We have here a cue for how the Son of God can come to us more fully. We have here a cue for how Christmas can fully fill our hearts. We have here a cue for how to enjoy the blessings of his kingdom that will have no end. God's Son wants to live in each of us. As God did with Mary, God waits for each of us to answer him as to whether he is welcome. Are we able to say as Mary did: “I am the servant of the Lord. I will do whatever you want of me, Oh God.”

end of homily 

 

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