Sacred Heart of Jesus - Blessing - 24"
Sacred Heart of Jesus - 24", 18", 12"

12" - $200.00
18" - $300.00
24" - $500.00

                December 17, 2009

Mary by day July 5, 2000

by night July 5, 2000

Fr. Carter had a dream.

                Jesus: I call you to holiness
                    I call you to unity —
                    I call you to follow Me —

                    To die to your selfish ways  

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

                Jesus: I sweat Blood for your sins —

John 5: 42

Besides, I know you too well: you have no love of God in you.

                R. Father, You so loved the world —
                    Father, You sent Your only Son
                        to be our Savior

                Sing: A Song from Jesus

                R. Jesus took on the sins of
                    men

                Jesus was beaten
                Jesus was crowned with thorns
                Jesus died for all
                Jesus was the innocent lamb
                    led to the slaughter

                What right do you have to
                    block others of hearing God's message
                    because you think only of yourself —

                Jesus: I died for their sins

                    You focus on yourselves
                    You want your way

                    I died for all men —

                R. Jesus was conceived through
                    the power of the Holy Spirit
                    and born of the Virgin Mary

                R. Jesus gave Himself up to death —
                Jesus rose from the dead
                Jesus destroyed death and restored life —

                We are to live for Him —

                We are to be witnesses
                    Christ-like

                God gives us baptism

                We are to live in the Spirit —

                Holy Spirit sanctify us —
                    make us holy

                Jesus showed the depth
                    of His love —

                May we come to live more
                    fully the love we profess —

1 John 4: 9

This is the revelation
    of God’s love for us,
that God sent his only Son into the world
that we might have life through him.

 

Luke 4: 18

    The spirit of the Lord is on me, 
    for he has anointed me 
    to bring the good news to the afflicted. 
    He has sent me 
        to proclaim liberty to captives, 
    sight to the blind, 
    to let the oppressed go free, 
 

Psalm 111: 4

Zain  He gives us a memorial of his great deeds;

Het  Yahweh is mercy and tenderness.

                Sing: What you hear in the dark

Psalm 35: 10

My very bones will all exclaim,
    Yahweh, who can compare with you
in rescuing the poor from the oppressor;
    the needy from the exploiter?

John 10: 10

The thief comes
only to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come
so that they may have life
and have it to the full. 

 

1 Thessalonians 2: 13

Psalm 40: 2, 5, 7-8, 9, 10

He pulled me up from the seething chasm,
    from the mud of the mire.
He set my feet on rock,
    and made my footsteps firm.

How much you have done,
    Yahweh, my God –
your wonders, your plans for us –
    you have no equal.
I will proclaim and speak of them;
    they are beyond number

    then I said, ‘Here I am, I am coming.’

In the scroll of the book it is written of me,
    my delight is to do your will;
your law, my God,
    is deep in my heart.

I proclaimed the saving justice of Yahweh
    in the great assembly.
See, I will not hold my tongue,
    as you well know.

I have not kept your saving justice locked in the depths of my heart,
    but have spoken of your constancy and saving help.
I have made no secret of your faithful and steadfast love,
    in the great assembly.

Ezekiel 34: 11, 23-24

    "For the Lord Yahweh says this: Look, I myself shall take care of my flock and look after it.

    "I shall raise up one shepherd, my servant David, and put him in charge of them to pasture them; he will pasture them and be their shepherd. I, Yahweh, shall be their God, and my servant David will be ruler among them. I, Yahweh, have spoken.

                On December 18, 2000

                    Fr. Carter died
 

4 days before his death

Psalm 3: 4-7

I cry out to Yahweh;
he answers from his holy mountain. Pause

As for me, if I lie down and sleep,
I shall awake, for Yahweh sustains me.
I have no fear of people in their thousands upon thousands,
who range themselves against me wherever I turn.

Arise, Yahweh,
rescue me, my God!
You strike all my foes across the face,
you break the teeth of the wicked.

                Sing: A Voice Cries Out 

                A person is to work here, doing God's will
                    and work with others to do God's will —

                God has a date with us to do certain
                    work for Him on certain days, at
                    certain times — He brings others
                    to us — He teaches us about His
                    order — He blesses us when we
                    obey Him and work for Him as
                    He desires

                A juggler is one who throws things
                    out there and juggles things —
                    If a person is married and
                    has several young children
                    they learn more and more
                    about dependability

                God has us working together, many
                    times, a family is a system —
                    In dysfunctional families a
                    person usually watched and learned
                    and lived — disorder —

                Now they tell themselves this is
                    familiar to me and I don't want
                    to change — I want you to do
                    my dance of disorder —

                In a dysfunctional family — one
                    person said —
                    "I will do it my way and you
                    are forced to do it my way too" —

                I will drink, I will abuse — they
                    can use some dysfunction to
                    force their behavior

                There is an 'enabler' that makes every -
                    body else tip toe around the
                    guy demanding his will —
                    (doing his dance)

                Now we have two strong willed
                    persons forcing this disorder
                    and dysfunction on others —

                Where a family is to develop in order,
                    justice, right rules, according
                    to God's rules —

                The person demanding his way — settles
                    in with his rules — forcing another to
                    see his way is followed and they
                    dance like this day and night --
                    while others follow out of force

                God gives us rules —
   

                    Accountability — we are accountable
                        for our actions —
                        We have confession —
                        The Mass — the penitential right

                    People are to work according to
                        God's will with others God's
                        timing — our age shows us
                        we are on God's timing —
                        little babies come fresh
                        and new —
                        our bodies age and our
                            bodies don't act like
                            little babies bodies

                    our eyes begin to give us
                        problems —
                    a person can have a stigmatism
                        in the 8th grade and have
                        to deal with it — or they can't see —
                        near-sidedness, can't read the
                        board at school — this is something
                        wrong in the eye — they lack
                        perfect vision — disorder to
                        seeing —

                We grow up in families — like the body
                    with a disease, diabetes,
                    poor vision — we try to correct
                    these disorders to have a good
                    life,
                    but a person unwilling to recognize
                    they don't hear too good and
                        seeking correction has a
                        hearing problem —

                    They were always checking our
                        ears and eyes at school —

                        A person driving gets his
                            eyes checked or he can
                            hurt others driving —

                God puts us in families to learn
                    how to give and take —
                    obey those over us
                    to learn about love and intimacy
                    to learn to discuss problems
                        and to solve problems

                People who have not worked with
                    others can be like this child —

                    On a given morning a child of 2 was
                        given lots of french toast —
                        he was a good boy, but
                        when the sitter asked for
                        a piece of french toast
                        he threw a fit and laid
                        on the ground screaming —

                    His mom and dad about to
                        leave said —
                        "he just doesn't want
                            to share — he gets like
                            this"

                    Sharing is to be learned — little
                        babies think everything is
                        theirs when they first begin
                        to walk around and grab things —
                        they toddle up to anything and
                        take it and scream and throw
                        a fit if it will hurt them, if
                        they will break it — they don't
                        care —

                        they say in so many screaming
                            sounds
                        "This is mine now and I will
                            throw a temper tantrum
                            for it"

                Adults are to work with each other —
                    people have to learn boundaries —
                    working at work, in the family
                    helps us to respect others'
                    things —

                A person can say — "I want it and I
                    will have it — if I lie or
                    steal, I will do what I want"

                This is wrong —
                    when this person at work is
                    taking inventory doing it in
                    a sneaky way — giving it to others
                    because they want it — it
                    interferes with the rules of
                    the company and this person
                    is usually let go

                Boundaries are important —
                    My dad didn't like children
                        in our yard —

                    People put dogs in the yard
                        to keep strangers from
                        using their property

                    When we have rules and it is
                        our company — employees
                        must obey the rules or
                        they are warned or let
                        go depending on the offense

                The angels who fell said
                    "We will not serve God"

                Mary is the perfect handmaid of
                    the Lord — she followed
                    the order of God —

                    Order is order
                        like the stars in the sky follow
                        God's order

                    Before the fall of Adam and Eve
                        there was perfect order in elements —

                        animals were in order

                Adam and Eve sinned and then
                    we had to die

                The offense of their sin was
                    so great —

                    we have to die

                    Listen to Genesis Chapter 3

Genesis Chapter 3

Now, the snake was the most subtle of all the wild animals that Yahweh God had made. It asked the woman, 'Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?' The woman answered the snake, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, "You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death." ' Then the snake said to the woman, 'No! You will not die! God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good from evil.' The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was enticing for the wisdom that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.

The man and his wife heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. But Yahweh God called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked. 'I heard the sound of you in the garden,' he replied. 'I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' 'Who told you that you were naked?' he asked. 'Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?' The man replied, 'It was the woman you put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then Yahweh God said to the woman, 'Why did you do that?' The woman replied, 'The snake tempted me and I ate.'

Then Yahweh God said to the snake, 'Because you have done this,

    Accursed be you
    of all animals wild and tame!
    On your belly you will go
    and on dust you will feed
    as long as you live.
    I shall put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
    it will bruise your head
    and you will strike its heel.'

    To the woman he said:

    I shall give you intense pain
        in childbearing,
    you will give birth to your children
        in pain.
    Your yearning will be for your husband,
    and he will dominate you.

To the man he said, 'Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,

    Accursed be the soil because of you!
    Painfully will you get your food from it
    as long as you live.
    It will yield you brambles and thistles,
    as you eat the produce of the land.
    By the sweat of your face
    will you earn you food,
    until you return to the ground,
    as you were taken from it.
    For dust you are
    and to dust you shall return.

The man named his wife 'Eve' because she was the mother of all those who live. Yahweh God made tunics of skins for the man and his wife and clothed them. Then Yahweh God said, 'Now that the man has become like one of us in knowing good from evil, he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick from the tree of life too, and eat and live for ever!' So Yahweh God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken. He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted the great winged creatures and the fiery flashing sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.

                Now we have the story of salvation
                    history

                    Man rebels against God —
                        God allowed them to be enslaved —
                        God sent Moses, the prophets
                            to give them rules, messages
                            to set them free from enslavement —

                    Some made molten calves to worship
                        instead of God

                    Some pagans sacrificed humans to false
                        gods

                    In the Old Testament they sacrificed animals
                        to God

                    Jesus, is Divine, Jesus came
                        the LAMB of GOD
                        sacrificed for the sins of men —

                The cross is our autobiography —

                    man sinned —
                    Christ wore the wounds for
                        our sins —

                    Christ gives us the Mass —
                        the sacrifice of Calvary —
                        sacramentally made
                        present

                    Grace is outpoured on the
                        whole world at Mass —

                Look at the message of the
                    prophets

                    hope —
                    hope —
                    hope —

                In Lent we prepare for Easter —
                    We are to die to those ways
                        not like Jesus

                    We are to prepare for new life —

                    We are to repent of the
                        mistakes of the past —

                    We are here not to just
                        take up space —

                    We are here to repent — to
                        work to be better
                        than we are

                    We are here to grow in the
                        image and likeness of God

                    We are here to grow in holiness
                        and goodness

                    At the time of Noah God flooded
                        the earth —
                        the men had become corrupt —                   
                        it was a loving thing God
                        flooded the earth —

                    The sign God gave was the sign
                        of the rainbow
                        with this promise

Genesis 9: 11-17

And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth.’ 

    ‘And this’, God said, ‘is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things. When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth, that is, all living things.’ 

    ‘That’, God told Noah, ‘is the sign of the covenant I have established between myself and all living things on earth.’

                After Mary appeared to me almost every day
                    for 14 months — I was told
                    to put the "live rosaries"
                    in a book —

                    Red for the Heart of Christ
                    entitled "Rosaries from the Hearts of
                    Jesus and Mary" with a rainbow

                On December 17, 1996 — that book
                    left the printer and
                    Mary appeared on the building
                    in Clearwater — that
                    day December 17, 1996 in a
                    rainbow that matched
                    the book  
 

shipped from the printers December 17, 1996

Mary appeared December 17, 1996

                When we say we are Christians —
                    we are to be living a
                    life, likened more and more
                    to Christ — to be a witness
                    in the world — living the Christ-life

                Hitler only saw it his way —

                Look at the destruction of World War II

                Where is Hitler today

                Pope John Paul II lived his whole
                    life — trying to unite men
                    and teach them the Gospel —
                    teach them about Christ

                Where is Pope John Paul II
                    today

                The spiritual life is to grown
                    in our Christ-life —
                    to grow in life in the Spirit —

                We are always trying to do
                    better — always trying
                    to improve ourselves —

                Our Lady at Fatima said
                    we needed to CONVERT

                We are to do better living up
                    to what Christ wants
                    of us

                LIVE A POSITIVE LIFE

                God is a caring parent
                God loves us
                God wants us to change

                It is a challenge to change

                Fr. Joe says if we lack self-discipline
                    we can't be mature
                    and happy

                We are to work hard to make
                    ourselves a better person

                We are to change our hearts

                We are to worship and praise
                    God — not put ourselves
                    first and on the throne

                At Mass we act in
                    Worship
                    Love
                    Obedience

                We want to die to the ways not
                    likened to Christ to be
                    a witness in the world —

                We owe God worship

                God is first

                We want a more abundant
                    life in Christ

                God gave Abraham a promise —

                God the Father sent His Son

                EXODUS means Departure from
                    the world —

                Look at Moses he said
                        "Let my people go"

                We are a tourist in this world

                When a person keeps trying to
                    fit things in —

                    they are like a bird that
                    never settles on the
                    nest —

                God has a Plan for us — to live
                    our vocation this way —

                We create confusion in our
                    lives some of us, doing
                    two things at once —
                    when God wants something —
                    we make a contest out
                    of it —
                    We short change what He wants —
                    Create pressure for everyone
                        trying to do God's will

                We are on the floor like a 2 year
                    old screaming "I won't
                    share, my way or the highway"

                People that keep working in peace —
                    seek God's will and do God's
                    will —
                    they don't create problems
                    by starting a fight for their
                    will at the "big event"

                Or not show up for Christmas
                    Mass —

                They are involved in what is
                    happening - with all
                    their heart and will and
                    are trying to please
                    God —

                God I give You my heart and
                    my will —

                Change my heart — to work in
                    peace to do Your will —
                    to pray with others —
                    to see You deserve
                    praise and honor and glory and
                    to give it to You —

                My whole focus is giving to
                    God — what He wants —

                Our strength, our joy, lies
                    in this — seeking God's
                    will and doing it

                Being in touch with our
                    hearts —

                Teaching others to pray in
                    union as God wants to
                    praise and worship and honor
                    and love God

                WASTING time with God
                    a Jesuit once said —
                    that means —
                    He is our Sweet Heart and
                    We love Him
                    We love God's will

                Do we want the
                    desert or the promised land.

                We must trust in God

                Surrender —

                God will bless us

                Fr. Joe says in one of his homilies
                    we are to have our bags
                    packed and ready to go —
                    we are tourists in this world —

                "Our citizenship is in heaven"

                We are to produce
                    Good works

Luke 13: 6-9

                In Revelation it say
 

                God stands at the door and
                    He knocks —

                We must open the door to God
                And let Him come in

                We need to do better improving
                    ourselves

                Look at the jealousy of the son

Luke 15: 11-31

The lost son (the ‘prodigal’) and the dutiful son

Then he said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, "Father, let me have the share of the estate that will come to me," So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch; so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled himself with the husks the pigs were eating but no one would let him have them. Then he came to his senses and said, "How many of my father’s hired men have all the food they want and more, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired men." So he left the place and went back to his father.

‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him. Then his son said, : "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son." But the father said to his servants, "Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening and kill it; we will celebrate by having a feast, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found." And they began to celebrate.

‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about. The servant told him, "Your brother has come, and your father has killed the calf we had been fattening because he has got him back safe and sound." He was angry then and refused to go in, and His father came out and began to urge him to come in; but he retorted to his father, "All these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed any orders of yours, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property -- he and his loose women -- you kill the calf we have been fattening.

‘The father said, "My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.’

Fourth Sunday of Lent
March 18, 2007

We just heard the story of a young boy whose life was misdirected by love of riches and pleasure. After his so called friends abandoned him and he suffered hunger and want for a period of time, he came to his senses and returned to his father. He returned a changed person. Fortunately, he had a loving and forgiving father who accepted him unconditionally. The point of the story is abundantly clear when we consider the relationship between the father and his younger son. As regards the relationship between the father and the older son, Jesus leaves the conclusion open-ended. We have to reflect on what might have happened, whether the older son gave in to his father’s pleading to be forgiving or whether he refused. How we end the story will tell us a lot about ourselves.

I want to tell you about another young man whose story is somewhat similar. He was Catholic to start with but admits that he was not a very good one. His father was a government official and this young man enjoyed the comforts of those who were well off. He described himself at sixteen as a scatterbrained youth who had “turned away from God and did not keep his commandments.” As his story goes, he was kidnapped and sold as a slave and made to labor on a farm for six years. Like the prodigal son who was without friends and who suffered without adequate food or shelter, this young man came to his senses and he learned obedience through what he suffered. He discovered (and we quote) ”God showed me how to have faith in him forever, as one who is never to be doubted.” After six years God spoke to him in a way that he heard with his own ears. He would escape and God audibly told him when to leave and what direction to go in order to accomplish his escape. Miraculously God protected him along the way until he arrived back home. Like the prodigal son, he came home a new person. Although his parents wanted to keep him at home with them, his love for God led him to want to serve God as a priest. Even more than serving as a priest, his love for others led him to want to return to the people who captured and enslaved him and teach them about God. And that he did. After overcoming many obstacles, including rejection by the hierarchy, a breach of confidence by a friend to whom he entrusted a confession of his past life, his lack of education and social graces, he returned as a bishop to the people who had enslaved him. Once he arrived he wasn’t greeted with open arms. Again, in his own words, he said “daily I expect either murder, or robbery, or enslavement.” He writes elsewhere “they seized me with my companions. And on that day they most eagerly desired to kill me; but my time had not yet come. And everything they found with us they plundered, and myself they bound in chains.” He feared nothing, for even if he were to be put to death, he felt that would have been the supreme act of love for his God. But God had other intentions than that he should be a martyr. For 30 years he served God and the people who once enslaved him and his work was blessed. He ordained many bishops and priests, established convents, monasteries and schools and in thirty years saw the conversion of almost all of Ireland. And of course you all know I’ve been talking about St. Patrick, who is one of our patronal saints and whose statue is under the choir loft. His work was so successful that in a short time Ireland was sending out missionaries to revitalize the faith of Europe which had fallen into decline. Irish missionaries have been a blessing to the Church ever since.

For those who are Irish and who honor Patrick, the best way to truly honor him is not by drinking a Guinness. We should respond to his example and his call to holiness. Again quoting Patrick, he asks those who believe in him and love him to “strengthen and confirm your faith…That will be my glory, for a wise son is the glory of his father.”

And for those who are not Irish and who think too much is made of St. Patrick on March 17th, I would like you to think of how our faith has been strengthened by the witness of many Irish saints and how our civilization has been preserved by the scholarship of the Irish during the days when mainland Europe was being overrun by barbarians. The great heritage of western civilization, from the Greek and Roman classics to Jewish and Christian works, would have been utterly lost were it not for the holy men and women of unconquered Ireland. These Irish recorded the great works of western civilization in their monasteries and convents (remember all books had to be written by hand). They brought this learning back to Europe after it began to stabilize in the eighth century under Charlemagne. Whether you’re Irish or not, we all owe a great debt to the Irish and we pray that our patron, St. Patrick, blesses our parish and our families.

Fifth Sunday of Lent (excerpt)
March 25, 2007

INTRODUCTION - Imagine you have been captured by radical Moslems in Iraq, and turned into a slave. Then God sends you a message through a holy person that you will soon be liberated and would be able to come back home. Well, if you can imagine how you would feel, you can imagine how the Jews felt when Isaiah the prophet spoke to them the words in today’s first reading. At that time in history, 500 years before Christ, the land we now know as Iraq was known as Babylon. The Jews were their captives and slaves. God tells them their release from the Babylonians would be no less spectacular than their release from slavery in Egypt centuries earlier. Even as the prophet speaks, he tells them the road back to their own land is being made ready. God’s statement “see, I am doing something new” leads us into the gospel, where we see Jesus taking a new approach to sinners. He did not come to condemn but to save. His kindness to a woman caught in adultery freed her from both the death sentence and from her sins.

HOMILY – It was God’s law. In the book of Leviticus (20,10) and in the book of Deuteronomy (22,22), it states that if a man commits adultery, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. The scribes and Pharisees who brought this woman to Jesus acted as if they were interested in observing the law, but they weren’t. Otherwise they would have brought both parties to Jesus. The woman wasn’t their target, Jesus was. They thought they had him trapped. If he said let her be free, they could accuse him of breaking the Law which he always respected. If he said put her to death, he would be contradicting all he had preached about mercy and forgiveness. In addition, if Jesus said she must be put to death according to the law, he would have been in violation of Roman law, which reserved capital punishment to the Roman governor. And the Romans ruled the Holy Land in the time of Jesus. They thought they had Jesus cornered. No one knows whether he was really writing something or just stalling for time as he moved his finger in the dusty earth. But when they pressed for an answer Jesus said, “Let him who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.”

I see two moral lessons worth noting in today’s gospel.

The first lesson is the most basic of all. Every organization, from the small family unit to the world’s largest nations, has to have laws. Without laws, chaos would reign supreme. And there has to be someone to enforce those laws, or they would be meaningless. Jesus observed all God’s laws and taught others to do so. He even added a few of his own. But Jesus was able to balance law with mercy. Unfortunately, the notion of mercy is distorted in many people’s minds today. They think God is so forgiving that it matters little as to whether they do what God wants or not. Notice Jesus told the lady, “Go, and do not sin again.” In the minds of many people, God is an overly permissive parent but God is not. God is a good parent who cares and who loves us and who wants us to be good for our own well being and happiness. That is the first lesson in our gospel: God is merciful, but his mercy is meant to help us lead holier lives. It’s not meant to be an excuse to follow the rules he gave us if we like them and ignore the ones we don’t. ...

                What is God's agenda?

                Or do we ask

                What is my agenda and how
                    will I block Gods
                    to do it my way first —

                Blessings come —
                   
                    we see all through salvation
                    history —

                    When we repent and tell
                        God we want to serve Him —

                    Adam and Eve sinned
                        we all suffer today
                        because of this

                    Sin — doing our own will

                Fr. Joe says

                    "The innocent Jesus suffered
                        mockery, violent abuse,
                        injustice and rejection
                        by his own people.

                    If we were there, would we
                        have been among those
                        who honored him with
                        palms and Hosannas,
                        Or would we have been
                        among those calling
                        for his execution,
                        Or would we simply
                        have been, as many
                        are in our world
                        today,
                        indifferent to it all."

                We see Jesus forgiving —

                Fr. Joe says

                    "Even as Jesus was on his way
                        to a most cruel and unfair
                        death, he continued to heal
                        and to forgive — . . .

                    St. Luke tells us Jesus
                        forgave those who put
                        him to death —

                    Father, forgive them, they
                        know not what they do.

                    He even gave forgiveness
                    and promised paradise
                    to the criminal who,
                    with faith, asked Jesus
                    to remember him when
                    he entered his Kingdom.
                    Although we are unable to
                    claim to be innocent as
                    Jesus was, we can still
                    follow his example of
                    offering healing and forgiveness
                    rather than hatred and vengeance."

                Christ sufferings gives us
                    hope and strength.

                Jesus loves us so much —
                    He gives us His love
                    in the Eucharist —

                Jesus, my companion, my
                    love, my all, teach
                    me Your ways that I
                    will be a witness to
                    You, that I will walk
                    in Your light despite
                    others who selfishly
                    try to block Your
                    will for me —

                Let me walk behind You
                    and follow You my
                    whole life —

                I love You Jesus

We can send Fr. Joe's