Please pray for a special intention.

                December 28, 2009
 

Matthew 17: 20

                    Smiling is good —
                    Smiling helps health —
                    Smiling shows happiness

                    Force yourself to smile
                    Look around the room,
                        be in touch with people

                In baptism our knowing and
                    loving capacity is elevated

                Think of Victory
 

Philippians 4: 7

and the peace of God which is beyond our understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

Psalms 37: 1

Aleph
Do not get heated about the wicked 
or envy those who do wrong. 

From the Priestly Newsletter Book III - 2000 Issue 3

The Indwelling of the Trinity and the Life of Grace p. 37-38

The spiritual life, the life of holiness, begins at Baptism. Archbishop Luis Martinez says:

"When we are born we are endowed by God with all we need for our human life, a complete organism, and a soul with the full range of faculties. Of course they are not all developed from birth, but we have them then as the source of everything we are going to need in life. And thus it is also in the spiritual order. When someone is baptized, he receives in all its fullness that supernatural world which the Christian carries within his soul. He receives grace, which is a participation of the nature of God; the theological virtues, which put him in immediate contact with the divine; the moral virtues, which serve to regulate and order all his life; and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the divine, mysterious receivers for picking up the Spirit’s inspirations and movements."²

Another author states: "The Three Divine Persons inhabit the sanctuary of our soul, taking their delight in enriching it with supernatural gifts and in communicating to us a Godlike life, similar to theirs, called the life of grace.

"All life, however, implies a threefold element: a vital principle that is, so to speak, the source of life itself; faculties which give the power to elicit vital acts; and lastly, the acts themselves which are but its development and which minister to its growth. In the supernatural order, God living within us produces the same elements. He first communicates to us habitual grace (the life of sanctifying grace) which plays the part of a vital supernatural principle. This principle deifies, as it were, the very substance of the soul and makes it capable, though in a remote way, of enjoying the Beatific Vision and of performing the acts that lead to it.

"Out of this grace spring the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit which perfect our faculties and endow us with the immediate power of performing Godlike, supernatural, meritorious acts.

"In order to stir these faculties into action, He give us actual graces which enlighten our mind, strengthen our will, and aid us both to act supernaturally and to increase the measure of habitual grace that has been granted to us.

"Although this life of grace is entirely distinct from our natural life it is not merely superimposed on the latter. It penetrates it through and through, transforms it and makes it divine. It assimilates whatever is good in our nature, our education and our habits. It perfects and supernaturalizes all these various elements, directing them toward the last end, that is toward the possession of God through the Beatific Vision and its resultant life." ³

Our being in the state of sanctifying of grace and the special indwelling of the Persons of the Trinity within us always exist together. We cannot have the one without the other. Our life of grace, which is a sharing in Trinitarian life, allows us to know and love Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a most intimate fashion. Through grace we are in the image of the Trinity, and we enjoy special relationships with the Divine Persons.

Again, we listen to the words of Archbishop Martinez as he speaks about our relationships with the Divine Persons:

"Love, we have said, is the foundation of devotion to the Holy Spirit, as it is also the foundation of Christian perfection. But love as a reflection of God, as His own image, is something that encloses within its simplicity a boundless wealth and a variety of forms. Who can fathom the depths of love?

"Human love in all its manifestations is admirably in harmony with the love of charity; it is confident in filial love, trusting in friendship, sweet and fruitful in the love of husband and wife, disinterested and tender in the love of a mother. Our love of God must include all these forms of human love; every fiber of our heart must vibrate when the harmonious and full canticle of love bursts forth from it. But since God is one in essence and triune in Persons, our love for Him takes on a particular aspect accordingly as it is directed to each one of the divine Persons.

"Our love for the Father is tender and confident like that of children; eager to glorify Him as His only-begotten Son taught us to do by word and example. Love for the Father is the intense desire to have His will fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven. Our love for the Son, who willed to become flesh for us, is characterized by the tendency to union with Him and transformation into Him; by imitation of His example, participation in His life, and the sharing of His sufferings and His Cross. The Eucharist, mystery of love, of sorrow, and of union, reveals the characteristics of this love.

"Love for the Holy Spirit also has its special character, which we should study in order completely to understand devotion to Him. We have explained how the Holy Spirit loves us, how He moves us like a divine breath that draws us to the bosom of God, like a sacred fire that transforms us into fire, like a divine artist who forms Jesus in us. Surely, then, our love for the Holy Spirit should be marked by loving docility, by full surrender, and by a constant fidelity that permits us to be moved, directed, and transformed by His sanctifying action.

"Our love for the Father tends to glorify Him; our love for the Son, to transform ourselves into Him; our love for the Holy Spirit, to let ourselves be possessed and moved by Him."⁴

2. Archbishop Luis M. Martinez, The Sanctifier, Pauline Books and Media, pp. 124-125.
3. Adolphe Janquery, S.S., The Spiritual Life, Desclee & Co., p. 18
4. Archbishop Martinez, op. cit., pp. 67-68,

                R. God wants communities of religious
                that work together to pray for the
                priests, the Church and the world —

                    If a person never had relationships
                accept in the family —
                they can judge others as a problem
                to keep people away —

                    But God wants centers of
                religious doing adoration —

                    For 15 years I have been trying
                to form a community of adults —
                living together — being kind and
                working with each other —

                    I remember how many can be
                jealous, blocking others coming or staying

                    What I have been told by Jesus is
                the spiritual life is dying
                to the ways not likened to Jesus and
                rising to live more the resurrected
                life.

                    In a marriage the two come together
                and they must work together in love to
                be united.

                    In a community, people
                come, many times, and they want their way — we have
                to learn to be united, praying, working
                in charity with each other to form a
                community of love, witnessing to the love
                of the Trinity — the Father who created us —
                Jesus who loved us to His death — Jesus the
                way, the truth and the life and the Holy Spirit
                counseling us to do the Father's will in
                love —

                    What can happen as in a divorce — those
                divorced — try to prove they were never wrong —
                they can want to control and they can be like
                18 year olds who just left home saying —
                "I'm in charge and nobody is telling me
                what to do" Filled with dysfunction or
                maybe little relationships with adult men
                and adult women — they can try to be dominant
                and selfish and controlling and with competition
                want their way —

                    Would any company work with several
                men and women acting out their bizarre
                relationships at home with mom and dad and
                siblings on other adult candidates.

                    In a marriage, in religious communities,
                in the Church, we as baptized Catholics
                are to be a body — the
                body of Christ, with Christ the head,
                united in unity —

                    Handmaids and servants, must act in
                humility and want to grow in holiness —
                they don't know how to live in
                community — If the attitude of each is —
                "It's my way or the highway" after 50
                years of little adult relationships —
                not dying to bad habits and
                growing in a virtuous life — it won't
                work

                What is your reading for winning your
                    way

                My way —

                    Jesus says

                        "Nary the two will meet —
                        each acts out hidden anger,
                        dominance, dysfunction
                        on the other — to win the prize" 

                    You don't know how to live
                in community with other adults —
                Say everybody brings their own
                knives and forks to the community
                building —
                guess what, none of them match at all —

                What do you bring from home —

                    The skills of the inner child
                    saying
                    "I want my way and I am not
                    giving in — I'll show you"

                    So they have their way —
                    It never worked in the past —
                    Their way, each one, does harder —>
                    Guess what —

                It doesn't work in harmony

                You must in humility admit — you
                    don't know how to live in
                    community and all will live by
                    the messages to learn — to work in a
                    community with adult men and women

                No, It is the dance where Mary
                    teaches us to be religious, servants and
                    handmaids, we live in unity —
                    not like our old ways and vices,
                    habits, but shedding them and
                    growing in greater virtue

                Not doing your dysfunctional way
                    with greater force and
                    harder and harder

                You must learn to live together —
                    as God directs in communities,
                    changing in humility to be more holy —

                Little kids have to learn to share —

                A little boy was 2 and was ordering french
                    toast — a lot of it — an adult
                    watching him said "I like
                    french toast" — So when
                    it was brought to him and
                    the adult started to take
                    a piece he screamed and hollered
                    he wanted his french toast —

                His mom said he doesn't share
                    and he, the child, continued to
                    scream to get his way —

                Children have to learn to share

                    Being a religious and using
                passive-aggressive measures —
                provoking to make somebody
                scream is not going to work —
                the harder you do it for dominance
                the worse it gets

                    The answer is to pray for grace
                to learn to live together in
                unity and love praying and
                working as one —

                    To say I know it all when
                you have not had relationships
                is not going to work

                To say don't tell me nothing —
                I'll do it my way —
                Is like the 2 year old screaming
                for french toast —

                Fr. Carter says

                        Excerpt from Response to God's Love - Chapter 8

Many persons who choose marriage say they do so out of a desire to be loved. Notice, they say that they marry out of a desire to be loved, not to love.

It is, of course, always very pleasant to receive love, attention, and approval; all this, however, must occur within the framework of God's will for us. We must constantly strive to lovingly do his will at all times and in all circumstances. This is the all-embracing and all-necessary imperative that permeates every facet of our being. When we live according to this imperative, we gladly and gratefully receive love, attention, and affirmation from others when it is forthcoming; what is more, we realize that to be offered this is a part of God's plan for us. If, however, it is not forthcoming at any one time, we courageously continue to live as we think God intends, aware that, in his loving faithfulness, God will compensate for what currently appears to be a lack of human support. 

                Fr. Carter says
                    We are to walk hand-in-hand
                        humbly and dying to the
                        ways not likened to God —

                In holiness religious orders can
                    be one IN HIM

From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 
    by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. p.11

21.                     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

                        23. FIRST PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION

                            Man is created to praise, reverence and serve God 
                        our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.

                The incarnation goes on in us

                We need to imitate Christ —

                We need to be taught to live
                    in communities —
                    not do the same dysfunctional
                    ways from childhood or
                    divorce harder

                Be a soldier for Christ

                Examine our conscience

                Grow in Faith, Hope and Charity

                Obey the authority - so there
                    is discipline and order

                    God did not leave man alone
                on this earth but surrounded
                him with an incalculable
                number of other creatures.

                Dear God help me to recognize
                    the disordered habits that
                    may be sins of mine.

                That I use creatures as you desire
                    to build Your Kingdom and
                    that all love You.

                    We pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit

Romans 8: 5-9

Those who are living by their natural inclinations have their minds on the things human nature desires; those who live in the Spirit have their minds on spiritual things. And human nature has nothing to look forward to but death, while the Spirit looks forward to life and peace, because the outlook of disordered human nature is opposed to God, since it does not submit to God's Law, and indeed it cannot, and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be pleasing to God. You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

                To be happy have a clean heart

                Let your face be expressive of
                    love inside.

                Your light is your trust in God —
                Work for a cheerful heart —
   

Psalm 118: 24

This is the day which Yahweh has made,
a day for us to rejoice and be glad.

                  God is with me —

                I can successfully handle everything
                    He wants me to do today —

                I feel good —
                I am glad to be alive

                I praise God for His gifts to me —
                I thank God for His gifts to me —
                I give honor and glory to God —

                God is with me, now —
                Keep your heart free of bitterness
                    and hatred —

                Give love —
                See through God's eyes —

                Don't be selfish —
                Don't give into self-pity —

                Avoid run-on-thinking

                Live this!!

                Don't give into slothfulness —

Luke 19: 11

While the people were listening to this he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God was going to show itself then and there.

                God gives us precious things 

                God gives us laughter —
                    LAUGHING
                    SMILING
                    LOOKING for JOY

                    Making our face show
                        expressions of support and
                        love — not be like a white wall

                Not be frozen — like meat in the freezer
                Not be filled with guilt, lies, untruths
                    unforgiveness

                Expect miracles

                Jesus gives us these miracles in the Gospel —
                   
                    The wedding at Cana —
                    Jesus walking on the water —
                    Jesus calming the storm at sea —
                    Multiplication of loaves and fish —
                    Lazarus raised from the dead —
                    Peter's mother-in-law cured —
                    Lepers made clean —
                    Healing —
                    Cast out devils —
                    Blind men healed —
                    Catching a big catch of fish —
                    Lots of healings
                    Paralytics healed

Luke 15: 10-11

In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner.'

Then he said, ‘There was a man who had two sons.

Luke 5: 17-25

Now it happened that he was teaching one day, and Pharisees and teachers of the Law, who had come from every village in Galilee, from Judaea and from Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was there so that he should heal. And now some men appeared, bringing on a bed a paralysed man whom they were trying to bring in and lay down in front of him. But as they could find no way of getting the man through the crowd, they went up onto the top of the house and lowered him and his stretcher down through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith he said, 'My friend, your sins are forgiven you.' The scribes and the Pharisees began to think this over. 'Who is this man, talking blasphemy? Who but God alone can forgive sins?' But Jesus, aware of their thoughts, made them this reply, 'What are these thoughts you have in your hearts? Which of these is easier: to say, "Your sins are forgiven you," or to say, "Get up and walk"? But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,' – he said to the paralysed man – 'I order you: get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.' And immediately before their very eyes he got up, picked up what he had been lying on and went home praising God.

                Jesus gives us little babies
                    hands
                    with smiles
                    with expressions
                    with bodies that move all over
                    kids that make faces —
                    smiling
                    frowning
                    EXPRESSIONS

                How do people get these white wall
                    faces
                    monotone voices —
                    how can you claim to know
                    Jesus, to be a Christian and not have
                    joy —

                Watch a small child —

                How expressive is their eyes,
                    their smile —
                    curled up nose —
                    little body — moving about —
                    finger in the mouth —
                    little facial expression that
                        give information

                How can some adults be so hidden —
                    straight up, frozen —
                    hiding the truth —

                Go somewhere, where babies are —
                    if you aren't around them —
                    look at their faces — their
                    movements —
                    why be like — 'sealed in plastic'
                                          'a white wall'

                looking at a baby's face tells us how
                    they are —
                    happy —
                    angry —
                    sad —
                    wondering —
                    giggling
                    joy with others is in their face —

                Little children are connected with
                    us — eyes following you —
                    hollering if you leave —
                    wanting connection —

                Little children can tell us about
                    ourselves —

                A person can be frozen and keep getting
                    more guarded because of survival
                    tactics developed in a dysfunctional
                    home

                Anger is passed down from generation
                    to generation and so is dysfunction
                    until somebody says —
                    the buck stops here —

                We control ourselves

                We can do what we want — most of
                    the time because of willfulness —
                    this is a miserable existence

                A person can be in a habit of
                    combat —
                    competition —
                    the adrenalin rushes
                    I want to win —
                    even a trip to buy tapes at the pharmacy —
                    energy wasted controlling, fighting

                Who lives like this

                Not a person trying to teach children
                    about love

                We can be in accord — helping each
                    other — trying to work together —
                    or we can chart an isolated —
                    competition, put up your wall
                    life —
                    We can help each other or not —
                    We can be willful and controlling —
                        we control that —

                Think of Mother Teresa —
                    her love
                    love like Jesus
                    she saw men in the gutter dying and
                        helped them —
                    others didn't even see him and didn't
                        help —

                We control our actions —

                Creating confession, anxiety and keeping
                    it up like a woodpecker to
                    make some one act out our
                    "fidgetiness" is wrong —
                    manipulation

                Get settled in your heart —
                Be pure
                Admit your wrongs in the past —
                Don't stuff untruths —
                The men spat at Jesus, the Son
                    of God — they laughed at
                    Him —

                Today people are teaching others to be
                    stimulated all the time by
                    TV etc. — Constant stimulation —
                    much violence —

                Loving others — like Mother Teresa
                    did to the man in the gutter —
                    cleaning him up

                The man taken from the gutter, dying
                    said
                    "All my life I have lived and been
                    treated like an animal —
                    I began to hate everyone,
                    everything, and even God —
                    But today I will die loving
                    God and loving people
                    Today I will die with dignity."

                    In the scripture we see the man who
                wouldn't give scraps off his table —

Luke 16: 19-31

'There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there used to lie a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with what fell from the rich man's table. Even dogs came and licked his sores. Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels into Abraham's embrace. The rich man also died and was buried.

    'In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his embrace. So he cried out, "Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames." Abraham said, "My son, remember that during your life you had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus his fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to prevent those who want to cross from our side to yours or from your side to ours."

    'So he said, "Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father's house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too." Abraham said, "They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them." The rich man replied, "Ah no, father Abraham, but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent." Then Abraham said to him, "If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead."

                    Mary told me about souls of her
                children that can be lost to the fires
                of hell forever — Why help with the
                building when you don't pray
                for what Mary said

                    She cried out in a loud voice for
                her children going into hell like rain —
                Mary said most people commit suicide
                December 26th — we can sit around and
                focus on ourselves and if we are right or
                see with eyes that see the man in
                the gutter and not our focus on
                how good we look to people —

                    There are young people who are crippled
                and will never walk — children dying at
                Children's Hospital at age 1 every day —
                and a selfish person can see little,
                but their own glory

                    Jesus says quit focusing on how you
                are with men, live with a contrite
                heart — forgive the sinner and help build
                His Kingdom —

                    If you can see how awful it is
                babies dying — can't you see how
                awful it is Mary's children going
                to hell for all eternity —

                    Help me — don't give into satan
                to blind you to your focus being
                your own self glory — dry, dry, dry —

                    We can count the stars or look at
                the mud — Count God's blessings or
                expect others to live to give us
                a "that away boy" — We can
                thank God or complain like
                they did in the desert —

                    They wanted to kill Moses, he
                thought —

                    Jesus healed the lepers — its in
                the scriptures — they were made clean —
                why don't we thank God

                    2 men looked out prison doors
                    one saw stars, the other mud 

                Are we meek or combatal —
                Are we merciful or hard in heart
                Are our hearts growing more and more pure —

                Are we promoting peace and unity
                Are we loving —
                Acting like Jesus

                Do we suffer persecution for Jesus
                    and act bitter —
                Do we forgive injuries —
                Do we want God to forgive us —
                Do we lie about our faults

                Frozen meat —

                Do we pray for the living and the
                    dead
                Do we live in faith, hope
                    and love —
                Are we temperate, have courage,
                    are we just and temperate?

                    Charity, joy, peace, patience,
                    benignity, goodness, longanimity,
                    mildness, faith, modesty and
                    CONTINENCY —
                    modesty, chastity

                Are we understanding to others —
                    Do we have knowledge —
                    reverence — holy fear of God

                Do we strengthen and support our
                    Church?

                How do you see
                (1) INSIDE & SELFISH
                (2) Outside with love through the
                        Father's vision?

                    When you really are selfish you
                are working against the greatest
                commandment —
                going against the Father's Plan
                LIKE A RIVALRY to God's will
                How Foolish

                I give my heart to Jesus and Mary with you in love.

                    We have sent over 15,000,000
                Priestly Newsletters to the priests and hierarchy in
                15 1/2 years loose and in books —

                Now here are a few letters from priests 

                                                                    December 20, 2009

                Dear Rita Ring,

                    Thank you for sending Fr. Robinson's book of homilies for Cycle C.
                Actually you had given me a copy earlier, and now I can share this
                treasure with another priest. And a treasure it is, both the introduction
                and homily text.

                    I sincerely hope the holiest Birthday anniversary will be a religious
                experience for you and all of Shepherds of Christ.

                                                    - Ohio

                                            December 23, 2009

                My dear friends,

                    Just a small devotion to let you know
                I enjoy reading Fr. Joe's homilies.

                    God bless you and your ministry
                in 2010.

                                             - Kentucky

                Dear Rita,

                    Thank you for Guiding Light
                by your brother, Fr. Joseph Robinson.
                I greatly appreciate this gift and I
                thank you very much.

                    This "Feed My Soul" is based on the
                Sunday Gospels of Year C — Do you
                still have spare copies for Years
                A and B? What do they sell for?
                Thank You. Enjoy the Christmas Season.

                                        - Florida

                Shepherds of Christ Ministries

                    Please accept this donation
                to help in some small way the
                apostolate you have so devotedly
                engaged in for the glory of God and
                the spiritual growth of his people.

                                    - Ohio

                                    December 20, 2009

                Dear Rita,

                    Greetings from Ohio. And
                Merry Christmas! Thanks for
                the book of Fr. Joe's homilies.
                I've used it already today
                in my own homily.

                    I remember you from the
                Athenaeum Chorale.

                            Sincerely,
                            - Ohio

                We are told by Jesus to circulate this
                    book to all the priests in the
                    United States

                About 25 Bishops and Archbishops in the
                    United States wrote

                And lots of Cardinals — some in
                    the Vatican —

                Can you help us circulate Fr. Joe's
                    book —

                    Cardinal Stafford of the Vatican said
                Fr. Carter and I and the Shepherds of Christ had
                helped the Church enormously since 1993
                to present —
                The hierarchy need our prayers as
                we pray as members of the Shepherds of Christ
                as Jesus directed us to do

                The prayers are in 8 languages
                    with the Church's Imprimatur.   

Mary, Mother of God

Numbers 6: 22-27

Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, 'Speak to Aaron and his sons and say:

    "This is how you must bless the Israelites. You will say:

May Yahweh bless you and keep you.
May Yahweh let his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you.
May Yahweh show you his face
    and bring you peace."

This is how they must call down my name on the Israelites, and then I shall bless them.'

Galatians 4: 4-7

Luke 2: 16-21

So they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds said to them. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as they had been told.

When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception.

January 1, 2007 

Today we begin a new year.  It’s been a difficult year in many ways. Yet we celebrate.  Why?  Perhaps because 2003 is over. Perhaps because we’ve made it this far in spite of problems and dangers.  Hopefully, we celebrate also in gratitude for the good things that happened. And finally I think we celebrate because we are essentially optimistic people.  We have hope in the future in spite of possible dangers and inevitable problems.  Optimism is the only attitude a Christian can adopt because we believe in the goodness of God and his plans for our eternal happiness.  St. Paul’s statement in Romans has always been a source of strength and optimism for me: “For those who love God, all things work out for good.”  (Rom. 8, 28)  If I didn’t believe that, I would be very depressed.  Our optimism is grounded in reality, however, and we can be sure the coming year will not be wonderful in every way.  So we begin the year with prayer, the greatest prayer we have, the Mass, asking for God's blessing and help for the future.   

My friends suggested I make my remarks short and sweet; no one will feel like listening to anything too heavy or too lengthy today, they assured me.  Well, I will be short, but the beginning of a new year is a profound event.  And so I want to offer two ideas that are extremely important.   

The first concerns how we answer the most profound questions about the meaning of life, the meaning of our own life and where our life is taking us.  Popular culture, TV talk shows, the people we hang around with, the books we read, the variety of religious beliefs in the world today all give us ideas as to why we’re here and where we’re going.  Everything we do this year will be fundamentally guided by the answers we give to these questions.  Even to make no decision about these basic life issues is to make a decision.  Our faith tells us there is only one reliable answer: the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus is God's Son who came to earth to show us the way to eternal life.  “I am the way, the truth and the life,” he tells us. Any other way will lead us nowhere.  That’s why we pray, why we come to Mass, why we are encouraged to read the Scriptures, so we can be guided by his light, his wisdom, his truth.   

My second profound thought is about time.  It is precious.  Use it well.  And if we haven’t used it well in the past, it’s not too late to start over.   Amen. 

$25.00

Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 19, 2009

HOMILY
There was a man who worked in a museum whose job it was to explain the different exhibits. On one occasion he pointed to the bones of a dinosaur saying the bones were 100 million and 9 years old. Someone asked how they could date those bones so accurately. He said “well, when I started working here, I was told these bones were 100 million years old and I’ve worked here for nine years.”

Today I want to give everyone a little history lesson. I’m not going back to the dinosaurs, but I am going back pretty far – to King David, 1000 years before Christ. When I was in school, I hated history. It wasn’t until we studied the history of the Old Testament in the seminary that I began to appreciate it. I cannot cram 1000 years of history into a couple of minutes. I just want to touch on the parts of Jewish history that are mentioned in today’s reading. If you want to learn more, read everything in the Old Testament, but be sure you have a commentary to help you. Otherwise, you’ll give up in despair because you won’t know what it’s all about - especially the prophets and the historical books.

When David was king 1000 years before Christ, David wanted to build a house for God, since there was no Temple for God at that time. God did not give David permission to do so, however God promised David through the prophet Nathan that he would bless him and build David a house in the sense that David’s kingdom would continue forever and one of his descendants would always rule. This blessing lasted through the reign of David’s son, Solomon; but we humans somehow have the ability to sabotage God’s blessings. Solomon turned to pagan gods and over-extended the country financially by elaborate building projects and exorbitant taxes, so when Solomon died there was a rebellion and most of Israel broke away from Solomon’s successor, David’s grandson, Rehoboam. Rehoboam continued to rule over the southern part of Israel, the area we know as Judaea . For 400 years (and this is amazing) the kings of Judaea were descendants of King David. The northern kingdom that rebelled against David’s successors suffered under a succession of kings and rebellions. In less than 300 years the northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians, people from northern Iraq. About 100 years after that, the Babylonians from southern Iraq conquered the Assyrians and took control of the entire Middle East. The conquest of the Babylonians brings us up to Jeremiah whom we heard in today’s first reading. At the time of Jeremiah, here was the situation: the northern kingdom no longer existed. The southern kingdom, Judaea, was still being ruled by David’s descendants but they were not loyal to God or to God’s laws. Jeremiah spoke to these kings as they came into power, the last four being: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoikin and Zedekiah. Zedikiah, the last reigning king, died in disgrace. After the Babylonians captured him, his sons were slaughtered before his eyes, he was then blinded and led off to Babylon in chains where he presumably died. You can read how Jeremiah spoke with them in great detail in the book of Jeremiah. He told them exactly what they needed to do to survive the invading forces of Babylon. His messages were ignored. He blames them and their leadership for the destruction that came upon God’s people. As we heard in today’s first reading, God speaks through Jeremiah: “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture.” God said he would take over shepherding his people; he would bring them back from exile; he would appoint leaders over them who would serve them well and lead them to peace and security. It took 600 years before God thought the world was ready for this king who would reign and govern wisely, who would do what is just and right in the land.

But then he came, through the announcement of an angel to a virgin who was engaged to a man named Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel said to her “Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and 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.”

In last week’s gospel, Jesus sent his apostles out to heal and cast out demons and to call people to repentance. In today’s gospel we are told of their return, excited over their experience and tired. Jesus wanted to some time off, but he couldn’t. The mission of Jesus and his apostles apparently was so successful that a great crowd caught up with them before they had chance to catch their breath. Mark describes Jesus taking compassion on them (his heart was moved with deep sympathy for them would probably be a better translation). He saw them as sheep without a shepherd, - people without leadership, and he began to teach them.

One of the important messages in today’s readings is that in love our Lord leads us, by teaching us and appointing others to teach us. But we need to listen, and we need to keep on listening. We’ll never be finished listening and learning as long as our world suffers from injustice, poverty, hunger, discrimination, war, hatred and killing of innocent people. Christ would be put to death before he would stop teaching. It is to our own great loss when we stop listening. That’s one of the reasons we are here each weekend, to listen and to learn. We call ourselves disciples. The word disciple means learner. When we’ve quit learning, we’ve quit being a disciple.

                        Homily from Fr. Joe

 
                Here is some important information
                    from the book Your Inner Child of the Past, by W. Hugh Missildine, M.D. p. 50-51

You Are a Parent to Yourself

                We must know about our past
                    and our present lives —

                We must recall our parents'
                    attitudes toward us —

                We live with these attitudes and
                    very much —
                    talk like our parents to
                    ourselves now

                We can't act like little children
                    at 45 and 50 demanding our way
                    and controlling —

                    The child of the past can come
                out and take over — suppressing
                the adult in us —
                We can act like spoiled babies
                wanting our way!

                People can work and be okay —
                Then in intimate relationships
                this will come out.

                Men can build protective armor
                around them from childhood — when
                their homes were bitter in
                speech and smart-toned —

                People do not like to change —
                So they can try to force their dysfunction
                    on others, anyway they can —

                    Parents who criticized children
                disapprovingly — may be the
                same tapes we play in our
                head today to parent ourselves —
                old disapproving tapes —

                From Your Inner Child of the Past, p. 14

    I have found, from teaching medical students in my psychiatry classes, that even when this concept of the "child of the past" existing actively within the adult is understood and accepted intellectually, there is a strong tendency to minimize the significance of feelings that stem from childhood. You will have to struggle within yourself to accept their existence as an influential part of your adult make-up.

    In our  adult lives the "child of the past" is constantly trying to make us live as we lived "at home" in childhood. Due to this influence, we keep twisting our present circumstances and relationships to resemble those we knew in the past. It is not much different in some respects from twisting, curling and rearranging the bedclothes in a certain way as we try to fall asleep in that individual way which each of us has. In this manner we get the "security of the familiar" that we knew as children. While the circumstances and relationships of our early years may not have been entirely comfortable, we learned about life and the world at large in this special childhood setting. We learned to adjust ourselves to this special emotional atmosphere and to call it "reality." As adults we tend to continue to see things in terms of the "reality" of this early family setting.

                Prepare the way of the Lord —
                    quit playing self defeating
                        tapes from childhood
                    quit doing what you want —

Give a gift that lasts.

        

$10.00 each plus shipping

1-888-211-3041