April 29, 2018

                R. See the light – we can be blindsided
                in how we see ourselves. Dear Holy Spirit
                help us to see through the eyes of God.
                Dear heavenly Father we pray this
                day united to the Masses going on
                around the world united to Jesus,
                in the Holy Spirit with all the angels
                and saints and the souls in
                purgatory through the intercession
                of the Virgin Mary, please help
                us all day in everything we
                do – to love and do Your
                holy will.

                Heavenly Father help us in everything –
                Help us to be more and more loving
                in our work as You intend us
                to be – Heavenly Father – we love
                You, we adore You, we thank You
                for the Mass, the priest, the
                people in our lives, for this
                Movement, Shepherds of Christ, please
                help us reach others with this
                message of truth and love,
                help our families, help us to
                live and know You
                in that presence of Father, Son and
                Holy Spirit in our soul.

                Song: Your Presence Pervades My Soul

                Song: God's Love

                R. Dear God help us to see the
                truth, not to be blind. We
                must know in dealing with
                other men we are to treat
                them as You desire us to be
                with love and dignity. Help
                leaders to do all things for
                what You want us to do, for
                the good of the people as You
                desire.

                    Do you see what happens
                when you raise the blinds
                in a room – the light pours
                in, in the morning, letting
                beautiful sun light in –
                It is a gift from God to lift
                the blinds and let such golden
                light in with warmth, filling
                the otherwise darkness.

                    Dear God help us to see with Your
                Divine insight into the hidden
                mystery. Dear God help us to
                know how precious this
                light is.

                    God wants to fill our hearts
                with this light that we will
                be people of joy knowing
                Him in our hearts and filling
                us.

                    We need to open our hearts
                to the light and ask God to
                fill us. Jesus says:
                    "I am the vine, you are the
                branches"

                    Dear God help these writings
                You give help us to see clearly,
                in the light – to diminish
                distorted vision. Help us to
                see the truth – see the light –
                remove the darkness in our
                willful, selfish ways opposed
                to Your desire for us to walk
                in the light, in truth, to walk
                and be as You desire us to be.

                    Help us follow the Good Shepherd
                and to walk step by step as we
                should in truth and love.

                    I would teach a large class
                in college. I brought the problems
                and help them. I would work
                a problem, then give them one
                to work. Then test them after
                they had done the problems
                for homework and study –
                A lot was identification,
                procedure being able to
                work with the right tools –

                    We know that we need good
                habits, the virtues of faith, hope and
                love and the other virtues. We ask
                God to increase these supernatural
                virtues in us given in baptism –
                We co-operate with the grace
                God gives us for greater faith,
                hope and love, humility, prudence,
                temperance, fortitude.

                    God gives us His Word and
                the Commandments and the
                Church – so we know the
                truth in a very troubled world.

                    We want to know the truth,
                walk in the light of God,
                to follow Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
                Jesus came and He said
                "I am the way, the truth and the life."

                    Jesus came and He taught
                us His way. His way of love
                and sacrifice, of truth and
                joy. He taught us about
                the love of His Father and
                the love of the Holy Spirit –

                    Jesus loves us so much.

                Song: A Song from Jesus

                R. We are to live here on this
                journey as God lives in us.
                Jesus paid a big price for our
                sins – Jesus wants us to live
                the Pascal Mystery of Death /
                Resurrection in our lives.

                    We know we will never die,
                we have an immortal soul.
                God wants us eternally with
                Him in Paradise. God has
                prepared a place for the man
                who loves and serves Him –
                He wants us wrapped in the
                embrace of the beatific
                vision for all eternity –

                    Life is short here – our
                bodies are fragile.

                    God is with us. He wants
                us in heaven with Him
                forever.

                    We have a free will
                to follow Him or not.

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 9: 26-31

When he got to Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him: they could not believe he was really a disciple. Barnabas, however, took charge of him, introduced him to the apostles, and explained how the Lord had appeared to him and spoken to him on his journey, and how he had preached fearlessly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. Saul now started to go round with them in Jerusalem, preaching fearlessly in the name of the Lord. But after he had spoken to the Hellenists and argued with them, they became determined to kill him. When the brothers got to know of this, they took him to Caesarea and sent him off from there to Tarsus.

The churches throughout Judaea, Galilee and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up and living in the fear of the Lord; encouraged by the Holy Spirit, they continued to grow.

 

Psalm 22: 26-31

The poor will eat and be filled,
those who seek Yahweh will praise him,
'May your heart live for ever.'

The whole wide world will remember and return to Yahweh,
all the families of nations bow down before him.

All who prosper on earth will bow before him,
all who go down to the dust will do reverence before him.

And those who are dead, their descendants will serve him,
will proclaim his name to generations still to come;
and these will tell of his saving justice to a people yet unborn:
he has fulfilled it.

1 John 3: 18-24

Children, 
our love must be not just words 
    or mere talk, 
but something active and genuine.
This will be the proof 
    that we belong to the truth, 
and it will convince us in his presence, 
even if our own feelings condemn us, 
that God is greater than our feelings 
    and knows all things. 
My dear friends, 
if our own feelings do not condemn us, 
we can be fearless before God,  
and whatever we ask
we shall receive from him,
because we keep his commandments
and do what is acceptable to him.
His commandment is this,
that we should believe
    in the name of his Son Jesus Christ
and that we should love one another
as he commanded us.
Whoever keeps his commandments
remains in God, and God in him.
And this is the proof
    that he remains in us:
the Spirit that he has given us.

   

John 15: 1-8

I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that bears no fruit
he cuts away,
and every branch that does bear fruit
     he prunes
to make it bear even more.
You are clean already,
by means of the word
     that I have spoken to you.
Remain in me, as I in you.
As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself,
unless it remains part of the vine,
neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine,
you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me, with me in him,
bears fruit in plenty;
for cut off from me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
is thrown away like a branch
—and withers;
these branches are collected
     and thrown on the fire
and are burnt.
If you remain in me
and my words remain in you,
you may ask for whatever you please
and you will get it.
It is to the glory of my Father
      that you should bear much fruit
and be my disciples.

Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 3, 2015

INTRODUCTION – (Acts 9, 26-31; I John 3, 18-24; John 15, 1-8) Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is about St. Paul whose Jewish name was Saul. Here he is called by his Jewish name. Paul was a zealous Pharisee and a fierce persecutor of all who believed in Christ. He was most likely one of the leaders of the crowd who killed Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Once, as he was on his way to Damascus to search out Christians and arrest them, Jesus appeared to him. In an instant Paul realized Christians had it right and he was 100 percent wrong. His life turned around completely and he began preaching and teaching about Jesus - that he was Savior and Messiah. Even after Paul preached about Jesus for three years, the Christian community in Jerusalem was not convinced that he could be trusted. When he first showed up in Jerusalem, after his conversion (which is what we hear about in today’s first reading), the disciples were afraid of him. The disciples did put complete faith in a disciple named Barnabas who testified that Paul’s faith in Jesus was genuine. Thus, through Barnabas, Paul was welcomed into the community. However, there were a group of Jews who spoke Greek called the Hellenists. They refused to accept Paul because of his faith in Jesus and they saw him as a traitor to Judaism. For his own safety, Paul had to leave Jerusalem. He headed back to his hometown of Tarsus in modern day Turkey. He lived there for maybe three or four years before he began his famous missionary journeys which take up the final two-thirds of the Acts of the Apostles.

HOMILY – “I am the vine, you are the branches.” Throughout John’s gospel, Jesus is trying to reveal himself to us. In order to help us know him, Jesus uses the words “I Am” quite often. Sometimes he uses “I am” without a predicate such as when he said “Amen, Amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I am.” (Jn. 8,58) Other times Jesus uses images to describe himself such as: “I am the light of the world,” (Jn. 9, 5) or “I am the resurrection and the life,” (Jn. 11, 25) or “I am the good shepherd,” (Jn. 10,11) or “I am the bread of life,” (Jn. 6, 35), “I am the way, the truth and the life” (Jn.14,6) or as we hear today: “I am the vine, you are the branches,” (Jn. 15, 5).

    To understand this image, we need to picture a vine in our minds. Most probably Jesus had in mind a grape vine as they are common all over the world. They are made up of a stem or stalk that is rooted in the ground and they contain many branches. The grapes grow on the branches. That is the whole vine. When Jesus says I am the vine, he is envisioning this entire plant. When he says you are the branches, he is telling us we are part of him; his life flows into us producing leaves and fruit and the fruit we produce is his love in us that flows out of us in the good works we do. It is an image that demonstrates the greatest possible union that we have with Jesus.

    It’s very similar to the image St. Paul uses in his first letter to the Corinthians when he tells us in Chapter 12 that we are the body of Christ. Just like the body is made up of many parts: hands, feet, heart, lungs, arms, legs, Christ is made up of many members, but we are all one in Christ. This unity is established through believing in Jesus, hearing his word and following his teachings, and in a special way through the Eucharist. It is in the Eucharist that he feeds and nourishes us, just like the roots of the vine pull nourishment out of the ground and nourish the vine or like a hamburger sandwich which we eat nourishes all the parts of our body.

    Jesus, who tells us “I am the bread of life,” nourishes us with his word and with his own body and blood. I know myself, when my schedule gets really wild, and I don’t get to spend some quiet time in church, I really feel the emptiness and chaos in my life and I have to get back here in church and spend some quiet time to get strength and peace again.

    So our gospel focuses on three main actors: we have the Father who is the vine grower, Jesus who is the vine, and we who are the branches connected to and part of the vine. The Father who cares for the vine helps us and encourages us to produce more good works so God’s love can show itself in a greater and greater way in the world. May God’s life and love grow in us and may we always stay united with Jesus the vine through the bread of life he offers us each weekend. Amen.

 

                R. Dear Friend and Member,
 

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

                    We have sent Fr. Joe's Book Homily Cycle B
                to the Pope, All the Cardinals of the World,
                All Bishops and Archbishops in the United States
                and over 1/2 of the active priests in the United States.
                We sent 20,000 since October, 2017 of this
                recent Cycle B to priests and hierarchy.

                    We printed another 21,000 to send to the
                rest of the active priests in the United States.

                    We also have the prayer brochure we send
                to all priests. That is 38,000 priests getting
                the prayers Jesus told Fr. Carter to
                circulate to the world in 1994 praying
                for the WORLD, the CHURCH, and
                all priests of the world.

                    We have circulated these prayers with
                the Litanies to Mary and the Sacred Heart
                for over 24 years now.

                    We have these prayers Jesus gave Fr. Carter, S.J.
                in 8 languages with the Church's
                Imprimatur. These prayers Jesus gave
                Fr. Carter are for devotion to the Sacred Heart and
                Immaculate Heart and for the world, the Church
                and the priests.

                    We printed the additional 21,000
                homily books and owe $16,588
                in 3 weeks for these books –

                    A priest using the book weekly can
                reach almost 1,000 people in
                some weekend Masses.

                    The homilies are centered on
                the Word, the Eucharist – living
                in love with each other, intimacy
                with God etc.

                    So far to date we have circulated
                over 450,000 homily books to priest
                hierarchy in a decade.

                R. Cardinal George told me to do this
                over a decade ago and I have done
                this yearly.

                    This is the Priestly Newsletter,
                now, of the Shepherds of Christ.

                R. Please help us with your donation –

                Here is a letter a priest sent today –
 

               
                R. Thank you,

                Please ask any one you
                    know who could
                    donate to this –

                        Rita Robinson Ring
                        co-founder
                        Shepherds of Christ 

                We do this on donations.

                The smallest donation will help.