Mary has requested that the daily message be given each day to the world. It is read nightly at the prayer service from her Image Building in Clearwater, Florida, U.S.A. This is according to her request. All attempts will be made to publish this daily message to the world at 11 p.m. Eastern time, U.S.A.


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I appear my children on this former bank building in Florida, Our Lady Clothed with the Sun.

June 13, 2006

June 14th Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 3 Period I.

The Novena Rosary Mysteries  
for June 14th are Glorious.

           

June is the month of the Sacred Heart.

 

From the Mass in China, Indiana Today During the Retreat.
June 10, 2006, Anniversary of Fr. Carter's Ordination
Homily by a very Holy Priest at the Saturday Mass He Celebrated in China.

    On a regular basis, my dear friends in Christ, I give God thanks for the gift of you. Seriously.

    There are times in priestly ministry when - why, I once even said to a community of faith, it is more likely for a priest to hear what he has done wrong or how he has fallen short of the expectations someone might have, than to hear a word of encouragement or to hear a word of thanks.

    That's just part of what it is to be a public person and to be in public ministry. So, I mean, one needs to have - well as some priests say - a thicker skin, in order to weather being a priest within our community of faith within our Church.

    But sometimes, sometimes, when one is trying as hard as they can to do as much as they are able, sometimes every once in a while, one too many discouraging words, either from news on the television or radio, or just a matter of people asking for one more thing that is really beyond one's capabilities or whatever, that it begins to lay low, those who are priests within our Church, and yes, myself included.

    But at moments like that, you all come to my mind, that you gather here faithfully, unwaveringly, continuously, to pray for priests and priestly vocations. And in that, I find courage and strength to continue on.

    So one of the things, well, the thing that the Lord laid on my heart to speak to you today in this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, from these readings, is that word of encouragement for your ministry. Your ministry is bearing fruit. I, myself, can attest to that. I hope that's not a word of a discouragement to you!

    But I think that, you know, it's not just those who know the ministry that you do who are encouraged and upheld in their priestly ministry, but even those who don't know about you all. Your ministry is still bearing fruit in them and for them, and ultimately for the Church, and for the glory of God. And that's really why we do it all, isn't it?

    I think about the studies that have been done regarding prayer. Have you ever heard these studies? They took a group of people who were seriously ill and some of them were prayed for, unknown and known to them, and some of them were not prayed for, as far as they know. What was interesting is that, first of all, the group who was being prayed for, healed much more rapidly than those who were not being prayed for. And of the group who were being prayed for, whether they knew it or not, they both progressed at that more rapid rate.

    And so there's some scientific proof for you that the ministry that you do, whether somebody knows about it and then therefore can say thank you, because your ministry is bearing fruit, or whether they don't know about it so they can't say thank you, they are still being supported by your ministry and being upheld.

    The ministry of praying for priests. How is that connected then to our readings this day? St. Paul is writing to Timothy. St. Paul, of course, is an apostle called by Christ - yes, post-Resurrection. St. Paul is a bishop within the Church and he has been establishing churches and calling others to priestly ministry - Timothy is one of those. And so St. Paul, bishop and apostle, apostle and bishop, is writing to Timothy to give him a little instruction, to encourage him, to pre-warn him and to strengthen him to continue on.

    Does that sound familiar to you? Because I think it ought. Because isn't that part of what's in your mind and in your spirit, in the ministry that you do in praying for priests: to encourage, to uphold, and also if you will, living, by reading the times, those warnings that are out there to try to protect - because that's ultimately why Paul writes to Timothy, is to protect him so that he might not fall into the pit of destruction.

    Paul writes to Timothy, "Proclaim the word. Be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient." I think that could be a part of the way that you pray for priests.

    See, you know what? Priests are human beings, I don't know if you have ever noticed that or not, but they are. And so like any other human being, you know what? We want to be liked and loved. Do you have that need in your life? I think you all are human beings. And so just like you have that need in your life, so do priests. And so sometimes when you are in this space, you know you're up here, you're thinking, "Oh, I really should say this because there needs to be a challenge issue to the community of faith. But I don't want to be not liked." So sometimes a priest can shrink from that duty. And so they need to be strengthened so that indeed they can proclaim the Word and be persistent in it whether it's convenient or inconvenient. Something for your prayers.

    Sometimes a matter of, that convenience and inconvenience is a matter of pressures of ministry. You know, it's not rare for a need for me to not just bi-locate but sometimes tri-locate or deca-locate or whatever. You know, trying to be in two, three, four, ten places at a time, because the need is great.

    And so sometimes I want to shrink from saying something - and I think this is true for other priests - because it's not convenient, because you know what? Someone else is knocking at the door and opportunities are missed because we are pressed by the next thing. So another thing for your prayers as you pray for priests, that they might be able to deliver the word both when it is convenient or inconvenient.

    The thing is, is we also need to remember that the Word is not just a printed page in text that we find anywhere, whether it's an arrangement of the Scriptures so that it's arranged to proclaim at the Holy Liturgy, or whether it's all put together in the form of the Bible. The Word is not that. The Word is not a what, it is a Who. And the Word, Who is Jesus Christ, comes to us - yes, in the Scriptures that are proclaimed in one another, but also preeminently in the sacraments, and this sacrament of the Eucharist most especially.

    So in this proclamation of the Word, it's not just preaching, it's not just reading or proclaiming the Scriptures, but it's also being with the community of faith and celebrating the Sacraments, most especially the Eucharist for them.

    I'm reminded - ____ (a young man) who is from St. ____ and is going to be, God willing, entering the seminary, not this Fall but next. He's got to finish high school first. And ____ who I think you also know, who is in seminary now. They once heard me say as I was walking across the parking lot for the Spanish Mass on a Sunday, after having two other Masses and five baptisms, and then two in English - the five were in Spanish, saying, "But I don't want to go to church again!" I said it half to be silly, but also I was tired.
    And so sometimes the convenience and the inconvenience is a matter of weariness, and so it's a matter of praying for priests that they have just the physical strength.

    Because my dear friends in Christ, it's different on this side of the altar than on that side of the altar. See, when one presides at liturgy, one needs to be watchful and mindful of all that's happening, most especially the way that the Spirit is moving in this presence or gathering of the Church.

    My dear friends in Christ, in order to have that openness, it is an absolutely exhausting attentiveness. That's the reason why the Church says that a priest is to have only two Masses on a Sunday, one on a weekday. And by special permission he can have three on Sunday and two on a weekday. It's not because, oh well, it's too much. But in order to be attentive to the Spirit at the level that one ought to be, that becomes too much to do over and over again in a good, holy and complete way. So another reason to pray for priests.

    Please don't hear me up here as whining. I was once an engineer. And never as an engineer, the five years that I worked as an engineer, did I ever say these words that I'm now going to say. God, I love my life. But once I entered priestly ministry, it has crossed my lips more times than I can tell you. And sometimes even after leaving a place where my heart was broken for the people of God with whom I was with, because of a death in the family, an announcement of some other type of hardship that was pressing in upon a family or person - but being able to be present to them, striving to be Christ for them, when I leave those places, more often than not what crosses my lips is a prayer of thanks, and a prayer of thanks for the gift of my priestly life.

    And so, what I am sharing with you is a matter of fodder, if you will, for your priestly ministry of prayer life of praying for priests and the places where they need to be prayed for.

    It says here, Paul to Timothy, says he should proclaim the Word to convince, to reprimand, to encourage through all patience and teaching. All of that needs to be done, but here is the trick to pasturing. You know, it's not enough to know what to say. I'm sure we all have had this experience - we tell somebody what they need to know, right, but it's to no avail. Have you had that experience?

    See, so the trick in pasturing is not just to know what to say, whether that word is to convince, to reprimand, to encourage - but to know how to say it as well, such that it can be received. That's, that's the art, that's the gift, that's the Spirit working in a priest's life. One, to know what to say. Two, and probably in many ways more importantly, how to say it so it might be received. So another thing for your ministry of praying for priests, what to pray for, that priests might truly be pastors, after the Shepherd's Heart, the Good Shepherd's Heart, so that he might indeed be able to not just know what to say, but know how to say it.

    And then Paul tells Timothy, this is what's going to happen, there's going to come a time when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but following their own desires and insatiable curiosity will accumulate teachers, will stop listening to the truth, and will be diverted to the myths. Can I give you an example? How about the DaVinci Code? If you've never seen it, if you've never read it, you just can't believe how transparently it is fiction, and yet people are carried off by this myth, thinking that it's fact. And it carries them off in thoughts that are contrary to the truth, and yet then priests need to deal with that.

    And you know what, the thing is, is sometimes when you deal with things, it just exasperates it. Sometime it's better to, sshh, be quiet about it, and let it die a death that it deserves. And so it's the art of knowing how to handle that.

    And so here, Paul is telling Timothy this is the things that happen, and you need to be pre-warned about them so you don't lose heart, but you also need to know that you need to deal with those things. And once again, here are things, then, for which you might pray, as you pray for priests. "But you, " he says, Paul to Timothy, "Be self-possessed in all circumstances. Put up with hardships, perform the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." And that's the other thing that you might pray for priests.

    You know, sometimes priests - because people, there are those who take very good care of us, as our expanding waistlines sometime attest. But sometimes because of that, they want to be in a place of cushiness, if you will, and they forget like many in the world, because it's not just priests who do this, but they don't want to put up with hardship. But life is hard, my friends, and sometimes we just need to weather hardships, in order that we might come through the death to the resurrection. Because it happens not just at the ends of our days, and at the end of time, but it happens throughout our lives.

    And so pray that priests might be able to do that, to be self-possessed, to put up with hardship, to do the work of an evangelist and to fulfill their ministry, because it's easy to shrink away from it for all kinds of reasons. So other things for which you could pray, as you pray for priests, that they might have the spirit to fulfill their ministry, our ministry.

    Lastly from Paul, he talks to Timothy about how he is being poured out like a libation, and I think sometimes that is also something that happens to priests, in the sense that they forget that that's what it's about.

    I hate telling stories of myself, but I think this is an example. The first time that my bishop, Bishop ____ came to visit St. _____ where I was pastor in _____, he asked me, "Well, how many Masses do you have, and you know, how many in what language and what's going on," and I was sharing that with him.

    As Fr. ______, _____ (the priest who followed him) who is there now, fondly says, "You know, on a given weekend, on Sunday, one has four Masses in two different places for three different communities and two different languages." And that kind of gives you the spin of what that parish is like. And Bishop ____ looked at me and he said, "____, don't kill yourself." And I said to him, I suppose somewhat in a flippant way, so I asked the Lord's forgiveness for that, but I said to him, "Bishop, we're supposed to spend our lives for the Lord."

    It's true, and so Paul says he's being poured out like a libation, because he recognizes that his life is not about himself and he is supposed to spend it on the Lord. And you know, bishops speak the word of God to their priests. And so it's true, priests are supposed to spend their lives on the Lord and in their ministry to the Body of Christ, the Church. And so we need to pray that priests have the courage and the strength to do that, to allow themselves to be poured out like a libation. The Bishop ____ turned to me and said, "Spend, yes, but not close the account."

    So sometimes priests don't take care of themselves, because there are those priests out there who spend themselves all too much, and they don't become revitalized by times of retreat and rest. And sometimes that's because they think they themselves are not important, believe it or not. And so pray for priests that they might spend their lives, but not close out the account, and that they do it all to the glory of God.

    And lastly on this Saturday, as we celebrate this liturgy in praise and thanksgiving for the wondrous work that God has accomplished through Jesus Christ, Who was born of the Virgin Mary. As we pray the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary on this Saturday, let us not forget, then most of all, also, along this long list of things to do for priests, is to commend them to the loving hands of our Mother Mary, that she might guide them and protect them and draw them ever closer to her Son, and through her Son to the Father, in the Holy Spirit.

    And so my dear friends, on behalf of the priests of the world, I thank you for your ministry, and I exhort you to continue to pray for priests, because we need your prayers, that we might be upheld. And please also, continue to pray for vocations to the priesthood, because the people of God, the Body of Christ need priests, that we might be nourished by the Word of God, both proclaimed and in sacrament.

    It's always easier to pray for such when we have faces and names to put on those. So, I commend to you those who are striving towards priesthood, people like ____, people like _____ who you have also met. And also people like ____ who is from _____, who you will probably be meeting in the coming week. Those who are striving towards priesthood, that the Holy Spirit might continue to draw them, that they might be open to that tether pulling them, that they might say yes to their calling, and to persevere in it.
 

 

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