Shepherds of Christ          Daily Writing

August 18, 2007

    
 

We need funds for the Church newsletter.

Also funds for the Building Payment.

 

 

Retreat in Florida

August 19th - 22nd

Retreat starts at 1:00pm on the 19th

August 19th is the 90th anniversary

of Mary's apparition at Fatima

after the children were jailed.

August 22nd is the Queenship of Mary.

Rita will be here to sign books.

 

 

August 18, 2007

Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10

    The chief men then said to the king, 'You must have this man put to death: he is unquestionably disheartening the remaining soldiers in the city, and all the people too, by talking like this. This man is seeking not the welfare of the people but their ruin.' King Zedekiah answered, 'He is in your hands as you know, for the king is powerless to oppose you.' So they took Jeremiah and put him into the storage-well of the king's son Malchiah in the Court of the Guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the storage-well, only mud, and into the mud Jeremiah sank.

Ebed-Melech came out from the palace and spoke to the king. 'My lord king,' he said, 'these men have done a wicked thing by treating the prophet Jeremiah like this: they have thrown him into the storage-well. He will starve to death there, since there is no more food in the city.' At this the king gave Ebed-Melech the Cushite the following order: 'Take thirty men with you from here and pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the storage-well before he dies.'  

 

Psalm 40: 2-4, 17

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 blessed are those
    who put their trust in Yahweh,
who have not sided with rebels
    and those who have gone astray in falsehood.

Poor and needy as I am,
    the Lord has me in mind.
You, my helper, my Saviour,
    my God, do not delay.

Hebrews 12: 1-4

With so many witnesses in a great cloud all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us down and the sin that clings so closely, and with perseverance keep running in the race which lies ahead of us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which lay ahead of him, he endured the cross, disregarding the shame of it, and has taken his seat at the right of God’s throne. Think of the way he persevered against such opposition from sinners and then you will not lose heart and come to grief. In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of bloodshed.

Luke 12: 49-53

'I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!

'Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on, a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; father opposed to son, son to father, mother to daughter, daughter to mother, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law to mother-in-law.'

                God is peace.
                God gives us a rainbow.
                God gives us the sky to tell us
                    about Himself.
                God gives us the fish of the sea.
                God gives us rules.
                God created us.
                God gives us the commandments.

The Ten Commandments

1.   I, the Lord, am your God. You shall not have other gods besides me.
2.   You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.
3.   Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
4.   Honor your father and your mother.
5.   You shall not kill.
6.   You shall not commit adultery.
7.   You shall not steal.
8.   You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9.   You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
10.   You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

                God gave us light
                God gave us light   

Genesis Chapter 1

The creation of the world

In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, with a divine wind sweeping over the waters. 

    God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that light was good, and God divided light from darkness. God called light ‘day’, and darkness he called ‘night’. Evening came and morning came: the first day. 

    God said, ‘Let there be a vault through the middle of the waters to divide the waters in two.’ And so it was. God made the vault, and it divided the waters under the vault from the waters above the vault. God called the vault ‘heaven’. Evening came and morning came: the second day. 

    God said, ‘Let the waters under heaven come together into a single mass, and let dry land appear.’ And so it was. God called the dry land ‘earth’ and the mass of waters ‘seas’, and God saw that it was good. 

    God said, ‘Let the earth produce vegetation: seed–bearing plants, and fruit trees on earth, bearing fruit with their seed inside, each corresponding to its own species.’ And so it was. The earth produced vegetation: the various kinds of seed–bearing plants and the fruit trees with seed inside, each corresponding to its own species. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came: the third day. 

    God said, ‘Let there be lights in the vault of heaven to divide day from night, and let them indicate festivals, days and years. Let them be lights in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth.’ And so it was. God made the two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, the smaller light to govern the night, and the stars. God set them in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth, to govern the day and the night and to divide light from darkness. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came: the fourth day. 

    God said, ‘Let the waters be alive with a swarm of living creatures, and let birds wing their way above the earth across the vault of heaven.’ And so it was. God created great sea–monsters and all the creatures that glide and teem in the waters in their own species, and winged birds in their own species. God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply on land.’ Evening came and morning came: the fifth day. 

    God said, ‘Let the earth produce every kind of living creature in its own species: cattle, creeping things and wild animals of all kinds.’ And so it was. God made wild animals in their own species, and cattle in theirs, and every creature that crawls along the earth in its own species. God saw that it was good. 

    God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.’ 

    God created man in the image of himself, 
    in the image of God he created him, 
    male and female he created them. 

    God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that move on earth.’ God also said, ‘Look, to you I give all the seed–bearing plants everywhere on the surface of the earth, and all the trees with seed–bearing fruit; this will be your food. And to all the wild animals, all the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that creep along the ground, I give all the foliage of the plants as their food.’ And so it was. God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came: the sixth day.

                God gave us rain and shrubs and a
                    garden —
                God is all good

                God is all knowing, all beautiful, all
                    just, all wise.

                God had no beginning.
                God can do all things.

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day he arose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven; sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. * I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

 
                God is self-existing.
                God is the same.
                God is perfect.
                God's perfection is without limits.

                We are imperfect.

  Excerpt from Response to God's Love

                                                   1 

                                                  The Mystery of Christ and 
                                                 Christian Existence 


         ...In reference to Christianity, God himself is the ultimate mystery. Radically, God is completely other and transcendent, hidden from man in his inner life, unless he chooses to reveal himself. Let us briefly look at this inner life of God.
        The Father, in a perfect act of self-expression, in a perfect act of knowing, generates his son. The Son, the Word, is, then, the immanent expression of God's fullness, the reflection of the Father. Likewise, from all eternity, the Father and the Son bring forth the Holy Spirit in a perfect act of loving.
        At the destined moment in human history, God's self-expression, the Word, immersed himself into man's world. God's inner self-expression now had also become God's outer self-expression. Consequently, the mystery of God becomes the mystery of Christ. In Christ, God tells us about himself, about his inner life, about his plan of creation and redemption. He tells us how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit desire to dwell within us in the most intimate fashion, how they wish to share with us their own life through grace. All this he has accomplished and does accomplish through Christ. St. Paul tells us: "I became a minister of this Church through the commission God gave me to preach among you his word in its fullness, that mystery hidden from ages and generations past but now revealed to his holy ones. God has willed to make
known to them the glory beyond price which this mystery brings to the Gentiles—the mystery of Christ in you, your hope of glory. This is the Christ we proclaim while we admonish all men and teach them in the full measure of wisdom, hoping to make every man complete in Christ" (Col 1:25-28).

end of excerpt

   

                God wants us to be united.
                God wants us to love.
                God wants us to grow in greater perfection.
                God wants us to do things for His Honor
                    and Glory.
                God wants us to do His will in love.

                God does not want us to control others.
                God gives us our freedom.
                But God demands obedience to the
                    commandments, to His rules,
                    His structure.
                In heaven there is perfect (obedience)
                    to the Father's will.
                Living in obedience is preparation
                    for the heavenly reward.

                The Shepherds of Christ exists to help renew the
                    Church and the world.

                We are to beg to be filled with His grace
                    the more His life is in us the
                    more we live in truth.

                The truth can be in us.
                But if we are a clogged vessel —
                    full of deception and lies about ourselves
                    full of pride, envy, seeking dominance
                    for ourselves - greed —
                    working for our acceptance —
                    working for our recognition

                Then we block the light we can have
                    inside —

                If we don't understand the truth of
                    God — God says He will bless
                    us for believing.

                God is the Creator of heaven and earth —
                    God made all things
                    God is all powerful.

                Man is made up of body and soul.
                God created Adam and Eve our first parents
                    and He gave them happiness
                    in the Garden of Paradise —
                    knowledge
                    freedom from suffering and death
                    God filled them with sanctifying
                        grace
                    making them children of God —
                    with a right to go to heaven

                They were not to eat of the forbidden
                    tree — if they obeyed God's
                    commandments they could stay
                    in Paradise

                    We are the descendants of Adam —
                the whole human race. We have
                to suffer for Adam's sin. We have
                a wounded human nature. We are
                inclined to sin.

                    Only Mary was conceived without
                sin. Adam and Eve disobeyed God
                and we suffer. Mary is full
                of grace so we say

                    Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
                    blessed art thou among women,
                    and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

                We are sinners and we say

                    Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
                    now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Authenticity   p. 39-40

New Adam

The first Adam was a living soul.
The new Adam is a life-giving Spirit.
The first Adam was given life.
The second Adam gave life to all.
The first Adam was made.
The new Adam was made by his own actions.
The first Adam was made from valueless clay.
The second Adam was made from the immaculate womb of Mary.
In the first Adam earth was turned into flesh.
In the second Adam flesh was raised up to God.
The first Adam was created in the image and likeness of God.
The second Adam stamped upon the first Adam his image and
likeness.
The first Adam had a beginning and end.
The second Adam had no beginning or end.
The first Adam belongs to the earth.
The second Adam belongs to heaven.
Through the first Adam decay entered the world.
Through the second Adam immortality entered the world.
Through the first Adam condemnation entered the world.
Through the second Adam acquittal and life entered the world.
Lord Jesus, New Adam, create me anew.

                SIN IS ANY ACT AGAINST
                    THE LAW OF GOD —   

                God became Man
                God loves us so much

Excerpt from Priestly Newsletter

1997 May/June Issue  

The Son of God be-came man for our salvation. Yes, He became incarnate. He took to Himself a real human nature. Because Jesus possessed a real human nature, He could die for us. As the Good Shepherd, He has laid down His life for us, His sheep.

There are many thoughts which come to us when we reflect upon the truth that the Son of God took to Himself a human nature and dwelt among us. Some of these are as follows:

• The Word Was Made Flesh. St. John puts it very simply in his Gospel: "The Word was made flesh, he lived among us..." (Jn 1:14). Yes, John states it so succinctly, yet these few words contain a wealth of meaning and mystery. We should expect nothing else, since this brief statement of the fourth Gospel points out the central event of all human history. These words sum up God's creative and redemptive activity. They sum up God's process of Self-communication to us. Let us briefly examine some of the implications of the Son of God becoming man.
  
  Adequately to explain the intimacy of the way of redemption which is the Incarnation is beyond the human powers of articulation. Jesus is Emmanuel-God with us. How tremendously more approachable God is to us because we have Jesus. The more the mind dwells on the meaning of the Incarnation, the more one is stricken with wonder at this unfathomable mystery of love. And yet, for one reason or the other, we are tempted to allow the mystery of the Son becoming man to be a fact we take for granted. Our sense of appreciation becomes dulled, and our feeling of enthusiasm about Jesus becomes so tragically mediocre. If our enthusiasm concerning Jesus is less than it should be, what are the reasons? We are speaking of a deep-rooted penetrating kind of enthusiasm centered in our graced wills. Some-times this enthusiasm has deep emotional overtones. If properly controlled, this enthusiasm involving the human emotions can be a tremendous asset in one's commitment to Jesus. But we just do not have it within our power to turn the emotions on whenever we wish. The more fundamental enthusiasm for Jesus which is rooted in the human will can and should always be substantially with us.
• Realizing Jesus' Love for Us. One reason our commitment to Jesus can lose its ardor is that the realization of how much Jesus loves each of us becomes a kind of peripheral or notional assent. We intellectually assent to the fact that Jesus loves us, but at times such an assent does not have much more effect on our lives than admitting that Caesar crossed the Rubicon.
  
  We are meant to assent with our entire being to the fact that Jesus loves each of us so uniquely, so intimately, so unreservedly. This truth of Jesus' love for us is supposed to transform our lives. It is supposed to so grip our imagination so that we can say in the spirit of St. Paul: "For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rm 8:38-39)
  
  Giving ourselves over to Jesus' love does not remove pain and suffering from life. But, through the prism of Jesus' love for us, suffering is seen in proper perspective. We see the pain and suffering as being able to lead to something greater, just as it did in Jesus' life. His suffering led to resurrection. We realize that if we relate to suffering properly, we become persons with a deepened capacity to love God and man - persons sharing more fully in Jesus' resurrection. With such an attitude, this pain dimension of life can at times become hardly noticeable because we are so taken up with Jesus and His cause.
• The Cause of Christ. What is this cause? Some two thousand years ago Jesus walked this earth preaching His Father's message, healing the sick, forgiving sins, extending His kindness and mercy, training the apostles. In all His varied activity, Jesus was accomplishing the redemption. Today, Jesus still walks the earth. He teaches the Father's truth. He is concerned with the sick and the ignorant. He administers the sacraments. He manifests the Father's love in many different ways. But, unlike that time of two thousand years ago, Christ Himself is not visible. He is visible only through us, His members. He extends to us the great privilege-and responsibility-of assisting Him in the continuation of His redemptive work. The total Christian community and each individual Christian are, then, certain extensions and continuations of the Incarnation. So close is this union between the Christian and Christ that St. Paul speaks very strikingly that it is more Christ than Paul who now lives: "I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in this body I live in faith: faith in the Son of God who loved me and who sacrificed himself for my sake." (Ga 2:19-20)
  
  Each of us has the privilege of offering Jesus his or her own unique person, one's own humanity, one's own human existence. As with St. Paul we are asked to allow Jesus to live within us. Each Christian has the opportunity to allow Jesus to live through the uniqueness which is this particular Christian. To the extent the Christian does offer himself to Jesus in this manner, to that extent Jesus has a unique opportunity of continuing His redemptive work. To the extent the Christian holds back and does not allow Jesus to live in oneself, to that degree Jesus loses this unrepeatable opportunity.
• Historical and Cultural Awareness. If we are to carry forth the salvific mission of Jesus properly, the People of God, individually and collectively, must be aware of the Incarnation's principle of historical and cultural awareness. Jesus, through His enfleshment, became situated within an historical situation. He lived at a particular stage of history, in a particular geographical locale, amid a particular kind of culture. Jesus respected this historical conditioning. Without compromising His Father's message, Jesus was aware of His historical milieu. He lived like a good Jewish man of the time. He talked in language which respected the linguistic idiom and thought patterns of the then existent Jewish culture. He accepted the Jewish people as conditioned by a certain historical and cultural milieu, and dealt with them accordingly.
  
  The members of the Christian community must follow the example of Jesus. In living and proclaiming the Gospel message, the People of God must be aware of the particular historical and cultural milieu in which they find themselves. But, also after the example of Jesus, they must strive for this awareness without compromising the Gospel. We immediately see that the Christian community is consequently open to a double danger. On the one hand, there is the danger that the People of God will not read the signs of the times properly. On the other hand, in the effort to be aware of their historical setting there is the danger of compromising the Gospel message. But the Christian community has to face these dangers and not surrender to them.
• The Temporal Order. Another truth connected with the Incarnation - another incarnational perspective - leads us to a discussion of the Christian's responsibility toward the secular or temporal order of things. Through His enfleshment Christ has assumed, or united to Himself, not only the human race but the entire world or temporal order. The world literally belongs to Christ. The Christian's attitude toward authentic temporal values should therefore be obvious. He or she should love the world as redeemed by Jesus more than does the non-believer. The Christian should be the first to love all authentic human values. He or she should be the first to promote these values. Obviously, the real progress of these values must be according to their Christic design, however hidden this design may be at times. Very importantly, the Christian should be the first to be willing to suffer for the authentic progress of the world. And why? We reiterate-because it all belongs to Christ.
  
  The Christian should grieve because all is not well with the temporal order. He or she should be duly disturbed that there is so much violence, murder, social injustice, lust for power, drug peddling, pursuit of hedonism, increasing Godlessness. These and other evils sadly mar the name and image of Jesus which He imprinted upon the universe through His life, death, and resurrection. The Christian should grieve because the face of Christ is thus so often covered by the sinful dust of the market place.
  
  But the market place, the temporal order, is not all evil. Far from it. It is basically good with the creative goodness of God. It's basic goodness and beauty have been deepened by the grandeur of Jesus' redemptive effort. There is so much good in so many human hearts. This goodness manifests itself in countless ways. There are so many ways that many allow us to see their love for neighbor. There are those who selflessly give of themselves for the good of others in the field of medicine and nursing, in the political arena, in education, in science and technology, in laboring for justice for the consumer, in striving for pollution control. The list only be extended indefinitely. Some of these services of so many for the good of neighbor command national attention. Many, many more services are so hidden, hardly noticed.
  
  Each Christian, grieving at the world's evil, but rejoicing in its goodness and potential for greater good, must be inspired to action. He or she should deeply love the world because it belongs to Christ. He or she should deeply love the people who cover the face of this world, because they too belong to Christ. His blood has touched them and redeemed them. The love of the Christian for others must be an operative, an efficacious love. It must be willing to do, to accomplish, and, in rare cases, to die. Whatever one's state of life, be it activist or cloistered contemplative, this is the privilege and the responsibility of the Christian. He or she cannot be committed to Jesus in love without concomitantly being dedicated to the human family and the temporal order. Through the Incarnation, all this is interlinked.
  
  If the Christian is to promote the good of the temporal order, one must be free in regards to it. One must be free, even to the extent that he or she is willing to renounce certain temporal values, good in themselves, for the service of others. The one who really loves the world is the person who is willing to forego its use at times. To love the world and to love the things of the world are not always one and the same. A person can love the things of the world- selfishly - and consequently, not love the world in itself. This selfishness is an obstacle to helping the temporal order to progress as it should.
• The Human Condition. As we continue a survey of some of the truths or perspectives connected with the Incarnation, we notice that Jesus has taught us that redemption occurs within the human condition. The Father could have redeemed us in a number of ways. He chose that setting which was the Incarnation of His Son. Jesus saved us by being fully man, a man who exercised His manhood perfectly in the self-libation which was His. Although His mission led Him to give up certain human values, He saved us through real human acts. He saved us by loving Mary and Joseph, by eating with friends, by teaching, by loving the little children, by thrilling to the beauty of nature, by bearing properly insult and abuse, and, of course, by dying and rising. Summarily, Jesus saved us by living that kind of human life which was in harmony with His Father's will.
  
  Jesus did not rebel because He found the human condition less than perfect. He had come to change things, to give a new release to the goodness of man. He was a revolutionary in the best sense. His effort was to turn things around, to reorientate the human race toward God. But Jesus was by no means always the recipient of the goodness He had come to preach. Although He taught that one should love his or her neighbor, He himself was not always loved. He suffered, and He suffered mightily, because of the mean streak, the sinful streak in others. He Who had done nothing wrong, Who had showed His love for others in so many different ways, this man was the one they beat, insulted, scourged, crowned with thorns, and nailed to the cross.
  
  Jesus redeemed us within the human condition. We receive His redemption, and help channel it to others, within that same human condition. We are redeemed by living the authentically human in the way indicated by the Father's will. Although we are led by that will to renounce various human values at various times in various ways, we are saved by living a human existence, or we are not saved at all. We have often heard that grace does not destroy nature. But, perhaps, we do not too often penetrate the depths of this theological truth. Perhaps we do not very often have a firm realization that grace elevates nature, gives it a deepened capacity for fulfillment, and that grace needs nature. Grace must work through nature if it is to save. Consequently, we are not saved and sanctified by becoming less human. We are saved and sanctified by being very human-by allowing grace to perfect the various dimensions of our human nature. Grace inspires us to the fullest exercise of our humanity. Grace inspires to a Spirit-directed way of living, of eating and drinking, of working and playing, of enjoying sense pleasure, of experiencing joy and suffering.
  
  Participation in the human condition, then, offers us a marvelous opportunity of developing all our human capacities in the work of ongoing redemption. Yet the human condition is not by any means a completely pleasant situation. As Jesus before us suffered because of the human condition, so also must we. The human condition can be the occasion of suffering in so many different ways. For instance, a person can suffer because others treat him or her unjustly. One can suffer also precisely because someone loves him or her and he or she loves in return. This love makes one vulnerable to pain, not because the other intends it, but merely because to love within the human condition means a certain amount of inevitable suffering. We suffer also because we are to a certain extent pilgrims in exile. We have not yet arrived at our final destiny, a destiny which will be achieved only in eternity. Because we are still on the way, we are not yet completely alive, completely fulfilled. And because all this is so, we suffer, and sometimes deeply so. But, again looking to Jesus, we must learn how to encounter suffering properly. He encountered the human condition perfectly, whether it meant great joy or deep anguish. The Spirit asks us to live by the same attitude. ...
• Incarnationalism and Transcendence. In a quick survey of some of the important truths consequent upon the Son of God becoming man, certainly one to be mentioned is the fact that Incarnationalism leads to transcendence - to that which is invisible, to that which is above material limitation. At the offertory of the Mass, as the priest adds a drop of water to the wine to be offered, he says: "By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity." The Son has come to draw us to God - to the ultimate Transcendent Reality.
  
  Even though we would not have been given a supernatural destiny, we would have had a thrust toward the transcendent. Our graced nature has an even greater thrust toward transcendence. The ultimate Transcendent is God, and, as St. Augustine said long ago, our hearts will not rest until they rest in God.
  
  Christ, in His human nature, points to that which is beyond His humanity and everything else created. Christ ultimately points to God alone. Through His enfleshment, the Son was marvelously immanent in this world. But this very immanence of God pointed to the otherness, the transcendence of God. Jesus taught us that there is something beyond the material, something beyond marriage, and riches, and culture, something beyond all earthly values.
  
  Jesus told us to relate to these values in so far as they lead to God. He told us to renounce them in so far as this would be more conducive to union with God. Jesus told us something which we all have experienced - the created in itself cannot radically satisfy us. Only God can, and the created takes an ultimate meaning, and renders authentic satisfaction, only when it leads us to God. The Son became man to lead us to transcendence-indeed, to ultimate Transcendence, God Himself.

---

Scriptural Reflections

• Life and Death. "When this perishable nature has put on imperishability, and when this mortal nature has put on immortality, then the words of scripture will come true: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?" (1 Cor 15: 54-55)
  
  Death is a certainty. It cannot be wished away. It cannot be avoided by pretending it is an event overtaking all people but oneself. It is a sign of maturity, then, that a Christian fully and meaningfully accepts the reality of his or her own death, and lives with this realization holding proper perspective in one's consciousness.
  
  God does not intend that a morbid fear of death poison the beauty of our days. He does not intend that the thought of death diminish our enthusiasm to be and to accomplish. He does not intend that the prospect of death become an obstacle to our fulfilling our potential here below. God rather intends that we see the profound union which is meant to harmonize the reality of life with the reality of death.
  
  If we have the proper attitude toward life, we will have the proper attitude toward death.If we live the life-event properly, we will be prepared to live the death-event properly. Death is the final event of our earthly sojourn. If we live life generously, we shall be oriented to live death generously. If we have tried lovingly to conform ourselves to God's will throughout the course of life, we will be disposed to accept His will in meeting death.
  
  The attitudes and virtues which comprise a good Christian life are, then, the same attitudes and virtues which will assure a good Christian death. The best preparation for a successful Christian death is a successful Christian life. To live each day as it comes with a deep love of God and neighbor is simultaneously to prepare properly for the inevitable event of dying. To live each day according to God's designs is to enable one to say, "Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?"
• Idols Which Should Not Be.
  
  "When Israel was a child I loved him,
  and I called my son out of Egypt.
  But the more I called to them, the further they went from me;
  they have offered sacrifice to the Baals
  and set their offerings smoking before the idols.
  I myself taught Ephraim to walk,
  I took them in my arms;
  yet they have not understood that I was the one looking after them.
  I led them with reins of kindness,
  with leading-strings of love." (Hos 11:1-4)
  
  God loves us tenderly, mightily. He watches us grow, guiding our steps with a loving concern so deep that we can never fully fathom it. He constantly showers us with his varied gifts, all signs of His love. Reflecting upon how much God loves us and how tenderly He cares for us, we wonder how we could ever wander very far from His loving truth. But we know there are numerous idols which can usurp His place in our lives if we fail to resist their specious attractiveness.
  
  Selfishness, greed, pride, laziness, gluttony, manipulation of others for personal gain, a hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, abuse of power and authority-these are some of the idols we can focus on rather than God Himself. It is amazing that the false glitter of such idols, which but thinly covers layers of ugliness, can tempt us to reject in varying degrees the loveliness of our God, our God who, infinite in all perfections, has consistently and overwhelmingly, and so mercifully, shown how much He loves us.
  
  Pursuing false idols will eventually leave us feeling empty, frustrated, disgusted. How would it be otherwise? For to pursue false idols in the place of God is to expect fulfillment and happiness from that which lacks the capability to satisfy the human nature God has created. God makes us for Himself. He alone can fulfill the fundamental longing we have for complete happiness. He made our hearts to seek Him, and in Him alone do they find the love, the peace, and the security they so deeply desire.

end of 1997 May/June Issue  

 

Light, Happiness and Peace   p. 28

Concupiscence

Original sin distorted the harmony of creation and damaged

the relationship between God and humanity. The second Person

of the Trinity, the Son of God, came into the world and cleansed

it of this damage, this original sin. While the sin is forgiven in

Christ, the wound remains.

Human beings, while in Christ, in God, are capable of an

intimate, personal, saving relationship with God, and are capable

of experiencing eternal life with God in heaven. Yet despite this,

because of the wound of original sin, a human being is still

inclined and tempted toward that original rebellion; that is,

human beings are inclined toward the temptations of evil. The

spiritual journey becomes a battle against concupiscence.

^{p. 32 - 33}

The Seven Capital Sins and Their Vices

The capital sins are commonly found in the purgative stage

of the spiritual journey. They are often mortal, but not at all

times.74 As a consequence of original sin, we are susceptible to

capital sins and their vices. A capital sin leads us to separation

from God and all kinds of other sins. They also lead from lesser

sins to more serious ones.

The following is a brief description of the seven capital sins

and what is often born of them: The capital sin of envy gives life

to hatred, slander, calumny, detraction, and joy at the misfortune

of others. Anger leads to disputes, fits of passion, insults,

blasphemy, rudeness, haughtiness and contempt. Vanity leads to

disobedience, boasting, hypocrisy, unholy rivalry, discord, and

stubbornness. Sloth (or acedia) gives rise to malice, rancor,

discouragement, cowardliness, spiritual apathy or stagnation,

forgetfulness of spiritual obligations, and the seeking after

forbidden things. Avarice gives rise to disloyalty, treachery, fraud,

deceit, perjury, harshness, hardness of heart, and an excessive

desire for acquiring and maintaining things. Gluttony leads one

to engage in improper jokes, coarse, loutish behavior, impurity,

foolish conversation, and stupidity. Lust gives rise to spiritual

blindness, poor judgment, impetuous or rash decisions, fickleness,

instability, capriciousness, self-infatuation, and an inordinate

attachment to this present life.75

74 Dark Night, Bk. I, Ch. 208.
75 Cf. ST Ia IIae, q. 77, a. 4f; q. 84, a. 4.

 

 

Authenticity  p. 44

                God did not abandon man after the
                    sin of Adam.

Excerpt from Response to God’s Love

                                                 3 

                                                 Becoming

                                                                          Our incorporation into the mystery of Christ at baptism initiates us into a life that God intends to develop into full maturity. Our life in Christ as guided by the Spirit is not a static given, a life that is received in baptism and then simply clung to. It is not a life that we are merely to avoid losing through serious sin. Rather, it is our task to develop this life through a process of evolutionary growth. God has truly placed us in a situation of becoming. Our personal uniqueness is meant to gradually unfold into its full stature in Christ as we increasingly fulfill God's will in deepening faith, hope, and love.

       For each individual, the process of becoming is intertwined with God's plan of growth for all creation. To understand the individual Christian's situation as one of process, of becoming, it is obviously helpful, then, to realize that he or she is part of a larger picture of becoming. Consequently, let us consider three aspects—the world, the Church, and the individual Christian—all of which are in a state of becoming.

end of excerpt

From Blue Book 6  p. 48

Mary's Message from the Rosary of

August 27, 1996

Mary speaks:  I stood beneath the cross of my Son, and my Heart was in such pain for I saw Him before my eyes. I saw Him covered with blood. I saw Him die. My Heart, my children, my Heart to watch my Son, but my Heart, my Heart, how I suffered for my little children of the world that give in to this world and give up the love of my Son. O my little children of light, I give you this message. Carry this light into the darkness for your Mother Mary, for I stood beneath the cross and I cried. I cried for the little ones. I cried for the young ones, the ones that do not care and will lose their souls. How do I make you see for you will not listen to me? What can I do? I come. I appear. I beg. I plead. I give you these gifts from my Son, and you reject me. I do not deliver messages very often anymore for I have been ignored. The message is the same. You do not read the messages I have given to you. Please help me. Help the little children. I appear. I appear. I appear, and I am ignored. I stood beneath the cross, and I cried. I cried, and my Heart was in such anguish for my little children, for I am searching for them this day as I searched for the Child Jesus. Please, please help me. I cannot hold back the hand of my Son any longer. I am Mary, your Mother. I ask you to help my children. You are my children of light.

Song: O Lady of Light, shining so bright, be with us this day, guiding our way, O Lady, O Lady of Light.

Mary: I appear to you as Our Mother of Sorrows.

^{end of Mary's Message}

From Tell My People

Build up My Church

Jesus: "My beloved friend, remind My people that the Church was born from My Heart, pierced with the soldier's lance on Calvary. From My pierced Heart the Church with her sacraments was born. Two of these sacraments, the Eucharist and Baptism, were symbolized by the Blood and Water which flowed forth from My pierced side.

"As the Church was born from My pierced Heart, so does the Church's life grow from the graces I continually give her from My pierced Heart—this Heart which is now glorified. "I call all the members of My Church to help build up My Body, the Church, by coming to My pierced Heart. United to My Heart, and dwelling within It, I will give to each one the light and strength to carry out My Father's will in the building up of My Church.

"Mary is Mother and Model of the Church. As 'Mother of the Church,' she intercedes for all the graces the members need to contribute to the building up of My Church. As Model—as perfect imitator of Me—she shows the children of the Church how all, individually and collectively, are to be increasingly formed in My image. As all come to My Heart for the building up of the Church, let them do so united to the Heart of Mary.

"My Church is experiencing critical and very difficult times. There are many divisions. There are many false teachings, including some put forth by certain theologians. These false teachings occur because those responsible are not in proper union with My vicar, the Pope, and the Church Magisterium. I want all My children to pray daily for the cure of the many and serious ills of the Church. With increased prayer and sacrifices for the health of the Church, that day will soon come when the Church will be purified and revitalized. When that day comes, the Church will be a light to all nations as never before. When that day comes, the renewed Church will be characterized by the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the reign of My Sacred Heart. Thus the message of Fatima will have reached fulfillment.

"I am Lord and Master. I request that all My people listen to My words and respond to them. I love My people with a tremendous love, and in this great love I give them this message!"

Reflection: In speaking of the Church, St. Paul tells us:

"Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptized, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink....

"Now you together are Christ's body; but each of you is a different part of It. In the Church, God has given the first place to apostles, the second to prophets, the third to teachers; after them, miracles, and after them the gift of healing; helpers, good leaders, those with many languages. Are all of them apostles, or all of them prophets, or all of them teachers? Do they all have the gift of miracles, or all have the gift of healing? Do all speak strange languages, and all interpret them?" (1 Corinthians 12:12-30).

In His message above, Jesus reminds all of us that we have a responsibility to help in the building up of the Church. St. Paul reminds us that we each have our own role. He names many of these roles and there are many who share in them. For example, there are many teachers of various kinds in the Church. But each teaches according to his or her personal uniqueness. Consequently, we can truly say that each one has a mission, has a role, in the life of the Church which no one else can fulfill. To the extent each of us gives his or her life to Christ, we continue His work upon earth through the visible, tangible humanity each of us possess. To the extent each of us fails to surrender to Jesus, to that extent we refuse Him the opportunity to live through our personal uniqueness. What an awesome privilege has been given to each of us! And what an awesome responsibility!

end of excerpt

   

Before we discuss consecration to the Heart of Christ and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we should first establish what we mean by the word consecration.

To consecrate means to make holy. Only God can make one holy. Our fundamental consecration takes place in Baptism; in Baptism we are sealed with the holiness of God. The Persons of the Trinity communicate Themselves to us in a most intimate manner. They dwell within us and give us a share in Their own holiness. Through Baptism, we truly receive a participation in the divine life, and this sharing is our life of sanctifying grace, our Christ-life.

The reference to our life of sanctifying grace as the Christ-life reminds us that our being consecrated by God in Baptism is mediated by Christ. In fact, our act of being consecrated by God in Baptism is a participation in Christ's own consecration. A. Bossard develops the idea extremely well:

By the Incarnation, in and of itself, the Humanity of Jesus is consecrated, so that in becoming Man, Jesus is ipso facto constituted Savior, Prophet, King, Priest and Victim of the One Sacrifice that was to save the world. He is the "Anointed" par excellence, the "Christ" totally belonging to God, His Humanity being that of the Word and indwelled by the Holy Spirit. When, by a free act of His human will, He accepts what He is, doing what He was sent to do, He can say that He consecrates "Himself." In Christ, therefore, what might be called His "subjective" consecration is a perfect response to the "objective" consecration produced in His humanity through the Incarnation.

And what Christ does brings with it a "consecration" for His disciples, a very special belonging to God, since He imparts to them His own life precisely by making them participate in His own consecration.

Through Baptism Christians also are consecrated and "anointed" by the power of the Spirit. They share, in their measure, in the essential consecration of Christ, in His character of King, Priest, and Prophet (cf. 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 1:3-4; Rev. 5:9; etc.). With Christ and through Christ, they are "ordered" to the glory of God and the salvation of the world. They do not belong to themselves. They belong to Christ the Lord, who imparts His own life to them....

The vocation of those who have been baptized is to "live" this consecration by a voluntary adherence-and one that is as perfect as possible-to what it has made of them. Living as "children of God," they fulfill subjectively their objective consecration; like Jesus, they consecrate themselves. This is the deeper meaning of vows and baptismal promises, together with the actual way of life corresponding to them. The baptismal consecration is the fundamental one, constitutive of the Christian. All consecrations which come after it presuppose and are rooted in it...." (28)

The above details the awesome privilege and responsibility which come to us through Baptism. In Christ, we are consecrated with the holiness of God. We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and through Christ, we are called to help continue the work of the redemption. We have a mission to accomplish. We are called to participate in the prophetic, kingly, and priestly mission of Jesus. We are called to give an ongoing "yes" to our objective consecration-to that which has happened to us in Baptism. This "yes" is our subjective act of consecration.

To aid us in a special way in living our ongoing "yes"--our life of subjective consecration--God has given us devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. At the center of these devotions is a specific act of consecration. This act of consecration is a very special and attractive way to live out our baptismal consecration.

Some may ask at this point, "Why the act of consecration to Mary? Is not the act of consecration to Christ sufficient?" Again, Bossard puts it very well:

If, in the strict sense in question here, consecration makes one belong to God--and Christ is God--how is it possible to speak of consecrating oneself to Mary? It is possible because, by God's will, Mary has something to do with our Christian life, with our sanctification. She is certainly not, like Christ, the source of salvation, but she is maternally ordered to our life as children of God--always, however, in perfect union with her Son and subordinate to Him. ... Hence, in the full sense of the word, a consecration to Mary includes, at least implicitly, a real and essential reference to Christ and to the Baptism that binds us to Him. (29)

Jesus Himself has told us that He wishes us to entrust--to consecrate--ourselves to Mary. We have that striking and touching scene on Calvary:

Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother and His mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing His mother and the disciple He loved standing near her, Jesus said to His mother, "Woman, this is your son." Then to the disciple He said, "This is your mother" (John 19:25-26).

Of course, the beloved disciple is John, who represents all of us. In giving Mary to John as his spiritual Mother, Jesus also gave Mary to us as our spiritual Mother. He is entrusting us to Mary. He calls attention to the fact that Mary is the Mother of our Christ-life, our life of grace. In subordination to God, she gives us this life of grace, nourishes it, brings it to full development. As she cooperates with the Holy Spirit, she assists us in living our baptismal consecration-the consecration which makes us belong entirely to God in Christ.

Pope John Paul II has put before us the meaning of Mary's spiritual motherhood on many occasions--in his homilies, his acts of consecration, and in his writings. In his encyclical letter, "The Mother of the Redeemer" (Redemptoris Mater), he comments on the above Scripture passage:

It can also be said that these same words fully show the reason for the Marian dimension of the life of Christ's disciples. This is true not only of John, who at that hour stood at the foot of the Cross together with his Master's Mother, but it is also true of every disciple of Christ, of every Christian. The Redeemer entrusts his mother to the disciple, and, at the same time, he gives her to him as his mother. Mary's motherhood, which becomes man's inheritance, is a gift: a gift which Christ himself makes personally to every individual. The Redeemer entrusts Mary to John because he entrusts John to Mary. At the foot of the Cross there begins that special entrusting of humanity to the Mother of Christ, which in the history of the Church has been practiced and expressed in different ways. (30)
 

28. A. Bossard, in Dictionary of Mary (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1985), pp.54-55.
29. Ibid., p.55.
30. Pope John Paul II, The Mother of the Redeemer (Redemptoris Mater) (Washington: United States Catholic Conference, 1987), No.45.

Given August 17, 2007

                    The devil is the father of lies.
                The devil wants us to hate — the
                devil wants us to fear — the
                devil wants us to go to hell forever.
                Hell is an awful place — lies,
                hatred, constant pain, harassment,
                torment.

                    We can never even imagine the pains
                of hell — of not being with God for all
                eternity.

                    Heaven is to be embraced by God's
                love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
                God loves the souls so much. We are
                precious to Jesus.

                    When we go to confession we can be
                forgiven for our sins. We can be filled
                with His grace, His life in us. Jesus
                is the way, the truth and the life.
                In Him there is no darkness,
                God is love.

1 John 1: 5-10

This is what we have heard from him and are declaring to you:
God is light,
    and there is no darkness in him at all.
If we say that we share in God’s life
while we are living in darkness,
we are lying,
    because we are not living the truth.
But if we live in light,
as he is in light,
we have a share in another’s life,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
cleanses us from all sin.

First condition: to break with sin

If we say, ‘We have no sin,’
we are deceiving ourselves,
and truth has no place in us;
if we acknowledge our sins,
he is trustworthy and upright,
so that he will forgive our sins
and will cleanse us from all evil.
If we say, ‘We have never sinned,’
we make him a liar,
and his word has no place in us.

                    Jesus Christ is the light of the world.

Isaiah 9: 2

Isaiah 60: 19

               
Isaiah 62: 1

                    The devil attacks and tells lies. He
                wants people to suffer.

                    Here is the first message of Blue Book I.

Cling to Me (excerpt)

May 13, 1993

Jesus: My dear child, if you stay close to Me, then I live in you and you live in Me. I am He Who created you and I love you with such an intensity that you will never know. My words are your truth. You must abide in My heart in all things. There is no room for doubt. My ways are steadfast, direct, and without error.

You must stay rooted in Me to ward off the power of the evil one. His grip is paralyzing and crippling. His power is stronger every day.

end of excerpt

                    The devil doesn't have power unless
                we give into him.

Genesis 4: 6-7

Yahweh asked Cain, ‘Why are you angry and downcast? If you are doing right, surely you ought to hold your head high! But if you are not doing right, Sin is crouching at the door hungry to get you. You can still master him.’

                Why did Mary appear at Clearwater?
                She appeared to lead people to the
                Blue Books, Prayer Chapters, the gift
                of knowing about our Catholic faith —
                leading people to the Eucharist.

                    The more we go to the Eucharist (as we
                should) the more His life is in us.
                Jesus is truth — so the truth is in us.
                The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

                    The devil lies, he is talking in
                our young people all over the world
                trying to lure them more and more into sin —

                    The devil wants souls for hell —

                    Think of the devil working on people
                all over, lying to them to get them to sin,
                trying to lead them to mortal sin. It
                was serious that Mary appeared at
                Clearwater.

                    First at the beginning of the century
                July 13, 1917 Mary showed 3 little
                children a vision of hell — it was so
                bad about souls going to hell - Mary
                wanted us to believe. 3 children didn't
                lie —

Excerpts from The Spirituality of Fatima

by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.   

July 13, 1917

    "During this same July apparition, Mary showed the three children a vision of Hell. She told them:

    "You have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish, in the world, devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.

    "The war (World War I, then raging) is going to end. But if people do not stop offending God, another and worse one will begin in the reign of Pius XI. When you shall see a night illuminated by an unknown light [January 2, 1938], know that this is the great sign that God gives you that He is going to punish the world for its many crimes by means of war, hunger, and persecution of the Church and the Holy Father. ⁽¹²⁾

    "To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the five first Saturdays. If my requests are granted, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will scatter her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be destroyed....

    "But in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph, the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, Russia will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world." ⁽¹³⁾

---

NOTES:

12. For background material on Fatima, I am particularly indebted to 
    Our Lady of Fatima's Peace Plan from Heaven (Rockford: TAN 
    Books and Publishers, Inc., 1983). pp. 4-5.
13. Ibid., p.5.
 

                    The next month August 13, 1917 they wouldn't
                listen so they jailed the children, Mary had
                to appear August 19, 1917.

                    I can't stand division — our mission
                in the Shepherds of Christ is to promote oneness,
                truth —
                    because they did not listen to Mary's
                message at Fatima — there was World War II

                    So many bodies thrown on heaps.

                    Mary began appearing to me
                everyday July 5, 1994 - September 5, 1995
                telling me souls were going into hell
                like rain.

                    Mary continued appearing on the 5ths
                to me until December 5, 1996 when I saw
                Jesus dying on the cross —

Excerpt from April 4, 2003

Messenger:    I saw Him at the point of death on the cross December 5, 1996, after Mary appeared 500 times.

He hung, all battered, greatly weakened. His mouth moved very clearly. It seems that a man in His condition could not move His mouth to that extent.

Later in the rosary that night, He gave messages and said: "No one was listening."

                    On December 17, 1996, 12 days later
                Mary appeared like this in Clearwater.

                Mary wanted this message with her
                apparition.

Mary's Message
from the Rosary of August 27, 1996

Mary speaks:  I stood beneath the cross of my Son, and my Heart was in such pain for I saw Him before my eyes. I saw Him covered with blood. I saw Him die. My Heart, my children, my Heart to watch my Son, but my Heart, my Heart, how I suffered for my little children of the world that give in to this world and give up the love of my Son. O my little children of light, I give you this message. Carry this light into the darkness for your Mother Mary, for I stood beneath the cross and I cried. I cried for the little ones. I cried for the young ones, the ones that do not care and will lose their souls. How do I make you see for you will not listen to me? What can I do? I come. I appear. I beg. I plead. I give you these gifts from my Son, and you reject me. I do not deliver messages very often anymore for I have been ignored. The message is the same. You do not read the messages I have given to you. Please help me. Help the little children. I appear. I appear. I appear, and I am ignored. I stood beneath the cross, and I cried. I cried, and my Heart was in such anguish for my little children, for I am searching for them this day as I searched for the Child Jesus. Please, please help me. I cannot hold back the hand of my Son any longer. I am Mary, your Mother. I ask you to help my children. You are my children of light.

end of Mary's Message, August 27, 1996

                On March 1, 2004 after Mary appeared
                7 and 1/2 years somebody knocked her
                head off.

                We have the glass in the Fatima statues — 
 

                These statues are such a gift to us.

February 19, 1997
 

Intimacy with Jesus and Others

Messenger: We can only become as intimate with Jesus and with others in the degree we open ourselves up and are accepted by the other.

If we open ourselves totally to another and speak from the depth of our heart, and are accepted by the other, we are in the depth of intimacy.

The very depth of intimacy occurs when we can freely express the feelings in our heart.

If we freely express the feelings in our heart and are rejected, then we must back up, be less open, and hence are not intimately involved with them.

Intimacy occurs when we can freely discuss the depth of the feelings in our heart and they are accepted.

Jesus wants greatest intimacy with Him. He wants the feelings we feel in the deepest part of our hearts.

He wants our deep pain and suffering. He wants our ecstatic joy. He wants us to pour out our deepest love for Him.

He never, never, never rejects us! He accepts us with an open Heart on fire for love of us.

He is waiting for this deep, deep intimate sharing. He wants us to tell Him of our sins, our failings, our struggles. He wants it all. He wants the deepest feelings in our heart and He won't reject us.

This is what He wants in our letter to Him. When we cannot be intimate with any soul, we can be most intimate with Jesus. He wants to share everything in our heart. He wants to be one in our every thought. He wants us to be entirely open with Him.

I tell my best friend how I love him. Can I share the very depth of my heart with him? To the degree I can open up to another, this determines the degree of my intimacy. If they do not accept the deepest feelings in my heart they tell me, "You shouldn't feel that way". They are not accepting me and I cannot be intimate with them.

There are levels of intimacy. With Jesus we can be most intimate. With others we can only be as intimate as the other person allows. Intimacy is an exchange of give and take. I give myself to you, you accept me as I am, you give yourself to me, I accept you. When there are imperfections, there are problems. To be extremely intimate with another, to merge toward oneness, the parties must work against imperfections. I will unite in the deepest oneness the more I am like Christ. The more we intimately give ourselves to one another, the more our imperfections come to the surface. When imperfections arise between two people they cause tremendous pain.

To grow and lessen our imperfections we must be willing to change. It takes a dying process, a dying to the imperfection so a more perfect way can be developed as part of our personality.

It is painful to change. It takes great grace to die to our old pattern ways that are imperfect.

The greatest way to change is at the Mass. Jesus gives Himself as a Sacrifice in the Mass to the Father. We offer ourselves, all our imperfections, and tell God we want to die to them.

The all perfect God loves me. It is relatively easy uniting to Him. So, He sends me another holy person to love and I begin to grow in my relationship with that person. As we grow in greater intimacy, we unite in great oneness in Jesus. But, problems arise. I give myself and it gets scary, as that person doesn't always act like he accepts me. I want to pull back but then I am not acting according to my heart. I can love Jesus with an unguarded heart. I want to love this person in deep love but when I give him the feelings deep in my heart, I feel I expose myself too much to him and I want to pull back to feel more comfortable. When I do this, I am not freely acting from my heart.

To have the greatest intimacy, I must be able to freely expose the greatest desires of my heart to him and be accepted. If he rejects me and tells me I am too close, we will back up rather than grow in intimacy and I will be forced to operate with him with a guarded heart.

The intimacy Jesus wants is the gift of myself, all of myself, faults and all. He is the all-perfect God.

The more we can give ourselves totally to another and be accepted, the more we will grow in intimacy. Intimacy requires a freedom to express feelings. If feelings are held in check, then intimacy cannot be achieved. When feelings are expressed from the depths of our hearts, the imperfections begin to surface.

Two people who love each other are willing to suffer with one another in this dying process as they both die to imperfections. It is a painful process, so painful is this process that in today's world a great amount of people give up the relationship and give up the opportunity to grow. To work in relationships with others helps us grow to be more like Jesus, if we are willing to admit our imperfections and take them to the altar. The Mass is the greatest opportunity to die to the false self and grow more according to the ideal self.

How deep is your love affair with God and others? We recommend writing love letters. In the letters we express the deepest feelings in our heart. We do not hold back our feelings, we express them with tender love. Sharing your feelings in a love letter to Jesus, sharing your feelings in a love letter with another, helps us to grow in deeper intimate relationships.

We must be humble and admit our faults. No one is perfect. God gives us Himself and His sinless Mother as a model. We must give ourselves to Their pure and sinless Hearts and unite to Them. This is the greatest road to holiness: to unite to the pure Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

I gave myself and He loved me. He accepted me with all my faults and He loved me. I grew in greater intimacy with Our Divine Lord. I consecrated my heart to Mary and Jesus' Hearts all through the day. I was immersed in her sinless heart and united in a deep union with Him. I love you, my all-perfect God. I thank you for the gift of Yourself and I give myself to You.

Many men do not naturally share their feelings. Jesus' Heart is the most tender, feeling Heart. His Heart longs to share feelings with us. Women tend to talk about feelings continually.

He made them male and female. He told the women to obey the man—He told the man to love her.

She is the key to helping men grow in greater intimacy with God and with others. She cares for the sharing of feelings. Jesus' Heart contains all the emotions in the human hearts of men and women.

As men and women unite and learn from each other, they grow more and more towards the all-perfect Heart of Christ.

Men's hearts must be tender and filled with emotion and love. Women's hearts must be submissive and patient.

Why did God make men and women so different? We are imperfect. We must grow in His ways. We cannot be prideful and domineering. We must be humble and loving.

We are never finished learning. As the hearts merge in love, male and female, our hearts come forth more like His.

Haughty hearts are not like the Heart of Christ. Hearts cannot be prideful—they must be meek and open.

His Heart is open. It is when they opened His Heart that the blood and water poured out - pointing to the sacramental life of the Church.

When people open their hearts and unite to His Heart, He will outpour His grace. He wants heartfelt love. Our hearts must unite to His.

The world is not ready for the inside of the Sacred Heart of Jesus—they want noise, video games and television. They want pleasures.

He opens up His Heart. He gives us letters from the depth of His Heart.

I want to talk about the Eucharist, Jesus and the Mass, and the depth of His mysteries. I want to talk about "love", deep love so I can unite as one. I know the depth of the Heart of Christ.

I know heaven. I know hell. I will write my love letters to Him.

I can hear Jesus say this about His intimate letters: I opened Myself raw. I gave you the inside of My Heart. I gave you My burning love and they say, "Jesus, I don't want the depth of your Heart. Jesus, I don't want to feel the emotion."

Many priests do not want heartfelt love at the Mass. They want words spoken from the lips—they want lip service love. How this offends the Heart of Jesus when He opens Himself raw and pours out His blood and water. He poured it out from the depth of His Heart—all the way to the last drop, and we say, "I want words, I don't want to be deeply involved in the depth of your heart!"

I speak of the depth of my soul. We do not share the depth of our soul with Jesus and with one another. We are sharing on the surface.

So where can we go with intimacy—we can't go at all.

Jesus: I open myself raw in My love letters. Many do not comprehend. Many do not listen because they will not open their hearts to love. Many are closed in their hearts. Their greatest possession is cold, hard money, it is not burning love, it is paper and ink and money and things. They utter words from their lips that do not come from their hearts. Their lips speak the hollow love in their hearts. Many offer sacrifice at the Mass that is not from the depth of their souls, it is hollow words spoken. It is time many spend going through a ritual. It is not a gift to Me where they give themselves. I give Myself to you in the Eucharist and many run from the church. How this offends Me, when I give Myself completely. The Divine God gives Himself and many do not accept His gift, they run for money and cars. Many have made everything god but God. Many take My gift and abuse it. I am sorry to open My Heart in these letters and be rejected.

Messenger: I know the feeling Heart of Jesus. I have cried over knowing what He wants when He wants oneness in the Mass. I have been taken to the heights of ecstasy in the Mass and been taken to the pits of hell. I have united to the feeling part of the Heart of Christ. He has allowed me to experience His most intimate feeling when He is united with a soul in the Mass. He takes a soul to heaven in the Mass.

I write about the love of Jesus. I know deep in my heart. When I share this with you, it reaches an immense fullness. When I keep it locked and hidden, it is not anything like the intenseness when I share it. He has written His feelings on my heart to share with the world. When I share it, I am rewarded with a greater depth of union with Him. When I share it with others, some are jealous, except the people that are deeply united to Jesus in their heart. Many do not comprehend because they are not opening their heart. They want to be the messenger so they miss the gift that God is giving to them in these revelations.

When a person opens his heart, I share this most intimate feeling of love He has shared with me—secrets into His Heart. When a person is closed, I cannot share what I know. I have been in the depth of the Heart of Christ with ecstasies and sufferings. He has opened Himself raw and exposed His most intimate love.

                                        ^{end of excerpt from February 19, 1997}

Excerpt from Priestly Newsletter

September/October 1995

“Men may deprive me of possessions and of honor, sickness may strip me of strength and the means of serving you…but I shall never lose my hope. I shall keep it till the last moment of my life; and at that moment all the demons in Hell shall strive to tear it from me in vain…
 

1. St. Claude de la Columbière, An Act of Confidence in God, Apostleship of Prayer, Chicago Regional Office.

 

May 25, 1995
 

I Am Alive!

Messenger:  Prayer is a lifting up of our minds and hearts to God. Who am I that I can change any event that is occurring in the lives of another, that I can affect the outcome of any event? I am a child of my Father. My Father is the Almighty God. How I love my dear Father. He is God and He has created me in His own image and likeness. My beloved, dear Father, how I love You that You give me such gifts - that You allow me to share in Your life!

You are the Father of Jesus and You are My Father. Thank You, My Father, for all Your gifts and for Your life. Who am I that I can affect the life of any person?

I am a child of God. I call on my dear Father and He loves me so, He listens to me. I lift my heart to You, my dear beloved Father and You listen to little me and You care for me so much. I call upon God and the Almighty God cares for me with such love that He listens.

Jesus: Such truths have been given to you from My Father because of His great love for you. You are far more precious than the finest pearls, My beloved child. The Father so loved you He gave His Son so that you would have life. He gave His Son as a sacrifice for you. The Father gives to you His life through Jesus, His Son. You partake in His divine life.

I am Jesus, Son of the Living God. My life I give to you, I live in your being, My beloved, I impart to you My divine life.

How many turn their backs on the great gift of this life given from the Father. To know this life and to know all those who have rejected this great gift!

I am the Almighty God, My power is endless. The power and might you felt within yourself is only a small sampling of My immense power.

I am God and I am allowing you to experience what you are experiencing to spread My love to others. Your immense understanding into these mysteries will help you speak and write them for others.

I have chosen you as an instrument to touch many hearts and bring them to My divine love. Great gifts and understandings into these mysteries I am giving to you. You will lead many priests to the love of God.

I am alive. I am God. I long to be loved by man and many have turned their backs on Me and forgotten Me. You must tell them all I am allowing you to experience, these sufferings and understandings into My deep love.

This is the beginning of many days when I will allow you to experience the rejection I felt from those I loved. Your heart is in immense pain for the souls who reject Me despite My love for them.

I beg you to speak and write. Make reparation for souls that have forgotten My love. Spread the love of My Sacred Heart and My Mother's heart, throughout the world.

I love, I love, I love My beloved souls. I beg you to tell them. I beg Fr. Carter to tell every soul on this earth of My love. You will continue to suffer such pain and anguish in your heart. Suffer in silence for souls. I love so deeply and am so gravely offended!

I am Jesus, My dear, little child. I am alive and in this world. I live in the hearts of men, I live in the consecrated Host, I am forgotten and ignored and treated with such dishonor.

Speak for Me, I beg you to spread this love throughout this earth. I am sending you as missionaries into this world.

On this Ascension Thursday, I have given you great sufferings and great joy. I have allowed you to experience the highest ecstasies in My love and plunge you into deep pain in your heart for those who reject Me.

You, I send as missionaries to carry out the work I have begun. Be fearless and pray to the Spirit. This day I am giving you abundant graces to speak, and through this speaking, others are sent into this world as My apostles.

It is through the Shepherds of Christ Movement My love will be spread. Circulate My messages and rosary meditations. The love of the two Hearts will be known throughout this world through these messages and rosary meditations.

You will be fearless, everyone I send to you is a messenger to carry out My love. Circulate these letters with FIRE for I am delivering them to you in FIRE.

I am Jesus Christ, the Living God. I am allowing you to experience My life, alive in you and giving you these emotions to spread My love.

On this Ascension Thursday, I beg you to carry out the message to this world. Live My life in your life, every moment My life living within you.

I am the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life. I have commissioned you to go out and to carry this message - the message of My immense love for ALL mankind, including My burning love for My priests and religious. Souls will turn their hearts to Me from these letters. This is the mighty medicine to turn a sick, cold world to hearts filled with the love of God.

Prayer, My beloved ones, is the lifting up of your minds and hearts to God. When you intercede to Me through My Mother's heart, I will pour out My greatest mercy.

I will not refuse hearts begging for grace for their loved ones. Pray from your whole being. Let My life live in you.

You can pray and ask God to send help. You do not know the power of a heartfelt prayer. I listen to your prayers. The Father and Holy Spirit are listening to your prayers. The more you unite with God, the greater you intercessory prayer. I am Jesus. I am alive this day. I ask you to spread My messages to the world. I am crying out in your heart on this Ascension Thursday. I ascended into heaven and I have left behind you to carry out what I began. I am with you. I am alive this day. I will unite with you and the earth will know the power of the Almighty God. I am Jesus Christ, Chief Shepherd of the flock. Lead My little ones home - home to the burning embers of My Most Sacred Heart, through My Mother's heart.

Messenger: I cried so hard, I have never been so immersed in heartache. I heard Him shout, "I Am Alive, I Am Alive." I cried so hard, I could hardly write.

I know Him. He is alive in my being. My soul is filled with His love. I live the life of Jesus and Mary in my life. I love His life, her life - their presence forever with me. From this great gift, these rosary meditations, His life has become one with mine. I feel His life in the Mass. I hear Mary under the cross. I hear the cries for the souls going to hell for their willfulness and sins. I hear the laments of Jesus in the tabernacle - how He longs and thirsts for souls and is neglected and ignored. I hear Him tell of the sacrileges committed against the Holy Eucharist.

I heard Him this day. I felt His presence and the presence of the Almighty God as He cries out, "I am alive, I am alive, I am alive."

He is alive. We have the Mass. He gives us Himself in the Eucharist. Mary is appearing, we are given this rosary. We are sent as soldiers by Him in the Shepherds of Christ. We are thirsting for union with Him, sent by Him, apostles to go out to this world and spread His love, one with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, one with the Trinity. He will light this earth with hearts on fire for love of Him.

Jesus: I come to you with greatest love, I am your loving Savior, I am your God, I died for you, I come to you this day.

The earth shakes and the Son of Man appears. He lives in the hearts of all. I want hearts on FIRE for love of Me. I want vibrancy and love from My beloved ones. Hold not back My love from this world.

Messenger: I adore you, Oh Lord, I praise you, I worship you, I bless Him with my whole soul. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and holy, holy is His name! Jesus wants souls that are holy, on fire with the love of Jesus. Make novenas to the Holy Spirit to have hearts on FIRE with the love of God. Sound the trumpet, sound the gong - Jesus LIVES - He lives this day! Alleluia.

Sunday is a special day to praise Him, to love Him, to pray to Him - His day to be honored and worshipped in a special way. Pray from a pure and holy heart, a heart that sings for love of the Lord. Pray from your whole being.

end of May 25, 1995

 

 

July 23, 1994 - After Communion

We are One in Him

Jesus:   Dear little one, do you not know I give you just as you need?  Do you not know you are constantly growing deeper in your love for Me?  What on the face of the earth can compare with your union with Me?  I become even more present to you in every moment of your waking days.  You long to be so closely united to Me.  This is the heartache, to only have this limited union with Me.

  I love you, dear one, and nothing here is even a taste of the glories to come.  In your closest union with Me, it is only a foreshadowing of all that is to come.

  I love you to long for Me and want Me so much!  My heart is a burning flame, an endless fire, that does not ever falter, a roaring flame for love of you.  My heart is on Fire, My sweet one.  Focus on this burning flame that burns for you and you alone.

  R.  (Vision of His bare back)  Your bare back, I have seen for days, Jesus.  This has kept me in such union with you!  I see your back, willing to be scourged.  I see your bare body given to your Mother under the cross.  I see you hanging bare on the cross and feel so close to you, so intimate with you.  You held nothing back. The nails penetrated the interior of your body. The gashes, the nails in your feet! You gave all the blood in your veins, you gave this for ardent love of me.  You are my beautiful Savior. You gave this love for each individual brother. They are so dear to you. You are love, Jesus.  The Father gives us such love that He sent His only Son into the world to save us from our sins and make us heirs of heaven!

Jesus:  This is My life given up for you.  This is My Body, My very own flesh, the very Blood in My veins, given up for love of you.

R.  Such closeness I feel to know Jesus loved us and loves us this much.  In meditating on His passion, I realize His great love for me.

Jesus:  My little one, I am your precious one. I am in you and you are in Me.  The Father sent Me. This is the union I call you to, such oneness, such intimate union in our Hearts. 

  My Mother is forever placing you in the innermost recesses of My Heart.  The Holy Spirit is the fire of the love of God. Such union fused together securely by the fire of the Spirit!

  Meditate on union with Me. Come close to Me through Mary's sinless heart. Be united to God - all three Persons. Focus on the indwelling of God within your very breast.  God is alive within your heart.  Such fullness in your chest to realize this presence within you!

  This is what protects you from the world.  The more you realize the immenseness of God's love within your breast, your union with God, the less anything on the outside can penetrate your spirit.  You are burning with My love.  Let the love of God radiate from your being, be forever fixed on this intimate union you share in God.

  I never abandon you. I lead you to the courts of heaven where we will forever be united in such love. 

R.  The love of God within, the love of God outside us, the love of God in our brothers, the love of God poured out to us in the Eucharist!

Jesus:  I give you exactly what you need.  It is in acceptance of all I send you, you grow in your relationship with Me.

  Do not look to your brothers and wish you have what they have.  You have what you need.  I pour My love out to you in the exact proportions needed.  There is so much love in those who surround you. Do not in your willfulness wish for that which you are not receiving.

  See all the gifts and love I send you this very day and praise your heavenly Father and thank Him for these gifts.

You, My child, are so abundantly blessed.  Praise and thank God, the giver of all, for the great gifts given to you.  Do not be willful and wish for that which you do not have.  Know that He gives you according to your needs and be grateful for the gifts you are given.

  Praise God and Thank Him.  You are so favored, My precious child.  You are guarded by My very own hands.

  Look to the heavens and count the stars and thank Him who gives you such good things.

R.  He suffered for me.  To think He suffered for me!  He is God.  He suffered for each of us.  In focusing on how He suffered for me and would do it this very day, I am in awe of Him.  He walked the walk to Calvary. He was beaten.  He was bloodied.  He did this because He loved me. He was crucified so I can get to heaven and be with God and Mary and the Saints forever.  He did this for ME!

  Do I ask, Lord, do you love me?  I cry and complain and do not meditate on how He gave His all for me and would do it today.  He is this personal with each of us.

  Mary is my mother.  She mothers me as she mothered her Son.  She was given to me under the cross.  God loves us so much. Mary loves us so much. I accept this on faith.  I am so blessed to have this love and Mary as my mother.

Mary is your mother too, which unites us so closely.

  Intimacy can only be achieved in dealing with Christ as you would with a lover.  He loves me. God loves me.  I achieve union within, but He loves you so we achieve union In Him and we personally unite with Him.  We unite with each other because we are one in Him.  He can unite with us individually and unite with all of us as one.  This is a mystery, but I know it in my heart.  I am so united to you because we are one in Him!

  The more I understand the love between God and me, the more I understand His love for you.  I will love you better if I love Him. I realize better how much He loves you. How can I not love you when He loves you so much. We are one in Him! This is a mystery and not easily explained.

  My love for you is deepened by understanding my own unique relationship with Him, because as He loves me, He loves you and we are brothers. We are sons and daughters of the Father.  If He loves you, I must love you because I am one with Him.  You are one with Him and we are one in Him together.

  The more I realize your oneness with God, the more I must treat you with love because He loves you so much.  I don't want to ever offend Him or you, you are His love.

  I realize this, then I feel so wretched for I see how far short I am of loving this way.

 

 

July 23, 1994 - 4:00

I am Jesus

R.  Love for you, my special, loving Savior!  You are the sweetest, the kindest, the most wonderful Savior and I love You with all of my heart.

Jesus:

  I am Jesus.  I am Son of the Living God.  I truly come to you, My sweet one.  I give you My love. I am the Alpha.  I am the Omega.  I am He whose bootstraps you are unworthy to tie and I come to you with such ardent love. Your life is to be lived for Me and Me alone.  Do not worry about anything, for I am guarding you.

 

 

Sunday, July 24, 1994 - After Communion

R.  I am filled with the immensity of God's love, the unity of being one with Jesus, but one with the Father and Holy Spirit and Mary.  It is hard to explain, to feel such intimacy with Jesus, a oneness with all three Persons. A closeness to Mary.  It is in feeling this closeness with Jesus that I am one with the Father and Holy Spirit, I love each Person.  My soul craves greater union with God!

Jesus:

  I am the Alpha, I am the Omega, I am He Who ardently loves you and wants such union with you.  Pray to the Father and Son and Holy Spirit to be closely united to God through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Meditate on this union with each Person of the Trinity.  You, My child are so loved. The Father so loved Mary, He chose her among all women to be the Mother of His Son. Jesus loves His Mother so much and wants us to love His Mother. Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit.

R.  Mary will lead us to closer union with God.

R.  Speaking to Jesus:  When I think of You and the nail prints in Your hands and feet and the piercing thorns in Your head, I am overwhelmed with such joy because You loved us this much.  Your side was lanced, Your heart pierced. What flows to us in the Church is Your grace. You give us the hope of salvation.  I love You so, my beautiful Savior.  I love you with all my heart. Mary lead us to closer union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Mary is our spiritual Mother. As Jesus was formed in the womb of Mary through the Holy Spirit, may we be formed more and more in her heart, through the Holy Spirit. May this transformation in her heart make us more like her Son Jesus and lead us to the Father.

Jesus:  I am Jesus, My beloved ones. You were created in such love by the Father. You were created in His own image and likeness. Model your lives after the lives of Jesus and Mary. Meditate on the rosary. Pray to the Spirit to carry out this transformation in the heart of My beloved Mother. The more you become likened to God, the more you will be filled with His love. To know God is to love, for He is love. Pray for this transformation in Mary's Immaculate Heart.

 

 

July 25, 1994 - After Communion

R.  My dear dear Lord,

  I long to be with you, so close. I miss the tender moments. I do not get to be with you and this morning am overwhelmed with sadness, instead of joy to be with you! I want to spend my hours with you and when I do not, I miss that time so!  I squandered my time. I talk on the phone or go out some nights and miss my morning prayers with you. I want to be with you for hours in front of the tabernacle. I miss you and love you so much, to tears!

  I long so for you. I want greater union with you.  I thirst after knowledge of you.  I long to be with you. You are my all, Lord. I long so to be with you in front of the tabernacle.

  I am sad for all the hours I missed today and yesterday.  I miss my intimacy with you. I miss you.  Nothing else can be likened to being with you. I love you so!  Now I know the sorrow of my heart, the joy to behold you now, bitter sweetness, sorrow and joy, love and pain, you are my all!

  During Mass I wanted to cry. I could hear Jesus say, "this is My Body, My flesh, this is My Blood."  I saw the little lamb led to the slaughter. I look at the crucifix and I realize His immense love. It saddens me so to know many who do not know this love and how He loves them so.  It is painful to know this and watch people miss His beautiful love.

  The readings were exciting. I love to hear His words. It just excites me to hear the readings, the psalm and the gospel. I wanted to cry today because I love Him so and He is truly here.  This is no myth.  The readings at Mass are alive in my life today.

  The Mass is so beautiful.  I love it more every day.  What a gift to go to Mass. Oh, Father, how little I am, but I give myself in my entirety to you. The more I know you, the more I want to get lost in Jesus, to be hid away in His tender heart.  I love you so, my precious Savior!

  

 

July 25, 1994

My Beating Heart

R. I went to the altar at the Center. My heart felt like it would beat out of my chest and I knew that this was of God. Jesus said: "My dear daughter, My Heart beats as one with yours." Then He told me to sing Like a Shepherd three times, and the picture was lighting up.
(The picture of the Sacred Heart was illuminated.)

Jesus: My dear child,
Do you realize how much you must ponder My love for you? My Passion is the key for you to understand this love. Pray for the gift to realize this love. I would die for you this very day. For you, My sweet one. Think, "Jesus and Mary love me this much." This will increase your closeness to Me. It is in this personal love I pour out to you that we will be ever closer. My Heart is ever beating for you in such oneness.

I am the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I am your Jesus. I love you with this love. Meditate on My Passion and see how I loved you.

I am your most loving Jesus, tenderest of all hearts and I am in your midst this very day.

 

 

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