Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing

January 11, 2025

Pray for the mailing of Fr. Joe's homily book. 

Please Pray for Bob & special intentions.

Please pray for repose of Sheila's soul. 

Watch the China, IN Funeral live where Sheila prayed. Type in www.sofc.org/SWfuneral.mp4 OR at the top of our homepage www.sofc.org click link to Sheila's funeral video. Fr. Chris Craig did the funeral, Joe Lee: Cantor, Rita Ring: Pianist (click)

  Give your priest and deacon
a gift for Christmas.
Fr. Joe's Homily Books
Order online or
call 888-211-3041.

 

Dear Father united to Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacrifice of Calvary sacramentally made present, celebrated around the world, in the Holy Spirit. We offer up all we do united to the Mass. We unite in one mind and one heart as members of the mystical body of Christ, with Christ our head in the pure and holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary, through the powerful intercession of Mary with all the angels and saints and souls in purgatory, and we beg for the saving grace, for our country, the United States. Please help us. We further pray for unity to always do the will of God in love. We spread the Blood of Jesus on the leaders and people of the United States and cast the devil into hell. We consecrate our country to the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart and all our dioceses, and beg for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God help us. We pray for our families, the priests, the Church and the world. In the Name of Jesus please hear us, we pray. We pray for our president and leaders. We pray that we are united as one nation under God to work together in love as God wants.

 

                    Morning Offering

    Dear Father,
    I offer up all I do all day united to Jesus
    in the Mass, in the Holy Spirit, through
    the powerful intercession of Mary, our
    spiritual Mother, with all the angels and
    saints, and the souls in purgatory, for
    the priest, the Church, and the world.

    We love You God so much.
    We thank You and adore You and
    petition You for our needs. Amen.       

 

January 11, 2025

Matthew 5: 48

...You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’
 

R. We need to see that God works in
order. We need to remove disorder
from our lives.

We are to live in the perfection of our
vocation.

How does God want us to grow in holy
perfection, in our vocation, in union
with God?

What inordinate attachment do I hold
onto, put before Jesus, so I keep doing
disordered self-will?

What is the motive of my actions!

Are my actions for the honor and
glory of God?

Are my actions to help me to grow to
be more like Jesus, to love like Jesus?

Are my actions to please my heavenly
Father?

God has a Plan for our lives.

God called us to a certain vocation.

 

January 10, 2025

Consecrate yourself to Mary.
Consecrate yourself to Mary’s
Immaculate Heart.

Mary puts us, then, into Jesus’ Sacred
Heart.

Jesus died for us.

God is worthy of all of our love.

Dear God the Father in the name of
Jesus, in the Holy Spirit with all the
angels and saints and souls in purgatory,
united to the Mass,
spread the Blood of Jesus,
cast the devil into hell,
consecrate our hearts to Jesus’ Sacred
Heart and Mary’s Immaculate Heart
and send the Holy Spirit to help us.

Jesus is God, second Person of the
Blessed Trinity.

Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist,
Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

Jesus is to be worshipped, praised and
adored in the Blessed Sacrament.

Sing: Holy God We Praise Thy Name

I love You so much God, thank You
for all You have done for me, my
whole life.

I love You so much, my God.

From Response in Christ by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

b) Christ as King

Vatican II reminds us that Christ is not only prophet, but also king: "Christ, becoming obedient even unto death and because of this exalted by the Father. . . , entered into the glory of His kingdom. To Him all things are made subject until he subjects himself and all created things to the Father that God may be all in all."⁵

     Through His Incarnation, Christ as man became king over creation. In assuming a human nature, He united to Himself man and also the material creation below man. In the words of Teilhard de Chardin, Christ is the physical center of the Universe.⁶ Through His redemptive sacrifice, which is the culminating act of His Incarnation, Christ strengthened His title as king.

     Christ has redeemed man, and as a consequence of man's redemption, the whole physical universe has been redeemed.⁷ The appropriateness of nonrational creation being redeemed together with man himself is evident. In God's original act of creation He gave man dominion over material creation. This part of creation was meant to serve man in his quest for happiness here and hereafter. With the intrusion of sin into God's creation, man and nonrational creation were both affected. Through his misuse of God's creation by sin, man not only puts disorder into himself, but also into the creation which he misuses.

     Christ's redemption is meant to restore the disarray caused by man's sinfulness. Christ through His redemptive grace desires to heal more and more the sinfulness of man as this affects man himself and man's relationship to the material universe. Christ as king wants His redemptive grace to spread out and touch deeply man and the physical universe. With grace man relates properly to the material universe, for he more and more brings the material universe back to its role in God's creation, namely, that it serve man in achieving his temporal and eternal happiness. What is man's happiness? Because of the Incarnation, there is now only one destiny for man both here and hereafter. That destiny is a supernatural one in Christ. The material universe, through Christ's redemptive Incarnation, has therefore entered into this supernatural structure. Man and the physical universe have both been marked with the blood of Christ. More and more they are to be Christianized, that is, ever more perfectly drawn into the supernatural order established by Christ and centered in Him.

     To extend this kingly influence of Christ over creation is the task now of both Christ and His Church. We have long been aware that this means deepening and extending Christ's kingdom as regards man himself. But we are just beginning to realize what it means to extend His kingdom to everything which pertains to man. Vatican II, in opening up the Church to everything which is good in the world, has impressed upon us the fact that the Church, in prolonging Christ's kingly mission, must be deeply involved not only with man himself, but with everything which is of authentic concern to man. The council unmistakably tells us this: "The faithful, therefore, must learn the deepest meaning and the value of all creation, as well as its role in the harmonious praise of God. They must assist each other to live holier lives even in their secular occupations. In this way the world may be permeated by the spirit of Christ and it may more effectively fulfill its purpose in justice, charity and peace."⁸

     All within the Church are called to extend the influence of Christ as king. Each member of the People of God has a share in this kingly mission. Each must fulfill his role according to his vocation, talents, opportunities and graces. But fulfill his role he must. No one but the individual Christian in question can fulfill the particular role which God has intended for that individual. The Christian's quest for holiness is thus intimately connected with his response to Christ the king. The more ideally each Christian responds to this call of Christ, the more the entire Church can fulfill her mission of continuing Christ's kingly mission. This mission consists in imprinting the name of Jesus Christ more deeply upon the entire universe, men and matter alike.

 


January 11, 2025

    From the Priestly Newsletter Book II - September / October 1997

Scriptural Reflections

• In all this Mary offers an example. Selfishness was totally foreign to her. She did not belong to herself. She belonged to God. She was not closed in upon herself. She was completely open to God. When God spoke, she listened. When God pointed the way, she followed. She realized that life is not a process a person masters by carefully mapping out one's own self-conceived plans of conquest, but a mystery to be gradually experienced by being open to God's personal and loving guidance.
  
  Selfishness, then, did not close Mary off from God's call. Neither did fear. God asked her to assume a tremendous responsibility. He asked her to be the Mother of Jesus. Mary did not engage in a process of false humility and say that such a great role was above her. She did not say that she did not have the proper qualifications for this awesome mission. Briefly, she did not waste time looking at herself, making pleas that she was not worthy, telling the angel he had better go look for someone else. No, Mary did not look at herself. Her gaze was absorbed in God. She fully realized that whatever God asked of her, His grace would accomplish. She fully realized that although she herself had to cooperate, this work was much more God's than hers.
  
  Mary's words, then, truly sum up what is the authentic Christian response at any point of life, in any kind of situation: "I am the handmaid of the Lord," said Mary, "let what you have said be done to me".

  
 
August 9, 2000

     Oh, there is not one so fair as thee, my beloved Mother Mary.

     Of all the maidens that God could have chosen it was you, oh shining Star of Heaven.

     Oh Mary, Mother of us all.

     She doth appear as a wonder so fair indeed,

     A permanent sign of God's love.
      A Woman clothed in gold.
      One that glistens with the radiance of a golden tone,

     Her beauty dancing in the sunlit hours of every day.

     In morning splendor, in dancing light at noon day as the sun glistens on her rainbow glow and at night she has appeared on special dates in golden splendor and light.

     Would you quote the Scripture for Mary so fair.

     "Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, robed with the sun, standing on the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth." (Revelation 12: 1-2)

     Would you see her as she appeared in little villages in the 20th century, tucked in hills and out of the way places.

     If you missed these enormous signs from heaven, of one so fair, she appears there clothed in the golden sun of the day, reflecting her radiant beauty painted by the hand of the Father. She is His chosen maiden so fair.

     She appears daily, she is there by day and beneath the black shadows of night, she does not slumber, but calls to her children of light to come through her golden doorway and let the light of Christ shine in their souls.

     She appears one so fair, by day and sometimes by night clothed in radiance and golden, her garment hemmed with glistening sunlight. She once appeared to a few and her visits fleeting in remotest places, she remains a Woman Clothed with the Sun, the sun dancing on her garments of rainbow color on a busy, busy corner for all to see, in the state of the sun, sunny Florida. She is a Woman painted by the brush of God.

     And do you know the wonder of one who calls the children far and wide, to hear the voice of her Son, Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock.

     Mary, the heavenly maiden, to call them home to His Heart.

     Oh, of one so fair, do we not boast and praise our God and thank Him for such a wonder.

     Oh, to Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, we cry, help us to do what you asked for at Fatima and help us in our mission of telling the world of your Son's desire to spread His Movement so men will be Shepherds of Christ.

  

January 11, 2025

R. Be loving.

There is not mean people, and liars
in heaven.

God is love.
Heaven is for lovers.

Be kind while the day is young.
This day you may be called home
and this could be your last.

Prepare for heaven where there is
only love.

Make a choice with your free will to
die to your self will
and do the Father’s will in love.

Heaven is for lovers.

From the Our Father
… thy will be done on earth as it is
in heaven.
… and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Father I am your little obedient loving
little one -
Give me the grace I need most -

I love You, Father, thank You for
creating me!

Amen.


Do the Father’s will in love always.

Jesus did the Father’s will in love to
His death on the cross, for our sins.

Jesus tells us:
I am the way, the truth and the life -
life is in me.

Don’t get stuck living in sin, ask for
forgiveness and be truly sorry for sinning.

Ask God for mercy, move to a life of
peace and love.

The devil is a liar, deceiver, confess
your sins, seek Jesus, He is truth.

Amen.
 

Act of Contrition

"O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen."

  

May 14, 2024

R. Dear Holy Spirit come to me, possess
my soul, I love You, Holy Spirit.
When I am weak, I am strong in You.
Outpour Your precious love to me. Amen.
I love You, God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Holy Spirit infuse in my intellect
wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
Counsel me Holy Spirit from the mind of
God.

Help me, dear Holy Spirit to know the loving
embrace of God all the days of my life.
I turn to You. Amen.

When I find doing God's desire for my life
difficult give me the gift of fortitude, dear
Holy Spirit.
Sanctify my heart to act purely for the
honor and glory of God.
I may be willing, but I need Your gift to
give me courage to act as You desire.
Help me to know and love the heavenly
Father's will for me and to do it in love
for the honor and glory of God.

Help me to always put God first in my life,
in love for God in my heart.
Help me to walk realizing, I am the creature,
God is the Creator.

Help me to be patient and strong and
persevere in my life until I rest with Thee
forever in heaven.

Please Holy Spirit give me the gift of fear
of God that I do not offend you in sins
of unloving ways against God.
You are so good and deserving of all my
love.
I worship You and love You -
Help my interior disposition at Mass to be
that of purity in pleasing the Heavenly
Father, in my offering united to Jesus in
the Mass.
Dear Holy Spirit please help me in the gift
of piety to do that which pleases my Heavenly
Father with the tenderness as His little child.
Thank you God for all You give to me.
I pray this "All for the honor and Glory of
God". Amen.
 

Matthew 22: 36-40

'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?' Jesus said to him, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.'

Dear Holy Spirit, strengthen our will and
move like a Divine breath in our soul, to
be docile sons and daughters of our
Heavenly Father. Amen.

Alleluia.

 

March 10, 2024

Novena to St. Joseph, Patron and Father (2024)

Begins March 11, 2024 - March 19, 2024

Dear Saint Joseph,

I turn to you, you who cared and
protected the child Jesus and the
Virgin Mary.
You taught men and women, the
love of God by your example in life,
and by your faithfulness of living
your calling in greatest commitment
and love.

You loved Mary and Jesus with the
most gentle, bonds of love.

You showed us how you
lived in loving conformity to the
Heavenly Father's will.

You guided Jesus and Mary's precious
lives with the Holy Spirit, Spouse of
the Virgin Mother of God.

Protect us and our family this day and
every day of our lives, like
you did the Holy Family of Nazareth.
We seek your powerful intercession.

How intimately you knew and loved
Jesus and Mary. You were so close to
them. You showed us love.

Your heart was pure and gentle and
yet you were strong in being their
manly protector on earth, intercede
for us to depend more and more on
God for all our needs, for when we
are weak we are strong in God.

St. Joseph please intercede for a
peaceful and holy death for us and
our sick loved ones.
Amen.

St. Joseph help us now in this nine
day novena to you.
Amen.

 

March 23, 2024

Prayer for Sick and Caregivers at Home

R. Dear God,
I pray Heavenly Father with all my heart,
in the Name of Jesus, united to the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, in the Holy Spirit,
with all the angels and saints and souls
in purgatory, through the powerful
intercession of Our Lady of Clearwater
to come to my aid now.

My loved one is very sick and he (she)
needs your help, God.
Outpour Your grace for me in this time
of need to have patience and wisdom to
deal with this now.

I give this sickness up to You, my God.
Please help me in dealing with this and
helping them in doing the right thing
and dealing with this.

I surrender this problem to You, my
Divine God.

Please send Your angels to help me.
Spread us all with the Precious Blood of
Jesus, cast the devil into the fires of hell,
dear Holy Spirit come to my aid.

I consecrate my home, ourselves to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, Thank You.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus I place my
trust in Thee.
Child Jesus of Good Health, help us.
St. Joseph, Patron of a Holy Death
come to our aid.
Amen.

   

July 29, 2024

R. Dear Mary,
My Mother, I love you so much.
Please take care of my needs in my family.
Ask your precious Son Jesus to help me
and my family.
You are the Mother of Jesus. You cared
so lovingly for Him in your life on earth.
You are His most perfect disciple.
Oh Mary, I love you so much, you are my
spiritual Mother.

There are many of my friends I ask you
to pray for, too.
I know your powerful intercession from
the wedding of Cana.
You stood beneath the cross on Calvary,
after you endured the bitter treatment of
your precious Son Jesus.
Oh Mary, you know so well the trials and
pains of life. Help me now, I turn to your
powerful intercession.

You stand by the altar at Mass and intercede
for Grace for us all day long, please never
abandon me, your little child.

Oh Mary I love you so, so much.

Oh Mary you are the Queen of Peace, please
help us in peace in the world, the Churchs,
the family, the work place for all your little
children of the world.
We need your help for peace now, hear our
pleas as we turn to your powerful intercession.

We pray especially for our beloved priests,
Oh Mother of the Eucharist we turn to you.

Amen.

God is love, please take us to your Immaculate
Heart of love and place us in the Sacred Heart
of Jesus, there to know the riches of God's love.
Amen. Alleluia 

 

January 10, 2025

R. Mary is in the little house of her parents.

The Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and
asked her to be the Mother of Jesus.

Mary said yes.

Mary loved God.

Mary loved the Father’s will.

Joyful Mysteries

The Annunciation

1. The Incarnation goes on in us.

2. Luke 1: 26-38

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, you who enjoy God’s favour! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Look! You are to conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ Mary said, ‘You see before you the Lord’s servant, let it happen to me as you have said.’ And the angel left her. 

3. Mary said “yes”.
4. Mary loved the Father’s will.
5. Mary conceived Jesus through the
    power of the Holy Spirit.
6. Mary is daughter of the Father.
7. Mary is Mother of Jesus.
8. Mary is Spouse of the Holy Spirit.
9. Mary is the Immaculate Conception.
10. Sing: Immaculate Mary

The Visitation

1. Luke 1: 39-45

Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’ 

2. Mary said: “My soul doth Magnify
    the Lord.”
3. Mary is the New Eve. Eve disobeyed
    God and sin entered the world.
4. Sin offends God, who is good and
    worthy of our love.
5. Mary is perfect Handmaid of the
    Lord and our model.
6. Mary stayed with Elizabeth about 3
    months.
7. Mary is to be loved and honored.
8. Mary said: “The Mighty One has
    done great things to me.”
9. Think of the great calling of the
    priest.
10. Without the priest we would not
    have the Eucharist.
 

The Birth of Jesus

1. A few thoughts

    The world belongs to Christ.

2. St. Paul says in Colossians 1:15-20
I love this scripture so much, it gives me goose bumps!!!

“He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. In him, everything in heaven, and on earth was created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations, principalities or powers; all were created through him, and for him.

He is before all else that is in him, everything continues in being. It is he who is head of the body, the church; he who is the beginning, the first born of the dead, so that primacy may be his in everything. It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him, and by means of him, to reconcile everything in his person, both on earth and in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross.”

3. Today is another new day God
    gives us in our lives.
    Dear God, let me walk Your road,
    You want me to walk today.

4. Help me to be filled by You.
    When I feel weary, give me strength,
    when things look dark inside me,
    please give me light, help me to see
    through Your eyes Lord.
    Help me to do the will of the Heavenly
    Father, as His little one.

5. Help me to see the humility Jesus
    showed us in coming into the world, a
    little baby, in a stable in Bethlehem,
    but so Mighty, the Savior of the world.

6. God is with us: Now, today and we
    can walk with confidence and unafraid
    in His Light and bring His love to the
    world.

7. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus I want to
    walk today in unity with You,
    strengthen me and give me the grace
    I need most, when I feel frustrated.
    Amen.

8. I know I can be one, all day with
    the Mass going on around the world.

9. Heavenly Father, I am Your little one,
    I come to please You in the Holy
    Spirit, living with a heart, like Jesus,
    a heart of love, I pray this through
    the intercession of Mary my Mother,
    with all the angels and saints and
    souls in purgatory.
    Amen.

10. God is with us! Amen

The Presentation in the Temple

1. Luke 2: 21-24

When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception. And when the day came for them to be purified in keeping with the Law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord—observing what is written in the Law of the Lord: Every first–born male must be consecrated to the Lord—and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is prescribed in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

2. Sing: Little Baby Hands and Feet

3. Mary and Jesus heard the
    prophecy of Simeon.
4. Mary knew of sufferings to come.

5. The Seven Sorrows of Mary

1) The prophecy of Simeon
2) The flight into Egypt
3) The loss of the Child Jesus in the temple
4) Jesus and Mary meet on the way to the cross
5) Jesus dies on the cross
6) Jesus is taken down from the cross and laid in Mary's arms
7) The burial of Jesus

6. A sword too, will pierce your
    heart, Oh Mary.
7. Mary kept all these things in her heart.
8. Mary obeyed the Father’s will.
9. Mary loved the Father’s will.

10. Sing: See the Eyes That Look at Mary

 

The Finding of Jesus in the Temple

1. Luke 2: 41-52

Every year his parents used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual. When the days of the feast were over and they set off home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it. They assumed he was somewhere in the party, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances. When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere. 

   It happened that, three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions; and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies. They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’ He replied, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he meant. He went down with them then and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with people.

2. Can you imagine how worried Mary
    and Joseph were?
3. Mary is perfect handmaid of Jesus.
4. Jesus was about His Father’s business

5. John 3:16

For this is how God loved the world:
he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him 
    may not perish
but may have eternal life.

6. Jesus obeyed His Father’s will to
    His death on the cross.
7. Jesus lived the private life 30 years.
8. We would probably had written
    Jesus’ first 30 years quite differently.
9. Jesus, the Son of God came a little
    baby.

10. Sing: God’s Love

   

Isaiah 2:1-5

The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 

It will happen in the final days 
that the mountain of Yahweh’s house 
will rise higher than the mountains 
and tower above the heights. 
Then all the nations will stream to it, 
many peoples will come to it and say, 
‘Come, let us go up 
    to the mountain of Yahweh, 
to the house of the God of Jacob 
that he may teach us his ways 
so that we may walk in his paths.’ 
For the Law will issue from Zion 
and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. 

Then he will judge between the nations 
and arbitrate between many peoples. 
They will hammer their swords 
    into ploughshares 
and their spears into sickles. 
Nation will not lift sword against nation, 
no longer will they learn how to make war.  

House of Jacob, come, 
    let us walk in Yahweh’s light.