| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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January 20, 2025
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January 21st Holy Spirit Novena |
The Novena Rosary
Mysteries |
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Consecration Prayer for Peace
I consecrate Russia and the Ukraine to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
I further consecrate the priests, the Church and the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
I do this in the name of Jesus in as far as I am able, united to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, praying to the Father, in the Holy Spirit, with all the angels and saints and the souls in purgatory through the powerful intercession of Mary, Queen of Peace. Amen.
I further consecrate myself, all members of my family and ask the Holy Spirit to fill us. I spread the Blood of Jesus on all above, I cast the devil into hell away from all of us and consecrate all persons, in as far as I am able, to the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart.
Prayer for Grace for Election and our Country
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 20, 2025
R. Living in the Moment
It is the only time you have.
From a Lenten Homily, March 24, 2000
Live in the Moment
Today’s Gospel in its story certainly points ahead to Jesus in His Passion and death. And as we read passages such as this during the Lenten season, we are reminded once again that the Church in her Liturgy of the Word gives us an opportunity to undergo a purification, an ever deepening cleansing of ourselves so that we may be a more fit instrument for receiving the great graces which are to be given to us at the time of the Resurrection memorial on Easter. And so all in all, Lent is a time of purification to prepare us for ever-greater gifts of the Lord. It’s a time of self-discipline, a time to renew our efforts to be self-disciplined in the service of the Lord. Self-discipline is an aspect of purification. And I suggest that one of the most difficult acts of self-discipline in the spiritual journey is to concentrate on the present moment. We have a very strong tendency to disregard the importance of the present moment by focusing in a wrong way on the past or in a wrong way on the future. There are proper occasions for thinking of the past and the future. For example, we have to learn from the past and we have to prepare for the future, but our great emphasis has to be upon the present. There is a Latin axiom which says, age quod agis, age quod agis, which means: do what you are doing, concentrate on the present. And of course we are familiar with that term in the history of spirituality: the sacrament of the present moment. And so the discipline of Lent certainly encourages us to include in a deeper self-discipline a greater determination to get as much as we can out of the present moment. People with a terminal illness have an opportunity as they prepare for death for increased prayer, contrition, love of God. However, some are taken very, very quickly. But for those who have the opportunity of knowing with some certainty the time of their death, I’m sure as they look back on their lives, they are saddened by the many times they did not use time and opportunities for the service of the Lord properly, and are overjoyed at those times in which they did use the present opportunity properly. A great means we have of living in the present properly is a greater focus upon our Lord. For if I have that awareness of the fact I am united with Jesus here and now, why should I be concerned so much about the future or the past? Yes, a great help in living in the present and deriving all the good we can from it for ourselves and others is an ever greater focus upon Jesus, because the more I focus upon Jesus and the more I live with Him in the present moment, the more I am satisfied with the present moment. And so let us in our Lenten activity resolve to grow in that self-discipline - which is very difficult at times - to really live in the presence with the fullness of our being as much as is possible, with the help of God’s grace. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the day of salvation.
end of Father Carter's homily
R. Trying to control the uncontrollable is an untrue possibility.God is there always for us.
God calls us to come follow Him.
We keep our focus on Jesus.
Jesus is the Light of the world.
Follow Jesus to lead us home.
Matthew 5: 48
...You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’
R.
God created us in love, He is our
Creator.
God created us in the image and likeness of His Son.
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.
R.
And the Father said at the
Transfiguration
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, Listen to Him.”
God loves us so much, the very hairs of our head are numbered.
Surrender to the will of God.
Prayer for Union
with Jesus
Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart.
I am Yours to possess. I am Yours to use. I want to be selfless and only exist in You. Help me to spoon out all that is me and be an empty vessel ready to be filled by You. Help me to die to myself and live only for You. Use me as You will. Let me never draw my attention back to myself. I only want to operate as You do, dwelling within me.
I am Yours, Lord. I want to have my life in You. I want to do the will of the Father. Give me the strength to put aside the world and let You operate my very being. Help me to act as You desire. Strengthen me against the distractions of the devil to take me from Your work.
When I worry, I have taken my focus off of You and placed it on myself. Help me not to give in to the promptings of others to change what in my heart You are making very clear to me. I worship You, I adore You and I love You. Come and dwell in me now.
-God's Blue Book, January 17, 1994
R.
Base your life on the right
foundation.
GOD.
R.
For the mystery of God’s gifts.
We can take for granted.
Open your hearts and your minds.
R.
He gave His all.
The Mass is the sacrifice of Calvary,
sacramentally made present.
God please protect us from harm.
God is light and in Him is no darkness!!
THE TWELVE STEPS OF AA
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol,
that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than
ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives
over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human
being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all
these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed,
and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible,
except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we
were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our
conscious contact with God as we understood Him,
praying only for knowledge of His will for us and
the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps,
we tried to carry this message to alcoholics,
and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
R. The Mystery of God.
Excerpt from Response to God's Love by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.
... 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.
R. How many stars are in the sky?
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
December 22, 2024
Mysteries of Light
The Baptism of Jesus
1. Matthew 3: 13-17Then Jesus appeared: he came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. John tried to dissuade him, with the words, ‘It is I who need baptism from you, and yet you come to me!’ But Jesus replied, ‘Leave it like this for the time being; it is fitting that we should, in this way, do all that uprightness demands.’ Then John gave in to him. And when Jesus had been baptised he at once came up from the water, and suddenly the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. And suddenly there was a voice from heaven, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him.’
2. “This is My beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased.”
3. The Mass is the sacrifice of Calvary,
sacramentally made present.
4. We, as members of the mystical body of
Christ can unite to the Mass going on
around the world, all day.
5. The world has different times, we can
think of offering our lives - lived out
united to the Mass.
6. These are the Mysteries of Light.
7. Offering up what we do all day united
to the Mass can bring down great grace
for the priest, the Church and the world.
8. This is real love of God, neighbor and
ourselves offering up what we do all
day united to the Mass for the priests,
the Church and the world.
9. 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.
10. John the Baptist prepared the way
for Jesus.
The Marriage at Cana
1. John
2: 1-10
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited. And they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the feast had all been used, and the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ Jesus said, ‘Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ There were six stone water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water,’ and they filled them to the brim. Then he said to them, ‘Draw some out now and take it to the president of the feast.’ They did this; the president tasted the water, and it had turned into wine. Having no idea where it came from—though the servants who had drawn the water knew—the president of the feast called the bridegroom and said, ‘Everyone serves good wine first and the worse wine when the guests are well wined; but you have kept the best wine till now.’
2. This began His public life.
3. Jesus changed water into wine.
4. Jesus performed many miracles.
5. Mary has powerful intercession.
6. Mary is the perfect handmaid.
7. Mary loved the Father’s will.
8. Mary is the Immaculate Conception.
9. Mary is a Virgin.
10. Jesus performed many miracles and
gave many teachings.
Building the Kingdom of God
1. John
18: 36-37
Jesus replied, ‘Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not belong here.’ Pilate said, ‘So, then you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is you who say that I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.’
2. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord
of Lords.
3. We are here to help build the
Kingdom of God.
4. We are to be witnesses of Christ's
love for us.
5. We help build the Kingdom of God
when we are loving.
6. We help build the Kingdom of God
when we live by the Father’s will.
7. In the our Father, it says:
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.”
8. God is with us.
9. These are the mysteries of Light.
10. Sing: The King of Glory
The Transfiguration
1.
Mark 9: 2-8
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain on their own by themselves. There in their presence he was transfigured: his clothes became brilliantly white, whiter than any earthly bleacher could make them. Elijah appeared to them with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. Then Peter spoke to Jesus, ‘Rabbi,’ he said, ‘it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say; they were so frightened. And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.’ Then suddenly, when they looked round, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.
2. “This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased, listen to Him.”
3. The Father’s voice was heard.
4. The Apostles were awestruck.
5. Jesus is the light of the world.
6. Life is in Him.
7. God is the Alpha and the Omega.
8. Alleluia Praise the Lord.
9. God is Almighty.
10. God is all powerful.
The Institution of the Eucharist
1.
1 Corinthians 11: 23-26
For the tradition I received from the Lord and also handed on to you is that on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and after he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' And in the same way, with the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.' Whenever you eat this bread, then, and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes.
2. God is light.
3. We receive a sharing in His life in baptism.
4. He feeds us with the bread of life.
5. The bread of life is the Eucharist and
the Word.
6. In Him, is life.
7. Sing: I Love You Jesus
8. Sing: Your Presence Pervades my Soul
9. Sing: In My Heart
10. Prayer for a Spiritual Communion
Dear Jesus — we want to make a spiritual
communion, we cannot receive You
now, but we want to know Your
presence deep in our heart —
deep in our soul — Oh God fill us
with Your presence that we can
just focus on You and Your love
for us now — Love deep in us —
Oneness with You —
Quiet surrender to be alone in
this moment with You in our heart
in deep love —
We love You so much our beloved
God —
