| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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October 22, 2019
October 23rd Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 3 Period I.The Novena Rosary Mysteries
for October 23rd are Glorious.Replaying the Healing Prayer Service
Oct 22nd at 6:20pm
Please tune in and prayPray for Fr. Joe, Dan, Mary,
Rita, Jim, Rosie, Louie's family –
Madonna, Christopher, Sanja,
all Shepherds of Christ intentions on lists.Shelia is working on mailing pray for her please.
Pray for China and mailing.
Also pray for Urgent intention
Prayer for Grace for 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.
Given September 8, 2019
R. Love God first.
Love our neighbor as ourselves.
You cannot love anything more than Jesus.
You are to be like Jesus.
Following Jesus involves a constant commitment all day.
It’s not a picnic.
The rewards are out of this world.
We have to pick up our daily crosses.
Jesus: I give you breath to live. I want you to serve Me.
I want you to spread love. Relax, be lost in My love.
Mary: I am Mary.
I love you so very much.
Mary: I am the Immaculate Heart.
My Spouse the Holy Spirit wants to fill you with love.
God loves you so much.
Believe this.
Love God with all your heart.
Spread these messages.
Spread the Consecration to Our Two Hearts.
Reading's Today
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 9: 13-18
'What human being indeed can know the intentions of God?
And who can comprehend the will of the Lord?
For the reasoning of mortals is inadequate,
our attitudes of mind unstable;
for a perishable body presses down the soul,
and this tent of clay weighs down the mind with its many cares.
It is hard enough for us to work out what is on earth,
laborious to know what lies within our reach;
who, then, can discover what is in the heavens?
And who could ever have known your will, had you not given Wisdom
and sent your holy Spirit from above?
Thus have the paths of those on earth been straightened
and people have been taught what pleases you,
and have been saved, by Wisdom.'
You bring human beings to the dust,
by saying, ‘Return, children of Adam.’
A thousand years are to you
like a yesterday which has passed,
like a watch of the night.You flood them with sleep
—in the morning they will be like growing grass:
in the morning it is blossoming and growing,
by evening it is withered and dry.Teach us to count up the days that are ours,
and we shall come to the heart of wisdom.
Come back, Yahweh! How long must we wait?
Take pity on your servants.Each morning fill us with your faithful love,
we shall sing and be happy all our days;May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us,
to confirm the work we have done!
Philemon 1: 9-10, 12-17
I am rather appealing to your love, being what I am, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you for a child of mine, whose father I became while wearing these chains: I mean Onesimus. I am sending him back to you -- that is to say, sending you my own heart. I should have liked to keep him with me; he could have been a substitute for you, to help me while I am in the chains that the gospel has brought me. I should have liked to keep him with me; he could have been a substitute for you, to help me while I am in the chains that the gospel has brought me. I should have liked to keep him with me; he could have been a substitute for you, to help me while I am in the chains that the gospel has brought me. However, I did not want to do anything without your consent; it would have been forcing your act of kindness, which should be spontaneous. I suppose you have been deprived of Onesimus for a time, merely so that you could have him back for ever, no longer as a slave, but something much better than a slave, a dear brother; especially dear to me, but how much more to you, both on the natural plane and in the Lord. So if you grant me any fellowship with yourself, welcome him as you would me;
Luke 14: 25-33
Renouncing all that one holds dear
Great crowds accompanied him on his way and he turned and spoke to them. 'Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, cannot be my disciple. No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can be my disciple.
Renouncing possessions
'And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, anyone who saw it would start making fun of him and saying, "Here is someone who started to build and was unable to finish." Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who was advancing against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple without giving up all that he owns.
23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 3, 2016
INTRODUCTION
– (Philemon: 9-10,12-17) We will not understand today’s second reading without some background. The event is only about two people: the Apostle Paul in prison for his faith in Christ and Onesimus, a runaway slave. A third person is mentioned, Philemon, the slave owner. Paul is writing to Philemon informing him that Onesimus is with Paul. He is writing in an attempt to reconcile Onesimus with Philemon. By law, Philemon could have his runaway slave killed for escaping. Slavery in those days was not like the slavery in our Country two or three hundred years ago. Slaves came from nations and peoples that Rome had conquered. Most slaves were probably white; many would have been educated and would have been skilled as musicians, scribes, craftsmen, teachers and even doctors. In Paul’s day, prison was just a temporary arrangement until a Roman magistrate decided the prisoner would be executed, sent into exile, have their property confiscated, or be set free. Prisoners needed friends or family to provide for their basic needs and, apparently, Onesimus did that for Paul. Paul is on good terms with Philemon as he was one of his first converts to Christ. While in prison, Paul also converted Onesimus (that’s why he calls him “my son”). See how subtly Paul asks Philemon to receive Onesimus as a brother. Even though faith in Christ had not hit slavery head on, today’s reading shows in a small way what power it has to change lives, to change society, and to change the world.HOMILY
– (Luke 14, 25-33) Today Mother Teresa is being canonized a saint. Canonization is an infallible declaration that a certain individual is a model of sanctity; an individual who has given us a concrete example of how to be a Christian. It is a declaration that this person is enjoying God’s glory in heaven and is worthy of our honor and veneration. Notice I said veneration and did not say adoration, which is directed only to God. Since the holiness of the saint was the gift of God’s grace, to venerate a saint is always to praise and glorify God. (Theological Dictionary, Karl Rahner and Herbert Vorgrimler, pg 481) Mother Teresa is not being made a saint today, she already is a saint. The Church is officially declaring her worthy of our honor. The Church also declares that she is a person whom we can pray to as someone close to God who can intercede for us in our times of need.Mother Teresa started hearing God’s call to a religious life at 12 years of age and at 18 she joined the Loreto Sisters in Dublin, Ireland. Within a few months of joining the Sisters, she found herself on a boat going to India where she would spend the remaining 70 years of her life doing what the movie and the biography of her life referred to as a beautiful thing for God. Mother Teresa started off as a teacher. The Loreto Sisters tried to tackle the problem of poverty through education, but there was an abundance of suffering in Calcutta beyond the reach of the classroom. “It is not possible to find worse poverty” she wrote. She often exhausted herself and had many bouts with poor health. In her mid-thirties, she experienced what she described as a “call within a call.” She had the very rare experience of hearing God’s voice calling her to leave the Sisters of Loreto and begin working with the poor. It was a difficult challenge to leave the convent where she had been very happy. She would be exposing herself to much suffering and ridicule, but God’s voice was so clear as he asked: “would you refuse to do this for me?” Her request to leave her religious order had to go all the way to Pope Pius XII before it was granted, but it was. Now, experiencing great peace and joy from God, she was on her own. She prepared herself for her work by getting some medical training and living with the Little Sisters of the Poor. She eventually moved to a small house in town and, amazingly, she began to attract people interested in helping her. She also experienced some of her neighbors trying to chase her out of the neighborhood. The leader of one group of young Hindus was determined to chase her out of the area, but when he saw the care and love she gave to the poor and the dying, he went back to his gang and said he would get rid of her only on one condition: that they persuade their mothers and sisters to undertake the same service.
The next 50 years of her life was made up of nonstop activity and compassionate service to the poor - an endless procession of opening up new hospices, traveling around the world to meet with the members of an ever-expanding order, and helping found an order of brothers, and of priests, and then lay coworkers.
Malcolm Muggeridge produced a film about her in 1969. He was not a believer, but inspired by Mother Teresa, he eventually entered the Church. Ten years later she was given the Nobel Peace Prize. I mentioned earlier that she was filled with peace and joy – but there was a period of several years when she suffered a kind of spiritual darkness. Many saints go through lengthy periods of spiritual dryness. It is during those times that a person’s faith grows deeper. Considering the kind of work Mother Teresa was doing, it’s no wonder she was not experiencing a lot of peace and joy. Many years ago, I remember my supervisor at Longview Hospital telling me: “I listen to depressed people all day and when I go home in the evening, I am depressed.” Mother Teresa went through a lot more depressing experiences than almost anyone could imagine, yet she continued her service to the poorest of the poor. One special help she had was she and her followers spent long hours in prayer every day. I have a recollection that it was somewhere between one and three hours a day. Today there are more than 5,000 Missionaries of Charity sisters in 758 communities (plus 450 or so men) living, working, and praying in 139 countries.
I would like to conclude with three of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa. The first two came from a meeting she had with a Jewish journalist who was a bit uncomfortable being Jewish as he was having lunch with this holy Catholic Celebrity:
1) They were in Philadelphia when she said: there are thousands of people in Philadelphia who are forgotten, unwanted. Hungry for love. We pass them by. Love them. Loneliness is the greatest poverty.”
2) When the topic of his Jewishness came up she said: “that’s wonderful. The founder of our faith was also a Jew.”
3) And my favorite: “God does not demand that I be successful. God demands that I be faithful.” Amen.
Mary: I am Mary
Your Mother!!
I love you so much.
Sing: Come to me Lord and possess my soul.
Mary: I am your Mother Mary.
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Shepherds of Christ.