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                                    October 3                   Day of Prayer - Retreat

                                    October 4                   Retreat in Florida

                                    October 5                   Retreat in Florida

                                            6:20                     Big Prayer Service
                                                                        Store will be open Florida

Please tune in!!

October 3, 2007

Jesus: Get with the program.

                R. The purpose of the Virgin Mary Building
                is to help to bring to completion the mission
                Mary began at Fatima. God has called me
                as a messenger to come to lead 3 days of
                prayer for this mission she began at Fatima.

                Jesus gave His life for His precious souls
                His Heart was pierced with a lance
                and blood and water came forth
                water for Baptism, blood for the Eucharist.
                God is love.
                It is in love He selflessly gave Himself
                dying on the cross and rising on the 3rd day.

Our lives are to be lived as St. Paul says

Galatians 2: 19-20

...I have been crucified with Christ and yet I am alive; yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in me.

God gives to us the opportunity to die
to those things that are not likened to Him.

We were created in the image and
likeness of God.

Genesis 1: 27

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

                    Adam and Eve sinned and we must deal
                with our wounded human nature.
                Christ died on the cross and rose on the
                3rd day that we can share in His life.

                    Heaven being a gift for fallen man
                but it is a reward, we must live in
                accordance as God intends to go to
                heaven.

                    We see in the garden the disobedience
                of Adam and Eve the rebellion of sinful
                man against the will of God. Religious
                orders are to be models of people living,
                not a rebellious life but of one in
                harmony with the Divine Master.

                    The vision of the Father is imparted to
                us through the scriptures, the Church,
                more and more on our journey here,
                hopefully to be forever seeing the
                beatific vision for all eternity.

                    God works in structure.
                Religious orders have a superior.
                The main rule of life is obedience
                and chastity.

                    God looks to the earth below since
                the 6th apparition of Fatima, 90 years
                ago the earth has run amuck.

                    These are the messages that God
                gave to me in the Blue Books at the
                end of the Century.

                    Beginning with World War I raging in
                1916, the Angel of Peace appears to the
                children giving them messages concerning
                peace and how God is offended by the way
                the Eucharist has been treated.
                The Angel of Peace speaks of the devotion
                to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The message
                in the fall of 1916, 91 years ago was this.

Excerpt from The Spirituality of Fatima

by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

Before receiving the six apparitions of Our Lady, May through October of 1917, the three Fatima visionaries were visited by an angel on three different occasions during the preceding year.

In the fall of the same year, the angel visited the visionaries a final time:

The angel came...bearing a golden chalice in one hand and a Host above it in the other. The amazed children noticed that drops of blood were falling from the Host into the chalice. Presently, the angel left both suspended in mid-air and prostrated himself on the ground, saying this beautiful prayer: "Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly. I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifference by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and [the intercession of] the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners." (5)

Sr. Lucia relates how the angel gave them Communion:

Then, rising, he took the chalice and the Host in his hand. He gave the Sacred Host to me and shared the Blood from the chalice between Jacinta and Francisco, saying as he did so:

"Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men! Make reparation for their crimes and console your God." (6)

NOTES:

5. Our Lady's Peace Plan, op cit., p.2. (The words in brackets are my own-added for clarification).
6. Fatima in Lucia's Own Words, op cit., pp.64-65.

                    In 1917 the Lady of Fatima appeared 6 times,
                the 6th apparition being October 13, 1917,
                90 years ago.

                    When Mary first appeared to me July 5, 1994
                she appeared around the 6:30pm time daily
                for 14 months. Fr. Carter likewise had the
                message from Jesus and Mary after 5 visits
                July 10, 1994 to report to the old seminary
                with a daily apparition with my two children.

                    From this, after the daily apparition and
                rosary he began the Shepherds of Christ
                prayers now in the prayer manual. He wrote
                the first Priestly Newsletter that summer,
                that month July 1994. It was sent out to all
                priests in the United States.

                    On May 31, 1994 he received a message
                from Jesus to send the Priestly Newsletter
                to all the priests possible around the world.

                    In that same month July 1994 he began
                to compile the messages given by Jesus and
                Mary in the book Tell My People.

                    So it thus follows. Mary appeared July 5, 1994
                her face was pumpkin colored. It looked like
                fire surrounding her. The light was so bright
                and her face was cracked. That was the
                beginning of Mary's apparitions to me. She
                appeared daily for 14 months at the 6:30 time.
                I received the Rosaries from the Hearts of Jesus
                and Mary verbally and I was told to put them
                in a book with a rainbow.

shipped from the printers
December 17, 1996

Mary appeared
December 17, 1996

                    On December 17, 1996 the book left the
                printers that day Mary's image appeared on
                the building in Clearwater in rainbow color.

Genesis 7: 11-12, 17-24

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, and on the seventeenth day of the month, that very day all the springs of the great deep burst through, and the sluices of heaven opened. And heavy rain fell on earth for forty days and forty nights.

The flood lasted forty days on earth. The waters swelled, lifting the ark until it floated off the ground. The waters rose, swelling higher above the ground, and the ark drifted away over the waters. The waters rose higher and higher above the ground until all the highest mountains under the whole of heaven were submerged. The waters reached their peak fifteen cubits above the submerged mountains. And all living things that stirred on earth perished; birds, cattle, wild animals, all the creatures swarming over the earth, and all human beings. Everything with the least breath of life in its nostrils, everything on dry land, died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out, people, animals, creeping things and birds; they were wiped off the earth and only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. The waters maintained their level on earth for a hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 9: 12-15

And this’, God said, ‘is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things.

                    The building of the Two Hearts in Clearwater,
                Florida exists for this purpose to spread the
                revelations that I have received concerning
                greater holiness, the Mass, the Rosaries and the
                Ministries of the Shepherds of Christ spreading
                consecration to the Two Hearts to the world.
                The building exists to help spread the Priestly
                Newsletter as Jesus told Fr. Carter to 80,000
                priests every other month spreading deeper
                devotion to the Two Hearts to the hierarchy
                and speaking the voice of the Good Shepherd,
                the vision of the Father through the Word,
                the writings of the popes, the wisdom of the
                saints and prenown theologians in the Church.
                The building exists to spread these writings of
                Fr. Carter and the Prayer Chapters with the
                Litanies Fr. Carter told me to pray as Mary
                appeared to me July 1994. The prayers now
                being in 6 languages. The building exists to
                spread the newsletter and writings and prayers
                of Fr. John J. Pasquini who circulates the
                newsletter now and his books to 80,000 priests
                and the hierarchy every other month spreading
                the devotion to the Two Hearts to the bishops
                as Mary requested at Fatima. These writings
                and prayers are vital to help the Church and
                the people and consecration to the Hearts of
                Jesus and Mary, greater love of the Church
                as members of the body of Christ being fed
                by the Eucharist, nourished at the table of
                the Lord.

                    Now why these 3 days of prayer which
                are broadcasted on the internet followed by
                a 4 day retreat in China October 10 - 13.

90 Years Ago

Excerpt from the Spirituality of Fatima

by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

October 13, 1917

    On October 13, 1917, there were more than 70,000 people gathered in the Cova da Iria in Fatima, Portugal. They had come to observe a miracle which had been foretold by the Blessed Virgin to three young visionaries: Lucia dos Santos, and her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto. (1) Shortly after noon, Our Lady appeared to the three visionaries:

    As the Lady was about to leave, she pointed to the sun. Lucy excitedly repeated the gesture, and the people looked into the sky. The rain had ceased, the clouds parted, and the sun shone forth, but not in its usual brilliance. Instead, it appeared like a silver disc, pale as the moon, at which all could gaze without straining their eyes. Suddenly, impelled by some mysterious force, the disc began to whirl in the sky, casting off great shafts of multicolored light. Red, green, blue, yellow, violet—the enormous rays shot across the sky at all angles, lighting up the entire countryside for many miles around, but particularly the upturned faces of those 70,000 spellbound people.

    After a few moments the wonder stopped, but resumed again a second and a third time—three times in all—within about 12 minutes. It seemed that the whole world was on fire, with the sun spinning at a greater speed each time.

    Then a gasp of terror rose from the crowd, for the sun seemed to tear itself from the heavens and come crashing down upon the horrified multitude.... Just when it seemed that the ball of fire would fall upon and destroy them, the miracle ceased, and the sun resumed its normal place in the sky, shining forth as peacefully as ever.

    When the people arose from the ground, cries of astonishment were heard on all sides. Their clothes, which had been soaking wet and muddy, now were clean and dry. Many of the sick and crippled had been cured of their afflictions. ⁽²⁾

NOTE:

2. 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.7-8.

Excerpt from the Spirituality of Fatima

by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

            October 13, 1917

                In her message that day, Our Blessed Mother told the children:

    I am the Lady of the Rosary. I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and to ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary. Let them continue saying it every day.⁽¹⁷⁾

NOTE:

17. 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). p.7.

                    The mission is the same — the Lady of
                Peace speaks of consecration — devotion to
                the Eucharist — Conversion — the changing
                of ones heart from imperfect ways of our fallen
                human nature — the dying of ones self in the
                ways that are not likened to God to have a
                deeper life in Him as St. Paul says —

Galatians 2: 19-20

...I have been crucified with Christ and yet I am alive; yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in me.

                    — preparation for the beatific vision
                    — strengthening the members of the body of Christ
                    — greater love for the souls of the earth
                        as we live our baptismal commitment.
                    — love for our priests
                    — love for our Church
                    — oneness with each other as a body
                        in the Church.
                    — holiness, verses rebelliousness,
                        disobedience to God's will that
                        rebelliousness brings

                Help us please.
                Answer Our Lady of Clearwater's plea
                    to spread the ministries
                    and the newsletter
                    to the far ends of the earth.

February 13, 1997

Talk given by Fr. Edward J. Carter, SJ
Founder of Shepherds of Christ Ministries

Talk given February 13, 1997 National Conference of Shepherds of Christ, held at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, Norwood, Ohio.

Before we begin the rosary, I’d like to say a few words about the great importance of these days on the 13th of each month. Before Our Lord asked me to begin the Shepherds of Christ Ministries, the 1st dimension of that ministries was given to me on May the 31^st, 1994. But before Our Lord asked me to start the ministries, I had been given a great devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. And I knew that everything concerning recent Marian apparitions centered around the Fatima message. The Fatima message is key to the peace of the world, as Our Lady of Fatima has told us. So because I had been given a great devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, it was no surprise to me when Our Lord told me, and through me the whole Movement, the great connection that there would be between Shepherds of Christ Ministries and helping to bring the Fatima message to conclusion. I’ll expand more upon that in my talk this afternoon. But here and now I’d like to read just a part of the message I received on October the 13^th, 1994, when Our Lord called the full Ministries into existence. It had begun May 31^st , some five or six months previous to that. But really October the 13^th, 1994, marks the real birth, the complete birth of Shepherds of Christ Ministries. And part of the message I received on that day reads as follows:

"I am giving you this message on this day, the 77^th anniversary of the great apparition at Fatima, because of the close connection between the Shepherds of Christ Movement and the Fatima message. The Fatima message is centered in devotion to My Heart and My Mother’s Heart, especially in consecration to Our Hearts. Shepherds of Christ Ministries is also centered in devotion to Our Hearts. I will use Shepherds of Christ Ministries as a great instrument in helping to bring about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the Reign of My Sacred Heart. Today then, October the 13^th, 1994, the 77^th anniversary of the great apparition at Fatima, marks the birth of Shepherds of Christ Ministries. I pour forth the great love of My Sacred Heart to all. I am Jesus, the Chief Shepherd of the Flock."

The calling of Our Lord to Shepherds of Christ to be present if possible at these meetings on the 13^th of each month, and if they cannot be present physically, to be present in spirit with us then comes as no surprise. It’s merely another unfolding in the history of the Shepherds of Christ Movement and in the Fatima message.

These 13^th of the months meetings are extremely important. They are great instruments which Our Lord and Our Lady are using to help bring to completion the Fatima message, which will result in that great era of peace, which Our Lady of Fatima promised eventually would come to the world.

So I ask you to take these meetings on the 13^th of the month with the utmost seriousness, gratitude, thanksgiving, joy that Our Lord, for His own reasons has chosen Shepherds of Christ, the members thereof, the whole Ministries to play such a great part in the completion of the Fatima message. It comes as no surprise either that Our Lord gives special messages during the rosary on the meeting of the 13^th, just as Our Lady of Fatima gave messages to the three visionaries at Fatima in 1917, from May through October. So at this stage of the Fatima message’s unfolding, it is no surprise that they continue, and in a new way and a new phase of the Fatima plan, give us these very special messages on the 13^th. They are meant not only for us here present, they are meant for all members of the Movement, and eventually for the whole world. All these messages, all these rosaries on the 13^th, eventually go onto our Internet with its world-wide audience.

So please, be very grateful to God for the messages He gives us during the rosary. Not everything which Rita says is a message. I think you’ll be able to distinguish when she’s receiving a message from Our Lord or from Our Lady, and when she is speaking from her own heart. Sometimes the transition is very quick and you may miss it, but there are both ways in which meditations are given on the decades: in strict locutions or messages, and then from Rita’s meditations or reflections herself.

(After the Rosary)

I wish to thank everybody who made the effort to be here with us, especially those people who had to travel from out of town. I’m sure the Lord has blessed you already and will continue to do so for your effort to be here. These are extremely important meetings on the 13^th of the month. Our Lord has, Himself, instructed us in His great love and mercy for us and the whole world to have them. From these meetings, the messages of Our Lord, the previous message given at Fatima, go out to the whole world...

I sort of left off when I introduced the rosary by reading the rest, or at least a good part of the rest, of that message which I, myself, received on October the 13^th, 1994, when Our Lord called the full Shepherds of Christ Ministries into existence.

"My beloved priest-companion, today I come to you with another mission."

He had already asked me on May the 31^st of 1994 to start the priestly newsletter and then shortly after that to start the prayer chapters.

"I’m asking you to establish Shepherds of Christ Ministries. At My request you have already begun the priestly newsletter, Shepherds of Christ, and the prayer chapters, Shepherds of Christ Associates...

"I am giving you this message on this day, the 77^thAnniversary of the Great Apparition at Fatima, because of the close connection between the Shepherds of Christ movement and the Fatima message. The Fatima message is centered in devotion to My Heart and My Mother’s Heart, especially in consecration to Our Hearts. Shepherds of Christ Ministries is also centered in devotion to Our Hearts. I will use Shepherds of Christ Ministries as a great instrument in helping to bring about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the reign of My Sacred Heart. When this occurs, My Church and the world will be experiencing the great era of peace promised by My Mother at Fatima.

"Today, then, October 13, 1994, the 77^th Anniversary of the Great Apparition at Fatima, marks the birth of Shepherds of Christ Ministries. I pour forth the great love of My Sacred Heart to all. I am Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock."

So (this is) one of the most important messages given in the whole history of our Movement, and I think you can see why. Not only was Our Lord calling the Ministries into full bloom with this message, but He was making that great connection between Shepherds of Christ and the Fatima message.

You see how He says that both the Fatima message and Shepherds of Christ is centered in devotion, and especially in consecration, to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

So in my moments here before you this afternoon, I wish to speak a bit about this consecration.

I’ll start off by reading a message of Our Lord and from "Tell My People" which deals with this consecration to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

"My beloved friend, tell My people that I desire all to consecrate themselves to My Sacred Heart and to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. Tell them not to just recite words in making the Act of Consecration, but to realize what they are saying. Consecration to Our Hearts means a total gift of self. That means handing over everything to Me and My Mother. Consecration means a willingness to surrender completely to Me. In Baptism, one is consecrated to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But how many fail to live out their consecration? I extend to all the invitation to renew this Baptismal consecration through consecration to My Heart and to My Mother’s Heart.

"My beloved companion, I have taught you what this consecration means. I have given you great peace, joy and happiness because you have made this consecration. I have taught you that you are to renew this act of consecration each day. I constantly remind you that you are to pray each day for the grace to more and more live the consecration. I have taught you that your consecration to Me and My Mother means that you constantly surrender yourself to Us and to Our care. I have taught you that the more you surrender yourself to Me, the more I live in you, and through you and for you. I have taught you that My great love for you longs to draw you more deeply into My Heart. I have shown you that I wish your Mother Mary to place you there within My Heart, and that the more you dwell within her Heart, the more deeply she places you within My Heart. Dwelling within Our Hearts, the Holy Spirit fashions you more and more in My likeness. The Father thus looks upon you with greater favor and takes you more closely to Himself.

"Tell My people all these wondrous truths. I am Lord and Master and I desire all to listen to My words. (end of message)"

And what beautiful words those are, which Christ gives all, to us all regarding the consecration to His Heart and Mary’s Heart.

I want to - after that message of Jesus telling us what consecration involves, I wish to single out a few aspects of the consecration, what it includes. One aspect of our consecration and especially the consecration which Our Lord has given us for Shepherds of Christ, one aspect of our consecration to Their Hearts is to realize that we are apostles and that we are called to go out into the world as we have heard in the rosary today, and other times to be the apostles of His love, of His love and His Mother’s love, and thus to help bring about that great era of peace promised by Our Lord, Our Lady of Fatima in which love will just dominate. That’s what it means when Our Lady says, "In the end," she says, "my Immaculate Heart will triumph." And along with that triumph of her Immaculate Heart will occur the Reign of the Sacred Heart. The Reign of the Sacred Heart and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart simply is a reign of love, a triumph of love and in that era there will be a type of love existent in the hearts of the members of the human family never known before. We will all be so united in love to the Father and the Holy Spirit through the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. And not only with Them, but with each other. What a glorious era we have to look forward to.

We are apostles. More and more as the Movement has gone on, Jesus is letting us know that, yes, we are supposed to pray. This is one of our primary duties in the chapters and elsewhere, to pray for priests and all others. But more and more He is telling us that now is the time to start to more and more move out from our chapters and to be apostles of His love, to help spread the Movement, to help spread the consecrations in the schools through the consecration cards, the Rosary Aves, both of which have the Imprimatur of the Cincinnati Archdiocese, to help spread all our materials, all our books and all the various rosaries, the rosary tapes. And you are called to do that.

In the beginning of the Movement, it was a relatively few people who were carrying the burden and carrying the Ministry on. We have entered a great new episode of the Movement, principally in that episode, principally centers itself around these meetings of the 13^th. More and more people are realizing as they hear more and more the messages, more and more people in the Movement are hearing that Jesus is calling each one of us to be apostles of the Movement, to spread the Movement, to help implement the various ministries in all ways possible, to help spread the chapter movements by starting new chapters. Just think if we have something like, I guess, 2500-3000 members in the chapters and the Apostles of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Movement here in this country and throughout the world-most of those, thus far, in this country.

But just think if each person would take it upon himself or herself to go all out to get one more new chapter formed. That’s not impossible, I don’t think that’s asking something heroic. That would double our chapters; that would double our prayer power. And so much of the Movement, the success of it, depends upon the prayer power coming out of the chapters and the Apostles of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Movement. So He’s calling all of us; and how admirably so many in the Movement are answering. I wish to single out-just because all of you know about the Florida apparition-four or five, six, I don’t know how many now of our members from Rita’s core group have gone down to the apparition site. One of our main members, Tom A., has a home there at St. Petersburg, and Clearwater is just a short distance from there. And they’ve been going down and staying in his house, and each day going over to the apparition site and handing out our materials, especially the rosary message tape, but other materials also. This is what Our Lord, Our Lady has asked us to do. And they’ve had phenomenal success. We can’t keep enough materials down there. They just, the people are just so eager for it. But this is what. . .and they do it on their own time, they drive down, some of them spend three or four days, some a week and they come back. But what a marvelous example of their answering the call to the apostleship to which Jesus calls them in the Movement. And they’re doing just a tremendous amount of good.

And by the way when I’m talking and as long as I’m talking about Florida I might read you part of that message of Our Lady. You have read it, no doubt if you’d gotten a copy of the picture with the message on the back. But for my own purposes I want to read that here and now. So Mary tells us, this is the message which Rita received on December the 19^th:

Mary: My dear children, I give to you, my Son, Jesus, born in a stable in Bethlehem on Christmas morn’. He is the Almighty God the Light of the world.

I appear to you, my children on a bank in Florida. You have made money your god! Do you know how cold are your hearts? You turn away from my Son, Jesus for your money. Your money is your god.

I am Mary, your Mother. I do not appear as I once appeared to you.

When Rita got that message and when she gave it to me, both of us for a number of days thought that her number of apparitions was simply decreasing, but we both came to the conclusion; well Rita came to the conclusion and I followed after her, in agreement with her conclusion, Mary says, "I do not appear as I once appeared to you." She was saying apparently that, "I’m appearing to you in this new way, where the whole world can see me."

So many others’ apparition sites have had their believers of course, but many, many people throughout the world have doubted all this talk about the various apparition sites of Mary. She says, "I do not appear as I once appeared to you." She is appearing on a bank for the whole world to see.

Mary continues:

"I am asking you today to circulate my message given on a tape on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, 1996. Please circulate this tape now."

That’s one of the main things our apostles down in Florida are doing, handing out the tapes with this message.

Mary continues:

"Please circulate this tape now. Give it to as many people as you can. I am Mary, your Mother. Please circulate my Rosary Book."

She’s referring to a book which Shepherds of Christ Publications came out right around Christmas time. Hopefully all of you have received it in the mail, Rosaries from the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, as given to Rita. Now here’s the point I want to make here and now. Notice how she links up the apparition site with the circulation of her Rosary Book, and we are circulating the book there. But to me, there’s a very great phenomenon connected with the colors on the window, bank windows and the Rosary Book. And Rita herself pointed this out to me. Now this cover on this book-it was designed by Hal K. weeks and even months before the apparition of Our Lady on the bank in Florida. When did you start to design that Hal? (question asked to Harold K.) Almost, two years ago. And the colors were already selected months ago, right? Well if you’ll take the picture of the bank of the apparition of the bank on Florida, and this Rosary Book, you will notice that the colors are the same. To me, that’s a miraculous confirmation of the fact that Our Lady is connecting the apparition site on the bank in Florida with the Shepherds of Christ Ministries in a special way with the rosaries. It’s just phenomenal. You can check the colors out one by one. They’re a little bit brighter on the book, but because of the photography involved I think you can see how they wouldn’t be quite as bright on this. But check out the colors. They’re the same on the Rosary Book and on this. And these colors, as I say, were picked by Hal months and months before the apparition. You can take it for what you want, but for me it’s a miraculous confirmation of this message, that Our Lady chose those same colors which are on the front of her Rosary Book, to show the same colors relative to her apparition there on the bank in Florida.

Therefore, our Florida apostles are one of the many examples I could point out to you of how people in the Movement are more and more taking up the challenge, the invitation of Jesus and Mary to spread this Movement throughout the world. They have chosen the Shepherds of Christ Movement as a great instrument to help bring about the Fatima message. How privileged we are to be part of it, to be called to it. I believe, I’ve told you this before, at least some of you have heard me, I think this Movement is one of the greatest in the history of the Church. And I think history itself will bear that out. So how precious a gift each of us has been given by Our Lord in calling us to be members of this Movement.

Therefore, a very important aspect of our consecration to Their Hearts is to be apostles, to help spread all the ministries. Another aspect of our consecration is the idea of union. I think we’re all very well aware how the consecration unites us to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and through Them to the Father and the Holy Spirit. But perhaps we don’t think often enough of that how it unites us with one another, in the Movement, in the Church, throughout the whole world. You cannot grow in union with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and Mary, without growing in union with all your neighbors. And this is the tough part. It’s relatively easy to love Father, Son and Holy Spirit and Mary, isn’t it? Three Persons in One God infinitely perfect and Mary a human person, perfect, free from all sin. It’s easy to love the Triune Persons and Mary, relatively speaking. But it’s not all that easy to love each other all the time, isn’t it? And yet that’s what Jesus calls us to. Jesus literally died for each and every person. And no matter how unattractive a person is in their behavior, Jesus still died for that person. If He loved that person enough to die for that person, then certainly we have to love them, him or her, and especially within the Movement. Satan is violently attacking us, he will always try to cause division in the Movement. But if we are going to be examples - and we are called to that, to be examples to the whole Church and the whole world of what it’s going to be like in the new era, when we all exist in such great loving union with each other in Christ. We are the forerunners of that. We’re helping to prepare the way for that for the whole Church, for the whole world. Not only us, but we have been given a special mission for that. So we have to be united in love with each other, if we have differences, we work them out in love and in peace. We work them out in love and in peace. In one of the Blue Books, Jesus says, "The glass is either half-empty or it’s half-full." I look at my neighbor, whether he or she is in the Movement or outside of it. I can either look at the half-empty part of the glass or the half-full part. I can either look at that person’s faults and concentrate on them, or I can concentrate on the great goodness which is inherently theirs. If they are in the state of sanctifying grace, their soul is magnificently beautiful, despite the blemishes of their failings of their sins. When I look at a person, do I look at the half-empty part or the half-full part?

Everyday I ask you to pray for a growing unity in the Movement. What Our Lord has allowed us to accomplish so far in less than three years is just miraculous, I think it’s just miraculous. The sign becomes ever and ever greater that He started this Movement, not me. I was just the instrument which He chose to head it up. He has given me so many beautiful people to help me do the Movement and that includes all of you. He has given you so many beautiful companions in the Movement. Let us concentrate on that part of it. This is the only way we’re going to be models to the rest of the Church and the world, of the profound union that Our Lord calls us to, not only with Himself, but with each other.

Strength for all this, day after day, it’s not easy to live this way, is it? But as I said in my homily, the great strength we have for that is the Eucharist. The power of the Eucharist is much greater than your faults or my faults or the faults of others in the Movement that surround you, or the faults of others in your parish, or the rest of the Church and the world. He can give you the strength to arise above your own faults and the faults of others around you, and march forward in the most positive way towards this great new era. Oh what a gift the Eucharist is.

St. Julian Eymard, the founder of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, who gave us such beautiful writings on the Eucharist, in one of his writings on the Eucharist he says:

"It is true also that the world does all in its power to prevent us from loving Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament with a real and practical love, to prevent us from visiting Him and cripple the effects of His love. This world engrosses the attention of souls; it finds and enslaves them with external occupations in order to deter them from dwelling too long on the love of Jesus. It even fights directly against this practical love and represents it as optional, as practicable at most only in a convent. And the devil wages incessant warfare on our love for Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament. He knows that Jesus is there, living and substantially present; that by Himself He is drawing souls and taking direct possession of them. The devil tries to efface the thought of the Eucharist in us, and the good impression made by it; for in his mind, that should decide the issue of the struggle." (That is if we give in to Jesus’ desire to possess us in the Eucharist.) "And yet God is all love. This gentle Savior pleads with us from the Host: "Love Me as I have loved you; abide in My love! I came to cast the fire of love on the earth, and My most ardent desire is that it should set your hearts on fire."¹

1St. Peter Eymard, "The Most Blessed Sacrament Is Not Loved!," as in The Treasury of Catholic Wisdom, Fr. John Hardon, S.J., ed.; Ignatius Press, p. 384.

Union amongst ourselves through our union with Jesus and Mary and Father and Holy Spirit. Each of you is so precious to Jesus. He has given each of you a very, very, very special gift, precious gift, in calling you to be involved in this Movement. Very early on in the Movement, it was July 31st of 1994, on the Feast of St. Ignatius, He often gives me very important messages on key feasts, and the Feast of St. Ignatius is a feast for Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. And He told me in that message that He would give great, great, great graces to those who join the Movement, and hope I’m sure, all of you who have been in the Movement have experienced those great graces. In appreciation for the great graces Jesus has given you in the Movement, I ask you, with great joy and a great sense of responsibility and a great sense of privilege, to do what you can to implement the ministries of the Movement. No one else can do your role, can carry out your part. You are preciously unique, no one exists like you now, no one ever has, no one ever will. It’s you alone who can give Jesus the opportunity to do what He wants through your humanity to help spread the Movement. To the extent that you answer Jesus and give yourselves to Him, and work as time and energy permits, as your other duties permit to help spread the ministries, to that extent you give Him an opportunity which no one else can give Him, and to the extent that you hold back, to this extent He loses this opportunity which no one else can give Him.

A precious Savior who has done so much to each of us. Certainly He deserves our full loving response. As I kneel before the crucifix each day, either before a actual crucifix or one in my mind, let us ask ourselves those questions posed to us by Ignatius Loyola, "What have I done for Christ?" "What am I now doing for Christ?" "What ought I to do for Christ?"

end of February 13, 1997 talk