The incorporation into the mystery
                     of Christ is at baptism,
                     and the gradual maturing of
                     that life in the process
                     of becoming is centered in
                     the pattern of death-
                     resurrection — The theme
                  of death resurrection is at
                  the heart of salvation history —

                  Suffering is meant to lead us
                        — to greater life
                        — greater peace
                        — greater happiness

                  Christ has structured the Christian
                        life by the way He lived,
                        died and rose from the dead.

                  The pattern of death -
                         resurrection must be at
                         the heart of the Church's
                         life.

                  We pass over continual process
                        of growing in deeper
                        life in God —

                  We are to be more like the
                        Heart of Jesus.

                  Not give into concupiscence of
                        the flesh.

                  Seeking greater purity.

                  The wounded human nature
                         seeks dominance for dominance sake
                         blaming
                         anger
                         possessiveness
                         jealousy
                         envy
                         lust
                         pride

                  The Christian life, too, has its form of
                        discipline, control that has as its
                        comprehensive purpose greater
                        assimilation of the Christian's
                        total being to Christ —

                  Christian self-discipline, or asceticism,
                        allows for the proper development
                        of the Christ-life in all its
                        dimensions —

                  Authentic discipline — it is at the
                        service of life, when it is
                        properly exercised, asceticism
                        helps us to grow in our
                        capacity to love God and others.

Nicene Creed

We believe in one God,
     the Father, the Almighty,
     maker of heaven and earth,
     of all that is seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
     the only Son of God,
     eternally begotten of the Father,
     God from God, Light from Light,
     true God from true God,
     begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.
     Through him all things were made.
     For us men and for our salvation
        he came down from heaven:

     by the power of the Holy Spirit
     he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

     For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
        he suffered, died, and was buried.
        On the third day he rose again
           in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
        he ascended into heaven
           and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
        He will come again in glory
           to judge the living and the dead,
        and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
      who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
     With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
      He has spoken through the prophets.
     We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
     We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
     We look for the resurrection of the dead,
        and the life of the world to come. Amen.

 

                  Our incorporation into the
                        mystery of Christ at baptism
                        initiates us into a life that
                        God intends to develop into
                        full maturity —

                  Our life is Christ as guided by the Spirit
                        is not a static given, a life that
                        is received in baptism and then
                        simply clung to.

Excerpt from Response to God's Love by Fr. Edward J. Carter S.J.

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

The Church

We live out our spiritual lives within the Church. The Church is a multi-splendored reality. Let us reflect upon some of the key ideas connected with the Church.

• Henri de Lubac states: "The Church is a mysterious extension in time of the Trinity, not only preparing us for the life of unity but bringing about even now our participation in it. She comes from and is full of the Trinity. She is for us — in a favourite phrase of Bossuet — ‘Jesus Christ … communicated’. She is ‘the Incarnation continued.’ She is, as Dietrick Bonhoeffer used to say, ‘the presence of Christ on earth’ —- she speaks with ‘the authority of Christ living and present in her.’… St. Paul applies to her this same word ‘mystery’ which he had first used of Christ. She is after all, the spouse of Christ and his body." ¹⁹

• Fr. Bruno Forte tells us: "The Church comes from the Trinity, reflects in itself the Trinitarian communion—oneness in diversity—and journeys toward the Trinity, to the final handing over of all things to Christ, so that he might hand them over to the Father and God might be all in all. As ‘a people gathered in the unity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,’ the Church is the Church of the Father. In his universal salvific plan, God has willed it to be a sign and instrument of the unity of people among themselves and with him. It is the Church of the Son, who through his incarnation and the paschal mystery has placed it in history as His Body. It is the Church of the Spirit, who makes the Risen Christ present in human history and enriching the people of God with charisms and ministries, leads it toward the promised future goal." ²⁰

• The fact that the Church is here on earth a reflection of the Trinitarian Community easily leads us to reflect upon the Church as the Body of Christ, since this name given to the Church also emphasizes the communal aspect of the Church. St. Paul tells us: For as with the human body which is a unity although it has many parts — all the parts of the body, though many, still making up one single body — so it is with Christ. We were baptised into one body in a single Spirit, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as free men, and we were all given the same Spirit to drink. And indeed the body consists not of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘I am not a hand and so I do not belong to the body’, it does not belong to the body any the less for that. Or if the ear were to say, ‘I am not an eye, and so I do not belong to the body’, that would not stop its belonging to the body. If the whole body were just an eye, how would there be any hearing? If the whole body were hearing, how would there be any smelling?

Now Christ’s body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole. And those whom God has appointed in the Church are, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers; after them, miraculous powers, then gifts of healing, helpful acts, guidance, various kinds of tongues. Are all of them apostles? Or all prophets? Or all teachers? Or all miracle-workers? Do all have the gifts of healing? Do all of them speak in tongues and all interpret them? (1 Cor 12:12-17; 27-30)

• Some two thousand years ago Christ walked the earth teaching, healing the sick, forgiving sins, extending His mercy and kindness. By such a life which culminated in death and resurrection, Christ redeemed the world. This objective redemption was accomplished by Christ alone. Through it, He won for people of all time the necessary graces for their salvation and sanctification.

However, it is necessary that such graces be distributed to each individual as one plays out his or her part in the drama of human existence. Such a distribution of grace is the work of subjective redemption.

Jesus still walks the earth as the work of redemption continues. However, He now walks the earth according to a different type of existence. He does not walk the earth in His physical body, but rather in His Mystical Body, the Church, the People of God. Through the members of His Church, Christ continues to be present as He teaches, administers the sacraments, extends His mercy — all done through the members of His Body, the Church. This mystical Christ, in turn, derives all supernatural power from Christ, the Head, who reigns gloriously with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

The Church, therefore, is the earthly continuation of Christ’s redemptive Incarnation. This mission which the Church has, although a great responsibility, is also a great privilege. In proportion as each Christian offers and commits himself or herself to Christ, the Church in her entirety more and more mirrors forth Christ to the world. This Christ, whom the Church portrays to the world, is the Christ who is Prophet, King and Priest.

• We now reflect upon the Church as Spouse of Christ. Fr. Joseph Murphy, S.J., tells us: "John Paul II always quotes the rich doctrinal and patristic traditions of the Church which refer to Christ as the Spouse of the Church and the Spouse of souls, given to both in the Eucharistic mystery. For him the key to understanding the sacramentality of marriage, not to mention the nature of humanity, is the spousal love of Christ for the Church demonstrated in Ephesians 5. Christ is the Head of the Church as Savior of His Body. The Church is exactly that Body which receives from Him all that through which it becomes and is His Body. As Head and Savior of the Church He is also Bridegroom of His Bride…" ²¹

• The Church is a mother to us. Henri de Lubac speaks concerning this beautiful truth:

"The Church is my mother because she brought me forth to a new life. She is my mother because her concern for me never slackens, any more than do her efforts to deepen that life in me, however unenthusiastic my cooperation. And though in me this life may be a fragile and timid growth, I have seen its full flowering in others...

"Happy those who from childhood have learnt to look on the Church as a mother! Happier still those whose experience, in whatever walk of life, has confirmed its truth! Happy those who one day were gripped by (and whose appreciation of it ever grew) the astonishing newness, richness and depth of the life communicated to them by this mother!" ²²

• Avery Dulles, S.J., the well-known theologian who has written much about the Church, observes: "The Church, as I have already contended, is essentially a mystery of grace, a wonderful encounter between the divine and the human. Even in its visible structures, the Church is not a mere organization to be judged on grounds of efficiency, but a sacrament of God’s saving deed in Jesus Christ. From this it follows, in my judgment, that the Church’s forms of speech and life, and indeed its entire corporate existence, must be such as to mediate a vital communion with Christ the Lord. The Church must be a place of prayer and worship, praise and witness. Any institutional change in the Church must be carefully assessed for its effect on the spiritual life of the members. Does it intensify their faith, their hope, their charity? Does it help them to center their lives on Christ and to ground their existence in the God who raised him from the dead?"²³

• Fr. Gerald Vann, O.P., speaks movingly about our life in the Church:

"If you live in the Church and try to use the power of the Church to increase the life of the Church, then the power of the Church will make you yourself whole; and in your wholeness you will help to make your family and make your world. But you will be building for a more than earthly beatitude because you will be building the city which is eternal. Here you build in shadow, you build for a future which is invisible, and so you can only build in hope. And often your plans will be wrecked and your dreams come crashing about your ears, and you will need the strength of the Rock which is Christ to give you patience and fortitude...

"And when death has come to you...the Church will bless you for the life you have added to it, and there will be men to heed you better than they did when you were here...

"But you, for your part, will be no longer in the shadow but in the glory of the Light inaccessible; you will be in the City that is yours because you helped to build it; you will see Him at last as He is, and be wholly with Him; and you will have no more any mourning or weeping or any other sorrow, for all these former things will have been transmuted into happiness and peace, and you will walk with Him—together with all those you have helped to bring to Him, even until the end of the world—you will walk with Him in happiness for ever, in the cool of the eternal evening." ²⁴

NOTES:

19. Henri de Lubac, S. J., The Church: Paradox and Mystery, translated by James R. Dunne, Alba House, p. 24.
20. Fr. Bruno Forte, He Loved Them to the End, St. Paul Books & Media, p. 74-75.
21. The Thought of Pope John Paul II: A Collection of Essays and Studies, John M. McDermott, S. J., Editor, Editrice Pontificia Universita Gregoriana, p. 135.
22. Henri de Lubac, S.J., The Church: Paradox and Mystery, op. cit., pp. 2-4.
23. Avery Dulles, S.J., The Resilient Church, Doubleday & Company, p. 39.
24. Gerald Vann, O.P., The Heart of Man, Longmans, Green and Co., pp. 151-152.

                  Love is giving.
                  Jesus loved us so much
                           He died for us.

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. 

    

  Meditate on the Sorrowful Mysteries
            See the love God outpoured.

    

   

  Jesus: Love gives.

  I went to the cross for love of you.

  I call the Shepherds of Christ to love the priests, the
            Church and the world.

  Love is giving.

  A person locked in their heart —
            selfish, acting out bitterness
            on others for selfish gain —
            1) IS NOT OTHER FOCUSED
            2) IS NOT ACTING IN LOVE

  provoking others to get them mad is
            wrong.

  Your ways are far from Me.

  Pride is evil — you act and hurt others
            because of your pride.

  Envy is evil — when you are envious
            for your own gain — you block My
            work.

  Hypocrites.

  I tell you:

  Do all things for God's honor and glory —
            not to heal your wounds and hurt
            the people you were called to love —
            to be a light.

  A good tree produces good fruit.
  An evil tree produces bad fruit.

  The Shepherds of Christ exists to tell the world about
            My loving Heart —

  A person that sees themselves as commander,
            working out hate on an innocent
            other — co-dependent is not
            loving, but sick — sick in their
            soul —

  You are here to grow in the image
            and likeness of Me —
            to be a light —
            to show the world the giving love
                of your heart.

  You watch the impurities
            men kill on your movies — a lover
            scorned —

  Their end is their image before others —
  They seek men to make them look good —
            while they act selfishly from
            unloving hearts trying to get
            that image for themselves from what
            men think —
            Save face —
            pride
            jealousy —
            possessiveness —
            envy —
            lust —

  The crimes on your television, movies —
            show evil from lust, possessive
            hunger of another person against
            God's will — envy, jealousy —
            pride, anger, argumentation.

  Love gives for the good of the other —

  Sin lurks in the heart — seeking a selfish
            thing for themselves —
            a desire for their own self glory.

  ME,    ME,    ME,

  Coming not from the pure love likened
            to My Heart and Mary's Heart.

  I came to this earth.

  I gave Myself —

  I was born a baby.

  I took flesh for your sins —

  Pure giving —

  Pure love —

  Running the race to the cross —

  Wounded for your lust —

  Your pride

  Your sins of "saving face"

  You want to win —

  A person in the movies acting out
            hatred, killing, anger because
            they wanted a person for their
            own — they wanted someone who
            didn't want them — so their minds
            become fiendish — they fail to let go and
            live loving God and others, but
            acting in hate and bitterness — blaming
            others for their desire to possess
            someone who rejected them — in the
            movies they kill for love —

            they kill for greed — wanting money —
                not loving parents — wanting
                them to die for their money.

  Jealousy — wanting to possess another
            who may have rejected them.

---

  The focus is NOT on God.

  The love is not love, but evil
        possession of goods, people
            for selfish gain —

  A person can be stilted —

  All they see is out of their wounded eyes
        they are ready to argue
        like scales
        they can try to act out their hate on
            an innocent other.

 

 

  Inside their heart is full of victory
            for their own selfish gain.

  What good does it do to win the
            world and lose your soul?

  Win the world and lose your soul.

  A person has a heart —
            like the physical heart runs the
            body

            a heart of love pumps energy
                to the soul.

  Loving from a pure heart.

 

projecting fear
     fear projected on others is power
            I WILL WIN.

 

 

  Be like the Hearts of

         Jesus and Mary

  Love

  Give love in prayer

  Open Hearts

  Free

  Giving love.

  God is a family - 3 Persons

  God gives love and warmth

  God calls us to share in
            this family - to be a
            member of this family
            of love —
            to be His children —
            to spread this love to the
            human family.

 

Our Father

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. * Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.

 

Acts 8: 26-39

Romans 10: 17

  But it is in that way faith comes, from hearing, and that means hearing the word of Christ.

John 21: 25

There was much else that Jesus did; if it were written down in detail, I do not suppose the world itself would hold all the books that would be written.

Matthew 28: 18-20

Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’

Acts 1: 8

Matthew 24: 14

'This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed to the whole world as evidence to the nations. And then the end will come.'

John 19: 25-27

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

Act of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary

"Lord Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock, I consecrate myself to Your most Sacred Heart. From Your pierced Heart the Church was born, the Church You have called me, as a member of Shepherds of Christ Associates, to serve in a most special way. You reveal Your Heart as a symbol of Your love in all its aspects, including Your most special love for me, whom You have chosen as Your companion in this most important work. Help me to always love You in return. Help me to give myself entirely to You. Help me always to pour out my life in love of God and neighbor! Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You!

"Dear Blessed Virgin Mary, I consecrate myself to your maternal and Immaculate Heart, this Heart which is symbol of your life of love. You are the Mother of my Savior. You are also my Mother. You love me with a most special love as a member of Shepherds of Christ Associates, a movement created by your Son as a powerful instrument for the renewal of the Church and the world. In a return of love, I give myself entirely to your motherly love and protection. You followed Jesus perfectly. You are His first and perfect disciple. Teach me to imitate you in the putting on of Christ. Be my motherly intercessor so that, through your Immaculate Heart, I may be guided to an ever closer union with the pierced Heart of Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock."