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Shepherds of Christ |
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October 6, 2011
October 7th Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 9 Period II.The Novena Rosary Mysteries
for October 7th are Glorious.
The Florida Book Store
Please pray for a
special intention.
Through the intercession
of Fr. Carter and
Our Lady of Clearwater
please pray for Dan for healing.
Please pray for Adeline.
Please pray for Jimmy.
Pray for everything to do with
Fr. Joe's Cycle B Book.
China Church
On October 13, 2011
It will be the 15th anniversary of
the 13ths —It is the 95th anniversary from
FatimaCome to China, Indiana,
Our prayer center —
With the Eucharist exposed —
pray for these hours —Mass at 11:00
Given October 5, 2011
Message
(1) July 31,
1994
July 31, 1994
Words of Jesus to Members of
Shepherds of Christ Associates:
"My beloved priest-companion, I intend to use the priestly newsletter, Shepherds of Christ, and the movement, Shepherds of Christ Associates, in a powerful way for the renewal of My Church and the world.
"I will use the newsletter and the chapters of Shepherds of Christ Associates as a powerful instrument for spreading devotion to My Heart and My Mother's Heart.
"I am calling many to become members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. To all of them I will give great blessings. I will use them as instruments to help bring about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the reign of My Sacred Heart. I will give great graces to the members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. I will call them to be deeply united to My Heart and to Mary's Heart as I lead them ever closer to My Father in the Holy Spirit."
- Message from Jesus to Father Edward J. Carter, S.J., Founder, as given on July 31, 1994,
feast of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits)
(2) Apostles
of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus
Apostles of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus
My dear fellow Associate Members,
Jesus is calling special apostles to join a new division of the Shepherds of Christ Movement. Here is a message from Jesus given to Father Carter:
My beloved priest-companion, I am requesting that a new prayer movement be started under the direction of Shepherds of Christ Ministries. I am asking for volunteers who are willing to pray before the Blessed Sacrament for one hour, twice-weekly. Members of the Shepherds of Christ prayer chapters, as well as others, are to be invited to join this movement.
These apostles are to pray for the intentions I am giving you. For part of the hour they are to use the prayers of the Shepherds of Christ Associates Handbook. They may spend the rest of the hour as they so choose.
I will use this new prayer movement within My Shepherds of Christ Ministries in a powerful way to help in the renewal of My Church and the world. I will give great graces to those who join this movement. The name, Apostles of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, is to be given to this movement.
I am inviting My beloved Rita Ring to be coordinator for this activity.
I pour out the great love of My Sacred Heart to all. I am Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock.
This is indeed a special calling for us to unite in one heart with His Eucharistic Heart and pray for the following intentions:
1. For the spread of the devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary culminating in the reign of the Sacred Heart and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart.
2. For the Pope.
3. For all bishops of the world.
4. For all priests.
5. For all sisters and brothers in the religious life.
6. For all members of the Shepherds of Christ Movement, and for the spread of this movement to the world.
7. For all members of the Catholic Church.
8. For all members of the human family.
9. For all souls in purgatory.
end of Apostles of the Eucharistic Heart
(3) October
13, 1994
October 13, 1994
The Birth of the Full Ministries
of the Shepherds of Christ
"I wish to share with you part of a message which Jesus gave us on October 13, 1994. The message tells us about the expansion of the Shepherds of Christ movement:
'My beloved priest-companion, today I come to you with another mission. I am 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 77th 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. 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 77th 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.'
"Jesus has told us that Shepherds of Christ Ministries includes: the priestly newsletter, Shepherds of Christ, Shepherds of Christ Associates prayer chapters, various publications, including books, whatever else Our Lord directs us to undertake.
"As members of Shepherds of Christ Associates, you are an extremely important part of Shepherds of Christ Ministries. You have given great joy to the Heart of Jesus by responding to His invitation to become members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. As He draws you closer to His Heart and to His Mother's Heart as Associates members, He will fill you with an ever-increasing experience of His love, peace, and joy."
- From In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Newsletter of Shepherds of Christ Associates
by Fr. Edward J. Carter S.J., Volume 1, No. 1, 1995. p. 2.
R. The Church, the world, and the individual Christian
is in the state of becoming. God intends us to grow
to greater maturity in our life in Him. We grow
in deepening faith, hope and love.
We see the world in the state of becoming in
all the advances man keeps out-doing himself,
but is this growth used to serve God and build
a better world. How in this material progress
are we serving God, do we use it to commit
sins, division among men, sexual pursuits
against God's will?
Are our inordinate attachments taking
us away from spiritual maturity? Are we
selling our souls for swine?
Christians, we in sending the Priestly Newsletter,
beginning prayer chapters, spreading the
Consecration to the 2 Hearts, spreading the rosary,
these materials can help renew the Church
and the world — Can help the Church and
the world in the process of becoming
as God wills in greater maturity as He
desires, using material advances to serve
God and according to His purpose. Our
prayers, although hidden, does not make
our efforts of renewal less effective.
We have a duty as a Christian to help
shape the temporal order in the process
of becoming. We are to be witnesses, to go out
and spread the Good News. To make Jesus
the King and Center of our lives and
spread this to all —
Not harbor our knowledge of God,
but tell others freely of this gift.
We are to be a reminder in the world of
Christ who lives in us — living by His rule.
Fr. Carter says the world will be swept up by
Christ in His second coming and will remain,
for all eternity, in the transformation that
it will receive at this parousia.
1 Corinthians 15:20-28
In fact, however, Christ has been raised from the dead, as the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. As it was by one man that death came, so through one man has come the resurrection of the dead. Just as all die in Adam, so in Christ all will be brought to life; but all of them in their proper order: Christ the first-fruits, and next, at his coming, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father, having abolished every principality, every ruling force and power. For he is to be king until he has made his enemies his footstool, and the last of the enemies to be done away with is death, for he has put all things under his feet. But when it is said everything is subjected, this obviously cannot include the One who subjected everything to him. When everything has been subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the One who has subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.
R. The Christian reminds those in the world
by their witness, that this life on
earth is not an end in itself.
Heaven is not on earth.
Has the material advances in the world
brought man closer to God? Happiness is
found in God and advances in the
world is to lead to better service of God.
God intends the Church to evolve
to greater maturity — Like a mustard seed —
You can see why this Movement, Shepherds
of Christ is so very important to God.
Matthew 13: 31-32
"The reign of God is like a mustard seed which
someone took and sowed in his field. It is the
smallest seed of all yet when full-grown it is
the largest of plants."
We can see the scripture Sunday — how the
vineyard should have grown and how they
killed the son for their own gain.
How true it is — men using their talents for
themselves and not to build God's Kingdom and
using them even for doing evil — promoting sin.
How displeasing this must be to God.
We see how God's people were being formed
in the Old Testament. We see the Church as a
Pilgrim Church in the state of becoming —
Under the leadership of Moses, the Jewish
people traveled through the desert toward
the Promised Land. The journey was not smooth.
There were sufferings physical and spiritual,
the people were unfaithful to God —
The Promised Land of the New Testament is
the Heavenly Jerusalem. We see the sins
of people in Church history.
We see the grace of God in the Church
operating so the good of the Church is
powerful in the world. We see the saints,
the martyrs, the love of individuals for Jesus.
We see the dedication of individuals in
all vocations in the Church —
The Church is in the state of becoming —
it cannot take the attitude it can
settle down to act as if she has arrived.
Fr. Carter says "A Church in the process of becoming —
a pilgrim Church — must, then, balance her
concern for both the changeless and the
changing aspects of her existence.
We see the gift of the Shepherds of Christ in
helping the individual, the Church and the
world in the state of becoming what
God wants —
We can always grow here on earth in
spiritual maturity —
We are to become in spiritual maturity
more the true self intended by God,
through a gradual achievement of
that self-identity and uniqueness
that God intends:
Reaching out for good —
stamping out evil —
discovering strengths and talents —
seeing weaknesses and limitations
There is intense joy and feelings
of despair —
The pain and the joy as Fr. Carter says —
We become not in a vacuum but
in the world, with others and
with God —
We must control ourselves in using
material things —
God intends that so much of our
spiritual growth occur as
a result of our proper
encounter with others —
The selflessness that is required for
authentic relationship to the other readily
points out why encounter with persons
is such an important contributing factor
to true becoming. The Christian life is
primarily a going out of ourselves to God
and to human persons. This transcendence
of self is not always easily achieved
precisely because it involves a process
of overcoming the strong thrust of
selfishness.
1 John 4: 20
Anyone who says ‘I love God’
and hates his brother,
is a liar,
since whoever does not love the brother
whom he can see
cannot love God whom he has not seen.
R. Going out to others, serving them, being for
them, and loving them is a dynamic process.
end of excerptExcerpt from Response to God's Love by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J., p. 27-35
If an individual person grows toward Christian maturity through a proper encounter with material creation and other facets of the temporal order, as well as through encounters with others, individuals must especially grow, or become, through an encounter with God. Growth through encounters with both material creation and other persons is rooted in our maturing through the relationship with the great source of all becoming—namely, God himself. He himself is infinite being, and he constantly wants to communicate himself to us so that, drawing from his infinite source of life, we might become more what we are meant to be—more of what he desires that we become.
God draws us on to greater fulfillment according to the pattern of Christ's example and teaching. There is no other way according to which we progress to spiritual maturity. There is no Christian perfection that we can acquire, no possible development of our Christian personalities unless it occurs through Christ Jesus. The Spirit, however, does not superimpose this pattern of Christ upon us in an artificial way. The Spirit does not shape us according to the image of Christ without deep concern for our uniqueness; we are all different, and the Spirit supremely respects this fact. Furthermore, if the Spirit is of such an attitude, so must we be; we must not box ourselves in, all trying to fit into the exact same mold and maintaining that this is necessary because we must all follow the same Christ. The pattern of Christ is the creation of an infinitely wise God. He has arranged that the one pattern of Christ is also a pattern that has as many possibilities for unique assimilation as there are individual persons.
We all follow the one and same Christ and we must all have an attitude of complete openness, of expectancy concerning the unpredictable, an attitude that will allow the Spirit to lead us according to his way of forming us in the image of Christ. At times we might have a too minutely preconceived idea of how we will become in Christ and we are, therefore, somewhat rigid about the whole process. Although the following of Christ is basically the same for all, how can we be sure what particular path of imitation—mapped out in rather complete detail—the Spirit has prepared for each of us? We can certainly be tempted to think that we know with considerable certainty the way in which our becoming in Christ should logically evolve. We must learn, however, to balance an attitude of stability that is rooted in a certain way of life, a certain way of following Christ, with a spiritual freedom that makes us really open to what the Spirit wants of us, however surprising, novel, or unusual this may seem.
4 Death and Resurrection
Our incorporation into the mystery of Christ at baptism, and the gradual maturing of that life in the process of becoming, is centered in the pattern of death-resurrection. Indeed, the theme of death-resurrection is at the heart of salvation history. Let us briefly consider its place in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and in God's ongoing self-communication, always remembering that any form of death—that is, any form of suffering—is meant to lead to greater life, greater peace, and greater happiness.
The theme of death-resurrection is at the heart of Old Testament history. The Jewish people, under the leadership of Moses, experienced death-resurrection as they were formed into the people of the covenant—Yahweh's people. In the great Exodus event, they escaped Egyptian slavery, went on to Mt. Sinai where the covenant was ratified, and then progressed to the Promised Land. As members of the Mosaic covenant—as Yahweh's people—the Jews experienced a religious transition; they passed over to a higher level of religious existence, to a more intimate union with God.
This religious transition contained death-resurrection. For the Jews to become people of the covenant, to remain so, and to grow in the life of the covenant, it was necessary that they undergo a mystical or spiritual death. In short, the Jews had to be willing to pay a price; they had to be willing to bear with that which was difficult in covenant life; they had to be willing to die to that which was not according to Yahweh's will. This mystical death, however, had a very positive purpose; it was directed at life in the covenant and at growth in that life. This spiritual death, in other words, was aimed at resurrection.
Christ perfectly fulfilled the Old Testament theme of death-resurrection. In doing so, he, too, was experiencing a religious transition. He was passing over—gradually, at first, and then definitively in his death—to a new kind of existence, to the life of his resurrection, which he achieved not only for himself, but for all mankind. To achieve this new life of resurrection, Jesus was willing to pay the price; Jesus was willing to suffer, even unto death. That it had to be this way—that the only way Christ could have achieved resurrection was through suffering and death—was pointed out by Jesus himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: "Then he said to them, 'What little sense you have! How slow you are to believe all that the prophets have announced! Did not the Messiah have to undergo all this so as to enter into his glory?' Beginning, then, with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted for them every passage of Scripture which referred to him" (Lk 24:25-27).
Christ has structured the Christian life by the way he lived, died, and rose from the dead. It is obvious, then, that the pattern of death-resurrection must be at the heart of the Church's life. Individually and collectively, we continually die with Christ so that we may continually rise with him. Thus, we pass over in a process of continued religious transition to a greater participation in Jesus' resurrection. It is true that our participation in Christ's resurrection will reach its completion only in eternity. Nevertheless, we begin the life of resurrection here upon this earth, in the here and now of human life, in the midst of joy and pain, in the experience of success and failure, in the sweat of our brow, in the enjoyment of God's gifts. As Christians, we should have a sense of growth concerning our here-and-now life of resurrection. Some Christians seem to have a rather static view of the Christian life. They do not seem to have a vital and efficacious realization that the Christian life, centered in death-resurrection, should become more conscious, more experiential, more dynamically relative to daily existence.
We cannot maintain the life of resurrection or grow in it without a willingness to suffer. This does not mean that we need to feel overwhelmed and heavily burdened by the suffering in our lives. The greater portion of suffering for most Christians seems to be an accumulation of ordinary hardships, difficulties, and pains. At times, however, deep suffering—even suffering of agonizing proportions—can enter one's life. During these oppressive periods of suffering, a person's sense of anguish can become so great that the prospect of continuing life becomes an agony in itself. Whether the sufferings of Christians are of either the ordinary variety or the rare and extreme type, Christians must nevertheless convince themselves that to properly relate to the cross is to grow in resurrection—and for an individual Christian to grow in resurrection means that he or she will also have an increased capacity to help give resurrection to others.
One of the most traditional forms of the experience of the cross—that is, of dying with Jesus—that spiritual masters have always treated is self-discipline or asceticism. All forms of life demand self-discipline: The athlete must subject himself or herself to rigorous training; the musician must endure long hours of practice; the doctor must be willing to order his or her life to the rigorous demands of the medical profession.
The Christian life, too, has its own form of discipline or control that has as its comprehensive purpose the 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. Like all forms of 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.
This proper, grace-inspired control over the complete person is necessary because the various sense and spiritual faculties do not automatically follow the lead of grace. Because of original sin and personal sin, there are various tendencies within us that, if they are not properly controlled, will lead us away from Christ and our spiritual development. The Christian, therefore, must be willing to exercise a reasonable self-discipline despite the difficulty that is involved. Moreover, this control must extend to all of the person's faculties.
Regarding our intellectual lives, there are various tendencies inimical to the spiritual life that must be disciplined. There can be a laziness, for instance, that might prevent the proper pursuit of study that is necessary for our own particular role in the Church. There can be an unwholesome curiosity that might lead us to want to know that which is pleasing, rather than, first of all, that which is necessary. There can be an intellectual pride that might manifest itself in various ways; some people, for example, find it extremely difficult to be open to the ideas of others or to admit their own mistakes.
The will, the decisive faculty of the human person, must receive special attention. It must become both supple and strong: supple in order to be open to the varied movements of the Holy Spirit; and strong in order to guide the entire person, including those forces that can so powerfully lead away from God. Concerning concrete decision making, there are two extremes that must be avoided: On the one hand, we must avoid precipitous action that is devoid of reflection that is rooted in an appropriate openness to the movements of the Spirit; on the other hand, we must not fall prey to the habit of indecision. Some people are prone to spending an excessive amount of time in making decisions about even the simplest matters. Life is short, and we must condition ourselves to make decisions after appropriate reflection, which, in many of our ordinary actions and decisions, is practically instantaneous. Unhealthy fear and other factors that are responsible for indecision must be curbed despite the great pain that this can, at times, cause for certain temperaments.
The faculties of memory and imagination must also be controlled. These can be of great value if properly guided; if they are not properly guided, however, they can, in their unruliness, become great obstacles to spiritual progress. An undisciplined memory and imagination can, for example, seriously interfere with our prayer life. Similarly, memory and imagination that are not properly controlled can also give rise to numerous temptations against the various virtues.
We must also properly control the emotions. A considerable portion of past spiritual literature has not given due allowance to the role that God intends the emotions to exercise. When we speak of controlling the emotions, therefore, we are not suggesting either an aggressive repression or an inhuman rigidity; rather, we speak of a control that permits the emotions to contribute to the richness and overall value of our actions. We must remember that the emotions, when they are properly integrated with the movements of the intellect and will, enhance the goodness of our acts.
It is obvious, however, that we must strive to discipline the emotions' evil tendencies if these emotions are to contribute to spiritual growth. The emotions can cause havoc if such a discipline is lacking. At times, they can reduce a person to an almost brute existence; at other times, they can seriously constrict a person and, consequently, seriously impede the proper exercise and development of the Christian life.
It is equally obvious that a person's bodily nature should also be the subject of proper discipline. The body is essentially holy, partaking in the holiness of Christ's body; however, the body is also subject to numerous evil tendencies that are at war with the spiritual life and must be controlled with a sound asceticism. St. Paul reminds us of this: "I do not run like a man who loses sight of the finish line. I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. What I do is discipline my own body and master it, for fear that after having preached to others I myself should be rejected" (1 Cor 9:26).
Renunciation is another form of dying with Jesus that, over the ages, has been given much attention in the teaching of the spiritual masters. Indeed, the New Testament itself attests to the undeniable role that renunciation plays in the Christian life. The gentle St. Luke, for example, teaches with a peculiar intransigence Jesus' message of renunciation—a message that Jesus himself lived. Renunciation was by no means the only aspect of Christ's life, but it was an undeniable one. Christians, because they are followers of Christ, must also include renunciation in their lives regardless of their individual vocations. Again, it is well to remind ourselves that the cross is always intended to be connected with life and love. Paradoxically, then, we embrace renunciation for the sake of life. This was the purpose of renunciation in Jesus' life, and it must have the same purpose in the Christian's existence. Let us now consider some of the various ways in which the principle of renunciation applies.
Self-discipline or asceticism, which we have already discussed, does not necessarily include the aspect of renunciation. A person can exercise self-discipline in the positive use of created goods, and renunciation would not be involved; rather, the person would be relating to a created good according to God's will. Renunciation is, however, sometimes related to the practice of self-discipline; a person cannot always properly relate his or her total being to God's creation unless, from time to time, he or she is willing to renounce particular goods and values. Consider this example: A person will not always properly employ his or her external senses in using God's creation unless, at times, he or she denies the senses what they naturally desire. If we are not willing to admit this, we are being falsely optimistic about human nature. There is a sinful element within us that inclines us to a misuse of creation. To control this tendency toward misuse, we must exercise renunciation of those goods toward which our various spiritual and sense faculties are oriented.
In addition to being an aid to self-discipline, there are other uses of renunciation. The choice of a particular vocation or life's work, for instance, demands a renunciation of various other created goods and values. A person who chooses marriage has to be willing to sacrifice certain values and activities that might well be appropriate for a single person, but are incompatible with the married vocation. The Christian scholar, who is called by God to make his or her contribution to the life of the Church in the academic sphere, must also learn the lesson of renunciation; such a person cannot be true to the demanding work of scholarship unless various human values—all of which are good in themselves—are nevertheless sacrificed.
Another use of renunciation is its special witness to the transcendent aspect of the Christian life, one element of which is that our life of grace is a participation in the transcendent life of God. This life has a radical thrust of desiring God as he is in himself; this particular desire will not be completely satisfied until we achieve the beatific vision in which we will possess God as he is in himself, without the mediation of the world. Here on this earth, however, we can, to a certain extent, go out to God as he is in himself. Among the methods for achieving this goal is the practice of renunciation. Speaking of this kind of renunciation, which is expressive of transcendent love of God, Karl Rahner observes: "For such renunciation is either senseless or it is the realized and combined expression of faith, hope and charity which reaches out toward God precisely insofar as he is in himself, and without any mediation of the world, the goal of man in the supernatural order" (Theological Investigations, vol. 3, pp. 51-52). God, then, wants us to seek him not only as he is immanent in creation, but also as he is transcendent in himself. To reiterate, one way to achieve this is through the prudent, periodic renunciation of created goods and values.
Excerpt from the Priestly Newsletter Book I, pp. 40-43
Our Participation in the Paschal Mystery
When we are baptized we are incorporated into Christ’s paschal mystery of death and resurrection. St. Paul speaks of this marvelous assimilation to Jesus: “You have been taught that when we were baptized in Christ Jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life.” (Rom 6: 3-4).
And, again: “…wherever we may be, we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may always be seen in our body.” (2 Cor 4: 10-11).
Christ has structured the Christian life by the way He lived, died, and rose from the dead. It is obvious then, as Paul tells us above, that the pattern of death-resurrection must be at the heart of the Church’s life. Individually and collectively, we continually die with Christ so that we may continually rise with Him. Thus we pass over in a process of continual religious transition to a greater participation in Jesus’ resurrection. It is true that our participation in Christ’s resurrection will reach its completion only in eternity. Nevertheless, we begin the life of resurrection here upon this earth, in the here and now of human life, in the midst of joy and pain, in the experience of success and failure, in the sweat of our brow, in the enjoyment of God’s gifts. As Christians, we should have a sense of dynamic growth concerning our here-and-now life of resurrection.
We cannot maintain the life of resurrection or grow in it without a willingness to suffer. This does not mean that we need to feel overwhelmed and heavily burdened by the suffering in our lives. The greater portion of suffering for most Christians seems to be an accumulation of ordinary hardships, difficulties, and pains. At times, however, deep suffering, even suffering of agonizing proportions, can enter one’s life. Whether the sufferings one encounters are of either the more ordinary variety or the more rare and extreme type, Christians must nevertheless convince themselves that to relate properly to the cross is to grow in resurrection, and for an individual to grow in resurrection means one will also have an increased capacity to help give resurrection to others.
Reflections on Suffering
All of the above provides an occasion to offer various reflections on suffering:
The great tragedy concerning human suffering is not that there is so much of it. The real tragedy is that apparently so much of it is wasted. So much of it apparently is not coped with according to God’s will.
Suffering can beautifully expand or bitterly constrict the personality. It is our choice which prevails.
A willingness to suffer for a cause must accompany any true commitment.
A persistent suffering is the necessity of bearing with our limitations.
The fear of suffering is, for some people, one of the greatest crosses.
True love, in any of its forms, must be experienced against the background of the cross. Jesus has very vividly shown us this. Strange, then, that at times we can strive to develop another pattern of loving.
The suffering that is presently the most necessary for us is the one we can most consistently refuse.
Happiness cannot be achieved without a proper encounter with suffering. This is a basic premise of the Christian message. It would seem, then, that we would eagerly embrace the cross. Yet how often is this the case?
Being misunderstood by others precisely because we are striving to do God’s will is a not uncommon suffering.
To have to unavoidably hurt others can cause the sensitive person a suffering greater than the one he or she is inflicting.
There is a part of us that does not want to surrender to God. This struggle between the true self and the false self produces a unique type of suffering which is persistently present, often in milder degrees, but occasionally with an intensity that pierces very suddenly and very sharply.
It is not necessarily those who suffer the most who are the holiest. We grow in holiness through suffering—whatever its degree—to the extent we encounter it in loving conformity to God’s will.
The boredom that can grow out of daily routine, the frequent occasions which try one’s patience, ordinary episodes of failure, minor annoyances of various kinds, anxieties—these and other forms of the daily cross do not, taken separately, require a Christian response of heroic proportions. But in their cumulative effect over a long period of time, such occasions offer us the opportunity of becoming love-inspired Christians to an eminent degree.
There is nothing in the Christian teaching of the cross that says we cannot pray for relief from our sufferings.
To want to flee suffering is an un-christian attitude. So also is the attempt to make suffering an end in itself. The Christ-event did not end on Calvary.
“Then to all he said: ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.’” (Lk 9: 23).
Reflections on Joy and Happiness
When we cope with suffering according to God’s will, we grow in the Christ-life of grace. We grow in love. We grow in peace and joy. Suffering, which is properly encountered, consequently leads to a greater share in the joy of the resurrected Christ. There follow some reflections on joy:
The Christian vocation includes the call to be joyful. If we live properly in Christ Jesus, we will increasingly share His resurrection joy despite the painful dimension of being human: “I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.” (Jn 15:11).
The Christian who is not fundamentally joyful presents a contradiction. He or she claims to be a follower of the Jesus who has promised abundant life, abundant joy. To remove the contradiction, such a Christian must look to himself or herself. Such a person does not lack a basic joy because there is anything wanting in Jesus’ message. The person lacks joy because there is something wanting in the self. In some way or another, for some reason or another, the person has failed to assimilate properly the Gospel message. The Gospel is the good news. Jesus invites us to listen to His Gospel, to respond to it, to live it ever more fully and dynamically. Jesus tells us that if we do, we will experience a peace and joy that the world does not know. We know that Jesus does not lie, that Jesus does not deceive, that Jesus does not cruelly excite the expectations of His followers and then fail to fulfill them. Again, if a Christian is lacking in joy, he or she has to look at the self and ask why. But one should not ask this question in isolation. One should ask it in the company of Jesus. Jesus will help the person find the answer. Jesus will help the person remedy the situation.
Western, industrialized culture has tended to create the illusion that joy can be bought and that, the more money one has, the greater the prospects of enjoying life. This tragic illusion has time and again prevented people from living in a manner which alone can give true joy.
Real and lasting joy comes only when we are consistently willing to expend the effort required to grow in union with Jesus. Since this effort is a graced effort—one accompanied by God’s grace—we should pray daily for the grace to use the means God has put before us to grow in union with Jesus. And the greatest of these means is the Eucharist.
One of the greatest sources of joy is learning to share in the joy of others.
There are many daily occasions for experiencing joy, but we often pass them by unaware of their joy-producing possibilities because we have foolishly narrowed our expectations regarding what is a source of joy and what is not.
St. Paul says to us: “I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord; I repeat, what I want is your happiness…There is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving, and that peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4: 4-7).
Galatians 5: 22-24
On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self–control; no law can touch such things as these. All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all its passions and its desires.
R. God Himself is the Ultimate
Mystery
Radically, Fr. Carter says,
God is other and transcendent, hidden
from man in his inner life,
unless he chooses to reveal
Himself.
Excerpt from Response to God's Love by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.
end of excerpt... 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. St. Paul tells us: "I became a minister of this Church through the commission God gave me to preach among you his word in its fullness, that mystery hidden from ages and generations past but now revealed to his holy ones. God has willed to make known to them the glory beyond price which this mystery brings to the Gentiles—the mystery of Christ in you, your hope of glory. This is the Christ we proclaim while we admonish all men and teach them in the full measure of wisdom, hoping to make every man complete in Christ" (Col 1:25-28).The Christian life, then, is rooted in the great event of the Incarnation. We must, consequently, always focus our gaze upon Christ, realizing that everything the Father wishes to tell us has been summed up in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. It only remains for us, then, to fathom ever more deeply the inexhaustible truth of the Word Incarnate: "In times past, God spoke in fragmentary and varied ways to our fathers through the prophets; in this, the final age, he has spoken to us through his Son, whom he has made heir of all things and through whom he first created the universe" (Heb 1:1-2).
R. Jesus died — Jesus rose to give
us this sharing in His life —
He came to take on our sins
and die
He came to rise victorious
on the 3rd day
Christ was radically to release
us from the dominion of
sin and elevate us to
a new level of existence.
Grace permeates nature.
The Christian is one graced
person — The Christian is one
who has been raised up,
caught up, into a deeper form
of life in Jesus.
Jesus has come, not to destroy
anything that is authentically
human, but to perfect it
by leading it to its graced fulfillment.
This is the meaning of the
Word's becoming flesh, the
meaning of the Incarnation.
The more God-like we become
through Christ, the more human
we become.
We through our incorporation into
Christ which occurs at Baptism,
are meant to relive the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus.
In doing so, we are not only
accomplishing our own salvation,
but we are assisting in the
salvation of others also.
The Incarnation continues all
the time. Christ, of course,
is the one who fundamentally
continues the Incarnation, but
He enlists our help. Fr. Carter says
in the handbook.
Excerpt from the Spirituality Handbook
An Overview of the Spiritual Life
... We, through our incorporation into Christ which occurs at Baptism, are meant to relive the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In doing so, we are not only accomplishing our own salvation, but we are assisting in the salvation of others also. The Incarnation continues all the time. Christ, of course, is the one Who fundamentally continues the Incarnation. But He enlists our help. The world no longer sees Jesus, no longer is able to reach out and touch Him. We are the ones who now, in some way, make Christ visible and tangible. In union with the invisible, glorified Christ, and depending on Him as our source of life, we continue the Incarnation in its visible and temporal dimensions. This is our great privilege. This is our great responsibility.
The Christian is initiated into the mystery of Christ, into his or her role in prolonging the Incarnation, through Baptism. In the words of St. Paul: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by Baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Rom. 6: 3-4).
It is not sufficient, however, that we be incorporated into Christ through Baptism. All forms of life require nourishment. So, too, our life in Christ must be continually nourished. How can we continually keep in contact with Christ? There are various ways. We contact Christ in a most special way through the liturgy, above all in the Eucharistic liturgy. Here the entire course of salvation history, as centered in Jesus, is sacramentally renewed and continued. Through our most special and most personal meeting with Jesus in the Mass, we are more deeply incorporated into Christ. Also, we should remember that all the sacraments make up part of the Church's liturgy.
The reading of Scripture provides another special opportunity for meeting Jesus. This is true for both Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament prefigures the New Testament and leads to it. It is obvious, however, that we meet Christ especially in the pages of the New Testament. How true it is to say that not to be familiar with Scripture is not to know Jesus properly. We should resolve to read from Scripture daily.
We also meet Jesus in our interaction with others. Everyone we meet, everyone we serve, is in the image of Jesus. We have to take the means to grow in this awareness. If I truly believe that everyone has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, how should I treat everyone?
These, then, are some of the ways we keep in contact with Jesus. Common to the various ways of meeting Jesus is a certain degree of prayerful reflection. Our contact with Jesus in the liturgy, in Scripture, and in our interaction with others, and so forth, will not be all that it should be unless we are persons of prayer. The light and strength of prayer enables us to keep in contact with Jesus as we should.
We live out our Christ-life in an atmosphere of love. Indeed, the life Jesus has given us is centered in love. It has its origins in the mysterious love of God: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3: 16).
Our new life in Jesus has arisen out of God's fathomless love. Christ, in His descent into human flesh, has established a milieu of love. The life He came to give can flourish only in the framework of love. Indeed, we can summarize the meaning of the Christian life by stating that it is our loving response to God's love. The pierced Heart of Jesus, this Heart which shed its last drop of blood in the greatest love for each one of us, is the symbol of God's tremendous love for us. Christ's Heart also calls us to respond by giving ourselves in love to God and neighbor. Yes, Jesus invites us to respond to God's love by giving ourselves in love to Him in an ever closer union. The more closely we are united to Him, the greater is our capacity to love God and neighbor. The more closely we are united with Jesus, the more closely He unites us to the Father in the Holy Spirit, with Mary our Mother at our side.
Consecration to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
We have already spoken of how we are incorporated into Christ at Baptism. Now we shall speak of the life which comes to us in Baptism in terms of consecration:
"To consecrate means to make sacred, to make holy. Only God can make a being holy. So to speak of our consecration is to speak of God's activity in making us holy, His activity of giving us a share in His own holiness. At Baptism we receive a share in God's life, a share in His holiness. Christ is the Mediator of this grace life. We are baptized into Christ, into His death and resurrection. In Baptism we become holy by sharing in the holiness of Christ. We become consecrated, sealed with the divine holiness. We belong to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit.
"On our part, we must respond to God's consecration of us. We must live out the consecration of Baptism. We must realize what God has done for us in Christ and live according to this awareness. We need to live the life of holiness and grow in it. In other words, we must develop the life of grace, the Christ-life.
"What God has done for us in Christ involves Mary. God has given us a Christ-life, our life of grace, and Mary is the Mother of this Christ-life. Consequently, living out our life of consecration to God--living out the Christ-life--includes allowing Mary to increasingly be the Mother of our Christ-life.
"Consecration to Mary, therefore, is an aspect of our consecration to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is entrusting ourselves entirely to her maternal love so that she can bring us ever closer to Jesus, so that we can increasingly live out our consecration to God in Christ.
"At Fatima, Our Lady asked that we consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart. Mary shows us her heart as a symbol of her love for God and us. She asks us to make a return of love to her, to consecrate ourselves to her, to give ourselves to her completely. She wants us to entrust ourselves to her completely so that she may help us love God and neighbor.
"As stated above, consecration to Mary is an aspect of our consecration to God in Christ and she has asked for consecration to her Heart so that she may assist us. Christ, in turn, invites us to live out this consecration to Him through consecration to His Sacred Heart. We see the divine symmetry: consecration to the Immaculate Heart helps us to live out consecration to Christ Who reveals His Heart as symbol of His life of love in all its aspects, including His tremendous love for each of us individually. His Heart also asks for our love in return, a return which ideally is summed up in consecration to Jesus' Heart. Through this consecration we give ourselves completely to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart. In this consecration to Jesus, we promise to strive to live according to His Father's will in all things." (2)
Our Personal Relationship With Jesus
He hung upon a cross on a hill called Calvary. Death was near. How much Jesus had already suffered! He had been brutally scourged. Much of His sacred body was a bloody, open wound. He had been derisively crowned with thorns. In a terribly weakened condition, He carried the heavy cross to the hill of Golgotha. There He was stripped of His garments and mercilessly nailed to the cross. Try to imagine the excruciating pain Jesus suffered as the nails penetrated His sacred hands and feet! After all this brutal and agonizing suffering--of body and spirit--Jesus finally died.
And He did it all for you! Yes, you can truly say that Jesus did it all for you. I can say that Jesus did it all for me. He suffered and died for the whole human race, but He did it in a way which makes it true to say He also did it for each individual. When He was undergoing all the brutal and horrible suffering, He knew you and He knew me by name. He was loving each of us with the most tender, and tremendous, and unique love! He gave the last drop of His precious blood for you individually and for me individually!
What should be our return to this magnificent Heart of Jesus which gave until there was no more to give? No less than our entire selves. No less than a total consecration to this tremendous Lover, to this magnificent and tender Heart! No less than a day-by-day resolve to strive to live our consecration with the deepest faith, hope, and love. No less than the deepest desire to develop the most intimate, personal relationship with Jesus. The total and the most tender love of Jesus' magnificent Heart for you and for me deserves nothing less!
Mary Our Mother
As Jesus hung upon the cross in His excruciating suffering, He gave Mary to us as our spiritual Mother:
"…standing by the cross of Jesus were His Mother, and His Mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His Mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing near, He said to His Mother, 'Woman, behold, your son!' Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold, your Mother!'" (Jn 19: 25-26).
Yes, John, the disciple, represented all of us. Jesus, in giving Mary to John as His Mother, was giving her to all of us as our spiritual Mother. We can never thank Jesus sufficiently for this great gift. Mary is your Mother and she is my Mother. Pope John Paul II tells us how Mary is Mother to each of us according to each one's uniqueness:
"Of the essence of motherhood is the fact that it concerns the person. Motherhood always establishes a unique and unrepeatable relationship between two people: between mother and child and between child and mother. Even when the same woman is the mother of many children, her personal relationship with each one of them is of the very essence of motherhood…
"It can be said that motherhood 'in the order of grace' preserves the analogy with what 'in the order of nature' characterizes the union between mother and child." (3)
Let us always thank Mary that she is the Mother of each of us according to each one's uniqueness. I can truly say that Mary is my Mother in an unrepeatable way, and you can truly say that she is your Mother in an unrepeatable way. Realizing what a great and unique love Mary has for each of us, what reason could we ever have for not always going to her? What reason could we ever have for not asking her to take us as her beloved children and to hold us close to her maternal and Immaculate Heart where we always experience the love, the warmth, the tenderness of this magnificent Mother?
The Mass and the Sacraments
The best way to return love to Jesus is through participation in the Mass. Indeed, the Mass is the chief source for growth in our life of consecration. Everything in the life of the Church, including the sacraments--centers around the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
All the faithful are privileged to be able to enter into the offering of the Mass:
"The sacrifice of the Mass, as we well know, makes truly present the sacrifice of Calvary. At His sacrifice on Calvary, Christ was Priest and Victim. We obviously did not offer together with Him. At the Mass, however, Christ, although He is the chief Priest and Victim, does not act alone. Through God's gracious design, at Mass all the members of the Church are priests and victims together with Christ. To be sure, there is a very significant difference between the priesthood of bishops and priests and the priesthood of the faithful. The point we wish to stress, however, is that the universal priesthood, given in Baptism to all the faithful, is a real participation in Christ's priesthood.
"Vatican II has stressed this concept of the priesthood of all the Church's members. Speaking of the Mass, the Council says: 'The Church, therefore, earnestly desires that Christ's faithful, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators. On the contrary, through a proper appreciation of the rites and prayers, they should participate knowingly, devoutly, and actively. They should be instructed by God's word and be refreshed at the table of the Lord's body; they should give thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn to offer themselves too. Through Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn, day-by-day, into ever closer union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all.'
"During all our Christ-like activities, we are living the Mass. Working, recreating, laughing, weeping, enjoying success but also experiencing failure, enjoying the beauties of nature--through all such activities, we are living the Mass. We are continually offering ourselves in loving conformity to the Father's will. From time to time during the day, we should make a conscious act of uniting ourselves and our activities with the sacrifice of Calvary as it is made present throughout the world through the Mass.
"A very precious time during the Mass is, of course, our reception of Jesus in Holy Communion. We should make the most of these special moments. Let's properly thank Jesus for coming to us with His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Let's thank Jesus for the tremendous suffering He experienced in order to be able to give us the Eucharist. As Jesus dwells within us in this precious way at Communion time, the very Heart of Christ--this Heart which is symbol of His great love--dwells within. This Heart cries out for our love in return.
"One of the great means God has given us to help prepare ourselves for better participation in the Mass is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Our Lady of Medjugorje asks us to go to Confession at least once a month.
"Indeed, we should use all available means to prepare ourselves for a more fruitful participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. It is a great privilege to be able to be present at, and to participate in, the Mass. We should show Jesus our appreciation for such a great gift by preparing ourselves as best we can, and in this way we will gain the greatest possible benefit from the Mass, both for ourselves and for others.
"Included in our devotion to the Eucharist should be our desire to make Eucharistic reparation. One way to do this is to say often the following Fatima 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 the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifferences 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 sinners.'" (4)
Besides saying the above prayer, there are other acts of Eucharistic reparation we can make. One of these is to be sure we make adequate thanksgiving after Mass. One of the intentions we should have at this time is to help make reparation for the lack of proper thanksgiving on the part of many. Pope Pius XII speaks about the duty of spending the proper time in thanksgiving:
"When at Mass, which is subject to special rules of the liturgy, is over, the person who has received Holy Communion is not thereby freed from his duty of thanksgiving; rather, it is most becoming that, when the Mass is finished, the person who has received the Eucharist should recollect himself and, in intimate union with the Divine Master, hold loving and fruitful converse with Him. Hence they have departed from the straight way of truth who, adhering to the letter rather than the sense, assert and teach that, when Mass has ended, no such thanksgiving should be added, not only because the Mass is itself a thanksgiving, but also because this pertains to a private and personal act of piety and not to the good of the community." (5)
Life in the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is given to us to transform us in the likeness of Christ. This is an ongoing process. Here is a message of Jesus which speaks to the issue:
"My beloved friend, tell My people to pray daily to the Holy Spirit. They are to pray for an increase in His gifts. My people must realize that the Holy Spirit comes to transform them. The Spirit desires to transform you more and more according to My image. Those who are docile to His touch become increasingly shaped in my likeness. He performs this marvel within My Mother's Heart. The more one dwells in My Mother's Heart, the more active are the workings of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit leads Mary to place you within My Heart. In both of Our Hearts, then, your transformation continues. The more you are formed after My own Heart, the more I lead you to the bosom of My Father. Tell My people all this. Tell them to pray daily for a greater appreciation of these wondrous gifts. I am Lord and Master! All who come to My Heart will be on fire to receive the gifts of the Spirit in ever greater measure! I love and bless My people!" (Message of Jesus given to Father Carter).(6)
Life Within the Church
God calls us to live Christian existence, the spiritual life, within the Church--the Church which Christ has established. This Church is a many splendored reality. It has many different names, images and dimensions that variously attest to and manifest this multifaceted richness. All of them, however, speak of the one, same reality. Here is a message of Jesus which speaks of His Church:
"My beloved priest-companion, remind My people that the Church was born from My Heart, pierced with the soldier's lance on Calvary. From My pierced Heart the Church and her sacraments were born. Two of these sacraments, the Eucharist and Baptism, were symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from My pierced side.
"As the Church was born from My pierced Heart, so does the Church's life grow from the graces I continually give to her from My pierced Heart, this Heart which is now glorified.
"I call all the members of My Church to help build up My Body, the Church, by coming to My pierced Heart. United to My Heart and dwelling within It, I will give to each the light and strength to carry out My Father's will in the building up of My Church.
"Mary is Mother and Model of the Church. As Mother of the Church, she intercedes for all the graces the members need to contribute to the building up of My Church. As Model of the Church, as perfect imitator of Me, she shows the children of the Church how all, individually and collectively, are to be increasingly formed in My image. As all come to My Heart for the building up of My Church, let them do so united in the Heart of Mary.
"My Church is experiencing critical and difficult times. There are many divisions within My Church. There are many false teachings, including some put forth by certain theologians. These false teachings occur because those responsible for such are not in proper union with My vicar, the Pope, and the Church's Magisterium. I want all My children to pray daily for the cure of the many and serious ills of the Church. With the increase of prayers and sacrifices for the health of the Church, that day will soon come when the Church will be purified and revitalized. When that day comes, the renewed Church will be characterized by the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the reign of My Sacred Heart. Thus the message of Fatima will have reached its completion.
"I am Lord and Master. I request that all My people listen to My words and respond to them. I love My people with a tremendous love and, in this great love, I give them this message!"(Message from Jesus given to Father Carter). (7)
The Spiritual Life and the Christian Virtues
The life of sanctifying grace expresses itself through the various Christian virtues. Let us take a brief look at this life:
"The Persons of the Blessed Trinity have communicated Themselves to us in lavish love. When a person is in the state of grace, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell within that person in an extraordinary fashion.
"Such is the intimacy of this Trinitarian communication that the Persons of the Trinity imprint Their image upon us. This image is our life of grace, our created participation in the life of the Trinity. We receive this life at Baptism, and our privilege and responsibility are to develop it as fully as possible during our earthly journey before experiencing its culmination in eternal life.
"Because Christ in His humanity is Mediator of our life of grace, it possesses not only a Trinitarian dimension, but a Christic aspect as well. We can readily understand, then, why our grace-life is very appropriately also called the Christ-life.
"Our Christ-life is centered in faith and love. Christian faith gives us an extraordinary capacity to know realities about God and the things of God. The virtue of Christian love allows us to accompany this faith-knowledge with an appropriate love-response. Christian hope is the chief support of faith and love. Finally, all the other Christian virtues are variously connected with these three main Christian capacities." (8)
We hear much about faith and love, the two main Christian virtues. However, hope is also extremely important. One of the aspects of the virtue of hope is trust. Let's listen to a message of Jesus regarding trust:
"My beloved priest-companion, tell my people to trust Me unreservedly. I am Lord and Master. I am God. So many fail to trust Me as they should. I love all My people much more than they love themselves! The great love I have for each person should encourage all to trust Me! The more you realize how much a friend loves you, the more you place your trust in that person. I am your perfect Friend. I love you much, much more than your best earthly friend! Tell My people to trust Me completely. Tell them to say often, 'Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You.'" (Message of Jesus as given to Father Carter). (9)
2. Edward Carter, S.J., Mother at Our Side, Faith Publishing, Milford, Ohio, 1993, pp. 15-17.
2 Corinthians 12: 9-10
but he has answered me, ‘My grace is enough for you: for power is at full stretch in weakness.’ It is, then, about my weaknesses that I am happiest of all to boast, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me; and that is why I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and distress for Christ’s sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong.
R. The best passage contains one
of the greatest lessons of
the spiritual life. As we
progress along our spiritual
journey, we become
increasingly aware of how
weak we are in ourselves, but
how strong we are in Christ.
A dark-night is to make us
keenly aware of our helplessness
without God —
We live by His strength —
We abandon our self to Christ —
We live in Him!
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.
R. Our weakness does not hinder
our duty to Christ —
Our sense of weakness in the
spiritual life — does
not impair our capacity
to function as Christians —
In helplessness — we abandon ourselves
to Christ.
St. Margaret Mary said
"Try especially to preserve
peace of heart . . . The way to
preserve this peace is not
to have a will of our own
any more, but to put the will
of the Sacred Heart in the place of ours,
and let Him will for us
whatever gives Him the
most glory,
being content to submit
and abandon ourselves.
In a word, this loving Heart
will supply whatever is
wanting in you.
He will love God for you and
you will love God in Him
and through Him."
(Letters of St. Margaret Mary,
Priestly Newsletter Fr. Carter 2000 #1)
From the Blue Book and Priestly Newsletter
"Jesus' hand is here and He
knows what is happening.
I will let go of my anxiety
and be at peace."
Philippians 4: 10-13
As for me, I am full of joy in the Lord, now that at last your consideration for me has blossomed again; though I recognise that you really did have consideration before, but had no opportunity to show it. I do not say this because I have lacked anything; I have learnt to manage with whatever I have. I know how to live modestly, and I know how to live luxuriously too: in every way now I have mastered the secret of all conditions: full stomach and empty stomach, plenty and poverty. There is nothing I cannot do in the One who strengthens me.
Priestly Newsletter Book III, 2000 - Issue 3 - p. 39
5
The spiritual life centers in Christ. Here are words from the Jerusalem Catecheses: "When we were baptized into Christ and clothed ourselves in him, we were transformed into the likeness of the Son of God. Having destined us to be his adopted sons, God gave us a likeness to Christ in his glory, and living as we do in communion with Christ, God’s anointed, we ourselves are rightly called ‘the anointed ones.’ "
5. Jerusalem Catecheses, as in The Liturgy of the Hours, Catholic Book Publishing Co., Vol. II, p. 608.
Sing: He Has Anointed Me —
Romans 6: 3-4
You cannot have forgotten that all of us, when we were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into his death. So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glorious power, we too should begin living a new life.
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Mass Book,
by Rita Ring: Many of the entries in the Priestly
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Rosary Meditations for
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by Rita Ring, Short Meditations for both parents and
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God's Blue Book I by Rita Ring. Open Anywhere — This book will change your life. These are beautiful love letters to us from Jesus. A million books have been printed and circulated. Jesus loves us so much — He wants a personal relationship with us — He wants us to go to the Eucharist and be with Him before the tabernacle. $10 |
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God's Blue Book II by Rita Ring. Letters from Jesus about His on fire love — Jesus wants this great intimacy with us — On fire love — Personal love letters from Jesus about the love of His Heart — A book on surrender Fr. Carter said! $10 |
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God's Blue Book III by Rita Ring. Fr. Carter's favorite book — It is about loving and forgiving each other — Being pure in heart — A book for unity in family, community, in life!! $10 |
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God's Blue Book IV by Rita Ring. This book is about the love Jesus has for Mary and Mary has for Jesus and Jesus and Mary have for us — It is truly the Love of the Two Hearts. Mary appeared every day at the Holy Spirit Center — Fr. Carter was there. Mary's first apparition July 5, 1994. $5 |
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God's Blue Book V by Rita Ring. Jesus wants to be the bridegroom of our soul — He is our beloved — Jesus tells us about pure love — how we are to be pure of heart and love God and love others. It is a must, to hear about love from Jesus — Jesus is love — $5 |
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God's Blue Book 6A by Rita Ring. Rosaries from Their Hearts during apparitions. Jesus and Mary appeared every day and I received rosaries from Them and They were transcribed from a tape. Also messages of love from Jesus on days of January, 1995 — About Baptism — writings from Fr. Carter and the Scriptures. $10 |
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God's Blue Book 6B by Rita Ring. Jesus and Mary appeared every day in February, 1995 — So beautiful — transcribed from a tape — the Stations, 7 Sorrows, prayers in the Prayer Manual, the Holy Spirit Novena Book and the Song Book. Pure love — loving and forgiving — a book about Jesus' love, baptism, grace and Fr. Carter's Newsletter. $10 |
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Rosaries from the Hearts of Jesus and Mary Book 1. Mary appeared in Clearwater December 17, 1996 in rainbow color and these rosaries left the printer the same day from Apparitions of Jesus and Mary — transcribed from a tape. $10 |
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Rosaries from the Hearts of Jesus and Mary Book 2. This is a book of so many rosaries - transcribed from a tape. So many beautiful rosaries. pages $12 |
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Short Rosary Meditations for the Elderly, Ill and Homebound. This book is so important with pictures they can open it and lay it on their laps and pray the rosary. $10 |
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Messages From Jesus
$ 10.00 plus postage |
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Messages for the Elderly, Ill and Homebound. This is a big book of loving messages for nursing home people and homebound from Jesus and Mary — Their lives are so important — united to the Mass offering up their suffering, their lives for the souls of this earth. $10 |
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Daily Messages from Heaven. First book of Daily Messages. $10 |
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Color the Lives of Jesus and Mary. Volumes 1 through 7. Coloring books and meditations for grade school children and others on the mysteries of the rosary - really good. $5 each. |
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Coloring the Lives of Jesus and Mary Books 6
and 7
Color the Lives of
Jesus and Mary. Volumes 6 through 7. Coloring books
and meditations for grade school children and others on
the mysteries of the rosary - really good. $5 each. |
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God's Blue Book I on CD, Disk #1
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Mysteries of Light
Rosary Book
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Mysteries of Light
Rosary Book
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Apostle's Manual
Apostles Manual. About the Movement - the structure of the Movement — All Ministries - from the time 3 months before Mary appeared in Clearwater and 3 months after. Rosaries of the 13ths, Fr. Carter's Newsletters. Messages from God the Father — Reaching the priests, the Church, the schools and the world. $20 |
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Songs From Jesus
Songs from Jesus Songbook. These loving songs were given from Jesus. So beautiful — Love Songs from Jesus of His love - helping us have pure and loving hearts. $3
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Shepherds of Christ Holy Spirit Novena Holy Spirit Novena Booklet. In four languages with the Imprimatur with 18 scripture readings for two complete novenas – this very powerful Holy Spirit Novena has prayers for prayers for Protection by the Blood of Jesus, Healing, Strength and Light, To Be One with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One with Jesus, To Dwell in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Prayer for the Holy Spirit and His Gifts, and the Word Alive in Our Hearts. All these prayers take about 10 minutes daily recited out loud. $1
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Shepherds of Christ Holy Spirit Novena CD
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Colorea
1 thru 5
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Para
Comprender Mejor La Santa Misa
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Meditaciones del Rosario
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Fr. Joe
Robinson
Inspiring Homilist & Author
Fr.
Joseph
Robinson
has
dedicated
his
life
to
serving
Christ
and
the
Church
for
over
40
years.
Guiding Light - Steadfast to the Son
Inspiring Homilies Covering Cycle A of the Liturgical Year
$ 10.00 plus postageGuiding Light homily series - Steadfast to the Son - Cycle A — The sunflower is a great example of how we should be steadfastly guided by light. What a powerful thought that this exceptional plant is not stuck in one pose day in and day out, yet adaptable and magnetized to the sun. We feel the same about our Son. Our heads turns to face Christ as each day presents its challenges to find light. We join together like plants in a field and soak up the Son through the pulpit. We are a warm circle of strength using the wind of our breath to carry our priests' words, Christ's words, to new rich soil. $15
Guiding Light - Feed My Soul
Inspiring Homilies Covering Cycle C of the Liturgical Year
$ 10.00 plus postageGuiding Light - Feed My Soul - Cycle C — In a world rapidly advancing and encouraging personal gain, we are faced with modern problems. There is a challenge to find time in our busy schedules for Sunday Mass or a family meal. We are able to research, shop, bank and even work without hearing one human voice. It is no wonder that we may often feel disconnected and famished at our week's end. In Fr. Joe's third book of homilies from Cycle C, we are reminded of the charity that Christ intended us to show each other. We have a calling to turn the other cheek and be the Good Samaritan to others. We are rewarded with the Father's kingdom and love when we are not worthy. We are not left alone or hungry. $15
Guiding Light - Focusing on the Word
Inspiring Homilies Covering Cycle B of the Liturgical Year
$ 10.00 plus postageGuiding Light - Focusing on the Word - Cycle B — At times we may feel that our path to Christ is a bit "out of focus". Like the disciples in the Book of Mark, this ordinary life clouds our vision of Christ's Divinity. We may doubt the practicality or possibility of applying His teachings and example to our modern life. Cycle B's homilies are a "guiding light" to help us realize Jesus' Messianic greatness and His promise of better things to come. $15
Guiding Light - The Word Alive in Our Hearts
Inspiring Homilies covering partial year of Cycle A by Fr. Joe Robinson
$ 5.00 plus postageGuiding Light - The Word Alive in Our Hearts. - Cycle A (partial) — Homilies by the Reverend Joe Robinson given at St. Boniface Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a tremendous honor Fr. Joe has allowed us to share these great gifts with you – for greater holiness and knowing more and more about God. $10
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Fr. Edward J. Carter |
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Light, Happiness, & Peace
Journeying Through Traditional Catholic Spirituality Author: Fr. John J. Pasquini
$ 10.00 plus postageThis book Light, Happiness and Peace is a journey into the spiritual life — an awakening of deeper life IN HIM. Here are some of the comments we received from bishops and cardinals about the book. Cardinal – Pontifical Council for Culture – Vatican City “I am sure that this book, Light, Happiness and Peace through a discussion on traditional Catholic Spirituality will contribute in bringing back prayer into the mainstream of life.” $10
In Imitation of Two Hearts
Prayers for Consolation, Renewal and Peace in Times of Suffering Author: Fr. John J. Pasquini
$ 10.00 plus postageIn Imitation of Two Hearts - Prayers for Consolation, Renewal and Peace in Times of Suffering Fr. John J. Pasquini leads a suffering soul to the gentle Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In these most loving Hearts - the prayers by Fr. John Pasquini - help the person suffering to know more deeply the pascal mystery of death/resurrection. President of the Pontifical Council for Health $10
Authenticity
Authenticity - Prayers and Meditations Author: Fr. John J. Pasquini
$ 10.00 plus postageAuthenticity, the Yellow Book of prayers by Fr. John Pasquini, can lead the soul into deeper intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, can lead to greater love of Mary which leads to the unitive life and greater holiness. The book of prayers Authenticity by Fr. John J. Pasquini is to help one grow ever deeper in the Unitive life. Apostolic Nuncio – Archbishop – Philippines “With Authenticity, much is gained in prayer, and much is accomplished through prayer. More especially if prayer is directed in behalf of the Church.” $10
Medicine of Immortality
Prayers and Meditations for Mass and Eucharistic Adoration Author: Fr. John J. Pasquini
$ 10.00 plus postage“In Medicine of Immortality, Father John Pasquini offers his readers the richness of Catholic devotional prayer, the wisdom of the Fathers and, most of all, the fruits of his own prayer and meditation before the Blessed Sacrament. I recommend this book to all who wish to grow in their love for the Lord, who sustains the life of His Church through the precious gift of His Body and Blood.” Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago $10
Ecce Fides
Pillar of Truth - Dedicated to defending Catholic beliefs through reason, Scripture, and the life of the Holy Spirit Author: Fr. John J. Pasquini
$ 10.00 plus postageEcce Fides is a work dedicated to defending Catholic beliefs through reason, Scripture, and the life of the Holy Spirit. "It is important that we (as people of God) return to the source of life, our faith, which is usefully exposed in this volume, and take it out to our contemporaries, evangelizing them and their cultures and inculturating the Gospel." Cardinal – Pontifical Council for Culture – Vatican City $10
Shepherds of Christ Spirituality Newsletters
Author: Fr. John J. Pasquini
$ 35.00 plus postageShepherds of Christ, a book of Spirituality Newsletters, is a compilation of the first nine newsletters from Fr. John J. Pasquini begining in August 2006. The Newsletter has been circulated to the priests and hierarchy spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart, promoting love for the Eucharist, greater love for the Church, the Priesthood, Mary and the Holy Spirit, the Mass, Prayer, and greater intimate relationship with God. $35
Authenticity Ocean DVD
The Authenticity Prayer Book is read with the Ocean as a backdrop.
$ 10.00 plus postageDVD - Prayers from the Authenticity Book read by Rita Ring on the ocean — it is beautiful. 410
Nursing Home Mass DVD
A special mass by Fr. John J. Pasquini for those in nursing homes or homebound.
$ 10.00 plus postageDVD - A beautiful Mass was done by Fr. John J. Pasquini for Nursing homes and assisted living. It was done at St. Joseph's magnificent chapel — St. Joseph's assisted living in Jupiter, Florida. It last about 33 minutes. We call it the golden Nursing Home Mass from St. Joseph's. $10
Consolation DVD
Give this DVD as a sympathy present.
$ 10.00 plus postageConsolation by Fr. John J. Pasquini — upon the passing of a loved one. Fr. Pasquini has done a beautiful gift of his most wonderful homily given when someone dear has died. It can be given as a tremendous gift. $10
Divine Mercy Chaplet CD
Give this DVD as a gift.
$ 10.00 plus postageDivine Mercy Chaplet CD. Prayed by Fr. John J. Pasquini $10
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Special 27" Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima/Clearwater Statue with Glass
27" Statue with crown
$ 450.00 plus shipping
Special 18" Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima/Clearwater Statue with Glass
$ 250.00 plus shipping
Special 15" Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima/Clearwater Statue with Glass
White gown with gold trim around mantel
$ 200.00 plus shipping
Special 12" Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima/Clearwater Statue with Glass
White gown with gold trim around mantel
$ 165.00 plus shipping
Special 18" Our Lady of Fatima/Clearwater Statue with Glass
Blue and Pink gown with a rosary over her hand.
$ 250.00 plus shipping
Special 11" Our Lady of Fatima/Clearwater Statue with Glass
Blue and Pink gown.
$ 150.00 plus shipping
Crucifix by Felix - Hand Carved
Crucifix with incredible detail!
$ 750.00 plus shipping
Imitation of Two Hearts
Giclee Art Print on Canvas
$ 150.00 plus shipping
Lucia's Vision
Giclee Art Print on Canvas by Harold Kellner
$ 150.00 plus shipping
Mary's Image 12 x 16
Giclee Art Print on Canvas of Mary's image with a sliver of glass and a little bottle of Jesus and Mary water. The glass will be fixed behind the back of the picture.
$ 200.00 plus shipping
Blue Crystal Rosary
Rosary with the Image of Our Lady of Clearwater
6mm - $ 30.00 plus shipping
8mm - $ 40.00 plus shipping
Red Crystal Rosary
Rosary with the Image of Our Lady of Clearwater
6mm - $ 30.00 plus shipping
8mm - $ 40.00 plus shipping
Clear Crystal Rosary
Rosary with the Image of Our Lady of Clearwater
6mm - $ 30.00 plus shipping
8mm - $ 40.00 plus shipping
Mug
Mug with the Image of Our Lady of Clearwater
$ 15.00 plus shipping
Call Rosie
1-888-211-3041
or
1-727-725-9312
Statues
OL-Guadalupe
w/glass - 28
OL-Grace
w/glass - 24OL-Mt. Carmel
w/glass - 24
OL-Lourdes
w/glass - 24
IH-Mary
w/glass - 24
IH-Ivory
w/glass - 24
SH-Jesus
w/glass - 24SH-Blessing
w/glass - 24
Sorrow M
w/glass - 24
Inf.-Prague
w/glass - 24
OL-Lourdes
w/glass - 18
OL-Mt. Carmel
w/glass - 18I Heart
w/glass - 18
I Heart - Ivory
w/glass - 18
OL-Grace
w/glass - 18
SH-Jesus
w/glass - 18OL-Guadalupe
w/glass - 12
PV-Fatima
w/glass - 27
PV-Fatima
w/glass - 18
PV-Fatima
w/glass - 15
OL-Fatima
w/glass - 18
PV-Fatima
w/glass - 12
OL-Fatima
w/glass - 11
St. Padre Pio
St. Joseph
St. Therese
St. Francis
St. Anthony
St. Claire
Limpias
St. Jude
Divine Mercy
Holy Family
Angel
St. Philomena
Pieta - Marble
Pieta - Color
Holy Family 12
St. Anthony - 18
St. Francis - 18
St. Joseph - 18
St. Therese - 18
St. Rita - 18
St. Clare - 12
St. Rita - 12
St. Padre Pio - 12
Divine Mercy - 12
St. Michael - 11
Limpias - 8
Shepherds of Christ Ministries
P. O. Box 627
China, IN 47250
Toll free - 1-888-211-3041
Local - 1-812-273-8405
fax - 1-812-273-3182
web: www.sofc.org
e-mail: info@sofc.org
Size
Price
Quantity
Holy Family
24"
$180
Limpias
24"
$125
St. Anthony
24"
$125
St. Claire
24"
$125
St. Francis
24"
$125
St. Joseph
24"
$125
St. Jude
24"
$125
St. Padre Pio
24"
$125
St. Therese
24"
$125
Divine Mercy
22"
$125
Angel
22"
$100
St. Philomena
20"
$100
St. Philomena
16"
$65
St. Joseph
18"
$65
St. Francis
18"
$65
St. Anthony
18"
$65
St. Rita
18"
$65
St. Therese
18"
$65
Pieta - Color
15"
$125
Pieta - Marble
15"
$125
Holy Family
12"
$75
St. Padre Pio - standing
12"
$100
St. Padre Pio - sitting
9"
$100
St. Michael
11"
$40
St. Rita
12"
$40
Divine Mercy
12"
$50
St. Claire
12"
$40
Pieta - Color
8"
$75
Pieta - Marble
8"
$75
Limpias
8"
$25
Our Lady of Guadalupe w/glass
28"
$500
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel w/glass
24"
$500
Immaculate Heart of Mary w/glass
24"
$500
Immaculate Heart - Ivory w/glass
24"
$500
Infant of Prague w/glass
24"
$500
Our Lady of Grace w/glass
24"
$500
Our Lady of Lourdes w/glass
24"
$500
Sacred Heart of Jesus w/glass
24"
$500
Sacred Heart -Blessing w/glass
24"
$500
Sorrowful Mother w/glass
24"
$500
Immaculate Heart of Mary w/glass
18"
$300
Immaculate Heart - Ivory w/glass
18"
$300
Sacred Heart of Jesus w/glass
18"
$300
Our Lady of Lourdes w/glass
18"
$300
Our Lady of Grace w/glass
18"
$300
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel w/glass
18"
$300
Our Lady of Guadalupe w/glass
12"
$200
Fatima w/glass
11"
$150
Fatima w/glass
18"
$250
Pilgrim Virgin w/glass
12"
$160
Pilgrim Virgin w/glass
15"
$200
Pilgrim Virgin w/glass
18"
$250
Pilgrim Virgin w/glass
27"
$450
Call for Shipping Price (1-888-211-3041)
Name
Sub-Total
Address
IN Tax (7%)
City
Shipping
State Zip
Donation
Telephone
Order Total
Call Rosie
1-888-211-3041
or
1-727-725-9312
Immaculate Heart and Sacred Heart Pictures Available
with & without frames - different sizes available
Copyright
© 2011 Shepherds of Christ.
Rights for
non-commercial
reproduction granted:
May be copied in its entirety, but neither re-typed nor edited.
Translations are welcome but they must be reviewed for moral and
theological accuracy by a source approved by Shepherds of Christ Ministries
before any distribution takes place. Please contact us for more information.
All scripture quotes are from the
New Jerusalem Bible, July 1990, published by Doubleday.
Revised: January 1, 2011
URL: http://www.sofc.org
Contact Information for Shepherds
of Christ
Email: info@SofC.org
Shepherds of Christ Ministries
P.O. Box 627
China, Indiana 47250
Telephone: (toll free) 1-888-211-3041 or (812) 273-8405
FAX: (812) 273-3182
Statues,
Crucifixes, and Religious Artwork 
