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November 13 2007

November 14th Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 1 Period I.

The Novena Rosary Mysteries  
for November 14th are Joyful.

    

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November 13, 2007

      

                    We can presume God will not punish
                us for our sins if we are guilty of presumption.
                Many people have lied to themselves about
                how they have treated others and then
                expect that person to return this abuse
                with love and support.

                    God is truth and we are imperfect.
                In John 16 it states - the Spirit of
                Truth will come. In the Word it
                says the truth will be in you. God
                reveals to us His truth — we are ever
                growing to be more like God. We do
                not give into untruths — telling ourselves
                things are different than they are.
                We do not give into presumption
                thinking we can sin, lie and God
                will not judge us justly. God is
                just — He will separate the sheep
                from the goats.

                    We cannot lie a little, cheat a little
                and then say it is okay. We tell the
                truth. Lying has consequences, if lying
                to oneself or to others.

                    We are always realizing that we
                are forming in a greater image of
                Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth and
                the life.

                    A person that thinks God will not
                recognize their sins is guilty of
                pride. We recognize our sin, God
                forgives our sin and we beg for
                forgiveness and count on God's mercy.
                At every Mass we begin thus in the
                penitential rite.

 

                        From the Missal   

Penitential Rite

I confess to Almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault.

we lightly strike our breast

in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done,
and in what I have failed to do;
and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

May almighty God have mercy on us,
forgive us our sins,
and bring us to everlasting life.

Amen.

 

                    We hope for God's mercy — we want
                to someday go to heaven — we recognize
                heaven is a gift.

                    It is because of God's grace that
                we are led to repentance. Our sins
                lead us away from happiness because
                they lead us away from God. Happiness
                is found in union with God. Sins
                of lust and inordinate attachments
                against God's will lead us away
                from happiness and hurt others —
                sometimes many others —

                    There is much despair in the
                world — the death/dark culture —
                focus on the body as a play thing —
                pleasures against God's will — that
                can lead a person permitting themselves
                to go as far as killing a baby for their
                selfish desires —

                    Where are we when we despair?
                    Where are we with dark hearts
                not focused on God.

                    We rob ourselves of happiness
                when we are victims of sin.
                Those addicted to drugs, alcohol,
                food can become controlled by
                its chemicals —

                The Blue Books are the Mighty Medicine for
                    the sick world.

                In a world where many have turned
                to darkness, fallen away Catholics,
                men see that Jesus is truly present
                in the Blessed Sacrament this day —
                if they use the Blue Book.
                Jesus is no less present in the Blessed
                Sacrament than when He walked
                the earth. Jesus longs and waits
                for us to come.

                    Jesus is the perfect lover.
                    Jesus longs — Jesus wants our love.
                    God is love.

                What would you say to the despairing —
                    Come away with me
                    Believe in the Savior —

                Look at the Scripture Hebrews Chapters 11

                How so much happened because of
                    our Fathers of faith.

                When we have faith our eyes
                    are opened to the vision of
                    God — we see clearly His
                    magnificence.

                True happiness is found in
                    heaven — We have the
                    courage to do what we
                    must to attain eternal
                    happiness for ever.
                    We hope in this happiness
                    in heaven. For those who are not
                rooted in this everlasting happiness
                their lives must be filled with
                unhappiness. Man was created for
                God — in that lies His happiness.
                Satan is the father of lies —
                Lies to ourselves about the truth
                are like filling ourselves with
                mud. What happens when one
                is stuck in the mud.

                    A man who mistreats another
                human person cannot presume
                God will overlook his actions —
                    God has called us to be holy —
                    Loving of each other —
                    Kind in heart and

                Focused on our eternal reward in
                    heaven.

                God is love and
                He can only act lovingly.
                God is good.
                God is merciful.
                To have the vision of God we must
                    repent for our sins.
                The devil wants to lead a man to
                    hate God — this is a grievous
                    sin.
                God is truth.

                In following God's will in love
                    we can attain happiness
                    and everlasting life —

                Our life is to be lived loving and
                    serving God with our whole
                    heart, our whole soul and
                    our whole being and
                    loving our neighbors as ourselves. 

                In this lies
                our happiness
We live to seek eternal life
 We live to be happy with God forever.
 We hope for this.
 We live to do God's will in love.

                 The more a despairing man sins —
                    the more misery he has.

 

    

                We must seek greatness in serving
                    God — not greatness in the
                    things of the world or selfish pursuits
                    We let go to Him
                    We love Him
                    We pray to have insight into
                        the hidden mysteries
                    Heaven is a mystery to us
                    Hell is a mystery
                    God reveals more and more about
                        Himself and His Plan to us —

                    Man can have big problems
                        when he gives into
                        pride —
                        Look at Adam and Eve

                    Man has big problems if he gives
                        into inordinate attachments
                        in the world against God's will

                Every relationship against God's will leads
                    to problems —

                We must embrace God's will —
                    relationships must be as He desires
                    If we spend time in relationships
                        that are motivated by lust —
                        self pleasures —
                        seeking affections that fill
                            a need which is against
                            our vocation — we can
                            be unfaithful to God

                God may want us in New York, but
                    we go to California — the
                    work in New York is not
                    done because we wanted
                    a selfish whim, done our way in California,
                    A man who is called to be a priest and
                    gets married and gives up his vocation
                    may have great unhappiness.

                God created us.
                God gave us talents.
                God wants us to follow His Plan
                We say — "Oh God - I have fun here
                    so I am planning my life —
                    forget what You want - even
                    if You intend to use me for
                    billions of souls — I want
                    this inordinate attachment"

                The devil lures through inordinate
                    attachments — Vanity, pride

                Wanting others to think we are
                    great for our own vain glory —

                Self-promotion

                Not focused on God's plan — for
                    His honor and glory

                We must embrace that we have
                    a tainted human nature —
                    we are inclined to the
                    weakness of the flesh —
                    When we act impurely —
                        pridefully against
                        God's will we can be
                        enslaved to satan.

                Willfulness against God's will
                    is giving into satan

                In heaven there is perfect obedience
                    to God's will

                Truth can be found by obedience
                    to the commandments —
                    Living in the Word of God

                The Medicine of Immortality (the Eucharist)
                    helps heal the wounded
                    human nature

                Adam and Eve were put in the garden —
                    They were given the Garden
                        of Paradise
                    They sinned
                    Because of pride they disobeyed
                        God 

 

 

                    They lived in labor and
                        great penance

                    We must have sorrow for sin —
                    Sorrow for offending God
                    Sorrow for actions that
                        have hurt others

                When we die we will not
                    be judged on the last
                    hour of our lives —
                    We are to know our life
                    and how we have grown on
                    this journey to God

                Thank you for giving to the Lord

 

                From the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

                    p. 22

                    42. Deeds

                        The subject matter for examination will be the Ten
                    Commandments, the laws of the Church, the
                    recommendations of superiors. All transgressions of
                    obligations arising from any of these three groups are more
                    or less grievous sins according to the gravity of the
                    matter.

                        By recommendations of superiors is meant crusade
                    indults and other indulgences, such as those for peace
                    on condition of confession and reception of Holy Communion.
                    For to be the cause of one acting against such
                    pious recommendations and regulations of superiors or
                    to do so oneself, is no small sin.

 
 

From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
    by Louis J. Puhl, S.J.
  p. 12

                        23. FIRST PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION

                            Man is created to praise, reverence and serve God 
                        our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.

p. 11

21.    SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

    Which have as their purpose the conquest of self
    and the regulation of one's life in such a way that
    no decision is made under the influence of any
    inordinate attachment

   

   

 

      

                    We must understand that satan
                has tried to block man's conscience
                efforts to have an interior life
                so one, so united to God as St. Paul
                says

   

Galatians 2: 19-20

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

 


                    In this world the outside clamor —
                the stimulation — ever greater of
                sin and the dark world — loud
                music, cell phones — T.V. as
                big as a wall — speakers that
                made the floor vibrate under
                my feet when I am not even
                in the room with the
                monster TV — have driven
                man from the interior life —

                    The Shepherds of Christ is to deepen
                the interior life — through deeper
                consecration to the Hearts of
                Jesus and Mary and frequency
                of the Eucharist being
                saturated with His life —
                We become so one in Him —

                    We don't watch TV with
                beautiful things

                    We don't have violins playing
                The stimulus for the interior life is
                as we become more deeply one in
                Him — saturated with His
                grace —

                It is an interior transformation —
                A life lived in Him
                A mystical marriage to God —
                A contemplative in action —
                In a world where we have become
                    consumed with much
                    darkness

                We are the light set on a lamp
                    stand to shine in the
                    house — Because God is
                    so deeply one in us
 

John 3: 19

...though the light has come into the world...

               
               

Twelve Steps of AA 

                Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:

                    1.  We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had
                            become unmanageable.

                    2.  Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

                    3.  Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God
                         as we understood Him.

                    4.  Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

                    5.  Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact
                        nature of our wrongs.

                    6.  Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

                    7.  Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

                    8.  Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to
                        make amends to them all.

                    9.  Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to
                        do so would injure them or others.

                  10.  Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong
                        promptly admitted it.

                  11.  Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious
                        contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge
                        of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

                  12.  Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps,
                        we tried to carry this message to alcoholics,
                         and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

        

Sirach 15: 17

A human being has life and death before him:
    whichever he prefers will be given him.

 

Sirach 15: 19-20

His eyes are on those who fear him,
    he notes every human action.

He never commanded anyone to be godless,
    he has given no one permission to sin. 

 

Sirach 10: 9-11

What has dust and ashes to pride itself on?
    Even in life its entrails are repellent.
A long illness makes a fool of the doctor;
    a king today is a corpse tomorrow.
For in death the portion of all alike will be
    insects, wild animals and worms.

 

Sirach 15: 14-15

He himself made human beings in the beginning,
    and then left them free to make their own decisions. 

If you choose, you will keep the commandments
    and so be faithful to his will.

 

Sirach 10: 6-7

Do not resent your neighbour's every offence,
    and never act in a fit of passion.

Pride is hateful to God and humanity,
    and injustice is abhorrent to both.

 
 

                 In children of Alcoholics
                    these are the problems

     

THE PROBLEM

                        CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS:   These are the characteristics we seem to have
                                                                            in common due to having been brought up in an
                                                                            alcoholic household:

                        1. We became isolated and afraid of people and authority figures.
                        2. We became approval seekers and lost our identity in the process.
                        3. We either become alcoholics, marry them or both or find another
                            compulsive personality such as a workaholic to fulfill our sick
                            abandonment.
                        4. We are frightened by angry people and any personal criticism.
                        5. We live life from the viewpoint of helping and seeking victims,
                            and are attracted by that weakness in our love and friendship
                            relationship.
                        6. We have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, and it is easier
                            for us to be concerned with others rather than ourselves.
                            This enables us not to look closely at our faults, etc.
                        7. We get guilt feelings when we stand up for ourselves instead we
                            give in to others.
                        8. We become addicted to excitement.
                        9. We confuse love with pity and tend to "love" people we can pity and rescue.
                      10. We have stuffed back our feelings from our traumatic childhoods and have
                            lost the ability to feel or express our feelings. It hurts so much (denial).
                      11. We judge ourselves harshly and have a very low sense of self-esteem,
                            sometimes compensated for by trying to appear superior.
                      12. We are dependent personalities who are terrified of abandonment.
                            We will do anything to hold onto a relationship in order not to experience
                            the pain of abandonment. We are conditioned to these types of relationships.
                      13. Alcoholism is a family disease and we became para-alcoholics.
                            We took on the characteristics of that disease even though
                            we did not pick up the drink.
                      14. Para-alcoholics are reactors rather than actors.

  

THE GOALS
THE OPPOSITE OF "THE PROBLEM"

                        1. I feel comfortable and involved with people and authority figures.
                        2. I have a strong identity and give myself approval.
                        3. I accept and use personal criticism in a positive way.
                        4. I am becoming free from trying to fulfill my sick abandonment need.
                        5. As I face my own victim role, I am attracted by strengths and understand
                            weaknesses in my love and friendship relationships.
                        6. I am getting well through loving and focusing on myself.
                        7. It feels great to stand up for myself.
                        8. I enjoy peaceful serenity.
                        9. I love people who love and take care of themselves.
                      10. I am free to feel and express my feelings even when painful.
                      11. I have a healthy sense of self-esteem.
                      12. I am freed from the fear of abandonment in relationships as I rely
                            more and more on my Higher Power.
                      13. Through the ACA group, I examine and release para-alcoholic behaviors
                            I learned while living with the family disease of alcoholism.
                      14. I am an actor in this world.

     

THE PROMISES

                        1. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
                        2. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
                        3. We will comprehend the word serenity, and we will know peace.
                        4. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see
                            how our experience can benefit others.
                        5. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
                        6. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
                        7. Self-seeking will slip away.
                        8. Our whole attitude and outlook will change.
                        9. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.
                      10. We will know intuitively how to handle situations that used to baffle us.
                      11. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

 

                Spiritual awakening

                Some people always want to be right —
                    They win arguments but
                    people dislike them.

                Some people refuse to talk about
                    anger, feelings and
                    they fear conflict —

                    They are never enthusiastic
                    They take a person with
                        excitement and pour
                        water on their
                        ideas

                Some don't express anger directly.
                    They have hurt looks,
                    They direct anger inward.

                Person who throws tantrums
                    stamp feet

                What is underneath anger
                    layers like an onion
                    Maybe a person is thwarted
                    only acts out anger

                By this I mean that most of their emotions are angry ones.
                They only act in some form of anger.
                They do not even act joyously ever.
                Some people that cry are expressing hidden repressed anger.
                Some people can become like a stone with
                    a hardened heart and never show any tears.

   

Excerpt from September 22, 2007

                    On Mary's birthday I had a vision
                at 4:00 Mass of Mary and children on a
                big stone hill and a grotto on the hill where
                she was — It looked just like Stone
                Mountain in Atlanta by Conyers.

                    Jesus sent me to Atlanta this week
                to switch things with Doris and go to Conyers
                and Stone Mountain — I realized the big
                wreck of 2003 was on the same route not
                far from Conyers and the vision I had
                on the Blessed Mother's Birthday was like
                Stone Mountain, but Mary appeared
                where the guys were engraved in the
                mountain with children.

                First Mary was like this

  

   baby was facing out

  

                    Mary moved Him from left to right
                    then another woman came in the
                    picture, like dropped down, with
                    a child — then a total of 4 or 5 women
                    in pastel dresses with children — Mary had
                    a white dress —
                    there were then bigger children, tot
                    size at their feet — maybe an 8 year
                    old sitting down at their feet —

                In the message on Mary's birthday I
                    said a stone hill, but when I
                    saw Stone Mountain it looked identical
                    to the vision and the vision was where the
                    engraved men were

 

               

 

 

 

Crucifix — hand carved by Felix

who carved the crucifix  22'

at the Virgin Mary building.

 

   

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