November 9, 2019

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

2 Maccabees 7: 1-2, 9-14

It also happened that seven brothers were arrested with their mother. The king tried to force them to taste some pork, which the Law forbids, by torturing them with whips and scourges. One of them, acting as spokesman for the others, said, 'What are you trying to find out from us? We are prepared to die rather than break the laws of our ancestors.'

With his last breath he exclaimed, 'Cruel brute, you may discharge us from this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up, since we die for his laws, to live again for ever.' After him, they tortured the third, who on being asked for his tongue promptly thrust it out and boldly held out his hands, courageously saying, 'Heaven gave me these limbs; for the sake of his laws I have no concern for them; from him I hope to receive them again.' The king and his attendants were astounded at the young man's courage and his utter indifference to suffering. When this one was dead they subjected the fourth to the same torments and tortures. When he neared his end he cried, 'Ours is the better choice, to meet death at men's hands, yet relying on God's promise that we shall be raised up by him; whereas for you there can be no resurrection to new life.'

Psalm 17: 1, 5-6, 8, 15

[Prayer Of David]
Listen, Yahweh, to an upright cause,
pay attention to my cry,
lend an ear to my prayer,
my lips free from deceit.

my steps never stray from the paths you lay down,
from your tracks; so my feet never stumble.
I call upon you, God, for you answer me;
turn your ear to me, hear what I say.

Guard me as the pupil of an eye,
shelter me in the shadow of your wings

But I in my uprightness will see your face,
and when I awake I shall be filled with the vision of you.

2 Thessalonians 2: 16 - 3:5

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who has given us his love and, through his grace, such ceaseless encouragement and such sure hope, encourage you and strengthen you in every good word and deed.

Finally, brothers, pray for us that the Lord's message may spread quickly, and be received with honour as it was among you; and pray that we may be preserved from bigoted and evil people, for not everyone has faith. You can rely on the Lord, who will give you strength and guard you from the evil One, and we, in the Lord, have every confidence in you, that you are doing and will go on doing all that we tell you. May the Lord turn your hearts towards the love of God and the perseverance of Christ.

Luke 20: 27-38

Some Sadducees-those who argue that there is no resurrection-approached him and they put this question to him, 'Master, Moses prescribed for us, if a man's married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers; the first, having married a wife, died childless. The second and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally the woman herself died. Now, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?'

Jesus replied, 'The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are children of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him everyone is alive.'

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

November 6, 2016

INTRODUCTION – (2 Maccabees 7,1-2.9-14; 2 Thess. 2,16-3,5;Luke 20,27-38) Alexander the Great conquered every nation from Sicily and Egypt all the way to India. This area included Israel. He did it all in twelve years. In his spare time, when he wasn’t busy conquering, he founded 70 cities. Alexander died at the age of 32 in 323 BC! At his death, his empire was divided among three of his generals who, with their successors, ruled for about 250 years until the Romans gained power in the first century. Our first reading today takes us back about 150 years after Alexander to 175 BC when an ambitious Greek ruler named Antiochus IV came to power. He decided to create religious unity throughout his kingdom. He thus made it a crime for the Jews to practice their Jewish religion. Circumcision was forbidden. Copies of the Scriptures were burned. Jews could not follow their dietary laws or celebrate their usual feasts. The worship of Greek gods and goddesses was required. Some of the Jews gave in to the Greeks, while others fought hard to hold on to their traditional faith. Our first reading gives us just a hint of how terrible this time was for the Jews who were faithful. If you look for this passage in your bible at home, it describes in greater detail the torture of seven brothers and their heroic mother. A shorter portion of this reading was chosen today because the focus of this passage is on belief in the resurrection of the dead. Many Jews at that time, 175 years before Christ, believed that all who were faithful to Yahweh in this life would rise to new life in the resurrection on the last day. The passage prepares us for the gospel where the Sadducees, who did not believe in it, challenged Jesus about the resurrection. Their goal was to confuse or embarrass Jesus with what they thought was an insoluble question.

HOMILY – The Sadducees, who feature in today’s gospel, were members of the Jewish aristocracy and the Jewish priesthood. They were the archconservatives in Jesus’ time. They did not believe in angels, spirits and the resurrection of the dead on the last day. What they were trying to do in today’s gospel is to prove, with an extreme example, that belief in the resurrection of the dead is nonsense. They based their example on a law from the Book of Leviticus. The law is known as levirate marriage and it stated: if a man died and he had no children, then his brother was supposed to marry the man’s widow and through her bring children into the world. It needs to be mentioned that in that culture, a woman needed a man to care for her and especially support her. Without a male relative in her life, she would be destitute. By the way, a Jewish man could have two wives, so there was no law against adding another wife to the family. If a man died and his brother married the widow, that would preserve the name and memory of the brother who died; it would keep in the family whatever property the brother had; and it would ensure that the widow would be provided for. The Sadducees really didn’t believe there was life after this life, but even if that were possible, in their minds it would be very similar to life as we know it now. Jesus tells them that’s where they were mistaken. He simply informed them that, at the resurrection, our life would be significantly different from life as we now know it. He said we will be like angels, we will be children of God and we will rise. His answer leaves us dealing with mystery; for example, who knows how angels live?

I want to give you an example of how I think of it. The example comes from a book entitled: The Secret Life of the Unborn Child. The author tells the story that one evening he was listening to the radio and the announcer introduced Boris Brott, the conductor of the Hamilton (Ontario) Philharmonic Symphony orchestra. The announcer asked several questions about opera, then he asked how Brott became interested in music. Brott answered that it had been part of his life since before he was born. This is how he explained what he meant when he said “since before I was born.” When he was a young man, he would often surprise himself by being able to play certain pieces, sight unseen. As a conductor he discovered occasionally he would be conducting a piece for the first time, and he would know the flow of the cello part before he turned the page. One day he mentioned this to his mother who was a professional cellist. He thought she would be intrigued, and she was. When she heard what the pieces were, the mystery quickly solved itself. All the scores Brott knew, sight unseen, were ones she used to play while she was pregnant with him. An example of prenatal learning. It’s also an example about how different life is for us before we’re born and after we come into this world. I think that life in today’s world is like an unborn baby, and death is like being born into another world that is so totally different than anything we can compare it with. That’s why we do not need to take anything with us when we leave this world. The Book of Revelation tells us all we will take with us is our good deeds.

Jiffy Sheet: 108 day Novena beginning November 7, 2019 to February 22, 2020

You will need:           1. This sheet
                                2. Holy Spirit Novena Book
                                3. Shepherds of Christ Prayer Manual

I. Begin at 6:20 p.m. by singing, "Come Holy Ghost" (verse 1).

Say, "I want to make a Spiritual Communion."

"I give my heart to Jesus and Mary with you in love." (This will unite us in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.)

Cast out Satan: "We cast Satan into the fires of hell, far from us, our families, our Movement, Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, the Church and the world in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Holy Spirit Novena and Rosary Novena Chart

Day:	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Period I	Nov 7 - J	8 - L	9 - S	10 - G	11 - J	12 - L	13 - S	14 - G	15 - J
II	16 - L	17 - S	18 - G	19 - J	20 - L	21 - S	22 - G	23 - J	24 - L
Period I	25 - S	26 - G	27 - J	28 - L	29 - S	30 - G	Dec 1 - J	2 - L	3 - S
II	4 - G	5 - J	6 - L	7 - S	8 - G	9 - J	10 - L	11 - S	12 - G
Period I	13 - J	14 - L	15 - S	16 - G	17 - J	18 - L	19 - S	20 - G	21 - J
II	22 - L	23 - S	24 - G	25 - J	26 - L	27 - S	28 - G	29 - J	30 - L
Period I	31 - S	Jan 1 - G	2 - J	3 - L	4 - S	5 - G	6 - J	7 - L	8 - S
II	9 - G	10 - J	11 - L	12 - S	13 - G	14 - J	15 - L	16 - S	17 - G
Period I	18 - J	19 - L	20 - S	21 - G	22 - J	23 - L	24 - S	25 - G	26 - J
II	27 - L	28 - S	29 - G	30 - J	31 - L	Feb 1 - S	2 - G	3 - J	4 - L
Period I	5 - S	6 - G	7 - J	8- L	9 - S	10 - G	11 - J	12 - L	13 - S
II	14 - G	15 - J	16 - L	17 - S	18 - G	19 - J	20 - L	21 - S	22 - G

Pray the Holy Spirit Novena using the Holy Spirit Novena Booklet.

After the novena, read the appropriate meditation. For example: period 1, day 1; period 1, day 2; etc. This will continue until further indicated.

It is enormously important that you feel as a body praying together, asking for the special coming of the Holy Spirit.

After the meditation say: "We consecrate the Movement, Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, the Church and the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary."

Ask that the Blood of Jesus be spread on the Movement, Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, the Church and the world.

Begin the 6:30 p.m. prayer service as usual.

II. Begin the 6:30 prayer service

Begin praying: Dear Father in the name of Your Son Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, through the powerful intercession of the Virgin Mary, with all the angels and the saints and the souls in purgatory, we join in one mind and one heart and ask the Holy Spirit to come to all the world in a special way, especially to our priests. We pray all prayers for the priests and the renewal of the Church and the world and for the Shepherds of Christ intentions. By the precious Body and Blood of Jesus we cast out Satan far from this place, our families, the Shepherds of Christ Movement, Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, the Church and the world. We ask the Blood of Jesus be spread on us, the Shepherds of Christ Movement, Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, the Church and the world. We beg for grace and mercy for the world and wish to make reparation to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. We give our hearts to Jesus and Mary with all gathered here in love. We wish to be forgiven for offending one another. We love You God, help us.

Sing A Song from Jesus.   Refrain: "I come to you with greatest love, I am your loving Savior. I am your God, I died for you, I come to you this day."

Then begin the prayers of the Good Shepherd (Shepherds of Christ Prayer Manual).

Sing The Rosary song   Refrain: "Oh the rosary, the rosary is the love of Their two Hearts,   Oh the rosary, the rosary is the love of Their two Hearts."
      1) Ave Maria, Ave Maria.
      2) Jesus we love You, Mary we love you.
      3) This is her peace plan, Children must pray it.
      4) We turn to Mary, She is the Queen of Peace.
      5) Oh Sacred Heart Divine, Oh Heart of Mary pure, Ave Maria, We love to pray it!

Begin the rosary. Please use the Rosary Books and the Rosary Aves. The important thing is to pray the prayers and the rosary at 6:30 p.m., if possible. (Rosary mysteries need to be according to the Rosary Novena.)

Read the Ten Commandments.

1. I, the Lord, am your God. You shall not have other gods besides me.
2.  You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.
3.  Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
4.  Honor your father and your mother.
5.  You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7.  You shall not steal.
8.  You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9.  You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
10.  You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.


Pray A Prayer of Thanksgiving then read the Daily Message for the day.

	Mysteries of Light Rosary Book Rosaries From the Hearts of Jesus and Mary - Volume I $ 5.00 plus postage
	Mysteries of Light Rosary Book Rosaries From the Hearts of Jesus and Mary - Volume II $ 5.00 plus postage

	Apostle's Manual Shepherds of Christ Overview: Very carefully discerned by Fr. Edward J. Carter S. J. $ 20.00 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
	Songs From Jesus Given by Jesus to His Messenger Author: Rita Ring. Discerned by: Fr. Edward J. Carter S.J. $ 3.00 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

	Shepherds of Christ Holy Spirit Novena Holy Spirit Novena by: Rita Ring $ 1.00 plus postage 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