Relationships is what life is all
                    about

                The reason we were created was
                    to love

                3 LOVES
                    (1) love of God
                    (2) love of each other
                    (3) love of self

                Let love be your greatest goal.
                Without love — I have nothing
                We were created to love
                Love goes on and on
                The more we learn to love, it
                    goes with us

               

Matthew 22: 36-40

'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?' Jesus said to him, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.'

 
                Faith, hope and love and the greatest
                    of these is love

                Love is selfless
                Love is not prideful
                Love is not jealous
                God is love —
                The more we love the more perfect we
                    become

                God wants us to have relationship
                The most perfect relationship
                    is the Trinity.

                God intends us to see ourselves
                    as members in God's family.

                The Church is the mystical
                    body of Christ.

                The Church is one, holy, Catholic
                    and Apostolic

                Everything we do is to build
                    God's Kingdom

                We act for the honor and glory of
                    God — not selfish glory

                God promised us He will never leave
                    us.

                God has a plan for me —
                God is a Person
                God wants personal love
                    union with Him —

                We don't act like God is
                    an idea

                We need more than reasoning about God
                    and us - He wants a
                    relationship —
                    a loving relationship

                God will never abandon us
                God is with us
                That is what Emmanuel says

                Jesus wants me to selflessly
                    give myself to Him —
                    Jesus wants my all
                    Jesus as my goal will
                        make me happy

                    Joy is in God
                    God wants deep intimacy
                        with us —
                    God wants oneness with us
                    God wants our heartfelt
                        love

  

                We were created for God

                Anger, jealousness, envy,
                    lust makes us unhappy
                    ultimately —

                Imperfections we act on hurt
                    us and others

                Love is forever!!

                Heaven is to be our real
                    home —
                    It is a reward —

                It is a choice to give myself
                    to God —
                    I can grow ever closer
                    I choose how deep my relationship
                    with God is.

   

Prayer for Union with Jesus

    Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart.

    I am Yours to possess. I am Yours to use. I want to be selfless and only exist in You. Help me to spoon out all that is me and be an empty vessel ready to be filled by You. Help me to die to myself and live only for You. Use me as You will. Let me never draw my attention back to myself. I only want to operate as You do, dwelling within me.

    I am Yours, Lord. I want to have my life in You. I want to do the will of the Father. Give me the strength to put aside the world and let You operate my very being. Help me to act as You desire. Strengthen me against the distractions of the devil to take me from Your work.

    When I worry, I have taken my focus off of You and placed it on myself. Help me not to give in to the promptings of others to change what in my heart You are making very clear to me. I worship You, I adore You and I love You. Come and dwell in me now.

-God's Blue Book, January 17, 1994

    

Genesis 1: 26-27

God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.’

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

 

1 Corinthians 13: 1-13  

Though I command languages both human and angelic—if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains—if I am without love, I am nothing. Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned—if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever. 

    Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. 

    Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will fall silent; and if knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know only imperfectly, and we prophesy imperfectly; but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will be done away with. When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and see things as a child does, and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with all childish ways. Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known. 

    As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love.

  

                We are to live to be more and more like
                    Jesus

                God wants us to be lovers
                Jesus' Heart is on fire for love of
                    us.

  

  

                Relationship — The Holy Family
                Relationship — The Trinity

                Let go to God
                We want relationship
                We humbly recognize we are God's
                    creature

  

Matthew 11: 29

Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

 

                Humility is truth

                We must admit to what is really wrong
                    with the world

                So many men think of themselves
                    as masters of their destiny

                They leave God out of the
                    picture

                Man wants to avoid what is
                    hard —
                    this is a major obstacle
                    in growing in the spiritual
                    life if we fail to attempt
                    to change something that
                    drastically needs to change
                    to grow spiritually.

                God loves us first
                We respond to God's love
                God takes the initiative
                God can give us a special gift
                    of His grace —
                    elevating our natural faculties

                God gives us this sharing in His
                    life in baptism —

                We are to grow in this life
                    in Him —

                In this lies our happiness —
                    we must give ourselves and try
                    to be more perfected to grow in
                    greater life in Him

                God gives us His gifts of love —

                God blesses us
                God gives us the Church
                God gives us the Sacraments
                God gives us Mary —
                    the sinless one

                God gives us Himself —
                God gives us the Word
                God gives us the Eucharist
                God loves us through these
                    gifts

                God loves us intimately
                God gives us the Blue Books
                    to know this deep intimate
                    love

                We can be great in love —
                Our lives can be so great
                    because we love

                True greatness — Christ has
                    pointed out is in
                    how we love

                Relationship — holy and authentic

                    

   

From a Lenten Homily, March 24, 2000

Live in the Moment

    Today’s Gospel in its story certainly points ahead to Jesus in His Passion and death. And as we read passages such as this during the Lenten season, we are reminded once again that the Church in her Liturgy of the Word gives us an opportunity to undergo a purification, an ever deepening cleansing of ourselves so that we may be a more fit instrument for receiving the great graces which are to be given to us at the time of the Resurrection memorial on Easter. And so all in all, Lent is a time of purification to prepare us for ever-greater gifts of the Lord. It’s a time of self-discipline, a time to renew our efforts to be self-disciplined in the service of the Lord. Self-discipline is an aspect of purification. And I suggest that one of the most difficult acts of self-discipline in the spiritual journey is to concentrate on the present moment. We have a very strong tendency to disregard the importance of the present moment by focusing in a wrong way on the past or in a wrong way on the future. There are proper occasions for thinking of the past and the future. For example, we have to learn from the past and we have to prepare for the future, but our great emphasis has to be upon the present. There is a Latin axiom which says, age quod agis, age quod agis, which means: do what you are doing, concentrate on the present. And of course we are familiar with that term in the history of spirituality: the sacrament of the present moment. And so the discipline of Lent certainly encourages us to include in a deeper self-discipline a greater determination to get as much as we can out of the present moment. People with a terminal illness have an opportunity as they prepare for death for increased prayer, contrition, love of God. However, some are taken very, very quickly. But for those who have the opportunity of knowing with some certainty the time of their death, I’m sure as they look back on their lives, they are saddened by the many times they did not use time and opportunities for the service of the Lord properly, and are overjoyed at those times in which they did use the present opportunity properly. A great means we have of living in the present properly is a greater focus upon our Lord. For if I have that awareness of the fact I am united with Jesus here and now, why should I be concerned so much about the future or the past? Yes, a great help in living in the present and deriving all the good we can from it for ourselves and others is an ever greater focus upon Jesus, because the more I focus upon Jesus and the more I live with Him in the present moment, the more I am satisfied with the present moment. And so let us in our Lenten activity resolve to grow in that self-discipline - which is very difficult at times - to really live in the presence with the fullness of our being as much as is possible, with the help of God’s grace. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the day of salvation.

end of Father Carter's homily