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Pray for Fr. Joe, Dan, Mary, Sanja,
        Rita, Jim, Rosie, Louie's family –
        Madonna, Christopher,
        all Shepherds of Christ intentions on lists.

Prayer for Grace for our Country

Dear Father united to Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacrifice of Calvary sacramentally made present, celebrated around the world, in the Holy Spirit. We offer up all we do united to the Mass. We unite in one mind and one heart as members of the mystical body of Christ, with Christ our head in the pure and holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary, through the powerful intercession of Mary with all the angels and saints and souls in purgatory, and we beg for the saving grace, for our country, the United States. Please help us. We further pray for unity to always do the will of God in love. We spread the Blood of Jesus on the leaders and people of the United States and cast the devil into hell. We consecrate our country to the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart and all our dioceses, and beg for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God help us. We pray for our families, the priests, the Church and the world. In the Name of Jesus please hear us, we pray. We pray for our president and leaders. We pray that we are united as one nation under God to work together in love as God wants.

December 7, 2019

2nd Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 11: 1-10

A shoot will spring
    from the stock of Jesse,
a new shoot will grow from his roots.
On him will rest the spirit of Yahweh,
the spirit of wisdom and insight,
the spirit of counsel and power,
the spirit of knowledge
    and fear of Yahweh:
his inspiration will lie in fearing Yahweh.
His judgement will not be
    by appearances.
his verdict not given on hearsay.
He will judge the weak with integrity
and give fair sentence
    for the humblest in the land.
He will strike the country
    with the rod of his mouth
and with the breath of his lips
    bring death to the wicked.

Uprightness will be
    the belt around his waist,
and constancy the belt about his hips.

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the panther lie down with the kid,
calf, lion and fat–stock beast together,
with a little boy to lead them.
The cow and the bear will graze,
their young will lie down together.
The lion will eat hay like the ox.
The infant will play
    over the den of the adder;
the baby will put his hand
    into the viper’s lair.
No hurt, no harm will be done
on all my holy mountain,
for the country will be full
    of knowledge of Yahweh
as the waters cover the sea.

That day, the root of Jesse,
    standing as a signal for the peoples,
will be sought out by the nations
    and its home will be glorious.



Psalm 72: 1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17

God, endow the king with your own fair judgement,
  the son of the king with your own saving justice,
that he may rule your people with justice,
  and your poor with fair judgement.

In his days uprightness shall flourish,
  and peace in plenty till the moon is no more.
His empire shall stretch from sea to sea,
  from the river to the limits of the earth.

For he rescues the needy who calls to him,
  and the poor who has no one to help.
He has pity on the weak and the needy,
  and saves the needy from death.

May his name be blessed for ever,
    and endure in the sight of the sun.
In him shall be blessed every race in the world,
    and all nations call him blessed.

Romans 15: 4-9

    And all these things which were written so long ago were written so that we, learning perseverance and the encouragement which the scriptures give, should have hope. Now the God of perseverance and encouragement give you all the same purpose, following the example of Christ Jesus, so that you may together give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one heart.

   Accept one another, then, for the sake of God’s glory, as Christ accepted you. I tell you that Christ’s work was to serve the circumcised, fulfilling the truthfulness of God by carrying out the promises made to the fathers, and his work was also for the gentiles, so that they should give glory to God for his faithful love; as scripture says: For this I shall praise you among the nations and sing praise to your name.

Matthew 3: 1-12

In due course John the Baptist appeared; he proclaimed this message in the desert of Judaea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.’ This was the man spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said:

    A voice of one that cries in the desert,
   ‘Prepare a way for the Lord,
    make his paths straight.’

This man John wore a garment made of camel–hair with a leather loin–cloth round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and the whole Jordan district made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins. But when he saw a number of Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming retribution? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not presume to tell yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father," because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones. Even now the axe is being laid to the root of the trees, so that any tree failing to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire. I baptise you in water for repentance, but the one who comes after me is more powerful than I, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing–fan is in his hand; he will clear his threshing–floor and gather his wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.’

2nd Sunday of Advent

December 4, 2016

INTRODUCTION – (Isaiah 11,1-10; Romans 15,4-9; Matthew 3,1-12) The historical setting for today’s first reading goes back 700 years before Christ. It was a time of great distress for Israel. The Assyrians had literally annihilated all of the area north of Jerusalem - an area known as the northern kingdom. It was very likely Jerusalem would be the next victim of the Assyrian army. It would be similar to a hostile nation enslaving and killing every person who lived in the northern half of the United States and destroying every home and business in the same area. In spite of all this, we hear Isaiah in today’s first reading proclaiming a message of hope – a promise of great blessings to those who have remained faithful to God. A great king, filled with the Spirit of God, would usher in these blessings. This ruler would come from the royal house of David – that is what Isaiah meant when he identifies this leader as “a shoot that would sprout from the stump of Jesse.” Jesse was the father of King David, as I’m sure you all know, and the kingship in Jerusalem was barely surviving as the word “stump” indicates.

HOMILY – Our homily last week could be summarized in one word: “prepare.” Too many people think this means we should shop a lot, decorate our house, prepare big meals for relatives and friends, send cards. These are not bad things. But that’s not what the Scriptures are talking about when it says “prepare.” The advertising media does a pretty good job telling us to prepare in the various ways I’ve mentioned. The Scriptures are asking us to prepare for a coming of Christ that is yet to take place. Isaiah describes this future king who would not arrive for many years. His name would be Emmanuel – a name meaning God with us, or God is with us. He would be filled with all the gifts of the Spirit of God. The peace his coming will bring will be unimaginable. As we just heard, Isaiah had to describe it poetically: animals and people, the wolf and lamb, the calf and the lion, and poisonous snakes and little children would all live in harmony on this earth. It is a beautiful image and only God knows how all this can happen - and when it will happen. In the gospel, John the Baptist told us it will be soon: “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (A better translation would be: “the kingdom of heaven is fast approaching.) John the Baptist’s food and clothing mark him as a prophet. Eating bugs doesn’t seem very appealing, but it is still a common item in the diet of Arabs today. They are nutritious. Vitamin content is high. People who like to predict what life on this planet will be like in the future have written that as the population of the world keeps going higher, locusts will be part of our diet too.

    I have strayed from the main topic of our liturgy which is repentance and the baptisms of John. John’s baptism is interpreted a little differently than Christian baptism. Christian baptism removes sin; whereas, John the Baptist preached repentance. John’s baptism was given as a sign that the sinner had repented. Once a person decided to live in a righteous way as God wants us to, then they received baptism of their body as a symbol that their soul was made clean (by their decision to live a righteous life.)

    All this goes back to the words of the Baptist in today’s gospel (and also the exact same message of Jesus, in the next chapter): “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is fast approaching.” It is something we need to prepare for. If we didn’t need to prepare, why would the Baptist, and why would God’s Son himself, say that we should? The definition of prepare is “to get ready for something,” or “to provide what is needed” as in preparing to go somewhere, or to complete something as in “preparing a meal.” In simplest terms, it means to do something to achieve some purpose. We can’t just claim to be part of some group - like saying I’m a Catholic or I’m a Christian or I’m a spiritual person. It’s obvious from the preaching of the Baptist, the Jews thought because they were descendants of Abraham, they were automatically saved. John the Baptist said JUST claiming membership in some organization is not going to win us any points. We have to be an active member of the organization; we have to do our part to help fulfill its purpose. John the Baptist said, for example, we have to be like a fruit tree that is productive. Thus we have to live a good life and produce good works. The Book of Revelation tells us our good works are the only thing we will take with us when the Lord calls us to himself.

    Besides buying gifts and sending cards and baking and decorating, how are we preparing to meet Christ when he comes again? One example - Have we done anything to meet him at today’s holy Mass?

^{^{Given

October 29, 2016



R.
Please spread blessed holy water

(You can also mix Jesus and Mary water

with your blessed Holy Water if you have it.)

in your yard, around your house,

in the state you live in.


    And ask God to bless your state


Ask God to bless the United States

Pray all prayers through the intercession of

Our Lady of CLEAR – WATER.

Ask the Lady of CLEAR - WATER

to help with the blessed water.

Mary has appeared to me for 22 years,

in Ohio and Florida.}}