| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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February 3, 2016
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February 4th Holy Spirit Novena |
The Novena Rosary
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February 10th - 13th
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Fr. Joe, Mary, Blue Book 16.
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Blow Out Sale for Reprinting of Blue Book 1, 2 & 3
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Blue Book 1 - $4 each plus postage
Blue Book 2 - $4 each plus postage
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New Homily Book - Cycle C
Available $10.00 plus postage
February 3, 2016
Today's Readings
2 Samuel 24: 2, 9-17
The king said to Joab and the senior army officers who were with him, 'Now, go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and take a census of the people; I wish to know the size of the population.'
Joab gave the king the census results for the people; Israel had eight hundred thousand fighting men who could wield a sword, and Judah five hundred thousand.
But afterwards David’s heart misgave him for having taken a census of the people. David then said to Yahweh, ‘I have committed a grave sin by doing this. But now, Yahweh, I beg you to forgive your servant for this fault, for I have acted very foolishly.’ When, however, David got up next morning, the following message had come from Yahweh to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, ‘Go and say to David, "Yahweh says this: I offer you three things; choose which one of them I am to inflict on you." ’ So Gad went to David and said, ‘Which do you prefer: to have three years of famine befall your country; to flee for three months before a pursuing army; or to have three days of epidemic in your country? Now think, and decide how I am to answer him who sends me.’ David said to Gad, ‘I am very apprehensive . . . Better to fall into Yahweh’s hands, since his mercies are great, than to fall into the hands of men!’ So David chose the epidemic.It was the time of the wheat harvest. So Yahweh unleashed an epidemic on Israel from that morning until the time determined; plague ravaged the people and, of the people from Dan to Beersheba, seventy thousand died. But when the angel stretched his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh felt sorry about the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, ‘Enough now! Hold your hand!’ The angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing–floor of Araunah the Jebusite. When David saw the angel who was ravaging the people, he said to Yahweh, ‘I was the one who sinned. I was the one who acted wrongly. But these, the flock, what have they done? Let your hand lie heavy on me and on my family!’
Psalm 32: 1-2, 5-7
[Of David Poem] How blessed are those whose offence is forgiven,
whose sin blotted out.
How blessed are those to whom Yahweh imputes no guilt,
whose spirit harbours no deceit.I made my sin known to you,
did not conceal my guilt.
I said, 'I shall confess
my offence to Yahweh.'
And you, for your part, took away my guilt,
forgave my sin.That is why each of your faithful ones prays to you
in time of distress.
Even if great floods overflow,
they will never reach your faithful.
You are a refuge for me,
you guard me in trouble,
with songs of deliverance you surround me.
Mark 6: 1-6
Leaving that district, he went to his home town, and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, 'Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?' And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is despised only in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house'; and he could work no miracle there, except that he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. He made a tour round the villages, teaching.
R. God is our Father
Mary is our Mother –
Mary appeared in Clearwater telling us about
prayer and love and peace as a messenger
from God.
Mary's apparitions show us that God wants
us to listen and He will help us, but
man has been so used to ignoring God,
ignoring what they need to embrace, to
live by, to have the answer that will
help him.
When I see her beautiful face in the celestial
light I am in awe of this magnificent
gift given and I want to do all they say
to obey God and help men see their problems
come, many times, from their own actions
to do their own thing when God is so
close and His path is not that hard
He may be asking us to follow. The biggest
problem can be ourselves, what motive
do we have for saving ourselves and
listening to ourselves that keep us
so shut down, when God is calling us to
live, to give in His plan and experience
the vibrancy of living deeply in Him.
A man whose heart is shut down can be
in the habit that if he is touched in his
heart of compassion, of love – he constantly
stops himself and doesn't go there, he may
be afraid of being betrayed, of being hurt,
of never trusting anyone, of getting too close
to someone and being disappointed – so
therefore they control or try to control everything
around them so they never experience the depth
of sharing their heart, really sharing their
heart with God or others. God wants us to be
committed, to know we suffer in heart – look
at the offenses against God, look at how
Jesus was persecuted and run out of town
and treated, but He was faithful to the mission
His Father gave to Him. His actions were not
determined by how He wanted to never be
persecuted, not have to suffer disappointments
of the heart. His actions were the actions needed
to be faithful to the mission God called Him to.
A person can live their whole life not feeling,
not trusting, not communicating and get
better and better at hardening their heart
so they can control things, being like a
machine and not like the soft and supple
Heart of Jesus.
God has called us all to see our faults
and to take inventory of our lives, we
examine our conscience daily, all through
the day, taking our spiritual pulse. Are
we living in God, is our heart beating
in union with the Father's will – are we closed
down and rigid, in control – not letting
anyone get too close, the people God put
in our lives to be united to.
It is interesting how the older we get the
more we see we need others to help us. We
become dependent more and more and
relationships are vital. A man and woman
married have each other. One cannot do this
as good as they once did – another something
else they can't do as well.
God created Adam and He gave him Eve to
be a companion. God gives us children from
union of man and woman. God shows us
the sacredness of the marriage act. God
gave us a heart to love and commanded us
to love Him first and love others as ourselves.
A blind man cannot see himself in a
mirror. A man who doesn't want to work
with anyone else is like the blind man
who never looks in the mirror, he has
his agenda, his life and he is the Master
of it. A man can know how to send people
away to be Master of his space.
The Greatest Commandment says this:
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.'
R. This is from God – to love with all our heart –
to learn to give and receive, to walk hand-in-hand
with others, building God's Kingdom –
To be as a body, where the eye and the
ear work together in the body – blood
flows through the body to the organs – the
heart must be working for a man to be
alive. God created us this way – learn
a lesson from the body. Learn a lesson
from how God gave Adam, Eve and how
they produced children.
God did not throw out the mold or
change the plan – He gave them rules
to follow – He created them and
commanded them to obey – We see Eve
disobeyed and encouraged Adam to do so –
We see Cain killed his brother –
We see Joseph's brothers wanted him dead
because of jealousy –
We see they persecuted the prophets and
they wanted Jesus dead –
We see disobedience to the Father's will,
hatred for one's brother, we see
man wants independence even from
God by disobeying His commands
of unity and love.
Yes, man has a free will.
Would it show love if God forced us to
do things – God wants us to choose
freely to obey Him – to show we
recognize our creaturehood and He
is the Master –
God has promised eternal salvation as
a reward to those who love and
serve Him and do what is necessary
to gain eternal salvation.
The will of man is to be disciplined – to
learn to obey God, to learn to love, to learn
to trust.
Jesus says "I am the way, the truth
and the life." We walk in the footprints
of Jesus. Jesus paid a big price to show us
His love – to be our Savior – to teach us –
Jesus loves us so much –
We are lovable –
We need our hearts to be united to God –
John 15: 1-5
I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that bears no fruit
he cuts away,
and every branch that does bear fruit
he prunes
to make it bear even more.
You are clean already,
by means of the word
that I have spoken to you.
Remain in me, as I in you.
As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself,
unless it remains part of the vine,
neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine,
you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me, with me in him,
bears fruit in plenty;
for cut off from me you can do nothing.
Sing: We Have Been Told
Sing: Give Me Your Heart Oh Jesus
R. Life is really short – we are not here to
bend God's rules. We are here to seek to know
God's plan and to live by it. The goal of
life is eternal happiness, to have the
beatific vision – we do not want anything
in our life that takes us away from God.
To be prudent, the man sees all
his actions are to be those that are set
on the goal of eternal happiness with
God, forever in heaven. We seek the vision
of God in all our actions.
When we are not prudent we are
going to unhappiness. Being imprudent
is unhappiness. The goals the man
seeks when he is imprudent are the
goals God did not intend and thus
he is unsatisfied because of his own
choices opposed to the vision of God.
Controlling, thirst for power over other men
for dominance sake is like this – it is
not like authority that God wants to maintain
structure and order – It is a man,
who can be filled with fear, that refuses
to let go of control, seeking power because
he may have been deeply wounded by others
who dominated him and hurt him.
Actions performed because of loss of power
seeking dominance for dominance sake
are not actions performed for the vision
of God.
1 John 4: 17-21
Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is. In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love. Let us love, then, because he first loved us. 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. Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.
R. God has a plan. God wants unity – a man
cannot close off his heart and be united
properly to God or men – we see this is
impossible in the physical that a man
cannot operate with a blocked heart –
Is it so hard to see that if a man blocks
off his own spiritual heart – every time
feeling or trusting or communication
comes up – that he is becoming a
withered branch disconnected from
life itself, from life rooted in God
the Master. Who can change him? Not
a nagging friend who becomes an enabler,
not a company that puts up with him,
he needs help and he can refuse any
help because he refuses to look in
the mirror.
Luke 1: 46-55
And Mary said:
My soul proclaims
the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit rejoices
in God my Saviour;
because he has looked upon
the humiliation of his servant.
Yes, from now onwards
all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty
has done great things for me.
Holy is his name,
and his faithful love extends age after age
to those who fear him.
He has used the power of his arm,
he has routed the arrogant of heart.
He has pulled down princes
from their thrones
and raised high the lowly.
He has filled the starving with good things,
sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the help
of Israel his servant,
mindful of his faithful love
—according to the promise
he made to our ancestors—
of his mercy to Abraham
and to his descendants for ever.
R. It is like being in a closet where he
wants no one to see him because he
wants to run things his way –
even if he is unhappy and miserable
and hurting others – And in this closet
there is not room for the Holy Spirit to come
and counsel, but satan works in
this isolation. We need time in unity with
God, alone, praying and listening and
being intimate with Him, but this
leads to going out and living our
vocation, as He lives in us among
men – this leads to strength in
answering his call, in spreading the
Good News – in reaching out and loving
others – The man who is prudent finds
happiness in his actions of serving
God and others. His actions are those
that are leading him to eternal happiness –
this makes him happy!
The man whose inordinate desires is
to control, to be independent, to be
isolated, to shut down his heart is
unhappy because he is operating against
the law of love given by God. God has
called us to live more and more being
in the image of Jesus.
God has perfect timing and He has a plan
for our life in eternal salvation as we live
our vocation serving and loving Him as
He intended us to do.
The whole world can suffer for a man
who lives trying to control God when
he is called to serve God and others.
For a few years on earth, what is the
man saving himself for when
compared to eternity?
Receiving the sacraments are gifts God
gives us to put on Christ, to live the Christ-life,
to live life in the Holy Spirit, to develop
the capacity given to us in baptism where
our knowing and loving capacity is elevated.
In baptism we receive a sharing in God's life –
Why would we try to control our life with
our wounded human nature and
ignore the commission given in baptism
to go out and spread the Good News.
November 4, 2013
Priestly Newsletter Book II - September/October 1997
In all this Mary offers an example. Selfishness was totally foreign to her. She did not belong to herself. She belonged to God. She was not closed in upon herself. She was completely open to God. When God spoke, she listened. When God pointed the way, she followed. She realized that life is not a process a person masters by carefully mapping out one's own self-conceived plans of conquest, but a mystery to be gradually experienced by being open to God's personal and loving guidance.
Selfishness, then, did not close Mary off from God's call. Neither did fear. God asked her to assume a tremendous responsibility. He asked her to be the Mother of Jesus. Mary did not engage in a process of false humility and say that such a great role was above her. She did not say that she did not have the proper qualifications for this awesome mission. Briefly, she did not waste time looking at herself, making pleas that she was not worthy, telling the angel he had better go look for someone else. No, Mary did not look at herself. Her gaze was absorbed in God. She fully realized that whatever God asked of her, His grace would accomplish. She fully realized that although she herself had to cooperate, this work was much more God's than hers.
Mary's words, then, truly sum up what is the authentic Christian response at any point of life, in any kind of situation: "I am the handmaid of the Lord," said Mary, "let what you have said be done to me".
January 14, 2016
Dear Friends,
I give my heart to Jesus and Mary with you in love.
If you read Fr. Joe's book like I did on the 13th you can see how awesome it is.
It helps me understand what is happening in the writings during the liturgical year.
It is so very good, it makes me so eager to live the liturgy in my life,
live in the liturgical year.Well we have sent over 13,000 of Fr. Joe's new cycle books since the beginning of November to priests and hierarchy
all over the world.It can enrich so many lives with the weekly sermon rooted in the Word, the Eucharist,
the liturgy,
the Mass,Baptism, love and unity.
When a priest uses the book weekly he focuses on the Bread of Life to feed the people.
Say a priest says 4 or 5 Masses weekly
Think of how many souls could be reached with the people attending Mass.Fr. Joe speaks of love and being a member of the body of Christ, living in relationships
all in the context of the scripture.We see salvation history and its ups and downs -
we see our calling from God
and we see our part in salvation history.God calls - we respond.
The body of Christ can help the world to raise up to greater perfection.
What are you doing to help this coming election in the United States.
This book of Fr. Joe's can help so many people every week.
We have sent over 13,000 books out to priests and hierarchy to every priest in your state.
We have sent the books to so many priests in the United States and all Bishops.
Can't you help us.
We also send a Prayer Brochure with the Shepherds of Christ prayers praying for the priests, the Church and the world.
We pray in adoration 8 days a month with usually 6 Masses for you, your family and the priests the Church and the world.
We pray in 24 hour adoration before the Exposed Blessed Eucharist in China for all this and for you.
The China mortgage is due tomorrow
and we are struggling because of giving so much money to the Ministries.
Can anyone help us with a donation.
Also we are printing another 20,000 of Fr. Joe's books
going to all the priests in the United States.This can enormously help for this coming election.
A weekly Priestly Newsletter used about the scriptures and everything at Sunday Mass.
Please we need your help.
If you want to know what to do to help the world and especially all active priests in the United States please help us with a donation.
We need your help today.
Thanks for your prayers and help in advance.God Bless you and love you.
Rita Robinson Ring
Give the gift that keeps giving.
6 different Blue Books for $30.00 including postage
$6.00
$5.00
$4.00
$2.00
$2.00
$3.00
$3.00
$3.00
$3.00
$3.00
$3.00
$3.00
$3.00
$3.00
$3.00
$5.00 $5.00Books available in limited supply for this sale.
The more you use the Blue Books and
become one with Jesus – more
intimate with Jesus –
the more your lives are a blessing and
everything you do in life can help
to bring down great grace for the world
because of your being so
one with Jesus.
Guiding Light Homily Book Series
Fr. Joe’s Books
Cycle A –
Steadfast to the Son
Cycle B –
Focusing on the Word
Cycle C –
Feed My Soul
Cycle A –
Inspired to be Genuine4 for $20 plus postage of $5.95
These books can be given to:
1) All Priests
2) Good for Music Ministers
3) Good for DRE's
4) Good for Deacons
5) Good for Principals of Schools
6) Good for Teachers
7) Good for Mom and Dads
Given March 21, 2014
R. Pray for These Things
1) Pray for the Pope & hierarchy to help us start prayer chapters.
2) Pray for Dan, Sally Jo, Richard, Carol, Margaret, Sue,
Jack, Jean, Amanda, Matthew, Special intentions.
3) Pray for the priests, the Church and the world!
4) Pray for the spread of prayer chapters,
also for the spread of priests doing prayer chapters.
5) Pray for the spread of Blue Books.
6) People going to Florida and China.
7) Vocations to all 7 categories.
8) Pray for spread of Consecration and Rosary.
9) Pray for pope helping us.
10) Pray for Jeff - sales & health. Pray for Nick.
11) Blue Book 16 and cover and all involved.
For our Publisher and all involved
12) All intentions on my list, Jerry's list.
13) Priests getting Fr. Joe's book.
14) Pray for Fr. Joe's new book, cover & funds for printing & postage.
15) Donors and members and their families.
16) Healing of the Family tree.
17) Dan & Melanie, Catherine & mom, Gary, Mary Jo,
Jim & statues, Fr. Ken, Monsignor, Kerry, Tom & wife.
18) All who asked us to pray for them.
19) All we promised to pray for.
20) Rita, John, Doris, Sheila, Jerry, Regina, Sanja,
Betty, Sophie, Lisa, Eileen, Fr. Mike, Louie, Laverne,
2 Dons, Mary Ellen, Fr. Joe, all priests helping us,
Ed, Jimmy, Steve, a special couple, Rosie & all involved.
21) 2 babies and moms.
22) Funds and insurance.
23) Jerry's garage.
24) In thanksgiving for gifts, graces, & blessings received.
25) Spread the Blood of Jesus on all of us here.
26) Consecrate all hearts.
27) Cast the devil out of all of us here and all in Movement.
The Wedding Rosary
Crystal Image Rosary
$40 plus shipping
Original Image Rosary
8mm glass beads
in a matching gift box$40 plus shipping
Give the gift that counts.
Give to your priests Fr. Carter's Books plus postage.
Tell My People $5.00
Response to God's Love $8.00
Response in Christ $8.00
Old Mass Books with the Imprimatur
$2.00 plus postage
New Mass Book with Imprimatur
$8.00 plus postage
New Parents & Children's Book with the Imprimatur
$8.00 plus postage
Fr. Joe's Cycle A – Steadfast to the Sun – Starts in Advent
$5.00 plus postage
Give the gift that keeps on giving!
Give to your priest.
Fr. Carter's Priestly Newsletters Book II
$6.00 plus postage
Get a canvas print 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 postage
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
Copyright © 2014 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
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