| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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March 26, 2016
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March 27th Holy Spirit Novena |
The Novena Rosary
Mysteries |
Pray for special intentions.
Pray for Dan & Melanie, Jimmy,
Fr. Joe, Mary, Blue Book 16.
Please pray for funds & grace.
Give the gift that Counts.
Blow Out Sale for Reprinting of Blue Book 1, 2 & 3
While Supplies Last
Blue Book 1 - $4 each plus postage
Blue Book 2 - $4 each plus postage
Blue Book 3 - $3 each plus postageCall 1-888-211-3041 for Doris
New Homily Book - Cycle C
Available $10.00 plus postage
Happy Easter!
Christ is Risen!
March 26, 2016
R. Dear God You have created us. You
chose us from all the different
people we could have been. You
gave us parents and we received
so much of our bodies from them.
It is so beautiful how You have
the plan of allowing man to
co-create with You. What a plan.
Man can chose to go to You
to find Your plan and to work
Your plan – or man can reject
Your plan and effort to find
out what it is and use his
intelligence for his own plan, in pride
to make himself feel satisfied about
how great he is.
We are under – God is over –
We are humans – God is Divine –
We see the order here – always
God's vision brings us happiness –
until we see Him face-to-face.
Dear Holy Spirit help us in our
lives, to live Your plan for us –
enlighten our minds to know
the Father's will and to live according
to the Father's Plan –
Jesus showed us how He obeyed
His Father's will. When we meditated
on the Agony of the Garden we saw
how He knew everything He would
suffer – in His Divine knowing
and He went through all of the
bitter passion, to His death on the
cross – doing His Father's will –
We see the love Jesus had
for the Father's will and for us –
Jesus lived by the Father's will –
Jesus showed us how He suffered
doing the Father's will. Mary
walked by the side of Jesus.
Mary, the perfect handmaid of the Lord,
did the Father's will always. Mary
loved the Father's will. We see in
the 7 Sorrows how Mary did the
Father's will.
Life is not life if it is not
rooted in God.
We have a free will. We can
follow the Father's will or we
can have our own plan and think
about what we want to make
ourselves the boss.
Our lives are lives of surrender.
As we get older we are not able
to do all we once could do. Even our
skin and how we look and talk
doesn't look and sound the same.
Our teeth can not be so good, our
vision not as good, our skin
starts to sag –
We see that flowers we buy
for our table at Easter that are
cut – get old pretty fast. They
need to be connected to the plant.
We were put here and life is
in Him. God the Father has the
plan that will lead us to our home
in heaven – where we can see God
face-to-face and have eternal happiness.
What a gift - God created us and wants
us to prepare here for our eternal happiness.
We are to seek God's Plan – we are to
go to Him and ask for help. God gives
us baptism – a sharing in Divine
Life and the Eucharist to feed
that life – His Word to feed us –
He gives us confession –
God loves us so much. He
wants us to live by His Plan –
Having the vision of God takes
grace. To know God we must
go to God. God has a plan for
us. In following God's
plan it leads to real happiness.
People may not realize how important
it is to learn to live by God's plan
because this leads to real happiness
forever in heaven. But we must
go to God to know the vision of
God.
Our vision is distorted because
of original sin. We see God, others
and ourselves distortedly. People
can live life-long distortedly seeing
themselves because of how parents
talked to them. Our parents weren't
perfect. Any parent who has
children, if they tell the truth, must
admit their faults and ask God to
help their children and grandchildren.
We should always see ourselves
as learning to be more and more
what God wants us to be – even
when we are grandparents.
Jesus: A fool tries to look like they
never made mistakes. A fool
is too busy covering up their
mistakes and not going to God –
really asking for healing and
conversion.
You are to be transformed –
not hide your faults and spend
your life trying to prove how great
you are. Be humble, ask for healing,
pray for forgiveness and mercy,
pray for each other – pray for
your heirs – You are sinners,
you make mistakes, pray to the
Holy Spirit to give you His gifts – pray
for the vision of God –
Who can change you? A person
went down the same road every
day and fell in a hole. Should
he go down the same road or should
he change his route?
Remember Mary Lou is stuck in
the window – should she try to get
out – or should she stay there?
Jesus: A fish out of water doesn't
work.
Jesus: Life is in Me. I am Divine,
I am Almighty, I am All Powerful,
I am your teacher and some
act like Eve in the Garden –
Shepherds of Christ Priestly Newsletter 2000 Issue 3
The Father's Will for Us - Our Source of Peace
Pope John Paul II instructs us: "The Church, as a reconciled and reconciling community, cannot forget that at the source of her gift and mission of reconciliation is the initiative, full of compassionate love and mercy, of that God who is love (see 1 John 4:8) and who out of love created human beings (see Wisdom 11:23-26; Genesis 1:27: Psalms 8:4-8)…He created them so that they might live in friendship with Him and in communion with one another.
"God is faithful to His eternal plan even when man, under the impulse of the evil one (see Wisdom 2:24) and carried away by his own pride, abuses the freedom given to him in order to love and generously seek what is good, and (instead) refuses to obey his Lord and Father. God is faithful even when man, instead of responding with love to God’s love, opposes Him and treats Him like a rival, deluding himself and relying on his own power, with the resulting break of relationship with the One who created him. In spite of this transgression on man’s part, God remains faithful in love.
"It is certainly true that the story of the Garden of Eden makes us think about the tragic consequences of rejecting the Father, which becomes evident in man’s inner disorder and in the breakdown of harmony between man and woman, brother and brother (see Genesis 3:12 ff; 4:1-16). Also significant is the Gospel parable of the two brothers (the parable of the ‘prodigal son’; see Luke 15:11-32) who, in different ways, distance themselves from their father and cause a rift between them. Refusal of God’s fatherly love and of His loving gifts is always at the root of humanity’s divisions.
"But we know that God…like the father in the parable (of the prodigal son), does not close His heart to any of His children. He waits for them, looks for them, goes to meet them at the place where the refusal of communion imprisons them in isolation and division. He calls them to gather about His table in the joy of the feast of forgiveness and reconciliation.
"This initiative on God’s part is made concrete and manifest in the redemptive act of Christ, which radiates through the world by means of the ministry of the Church." 13
13. Pope John Paul II, as in Celebrate 2000!, Servant Publications, pp. 140-141.
Jesus: Who can change a person who is
obstinate –
A person must want to change –
You are here a work in progress.
You need grace – you need to
work God's plan –
From the Priestly Newsletter Book III - 2000 Issue 3
The Indwelling of the Trinity and the Life of Grace p. 37-39
The spiritual life, the life of holiness, begins at Baptism. Archbishop Luis Martinez says:
"When we are born we are endowed by God with all we need for our human life, a complete organism, and a soul with the full range of faculties. Of course they are not all developed from birth, but we have them then as the source of everything we are going to need in life. And thus it is also in the spiritual order. When someone is baptized, he receives in all its fullness that supernatural world which the Christian carries within his soul. He receives grace, which is a participation of the nature of God; the theological virtues, which put him in immediate contact with the divine; the moral virtues, which serve to regulate and order all his life; and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the divine, mysterious receivers for picking up the Spirit’s inspirations and movements."<>2
Another author states: "The Three Divine Persons inhabit the sanctuary of our soul, taking their delight in enriching it with supernatural gifts and in communicating to us a Godlike life, similar to theirs, called the life of grace.
"All life, however, implies a threefold element: a vital principle that is, so to speak, the source of life itself; faculties which give the power to elicit vital acts; and lastly, the acts themselves which are but its development and which minister to its growth. In the supernatural order, God living within us produces the same elements. He first communicates to us habitual grace (the life of sanctifying grace) which plays the part of a vital supernatural principle. This principle deifies, as it were, the very substance of the soul and makes it capable, though in a remote way, of enjoying the Beatific Vision and of performing the acts that lead to it.
"Out of this grace spring the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit which perfect our faculties and endow us with the immediate power of performing Godlike, supernatural, meritorious acts.
"In order to stir these faculties into action, He give us actual graces which enlighten our mind, strengthen our will, and aid us both to act supernaturally and to increase the measure of habitual grace that has been granted to us.
"Although this life of grace is entirely distinct from our natural life it is not merely superimposed on the latter. It penetrates it through and through, transforms it and makes it divine. It assimilates whatever is good in our nature, our education and our habits. It perfects and supernaturalizes all these various elements, directing them toward the last end, that is toward the possession of God through the Beatific Vision and its resultant life." 3
Our being in the state of sanctifying of grace and the special indwelling of the Persons of the Trinity within us always exist together. We cannot have the one without the other. Our life of grace, which is a sharing in Trinitarian life, allows us to know and love Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a most intimate fashion. Through grace we are in the image of the Trinity, and we enjoy special relationships with the Divine Persons.
Again, we listen to the words of Archbishop Martinez as he speaks about our relationships with the Divine Persons:
"Love, we have said, is the foundation of devotion to the Holy Spirit, as it is also the foundation of Christian perfection. But love as a reflection of God, as His own image, is something that encloses within its simplicity a boundless wealth and a variety of forms. Who can fathom the depths of love?
"Human love in all its manifestations is admirably in harmony with the love of charity; it is confident in filial love, trusting in friendship, sweet and fruitful in the love of husband and wife, disinterested and tender in the love of a mother. Our love of God must include all these forms of human love; every fiber of our heart must vibrate when the harmonious and full canticle of love bursts forth from it. But since God is one in essence and triune in Persons, our love for Him takes on a particular aspect accordingly as it is directed to each one of the divine Persons.
"Our love for the Father is tender and confident like that of children; eager to glorify Him as His only-begotten Son taught us to do by word and example. Love for the Father is the intense desire to have His will fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven. Our love for the Son, who willed to become flesh for us, is characterized by the tendency to union with Him and transformation into Him; by imitation of His example, participation in His life, and the sharing of His sufferings and His Cross. The Eucharist, mystery of love, of sorrow, and of union, reveals the characteristics of this love.
"Love for the Holy Spirit also has its special character, which we should study in order completely to understand devotion to Him. We have explained how the Holy Spirit loves us, how He moves us like a divine breath that draws us to the bosom of God, like a sacred fire that transforms us into fire, like a divine artist who forms Jesus in us. Surely, then, our love for the Holy Spirit should be marked by loving docility, by full surrender, and by a constant fidelity that permits us to be moved, directed, and transformed by His sanctifying action.
"Our love for the Father tends to glorify Him; our love for the Son, to transform ourselves into Him; our love for the Holy Spirit, to let ourselves be possessed and moved by Him."4
2. Archbishop Luis M. Martinez, The Sanctifier, Pauline Books and Media, pp. 124-125.
3. Adolphe Janquery, S.S., The Spiritual Life, Desclee
4. Archbishop Martinez, op. cit., pp. 67-68,
I include this prayer here.
Prayer for Healing the Family Tree
Heavenly Father, I come before you as your child,
in great need of your help.
I have physical health needs, emotional needs,
spiritual needs, and interpersonal needs.
Many of my problems have been caused
by my own failures, neglect and sinfulness,
for which I humbly beg your forgiveness, Lord.
But I also ask you to forgive the sins of my ancestors
whose failures have left their effects on me
in the form of unwanted tendencies,
behavior patterns, and defects in body, mind and spirit.
Heal me, Lord, of all these disorders. – pause
–
With your help I sincerely forgive everyone,
especially living or dead members of my family tree,
who have directly offended me or my loved ones in any way,
or those whose sins have resulted
in our present sufferings and disorders.
In the name of your divine Son Jesus,
and in the power of the Holy Spirit, I ask you, Father,
o deliver me and my entire family tree
from the influence of the evil one. – pause –
Free all living and deceased members of my family tree,
including those in adoptive relationships,
and those in extended family relationships,
from every contaminating form of bondage.
By your loving concern for us, heavenly Father,
and by the shed blood of your Precious Son Jesus,
I beg you to extend your blessing to me
and all my living and deceased relatives.
Heal every negative effect transmitted
through all past generations,
and prevent such negative effects
in future generations of my family tree. – pause –
I symbolically place the cross of Jesus
over the head of each person in my family tree,
and between each generation.
I ask you to let the cleansing blood of Jesus
purify the bloodlines in my family lineage.
Set your protective angels to encamp around us,
and permit Archangel Raphael, the patron of healing,
to administer your divine healing power to all of us,
even in areas of genetic disability.
Give special power to our family members’ guardian angels
to heal protect, guide and encourage each of us in all our
needs.
Let your healing power be released at this very moment,
and let it continue as long as your sovereignty permits.
In our family tree, Lord, replace all bondage
with a holy bonding in family love.
And let there be an ever deeper bonding with you, Lord,
by the Holy Spirit, to your Son Jesus.
Let the family of the Holy Trinity pervade our family
with its tender, warm, loving presence,
so that our family may recognize
and manifest that love in all our relationships.
All of our unknown needs we include with this petition
that we pray in Jesus’ precious name.
Amen, Amen and Amen.
Prayer for Intergenerational Healing
based upon a prayer and the writings of Dr. Kenneth McAll
In the name of Jesus, and by his authority,
I come against any and every curse
that may have been directed to any member of our family.
I call down the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ
and I break any curse on my family or person
in the Holy name of Jesus.
I forgive and bless those who sent them.
Lord bless our enemies—do so by sending
your Holy Spirit to lead them to repentance,
to healing and to freedom.
I now break in the name of Jesus Christ
all psychic heredity and any demonic hold
upon my family line as a result of the
disobedience of any of my ancestors.
I declare all of this to be absolutely null and void.
In the Holy Name of Jesus.
In the Holy Name of Jesus.
In the Holy Name of Jesus.
In the Name of Jesus Christ,
I renounce all the work of evil,
together with any occult practices of my ancestors.
I subscribe myself to Jesus Christ,
my Lord and Savior, both now and forever.
The Father's Prayer
May 16, 1998 - Prayer to the Father
My Father,
With my whole heart I desire to consecrate the whole world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I wish with my whole being for the salvation of souls and that man live according to Thy Holy Will. I pray my Father that we may be one in You and Your Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit that we may intercede to You for this cause.
It is this burning desire within my soul to spread the consecration to the far ends of the earth, that the cries of Your children are cries of glory and honor and adoration, praising God as their God.
My Father, at this moment a soul hangs on the edge of death. For all eternity they will go to a place. It is not the plot of this soul as it trods this barren land to decide on the edge of death. You created us that we would grow in our oneness with God, that we would mature more and more in our image and likeness to God.
And so My Father, I pray with every cell in my body for this earth. In the name of Your Son Jesus I consecrate all the souls of this earth to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Holy Spirit in union with the Holy sacrifice of the Mass with all the angels and saints and the souls in Purgatory.
I beg You Father for mercy.
I beg You Father for assistance.
I beg You Father to help us to spread this consecration to the far ends of the earth.Please help us. We are helpless little ones coming in the heart of our Mother, bleeding from our wounds and our sins.
Your Son, Jesus Christ, shed the last drop of His Blood for the salvation of mankind. We wish to unite in this sacrifice, sacramentally made present in the Mass all over the world at every moment. Help us to make reparation to You for the sins of men.
Please my Father, help us. Held in the heart of Mary and the Heart of Jesus we come as the children of Eve to beg for the Reign of the Sacred Heart and the Triumph of Mary's heart. Look upon our love, Your shepherds in the Shepherds of Christ, our sacrifices and devotion to You Our Beloved Father. Come by the means of the Holy Spirit and sanctify us and make us whole, that we are one in Your Son Jesus, praying to You, Father, in the name of Your Son Jesus in the Holy Spirit united with all the angels and saints, in the heart of Mary. We beg for help for special intentions concerning the Movement. We beg for help to reach the Churches to give these prayers of Jesus to them, to reach the schools and the family. Help we cry as poor banished children of Eve. Help us Father to do this work the Good Shepherd has entrusted to us. Help us to be one in You that we act as intercessors to help this world to be turned to God as their God, loving, honoring and adoring Him as the Lord of Host is truly present on His throne.
We are Your children Father, we implore You to answer our prayer.
We love You, we worship You, we adore You, we thank you and we sing from the bottom of our hearts, Holy God we Praise Your Name. Alleluia
R. Fr. Carter taught for over 30 years
He used the book –
Response to God's Love
R. This is what he said
I. The Concept of the Christian Life
1. response to God's love
2. participation in God's life
3. elevation of human nature
4. as the Christ-life
5. as life in the Holy Spirit
6. Mary's role in the Christian lifeII. Scriptural Foundations of the Christian Life
The GospelsIII. Death and Resurrection
The Paschal Mystery as central
to Christian existence.
Dying and rising in ChristIV. The Christian Virtues
Faith, hope and love are central,
other virtuesV. The Christian and the Church –
The Church and the communal
dimension of human nature.
The Church considered as
Body of Christ, as Sacrament,
as Pilgrim Church.VI. The Christian and the Liturgy –
The Church's life as centered
in liturgy with special emphasis
on the Eucharist.VII. Psychology and Religion –
Connection between psychology and
religion. Personality theories:
the conflict model, the fulfillment model,
the consistency model.
Applications to Christian life.VIII. Involvement with the World –
Theological reasons why the
Christian is called to involvement
with the world.
Secularism verses secularity.IX. Prayer:
Basic nature of Christian prayer –
Prayer and life –
Prayer and self-identity
Methods of Prayer
Growth in prayer
Difficulties in prayer –
Prayer in action –X. Mysticism – Mysticism as the
relatively full development
of the Christian life.
The characteristics of Mysticism.
Classical and ordinary
mysticism.XI. Incarnationalism and Transcendence –
The meaning of Incarnationalism
and Transcendence.
Various applications
The various blends of the twoXII. Other Aids to Full Christian Living
Religious reading –
Spiritual guidance –
Retreats and days of renewal
A plan of life –
We have original sin –
We have tendencies toward the
deadly sins – even if we are
baptized –
We need direction spiritually –
God has given this Movement to
renew the Church and the
world –
God has given the retreats to
spiritually direct us –
Religious are to listen to
direction from their
spiritual director and
superior –
Given March 24, 2016
Glorious Mysteries
The Resurrection
1. R. The Easter Feast lasts for 50 days.
It is so very important in the Church
year.
Every Sunday in the Easter season is
considered a little Easter.
The Ascension is 40 days after
Easter.
2. R. We are happy to have the Easter Candle.
We are happy to sing Alleluia once
again. We Praise God and love
God and thank Him so much.
It is just to praise the Lord.
3. R. All year we should sing the song
of joy because Jesus has Risen –
We are to be witnesses before men –
witnesses for Christ and we are
commissioned in baptism to spread
the Good News.
4. R. The first week of Easter is so special
we are to treat each Mass
like it is Easter.
5. R. We celebrate the appearance of
Jesus, Our risen Lord in
every Gospel the first week.
6. R. May we have Easter joy in our
lives, may we be Easter people!
We have been given baptism –
in baptism we receive a sharing
in God's life. Wow
7. R. In baptism our knowing and loving
capacity is elevated so we
can know and love supernaturally.
8. Exodus 13: 5, 9
and when Yahweh has brought you into the country of the Canaanites, the Hittities, the Amorites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, flowing with milk and honey, which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you, then you must observe this rite in the same month.
9. R. Our life is to live the pascal
mystery of death/resurrection –
We are to be resurrection people!
Sin can be a tomb, if we don't
admit our sins to God and beg
for forgiveness.
10. Romans 6: 9
We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again.
The Ascension
1. R. I want to live a new life of
resurrection in Jesus. I want
greater life in Him.
Please help us to get rid of laziness
that keeps me from this.
Help me to die to pride and
anger and envy.
I love You, God.
2. Psalm 118: 24
This is the day which Yahweh has made,
a day for us to rejoice and be glad.
3. Easter Sequence
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
offer sacrifice and praise.The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;
and Christ, the undefiled,
hath sinners
to his Father reconciled.Death with life contended:
combat strangely ended!
Life's own Champion, slain,
yet lives to reign.Tell us, Mary:
say what thou didst see upon the way.The tomb the Living did enclose;
I saw Christ's glory as He rose!The angels there attesting;
shroud with grave-clothes resting.Christ, my hope, has risen:
He goes before you into Galilee.That Christ is truly risen
from the dead we know.
Victorious King, Thy mercy show!
Amen. Alleluia.
4. R. We are given the Eucharist –
Jesus is truly present in His Divinity
and humanity in the Eucharist.
5. 1 Peter 2: 9
But you are a chosen race, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a people to be a personal possession to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
6. R. The resurrected Lord is always
with us.
7. Acts 1: 6-9
Now having met together, they asked him, 'Lord, has the time come for you to restore the kingdom to Israel?' He replied, 'It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit which will come on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to earth's remotest end.'
As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight.
8. Revelation 19: 7, 6
let us be glad and joyful and give glory to God, because this is the time for the marriage of the Lamb.
And I heard what seemed to be the voices of a huge crowd, like the sound of the ocean or the great roar of thunder, answering, ‘Alleluia! The reign of the Lord our God Almighty has begun;
9. R. The Apostles were so afraid and
they watched Jesus ascend
into heaven.
10. Acts 1: 14
With one heart all these joined constantly in prayer, together with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
The Descent of the Holy Spirit
1. From Tell My People by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J.
"What I say to you in the dark, tell in the day-
light; what you hear in whispers, proclaim
from the housetops." (Matthew 10:27)Jesus Has Come to Give Us Life
Jesus: "This is the day celebrating My Resurrection (Easter). The day of newness of life. I am Lord and Master. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Tell My people to come to Me if they wish to experience life in abundance. I want to give all an ever greater share in the life of My Resurrection. Without Me you cannot be happy, nor have peace, nor have real joy. Tell My people to surrender to Me more and more. The more they do so, the more they will experience My love, wisdom, power, peace, joy, happiness, mercy, and goodness. Within My Heart My people will find these riches. I am Lord and Master! Please listen to My words."
Reflection: Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has come to give us life, and to give us this life in abundance.
When we were baptized, we were incorporated into Christ and His Church. When we were baptized, we received the life of sanctifying grace. This life is a created sharing in the life of the Trinity. Truly, we are called to live a God-like existence according to the teaching and example of Jesus! It is our duty and our privilege to develop our life of grace—our Christ-life—through our participation in the Mass, through the reception of the sacraments, through prayer, and through all other good works. Indeed, we are called to love God and neighbor more and more.
What a glorious life has been given to us! In a spirit of thanksgiving, and together with Mary our Mother, let us always strive to know Christ more intimately, to love Him more ardently, and to follow Him more closely, so that He will always bring us to a closer union with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
2. Acts 2: 1-4
When Pentecost day came round, they had all met together, when suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and there appeared to them tongues as of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves.
3. Sing: Veni Sancte Spiritus
4. From the Lectionary
Pentecost Sequence
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine!You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul's most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;In our Labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!Where you are not, man has naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill!Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away;Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sev'nfold gift descend;Give them virtue's sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.
5. Sing: Come Holy Ghost
6. From the Holy Spirit Novena
Prayer for the Holy Spirit and His Gifts
Come Holy Spirit, come, come into our hearts, inflame all people with the fire of Your love.
Leader: Send forth Your Spirit and all will be reborn.
All: And You will renew the face of the earth.We pray for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, we ask for perfection in our souls to make us holy, holy souls likened to God.
Dear Holy Spirit, we give ourselves to You soul and body. We ask You to give us the Spirit of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.
7.
8.
From Tell My People
by Fr. Edward J. Carter,
S.J.
Jesus: "My beloved friend, tell My people to pray daily to the Holy Spirit. They are to pray for an increase in His gifts. My people must realize that the Holy Spirit comes to transform them. The Spirit desires to transform you more and more according to My image. Those who are docile to His touch become increasingly shaped in My likeness. He performs this marvel within Mary's Immaculate Heart. The more one dwells in My Mother's Heart, the more active are the workings of the Spirit. The Spirit leads Mary to place you within My own Heart. In both Our Hearts, then, your transformation continues. The more you are formed after My own Heart, the more I lead you to the bosom of My Father. Tell My people all this. Tell them to pray daily for a greater appreciation of these wondrous gifts. I am Lord and Master. All who come to My Heart will be on fire to receive the gifts of the Spirit in ever greater measure! I love and bless My people!"
Reflection: The Holy Spirit is given to us to fashion us ever more according to the likeness of Jesus. And the more we are like Jesus, the more Jesus leads us to the Father. Do we, each day, pray to the Holy Spirit to be more open to His transforming influence? Do we strive each day to grow in union with Mary? The greater our union with our Mother, the spouse of the Holy Spirit, the greater is the transforming action of the Holy Spirit within us.
9. From the Priestly Newsletter Book III by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.
The Holy Spirit And Mary
The late Archbishop Luis M. Martinez of Mexico strikingly speaks of the ongoing cooperation of Mary with the Holy Spirit regarding the reproduction of Jesus within us: "Christian life is the reproduction of Jesus in souls…
"Now, how will this mystical reproduction be brought about in souls? In the same way in which Jesus was brought into the world, for God gives a wonderful mark of unity to all His works. Divine acts have a wealth of variety because they are the work of omnipotence; nevertheless, a most perfect unity always shines forth from them because they are the fruit of wisdom; and this divine contrast of unity and variety stamps the works of God with sublime and unutterable beauty.
"In His miraculous birth, Jesus was the fruit of heaven and earth…The Holy Spirit conveyed the divine fruitfulness of the Father to Mary, and the virginal soil brought forth in an ineffable manner our most loving Savior, the divine Seed, as the prophets called Him…
"That is the way He is reproduced in souls. He is always the fruit of heaven and earth.
"Two artisans must concur in the work that is at once God’s masterpiece and humanity’s supreme product: the Holy Spirit and the most holy Virgin Mary. Two sanctifiers are necessary to souls, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, for they are the only ones who can reproduce Christ.
"Undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary sanctify us in different ways. The first is the Sanctifier by essence; because He is God, who is infinite sanctity; because He is the personal Love that completes, so to speak, the sanctity of God, consummating His life and His unity, and it belongs to Him to communicate to souls the mystery of that sanctity. The Virgin Mary, for her part, is the co-operator, the indispensable instrument in and by God’s design. From Mary’s maternal relation to the human body of Christ is derived her relation to His Mystical Body which is being formed through all the centuries until the end of time, when it will be lifted up to the heavens, beautiful, splendid, complete, and glorious.
"These two, then, the Holy Spirit and Mary, are the indispensable artificers of Jesus, the indispensable sanctifiers of souls. Any saint in heaven can co-operate in the sanctification of a soul, but his co-operation is not necessary, not profound, not constant: while the co-operation of these two artisans of Jesus of whom we have just been speaking is so necessary that without it souls are not sanctified (and this by the actual design of Providence), and so intimate that it reaches to the very depths of our soul. For the Holy Spirit pours charity into our heart, makes a habitation of our soul, and directs our spiritual life by means of His gifts. The Virgin Mary has the efficacious influence of Mediatrix in the most profound and delicate operations of grace in our souls. And, finally, the action of the Holy Spirit and the co-operation of the most holy Virgin Mary are constant; without them, not one single character of Jesus would be traced on our souls, no virtue grow, no gift be developed, no grace increased, no bond of union with God be strengthened in the rich flowering of the spiritual life. mm
"Such is the place that the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary have in the order of sanctification. Therefore, Christian piety should put these two artisans of Christ in their true place, making devotion to them something necessary, profound, and constant." 18
18. Archbishop Luis M. Martinez, The Sanctifier, op. cit. pp. 5-7.
10. A Prayer for Intimacy with the Lamb, the Bridegroom of the Soul
Oh Lamb of God, Who take away the sins of the world, come and act on my soul most intimately. I surrender myself, as I ask for the grace to let go, to just be as I exist in You and You act most intimately on my soul. You are the Initiator. I am the soul waiting Your favors as You act in me. I love You. I adore You. I worship You. Come and possess my soul with Your Divine Grace, as I experience You most intimately.
The Assumption of Mary
1. R. Do you say "yes" to God's
call –
See the Annunciation Mary
said "yes"
2. R. God had a unique call for
Mary –
He has a unique call for
us
3. 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.
4. 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".
5. R. Mary was not willful
Mary lived the plan of God the Father.
6. R. Living the Pascal Mystery
Death/Resurrection
dying to the ways not like Jesus
following in the footsteps of Christ.
7. R. Going out of ourselves –
Working with others
Not closed in –
Not selfish
Helping souls –
Living God's plan in the Holy Spirit
8. July 31, 1994
Words of Jesus to Members of Shepherds of Christ Associates:
"My beloved priest-companion, I intend to use the priestly newsletter, Shepherds of Christ, and the movement, Shepherds of Christ Associates, in a powerful way for the renewal of My Church and the world.
"I will use the newsletter and the chapters of Shepherds of Christ Associates as a powerful instrument for spreading devotion to My Heart and My Mother's Heart.
"I am calling many to become members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. To all of them I will give great blessings. I will use them as instruments to help bring about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the reign of My Sacred Heart. I will give great graces to the members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. I will call them to be deeply united to My Heart and to Mary's Heart as I lead them ever closer to My Father in the Holy Spirit."
- Message from Jesus to Father Edward J. Carter, S.J., Founder, as given on July 31, 1994,
feast of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits)
9. October 13, 1994
The Birth of the Full Ministries of the Shepherds of Christ
"I wish to share with you part of a message which Jesus gave us on October 13, 1994. The message tells us about the expansion of the Shepherds of Christ movement:
'My beloved priest-companion, today I come to you with another mission. I am asking you to establish Shepherds of Christ Ministries. At My request you have already begun the priestly newsletter, "Shepherds of Christ", and the prayer chapters, Shepherds of Christ Associates...
'I am giving you this message on this day, the 77th Anniversary of the Great Apparition at Fatima, because of the close connection between the Shepherds of Christ movement and the Fatima message. The Fatima message is centered in devotion to My Heart and My Mother's Heart, especially in consecration to Our Hearts. Shepherds of Christ Ministries is also centered in devotion to Our Hearts. I will use Shepherds of Christ Ministries as a great instrument in helping to bring about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the reign of My Sacred Heart. When this occurs, My Church and the world will be experiencing the great era of peace promised by My Mother at Fatima.
'Today, then, October 13, 1994, the 77th Anniversary of the Great Apparition at Fatima, marks the birth of Shepherds of Christ Ministries. I pour forth the great love of My Sacred Heart to all. I am Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock.'
"Jesus has told us that Shepherds of Christ Ministries includes: the priestly newsletter, Shepherds of Christ, Shepherds of Christ Associates prayer chapters, various publications, including books, whatever else Our Lord directs us to undertake.
"As members of Shepherds of Christ Associates, you are an extremely important part of Shepherds of Christ Ministries. You have given great joy to the Heart of Jesus by responding to His invitation to become members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. As He draws you closer to His Heart and to His Mother's Heart as Associates members, He will fill you with an ever-increasing experience of His love, peace, and joy."
- From In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Newsletter of Shepherds of Christ Associates
10. Mary's Message - from the Rosary of August 27, 1996
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