Shepherds of Christ          Daily Writing

March 31, 2007

April 1st Holy Spirit Novena Scripture selection is Day 6 Period I.

The Novena Rosary Mysteries   for April 1st are Luminous.

The 5th Prayer Service will be
in Clearwater, Florida on April 5th.
Please come and join us praying for the priests,
the Church and the world
or tune in on the Internet Radio!

The Priesthood Newsletter is coming soon.

We need funds for postage.

Please, we need your help and support.

Hebrews 8: 7-13

If that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no room for a second one to replace it. And in fact God does find fault with them; he says: 

Look, the days are coming, the Lord 
    declares, 
when I will make a new covenant 
with the House of Israel 
    and the House of Judah,
but not a covenant 
    like the one I made with their ancestors, 
the day I took them by the hand 
    to bring them out of Egypt, 
which covenant of mine they broke, 
and I too abandoned them, 
    the Lord declares.
No, this is the covenant
    I will make with the House of Israel,
when those days have come,
    the Lord declares:
In their minds I shall plant my laws
writing them on their hearts.
Then I shall be their God,
and they shall be my people.
There will be no further need 
    for each to teach his neighbour, 
and each his brother, 
    saying ‘Learn to know the Lord!’ 
No, they will all know me, 
from the least to the greatest,
since I shall forgive their guilt 
and never more call their sins to mind. 

By speaking of a new covenant, he implies that the first one is old. And anything old and ageing is ready to disappear.

  

                Dear God,

                    Thank You for the gift of the Mass.
                    Thank You for our priests.

                    Oh God we cannot even begin to tell
                        You how deeply grateful we are for the
                        precious gift of the Mass.

                    Every word of the Mass rings out over the
                        earth — the gift of the Holy Sacrifice
                        of the Mass — the gift of Calvary sacramentally
                        made present at Mass.

                It is God who acts on my soul

Ezekiel 37: 21-28

...say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: I shall take the Israelites from the nations where they have gone. I shall gather them together from everywhere and bring them home to their own soil. I shall make them into one nation in the country, on the mountains of Israel, and one king is to be king of them all; they will no longer form two nations, nor be two separate kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their foul idols, their horrors and any of their crimes. I shall save them from the acts of infidelity which they have committed and shall cleanse them; they will be my people and I shall be their God. My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my judgements, respect my laws and practise them. They will live in the country which I gave to my servant Jacob, the country in which your ancestors lived. They will live in it, they, their children, their children’s children, for ever. David my servant is to be their prince for ever. I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant with them. I shall resettle them and make them grow; I shall set my sanctuary among them for ever. I shall make my home above them; I shall be their God, and they will be my people. And the nations will know that I am Yahweh the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary is with them for ever." '

Jeremiah 31: 10-13

   Listen, nations, to the word of Yahweh.
   On the farthest coasts and islands
      proclaim it, say,
   ‘He who scattered Israel is gathering him,
   will guard him as a shepherd
      guarding his flock.’

   For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob,
   rescued him from a hand
      stronger than his own.
   They will come, shouting for joy
      on the heights of Zion,
   thronging towards Yahweh’s lavish gifts,
   for wheat, new wine and oil,
   sheep and cattle;
   they will be like a well–watered garden,
   they will sorrow no more.

   The young girl will then take pleasure
      in the dance,
   and young men and old alike;
   I shall change their mourning
      into gladness,
   comfort them, give them joy
   after their troubles;

 

                    Oh God how sweet indeed are the precious
                souls - You died for
                    how precious our priests who bring us the Mass
                    Every word of the Mass — such a gift
                    The preparation of the gifts
                    I am in so much love with every word in
                        the Mass
                    The Liturgy of the Word
                    The Liturgy of the Eucharist

                I am so very one with the sacrifice of Calvary
                    sacramentally made present praying
                    for the priests, the Church and the world —
                    I cry at this Holy Sacrifice —
                    I am so one with the Mass
                    It is God who acts on my soul —
                    Constant surrendering all through the Mass —
                    My life an offering — all I do I give to
                        Him united to the sacrifice of Jesus
                        sacramentally made present —

                I know the Father in the Mass —
                I give Him everything — every cell — my life
                    I am His

                I am united to the Sacrifice of Jesus — I am
                    one with Him —
                I am filled with love for God —
                    so grateful to God —
                    loving deeply the Holy Spirit that penetrates
                    my heart
                    and acts in this Holy Sacrifice

                It is not me, but my oneness with God
                    acting in my soul
                Jesus is the bridegroom —
                    He acts in me —
                    I have given myself completely to God
                    I lay down my life

                I know the angels and saints so one in this
                    Holy Sacrifice — I know them in my soul

                I know the drama taking place —
                I am not thinking I am being acted
                    on by the bridegroom as He outpours
                    His grace and acts in me

                I know the souls in purgatory —
                I know the souls of the earth He gave His
                    life for and shed His Blood —
                    I am here now — so united to heaven and
                    earth and all the souls of this earth  —
                    I deeply love them

                I beg for the oneness God wants on the earth —
                    to lead the strayed ones home to His Heart —

                I am so one in this Holy Sacrifice
                    So one with Mary who stood beneath the cross
                    who now stands by the altar with her
                    Immaculate Heart

                I offer a more pure sacrifice of myself united
                    to Jesus in the pure and holy heart of the
                    Virgin Mary

                And the grace flows
                    the mercy is granted —
                    I beg for mercy —

                I love the souls so much
                I love God so much —
                I outpour my love to God: Father, Son and
                    Holy Spirit

                I am not afraid, but empowered to be
                    so one in this Holy Sacrifice

A Prayer before the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

    Let me be a holy sacrifice and unite with God in the sacrament of His greatest love.

    I want to be one in Him in this act of love, where He gives Himself to me and I give myself as a sacrifice to Him. Let me be a holy sacrifice as I become one with Him in this my act of greatest love to Him.

    Let me unite with Him more, that I may more deeply love Him. May I help make reparation to His adorable Heart and the heart of His Mother, Mary. With greatest love, I offer myself to You and pray that You will accept my sacrifice of greatest love. I give myself to You and unite in Your gift of Yourself to me. Come and possess my soul.

    Cleanse me, strengthen me, heal me. Dear Holy Spirit act in the heart of Mary to make me more and more like Jesus.

    Father, I offer this my sacrifice, myself united to Jesus in the Holy Spirit to You. Help me to love God more deeply in this act of my greatest love.

    Give me the grace to grow in my knowledge, love and service of You and for this to be my greatest participation in the Mass. Give me the greatest graces to love You so deeply in this Mass, You who are so worthy of my love.

-God's Blue Book, December 27, 1995

                    And the grace flows—
                    When Fr. Carter would say Mass in China

                        I would hear the creeks flowing with
                            water outside when he had the
                            doors open

                        And I felt as if it was a visual
                            symbol for me of the grace
                            flowing from the altar of
                            sacrifice

                I love the Mass — so much —
                    I cry when God acts so deeply on my soul
                    I cry because I am so one with the
                        Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and dwelling
                        in the Immaculate Heart of Mary —
                So united to the angels and saints and souls in purgatory —

                I know the souls of the earth —
                I know the souls Jesus shed His Blood for
                I love them so deeply in the Mass —
                I love the Mass with all my heart —
                    how can I ever express it —
                    It is written in my soul —
                    It is His life alive in me —
                    It is the reading of His Word —
                    It is the Holy Sacrifice —
                    I lay my life down united to the
                        Sacrifice of Jesus

                    How can I not help from singing —
                        when I know that His precious
                            grace and mercy flows out
                            in such abundance to the
                            world from every Mass celebrated

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.

                 Song — A Priest is a Gift from God

Hebrews 9: 11-28

But now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the more perfect tent, not made by human hands, that is, not of this created order; and he has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement, may restore their bodily purity. How much more will the blood of Christ, who offered himself, blameless as he was, to God through the eternal Spirit, purify our conscience from dead actions so that we can worship the living God.

This makes him the mediator of a new covenant, so that, now that a death has occurred to redeem the sins committed under an earlier covenant, those who have been called to an eternal inheritance may receive the promise. Now wherever a will is in question, the death of the testator must be established; a testament comes into effect only after a death, since it has no force while the testator is still alive. That is why even the earlier covenant was inaugurated with blood, and why, after Moses had promulgated all the commandments of the Law to the people, he took the calves’ blood, the goats’ blood and some water, and with these he sprinkled the book itself and all the people, using scarlet wool and hyssop; saying as he did so: This is the blood of the covenant that God has made with you. And he sprinkled both the tent and all the liturgical vessels with blood in the same way. In fact, according to the Law, practically every purification takes place by means of blood; and if there is no shedding of blood, there is no remission. Only the copies of heavenly things are purified in this way; the heavenly things themselves have to be purified by a higher sort of sacrifice than this. It is not as though Christ had entered a man–made sanctuary which was merely a model of the real one; he entered heaven itself, so that he now appears in the presence of God on our behalf. And he does not have to offer himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own, or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. As it is, he has made his appearance once and for all, at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself. Since human beings die only once, after which comes judgement, so Christ too, having offered himself only once to bear the sin of many, will manifest himself a second time, sin being no more, to those who are waiting for him, to bring them salvation.

Hebrews 10: 10-18

And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ made once and for all.

Every priest stands at his duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking away sins. He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his seat for ever, at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all who are sanctified. The Holy Spirit attests this to us, for after saying:

No, this is the covenant I will make with them, when those days have come.

the Lord says:

In their minds I will plant my Laws writing them on their hearts, and I shall never more call their sins to mind, or their offences.

When these have been forgiven, there can be no more sin offerings.

                All through the Mass — I was filled with
                    such faith and hope and love
                    To let go with the deepest faith as He
                    acted on my soul —
                    To lay down my life united to His as an
                        offering, a sacrifice, for I love Him
                    so much and love His precious souls.

                In this Holy Sacrifice - I let go to Him —
                    I give Him myself —
                    I am His bride
                    He is the bridegroom of my soul —
                    My life is His

                    This is my offering and

                    My offering every moment I live
                        united to the Holy Sacrifice of
                        the Mass going on around the world —

                    I lay down my life —
                        Knowing He will use me to do His
                            work here for His holy purpose

                Why cry over spilled milk —
                Enter into this great gift —
                I am a member of the body of Christ through
                    baptism

Romans 6: 3-11

You cannot have forgotten that all of us, when we were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into his death. So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glorious power, we too should begin living a new life. If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his, so we shall be by a resurrection like his: realising that our former self was crucified with him, so that the self which belonged to sin should be destroyed and we should be freed from the slavery of sin. Someone who has died, of course, no longer has to answer for sin.

But we believe that, if we died with Christ, then we shall live with him too. We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him any more. For by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is life with God. In the same way, you must see yourselves as being dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.

                I am united as a member of the body of Christ
                to all the Masses going on around the world —

                In my morning offering —
                    I give myself to Him united at every moment —
                        I lay down my life —
                        My life is an offering united to the Mass
                        My offering made more pure as I give
                            my heart to Jesus and Mary — the
                            pure sinless Hearts of love —

                And through my participation in the Mass
                I am so deeply united in my heart to the
                Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the angels and saints and
                souls in purgatory and all the souls He died
                for.

                I am united in the love that grows ever deeper
                in me in sharing more abundantly in
                His life through the sacraments —

                I want my soul in the state of grace, because
                    the Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwell most
                    abundantly in the soul that
                    is baptized and remains in the state
                    of grace.

                But if one sins mortally — God gives to us the
                    great sacrament of penance.

                Oh God Your gifts are so good to us let
                    me shout of Your glory —
                    let me Feast at Your Table —
                    tasting the precious Blood at the
                    Mass —

                    Oh God help me that I don't bust
                        with this reality of the gifts
                        You have given us through
                        the priests and
                        in the Church.

                We are one body in Him —    
 

From Response to God's Love by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J. p. 67

The Church is the Body of Christ.         

                We have been commissioned in baptism
                    to live out the holy life —
                    to live for our own eternal
                    salvation and
                    to help others to get to heaven.

The monthly retreat will be at the
St. Anthony Shepherds of  Christ center
 in China, Indiana from
April 10th through the 13th.

Those who have came in March
had a marvelous retreat!