Prayer for Grace for our Country

                March 7, 2020

Excerpt from the Priestly Newsletter 2000 - Issue 2

Chief Shepherd of the Flock

Suffering: A Source of Life

    I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and runs away, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; he runs away because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. (Jn 10:11-15)¹

    Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God; whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises. We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and Yahweh brought the acts of rebellion of all of us to bear on him. Ill-treated and afflicted, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb before its shearers he never opened his mouth. (Is 53:4-7)

• He hung upon a cross on a hill called Calvary. Death was near. How much Jesus had already suffered! He had been derisively crowned with thorns. In a terribly weakened condition, He carried the heavy cross to the hill of Golgotha. There He was stripped of His garments and mercilessly nailed to the cross. After all this brutal and agonizing suffering, Jesus finally died.

    Truly the Good Shepherd had laid down His life for His sheep. That magnificent Heart, overflowing with love for His Father and all of us, had beat its last.

    On the third day, Jesus rose: ‘Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple: are you going to raise it up again in three days?’ But he was speaking of the Temple that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and what he had said. (Jn 2:19-22)

    Yes, the Good Shepherd died and rose for our salvation. Behold, the paschal mystery of Jesus!

    When we are baptized we are incorporated into Christ's paschal mystery of death and resurrection. St. Paul speaks of this marvelous union with Jesus: 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. (Rm 6:3-4)

    Christ has structured the Christian life by the way He lived, died, and rose from the dead. It is obvious, then, as Paul tells us above that the pattern of death-resurrection must be at the heart of the Church’s life. Individually and collectively, we continually die in Christ so that we may continually rise in Him. Thus we pass over in a process of ongoing religious transition to a greater participation in Christ’s resurrection. It is true that our participation in Christ’s resurrection will reach its completion only in eternal life. Nevertheless, we begin the life of resurrection here upon earth, in the here and now of human life, in the midst of joy and pain, in the experience of success and failure, in the sweat of our brow, in the enjoyment of God’s gifts. As Christians, we should have a sense of dynamic growth concerning our here and now life of resurrection.

    We cannot maintain the life of resurrection or grow in it without a willingness to suffer. This does not mean that we need to feel overwhelmed and heavily burdened in our lives. The greater portion of suffering for most Christians seems to be an accumulation of ordinary hardships, difficulties, and pains. At times, however, deep suffering, even suffering of agonizing proportions can enter into one’s life. Whether the sufferings one encounters are of the more ordinary variety or of the more rare and extreme type, Christians must convince themselves that to relate properly to the cross is to grow in resurrection, and growth in resurrection means we will also have an increased capacity to help give resurrection to others.

• Pope John Paul II speaks of the role suffering plays in the Christian life: "Every man has his own share in the redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the redemption was accomplished. He is called to share in that suffering through which all human suffering has also been redeemed. In bringing about the redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the redemption. Thus each man in his suffering can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ…

    "Those who share in Christ’s sufferings have before their eyes the paschal mystery of the cross and resurrection, in which Christ descends, in a first phace, to the ultimate limits of human weakness and impotence: Indeed, he dies nailed to the cross. But if at the same time in this weakness there is accomplished his lifting up, confirmed by the power of the resurrection, then this means that the weaknesses of all human sufferings are capable of being infused with the same power of God manifested in Christ’s cross. In such a concept, to suffer means to become particularly susceptible, particularly open, to the working of the salvific powers of God offered to humanity in Christ. In him God has confirmed his desire to act especially through suffering, which is man’s weakness and emptiness of self." ²

• Dom Hubert Van Zeller observes: "Men and women who might be turning their afflictions over to God, who have only to unite themselves in spirit with Christ’s passion, are found so often to stop short, and even to make of their trial further matter for selfishness. Even if we do not rebel positively against God’s providential will, we can become so preoccupied with our troubles as to leave God out of account.

    "Instead of making us compassionate for others we can squander compassion on ourselves. Suffering is meant to enlarge our hearts, not shrink them. With suffering goes the grace of patience, peace, fortitude, penitence and love. All this can be missed if we make the mistake of turning in upon ourselves as the result of our trials.

    "To the Jews the cross was a stumbling block, and to the gentiles foolishness. What is it to us? Often it can be an emblem merely, the significance of the symbol forgotten. The cross is something in which we are, by reason of our Christian inheritance, inextricably involved. Do we yield to it or harden ourselves against it? The cross is not just two planks fitted together on a certain day in the history of the world, and of all the relics which we venerate the most sacred, but a fact of our human experience which may or may not be sacred according to what we do about it." ³

• Contrary to what many think, Fr. Edward Leen reminds us that suffering is compatible with happiness: "If men are prone to err in conceiving the nature of happiness, they will necessarily err in judging of its opposite. They commonly think that a man cannot possibly be happy if he is a prey to constant sickness; if he is condemned to experience habitual poverty and to be buried in obscurity; if he fails to take an important part on the world stage; if he is unsuccessful in his enterprises; if he is deprived of the opportunities of intellectual or aesthetic development; and finally, if he fails to gain the applause and the esteem of his fellows. Now though all these things mean grievous sufferings for men, neither singly nor in combination have they the power to rob him of essential happiness.

    "Apart from the consideration of the life of the Redeemer, certain undeniable facts of history justify this contention. The saints, in all ages, have been persons whose lot it was, generally speaking, to undergo greater trials and sufferings than others are called upon to endure. Yet they were habitually happy, buoyant and joyous human beings…

    "The saints were not violently wresting words from their literal meaning when they proclaimed themselves happy. For the happiness they enjoyed was that which is proper to, and satisfying for man…

    "God planned an unbroken life of happiness for man. The Fall modified, but did not prevent the realization of this plan. Suffering, but not unhappiness, becomes the condition of the earthly portion of men’s existence. God does not make unhappiness here to be the price to pay for happiness hereafter. To be happy, in the minds of all men, is to fare well, that is, to live excellently... The Saviour Himself suffered intensely, but He lived the highest life possible for men. He was, therefore, happy. He assured men that He could share His own blissful experience with them. It may appear paradoxical to associate happiness with the mental image of One Who is called the Man of Sorrows. But an analysis of the nature of happiness will show that it was fully realized in the earthly life of the Saviour…" ⁴

• Caryll Houselander writes with great sensitivity regarding the second station of the Way of the Cross: "They put His own garments on Him again, and Jesus comes out from the judgment hall of Pilate to receive His cross.

    "He comes to it gladly! This is a strange thing, for the cross is a symbol of shame, and it is to be His deathbed. Already He sees the very shape of His death in the wide-spread arms. From this moment He will be inseparable from it, until He dies on it. He will labour and struggle under the weight of it… Yet Christ welcomes the cross. He embraces it. He takes it into His arms. He lays His beautiful hands on it tenderly, those strong hands of a carpenter that are so familiar with the touch of wood." ⁵

• Henri Nouwen tells this story: "I would like to tell you the story of a middle-aged man whose career was suddenly interrupted by the discovery of leukemia, a fatal blood cancer. All his life plans crumbled and all his ways had to change. But slowly he was able to ask himself no longer: ‘Why did this happen to me?’ but instead: ‘What is the promise hidden in this event?’ When his rebellion became a new quest, he felt that he could give strength and hope to other cancer patients and, that by facing his condition directly, he could make his pain a source of healing for others. To this day, this man not only does more for patients than many ministers are able to, but he also refound his life on a level that he had never known before." ⁶

• St. Paul tells us: But we hold this treasure in pots of earthenware, so that the immensity of the power is God’s and not our own. We are subjected to every kind of hardship, but never distressed; we see no way out but we never despair; we are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still have some life in us; always we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus, too, may be visible in our body. Indeed, while we are still alive, we are continually being handed over to death, for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may be visible in our mortal flesh. (2 Co 4:7-11)

---

NOTES:

1. Scripture quotations are taken from The New Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday.
2. Pope John Paul II, On The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, United States Catholic Conference, Nos. 19 and 23.
3. Dom Hubert Van Zeller, More Ideas for Prayer, Templegate, p. 112.
4. Edward Leen, C. S. Sp., Why the Cross?, Sheed & Ward, pp. 246-247, 255, 285.
5. Caryll Houselander, The Way of the Cross, Sheed & Ward, p. 21.
6. Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, Ave Maria Press, p. 57.

end of excerpt from Newsletter 2000 - Issue 2

 

R. The war is a war with Satan.
To not give into his temptations and do the best God wants you to be.
God loves us so much, He wants us to win the war for love.

God wants us to win the battle against evil.

God is with us always in our hearts, even at the point of death when we are rooted in him.

Dear God help us to realize only one thing is important, eternal salvation.

Sin takes us away from eternal salvation.

Jesus died for our sins so we can go to heaven if we love and serve Him and love our brothers as our self.

Mary stood beneath the cross and she cried for those who with hard hearts, would throw back in God’s face the grace He wanted us to possess.
 

Mary's Message
from the Rosary of August 27, 1996

Mary: I stood beneath the cross of my Son, and my Heart was in such pain for I saw Him before my eyes. I saw Him covered with blood. I saw Him die. My Heart, my children, my Heart to watch my Son, but my Heart, my Heart, how I suffered for my little children of the world that give in to this world and give up the love of my Son. O my little children of light, I give you this message. Carry this light into the darkness for your Mother Mary, for I stood beneath the cross and I cried. I cried for the little ones. I cried for the young ones, the ones that do not care and will lose their souls. How do I make you see for you will not listen to me? What can I do? I come. I appear. I beg. I plead. I give you these gifts from my Son, and you reject me. I do not deliver messages very often anymore for I have been ignored. The message is the same. You do not read the messages I have given to you. Please help me. Help the little children. I appear. I appear. I appear, and I am ignored. I stood beneath the cross, and I cried. I cried, and my Heart was in such anguish for my little children, for I am searching for them this day as I searched for the Child Jesus. Please, please help me. I cannot hold back the hand of my Son any longer. I am Mary, your Mother. I ask you to help my children. You are my children of light.  end of Mary's Message

R. We are to help in the work of redemption by living virtuously as God intends.
Virtues are good habits.

Vices are bad habits.

 

           From Tell My People by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J.

The Holy Spirit

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. 

Prayer: Come, Holy Spirit, fill us with your gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. As we dwell in the Heart of Mary, Your spouse, fashion us more and more according to the Heart of Jesus.   end of excerpt

"If you ask the Father anything in my name,
    He will give it to you"

R. God wants our unity – we ask for this
    unity – that the Spirit of God fill
    us and help us to be holy –
    that we do not hold onto any of the deadly
    sins that block us from this unity –
    that the Holy Spirit can work in our souls,
    so we can be His instruments of love
    and peace and joy among our brothers.

We pray this heavenly Father in the name of
    Jesus who said ask in my name and
    it will be given to you.

    Let us experience the joy of unity and love
    on a supernatural level and know You
    our beloved God – more and more supernaturally.
    We want our hearts to be sanctified in
    our love and work so we are holy and
    pleasing to You God.

Come to us Lord and possess our soul.

We want to walk as God intends us
    to walk today in the plan of God,
    in the work He has called us to do today.

We know that we must cooperate with the grace
    You are giving us – now and today to
    bring unity and peace and love to this
    day as we serve to do the work – You are
    calling us in our vocation to do.

Dear Heavenly Father, hear our prayer,
    in the name of Jesus, we pray,
    we ask, heavenly Father for these
    graces necessary this day to
    bring peace, love and joy to
    our relationships and work – as You
    work in us.

    We seek perfection in our souls to be holy
    souls likened to You – in work
    and in play – to be holy in prayer –
    we invite You Holy Spirit to be
    the Guest of our soul.

We seek order in our lives, not disorder.

We beg for the virtues of faith, hope, love,
    prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice,
    and humility. We seek to be obedient
    to the will of God and live obedient to
    the will of God in love.

Come Holy Spirit Come into our hearts. Transform
    us from fear to fearlessness to serve
    You as You desire in our lives.

Help our actions to be for the glory and honor
    of God with the goal of these actions
    to one day be in heaven with Thee,
    our beloved God.

Heal our hearts and our bodies – Help
    us to have health of body now in
    this work you call us to do.

Instill in us a desire to want to only
    do the will of the heavenly Father
    and to walk in holiness and love.

We pray all these prayers heavenly Father,
    united to Jesus, in His name for
    grace and holiness today and always.

Help us to live by right reasoning in
    our lives – to have the truth
    in our every thought and to live
    in order as You operate in us
    in unity and love.

Come to me Lord and possess my soul.

We seek order in our lives – Your order
    to love in us, to help us to act as
    You desire, to have the thoughts
    that are in right reasoning and in
    Your order, Lord.

Give us the grace to use our faculties
    to love and serve You and do
    Your work.

Give us faith and right reasoning.

Help us to love and be just in our actions.

Help us to seek Your Divine Will and to
    perform those actions, which are actions
    pleasing to You in everything.

Come to us Lord and purify our consciences,
    our souls.

Help us to hope and love in Thee.

We seek heavenly vision – to see
    things through the eyes of
    the heavenly Father and to be
    perfected more and more in doing
    God's will in our lives.

We pray for the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.

We pray for this purity in our souls –
    to live virtuously, to be perfected
    more and more and filled with the
    gifts of the Holy Spirit –
    Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel,
    Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety
    and Fear of the Lord 

    and to have the fruits of the Holy Spirit –
    charity, joy, peace, patience,
    benignity (kindness), goodness,
    long-suffering, mildness,
    faith, modesty, continency,
    and chastity.

We do not want the enemies to
    invade our thoughts, our
    actions, our lives –

We pray to give up ugly bad habits of the
    deadly sins –
    pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth

We know on this journey we will
    experience sufferings and joys
    and we accept the struggles
    in life and ask You to help us,
    strengthen us in our lives to
    suffer and rejoice as You
    desire us to do in our lives.

We want to be a reflection of Your
    heavenly love – to be full of light –
    Your light in us. To operate in
    light and not darkness – IN You,
    our beloved God.

We want to follow in the footsteps
    of Jesus in giving love and
    light and unity to those
    we contact in our lives –

         

Prayer for Union with Jesus

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

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

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

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

-God's Blue Book, January 17, 1994

 

R. Jesus paid the price for our sins because He loves us so much. Others went before us sacrificing so we have constancy in our lives, favors from God but some are so silly, they punish those who God has sent to help them find eternal happiness.
They can become very evil serving Satan.

Dear Jesus thank You for all You did for our eternal salvation. We love You so much, Jesus and we give You our heart.