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| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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April 12, 2016
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April 13th Holy Spirit Novena |
The Novena Rosary
Mysteries |
Retreat in China
April 10th - 13th
Mass - April 12th - 12 noon
April 13th - 12 noon
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April 12, 2016
Acts 7: 51 - 8: 1
'You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Can you name a single prophet your ancestors never persecuted? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Upright One, and now you have become his betrayers, his murderers. In spite of being given the Law through angels, you have not kept it.'
They were infuriated when they heard this, and ground their teeth at him.
But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand. 'Look! I can see heaven thrown open,' he said, 'and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.' All the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they made a concerted rush at him, thrust him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' Then he knelt down and said aloud, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And with these words he fell asleep.
Saul approved of the killing.
R. Stephen spoke strongly for Jesus, they
were infuriated and stoned him to death.
Stephen was buried and men cried over his
death. Saul was trying to destroy the Church.
Saul was imprisoning the Christians and
killing them.
The infant Church grew despite it was being
persecuted.
Sing: I Am the Bread of Life
Sing: Church of God –
Sing: How Great Thou Art
R. The Apocalypse Movie was around 90 AD –
It centers around John.
Oh my God, I love You so much –
The Christians would not recognize the divinity
of the Emperor and thus were persecuted –
John was imprisoned at Patmos and
so were many others.
The movie shows many scenes from the book
of Revelation.
Around 34 AD Stephen was stoned to death –
Paul was converted around 35 AD –
Peter and Paul were busy doing the work
of Jesus.
Peter was rescued by an angel from
prison.
Acts 13: 47-48
For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said:
I have made you a light to the nations,
so that my salvation may reach
the remotest parts of the earth.’It made the gentiles very happy to hear this and they gave thanks to the Lord for his message; all who were destined for eternal life became believers.
R. Baptism of the Gentiles –
Late 40's and 50' Paul traveled on his journeys.
2 Corinthians 11: 24-28
Five times I have been given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; three times I have been beaten with sticks; once I was stoned; three times I have been shipwrecked, and once I have been in the open sea for a night and a day; continually travelling, I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from brigands, in danger from my own people and in danger from the gentiles, in danger in the towns and in danger in the open country, in danger at sea and in danger from people masquerading as brothers; I have worked with unsparing energy, for many nights without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty, and often altogether without food or drink; I have been cold and lacked clothing. And, besides all the external things, there is, day in day out, the pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
R. 58 Paul was arrested and imprisoned
60-61 Paul went to Rome
1 Timothy 4: 6-8
If you put all this to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus and show that you have really digested the teaching of the faith and the good doctrine which you have always followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales. Train yourself for religion. Physical exercise is useful enough, but the usefulness of religion is unlimited, since it holds out promise both for life here and now and for the life to come;
R. Peter and Paul thought to be martyred
around 65 AD – Peter crucified upside down –
About 95 Gospel of John and Revelation written
End of century
About 100 John died - very old –
And when Jesus had been baptised he at once came up from the water, and suddenly the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.
R. The Holy Spirit helps us to have zeal to spread this
Good News and do this work for
growth in the Church –
We need to pray to the Holy Spirit to focus on this
growth needed –
To have fire in our hearts like the early
Apostles –
Jesus told us in Blue Book II we needed fire in
our hearts –
We need the fire of His love in our
hearts to do this work –
Look at how the Church spread –
It is still there –
We need to pray – Jesus told us to pray
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R. God sent Mary in Clearwater to help us
spread this message.
R. We need the Holy Spirit filling us to do this work –
We must pray for the Holy Spirit to work in
us and others –
We look at the courage of the Apostles –
Many were martyred –
They were fearless to do this work –
We need the fire in us to spread this
Good News –
the fire of the Holy Spirit –
the gifts of the Holy Spirit –
Fortitude to do the difficult because
it is God's will –
Love of God so deep in our hearts –
To take Fr. Joe's book all over the
earth –
To take the Shepherds of Christ prayers all
over the earth.
To say the Holy Spirit prayers ourselves and
spread them to the world.
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R. We received grace in Baptism and Confirmation –
God gives us a sharing in His life in Baptism –
Divine life –
God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwell in the graced
baptized soul –
We need the Holy Spirit working in us –
The Spirit of God moving in us
We need fire and desire to do this
with all our heart –
Look at the lives of the Apostles –
Look at the lives of the Saints –
We must be docile to the touch of the
Holy Spirit –
Pray the Novena with all our
heart
We have to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit
not be dry and inactive –
We are permeated by love of God
and others and ourselves as the Holy Spirit
fills us –
God is all powerful –
He can draw us to do good and avoid
evil –
We must want to be moved –
Abandon ourselves to God and His
plan and will for us –
Let the Holy Spirit move in us –
Not be stiff-necked, rigid and
controlling –
Isaiah 11: 2-3
On him will rest the spirit of Yahweh,
the spirit of wisdom and insight,
the spirit of counsel and power,
the spirit of knowledge
and fear of Yahweh:
Sirach 1: 16, 18
The fullness of wisdom is to fear the Lord;
she intoxicates them with her fruits:The crown of wisdom is to fear the Lord
she makes peace with health flourish.
Galatians 5: 22-23
On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self–control; no law can touch such things as these.
Matthew 5: 3-12
How blessed are the poor in spirit:
the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
Blessed are the gentle:
they shall have the earth as inheritance.
Blessed are those who mourn:
they shall be comforted.
Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst for uprightness:
they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful:
they shall have mercy shown them.
Blessed are the pure in heart:
they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers:
they shall be recognised
as children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted
in the cause of uprightness:
the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and
speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this
is how they persecuted the prophets before you.
R. God outpours His grace to us –
we live the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit
we produce the fruits
and the beatitudes
Song: We Have Been Told
Jesus says – I am the Vine
You are the Branches
God is the Gardener –
Eve sinned – she ate the fruit –
We live in the virtues and gifts –
We have baptism and confirmation –
We are fed by the Eucharist –
We have a sharing in Divine Life
from baptism –
That is something –
Jesus paid a big price for this –
Ephesians 3: 20-21
Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
R. Doing the difficult with courage. Does it
matter if we lift a pebble or a boulder,
what matters is doing God's will, but we must
say – God wants me to do something so we do it.
Putting off and putting off until the bad wall
falls in or the roof caves in, is ignoring the
signs given and there is deterioration which is
going on when signs are given and ignored.
When we see that a rotting floor can
soon give way and someone can fall through –
can we see when a person gives into a weak will
and allows satan to operate through temptation
in their lives.
Fools rush in where angels fear to go, but
there are fallen angels with great intellects
that work to tempt men to give into their
hatred and disobedience before God.
The Bible in Genesis in Chapter 3 tells us
about the fall of man. We see how God
prepared His people to bring Jesus, the Savior,
the Son of God into the world to save the
fallen race.
Satan has knowledge that can penetrate
the man and tempt him, using memory and
senses, his thoughts and imagination.
God in baptism has given us a sharing
in His life, our knowing and loving capacity
is elevated. God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit
dwell in our graced, baptized soul. We can
be filled with the Holy Spirit, the gift of
God's presence, God's grace,
we can supernaturally love and know God
supernaturally. The devil hates us. The devil
will go to hell eternally. God has given us
the sacraments – God has given us
Baptism, the Eucharist, Confession –
God loves us so much –
The devil hates us. The devil is a liar, a deceiver.
The devil is jealous and envious of man.
Hell is a place of no love –
Hell is a place of absence of God forever.
Hell is real.
Prudence
A man with age and working with people,
using his natural abilities can learn to be
prudent. He, through experiences, can learn
what is prudent.
But God gives to us the infused virtues of
faith, hope and love in baptism.
We need to be in the state of grace to receive the
help we need to be supernaturally prudent. God
wants to direct and help a man to attain eternal
happiness and live in love according to the Father's
will. The Holy Spirit can fill us with His guidance and
grace to help us to be prudent and just and
temperant and have courage to do the difficult
we must do, to do God's will and to do things in the
time and the way that is right according to
God's plan –
We can pray for supernatural prudence for
it is a gift from God, where by in natural
prudence a man may develop this in age in
trying to do what is right and good in life.
Our goal for our actions are to be those which
lead us to eternal happiness in heaven – in
right reasoning we discern our actions and
we seek God's will – living according to God's
will in love.
Supernatural prudence is a gift from baptism –
A man must stay in the state of grace to
be supernaturally prudent. It is a gift from
God given to the graced, baptized soul seeking
to do what God wants us to do.
We must seek to live in love!
We obey the will of God!
We live by the Commandments of God.
We pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit –
Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel,
Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety
and
Fear of the Lord
We must be submissive to the touch of the
Holy Spirit guiding us on our path and we
live by His guidance. We seek the vision of God –
We seek actions that will lead us to eternal happiness,
We do not give into sense pleasures that oppose
God's will – we live a disciplined life and
ask God the Holy Spirit to strengthen our will and
to help us not to be weak-willed. We live in God.
We have a lot of self-talk that goes on
many times before actions – after actions are
repeated and repeated they can be habits.
These can be good habits or virtues. Or they
can be bad habits or vices –
The imprudent man wants no counsel, he
thinks he can depend on himself, when in fact
the counsel he may use for his actions can be
the temptations of satan, the evil spirit.
The Holy Spirit wants to work in the soul, counseling
him to see God's will and to do it in love of God
and neighbor and self. Sin is really not
loving oneself.
A man of imprudence can give into his
sense driven feelings and quickly and without
forethought or discernment. He can be a man
of weak or diseased will –
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread"
God intends us to have the goal of eternal salvation
before us in all our actions and to use right reasoning.
Thus a man would never punish others because
of their pride and jealousy and envy and
selfishness. A man who is trying to do his
actions according to God's will is seeking
to serve God and others and does not want to
offend God by the smallest sin.
We have used the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
many times. In these Spiritual Exercises there are
rules for discernment. It is believed Mary, Our
Spiritual Mother dictated these Spiritual Exercises
to St. Ignatius.
In the Spiritual Exercises we see the fundamental principle –
From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius,
by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. p. 12
23. FIRST PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION
Man is created to praise, reverence and serve God
our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
R. and the purpose
From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius,
by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. p.1121. SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
Which have as their purpose the conquest of self
and the regulation of one's life in such a way that
no decision is made under the influence of any
inordinate attachment
R. The rules for discernment are very good guides
to help us to discern our actions.
4 days before his death
R. Sometimes people who give into the deadly
sins can be so gripped by anger, they refuse
to even see how destructive the emotion is
when they are tearing down what they need to
build up for their own vocation.
Satan is a devil and he tempts people to
give into angry ways of hurting others, themselves
and the vocation they are called to.
We have been asked by Jesus to unite on 5ths
and 13ths in community prayer. We have Masses
during the retreats. So much grace can be
outpoured in this prayer before the Eucharist,
during Mass when praying together for the
Mission God has given us.
But the devil can use this opportunity
to get a person isolated, focused on themselves,
jealous, envious, prideful, angry and block
this needed opportunity for great grace to be
outpoured, as Jesus said would happen.
The Eucharist is such a gift –
Community prayer on the
13th can help
to bring down great grace for the priests, the
Church and the world.
The devil is crafty – he tempts people to use
passive-aggressive actions to fool themselves
when they are passively using their actions to
attack and divide, destroy, tear down
and hurt others –
Actions are to be performed in charity.
Actions are to be performed to promote the
good of the one loved.
Seeking to pursue the good of worldly
desires is not prudence. One must
seek God's will in love, with right reasoning.
Our actions are to be guided by the goal of
eternal happiness.
The goal is –––––> eternal happiness.
Seeking the Vision of God.
Man can seek those things that come from
the world, the flesh and the devil –
this is imprudence.
A prudent man performs his actions
because His ultimate goal is
to be led closer to God.
Imprudence brings unhappiness –
The prudent man is free of inordinate desire
he could be addicted to –
From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius,
by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. p.1121. SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
Which have as their purpose the conquest of self
and the regulation of one's life in such a way that
no decision is made under the influence of any
inordinate attachment
Give the gift that keeps giving.
Blue Book 1 & 2 – $4.00 each plus postage
Blue Books 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6A, B, C, 3 –
$3.00 each plus postage
Blue Books 4 & 5 –$2.00 each plus postage
Blue Books 14 & 15 –$5.00 each plus postage
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:
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2) Good for Music Ministers
7) Good for Mom and Dads
3) Good for DRE's
4) Good for Deacons
5) Good for Principals of Schools
6) Good for Teachers
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.
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New Mass Book with Imprimatur
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