Mary has requested that the daily message be given each day to the world. It is read nightly at the prayer service from her Image Building in Clearwater, Florida, U.S.A. This is according to her request. All attempts will be made to publish this daily message to the world at 11 p.m. Eastern time, U.S.A. We acknowledge that the final authority regarding these messages rests with the Holy See of Rome.

April 16, 2005

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The Shepherds of Christ Newsletter
2004 Issue 1

Dedicated to the Holy Father
Pope John Paul II

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The Shepherds of Christ Newsletter
2004 Issue 1

Dedicated to the Holy Father
Pope John Paul II

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April 16, 2005

1 Peter 2: 20-25

but what glory is there in putting up with a beating after you have done something wrong? The merit in the sight of God is in putting up with it patiently when you are punished for doing your duty.

    This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow in his steps. He had done nothing wrong, and had spoken no deceit. He was insulted and did not retaliate with insults; when he was suffering he made no threats but put his trust in the upright judge. He was bearing our sins in his own body on the cross, so that we might die to our sins and live for uprightness; through his bruises you have been healed. You had gone astray like sheep but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

 

John 10: 1-10

‘In all truth I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a bandit. He who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gate-keeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out all those that are his, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him because they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’
Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he was saying to them.
        So Jesus spoke to them again:

In all truth I tell you,
I am the gate of the sheepfold.
All who have come before me
are thieves and bandits,
but the sheep took no notice of them.
I am the gate.
Anyone who enters through me
   will be safe"
such a one will go in and out
and will find pasture.
The thief comes
only to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come
so that they may have life
and have it to the full.
 

 

Excerpts from the Priestly Newsletter

November/December 1994

Chief Shepherd of the Flock

Yes, the Good Shepherd has laid down His life for His sheep. The Good Shepherd’s magnificent Heart, overflowing with love for His Father and all of us, was pierced so that the waters of our salvation might flow forth: “It was Preparation Day, and to prevent the bodies remaining on the cross during the sabbath—since that sabbath was a day of special solemnity—the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. When they came to Jesus, they found he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance. And immediately there came out blood and water.” (Jn 19: 31-34).

Bonaventure, the Franciscan saint and doctor of the Church, comments on the pierced Heart of the Good Shepherd: “Then, in order that the Church might be formed out of the side of Christ sleeping on the cross…the divine plan permitted that one of the soldiers pierce open His sacred side with a lance. While blood mixed with water flowed, the price of our salvation was poured forth, which gushing forth from the sacred fountain of the heart gave power to the sacraments of the Church…”²

Another doctor of the Church, St. Augustine, also refers to the source of life which is the pierced Heart of Jesus: “On the cross he made a great exchange. There the purse which held our price was opened, for when the soldier’s spear opened his side, the price of the whole world flowed forth.”³

Finally, we have the words of the Church herself concerning the pierced Heart of Jesus. In the preface for the Mass of the Sacred Heart we read in part: “Lifted high on the cross, Christ gave his life for us, so much did he love us. From his wounded side flowed blood and water, the fountain of sacramental life in the Church. To his open heart the Savior invites all…to draw water in joy from the springs of salvation.”⁴

Yes, the Church reminds us that Jesus the Good Shepherd invites all to come to His open Heart, this Heart which symbolizes His love and calls for our love in return. The Church invites all to come to Jesus’ pierced Heart in order to be clothed with the graces which the Heart of Jesus longs to give us in abundance. We priests have the privilege and responsibility to lead the members of Jesus’ flock to the pierced Heart of Jesus in order that they may be showered with the graces which are necessary for their salvation and ongoing sanctification. As a good shepherd under Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock, the priest has to lead the sheep to the only source of true nourishment, the pierced Heart of Christ. The more we priests ourselves dwell within the pierced Heart of Jesus, as the Church invites all to do, the more we are able to lead others to this sacred refuge and source of all spiritual nourishment. As we ourselves dwell within the pierced Heart of Jesus, Christ gives us an increased awareness of how much He loves each person with the most special and unique love. Jesus has chosen each priest to be a most special ambassador to spread the message of this overwhelming love of His Heart for each individual. The more we priests ourselves grow in the awareness of how much Jesus loves each of us as His priest-companions, the more we are able to teach to others the truth of Jesus’ special love for each individual. And the more we priests realize how much Jesus wants the love of each individual, the more we are also able to teach His truth to others.

Jesus suffered and died for the entire human race, but He did it in a manner which makes it true to say He also did it for each individual in a most special way. Notice how personalized St. Paul makes the redemptive suffering and death and love of Jesus. In the letter to the Galatians he does not use the plural, but the singular: “I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me. I still live my human life, but it is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2: 19-20).

2. Bonaventure, tr. by E. Cousins, Paulist Press, pp. 154-155.
3. The Liturgy of the Hours, Catholic Book Publishing Co., Vol. IV, 1727.
4. The Sacramentary, Catholic Book Publishing Co., p. 463.

July/August 1995

We Are Called to Imitate His Self-Giving

He hung upon a cross on a hill called Calvary. Death was near. How much Jesus had already suffered! He had been brutally scourged. Much of His sacred body was a bloody, open wound. 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 in a complete and magnificent act of self-giving: “When they came to Jesus, they found He was already dead, and so instead of breaking His legs one of the soldiers pierced His side with a lance. And immediately there came out blood and water. (Jn 19: 33-34).

Indeed, from the pierced Heart of Christ the Church with her sacraments was born. Two of these sacraments, the Eucharist and Baptism, are symbolized by the blood and water flowing from Christ’s side. The sacrament of Orders was, of course, also born from the pierced Heart of Christ. We who are priests can never adequately thank Jesus for allowing us to receive this great and most special sacrament. The best way we can try to thank Him, though, is to utilize our priesthood to the fullest.

Each day we are called to imitate Jesus in His act of Self-giving. We, too, are called to lay down our lives for the flock. Relatively few priests in the course of the Church’s history have been called to lay down their lives in physical martyrdom. All priests, though, have been and are called to lay down their lives for the flock by giving themselves in loving service according to the Father’s will.

Our act of self-giving occurs within the framework of common everydayness. We grow in Christian holiness within the framework of everyday life or we don’t grow at all. This is such an obvious statement. It is one of those self-evident truths, a truth which no logical person would begin to challenge. Isn’t it strange, then, that we can rather often fail to live this truth? Inexplicably, we so often seem to think that our real opportunity for growth in holiness—for self-giving in love—is not the opportunity which is everyday, but that opportunity which is in a kind of no man’s land, an ethereal kind of opportunity removed from the ordinary pains and struggles and joys of everyday living, a nebulous opportunity which our hazy thinking really cannot pinpoint when we reflect upon the matter.

Our problem, then, is not that there is lacking ample opportunity for self-giving in love, for growth in holiness. Our problem rather is that we have a tendency to want different opportunities than everydayness presents.

Our task is to allow faith, hope, and love to be more vital, more operative, day-by-day, everyday. The more mature our Christian faith, hope, and love become, the more we will look upon each day as a renewed opportunity for self-giving in union with Jesus. We will increasingly come to see with a clearer vision that the opportunities for growth in priestly holiness, for growth in union with Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock, are inserted deeply and firmly within the framework of everydayness. Yes, that’s where they exist, and in bountiful measure.

                Sing: Valleys of Green