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Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing

April 23, 2014

April 24th Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 2 Period I.

The Novena Rosary Mysteries
for April 24th are Joyful.

We will be painting the crucifix
in Florida this week.
Please pray for this.

Package for the month of Mary and First Communion


The Song of Bernadette DVD OR	The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima DVD	11" Fatima Statue with image glass	Blue Book 12	8x10 and 4x6 pictures of Our Lady of Clearwater

plus CD of October 13, 1996 Rosary
$50 plus postage
while supplies last

Call 1-888-211-3041

Package for Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II will be canonized April 27th.

Here is a wonderful DVD about his life.

12" Statue of Sacred Heart of Jesus with glass
CD of Live Rosary from Blue Book 13 October 13, 1996 –
1st 13th - Fr. Carter leads this live rosary
Blue Book 12
Karol Movie
Pictures of Our Lady of Clearwater 8 x 10 and 4 x 6

Hard copy of October 13, 1996 Rosary
We will include this special rosary with this offer.

$100 plus postage
while supplies last

This is a limited time offer.
These statues may become scarce in the near future.

Special First Communion Rosary with Image Center

in a gift box

white blue red

and an 8 x 10 picture of Our Lady of Clearwater
and a 4 x 6 picture of Our Lady of Clearwater

$10 plus postage

Original Image Rosary

8mm glass beads
in a matching gift box

$40 plus shipping

Given March 21, 2014

R. Pray for These Things

                1) Pray for the priests, the Church and the world!
                2) Pray for the spread of prayer chapters,
                    also for the spread of priests doing prayer chapters.
                3) Pray for the spread of Blue Books.
                4) People going to Florida and China.
                5) Vocations to all 7 categories.
                6) Pray for spread of Consecration and Rosary.
                7) Pray for pope helping us.
                8) Blue Book 13 cover; Blue Book 12, Blue Book 13 - all involved.
                    For our Publisher and all involved
                9) All intentions on my list, Jerry's list.
              10) Priests getting Fr. Joe's book.
              11) Donors and members and their families.
              12) Healing of the Family tree.
              13) Dan & Melanie, Catherine & mom, Gary, Mary Jo,
                    Jim & statues, Fr. Ken, Monsignor, Tom & wife, Kerry.
              14) All who asked us to pray for them.
              15) All we promised to pray for.
              16) Rita, John, Doris, Sheila, Jerry, Regina, Sanja,
                    Betty, Sophie, Rosie, Lisa, Eileen, Fr. Mike, Jeff,
                    Louie, 2 Dons, Mary Ellen, Fr. Joe, all priests helping us,
                    Ed, Jimmy, a special couple.
              17) 2 babies and moms.
              18) Funds and insurance.
              19) Special intentions.
              20) Jerry's garage.
              21) Spread the Blood of Jesus on all of us here.
              22) Consecrate all hearts.
              23) Cast the devil out of all of us here and all in Movement.

April 23, 2014 - Wednesday of Easter Week

R. Dear Jesus,

                    You have given to us a sharing in
                your life in baptism. In baptism, we have
                been given an elevated capacity to know
                and to love so we can participate
                in Your knowing and loving
                activity – Wow – This means that
                God loved us so much – He raised
                us to these special gifts to be
                able to communicate with Him and
                He loves us so much.

                    I was dreaming about dogs and they
                all had blankets and special beds.
                Some dogs were even more loved
                than others and their bed extra special,
                their food extra special because the
                dogs were so important and loved by
                their owners.

                    There are lots of movies where
                dogs and animals can talk
                and communicate with us through
                speaking, but it isn't true that
                dogs really speak and can communicate
                like a person with a human nature.

                    God, however, shows us how much
                He loves us. God created man and
                man is the creature, but He
                created man in His image and likeness –
                we see this in Genesis 1.

Genesis 1: 26-27

God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.’

God created man in the image of himself,
in the image of God he created him,
male and female he created them.

                R. We see how despite the gifts given
                that Eve was tempted by satan to
                disobey God. The independence of
                Eve to listen to satan, over God and
                she wanted to be equal to God so
                she chose to disobey Him.

                    God is the gift-giver. He
                created us. He loved us into existence
                and despite Adam and Eve's sin
                in rebeling against a good God –
                God promised a Redeemer.

                    God prepared His people in the Old
                Testament to be faithful to the one - true God.
                We see how God tested Abraham
                by seeing if he was willing to
                sacrifice what was most dear to
                him and give his son.

                    We receive lessons from this –
                how God tested Abraham to see if
                he was faithful.

                    We see that Abraham operated
                on faith – strong faith and he
                showed he communicated with
                God, in that faith and love of God,
                that he was willing to sacrifice
                his son, Isaac.

We see it was a test and God
did not take Abraham's son.

                    We see that this shows us the
                gift God the Father gave us in
                the death of His Son because
                God the Father loves us so much.

                    In dying for our sins and
                rising from the dead, we receive
                a sharing in Divine life and our
                knowing and loving capacity is
                elevated to be able to share in
                God's knowing and loving activity –

                We aren't like the men who love
                their dogs and want to be able
                to communicate with them on
                a human level – this isn't
                going to happen.

                    We are so dear to God and He
                wants this intimate union with
                man so much and He created us
                in His image and likeness, that
                Jesus paid a precious price so
                we can communicate with God –
                because through baptism we share
                in God's Divine life –

                    We share in His knowing and
                loving activity because He
                elevates our knowing and loving
                capacity in baptism –

                    God wants intimacy with us –
                God gives us the Christ-life
                in baptism and He nurtures
                this life with Himself.

                    Jesus gives us His Body and
                Blood to eat – how awesome
                is this.

                    God wants us to have this
                presence of Himself in us
                through baptism, so the Father, Son and
                Holy Spirit dwell in the graced baptized soul.
                No wonder in yesterday's Acts - we
                hear Peter calling out
                Repent and be baptized because
                of these gifts given to man in
                baptism –

                    God wants us to talk to Him,
                to share His life – to participate
                in His knowing and loving activity.
                We are human creatures and He
                raises us to such heights and
                we rebel against Him.

                    We are the mystical body of
                Christ. He is the head –
                We need to recognize Christ
                as head of the body and live
                by God's Plan –

                    Man because of His free
                will, can seek independence
                of God.

                    How offending is this
                of man when God is so
                good to us and gives us a
                sharing in His life –

1 Corinthians 12: 27-30

Now Christ’s body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole. And those whom God has appointed in the Church are, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers; after them, miraculous powers, then gifts of healing, helpful acts, guidance, various kinds of tongues. Are all of them apostles? Or all prophets? Or all teachers? Or all miracle–workers? Do all have the gifts of healing? Do all of them speak in tongues and all interpret them?

Excerpt from the Priestly Newsletters May/June 1996

Thoughts on the Church Today

The Church as Body of Christ is the earthly, visible continuation of the Incarnation. Christ is the Head of the Body, we are His members. Since the Church is the terrestrial manifestation of the mystery of Christ, her life is patterned after His. The various mysteries or events of Christ, especially the central ones of death and resurrection, are to be relived by the Church's members. Indeed, the image of the Church is a Christic one.

For the Church to be constituted in the image of Christ is both a great privilege and a great responsibility. The more the Church can project the image of Christ, the more she is capable of being an instrument of continued redemption. Jesus led a life of material simplicity. Is this characteristic sufficiently manifest in the life of the Church? Jesus came to minister, not to be served. Do we as members of the Church properly project to one another and to the world an attitude of loving service? Jesus manifested a special concern for the poor, the lowly, the helpless. Do we do likewise? Jesus hungered and thirsted for justice's sake. Do the many flagrant violations of justice in our own day really bother us? Jesus loved each individual and forgave His enemies. Do we love everybody and do we forgive? Jesus was ridiculed, rejected, spat upon, beaten, crowned with thorns, abandoned by His friends, lifted up on a cross. This was all a proof of how much He loved His Church and the world. How much are we willing to suffer for the Church and the world?

There is an errant philosophy of individualism rampant in today's world that can certainly influence the contemporary Christian. This philosophy is patently false. It provides a type of individualism that is inimical to community because it teaches that one must look out for oneself regardless of the consequences to others. Do your own thing, in other words, whenever and wherever you please, and let the chips fall where they may. This type of individualism is obviously wrong and pernicious.

There is, on the other hand, a kind of individualism that is positive and in perfect harmony with the tenets of community, and, in our present context, with life within the Church: "An absolutely individual Christianity in the most personal experience of grace and ecclesial Christianity are no more radically opposed than are body and soul, than are man's transcendental essence and his historical constitution, or than are individuality and intercommunication. The two condition each other mutually. The very thing which we are from God is mediated in the concreteness of history by what we call church. And it is only in and through this mediation that it becomes our own reality and our salvation in full measure. For this reason church exists and has to exist."⁵

The above remarks easily lead us to a quotation of John Henry Cardinal Newman. Newman's words remind us that each of us has a God-given role to fulfill in the Church, and that no one else can accomplish this mission. This is a great privilege, and a great responsibility: "Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing, we are not born at random...God sees every one of us. He creates every soul, He lodges it in a body, one by one, for a purpose."⁶

Vatican II clearly reminds us that the Church's life is centered in her liturgy: "...the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the church is directed; at the same time it is the fountain from which all her power flows. For the goal of apostolic works is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of His Church, to take part in her sacrifice, and to eat the Lord's supper.

"The liturgy in its turn inspires the faithful to become 'of one heart in love' when they have tasted to their full of the paschal mysteries; it prays that 'they may grasp by deed what they hold by creed.' The renewal in the Eucharist of the covenant between the Lord and man draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them afire. From the liturgy, therefore, and especially from the Eucharist, as from a fountain, grace is channeled into us; and the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God, to which all the other activities of the Church are directed as toward their goal, are most powerfully achieved."⁹

The Father: Origin of the Church's Life

Archbishop Joseph Raya of the Byzantine Rite states: "The Father is the source of all life and love. In our liturgical life no action of Christ or of the Holy Spirit is ever mentioned without mentioning the Father as its source and origin. He is the principle and essence of being and movement. he is the very source of everything, first of all within the Trinity itself, and then in all of creation."¹⁰

The life of the Church flows from the bosom of the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Mary, as Mother of the Church, intercedes regarding all aspects of the Church's life.

The Spirit Is Present

We have just celebrated the great Feast of Pentecost. It is appropriate, then, for us to reflect upon this great Gift to the Church, the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is present. He is present in our midst-present to the world, to the Church, to each of us individually. He is among us to deepen the Christic design upon the world, that Christic image which Christ has imprinted through His life, death and resurrection. The Spirit is present to make us more alive, to stir up deep desires which make us thirst for God, desires which also make us more aware of what it means to love our neighbor. In the fourth Eucharistic prayer we say:

"Father, you so loved the world that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior...In fulfillment of your will he gave himself up to death, but by rising from the dead, he destroyed death and restored life. And that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him, he sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father, as his first gift to those who believe, to complete his work on earth and bring us the fullness of grace".¹¹

God is a God of life. The Spirit is present to us in order that we may have life and have it more abundantly. The Spirit does not in any way destroy or lessen anything which is authentically human. His grace rather elevates human nature to a new life, perfects it, gives it a new dynamism.

At times we tend to shy away from the action of the Spirit, erroneously thinking that if we abandon ourselves to His touch, life will be less than we want it to be, different than we want it to be. We mistakenly think that a life in the Spirit will somehow diminish our zest for living, that it will lessen our capacity for human happiness and fulfillment. If we succumb to such thinking, our self-made images of what happiness is, or what contributes to it, become mirages. These mirages delude us, as the mirages on the horizon delude the desert traveler. They never give us the happiness they seem to promise.

The truth is that life in the Spirit, the Christ-life, gives us an increased capacity to be alive, vital, happy. Our life in Christ, under the Spirit's touch, permeates our total existence, infuses our being with a newness, which, if we give ourselves to it, brings a happiness and fullness of life impossible to the person who refuses the Spirit's gift.

The Christian life is human life in the spirit-divinized human life. Life in the Spirit is a man deeply and tenderly loving his wife, a friend sharing with friend. Life in the Spirit is our work life. It is being a nurse, a mother and wife, a pastor, a teacher, a laborer, a scientist, a business man. Life in the Spirit is a person at play. Life in the Spirit is laughing, rejoicing, being thrilled by nature's beauty, being eager for life's possibilities. Life in the Spirit is believing, trusting loving. It is also weeping, being crushed by sorrow, losing a loved one, experiencing failure.

The above described human experiences, and all others, too, comprise life in the Spirit as long as they come under His guidance. If these experiences are regulated by the divine will, they are expressions of our Christ-life. This is the biblical sense of life in the Spirit. It is the redeemed person living as he or she should. It does not matter what the action or experience happens to be at the moment, as long as the touch of the Spirit is present.

The spiritual person, then, is the one who is careful to submit one's life to the guidance of the Spirit.

The unspiritual person, on the other hand, is one who lives not according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh. This biblical concept of living according to the flesh refers to sins of one's total person, both spirit and body, not only those involving the flesh. Living according to the flesh includes everything which is not directed by the Spirit. If it includes sexual sins and other failings of the flesh, it also embraces all failings of the spirit. Life according to the flesh is intellectual pride. It is working at one's profession for selfish motives. It is jealousy, sloth, and unjust anger. It is thinking too much about oneself. It is a lack of concern for the human dignity of the other. Life in the flesh is cheating in business; it is a greed for power; it is racial hatred; it is a callous unconcern about social injustice. Life in the flesh, then, is life outside God's redemptive plan. It is those actions and attitudes which are against God's will. It is life which refuses to be Spirit-guided.

Life lived according to the Spirit rather than according to the flesh obviously is not always easy. The opposition between the two forces within us is brought out by St. Paul: "When selfish indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling; jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control...You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires.

"Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. We must stop being conceited, provocative and envious." (Gal 5:19-26)

The new life which God gives us in the Spirit is patterned after the teaching and example of Jesus. The task of the Spirit is to lead us along the way of Jesus to the Father. His task is to deepen the image of Christ upon us. Because the Spirit knows we cannot closely follow Christ unless we deeply love Him, the Spirit is always inspiring us to a closer love-union with Jesus. We can resist the Spirit's inspiration, as we too well know, and when we do, we are tarnishing the name "Christian" which we profess. The word "Christian" should ideally mean a person completely dedicated to Jesus Christ, one on fire with love of Him, one eager to promote His cause. The committed Christian, in his or her own way, has to imitate the Christic enthusiasm of St. Paul: "Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would bring me something more; but then again, if living in this body means doing work which is having good results-I do not know what I should choose. I am caught in this dilemma: I want to be gone and be with Christ, which would be very much the better, but for me to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need for your sake." (Phil 1:21-24)

The Spirit is present. He is with us to fashion us more and more according to the image of Christ as He deepens our incorporation into the life, death and resurrection of Christ. And as the Spirit first gave us Christ through Mary, He continues to use Mary's cooperation as He causes our growth in Christ. As we open ourselves to the touch of the Spirit, we are fulfilling the Father's plan for us: "We knew that by turning everything to their good God cooperates with all those who love him, with all those that he has called according to his purpose. They are the ones he chose specially long ago and intended to become true images of his Son...." (Rom 8: 28-29)

5. Karl Rahner, Foundations of Christian Faith, Seabury Press, p. 389.
6. John Cardinal Henry Newman, Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations, Longmans, Green and Co., pp. 111-112.
9. The Documents of Vatican II, "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy," op. cit., No. 10.
10. Archbishop Joseph M. Raya, The Face of God, God With Us Publications, p. 40.
11. "Eucharistic Prayer IV," as in The Vatican II Weekday Missal, St. Paul Edition, p. 866.

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Dan called and gave the report to me, when I hung up I saw this rainbow and took a picture for him.

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