Daily Writing
| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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April 24, 2009
|
April 25th Holy
Spirit Novena |
The Novena Rosary
Mysteries |
China Retreat
May 11th thru May 14th
May 13th is the 92nd Anniversary
of Our Lady of Fatima's
first apparition
Please try to come.
Mass at 12 noon.
The church needs to have the stucco replaced
and also the community building.
It is about $38,000 to repair it.
People pray in the church 24 hours a day.
We have prayed in there for 11 years.
The archdiocese gave the church to us
for this purpose for a small price.
Can you help us?
Available for $10.00 plus postage
1-888-211-3041
April 24, 2009
John 4: 14
but no one who drinks the water
that I shall give
will ever be thirsty again:
the water that I shall give
will become a spring of water within,
welling up for eternal life.
Sirach 15: 15-17
If you choose, you will keep the commandments
and so be faithful to his will.
He has set fire and water before you;
put out your hand to whichever you prefer.
A human being has life and death before him:
whichever he prefers will be given him.
From Fr. Carter
"We can use life in all sorts of
selfish ways. We can use it to draw
attention to ourselves, pretending
that the world revolves around us,
and that all should pay us due acclaim
as we strut arrogantly across the
stage of life. We can misuse life in the
hedonistic pursuit of pleasure,
deceiving ourselves that we are living
the good life, but in reality only
prostituting our human capabilities
and potentialities. We can foolishly
allow the beauty of life to waste
itself in hoarding material gain,
while the cry of our hungry brothers
fail to pierce the barrier of a hardened
heart. And silly status symbols — these
too can so grip our attention that they
almost become life's purpose. We can
also waste existence in the pursuit of
myriad experiences unworthy of a human
being, thereby marring with ugliness
the truth, the goodness, and the beauty
of the human life God has entrusted to
us.
If there is the possibility of betraying
the preciousness of life, there is also
the possibility which Jesus holds before us.
This is the choice we really want — the Authentic
self shouts out loud and clear telling us
this."
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.
1 John 4: 20
Anyone who says 'I love God'
and hates his brother,
is a liar,
since whoever does not love the brother
whom he can see
cannot love God whom he has not seen.
Available for $10.00 plus postage
1-888-211-3041
Fr. Carter had a dream.
From Response to God’s Love by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J.
... Full maturity in Christ is not suddenly achieved. Even after a relative maturity is attained, this maturity can always take deeper root. This gradual achievement in spiritual maturity can be viewed as a process of self-encounter, a process whereby we gain the proper, graced self-control amid many struggles. It is a becoming through an encounter with the true self, through a gradual achievement of that self-identity and uniqueness that God intends. This becoming is achieved through a path of progress that is not always perfectly upward: there is the reaching out for good, but also the succumbing to evil; there is the discovery of strengths and talents, but also the painful awareness of weaknesses and limitations. There are, in short, successes and failures. There is joy—sometimes intense joy—over what is achieved in personal growth; however, there are also periods of discouragement—sometimes moments of near despair—because further growth seems impossible. All this happens because the process of becoming has inherent within it a constant newness that is linked to a certain sameness. We are always the same persons, but always different persons, too.
Moreover, the process of becoming through a proper encounter with the true self takes place not in a vacuum, but rather, within the framework of an encounter with the material world, with human persons, and with God. The encounter with the material world—and, indeed, with the entire temporal order—is meant to be characterized by a correct use of creation, by periodic renunciation, and by a spirit of creativity. The correct use of material things enables the person to grow by respecting the fact that the bodily aspect of his or her being has situated him or her in a material world that is meant to serve the person's needs. The fact that persons are in part material beings means that one aspect of God's plan for men and women intends that they grow, that is to say, that they become, through the proper encounter with, or use of, the material.
As long as men and women are on this earth, there will always be in them both a sinful tendency and a thrust toward good, and, consequently, they do not always properly relate to the material. For an individual to achieve a correct use of material things and other temporal values, he or she must periodically renounce them. At times, becoming means not becoming in a certain way, not encountering this thing or this value.
Also, the material and temporal order offers wide possibilities for individual creative instincts. By shaping the raw stuff of creation through the various uses of one's creative forces, a person can become that which he or she was not. The imprint of one's creative image where it did not previously exist is a reflection of a certain development, or becoming, within the individual person.
As significant as the encounter with the material world may be, however, it is obviously not as important as the encounter with human persons. God intends that so much of our spiritual growth occur as a result of our proper encounter with others. So much of our growth toward mature personhood occurs in the give-and-take of personal encounter. Until rather recent years, spiritual teaching placed a great emphasis upon the correct performance of certain practices. That appeal, however, did not always properly emphasize the fact that those practices were important only to the extent that they deepened the Christian's personal relationship with God and his or her fellow men and women.
The selflessness that is required for authentic relationship to the other readily points out why encounter with persons is such an important contributing factor to true becoming. The Christian life is primarily a going out of ourselves to God and to human persons. This transcendence of self is not always easily achieved, however, precisely because it involves a process of overcoming the strong thrust of selfishness. Although going out of self to God is obviously the primordial relationship for the Christian, it is interesting to note that, through the words of Scripture, God tells us that our relationship to our neighbor is the criterion by which we are to judge our love for him:
If anyone says, "My love is fixed on God,"
yet hates his brother,
he is a liar.
One who has no love for the brother
he has seen
cannot love the God he has not seen.
—1 Jn 4:20Going out to others, serving them, being for them, and loving them is a dynamic process. There is no set pattern that can perfectly serve all this. Surely there are certain established Christian principles and truths that govern our encountering and serving others; however, these truths have a certain flexibility built into them so that they can be assimilated to meet the particular situations of unique individuals. Our encounters with others—whether it be a case of relating to a partner in marriage or to a friend or to those who are recipients of our service or whatever—give proof to each of us, according to his or her own experience, that there can be no question of a static pattern of behavior to govern personal relationships. There is always the new, the unexpected, the surprising, or the significant change in behavior that must be considered along with the more stable elements that comprise personal encounter. Becoming by going out to the other truly is a dynamic process.
If an individual person grows toward Christian maturity through a proper encounter with material creation and other facets of the temporal order, as well as through encounters with others, individuals must especially grow, or become, through an encounter with God. Growth through encounters with both material creation and other persons is rooted in our maturing through the relationship with the great source of all becoming—namely, God himself. He himself is infinite being, and he constantly wants to communicate himself to us so that, drawing from his infinite source of life, we might become more what we are meant to be—more of what he desires that we become.
God draws us on to greater fulfillment according to the pattern of Christ's example and teaching. There is no other way according to which we progress to spiritual maturity. There is no Christian perfection that we can acquire, no possible development of our Christian personalities unless it occurs through Christ Jesus. The Spirit, however, does not superimpose this pattern of Christ upon us in an artificial way. The Spirit does not shape us according to the image of Christ without deep concern for our uniqueness; we are all different, and the Spirit supremely respects this fact. Furthermore, if the Spirit is of such an attitude, so must we be; we must not box ourselves in, all trying to fit into the exact same mold and maintaining that this is necessary because we must all follow the same Christ. The pattern of Christ is the creation of an infinitely wise God. He has arranged that the one pattern of Christ is also a pattern that has as many possibilities for unique assimilation as there are individual persons.
We all follow the one and same Christ and we must all have an attitude of complete openness, of expectancy concerning the unpredictable, an attitude that will allow the Spirit to lead us according to his way of forming us in the image of Christ. At times we might have a too minutely preconceived idea of how we will become in Christ and we are, therefore, somewhat rigid about the whole process. Although the following of Christ is basically the same for all, how can we be sure what particular path of imitation—mapped out in rather complete detail—the Spirit has prepared for each of us? We can certainly be tempted to think that we know with considerable certainty the way in which our becoming in Christ should logically evolve. We must learn, however, to balance an attitude of stability that is rooted in a certain way of life, a certain way of following Christ, with a spiritual freedom that makes us really open to what the Spirit wants of us, however surprising, novel, or unusual this may seem.
end of Response to God's Love
Attachments make us vulnerable
to emotional turmoil —
Wanting God's will is not being
attached to persons, places
or things — inordinately —
I read an example in an author
Fr. Carter used de mello —
of a person in a concentration camp —
who raised his hand to his mouth
with food — with one hand and
with the other hand protects the
food so his neighbor will not steal it —
This is the image of the attached person —
How can such an attached person
reach with surrender for those
things hoping to build the
Kingdom of God —
When one is attached to an
object, he says, and the object
is not attained it causes unhappiness —
But, he says, if it is attained, it
does not cause happiness — it is
a flash of pleasure and weariness —
St. Ignatius purpose of the
Spiritual Exercises are:
From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. p.11
21. 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
And the 1st principle and foundation is —
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.
Nothing makes us really happy
but doing God's will - in love —
Jesus spent His life teaching
us to give
Bishop Sheen talked about when
someone loves something they
reach out to acquire it — they
try to look so beautiful for the
person loved.
Mary and Jesus are beautiful —
full of light — pure —
This is the greatest commandment
Matthew 22: 36-40
'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?' Jesus said to him, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.'
A check can be made asking
oneself — what really makes
your lasting happiness —
If you feel something here or
someone here will bring you
fullness — you are wrong —
Only in heaven will we have the
fullness of life and here below
we were created to long for
this completeness in heaven —
A man loving God deeply knows
the pains of knowing Him
more — the agony to want to love
God ever more — the desire to know
more and more and more about God
insight into the hidden mystery —
to seek God — to be more deeply one
with Him —
Through the pierced Heart of Jesus
the Church was born — baptism that
gives us a sharing in His Divine Life —
baptism that elevates our knowing and
loving capacity to know more about
God and the mystery —
God reveals Himself to us
