C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Web\template.htm

Prayer for Grace for our Country

Dear Father united to Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacrifice of Calvary sacramentally made present, celebrated around the world, in the Holy Spirit. We offer up all we do united to the Mass. We unite in one mind and one heart as members of the mystical body of Christ, with Christ our head in the pure and holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary, through the powerful intercession of Mary with all the angels and saints and souls in purgatory, and we beg for the saving grace, for our country, the United States. Please help us. We further pray for unity to always do the will of God in love. We spread the Blood of Jesus on the leaders and people of the United States and cast the devil into hell. We consecrate our country to the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart and all our dioceses, and beg for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God help us. We pray for our families, the priests, the Church and the world. In the Name of Jesus please hear us, we pray. We pray for our president and leaders. We pray that we are united as one nation under God to work together in love as God wants.

April 25, 2019

2 Corinthians 4: 10

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.

Colossians 1: 15-20

He is the image of the unseen God,
the first–born of all creation,
for in him were created all things
in heaven and on earth:
everything visible
    and everything invisible,
thrones, ruling forces,
    sovereignties, powers—
all things were created through him
    and for him.
He exists before all things
and in him all things hold together,
and he is the Head of the Body,
that is, the Church.

He is the Beginning,
the first–born from the dead,
so that he should be supreme in every way;
because God wanted all fullness
    to be found in him
and through him
    to reconcile all things to him,
everything in heaven
    and everything on earth,
by making peace through his death
    on the cross.

Hebrews 1: 1-2

At many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the ages.

                R. Die to what is not
                God's will to grow in
                the life of resurrection –
                Christ's death –
                    pass-over to
                    life of resurrection
                    a new existence.

Luke 24: 25-27

Then he said to them, ‘You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?’ Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.

R. They did not recognize
Him –

                They recognized Him
                    in the breaking
                    of the bread –

Pass-over –
death - resurrection

                We continually die with
                    Christ - to grow
                    in life of resurrection.

                The degree you have
                    conflict with the Father's will –
                You are dividing yourself
                    from intimacy with
                    Christ –
                    (living life of resurrection)

Pass - over

Blood door post

Christ shed His Blood
paid for us –

Pass - over to an ever
greater life of resurrection –

Preparation for eternal life.

Completion – life of resurrection
is only in eternity.

We begin life of resurrection
here on earth –

Romans 8: 5-9

Those who are living by their natural inclinations have their minds on the things human nature desires; those who live in the Spirit have their minds on spiritual things. And human nature has nothing to look forward to but death, while the Spirit looks forward to life and peace, because the outlook of disordered human nature is opposed to God, since it does not submit to God's Law, and indeed it cannot, and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be pleasing to God. You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

                R. Joy and pain
                Success and failure
                Sweat of our brow
                Experiencing God's gifts

Sense of growth –

Life of resurrection comes through
suffering –

Cross ↔ resurrection

We can give this life
of resurrection to others –

Dying to self is self - discipline
or asceticism –

Life demands self discipline

Asceticism leads to
Christ - life

Life of incarnation

Living out Christ's
life

Holy Spirit

                Then Mary
                    goes to heaven
                    body and soul

Queenship of Mary

Pass - over

Angel of death

Passed over

Blood on door post

From the Message of December 19, 1996:

Jesus: And the light shone in the darkness and the darkness grasped it not, but to as many as responded, they became the children of the light and from them His life flowed into the hearts that were cold and dark and slowly, very slowly, the light began to steal across the darkened sky and the moon was covered with blood. The blood was the blood of the Lamb. The blood represented the blood He shed to give us life.

Excerpt from December 22, 1996

Jesus: ...And the moon will be covered with blood. It was the blood of the Lamb and it poured forth on a sinful world to cleanse them of their sin, and I give you My Body and Blood in the Mass and I am ignored...

Song: A Song from Jesus

R. Jesus died for us.

Through the Eucharistic Sacrifice Christ the Lord desired to set before us in a very special way this remarkable union whereby we are united one with another and with our divine Head, a union that no word of praise can ever sufficiently express. For in this sacrifice the sacred ministers act not only as the representative of our Saviour, but as the representative of the whole Mystical Body and of each one of the faithful. Again, in this act of sacrifice, the faithful of Christ, united by the common bond of devotion and prayer, offer to the eternal Father through the hands of the priest, whose prayer alone has made it present on the altar, the Immaculate Lamb, the most acceptable victim of praise and propitiation for the Church’s universal need. Moreover, just as the divine Redeemer, while dying on the Cross, offered Himself to the eternal Father as Head of the whole human race, so now, ‘in this clean oblation’ He not only offers Himself as Head of the Church to His heavenly Father but in Himself His mystical members as well. He embraces them all, yes, even the weaker and more ailing members, with the deepest love of His Heart. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis AAS. XXXV, 232-233)

Excerpt from August 5, 1996 Rosary

The Crowning with Thorns

1. Jesus: Oh, the torments of the mind! Is your mind tormented, My beloved ones, by thoughts of division, by thoughts of separation, by confusion and doubt? My way is love. I give to you My way of love to always respond in love to all the thoughts that are within your mind. You must always love your brothers. Say to yourselves, “I love my brother”, and when you are filled with doubt and confusion, tell Me of your love. Do not give in to thoughts that are confusing and filled with doubt. Come to Me, and tell Me your cares and tell Me your love. Satan will work in your minds and cause you discomfort in your hearts. My way is love. You must come to Me. Tell Me of your cares. Tell Me of your love. Tell Me of your struggle. I am the Almighty God. I am all powerful. You see the sun in the sky and the moon in the night. You see life in a blade of grass, and you see how I care for the lilies of the field. I am the Almighty God. I am calling you to come to Me in your struggle, to respond always in love in your hearts that your hearts may be pure and filled with love. You are the teachers of My love in this world today. You must respond always in love.

2. Jesus: Do you feel pressed on in your minds by the thoughts of division and confusion? My way is peace. My way is love. Look at My head crowned with thorns. Look how the thorns pressed into My head. Now, think of the thoughts that are pressing in your mind. Surrender, My beloved ones, for I am all powerful. I will set you free. I will take all your cares away. Come to Me. I am the Almighty God and I love you with a burning Heart on-fire for love of you.

3. R. Jesus shows us how He sacrificed, how He sat still and allowed the thorns to be pounded into His head. We see the blood as it comes down His head. We see the blood as He is scourged at the pillar. We see the blood and the sufferings that He went through, mental torment and such anguish to His Heart in the garden, and we look at those things that are pressing on our mind today. Jesus tells us to surrender, for He knows the pain of the thorns that pressed into His head. He knows the pain. He came to this earth, the Almighty God, and He took on human flesh that He would teach us His way of love. His way is always love. He is love, and He tells us today that we must respond in all of our thoughts with love towards our brothers, for hatred and bitterness stay in our hearts and our minds and sometimes later we may respond in great anger from the hatred that we let grow in our minds and our hearts.

4. R. It is in the quiet of our minds that we give in to thoughts of division, bitterness, and anger.

Jesus: My dear ones, you must come and dwell in Our Hearts, for Our Hearts are pure. Come to the heart of My Mother and beg for the Holy Spirit to sanctify you. I am giving to you the grace today to respond in your minds with love, always love. Do not wait until you are angered many times and then you react with anger towards your brothers. You must respond with love in your thoughts always. Bring your cares to Me and I will give you rest.

5. R. I see the sun as it shines on the river, and I had a vision of the glistening grace being outpoured on this earth. The power of the Almighty God is beyond our comprehension. It is so silly when we see this world and its magnificence and see the beauty that God created that we think that we have to control so many things in our minds. God is with us at this very moment. He is caring for our every need. We see Him with His head crowned with thorns. We see the blood as it comes down His face and rolls into His eyes and His ears. Jesus knew what it was to be pressed on with the crown of thorns, to suffer mental anguish. Jesus knows. He is telling us to bring our cares to Him.

6. R. Jesus knows sacrifice. He healed the ear of the high priest’s servant, but He did not fight the men that crowned Him with thorns, that tore His flesh, that gave Him the heavy cross that He carried on His back. He did not release Himself when He was bound at the pillar. He continued and accepted everything that they gave to Him because of His love for us.

7. Jesus: Are you pressed on today? Let go of all of your fears. Let go of all of the thoughts of anxiety and troubles in your mind. Let go and surrender. In the Heart of Jesus there is peace and there is love. My dear ones, I am this close to you.Surrender and let go. I am the Almighty God and I am with you. I am alive. I am alive. I am alive. Surrender to Me.

8. R. We look at Jesus and we observe His ways. We see Him as He was crowned with thorns. His way is always peace. He did not strike back. He did not come back with any anger. We see Him as He is scourged at the pillar. He allowed them to do whatever they were doing to Him. He is calling us this day to surrender and to always respond in love.

9. Jesus: This is My work that you do, My beloved apostles. I am guarding you, and I am watching you. It is not in power and control that My work will be accomplished, it is in coming to Me and giving Me all of your cares, coming as a little, dependent baby coming to Me.

10. Jesus: Are you tired? Are you weary? I am Jesus, the Almighty God. You are My soldiers of love. I will not forsake you, My beloved ones. I am with you, and I am guarding you. Come to Me and I will give you all that you need.

Excerpt from July 5, l996 Rosary

The Annunciation

2. R. We are so focused on so many incidentals in our lives today. God came into this world because of His great love for us. There are so many distractions in our life that press on us and keep us from this realization of the great gift that we are given that He is alive and that He lives in our hearts when we are baptized and in the state of grace.

Excerpt from September 17, 1996 Rosary

The Ascension

8. Jesus: I touch you. I touch you and I call out to you and I give you grace, and I am neglected and I am ignored, and I call out to you and you wander and you look, and you try to find something to fill your heart, and I am waiting. I am waiting for you. I am watching you at every moment. I am watching where you go when your heart is broken. I am watching you, and you do not see. Come to Me. Come to My Heart. You will be tested. You will be tried. You will know trials that you cannot even comprehend. I will allow satan to confuse you and test you, but you will become strong, for in the new era, there will be such peace and love. You are a major part of the completion of the Fatima message. It is through you that many will know the love of My Heart, that will know God’s love in them, that will fervently love Me. Many today are blind and do not see. I am giving to you great grace to see. I am lifting the veil that you will see with eyes unveiled, that you will know Me in your heart. You must open your heart and surrender at this moment that I can touch your heart. Some hearts are locked. I cannot touch you if you will not open your heart. I beg you to unlock the lock on your heart. You will not surrender. You will not let go. I am the Almighty God. Surrender totally to Me. Give Me yourself. Give Me your all. Let Me run your life and you will know peace and joy in your heart. You will struggle, but in your heart, you will have joy.

9. Jesus: Did you fall on your face? Did you cry out, “Lord, Lord.” Get up from ground and thank God for the sufferingthat I have given to you, for it is a great gift from heaven for you will be closer to Me, closer and closer to Me through the suffering.

10. Song: Spirit Song

The Descent of the Holy Spirit

1. Song: Come Holy Spirit

2. R. And they were gathered in the upper room, the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary. And there appeared over their heads parted tongues of fire, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in foreign tongues as He prompted them to speak.

3. Jesus: Let the Spirit fill your heart. Let the Spirit move within you. You will be lead by the Spirit. Pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit, My dear ones. The devil presses on you. He knows exactly how to press on you. I am Jesus. You must come to My Heart. You must be filled with My love. Pray to be filled by the Holy Spirit. I give to you freely. You refuse many times when I give you love. Let the Spirit move within your heart. Feel the vibrancy of His life within you. It is a force that is mighty.

4. Song: Come Holy Ghost

5. R. And they proceeded fearlessly ahead. They were not afraid for they were filled with the Holy Spirit, these same Apostles that were afraid after Christ ascended into heaven, the apostles were filled with fear, the same Apostles that did not recognize Him after the Resurrection, the same Peter that had denied Him, the same Thomas that had doubted. Then the Holy Spirit descended on them and they were filled, filled with the Holy Spirit and proceeded ahead with their hearts on fire for the love of God, and thousands were converted.

6. Jesus: Do you see the way the world is being brainwashed by the evil in this world? Let the Holy Spirit fill you with the fire of God’s love, that you will not be afraid, that you will go into the world, and that you will speak about My love. You are My Apostles that will help bring about the reign of My Heart. You must be on-fire. You cannot be afraid to speak about My love. You must be filled with fire in your hearts. You must surrender your heart at this moment and let go that I can fill you with My love, for My love will shine from your eyes and radiate from your skin, and others will see My life alive within you. Do not be glum. Do not look down. Do not grumble and complain. Do not look at your brother with hatred and envy. You are My apostles. They proceeded steadfastly ahead in one mind and one heart. They did not bump heads. You have been called, each person here a unique person, to carry My message to the world. You have been formed by the hand of My Father. I have guided your life. I have given you all the talents that you need to carry out this plan. Every moment of your life, I watched you. I led you to this place, to this farm, to this night, with all the talents that you have to help the plan of the Father unfold. You are a major part of the completion of the Fatima message, you, My chosen ones. I am filling you with the Holy Spirit that you will march into the world, that your spirits will be filled with the fire of God’s love, that you will be led by God, and that many, many will beconverted because of the work that you do. I live in your graced baptized soul, My chosen ones. I look into your face, and I see your eyes. I see My light in you. When I look into your eyes, I see a holy soul. I see a soul that is consecrated to My Heart, and it gives Me great joy. You are struggling. You are suffering. You are falling to your knees. But your heart is a holy heart, and it’s a heart that is filled with love, that will help many to know Me and be with Me forever in heaven.

7. R. I see the beating Heart of Jesus. After communion, I see His Heart beat, and I am so one in Him and then I have this struggle here and to know how many do not even think of God. It tears my heart apart.

8. Jesus: I have let you know torments a little, think of souls in hell. In hell, there is constant torment, constant hate, constant wanting. There is isolation in hell. Souls are tormented beyond all torments in hell. There are many this day that are falling into the fires of hell. I am giving to you this message. The work that you do here can help to bring about the completion of the Fatima message and help many souls. It is your help that will help many souls.

9. R. O Lady of Light, you appeared over and over and over again. Help us to see that we truly are the children of light, that we have been called and it is a great honor. How can I say, how can I say seeing you so many times, day after day for 14 months, how can I say what you said? It’s in my heart. It’s the message, the message to your children of light.

What an honor that God has chosen us and is delivering messages to us, that He has chosen us as His apostles that will help many souls, that He is giving us great graces that we know Him and love Him. Thank You, God.

10. Song: I Have Called You By Name

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.