Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
April 9, 2008
April 10th Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 3 Period I.The Novena Rosary Mysteries
for April 10th are Joyful.
China Retreat Rita
April 10, 11, 12, 13
Mass April 10, 11, 12Mass 8:00am - Thursday
Mass 6:00pm - Friday
Mass 11:00am - Saturday
Thursday afternoon - start 1:00pm
Friday afternoon - start 1:00pmThere will be a candlelight rosary
on Friday night.
April 9, 2008
July 31, 1994
Words of Jesus to Members of
Shepherds of Christ Associates:"My beloved priest-companion, I intend to use the priestly newsletter, Shepherds of Christ, and the movement, Shepherds of Christ Associates, in a powerful way for the renewal of My Church and the world.
"I will use the newsletter and the chapters of Shepherds of Christ Associates as a powerful instrument for spreading devotion to My Heart and My Mother's Heart.
"I am calling many to become members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. To all of them I will give great blessings. I will use them as instruments to help bring about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the reign of My Sacred Heart. I will give great graces to the members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. I will call them to be deeply united to My Heart and to Mary's Heart as I lead them ever closer to My Father in the Holy Spirit."
- Message from Jesus to Father Edward J. Carter, S.J., Founder, as given on July 31, 1994,
feast of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits)
Jesus asked Peter 3 times "do you
love me"What does it mean to love Jesus?
It means we recognize God is above us.
We recognize the truth — we recognize our
imperfect human nature —We are humble and self-giving at heart.
We want to develop ourselves in greater
ways of holiness, develop ourselves
spiritually — preparing ourselves
for heaven —God said — the greatest commandment
is we are to love.
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.'
We experience the goodness of God in
a person who is loving — who
is genuinely doing things for
the honor and glory of God.The rule of God's Kingdom is love —
Love means we recognize truth —
Love means we don't manipulate others
to gain power for our old unmet
needs.Love means we have wounds and
we want God to heal them —Love means we obey authority —
The devil presses on authority —
Without authority — especially
recognizing God's authority
over us — we have big troublesSatan is aggressive — when he presses
on a person and they are in
desolation then the devil can counsel
him like the good angel counsels
one who is in consolation and being
acted on by the Holy SpiritGod gave us rules to live by
God's rules were centered in love, peace
and justice.When one gives of themselves — like Jesus
dying for us, the Father giving His
Son, God giving us life — our
talents — we are to be forever
grateful to God and recognize
His gifts to us
responding in generous love to
God and to othersSatan is selfish —
Satan wants to take over and teach
others his waysThe Shepherds of Christ Movement is to
help renew the Church and the world —Did you ever put salt in a wound — it hurts,
it may cleanse it though —
When the devil is pressing down to
keep his ways around with his
sneaky scheme to block God's work,
to disobey authority, a spiritual
director with the vision of
the Holy Spirit and the plan
of the Father who tries to unveil the
workings of satan will be opposed many times.Satan works in pride, secrecy
to mask his lies and
try to oppose the authority
or spiritual director.When God fills a person with His truth —
you can see the truth in what God
is teaching. It will be rooted in the scriptures,
the commandments, the true doctrines
of the Catholic faith.It is a choice one makes to give into their
wounded human nature and try to move others
to thinking that is not the truth. We
can go against the basic rules of God
and teach others wrongly through
unloving, selfish, self-promoting,
prideful, jealous acts.God gave to us the authority of the Church.
God gave to us the authority of the parents.
God gave authority to Bishops and priests.Christ teaches us that authority is for
our good. Christ is our friend.
Christ is head of the Church.
Christ is King of the Kingdom.
John 15: 11-17
I have told you this
so that my own joy may be in you
and your joy be complete.
This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.
No one can have greater love
than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends,
if you do what I command you.
I shall no longer call you servants,
because a servant does not know
the master’s business;
I call you friends,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me,
no, I chose you;
and I commissioned you
to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last;
so that the Father will give you
anything you ask him in my name.
My command to you
is to love one another.
John 15: 1-8
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more. You are clean already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch—and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and are burnt. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for whatever you please and you will get it. It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit and be my disciples."
end of scripture
If a branch does not stay attached to the
vine it withers and dies —The Father loves us so much —
The Father, by the name Father, shows
us He wants good relationships with us and
He wants to love us and be loved by us.Priests are called 'Father', but we are
not to become slavishly dependent
on those who are spiritual directors,
fathers, ones who guide us —
they help us to be empowered
spiritually and to be deeply
united to the vine, Jesus, to love
the Church, love His Word,
to be 'other-focused' modeling ourselves
after Christ.God gives to us this special sharing in His
life at Baptism and He nourishes
this life with the Eucharist. God lives in the
graced baptized soul, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.We were created in the image and likeness
of God —
Genesis 1: 27
God created man in the image of himself,
in the image of God he created him,
male and female he created them.
Adam and Eve sinned
God gave us life —
God wants us to love
Love Him and love each otherWe cannot use others who help us
and try to make them slavishly
dependent on us — we must
be stronger and stronger in
Christ — like strong branches
rooted in the vine.We must love individuals who sin,
but we don't condone what they do.
We love all the souls Jesus died for
even though we do not agree with
what they may be saying and doing.
God is just, it is up to us to discern
what is according to God's will, but
still love those doing wrong things and
praying deeply for their conversion —
praying they will live by the truth.
We must love groups of people even
when they have done wrong. We are
called in the Shepherds of Christ to help
strengthen the body of Christ with our lives
lived in greater holiness and praying
for all the souls of this earth as we do.We are to teach others through our works
the truth about God's love, that He is
like we write about in these writings —
most loving, and tender of Heart.We see our heavenly Father as a Father,
one who is loving us.
1 John 4: 17-21
Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is. In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love. Let us love, then, because he first loved us. 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. Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.
end of scripture
When we are abused by others who are
unloving and jealous, prideful, we
can spend time thinking of how we
are children of the Father, He loves
us so much — He created us and
He wants our friendship with Him —
God the Father wants our love — He wants
us to live by His plan — He wants us
to turn our wills and our lives over to Him.God gives us families to have relationships.
We come from a father and mother and
most of us have brothers and sisters —
God wants this family joined in love.
God allows the parents to co-create
the children. How beautiful it is we
can say — "my son looks like me" or
"my granddaughter looks like my daughter
she reminds me of when my daughter
was two —"How tender is our God —
God wants love —
God wants gratitudeToo often men respond to God with
anger — 'they didn't get enough' — blaming
God for the imperfections of others who
hurt them and their own sinful choices
and consequences. We, in the Shepherds
of Christ, are to tell people how
God loves them and wants to be
friends with them, but God is over us
and must be obeyed — We ourselves must
obey authority and live by His Plan, His
vision for the Shepherds of Christ.Look at the mess because Adam and Eve
disobeyed God.When we love someone we wish
good for them. God wants good for
us. God wants us in heaven with
Him forever — God loves us so much —
When we love others — we want good
for them — when we act in imperfect
ways of jealousy, envy, pride this results
in not wishing good for others —
Because of our wounded human
nature we - instead of wanting good
for others — can be slavishly dependent —
wanting to control others — even hating
them so much through giving into
jealousy and envy and pride,
man can hurt others with sinful,
premediated traps to punish
others and not wish the other good
as God desires. God calls us to live in
a certain vocation. We are pleasing Him
doing so according to God's will in love.
Punishing others out of jealousy and
envy is evil.We can become greedy, abusive,
hurting others' vocations using
them for selfish wounds we
may have suffered, projecting our
unfinished business on innocent others.Christ loved and they put Him
to death. The prophets were punished —
they acted many times like salt in
the wound. Many do not want to
take a stand and stand up for what will
make them more like Jesus. If we are
acting like Christ in this secular
world, many may ridicule us.Dear God — please make us holy —
help us to be like Jesus.
Isaiah 52: 13 - 53: 12
Look, my servant will prosper,
will grow great, will rise to great heights.As many people were aghast at him
—he was so inhumanly disfigured
that he no longer looked like a man—
so many nations will be astonished
and kings will stay tight–lipped
before him,
seeing what had never been told them,
learning what they had not heard before.
Who has given credence
to what we have heard?
And who has seen in it
a revelation of Yahweh’s arm?
Like a sapling he grew up before him,
like a root in arid ground.
He had no form or charm to attract us,
no beauty to win our hearts;
he was despised, the lowest of men,
a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering,
one from whom, as it were,
we averted our gaze,
despised, for whom we had no regard.
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.Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken.
Which of his contemporaries
was concerned
at his having been cut off
from the land of the living,
at his having been struck dead
for his people’s rebellion?
He was given a grave with the wicked,
and his tomb is with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
had spoken no deceit.It was Yahweh’s good pleasure
to crush him with pain;
if he gives his life as a sin offering,
he will see his offspring
and prolong his life,
and through him
Yahweh’s good pleasure will be done.After the ordeal he has endured,
he will see the light and be content.
By his knowledge, the upright one,
my servant will justify many
by taking their guilt on himself.Hence I shall give him a portion
with the many,
and he will share the booty
with the mighty,
for having exposed himself to death
and for being counted
as one of the rebellious,
whereas he was bearing the sin of many
and interceding for the rebellious.
Psalm 63: 1-2
God, you are my God, I pine for you;
my heart thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
as a land parched, dreary and waterless.
Thus I have gazed on you in the sanctuary,
seeing your power and your glory.
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