| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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June 12, 2021
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June 13th Holy Spirit Novena |
The Novena Rosary
Mysteries |
Sunday June 13th - 12 Noon
Praying in China
Please tune in & pray with us.
Please Pray for Fr. Joe & Bob
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.
June 12, 2021 - Feast of the Immaculate Heart
R. Mary was conceived without sin.
Mary is all pure.
Mary is our Spiritual Mother.
We go to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.
The Holy Spirit molds us more and more in the image of Jesus.
We see suffering, the little trials, sometimes as if we are frustrated and cannot move, waiting, hurrying with impatient others in our lives, we are serving and what we do in service, may turn into suffering, even from those we serve.
Jesus could hardly move under the weight of the cross.
Think of Jesus carrying the cross on the way to Calvary.Jesus could hardly move.
Suffering can help us understand a little of Jesus’ struggle to His crucifixion,
His Heart despite all this, consumed with love.He is love, despite the suffering He endured - He loved.
He loved - the suffering servant - Jesus loved the giving He gave, even to His death.
Jesus' Heart magnificently, Divinely loved.
There is closeness to God in deep suffering that can bring beauty and joy.
Suffering is a part of our lives. Suffering in sickness, trials, helping sick others.
Suffering teaches us about Jesus' love.
Suffering teaches us about a higher goal.
Especially in pains of rejection in one's heart or personal physical suffering.The Mass is the sacrifice of Calvary, sacramentally made present.
From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 3
The Eucharist
At the Last Supper, on the night He was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, No. 17)26
27
The Church, therefore, earnestly desires that Christ's faithful, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators. On the contrary, through a proper appreciation of the rites and prayers they should participate knowingly, devoutly, and actively. They should be instructed by God’s word and be refreshed at the table of the Lord’s body; they should give thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn to offer themselves too. Through Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into ever closer union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all. (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, No. 48)
28
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)
26. The Documents of Vatican II, "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy", America Press Edition, No. 17.
27. Ibid, No. 48.
28. Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Letter, Mystici Corporis, AAS XXXV, pp. 232-233.
From the Priestly Newsletter 2000 Issue 2
Suffering: A Source of Life
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.
R. I think of Christ carrying the cross… enduring it… not giving up.
Death / Resurrection
Pray to see - grace for where we are blind.
Our Heavenly Father loves us and wants to forgive us -
We must walk humbly.
Ephesians 5: 8-14
You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; behave as children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and uprightness and truth. Try to discover what the Lord wants of you, take no part in the futile works of darkness but, on the contrary, show them up for what they are. The things which are done in secret are shameful even to speak of; but anything shown up by the light will be illuminated and anything illuminated is itself a light. That is why it is said:
Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
John 8:12
When Jesus spoke to the people again, he said:
I am the light of the world;
anyone who follows me
will not be walking in the dark,
but will have the light of life.
R. Remember the blind man.
Jesus put mud on his eyes.
Remember the prodigal son.
John 9:11
Some said, 'Yes, it is the same one.' Others said, 'No, but he looks just like him.' The man himself said, 'Yes, I am the one'
Luke 15:32
But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.’
Ephesians 4:30-5:2
do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with his seal, ready for the day when we shall be set free. Any bitterness or bad temper or anger or shouting or abuse must be far removed from you-as must every kind of malice. Be generous to one another, sympathetic, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.
As God's dear children, then, take him as your pattern, and follow Christ by loving as he loved you, giving himself up for us as an offering and a sweet smelling sacrifice to God.
R. In His Divinity He suffered for our sins on the way to Calvary.
He didn’t show disgust for our sins, He loves us so much!!!
Who are we that we see ourselves pridefully, over sick or misfortunate others?
Wow - we can be so condescending.
Look at Christ carrying the cross for our sins.
We really have to deal with our response and reaction to life.
We can be our own worst enemy how we react and respond.Pray for grace from the Holy Spirit.
Look at the parable of the prodigal son.
Jesus lived a quiet life from age 12 to 30. What was Jesus doing for example at age 15, 19, 21, 23, 25, etc.
We can be so busy and miss the big picture!!!
We are born, we live, we die.
God wants us to go to our real home in heaven.Too many times some get so caught up in career, making money, they miss the joys of living.
Some never slow down to smell the roses.
Busy, busy, busy and some refuse to stop and smell the roses.
At Fatima, Mary has called us and told us we need to convert.
We need to heal from our woundedness.
To be healed - we must admit the dysfunctions within us.
Die to our ways not like Jesus and live a new life living more and more, like Him.
Life is to be lived.
We cannot live life if we are hiding the wounds inside, spending our energy covering up our wounds.
We can have a lot of problems with others because we don’t listen to them and ignore everything but our own will, controlling things in our life.
To move ahead one cannot spending their lives trapped, covering up that which needs healing.
God has a plan for us. He gave us a calling and so many talents to accomplish what He wants of us.
Life is to be lived.
It’s short.
God has a plan for us.
Two men ran to catch a train. One got on, one missed it.
What are we given we can thank God for?
Think of all we have God gives us every day.
If we don’t think about the gifts God gives, we can be miserable thinking negatively.
Life is to be lived.
Song: Live This Day
R. What ever you do, do it for the honor and glory of God.
When we live as God wants, we are open to receive God’s blessings.
The depression was a hard time for many.
It’s like desolation - in desolation Satan councils.
You can live in desolation and close-in on yourself.
Success comes from moving ahead. Following Christ. Following the Father's plan!!!
A good work ethic, integrity.
A can-do attitude! A desire to move ahead, not sulk and be bitter.
Being a bell-ringer - a leader for Christ - giving oneself in integrity.
Love isn’t love until you give it away.
An empty well doesn’t give water.God is love.
God is the source of love.When God fills us, He operates in us, loves through us.
We spread His love, His light to the world.
Glorious Mysteries
The Resurrection
1) Luke 24: 1-12
On the first day of the week, at the first sign of dawn, they went to the tomb with the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, but on entering they could not find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled about this, two men in brilliant clothes suddenly appeared at their side. Terrified, the women bowed their heads to the ground. But the two said to them, ‘Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee: that the Son of man was destined to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.’ And they remembered his words.
And they returned from the tomb and told all this to the Eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. And the other women with them also told the apostles, but this story of theirs seemed pure nonsense, and they did not believe them.
Peter, however, went off to the tomb, running. He bent down and looked in and saw the linen cloths but nothing else; he then went back home, amazed at what had happened.
2) From the Priestly Newsletter -- 2000 Issue 3
Life In and With Jesus (excerpt)
Here are words from St. Claude La Columbière, one of the great apostles of devotion to the Heart of Christ. Speaking to Jesus, Claude says:
You share my burdens,
You take them upon yourself.
You listen to me fondly when I tell you my troubles.
You never fail to lighten them.
I find You at all times and in all places.
You never leave me.
I will always find You wherever I go.Old age or misfortune will not cause You to abandon me.
You will never be closer to me than
When all seems to go against me.
No matter how miserable I may be,
You will never cease to be my friend.You tolerate my faults with admirable patience.
You are always ready to come to me, if I so desire it.Jesus, may I die praising you!
May I die loving you!
May I die for the love of you.1212. St. Claude de la Columbiere, as published by Apostleship of Prayer, Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus.
3) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 3
Life In and With Jesus (excerpt)
St. Ignatius of Antioch was deeply consumed with love for Jesus: "At last I am well on the way to being a disciple. May nothing, seen or unseen, fascinate me, so that I may happily make my way to Jesus Christ! Fire, cross, struggles with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs, crunching of the whole body, cruel tortures inflicted by the devil—let them come upon me, provided only I make my way to Jesus Christ."9
9. St. Ignatius of Antioch, "Ignatius to the Romans," as in The Treasury of Catholic Wisdom, Ignatius Press., p. 14.
4) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 3
Life In and With Jesus (excerpt)
The Church invites us to share deeply in the passion of Christ, in the cross of Christ. She does so that we might share deeply in His life of resurrection—here and hereafter. The more we die with Christ, the more we share in His life of resurrection—here and hereafter. Our ultimate goal here below is not the cross, but resurrection—the newness of life the cross leads to - here below as well as in eternity.
5) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 3
Life In and With Jesus (excerpt)
We are meant to share in all of the mysteries of Christ here below—we are meant to relive them in our own lives. And all of these mysteries are directed to the crowning mystery of Jesus, His resurrection: "As the Church is ever re-enacting, during all the ages, the life story of her Divine Spouse—undergoing in the Mystical Body what He suffered in His Natural Body, so it must be too, in some measure, for every individual Christian that lives in real unity with Christ. It was thus that the saints understood the life of the Divine Master. They not merely contemplated it, they lived it. This was the source of the immense sympathy they were capable of experiencing for Him in His different states. They felt in a certain measure what He felt, and what is true of Our Lord’s life considered as a whole must be true in no imperfect or limited manner of that which was the supreme and crowning mystery in that life—namely, the Resurrection. This must be, not merely a fact in Christian history, but a phase of Christian experience …We do not readily perceive that, in God’s plan, not only the Cross, but the Risen Life that followed it, is meant to be part of our terrestrial existence. Christ did not pass from the Cross straight to heaven. The Christian is not meant to do so either. In the case of Jesus the Cross preceded, prepared and prefaced a risen life on earth. In the case of the Christian the Cross is meant to play a somewhat similar role—that is, to be the prelude to a risen life, even here below.
6) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 3
Life In and With Jesus (excerpt)
"The Cross cannot be completely understood except it is viewed in the full light of the Resurrection. It is the latter, not the former, that is the ultimate mystery for us…The Cross is a means, not an end; it finds its explanation only in the empty tomb; it is an entrance into life, not a mode of death. Any death that enters into God’s plan must necessarily issue forth in life. If He lays upon us the necessity of dying it is in order that we may live…In order that we may live as we ought, our rebellious nature must be crucified. Crucifixion always remains the only mode of salvation.
7) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 3
Life In and With Jesus (excerpt)
"God sends trials and crosses simply to deaden in us the activity of the forces that make for the decay of the spiritual life, in order that that spiritual life may develop and expand unimpeded. According as the life of perverse nature ebbs away from us on our cross united with Christ’s, the Divine Life that God has placed in all whom He has called begins to make itself more manifest and to display increased vigour and vitality…It is to that Resurrection, that life in death, that God directs all the circumstances of our life—it is the object He aims at in His dealing with us." 7
7. Edward Leen, In the Likeness of Christ, Sheed and Ward, pp. 290-300.
8) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 3
Life In and With Jesus (excerpt)
In his above words, Fr. Edward Leen, C.S.Sp., speaks about a special episode of our participation in the resurrection of Jesus. He speaks of our Christ-life, our life of grace, in the highly developed state. We should all strive for this state. We must realize, however, that all those who live in the state of grace are, in an essential way, living the life of resurrection. They are alive in Christ Jesus.
9) In baptism we receive a
sharing in Divine Life,
our knowing and loving
capacity is elevated.
We receive the supernatural
virtues of faith, hope & love.
10) Sing: Glory, Glory, Glory Lord
Sing: God's Love
The Ascension
1) Acts 1: 6-11
Now having met together, they asked him, 'Lord, has the time come for you to restore the kingdom to Israel?' He replied, 'It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit which will come on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to earth's remotest end.'
As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky as he went, when suddenly two men in white were standing beside them, and they said, ‘Why are you Galileans standing here looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way as you have seen him go to heaven.’
2) The Apostles were afraid
and locked themselves
in the upper room.
3) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 2
Suffering: A Source of Life (excerpt)
6Henri 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. Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, Ave Maria Press, p. 57.
4) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 2
Suffering: A Source of Life continues
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)
5) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 2
Our Father
We have these words from Roman Guardini: "It is only through Christ that we come to the Father. When speaking of God the Father, we ought to add that we mean Him whom Christ means when He says ‘My Father.’ Thus we would signify that we were not thinking of a vague concept of deity whose power one may suspect behind the government of the world, but that holy countenance which revealed itself for the first time in the words of Christ. When we ‘go to the Father,’ we must go together with Christ, along His path and in His spirit. There can be no other way to the Father…
6) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 2
Our Father continues
"So that we may be able to follow Christ we must never cease to dwell on His life and teaching; otherwise our prayer to God will inevitably assume the character of a vague cosmic worship. Only through Christ can we reach the real Father in heaven.
7) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 2
Our Father continues
"Christ has laid down for us how we should pray to the Father…
"Rightfully understood, and spoken in the spirit in which Christ taught them, the words of the Lord’s Prayer have profound and eternal significance. Their key lies in the body of teaching which is known as the Sermon on the Mount. They are illumined by the parables in which Christ explains the relationship between God and man; for example, by the parable of the Prodigal Son; thus, if rightfully understood in this wider context, they become a living path leading us to the Father.
8) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 2
Our Father continues
7"Because the Lord’s Prayer is so full of meaning and truth, and yet so simple, it frequently suffers the fate of being said thoughtlessly, without true reverence and inner intent. It happens so much that we ought to remind ourselves of our responsibility as Christians to preserve and treasure Christ’s holy heritage. We should say the Lord’s Prayer in a collected mood, thoughtfully, and putting our heart into its words. Only then will it open the doors to the kingdom of the Father which the Son’s love has prepared for us."
7. Romano Guardini, Prayer in Practice, Pantheon Books, p. 115.
9) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 2
Suffering: A Source of Life (excerpt)
"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.
10) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 2
Suffering: A Source of Life (excerpt)
3"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. Dom Hubert Van Zeller, More Ideas for Prayer, Templegate, p. 112.
\
The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles
1) Acts 2: 1-4
When Pentecost day came round, they had all met together, when suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and there appeared to them tongues as of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves.
2) From Tell My People by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J.
Jesus: "My beloved friend, tell My people to pray daily to the Holy Spirit. They are to pray for an increase in His gifts. My people must realize that the Holy Spirit comes to transform them. The Spirit desires to transform you more and more according to My image. Those who are docile to His touch become increasingly shaped in My likeness. He performs this marvel within Mary's Immaculate Heart. The more one dwells in My Mother's Heart, the more active are the workings of the Spirit. The Spirit leads Mary to place you within My own Heart. In both Our Hearts, then, your transformation continues. The more you are formed after My own Heart, the more I lead you to the bosom of My Father. Tell My people all this. Tell them to pray daily for a greater appreciation of these wondrous gifts. I am Lord and Master. All who come to My Heart will be on fire to receive the gifts of the Spirit in ever greater measure! I love and bless My people!"
Reflection: The Holy Spirit is given to us to fashion us ever more according to the likeness of Jesus. And the more we are like Jesus, the more Jesus leads us to the Father. Do we, each day, pray to the Holy Spirit to be more open to His transforming influence? Do we strive each day to grow in union with Mary? The greater our union with our Mother, the spouse of the Holy Spirit, the greater is the transforming action of the Holy Spirit within us.
Prayer: Come, Holy Spirit, fill us with your gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. As we dwell in the Heart of Mary, Your spouse, fashion us more and more according to the Heart of Jesus.
3) John 2: 19-22
Jesus answered, ‘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.
4) From the Priestly Newsletter Book III by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.
The Holy Spirit And Mary
The late Archbishop Luis M. Martinez of Mexico strikingly speaks of the ongoing cooperation of Mary with the Holy Spirit regarding the reproduction of Jesus within us: "Christian life is the reproduction of Jesus in souls…
"Now, how will this mystical reproduction be brought about in souls? In the same way in which Jesus was brought into the world, for God gives a wonderful mark of unity to all His works. Divine acts have a wealth of variety because they are the work of omnipotence; nevertheless, a most perfect unity always shines forth from them because they are the fruit of wisdom; and this divine contrast of unity and variety stamps the works of God with sublime and unutterable beauty.
"In His miraculous birth, Jesus was the fruit of heaven and earth…The Holy Spirit conveyed the divine fruitfulness of the Father to Mary, and the virginal soil brought forth in an ineffable manner our most loving Savior, the divine Seed, as the prophets called Him…
"That is the way He is reproduced in souls. He is always the fruit of heaven and earth.
"Two artisans must concur in the work that is at once God’s masterpiece and humanity’s supreme product: the Holy Spirit and the most holy Virgin Mary. Two sanctifiers are necessary to souls, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, for they are the only ones who can reproduce Christ.
"Undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary sanctify us in different ways. The first is the Sanctifier by essence; because He is God, who is infinite sanctity; because He is the personal Love that completes, so to speak, the sanctity of God, consummating His life and His unity, and it belongs to Him to communicate to souls the mystery of that sanctity. The Virgin Mary, for her part, is the co-operator, the indispensable instrument in and by God’s design. From Mary’s maternal relation to the human body of Christ is derived her relation to His Mystical Body which is being formed through all the centuries until the end of time, when it will be lifted up to the heavens, beautiful, splendid, complete, and glorious.
"These two, then, the Holy Spirit and Mary, are the indispensable artificers of Jesus, the indispensable sanctifiers of souls. Any saint in heaven can co-operate in the sanctification of a soul, but his co-operation is not necessary, not profound, not constant: while the co-operation of these two artisans of Jesus of whom we have just been speaking is so necessary that without it souls are not sanctified (and this by the actual design of Providence), and so intimate that it reaches to the very depths of our soul. For the Holy Spirit pours charity into our heart, makes a habitation of our soul, and directs our spiritual life by means of His gifts. The Virgin Mary has the efficacious influence of Mediatrix in the most profound and delicate operations of grace in our souls. And, finally, the action of the Holy Spirit and the co-operation of the most holy Virgin Mary are constant; without them, not one single character of Jesus would be traced on our souls, no virtue grow, no gift be developed, no grace increased, no bond of union with God be strengthened in the rich flowering of the spiritual life.
"Such is the place that the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary have in the order of sanctification. Therefore, Christian piety should put these two artisans of Christ in their true place, making devotion to them something necessary, profound, and constant." 18
18. Archbishop Luis M. Martinez, The Sanctifier, op. cit. pp. 5-7.
5) Sing: Come Holy Ghost
6) Sing: Veni Sancte Spiritus
7) From the Lectionary
Pentecost Sequence
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine!You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul's most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;In our Labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!Where you are not, man has naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill!Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away;Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sev'nfold gift descend;Give them virtue's sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.
8) Sing: Come Holy Spirit
From Fr. Joe's new homilybook
Fourth Sunday of Advent -
December 20, 2009 (excerpt)The part of this gospel that struck me was the statement that after Elizabeth’s child leapt for joy, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. This enabled her to recognize Mary’s secret and greet her as she did: Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Mary had just been visited by the angel. Remember, Luke said she went with haste to visit Elizabeth. There would be no evidence that she had conceived, but Elizabeth knew it. It was because she had been filled with the Holy Spirit.
9) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 1
Archbishop Luis Martinez gives us these words of wisdom: "Our love for the Father is tender and confident like that of children; eager to glorify Him as His only-begotten Son taught us to do by word and example. Love for the Father is the intense desire to have His will fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven. Our love for the Son, who willed to become flesh for us, is characterized by the tendency to union with Him and transformation into Him...
4. Archbishop Luis M. Martinez, The Sanctifier, Pauline Books and Media, pp. 67-68.
10) From the Priestly Newsletter - 2000 Issue 3
54Pope John Paul II speaks to us movingly concerning the Heart of Christ: "The Heart of the Redeemer enlivens the whole Church and draws men who have opened their hearts ‘to the inscrutable wealth’ of this unique Heart....
"I desire in a special way to join spiritually with all those who inspire their human hearts from this Divine Heart. It is a numerous family. Not a few congregations, associations and communities live and develop in the Church, taking their vital energy in a programmed way from the Heart of Christ. This spiritual bond always leads to a great reawakening of apostolic zeal. Adorers of the Divine Heart become people with sensitive consciences. And when it is given to them to have a relationship with the Heart of our Lord and Master, the need also reawakens in them to do reparation for the sins of the world, for the indifference of so many hearts, for their negligence.
"How necessary these ranks of vigilant hearts are in the Church, so that the love of the Divine Heart shall not remain isolated and without response! In these ranks, special mention deserves to be made of all those who offer up their sufferings as living victims in union with the Heart of Christ pierced on the cross. Transformed in that way by love, human suffering becomes a particular leaven of Christ’s saving work in the Church…
"The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus reminds us, above all, of those moments when this Heart was ‘pierced by the lance,’ and, thereby, opened in a visible manner to man and the world. By reciting the litany and venerating the Divine Heart in general, we learn the mystery of the Redemption in all its divine and human profundity."
And the Pope also speaks to us about the heart of Mary: "The Immaculate Heart of Mary was open to the word, ‘Woman, there is your son.’ It went to meet spiritually the Heart of the Son opened by the soldier’s lance. The heart of Mary was opened by the same love for man and for the world with which Christ loved man and the world, offering up himself on the cross, even to that lance stroke from the soldier.
"Consecrating the world to the Immaculate heart of Mary means approaching the same Source of Life, through the Mother’s Intercession, that life which flowed forth from Golgatha, the source which gushes out ceaselessly with redemption and grace. Reparation for the sins of the world is continually being accomplished in it. It is ceaselessly the font of new life and holiness.
"Consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother means returning under the Cross of the Son. More: it means consecration of this world to the pierced Heart of the Savior, by bringing the world back to the very source of its Redemption. Redemption is always greater than man’s sin and ‘the sin of the world.’ The power of Redemption infinitely surpasses the whole range of evil in man and in the world.
"The Heart of the Mother is aware of it, more than anyone in the whole cosmos, visible and invisible. This is why she calls. She does not call only to conversion; she also calls upon us to let ourselves be helped by her, the Mother, to return to the source of the Redemption."
54. St. Peter Julian Eymard, Eucharistic Handbook, Emmanuel Publications, as in Adoration, Ignatius Press, p.97.
The Assumption
1) Mary was taken Body and Soul
into heaven.
2) Sing: Immaculate Mary
3) Sing: See the Eyes That Look at Mary
4) From Fr. Joe's new homily book
Feast of the Assumption -
August 15, 2004INTRODUCTION ON THE FEAST – (Rev. 11, 19a; 12, 1-6a, 10ab; I Cor. 15, 20-27; Lk. 1, 39-56) The book of Revelation is highly symbolic. Some of the symbolism is quite obvious while it requires a fairly extensive knowledge of Scripture to interpret some of the other symbols. In today’s first reading we hear about a woman, a child and a dragon. The dragon is the devil and the powers of evil at work in the world. The child is Christ. The woman in our reading has a double symbolism. She stands for Mary, the physical mother of Jesus Christ and she stands for the Church, our spiritual mother who brings Jesus Christ to birth in us through faith and the sacraments. In today’s passage the woman is rescued from the powers of the dragon and is described in great glory. This too has a double symbolism. It symbolizes the glory of Mary in the assumption and it also symbolizes God will rescue his Church, we who are faithful, from all evil and some day not only our spirits but also our bodies will enter into the glory of heaven.
HOMILY – It is recorded nowhere in Scripture when, where or how Mary died. Nor do the Scriptures tell us about her assumption. It is the very ancient tradition of the Church that tells us Mary was assumed bodily into heavenly glory when her life here on earth was ended. One early document referring to this event comes from the Bishop of Jerusalem in 451, St. Juvenal. He was asked by the emperor of Constantinople to bring the body of Mary to Constantinople. He replied to the emperor that Mary had died in the presence of all the apostles. But, her tomb, when opened upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty. Thus the apostles concluded that her body was taken up to heaven as Jesus was.
5) From Fr. Joe's new homily book
Feast of the Assumption - August 15, 2004 continues
Some people belittle tradition as if it were unimportant. They claim to believe only the Scriptures. Yet, if we stop and think about it, we would have no Scriptures without tradition for the Scriptures came from the Church’s tradition. Many of the letters of Paul were written before the gospels and there probably was a written list of many of Jesus’ sayings but that no longer exists. But of our four gospels, Mark’s is the first that was written and that was written about 40 years after Jesus’ ascension. I say all of this so you can see the importance of tradition. So to say that the knowledge of the Assumption of Mary came from the very early tradition of the Church is to give a lot of weight to this teaching. But to eliminate any doubt as to whether Mary actually was assumed into heavenly glory, the Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, after reviewing the belief of the Church through the ages, made it a dogma of our faith in 1950.
6) From Fr. Joe's new homily book
Feast of the Assumption - August 15, 2004 continues
In today’s gospel Mary is a young girl, going to visit her much older cousin Elizabeth. Mary had just been visited by the angel and she had accepted the invitation to be the mother of the Savior God was sending to his people. So she is at this moment pregnant and not married. And she is not pregnant by her spouse to be, Joseph. It was not a happy situation for a girl in that society. She could have been rejected by her husband to be, she could have been rejected by her family or could even have been put to death. Yet she is full of trust in God and praises God's greatness and God's goodness. There is no expression of “poor me.” She is entirely focused on God. Mary shows us how to be trusting and in her assumption she shows us where that trust will lead us.
7) From Fr. Joe's new homily book
Feast of the Assumption - August 15, 2004 continues
Today’s feast honors Mary, for God himself has honored her. In her openness to God and in her willingness to always do whatever God wanted, God rewarded her in a unique way. But today’s feast also is a source of hope for us. Christ came, as he says in St. John’s gospel, that we might have the fullness of life. Our faith tells us our bodies too will share in that fullness. So Mary is allowed to enjoy ahead of time what God’s plan is for all of us who are faithful in following him and serving him.
8) Sing: Ave, Ave, Ave Maria
9) Mary's Message - from the Rosary of August 27, 1996
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