It is a choice, we can't serve
                    two masters.

               

Matthew 6: 24

‘No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.

   

                We have a choice.

 

Deuteronomy 30: 19-20

Today, I call heaven and earth to witness against you: I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live, in the love of Yahweh your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends the length of time that you stay in the country which Yahweh swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give them.’

 

                Sing: Choose Life

 

                We cannot do evil to have
                    good come from it —

 

                Habits — we must want to
                    break bad habits —

 

                We must admit there is evil
                    in all of us, Fr. Carter says and
                    want to change —

 

                If we want to do God's will
                We want to be good —

 

                We are quick to not stay in anger
                    and sin —

                To repair the breach —

 

                Jesus calls it hugging the
                    sin — holding on —
                    doing more damage —
                    like a ruptured appendix
                    not attended to —

 

                Making everybody wait on us, while
                    we do more evil —

 

                Jesus calls us to live the Consecration
                    to His Heart and Mary's Heart —

 

                Live in greater holiness —

 

                To consecrate means to make holy —

 

                This is the mission of the Shepherds of Christ
                    to spread this consecration to
                    the 2 Hearts, that men will
                    make Jesus, the King and Center
                    of their lives —

 

                A choice —

 

                Who is on our throne

                        Jesus        or        ourselves

 

                Pray to the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom,
                    to know how to be as God
                    wants us to be —

 

                Fr. Carter says we are in the state of becoming —
                    the Church is in the state of becoming —
                    the world is in the state of becoming —

 

                Jesus gives us these prayers

 

 

  

 

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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)

 

 

                Fr. Mike said

                    "Rita, they do it over and over
                        again because they want to."

                When we are told what we are
                    doing is wrong and keep
                    doing it —
                    it is because we probably,
                    don't want to change —

                Fr. Mike said: "Accountability" and "Responsibility"
                    for our sins —

                We must tell the truth —

                Beg for the Holy Spirit to help us —

                Die to ways not like Jesus —

                Obey the commandments of God —

                Not listen to satan —
                    who wants us to do what is opposed
                    to God's will and
                    tells us 'what is right is wrong' and
                        'what is wrong is right' and
                        we listen to satan instead of
                    obeying the commandments of God.

 

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.'

 

The Ten Commandments

1. I am the Lord your God; you shall not have strange gods before Me.

2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.

4. Honor your father and your mother.

5. You shall not kill.

6. You shall not commit adultery.

7. You shall not steal.

8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

9. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.

 

                Saying thanks to God for all the
                    good He has given to us.

                    A person entered a restaurant and ordered.
                They were hungry and the food never came —
                when they asked about it —
                they just kept making excuses —

                How do we do God's work when
                    He calls us?

                Do we have a double standard —
                    we should be treated this way, we think, by
                        God and others —

                    but we treat God and others different, than
                        we wish to be treated —

  

Matthew 7: 12

'So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the Law and the Prophets.

 

 1 Kings 19: 16b, 19-21

You must anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat, of Abel-Meholah, as prophet to succeed you.

Leaving there, he came on Elisha son of Shaphat as he was ploughing behind twelve yoke of oxen, he himself being with the twelfth. Elijah passed near to him and threw his cloak over him. Elisha left his oxen and ran after Elijah. 'Let me kiss my father and mother, then I will follow you,' he said. Elijah answered, 'Go, go back; for have I done anything to you?' Elisha turned away, took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He used the oxen's tackle for cooking the meat, which he gave the people to eat. He then rose and, following Elijah, became his servant.

Psalm 16: 1-2, 5, 7-11

[In a quiet voice Of David]

                        Protect me, O God, in you is my refuge.

                        To Yahweh I say, 'You are my Lord,
                        my happiness is in none

My birthright, my cup is Yahweh;
you, you alone, hold my lot secure.

I bless Yahweh who is my counsellor,
even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep Yahweh before me always,
for with him at my right hand, nothing can shake me. 

So my heart rejoices, my soul delights,
my body too will rest secure,
for you will not abandon me to Sheol,
you cannot allow your faithful servant to see the abyss.
You will teach me the path of life,
unbounded joy in your presence,
at your right hand delight for ever.

Galatians 5: 1, 13-18

Christ set us free, so that we should remain free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be fastened again to the yoke of slavery.

    After all, brothers, you were called to be free; do not use your freedom as an opening for self–indulgence, but be servants to one another in love, since the whole of the Law is summarised in the one commandment: You must love your neighbour as yourself. If you go snapping at one another and tearing one another to pieces, take care: you will be eaten up by one another.

    Instead, I tell you, be guided by the Spirit, and you will no longer yield to self–indulgence. The desires of self–indulgence are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are in opposition to self–indulgence: they are opposites, one against the other; that is how you are prevented from doing the things that you want to. But when you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

 

 

Luke 9: 51-62

Now it happened that as the time drew near for him to be taken up, he resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem. Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?’ But he turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.

As they travelled along they met a man on the road who said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus answered, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’ 

    Another to whom he said, ‘Follow me,’ replied, ‘Let me go and bury my father first.’ But he answered, ‘Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.’ 

    Another said, ‘I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say good–bye to my people at home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’

 

                In Gospel we were called to follow the Lord.

Matthew 16: 24-25

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

                Jesus said take up your cross and follow me —
                Life is not going to be a life of ease —

                Jesus tells us in today's Gospel He is
                    going to Jerusalem —

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Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 1, 2007

INTRODUCTION - Today’s gospel reading brings us to a critical point in St. Luke’s gospel. St. Luke tells us at this point in his gospel that Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem. From this point on in Luke, everything that Jesus said or did took place while he was on his way to Jerusalem. This part of Luke’s gospel is referred to as the “Journey narrative.” When Jesus decided to go to Jerusalem, he knew what was ahead for him, nonetheless, he started his journey with courage and determination. He warns those who would follow him that following him would require sacrifice, and there wasn’t time for second thoughts or to be indecisive.
Our first reading may seem to be a strange one, but it was chosen to correspond with the idea of total commitment to one’s call. It tells about two Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha. Elijah is getting old and his life is coming to an end. At God's command he chooses Elisha to replace him. Placing his mantle on Elisha’s shoulders symbolized this call. Having 12 yoke of oxen to plow with would indicate that Elisha must have been a prosperous farmer. His sacrificing the animals and burning his equipment indicates a total commitment to his vocation. He broke completely with his former way of life and did not look back.

HOMILY - The gospels have one objective, to lead us to Christ. Christ has one objective, to lead us to God. And God has one objective, to bring us to eternal happiness. Today’s gospel, in its desire to lead us to Christ does not picture Christ as “an easy going, do whatever you want, you’re all going to get to heaven anyway” kind of person. Jesus is the most loving person who ever lived, and at the same time, when it comes to eternal life, he is a non wishy-washy, ambivalent person. With regard to salvation he is no nonsense. Some people might even consider his words hard.
Let us consider some of these hard sayings. We hear first of all about an encounter with the Samaritans. Most of us probably think of the Samaritans as nice people, because of the parable of the good Samaritan. But there was considerable animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans. A Jew could risk his life traveling through Samaria and as we see in today’s gospel, Jesus is prudently sending messengers ahead of him to see if a particular town would receive him. They wouldn’t. James and John were all for calling down destruction upon that town. Not only did they want bad to happen to those people, they wanted to be involved. They asked Jesus, “Do you want us to call down fire from heaven upon them?” Jesus just rebuked them and moved on. Jesus did not come to condemn but to save. He was a man of peace. You are possibly thinking, how is what Jesus said here a hard saying? Well, consider who are the Samaritans in your life, the people you would like to get rid of if you could? Can you have the same attitude as Jesus, willing to avoid vengeance, willing to forgive, looking for ways to find peace? It’s not always easy.
The other two or three sayings are hard ones too. There is someone in the gospel who comes up to Jesus and wants to follow him. Jesus describes the sacrifices that might be involved, especially the sacrifice of not even having a place to call home. Those who lived in the early Church had many sacrifices to make to stay faithful to our Lord, even to the extent of maybe having to sacrifice their lives. People still do in other places of the world today.  But in our country so many people find it hard to sacrifice an hour for Sunday Mass or time to pray during the week, not to mention the sacrifice involved in keeping the commandments. Being a Christian is not just a matter of saying we are. It is living the way Christ wants us to.
“Let the dead bury their dead” is one of the hardest to understand. I have always understood this as the situation of the young man who wouldn’t be ready to follow Jesus until his father died which may have been years away. Jesus was saying there wouldn’t be time. How many times do we say when I get this done or that done, then I’ll begin going to Church more or spend more time praying? We’re all busy today. Where we choose to spend our time tells us what’s important to us. The devil’s biggest temptation for many of us is to tell us “you have lots of time. You can pray later. You can do that good deed later. Just relax for a little while. You owe it to yourself.” (Of course we need to relax at times, but we also need to make time for the Lord.)
The last statement is very similar. “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” Our following Christ has to be serious. We can’t be indecisive and uncommitted. We can’t let feelings alone guide us, deciding to pray when we feel like it and putting our faith aside when we don’t feel like it. Our faith is too important for that. I remember all the new faces I saw in church after 9/11. I’m glad people came but for many the enthusiasm didn’t last. God deserves better than a passing thought or a spurt of piety when we happen to feel like it.
Hard sayings! They sure are. Are they meant to accuse us or put us down or depress us? No. Our Lord’s words to us come from his love and his objective is to lead us to holiness and eternal happiness.

  

                Jesus says He is going to Jerusalem —
                Jesus did the Father's will —

                We can give Jesus excuses to tell Him when
                    it is convenient to, us, to follow
                    God.

                God wants us to serve God and not serve ourselves,
                    selfishly, against His will —
                    Be where He wants us to be —
                    God has not promised us an easy life —
                    Jesus knew the trials, the weariness
                        of life —

                    Day after day — do the things in life
                        Jesus wants us to do —
                        It can be what we don't
                        necessarily want to do — but we
                        do God's will — not serve ourselves, selfishly, against God's will.
                        Doing it His way not opposing Him by doing it our way,
                        that is, being rebellious against God's will.
                        John Paul II said, why be a rival to doing God's will.

                In the scripture, we can make excuses,
                    I have to bury the dead, i.e.
                    I have to bury my dad, who is not dead yet,
                    he may die today, tomorrow, in 10 years —

                It is our excuses why we don't do what
                    we are supposed to, many times.

                Only God has the words of eternal life —

                Excuses, excuses, excuses, why we don't
                    do what is God's will —

                And following Jesus — will be taking up
                    our cross.

__    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __    __ 

                    We are members of a unit — we
                do not live in a vacuum — Fr. Carter
                examined his conscience twice
                a day — 10 minutes at least

                    In the Spiritual Exercises it
                tells us about the 'examine' —

                    We recognize our faults, because
                we realize our sins of pride, jealousy,
                anger acted out on others, seeking
                dominance for dominance sake —
                hurt ourselves and
                drives us from that intimacy that
                    God wants with us —

                    Sin hurts us —
                    Sin hurts our brothers — every
                        one we touch.
                    Sin distances us from God —
                    We drive ourselves from greater
                        intimacy with God —

                Song: Why Do We Hurt the Ones We Love

                Satan tempts us —

                Satan tries to make what is bad look good and —
                                               what is good look bad.

                And we can jump in —
                Do what we shouldn't do and
                Don't do what we should do.

                God help me to see my sins.
                God help me to see those things
                    in me that need to change.

                We must recognize our sins right away —

                God does not bless deception and
                    hatred —

                But God blesses us — He is merciful,
                    when we come to Him and ask
                    for forgiveness.

                Have a contrite heart —

                Tell God, sincerely, we are sorry —

                Repair the breach with God and
                    others, when we offend Him —

                Tell the truth —

                God will hear our prayer when
                    we come with a
                    contrite heart —

                We can sin — over and over again —
                    blaming others and telling
                    ourselves we never did anything
                    wrong — lying to ourselves about
                    our pride and selfishness and hatred
                    toward our brothers — We can lie
                    about how we have anger toward our
                    brothers — over periods of time —
                    lack of unity — division — stubbornness —

                    We can lie about
                    the example that is wrong we give others —
                    Are we greedy and jealous and dishonest?

                    Have we not served God as He has
                asked us to serve Him and help others?
                Have we shown others through bad example, our
                disobedience, and the bad example we give?

                    When we sin we rebel against God and against
                His will — We offend God and He
                knows our dishonesty —

                    We are under God — He is over
                us —

                    Fr. Mike says
                    Name it, Claim it, Dump it —

                God is faithful and just —
                    God is merciful
                    We must come with a contrite,
                        honest heart.
                    We admit our anger —

                God gives us confession —
                God outpours His grace —
                We can be forgiven.

                Get rid of guilt — quit lying about
                    sins —

                Pride keeps us stuck

                We must be pure to have greater
                    union with God.

Prayer for Union with Jesus

Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart.

    I am Yours to possess. I am Yours to use. I want to be selfless and only exist in You. Help me to spoon out all that is me and be an empty vessel ready to be filled by You. Help me to die to myself and live only for You. Use me as You will. Let me never draw my attention back to myself. I only want to operate as You do, dwelling within me.

    I am Yours, Lord. I want to have my life in You. I want to do the will of the Father. Give me the strength to put aside the world and let You operate my very being. Help me to act as You desire. Strengthen me against the distractions of the devil to take me from Your work.

    When I worry, I have taken my focus off of You and placed it on myself. Help me not to give in to the promptings of others to change what in my heart You are making very clear to me. I worship You, I adore You and I love You. Come and dwell in me now.

-God's Blue Book, January 17, 1994  

                Song: Give Me Your Heart oh Jesus

John 17: 21-22

May they all be one,
just as, Father, you are in me
   and I am in you,
so that they also may be in us,
so that the world may believe
it was you who sent me.
I have given them the glory
   you gave to me,
that they may be one as we are one.

                From the Prayer Manual

Holy Spirit Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit, almighty Sanctifier, God of love, who filled the Virgin Mary with grace, who wonderfully changed the hearts of the apostles, who endowed all Your martyrs with miraculous courage, come and sanctify us. Enlighten our minds, strengthen our wills, purify our consciences, rectify our judgment, set our hearts on fire, and preserve us from the misfortunes of resisting Your inspirations. Amen.  

 

                The priest can hear our confession —

John 20: 21-23

and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. 

    ‘As the Father sent me, 
    so am I sending you.’ 

After saying this he breathed on them and said: 

    Receive the Holy Spirit. 
    If you forgive anyone’s sins,
    they are forgiven; 
    if you retain anyone’s sins, 
    they are retained.

                Sorrow for sin

                Saying to God over and over

                Thank You God
                Thank You God
                Thank You God

                The ultimate lie —
                    trying to act like we did not sin when we did
                    lying to God —
                    satan tries to trick us —

                Satan tempts us, to try to
                    get us to think, that our pride is okay —
                    Satan tells us, we should disobey authority.
                    Satan further tries to trick us to think we, will then be happy.

                Satan is the 'Father of Lies'
                Satan wants division
                                combat.

                There is a rule that works.

                It is God's rule.

Matthew 5: 20-26

‘For I tell you, if your uprightness does not surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of Heaven.

    ‘You have heard how it was said to our ancestors, You shall not kill; and if anyone  does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say this to you, anyone who is angry with a brother will answer for it before the court; anyone who calls a brother "Fool" will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and anyone who calls him "Traitor" will answer for it in hell fire. So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering. Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on the way to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. In truth I tell you, you will not get out till you have paid the last penny.

 

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