From Tell My People by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J. 

The Holy Spirit

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.

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                R. There is disorder in bugs
                and animals  — in the
                weather because of original sin  —

                    Healing needs to take place
                in our family tree  —
    

Then Yahweh passed before him and called out, ‘Yahweh, Yahweh, God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in faithful love and constancy, maintaining his faithful love to thousands, forgiving fault, crime and sin, yet letting nothing go unchecked, and punishing the parent’s fault in the children and in the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation!’ 

                R. How did God make men and
                women? Men and women are
                not the same. Look at
                their bodies!
   

Now, the snake was the most subtle of all the wild animals that Yahweh God had made. It asked the woman, 'Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?' The woman answered the snake, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, "You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death." ' Then the snake said to the woman, 'No! You will not die! God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good from evil.' The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was enticing for the wisdom that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.

The man and his wife heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. But Yahweh God called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked. 'I heard the sound of you in the garden,' he replied. 'I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' 'Who told you that you were naked?' he asked. 'Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?' The man replied, 'It was the woman you put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then Yahweh God said to the woman, 'Why did you do that?' The woman replied, 'The snake tempted me and I ate.'

Then Yahweh God said to the snake, 'Because you have done this,

    Accursed be you
    of all animals wild and tame!
    On your belly you will go
    and on dust you will feed
    as long as you live.
    I shall put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
    it will bruise your head
    and you will strike its heel.'

    To the woman he said:

    I shall give you intense pain
        in childbearing,
    you will give birth to your children
        in pain.
    Your yearning will be for your husband,
    and he will dominate you.

To the man he said, 'Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,

    Accursed be the soil because of you!
    Painfully will you get your food from it
    as long as you live.
    It will yield you brambles and thistles,
    as you eat the produce of the land.
    By the sweat of your face
    will you earn you food,
    until you return to the ground,
    as you were taken from it.
    For dust you are
    and to dust you shall return.

The man named his wife 'Eve' because she was the mother of all those who live. Yahweh God made tunics of skins for the man and his wife and clothed them. Then Yahweh God said, 'Now that the man has become like one of us in knowing good from evil, he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick from the tree of life too, and eat and live for ever!' So Yahweh God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken. He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted the great winged creatures and the fiery flashing sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.

                R. There is tension between men
                and women, women and women,
                men and men because of original
                sin.

                    In love men and women
                can break the bonds that
                cause division and show
                God that He is the boss  —
                All they do is ultimately in
                obedience to the Father's
                will  —

                This is the prescription for
                happiness  —

                God gives to us a sharing in
                His life in baptism and
                our knowing and loving
                capacity is elevated.

                    Man can perform God-like
                acts of knowing and loving  —
                It is because of God's grace
                we love more and more like Him.
                It is because of the generosity
                of God if we are more loving
                we need His grace to be more
                loving  — faith, hope and love are
                theological virtues  —

                    When God gives this grace
                and we are more loving we
                are raised up more and more
                in the image of God.
                We are here to love  — to be
                molded more and more in the
                image of God  —
   

                R. The virtues LIFT us
                up to be more and more like
                God.

                    The vices are bad habits
                that bring us down  —
                ride, greed, envy, wrath, lust,
                gluttony, and sloth

                The virtues help us to be in the
                right place with God, with
                others, with ourselves.
                The deadly sins bring us
                down  — we are not in the
                right place with God, with
                others, with ourselves  —
 

Concept of the Christian Life (excerpt)

B. Christian life as participation in God's life

2 Peter 1: 3-7

The generosity of God

By his divine power, he has lavished on us all the things we need for life and for true devotion, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these, the greatest and priceless promises have been lavished on us, that through them you should share the divine nature and escape the corruption rife in the world through disordered passion. With this in view, do your utmost to support your faith with goodness, goodness with understanding, understanding with self–control, self–control with perseverance, perseverance with devotion, devotion with kindness to the brothers, and kindness to the brothers with love.

---

The triune God creates

Creation does not become God

God is perfect

He cannot gain anything

He cannot lose anything

Creation - reflection of God

               - reflection of his existence

Existence - a rock reflects God by the fact it exists

Life of vegetation - a tree

                             - higher reflection of God's life

Life of sensation - a dog (seeing, feeling, smelling, etc.)

Life of rationality - human person - intellect

                                                      - knowing

                                                      - will

Man reflects God

God is a Being Who knows and wills

A person has this ability in a finite way

In Baptism a soul receives an added sharing in His life

A sharing above that, of our human nature

                R. Just as we see God is all just
                we know that man owes to God,
                their parents, people that
                went before them, saints  —
                we owe in justice to make
                up for what we can for
                what people who went
                before us did for us, by
                making it a better world  —
                It is just to be grateful  —
                to have this attitude of gratitude,
                to not be selfish, closed in,
                punishing and angry because
                we have told ourselves  —
                we have been wronged and
                therefore can punish innocent
                others  — inappropriately
                for our bad habits that need
                to be corrected, sins of our
                ancestors  — jealousy, pride,
                anger, envy, lust, greed, wrath,
                gluttony, and sloth —
                that need healing and need the
                bonds of these things
                broken and be brought
                to love like God wants  —
                to be lifted up in love  —
                to make the world a better
                place in the Christic image
                because it is God's will
                for why He created us  —

                The Church, the world and
                    the individual person are
                    in the state of becoming in
                    that Christic image  —

                That means being in the
                    right place with God, others,
                    ourselves  —

                That means being grateful to God,
                    to parents, to those who
                    went before us and
                    giving to future
                    generations love with
                    our life  —
   

                R. Living a life of seeking forgiveness
                for wrongs done to us  — not
                denying that the family tree
                needs healing.

                    Forgiving everyone, living
                and dead members of the
                family tree and knowing
                they need to be prayed for
                and we do too  —

                    Recognizing we need healing
                in body, mind and soul  —

                Being in the right place in
                God's will in love  —

                We are to enjoy the vision of God  —
                to pray for faith to see through
                God's eyes  —

                    We must repent, we are all
                sinners, we see with distorted
                vision  — we need hearts of
                love  — like the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

                    We spread this devotion
                to the Sacred Heart and Immaculate
                Heart  — in this lies our happiness  —

                Sing this song during the day
                    "Give me your heart oh Jesus "  —

                R. Grace  — God gives us grace  —
                    we pray for this  — We seek
                    the vision of God  — preparing
                    ourselves here for the
                    beatific vision to come
                    in heaven  —

                Happiness is achieved in God  —
                We were created to seek God  —
                We crave to be more one in
                    Him  — we were
                    created for this!

                    We need this super-human
                gift of loving from God  —
                Man naturally cannot love
                like God  —
                We must be raised up  —
                We seek to see through the
                    eyes of God  —

                We need grace to be truly
                    happy  — we pray for
                    this grace from God  —
                    to have a heart of love in
                    relationships  —

                Our natural parents  — all of them,
                    were tainted, they were imperfect,
                    we have bad habits of
                    relating
                    men and women  — because of
                        how they taught us  —

                Our life is not to be lived to
                    prove in our dysfunctional
                    ways  — we are right but
                    to seek perfection as
                    our Heavenly Father is perfect  —

                R. We need grace to be truly happy
                We need grace to be united

                We need the proper use of reason,
                    with the vision of God  —
                    not from the tainted ways
                    that were imperfect
                    our parents taught us  —
 

1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.

Love never comes to an end.

                R. Jesus died for our sins  —
                how arrogant to try to
                    act like we are perfect
                    and everybody should
                    be molded in our
                    dysfunctional way

                Song: A Song from Jesus

                R. We need the right reason and
                    we need to have the right
                    desire to do only God's
                    will and do it  —
     

November 4, 2013

Ephesians 5: 21-33

The morals of the home

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subject to their husbands as to the Lord, since, as Christ is head of the Church, and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church is subject to Christ, so should wives be to their husbands, in everything. Husbands should love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy by washing her in cleansing water with a form of words, so that when he took the Church to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because we are parts of his Body. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh. This mystery has great significance, but I am applying it to Christ and the Church. To sum up: you also, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband.

                R. Being in the Father's will  —
                Living in right reasoning
                Being filled with gratitude
                Being more and more in the
                    image of Jesus  — not
                    as the world teaches  —

                Being in the right place  —
                    not giving into foolish
                    pride, anger, arguments

                But knowing the Heart of Jesus
                    is meek  — that means
                Not combatal

                Song: Give me your Heart oh Jesus

                R. We should be afraid of those
                    in the world that are
                    disobeying God and
                    united to those we love  —
                    trying to bring the
                    might of unity among those
                    who love God and each other
                    to the dance floor  —

                If only men brought to the
                    marriage table as much
                    glamour and enthusiasm
                    for the great sacrament
                    of marriage in which
                    God gives tremendous
                    grace as they brought
                    to preparing for the wedding  —

                The marriage partner is
                    not the enemy, the people
                    God gives us to love  —
                    the family should pray
                    to be a strong unit of
                    love in today's sinful,
                    cold and dark, world and
                    this unity is made stronger
                    united to the Holy Sacrifice
                    of the Mass  —

Morning Offering for Married Couples

Dear Heavenly Father

    Help us to be strong in our
        love for each other, living
        according to the Father's will  —

    Help us to be ever grateful to
        You, God for this gift to
        co-create a beautiful
        child  — to bring up as
        Your little child of light  —

    Oh Heavenly Father, heal
        our family trees  —

    Give us grace to love to be
        ever more deeply united
        in the Sacred Heart of Your
        Son Jesus and the Immaculate
        Heart of our spiritual Mother  —

    Help us to have a holy family,
        to be a reflection of
        the Trinity in this
        Blessed Union  —

    We offer all we do,
    Dear Heavenly Father together
        as a married couple,
        together as a family,
        by ourselves  —
        we offer all we are to You,
        united to the Holy Sacrifice of
        the Mass  — united to Jesus,
        in the Holy Spirit, with all
        the angels and saints
        and the souls in purgatory,
        through the powerful intercession
        of Mary our Mother.

    We love You, God, we love You,
        we love You  — help us
        to have right reasoning,
        help us to be good, to
        be nice to each other
        to love each other and
        to build a better world
        for future generations  —

    We love You  — help us to
        bring this Christic image
        to the Church, the world
        and our lives, individually
        and as a family.  Amen.

                Say: 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

                How does it make me feel
                    when I am an instrument
                    of peace and love in
                    my family  —

                Marriage and family is where
                    we learn being in
                    the right place  —

                The ways of the world  — many
                    of them are in the
                    wrong place.

                Jesus: Pray together as a family before
                    statue of Mary with image glass.

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                Jesus: Have images of My Sacred Heart
                    and Mary's Immaculate Heart in
                    your home  —
                    the family that prays together  —
                    Stays together.