We need to know if you have a

prayer chapter.

Please e-mail this information today.

Your name - complete address -

how many members.

info@sofc.org

You need only have 2 members.

August 18, 2006 message continues

Jesus speaks:        I give you these letters of My love to tell them
                                that I love them so very much —

                            I long for My precious souls to know Me —

                            I reached down in your heart and I filled
                                you with My grace and My love because you
                                cried to Me — Lord help Me

                            And when I answered you and sent you such
                                love you put on your old dark dress again and
                                said "This can't be true."

                            When you are given blessings —
                                look to the heavens —
                                thank your God —

                            Satan tries to work in the mind —
                                he tries to make a space in there to tell you
                                his black, lies and
                                I fill your heart with light, love and peace.

                            I give you one another to love and to grow.
                                Communities of people, sisters, brothers                               
                                    can help each other to see the dark
                                    sides of the mind, but if you are not
                                    open —
                                    you can wear the old dress and sing the
                                        old song
                                    "I am perfect and the other people should
                                        change" —
                                    You are not sinless.

                            A person may be in a community, a marriage
                                and their imperfections surface in this
                                interaction with others —
                                if they are given a light into a problem
                                they should rejoice and try to change
                                to be more loving, more perfected.

                            I have a special spousal relationship with
                                My sisters and brothers and priests —
                                I want My religious to love Me so deeply —
                                to commit to their vocation.

                            I give you the first commandment.

                                  1.  I, the Lord, am your God.
                                       You shall not have other gods besides me.

                            All the things you use, people you love —
                                should not be above your union
                                with God.

                            Seek first the Kingdom of heaven.

                            A man had a problem and entered a community —
                                His problem was brought to light in
                                dealing with others — He was tempted to
                                leave — so he could be the way that was
                                familiar to him, but it was
                                a sign that if he stayed and worked — with
                                prayer, and begging for God's grace he could
                                love and forgive and become more
                                united than divided.

                                I want a strong body of people united in
                            love, serving Me as your God, doing all
                            things for My honor and Glory.

                                Let the Spirit fill you.

                                In baptism you receive a special sharing
                            in My life. If you remain in the state of
                            grace — you must remember
                            this "The Father, Son and Holy Spirit
                            dwell within the graced soul in a special way."

                                Discernment of spirits —
                                Beg to be filled with the grace of the Spirit.
                                United deeply in the Spirit.

                                Tell people about the gift of baptism.
                                Live more deeply your baptismal vows.

                            Tell the hungry souls.

                            Song:  A Song from Jesus

August 18, 2006 message continues

Jesus speaks:        Be docile —
                                 humble —
                                 ready to change.

                            Put aside jealousies, pride, anger —
                                reach for purity —
                                In living a pure life, as God will's
                                    lies your peace —

                            You are called to love God and love one another.
                            You grow in this —

                            Put aside your imperfections.

                            A person in a community fled — they were
                                becoming more depressed, more angry —

                            When they left —
                                how do you think they will be in the
                                new setting/the other side of the
                                wall — if the anger was in them —
                                the bad moods becoming more frequent —
                                complaining —

                            Soon in the new setting — they began the same
                                familiar ways that were imperfections
                                in them.

                            The Church is a pilgrim Church — there
                                are imperfect people you
                                may come in contact with, but the Church
                                is great — the love for the Church should not
                                depend on individual persons who are
                                bad mannered, selfish etc.

Messenger:               We must be beyond the person who is
                            bad mannered, selfish when going to an
                            establishment.

                                When being in an establishment we
                            must see we represent all the people —
                            people who are Catholic should not
                            complain to non-Catholics about the
                            Church. They should build up the Church.

                                We should build up the Shepherds
                            of Christ — we are the Shepherds of
                            Christ — be proud, be thankful to God
                            for this.

Proverbs 9: 1-6

Wisdom has built herself a house,
    she has hewn her seven pillars,
she has slaughtered her beasts, drawn her wine,
    she has laid her table.
She has despatched her maidservants
    and proclaimed from the heights above the city,
'Who is simple? Let him come this way.'
    To the fool she says,
'Come and eat my bread,
    drink the wine which I have drawn!
Leave foolishness behind and you will live,
    go forwards in the ways of perception.'

                            Sing song:  Taste and See

Ephesians 5: 21-32

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.

    

John 6: 60-69

After hearing it, many of his followers said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this disturb you? What if you should see the Son of man ascend to where he was before? 

 

    ‘It is the spirit that gives life, 
    the flesh has nothing to offer. 

    The words I have spoken to you are spirit 
    and they are life. 

 

‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset who did not believe and who was to betray him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me except by the gift of the Father.’ After this, many of his disciples went away and accompanied him no more.

Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.’

Jesus speaks:        Vision —

                                I loved you to My death on the cross.

                                Live in My love —

                                You are here to love
                                    (1) Love God
                                    (2) Love one another
                                    (3) Love yourself

John 13: 34

I give you a new commandment:
love one another;
you must love one another
just as I have loved you.

Jesus speaks:        I am love
                            You are here to grow in love —
                            You must forgive and love and live according
                                to the commandments.

Excerpt from Response in Christ

Relationship with Members of the Church

e) Relationship with Members of the Church

There is but one true Church of Christ. Yet this one Church has three different states of existence. There is the pilgrim Church, the Church of this world, composed of members who have received the grace of Christ and strive for its development. They have not yet obtained the goal of their efforts, as have the members of the heavenly Church, who enjoy God in eternal happiness. The Church suffering is an intermediate state of existence necessary for those who had not achieved the required purification as members of the pilgrim Church. Although there are these three phases of the Church’s existence, there is a profound union existing between all the members. All these members possess the same basic life of grace in Christ, and this common life establishes the most intimate bonds of love. In our preceding chapter, we discussed the pilgrim Church. Let us now consider the Church suffering and the heavenly Church.

The members of the Church suffering are those who have departed from this life in an incomplete state of Christian development. Their development is incomplete in the sense that grace has not fully taken possession of them, and, as a result, they are yet closed in upon themselves to a greater or lesser degree. They as yet cannot open themselves out in complete love to the Triune God in the beatific vision. They must undergo a further purification, a purification which could have been achieved upon earth with merit. Now the purification must be achieved with no merit attached. The pain of this purification is mixed with the certain expectation of achieving the vision of God. We can hasten the advent of this vision for this people by the offering of prayers and other good works. Scripture itself refers to our action on behalf of those in purgatory in Chapter 12 of the Second Book of Maccabees beginning with verse 38.

The members of the heavenly Church are those in whom the life of grace has taken full possession and has reached its completion in the life of glory. Faith now is unnecessary, as the light of glory gives the human intellect a new strength and capacity for seeing God face-to-face. While the Christian was a wayfarer, he received the imprint of the indwelling Trinity as he shared in God’s own life. Now in heaven that grace-life and possession of God reaches its completion—the absolute completion is not achieved, however, until the resurrection of the body. The divine persons give Themselves to the beatified in a profound union far surpassing that of the indwelling of the Trinity experienced here below.

This life of heaven is still the Christ-life, for just as we possess a share in Trinitarian life here below as mediated by Christ, and exercise this grace-life as structured by Him, so also in heaven is the mediation of Christ present. In the words of Rahner, "One always sees the Father through Jesus. Just as immediately as this, for the directness of the vision of God is not a denial of the mediatorship of Christ as man."¹⁴ And not only does the humanity of Christ unite the blessed to God, but also, in some way, to the whole of creation. This is merely a completion of what is begun here below, namely, the union with Christ in His humanity establishing the Christian in a special relationship with God, with other men, and with the whole of creation. We have a glimpse, therefore, of the fullness of life which members of the heavenly Church possess.

The heavenly Church, as St. Thomas says, is the true Church.¹⁵ The Church of this earth and the Church of purgatory are, each in its own way, reaching out in loving hope for the heavenly Jerusalem. Vatican II puts it very simply: "The Church, to which we are called in Christ Jesus, and in which we acquire sanctity through the grace of God, will attain her full perfection only in the glory of heaven."¹⁶

The members of the heavenly Church can help us in living our life of grace until we too share its fullness with them. Their power of intercession on our behalf is but another ramification of the communal aspect of Christianity. We are meant to help others grow in Christ. We, in turn, are intended by God to receive aid from others—yes, from members of the heavenly Church, as well as from those with whom we dwell here below.

Not only can we be aided by the saints’ intercession, but the example of the canonized saints can also be of great value to us. They have concretely proved that full holiness is possible. Such an inspiration is of real worth when we are tempted to think that Christian sanctity in its higher degrees is impossible of attainment. Moreover, the canonized saints, in their diversity, teach us that there are many authentic versions of Christian holiness. They can be innovators in showing us that there are numerous possibilities in assimilating the mystery of Christ, although the basic assimilation remains the same for all Christians of all times. In the opinion of Rahner this is one of the chief roles the canonized saints exert in the life of the Church.¹⁷

 

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NOTES:

16. Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Church, No. 48.
17. Cf. Karl Rahner, Op. cit., pp. 100-101.

Excerpt from August 2, 2006

Messenger:               I appreciate your mail —
                                    e-mail telling me how you
                                    work to do these Ministries
                                    Jesus has asked us to do.

                                info@sofc.org

                                Shepherds of Christ
                                P. O. Box 627
                                China, IN 47250

                                Our new mailing address is
                                    in China — where we have
                                    24 hour adoration and our
                                    retreats —
                                    write to me to tell me how
                                    you are being a Shepherd of Christ
                                    Associate, Apostle —

                                Anyone who has a prayer petition
                                    can e-mail   info@sofc.org
                                    and we will put your prayer request
                                    in a basket under the altar in
                                    China, Indiana —

                                    you can see the basket on the
                                    internet —

                                    We pray every half hour
                                     for the intentions in the basket

                                    We will pray for you —