Please Pray for Fr. Joe & Bob, Sanja
     

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.  

August 21, 2021

R. St. Augustine said peace is the tranquility of order.
The first commandment tells us about order. God say
"I am the Lord thy God thou shalt not have any gods
before me."

What is first -- God is first that is order.

    We are under God.

I love this scripture.

1 Corinthians 15: 20-28

In fact, however, Christ has been raised from the dead, as the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. As it was by one man that death came, so through one man has come the resurrection of the dead. Just as all die in Adam, so in Christ all will be brought to life; but all of them in their proper order: Christ the first-fruits, and next, at his coming, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father, having abolished every principality, every ruling force and power. For he is to be king until he has made his enemies his footstool, and the last of the enemies to be done away with is death, for he has put all things under his feet. But when it is said everything is subjected, this obviously cannot include the One who subjected everything to him. When everything has been subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the One who has subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.
 

R. Adam and Eve brought disorder. God told them
what to do. God created a beautiful, harmonious,
good and orderly world. Disorder came from
the rebellion, disobedience of Adam and Eve.
The world God created reflected the love of
God for His creatures.

    With sin death entered the world.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life -- to have
order we must see the order God must be first
in our lives.

    We see the deadly sins. Pride is a sin and it
is disorder. When a person is angry or envious
or jealous of their brother and holds out and
holds onto it -- they put anger, jealousy,
whatever it is, in sin, before God.

    We must see God's will and follow it
to have peace in our lives. In the Spiritual
Exercises we can examine where we are,
in meditation 10 minutes during the day
and like a thermometer -- see where
we are in reference to what God's will is for
us, helping to build His Kingdom.

 

 

Shepherds of Christ Priestly Newsletter 2000 Issue 3     

The Father's Will for Us - Our Source of Peace

 

R. FALLEN ANGELS

Some angels fell and they said "I will not serve."

Fr. Carter told us:

Kneel before the crucifix and answer these questions.

Look    1) What have I done for Christ?
Up       2) What am I now doing for Christ?
            3) What ought I to do for Christ?

 

 

R. Sin hurts our relationship with God.

Jesus sweat Blood in the Garden knowing
    all who would reject Him despite His
    love for them.

Jesus showed us love is giving and taking.
 

The definition of love used by Father Carter is as follows.

    Love is the gift of self to promote the true good of those loved.

 

R. When we love genuinely we can grow in Christ,
    in relationships.

Likewise it is loving to accept genuine,
    good love from others --
    It helps them grow --

It is very selfish to decide I will be the one
    to give, but I don't want to
    accept real genuine love from you.

Love should be where we give without
    manipulation and expecting things
    back.
Love should be where we want the other to
    develop their unique talents God wants of
    them, and contribute to the human
    family living God's will for them.

We were created in the image and
    likeness of God.

We pray for the grace we need most!

Hebrews 1: 1-2

At many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the ages.
 

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.

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.  end of excerpt

 

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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)

 

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Excerpt from Response in Christ by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

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

 

---

NOTES:

 ¹⁴Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations, Vol. III (Baltimore: Helicon, 1967), p. 44.
 ¹⁵ Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, In Ad Ephes., c. 3, Lect. 3.
 ¹⁶Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Church, No. 48.
 ¹⁷Cf. Karl Rahner, Op. cit., pp. 100-101.

 

Excerpt from Response in Christ by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

    f) Relationship with Man and His World
The Christian's Christ-life also establishes a special relationship between himself and all other men and the world in which both are situated. This is so because of the basic nature of grace—the fact that it is a share in God's life. The object of life in God is not only Himself, but also His creation. The Christian, through his life of grace, shares in this double dimension of God's life. Just as God not only loves Himself, but also His creation, so also must the Christian love both God and His creation. The Christian is called in a special way to further the creative and redemptive work of God.

   This aspect of the Christian's grace-life is also mediated by Christ. Christ, through His human enfleshment, has immersed Himself into man's world. Through His humanity he unites all men and all authentic human and temporal values to Himself. Through His redemptive love Christ has elevated the Father's creation to a new level of existence. Christ has initiated a process of gathering up all of creation for the glory of His Father. This process will reach its completion at the parousia. Meanwhile the Christian labors with Christ to further this evolutionary process of creation and redemption. Consequently, in faith, hope and love, the Christian assumes a new responsibility and privilege toward man and his world.

   He must take this privilege and responsibility seriously. Men of our era such as Bonhoeffer and Teilhard de Chardin have strikingly placed this responsibility before Christianity. Christianity has to show the contemporary world that it is profoundly interested in all its authentic values and aspirations. Christianity must further demonstrate that the principles of Christ are the only ones which can guarantee the true progress of man's world. The world belongs to Christ and it is impossible for it to develop authentically outside of Christ.

   We have traversed a rather wide area in this chapter dealing with the life of Christian grace. Grace, in its inner reality, and in its various relationships and ramifications, is complex to a certain extent. But ultimately it has a profound simplicity and unity. Christ is the one who gathers up and unifies. He is the one who makes grace tangible, concrete and personal to the Christian. Radically, the life of grace is life in God as mediated by Christ. "We can be sure that we are in God only when the one who claims to be living in him is living the same kind of life as Christ lived." (1 Jn 2:5-6).

 

 

 

Glorious Mysteries

Sing: Glory, Glory, Glory Lord

 

The Resurrection

1. Jesus was always transitioning
    His life back to the Father.

2. We were created by the Father.

3. We are passing over in this life -- to the Father
    forever, we hope, in heaven.

4. Living here the life of resurrection --
    new life.

5. With the sin of Adam and Eve
    death entered the world.

6. Death is our passage way to eternal life.

7. We try to live more and more the will of the Father.

8. As we grow older we are pouring
    our life out in His will.

9. Thy will be done on earth as it is
    in heaven.

10. Jesus emptied Himself on the cross --
        He loved the Father's will --
        He gave Himself.
    Empty-out -- Giving Himself.
    Jesus was always concerned with others.

 

The Ascension

1. Jesus always gave love!

2. Jesus showed us to endure our
    suffering for a positive outcome.

3. Jesus showed us suffering according
    to the Father's will leads to greater life.

4. Jesus showed us dignity and peace
    in suffering.

5. The Jewish people went through
    Egyptian suffering and
    were formed into
    Yahweh's people under Moses.

6. They had closer union with God.

7. Relationship with God is living
    the Commandments.

8. Dying to the ways not like Jesus,
    to live to be more like Jesus.

9. The Church is the earthly and
    visible continuation of
    Jesus and His mission.

10. 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.’

 

 

The Descent of the Holy Spirit

1. We live Jesus' life, death and resurrection in our lives.

2. 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. 

3. The Church is becoming more as
    the Father wants - passing over --

4. This is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

5. We live the pascal mystery
        death / resurrection.

6. Romans 6: 3-4

You cannot have forgotten that all of us, when we were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into his death. So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glorious power, we too should begin living a new life.

 7. Baptism is our grace-life,
    our Christ-life, is the life of
    resurrection.

8. We live now His life, death
    and resurrection to have the
    beatific vision in heaven.

9. We live in Him here
    below and this life will be deepened
    in our life in heaven --
    We will have the fullness
    of life in heaven.

10. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the
    Church.

Excerpt from Response to God's Love by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

    ... In reference to Christianity, God himself is the ultimate mystery. Radically, God is completely other and transcendent, hidden from man in his inner life, unless he chooses to reveal himself. Let us briefly look at this inner life of God.

    The Father, in a perfect act of self-expression, in a perfect act of knowing, generates his son. The Son, the Word, is, then, the immanent expression of God's fullness, the reflection of the Father. Likewise, from all eternity, the Father and the Son bring forth the Holy Spirit in a perfect act of loving.

    At the destined moment in human history, God's self-expression, the Word, immersed himself into man's world. God's inner self-expression now had also become God's outer self-expression. Consequently, the mystery of God becomes the mystery of Christ. In Christ, God tells us about himself, about his inner life, about his plan of creation and redemption. He tells us how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit desire to dwell within us in the most intimate fashion, how they wish to share with us their own life through grace. All this he has accomplished and does accomplish through Christ. St. Paul tells us: "I became a minister of this Church through the commission God gave me to preach among you his word in its fullness, that mystery hidden from ages and generations past but now revealed to his holy ones. God has willed to make known to them the glory beyond price which this mystery brings to the Gentiles—the mystery of Christ in you, your hope of glory. This is the Christ we proclaim while we admonish all men and teach them in the full measure of wisdom, hoping to make every man complete in Christ" (Col 1:25-28).

               

The Assumption

1. Death is our final self-emptying.

2. Mary lived the Father's will.

3. Luke 1: 46-55

And Mary said:

My soul proclaims
    the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit rejoices
    in God my Saviour;
because he has looked upon
    the humiliation of his servant.
Yes, from now onwards
    all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty
    has done great things for me.
Holy is his name,
and his faithful love extends age after age
    to those who fear him.
He has used the power of his arm,
he has routed the arrogant of heart.
He has pulled down princes
    from their thrones
        and raised high the lowly.
He has filled the starving with good things,
    sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the help
    of Israel his servant,
        mindful of his faithful love
—according to the promise
    he made to our ancestors—
of his mercy to Abraham
    and to his descendants for ever.

4. Mary was taken body and soul
    into heaven.

5. We die to selfishness --
    to grow mystically in God.

6. Everything we do should be
    living to be raised up
    higher -- preparing
    for eternity --

7. Mary loved the Father's will --
    her life was a life
    of giving herself --

8. Look at Mary in her sorrow
    of self-giving on Calvary.

9. Death / Resurrection --
    Passing - over here to the
        heavenly Father.

10. When we allow others to
    love us as God wants
    it is an
    emptying of self for
    relationship and their growth.

Fr. Carter says
"To relate to the other properly
    in selfless love makes me
    die to my selfish self!!"
    There will always, he says,
    be a certain suffering
    in loving during this life.
    He says "I can never be as
    closely united to the love
    one as I desire here below.
    Only in eternal life will this
    wish be fulfilled."

 

The Coronation

1. Mary is crowned Queen of
    heaven and earth!

2. In prayer we die and rise with
    Jesus.

3. The Mass is the sacrifice of Calvary
    sacramentally made present.

4. We live out our prayer every day
    in the Morning Offering.

5. Say Daily Prayer

6. Mary is our spiritual Mother --

Consecration to Mary

Dear Mary, my holy mother, I love you so much and I give you my heart. Help me to love God. Help me to love my neighbor as a child of God. Help me to love myself as a child of God. Amen.

7.

Consecration to Jesus

Dear Sacred Heart of Jesus, I love You so much and I give You my heart. Help me to love God. Help me to love my neighbor as a child of God. Help me to love myself as a child of God. Amen.

8. We seek to die to inordinate
    attachments to live
    more purely.

9. Mary was conceived without
    sin.

10. 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.

        Sing: Immaculate Mary

        Sing: Hail Holy Queen