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August 29, 2019 - Feast of Passion of John the Baptist

R. John the Baptist suffered for speaking the truth.

Today's Readings

1 Thessalonians 3: 7-13

And so, brothers, your faith has been a great encouragement to us in the middle of our own distress and hardship; now we can breathe again, as you are holding firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you, for all the joy we feel before our God on your account? We are earnestly praying night and day to be able to see you face to face again and make up any shortcomings in your faith. May God our Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, ease our path to you. May the Lord increase and enrich your love for each other and for all, so that it matches ours for you. And may he so confirm your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless in the sight of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Mark 6: 17-29

John the Baptist beheaded

Now it was this same Herod who had sent to have John arrested, and had had him chained up in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife whom he had married. For John had told Herod, ‘It is against the law for you to have your brother’s wife.’ As for Herodias, she was furious with him and wanted to kill him, but she was not able to do so, because Herod was in awe of John, knowing him to be a good and upright man, and gave him his protection. When he had heard him speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.

    An opportunity came on Herod’s birthday when he gave a banquet for the nobles of his court, for his army officers and for the leading figures in Galilee. When the daughter of this same Herodias came in and danced, she delighted Herod and his guests; so the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me anything you like and I will give it you.’ And he swore her an oath, ‘I will give you anything you ask, even half my kingdom.’ She went out and said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the Baptist.’ The girl at once rushed back to the king and made her request, ‘I want you to give me John the Baptist’s head, immediately, on a dish.’ The king was deeply distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he was reluctant to break his word to her. At once the king sent one of the bodyguard with orders to bring John’s head. The man went off and beheaded him in the prison; then he brought the head on a dish and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

R. He was beheaded for speaking the truth.
We are challenged to repent of our sins.

It’s not just saying you're sorry.

You have to change the patterns of sinfulness in your lives.

You are called by God to make a firm purpose of amendment.

Every sin you commit is a sin against the body of Christ.
That means making amends for the damage our sin has caused hurting others and the body of Christ.

What evidence do you give for making up for damage you did?

Confession calls for a change of heart.

Confession calls for trying to make up for the damage we caused others.

We are to repent of our sins.

Give up evil and obey God’s law.

We pray to heal hearts of darkness, hatred, abusiveness.

Only one thing is important: Eternal Salvation.

Sin takes us away from eternal salvation.

First commandment

    1. I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.

Jesus: I call you to love God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself.

You were created in My image and likeness.

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

SIX The Christian and Sin

We should not have a sin-centered mentality. Christ wants us to focus our attention on the positive aspects of the Christian existence. Still, we should not minimize the existence of sin and the part each of us has contributed to the sinfulness of the world. Anyone who tends to doubt the enormous dimension of sin throughout man's history has only to read scripture to be reminded of the truth. Every age has been hauntered by sin's presence, our own being no exception. Some say that the modern world is not conscious of sin, but this observation does not seem to be entirely true. Modern man has articulated his consciousness of sin very noticeably through contemporary literature, philosophy and theology.

To be realistic, then, each of us must be properly conscious of sin, of our own sinfulness, of the fact that sin constitutes one of the major obstacles to the proper growth of the Christian life.

The Nature of Sin

What is the nature of sin? Contemporary theology emphasizes that sin is not primarily a violation of a law, but a disruption of personal relationships. Sin is a refusal to love. Serious sin is a radical refusal to love. Venial sin is a partial refusal to love.

The most obvious personal relationship that is affected by sin is that between God and the sinner. In sinning a man fails, to a lesser or greater degree, to accept God's loving gift of Himself. He fails also to respond with his own gift of love. In serious sin man refuses intimate friendship with God. In venial sin he dulls the ardor of that friendship. Man, in so far as he sins, maintains that he does not want his life to be directed by the loving hand of his heavenly Father. He wants to be a law for himself; he wants to be the one who decides what is good for himself and what is not. Schoonenberg observes: "Especially in the prophets sin is an aversion from and an unfaithfulness to Yahweh himself; hence it is placed in the heart rather than in the wrong deed. We see that aversion, that rebelliousness, that lack of faith which precede the act of transgressing the Law already in the story of the sin in paradise, where it is presented as the wish of possessing autonomously the knowledge of good and evil, of being independently the Law unto oneself. . .”¹

As we sin and fail to love God, we close in upon ourselves. We prevent a further growth in openness to transcendence, to God and to His grace. We block off the source of our only real self-development and fulfillment. To the extent that we close in upon ourselves in sin, to that extent we feel the misery of sin. This misery of spiritual "self-enclosedness" is a faint participation in the essential pain of hell. The damned are eternally and completely closed in upon themselves, completely deprived of God and other personal relationships. This, then, is hell – the damned really experiencing no one but themselves. Hell is God's ratification of the choice which the unrepentant serious sinner has himself made. This choice is one of radical self-isolation.

Sin is primarily a refusal to love God, a refusal to be loved by Him, to be guided by Him. In sinning, man seeks for a false fulfillment, and therefore actually becomes impoverished. The great St. Augustine puts it this way: "For when the soul loves its own power, it slips from the common whole to its own particular part. Had it followed God as its ruler in the universal creature, it could have been most excellently governed by His laws. But in that apostatizing pride, which is called 'the beginning of sin', it sought for something more that the whole; and while it struggled to govern by its own laws, it was thrust into caring for a part, since there is nothing more than the whole; and so by desiring something more, it becomes less. . .”²

Yes, sin is an act disruptive of one's relationship with God. But sin has other dimensions also. It is a refusal to love other men as we should. For the Christian, sin is an offense against the covenant life of the People of God. In some way the sinfulness of the individual Christian makes itself felt in the corporate body which is the Church. The Christian, in sinning, is failing to love the corporate good of the People of God. He is failing to contribute his share to the progressive maturation in Christ of the total Christian community. The Christian in his sin becomes a burden to the People of God.

Sin also is an obvious refusal to love others in those instances when one directly harms others through his transgression. So many sins come under this category: theft, all forms of uncharity, social injustice, scandal, detraction. Furthermore, not only does one man often sin against another, but he frequently leads another into sin. In God's plan man is supposed to help his neighbor achieve his temporal and eternal happiness, but how often, even among Christians, the opposite is true. Not to make a positive contribution to the true growth of others is failure enough, but to be a positive hindrance is a far greater evil.

There is still another way in which the sinner refuses love to his fellowmen; when man sins he makes his contribution to the "sin of the world.”³He thus adds to that huge, negative weight, nourished by the sins of the centuries, a weight which is always trying to draw man away from his God-given destiny. This mass of sinful ugliness, this "sin of the world," always has its considerable influence, but at times its hideousness makes itself especially manifest. The great race riots which have tragically risen up recently in various parts of the United States are examples of these special manifestations of the "sin of the world." Such events are not isolated instances of sins connected with race. In back of such tragedies there is a long history of grave social and racial sins, of seething hatred of white for black, and black for white. Such accumulated sinfulness in regard to race is part of the "sin of the world."

There are many other examples of these special manifestations of the "sin of the world." There are the world wars and the lesser wars, with their share of unbelievable accounts of the hatred which man can impose upon his fellowman. There are the histories of the various crime syndicates throughout the world with all their blatant categories of human degradation – narcotics, prostitution, terrorization and the rest. There are the sins of colonialism and the sins of communism.

The "sin of the world" with its stark and bold manifestations is a sickening reality. But a reality it is. And each man's sinfulness adds a little to this universal world sin. Each man's sinfulness contributes to sin's divisiveness. Man is intended to help Christ progressively unify all creation more and more into Himself. When man sins, he contributes to the disruptive and disunifying force of the "sin of the world."

Sin, then, because it is a failure to love God, man and the world, is selfishness. Sin seems to offer some sort of happiness, or advantage, or fulfillment. But this is a delusion. Sin can accomplish none of these things, because man's only real happiness and fulfillment comes from his authentic relationship in love with God, his fellowman and the rest of creation. Sin works against all these relationships.

Sin is so hard to understand because it is an absurdity. But if we are to grow properly in the Christian life, we must have some basic realization of what sin is, and of God's attitude towards sin and the sinner. Our best source for such a mature realization is given to us in the crucified Christ. In this figure we can know all the Father wants us to comprehend concerning sin. First of all, Christ crucified tells us very starkly of the overwhelming heinousness of sin. We know that sin is overwhelmingly evil because it alone could nail Incarnate Goodness to the cross. Secondly, Christ crucified speaks to us concerning the justice of God. God's justice does ask satisfaction for sin – yes, even that satisfaction which is the death of His Son. Thirdly, and very importantly for us poor sinners, the crucified Christ speaks to us unmistakably and overwhelmingly of the Father's great love and mercy towards us. Because of this love and mercy we can be so positive about human existence, for great as is the power of sin, the love and mercy of the Father, incarnated in His Son, is infinitely greater. This is our peace and consolation.

God's love and mercy moves the sinner toward repentance, and when the sinner repents, God's love changes him. In Isaiah the prophet we read: " 'Come now, let us talk this over, says Yahweh. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.' " (Is 1:18).

Included in our sorrow for sin is a resolve to take the proper means and precautions to avoid sin in the future. One of the reasons we fall into the same sins with the same frequency is that we tend often enough not to go to the root causes of our failures, and, consequently, we often fail to apply the more efficacious remedies. All this not to say that we should become morbidly introspective in looking at sinfulness. However, without succumbing to this type of introspection, we all must allow for appropriate self-examination and self-knowledge.

Part of this self-examination and self-knowledge includes the manner in which I handle temptation in my life. The proper attitude toward temptation lies between two extremes. The person at one extreme is overly fearful of temptation, concentrates too much on avoiding it, and can even tend to equate temptation with sin. Such an attitude toward temptation breeds a negative mentality toward the Christian life, and detracts from the peace, joy and happiness which Christ wants us to experience.

The opposite attitude is that which is careless towards temptation. To take reasonable and grace-inspired precautions against temptation is not to be negativistic, but realistic. It is to realize that I am a sinner, and that there are various ways by which I can be led to sin. I cannot avoid all temptations, but out of loyalty to Christ, man and the world, I should not recklessly bring temptation upon myself.

Despite our best efforts there will always be some sin in our lives, unless God were to give extraordinary graces. There is only one human person, as far as our certain knowledge goes, who has been preserved from all sin. This person is Christ's mother, Mary. Let us remember this very important point, however. The Church's teaching that we cannot avoid all venial sin without a very special assistance from God refers to semi-deliberate venial sin. With God's ordinary graces we can avoid all fully deliberate sin, both serious and venial. It is this fully deliberate sin which is such an obstacle to our proper growth in the Christian life. Finally, let us remember that as we grow in Christ, even the number of semi-deliberate sins become fewer.

The Sacrament of Penance

All of us are sinners, and God in His mercy has made special provision for this fact. He has given us the sacrament of penance. It is fitting – in fact necessary as regards serious sin – that the Christian incarnate his sorrow for sin through this sacrament. This is in keeping with the incarnational and sacramental dimensions of our life of grace. These dimensions impel us to exteriorize or incarnate our interior life of grace. The central focus for such exteriorization is the Mass and the sacraments. This exteriorization satisfies both our corporeal and social nature.

As regards this social aspect of grace-life exteriorization, the Christian must always remember that he is a member of the new covenant, he is a member of a community. In sinning he has not only failed to love God, he has also sinned against the Christian community, and against man in general. As he expresses his sorrow for sin to God in the sacrament of penance, the Christian also gives expression to this communal aspect of his Christianity, because the sacraments have a very definite communal dimension. They are the sacraments of a community, the People of God. Through the sacrament of penance, therefore, the Christian expresses his sorrow to God in community and he likewise receives God's forgiveness in community.

Certain contemporary practices which strive to bring forth more fully the communal aspect of the sacrament of penance are to be highly recommended.⁴ The practices we speak of are those in which there is a preparation for private confession and absolution through communal readings, prayer and examination of conscience.

What about the frequency of receiving the sacrament of penance? Some in the Church today seem to be questioning the value of frequent confessions of devotion, that is, confessions which are not necessary because there is no serious sin. What is the truth of the matter? First of all, it must be admitted that in the early Church this sacrament was administered much less frequently that it is today. Gradually, the practice of frequent confession inserted itself more and more into the life of the Church. It is difficult not to admit that such a practice has taken root under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Frequent confession, although not necessary, has various values. Rahner, in his usual penetrating manner, gives a contemporary description of the value of frequent confession of devotion.⁵ The new Dutch catechism puts it very simply: "Some Catholics have the habit of receiving the sacrament frequently. If this is the result of anxieties, it is not advisable. But if it is due to a desire to meet Christ as the Lord who forgives, frequent confession can be a very evangelical practice."⁶

In conclusion, we remind ourselves that the struggle against sin is part of the Christian participation in Christ's death-resurrection. In baptism we die to sin and rise to a newness of life. We are constantly living out one aspect of our baptism, then, through our continual resistance to the forces of sin. As with all elements of our Christian existence, such an effort requires motivation. We can use a variety of motives, of course, but all of them ultimately will be centered in Christ. To grow in the realization of what sin has cost Christ is to grow in the determination to avoid sin. To permeate such determination with love of Christ is to respond to Him who has loved us first: "The life I now live in this body I live in faith: faith in the Son of God who loved me and who sacrificed himself for my sake."(Ga 2:20).______

2. St. Augustine, The Trinity, Bk. 12, Ch. 14 (Washington: Fathers of the Church, 1963), p. 356.
3. For one description of the "sin of the world", see Schoonenberg, Op. cit., pp. 98-123.
4. One description of such services is given by A. M. Roguet, O.P., "Les celebrations communautaires de la penitence" in Vie spirituelle, 116 (1967), pp. 188-202.
5. Cf. Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations, Vol. III (Baltimore: Helicon, 1967), pp. 177-189.
6. A New Catechism (New York: Herder & Herder, 1967), p. 459.

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. 44.¹⁵Cf. 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.

Your Bridegroom Waits for You

February 11, 1994 4:00 a.m.

Note: This letter was given by Jesus for a talk at St. Clare Convent

You are being tested in fire. What comes forth is a sinner or a saint. I want you holy like saints, untainted. Even the smallest sin offends My aching heart.

R. He is calling us to holiness and sainthood.

Jesus: I am the Alpha, the Omega. I am your All. You worry for such needless tasks when I am Jesus and I am in your midst.

The world is being led away from God. It has become a godless society.

Satan gets in in little things and you forget how holy I want you to be in Me. I want you to be saints. I call you to commitment to sainthood. Every action should be seen as "how will this action enhance my love of Jesus and the love of Jesus in others?"

R. I am being called every moment to preach the gospel. I preach His words in my very being. How am I in my life today? When I stand in the presence of others, does my love of God shine from my very soul? I am the preacher of the God Who lives within. Do I preach the word of God in the love I give to all of my brothers? Is God truly shining from me?

Jesus: I, My children, call you to be Me to this world. This world has deceived itself in every way to all sin. They have watched television and movies turn right to wrong and wrong to right.

I preach to you this day: what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong! The world preaches deception and untruth. To be in the world is to become very sick. You can no longer straddle the fence and be of Me. You are either Godly or worldly. To remain fixed to this world, to try to make sense of a sick, godless society, is to become sick and godless yourself.

Yes, My little ones, I call you to sainthood. I call you every waking moment of your day to preach the word of God. My love within you should be a force mightier than any explosion. It is a force that can never be contained.

As you, through the Holy Eucharist and adoration, sit with Me, you bake as in an oven. You receive My power in your baking. You store up, as in a battery, a power that is emitted from your very being. I, little ones, have all the power. In one second I could snatch you from your comfort and take your breath away. What, little ones, is keeping you from your sainthood?

Is it the way you treat your brothers? Do you say, "Oh, it doesn't matter that I am cold"? Is it a hidden sin that you keep ever so slight, but tell yourself it doesn't matter? Do you talk about others and fail to see Me inside of their hearts?

Remember, My little ones, you are My chosen ones. I love you with a burning, ardent love. I never ever leave your side for one second. You are My workers in this cold world. Your brothers may never be touched except as you preach My gospel. Their souls may depend on how you emit My love from your heart.

"But," you say, "Lord, Lord, I don't want to be nice to that nasty person. I will just be tolerant and not nasty back."

I, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, say I call you, My chosen ones, to a life of sainthood and holiness. You are the preachers of My gospel. You are My hands. You are My heart. You are Me, dwelling and living in this world.

Those in darkness may never be touched unless you, My special ones, choose first the kingdom of God and choose to love the unloving.

Yes, I say, love the unloving! I call you to sainthood, My little ones. I call you to let Me possess your soul and operate from your very being.

When I died on the cross, My arms were open wide. My whole position on the cross was that of greatest surrender. I call you to this surrender. Hold not back your feeble hearts. Open wide the gates and let My love pour from your very souls. Do not come to Me with your arms closed or open halfway. Come as I came to you. The way to Me is the Way of the Cross.

Feel the love of Jesus deep in your breast. Meditate on Me, hanging so selflessly on the cross for love of you. I am Jesus, Son of God, I loved you to My death. I love you this same way this very day. Sweet one, if you were the only one, I would die for you alone this very day.

I am this same Jesus. I am in your midst. I live and dwell in your brothers. I come to you, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in Holy Communion and in the tabernacle. I am Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God! I am alive in your hearts.

You come to Me in Holy Communion. I wait, I long for your union with Me. I am your ardent lover. I pour out to you the same love I had for you the day I died on the cross.

You come and I shower you with My love. Stay with Me after Communion. Sit with Me. These are My most golden moments to shower My love on you.

You, My little ones, busy yourself with such senseless tasks. I am Jesus, the King of Glory! I am the King of the Kingdom of Heaven and I come to you, My little sweet ones. I humble Myself and come to you. What do you receive? You, in Holy Communion, receive Jesus, God-made-man.

Oh, how are you today? The tongue is the doorway to the soul. How is your tongue? Is it worthy for such a King?

Who are you that Jesus, Son of God, comes to you? You, My child, are My beloved. You are he who is unworthy to tie My bootstraps, but I come to you with such love and longing and give Myself to you. Is your tongue pure? Have you been holy in your speech about others? Have you used your tongue to preach My love? Is your tongue worthy for the King of Heaven?

I give you such honor, such dignity. I, God, long to be united to you in Holy Communion. I came to earth and died a brutal death for you, for love of you. I, in total surrender, holding nothing back, chose to spread My arms in total submission and die for you. Do I love you any less today? I am Jesus, Son of the Living God. I love you today the same as the day I died for you. I spread My arms in total surrender and gave My all for love of you.

Can you refuse Me when I ask you to love one another? How did you preach My gospel today? How was My love given to your brothers?

My sweet ones, My life I gave that you might live and have life eternal. Life here is but a fleeting moment. It is like a billowing smoke, black and thick, and then, poof, it is gone and there is no trace! Such a few years here for such a great reward!

The Kingdom of God waits for you. What a treasure! You possess the keys to the Kingdom. They are found in the love in your hearts. You will inherit a reward far beyond any comprehension. You will be escorted by a heavenly court into My kingdom. You will see the face of God and you will live. This is but a test--a fleeting moment--for such glory!

R.You are being called. This is the school of learning to be Christ-like. You go to school every day. You are given tests all day. The test in Christ's school are hard. Did He do any less for you? He modeled His life for us.

You take the tests, you receive the divine reward, graduation into the kingdom of God.

Jesus: Will you, My little ones, be My soldiers in this cold world? I call you to two things: love of God and love of one another. Will you come to Me with all the great acts of love you gave to your brothers? Will you be My hands to the sick world?

I do not call you to mighty feats. I call you to love one another. Too simple you say? Too hard for too many! The way to Me is hard, but rewarding. Walk My path, follow My direction. To My death I loved you, My little ones. I am the author of love. I showed you the way. When they persecuted Me and hit Me, beat Me, bruised Me, bloodied Me, I loved them. To My death My thoughts were of you when I gave you My sweet mother. I showed you the way to love. Will you follow in My path?

Your job is to love not the nice ones only, but to love all your brothers. Your love will be the seeds that you plant today. Smile the biggest smiles. You possess the life of Jesus within you. You possess the true treasure. You will see the face of God and live!

Your job is clear. Love God and one another. Do not busy yourself with needless tasks. Come to Me. Come to Me in Communion. Come in Adoration. Let Me shower you with My love. You are filled to the brim and you come from a place of giving love rather than needing love.

Oh, My sweet ones, My chosen ones, I wait for you with My love in the tabernacle. I wait for you with your arms for this cold world. Your arms in this cold war are your hearts filled with My love. You cannot be My soldiers of love in this world if you do not first seek your union with Me. It is in the silence before the tabernacle that I minister to you. Come and do not be busy. Let Me fill you with My love.

My Heart is on fire with love of you. I give this to you in the Eucharist and in front of the tabernacle. I am there, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. Come and get your arms, get your supplies. You are going into battle in this world. You are battling evil and hate. You need your ammunition and it is found in Me. Come and I will give you your arms--My love.

Oh, how I love you. I ache in My heart for your love. You do not know how I ache to behold each of you. Please come. It is in the greatest love that I am locked up in the tabernacle. Come, please, I beg you. I love you. I want you to come. I am Jesus, Son of God and I am waiting for you this very day.

Come to Me and I will give you all you need. I love you. Jesus.

Do you know that I have all the power? Look at the earth, covered with ice. Do you control such things? Stopped dead in your tracks, are you? Do you still think you have control in your immobility?

What does it take to shake you in your comfort zone? Who will get the message to you? I am Jesus. I am God. God has all the power. Do you pray now in your idleness with this weather or do you busy your mind with more senseless tasks?

Oh, what do you need to turn you from your ways? I come and dwell in your midst and you ignore Me and look for other things to fill the weary soul.

Man, nothing fills your soul. I and I alone am what you seek. You look in all the wrong places and I wait for you in the tabernacle. If you knew of this unseen world! But you are blind and dumb and stay centered as if in a tunnel.

Pray for your sick brothers. They have been blinded by the world and numbed by the TV. Their hearts are cold and their heads are hot. Oh, what a sad state! Pray for them lest they lose their souls. This world is full of evil. Come to Me. Sit in silence and know My love. I am your refuge.

In My church, in front of My tabernacle, there is such peace and joy. I am your King. I am your God. I am your Lord. I am Who am. I am your all. Little ones, little ones, I lament the loss of your love. Come to Me and be wrapped in My arms. I love you. Alleluia

Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, what God has ready for those who Love Him.

Promote yourself? Where do you go when your life is done? You flunk the test when you see yourself as the end. Die to yourself and you will possess life eternal.

I love you so. Such pride, such arrogance! Who do they think they are? They think they are their own gods. This is against the First Commandment.

In all things, turn your lives to God. Give Him full reign. You possess the choice to inherit a kingdom! Oh, such blindness! I love you in all your blindness, just the same. Pray for your brothers that the light of Christ might shine through you and touch their cold hearts.

Be as My saints, holy and untainted. Hold tight to My kingdom. It is at hand and you are its rightful heirs. Alleluia.

R. Jesus, tuck me into the recesses of Your heart and let me live in there with You in Your heart. Swallow me up in a little pocket. I love You so!

I give You my mind. I give You my body. I give You my soul. I am wed to You, my entirety to be Your spouse. I want to be the bride of Jesus Christ. My soul must be as white as the brightest white for such a king. I give myself to You, body and soul. I want to be Your saint. I want to do Your will and Your will alone. I want to be totally united with You in all my thoughts. I want to be pure just for You. Bless me and all those I touch.

I remain in You, ever to do Your work. I am Your temple and You dwell within me with such holiness! I approach the altar of Jesus and behold my beloved. I say to You, "Lord, Thy will be done," yet, when the going gets rough, I do my own will. Let me constantly be connected to You, Jesus, that with every beat of my heart I may never shame You in my thoughts or actions, that I do Thy will directly as I am prompted to do. I love You and You are my beloved. Alleluia.

I have committed myself to the King and I am an heir to the kingdom. It is in this constant walk of faith that I come into His presence, constantly committing my will to do His so only that which is of Him will flow from my soul.

Alleluia. Praise Him, holiest in the heights, for He is all powerful and He sets my feet on solid ground. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened unto you. Make ready your hearts for Him, the King of Glory. He is worthy of such honor. He is God. Alleluia.

^{^{Given

October 29, 2016}}

                R. Please spread blessed holy water
                (You can also mix Jesus and Mary water
                with your blessed Holy Water if you have it.)
                in your yard, around your house,
                in the state you live in.

And ask God to bless your state
Ask God to bless the United States

Pray all prayers through the intercession of
Our Lady of CLEAR – WATER.

Ask the Lady of CLEAR - WATER
to help with the blessed water.

Mary has appeared to me for 22 years,
in Ohio and Florida.