March 10, 2024

March 23, 2024

Prayer for Sick and Caregivers at Home

R. Dear God,
I pray Heavenly Father with all my heart,
in the Name of Jesus, united to the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, in the Holy Spirit,
with all the angels and saints and souls
in purgatory, through the powerful
intercession of Our Lady of Clearwater
to come to my aid now.

My loved one is very sick and he (she)
needs your help, God.
Outpour Your grace for me in this time
of need to have patience and wisdom to
deal with this now.

I give this sickness up to You, my God.
Please help me in dealing with this and
helping them in doing the right thing
and dealing with this.

I surrender this problem to You, my
Divine God.

Please send Your angels to help me.
Spread us all with the Precious Blood of
Jesus, cast the devil into the fires of hell,
dear Holy Spirit come to my aid.

I consecrate my home, ourselves to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, Thank You.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus I place my
trust in Thee.
Child Jesus of Good Health, help us.
St. Joseph, Patron of a Holy Death
come to our aid.
Amen.
 

 

July 29, 2024

Glorious Mysteries

The Resurrection

1. Luke 24: 1-12

On the first day of the week, at the first sign of dawn, they went to the tomb with the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, but on entering they could not find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled about this, two men in brilliant clothes suddenly appeared at their side. Terrified, the women bowed their heads to the ground. But the two said to them, ‘Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee: that the Son of man was destined to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.’ And they remembered his words.

And they returned from the tomb and told all this to the Eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. And the other women with them also told the apostles, but this story of theirs seemed pure nonsense, and they did not believe them.

Peter, however, went off to the tomb, running. He bent down and looked in and saw the linen cloths but nothing else; he then went back home, amazed at what had happened.

2. Sing: Glory Glory, Glory Lord

3. Sing: In My Heart

4. Jesus appeared to the apostles in His
    glorified body.
5. Jesus gave Himself for our sins.
6. Jesus died so we could live.
7. There is a battle between good and evil!!!
    The devil wants to deceive, and cause
    confusion.
8. We are either with God or not with God.
9. Baptism is such a gift.
    In Baptism we receive a sharing in Divine
    life.
    Our knowing and loving capacity is elevated.
    The Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwell in
    our graced, baptized soul.
    We live the Christ-life more and more.
    We live life in the Holy Spirit with Mary
    at our side.
10. Sing: Jesus Lord is Risen Today

 

The Ascension

1. Luke 24:50-53

Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and raising his hands he blessed them. Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God.

2. The Apostles were really afraid so they
    locked themselves in the upper room.
3. They knew that Jesus was killed.
4. They loved Jesus, they believed in Jesus.
5. The Apostles wanted to be faithful to Jesus.
6. They were waiting for the coming of the
    Holy Spirit.
7. Jesus is alive.
8. Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.

9. Sing: I Love You Jesus

10. Jesus: I am the way, the truth and the life.

 

The Descent of the Holy Sprit on the Apostles and the Virgin Mary

1. 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. 

2. The men who opposed Jesus were seeking
    their vain power.
3. They used swords and torture to gain power.
4. We were created in the image and likeness
    of Jesus.
5. To be more in the image and likeness of
    Jesus is to love like Jesus.
6. God is love.
7. The Holy Spirit is the love of God.
8. The Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles.
9. So many were converted.
10. They imprisoned the Apostles, but God
    opened the doors.
    They were transformed from fear to
    fearlessness.

 

The Assumption

1. Mary was taken, body and soul into heaven.

2. From the Priestly Newsletter Book II - Mother at Our Side - 1998 - Issue 4

 Speaking of Mary, Vatican II tells us: "In an utterly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace." ²

2. The Documents of Vatican II, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church", America Press edition, no. 61

3. Mary is the Mother of Jesus. She is also our Mother. The above words of Scripture and of the Second Vatican Council attest to this.

4. Yes, Jesus has given us Mary as our spiritual Mother. As He hung on the cross, Jesus told John to look upon Mary as his Mother, this John who represented all of us. In His moment of deepest anguish and suffering, Jesus was thinking of us. As the undescribable physical pain racked His body from head to toe, as the unfathomable spiritual anguish penetrated to the depths of His magnificent Heart, Jesus was thinking of us. If we allow this scene to penetrate into our hearts, if we take the time to contemplate the depth of Jesus' and Mary's love for us as their Hearts were pierced with grief, we are truly overwhelmed with the magnificent greatness, sorrow, and tenderness of the scene.

5. The fact that Mary is our Mother, the fact that she has such a powerful role to play in our salvation in no way detracts from the mediatorship of Christ. Vatican II states: "The maternal duty of Mary toward men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. For all the saving influences of the Blessed Virgin on men originate, not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure. They flow forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rest on His mediation, depend entirely on it, and draw all their power from it. In no way do they impede the immediate union of the faithful with Christ. Rather, they foster this union." ³

3. The Documents of Vatican II, "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church", America Press edition, no. 45

6. In her loving, maternal role, Mary cooperates with the Holy Spirit in forming Christ in us. Pope John Paul II tells us: "The Church knows that 'all the saving influences of the Blessed Virgin on mankind originate... from the divine pleasure...' This saving influence is sustained by the Holy Spirit, Who, just as He overshadowed the Virgin Mary when he began in her the divine motherhood, in a similar way constantly sustains her solicitude for the brothers and sisters of her Son." ⁴

4. Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, The Mother of the Redeemer, United States Catholic Conference, No. 38.

7. Mary, our Mother is ever with us, guiding us, teaching us, caring for us, protecting us, loving us. With her maternal assistance we go to the Father through and with Christ in the Holy Spirit.

8. Mary nourishes our growth in Christ with a very tender and specialized love for each of us. She regards each of us as a precious, unique individual. John Paul II again speaks to us: "Of the essence of motherhood is the fact that it concerns the person. Motherhood always establishes a unique and unrepeatable relationship between two people: between mother and child and between child and mother. Even when the same woman is the mother of many children, her personal relationship with each one of them is of the very essence of motherhood. For each child is generated in a unique and unrepeatable way, and this is true both for the mother and for the child." ⁵

5. Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, The Mother of the Redeemer, United States Catholic Conference, No. 45.

9. The Holy Father then applies these ideas to Mary and us: "It can be said that motherhood 'in the order of grace' preserves the analogy with what 'in the order of nature' characterizes the union between mother and child. In the light of this fact it becomes easier to understand why in Christ's testament on Golgotha His Mother's new motherhood is expressed in the singular, in reference to one man." ⁶

6. Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, The Mother of the Redeemer, United States Catholic Conference, No. 45.

10. This is the awesome and consoling truth-you and I are very precious to Mary. She shows us her Heart as a symbol of her life of love, including her most special, unique love for each of us individually. Yes, she loves each of us much more than we can ever fathom. It is our great privilege and responsibility to love her in return. She asks for this love, she asks for our trust, she asks us to come to her maternal and Immaculate Heart, so that she can lead us ever closer to the Heart of her Son, Jesus.

    Are we sorrowful, anxious, troubled? Let us go to Mary our Mother and ask her to console us. Let us ask her for the grace to handle our sorrow, our anxieties, our troubles properly-according to God's will. In this way our suffering will bring us closer to Christ as it simultaneously allows us to contribute to the ongoing Christianization of the world.

    Are we especially joyful, happy, basking in the glow of a goal successfully accomplished? Let us go to Mary and ask her to help us handle our joy, our happiness, our success as God intends. Let us petition her not to allow our joy to make us forgetful of God, our God Who is the source of all true joy, success and happiness.

    Yes, Mary invites us to come to her in all circumstances-whether it be in joy or sorrow, success or failure, laughter or tears. Mary wants us to share in her maternal wisdom so that we may understand how to use our various experiences to come closer to God in Christ. Sharing our lives with Mary in this fashion, and on a consistent basis, requires that we love her, that we trust her, that we surrender ourselves to her maternal love.

    Help us, Mother Mary, to probe ever more deeply into the depths of your love for us. Help us to realize more and more that to be loved by you is to experience a sweetness, a warmth, a tenderness, a serenity, a security, which makes us cry out, "O Mother, how good and loving you are!"
 

The Queenship of Mary

1. Revelation 12:1-2

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, robed with the sun, standing on the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth.

2. From the Priestly Newsletter Book II - Priesthood - 1999 - Issue 1

~ From a spiritual journal we are given these words concerning the Mass: "I love you, Jesus, I love you. I love you, in the deepest love that I experience in uniting in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Let our hearts sing with the love of God as we are transformed more and more into the creatures that are more like the Father intends us to be. In this great mystery of God's burning love for His creatures, we unite with our beloved Savior in deepest union. In the Holy Eucharist, He gives Himself to us, and we become one with the Father through Jesus, in the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives us a share in His life and He nourishes this life with His own Body and Blood. We become one in Him, and we are united more deeply to each other. We are one body in Him."  Rita Ring

3. Jesus wants to be loved by us.
4. We sleep without fear and trust in the
    Sacred Heart.
5. God wants us to surrender in love to Him.

6. From the Priestly Newsletter Book II - His Body, the Church - 1999 - Issue 2

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 this virginal soul 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 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 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 depth 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 grown, 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."¹⁴

14. Archbishop Luis M. Martinez, The Sanctifier, translated by Sr. M.Aquinas, O.S.U., Pauline Books and Media, pp. 5-7.

7. God is with us.

8. Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Lord Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock, I consecrate myself to Your most Sacred Heart. From Your pierced Heart the Church was born, the Church You have called me, as a member of Shepherds of Christ Associates, to serve in a most special way. You reveal Your Heart as a symbol of Your love in all its aspects, including Your most special love for me, whom You have chosen as Your companion in this most important work. Help me to always love You in return. Help me to give myself entirely to You. Help me always to pour out my life in love of God and neighbor! Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You!

9. Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Dear Blessed Virgin Mary, I consecrate myself to your maternal and Immaculate Heart, this Heart which is symbol of your life of love. You are the Mother of my Savior. You are also my Mother. You love me with a most special love as a member of Shepherds of Christ Associates, a movement created by your Son as a powerful instrument for the renewal of the Church and the world. In a return of love, I give myself entirely to your motherly love and protection. You followed Jesus perfectly. You are His first and perfect disciple. Teach me to imitate you in the putting on of Christ. Be my motherly intercessor so that, through your Immaculate Heart, I may be guided to an ever closer union with the pierced Heart of Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock.

10. From the Priestly Newsletter Book II - God With Us - 1999 - Issue 4

Mary

    St. Louis de Montfort has been one of the greatest apostles regarding devotion to Mary. Here are some of his thoughts:

    "Just as in natural and bodily generation there is a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there is a father who is God and a mother who is Mary.

    "... God the Son wishes to form himself, and, in a manner of speaking, become incarnate every day in his members through his dear Mother.

    "... Moreover, Jesus is still as much as ever the fruit of Mary, as heaven and earth repeat thousands of times a day, ‘Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus’. It is therefore certain that Jesus is the fruit and gift of Mary for every single man who possesses him, just as truly as he is for all mankind. Consequently, if any of the faithful have Jesus formed in their heart they can boldly say, ‘It is thanks to Mary that what I possess is Jesus, her fruit, and without her I would not have him.’

    "...When the Holy Spirit, her spouse, finds Mary in a soul, he hastens there and enters fully into it. He gives himself generously to that soul according to the place it has given to his spouse. One of the main reasons why the Holy Spirit does not now work striking wonders in souls is that he fails to find in them a sufficiently close union with his faithful and inseparable spouse."⁸

                 8. The Documents of Vatican II, "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy", America Press Edition, No. 17.

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Statues/Religious Items

Blue Crystal Rosary   Rosary with the Image of Our Lady of Clearwater   8mm - $ 40.00 plus shipping

Red Crystal Rosary   Rosary with the Image of Our Lady of Clearwater   8mm - $ 40.00 plus shipping

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