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August 30, 2003
August 31st Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 1 Period II.The Novena Rosary Mysteries for August 31st are the Joyful.
We desperately need funds.
Come to Clearwater, Florida
September 5, 2003
Prayer service at 6:20 p.m.
Also will be
broadcast on the internet
and from all centers.
Rita Ring will be there and
will sign books after the Rosary.
She will do a Blue Book Reading Live
in Clearwater, Florida at 1:00
on September 7th
and sign books at 3:15 to 4:30.
Rita Ring will be in China, Indiana
on September 13, 2003
for a live rosary
Call to apostles, servants, and handmaids
will be in China on the 13th of October.
Adoration will begin on Saturday
and end on the 14th.
More details will be available soon.
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We desperately need funds.
Please call 1-888-211-3041
or 1-513-932-4451.
We accept credit card donations.
Schedule for August 31, 2003
4:00 a.m. - Mass4:37 a.m. - Morning Offering
4:41 a.m. - Tell My People read by Father Carter
6:12 a.m. - Morning Offering & Prayer for Union with Jesus
6:17 a.m. - Ave Maria
6:20 a.m. - 6:20 prayers led by Father Carter
Holy Spirit Novena
Shepherds of Christ Prayer Manual
Rosary7:24 a.m. - Rosary of Light from November 14, 2002
7:56 a.m. - Newsletter 1998 Issue 4 (The Peace of the Lord)
9:21 a.m. - Morning Offering
9:25 a.m. - Children's Joyful Rosary December 25, 1994
10:00 a.m. - Songs & Messages October 1, 1995
11:03 a.m. - Handbook read by Father Carter
12:37 p.m. - Morning Offering
12:41 p.m. - Mary's Message
12:48 p.m. - Nursing Home #15
1:26 p.m. - Children's Joyful Rosary March 20, 1997
2:12 p.m. - Children praying the Shepherds of Christ prayers
2:31 p.m. - Morning Offering
2:34 p.m. - Choose Life
3:36 p.m. - Songs
4:00 p.m. - Mass
4:37 p.m. - Blue Book Reading
6:20 p.m.
- 6:20 prayers led by Father Carter
Holy Spirit Novena
Shepherds of Christ Prayer Manual
7:24 p.m. - Children's Glorious Rosary July 15, 1995
8:16 p.m. - Songs & Messages October 24, 1995
9:19 p.m. - Children's Glorious Rosary April 25, 1995
10:01 p.m. - Children praying the Shepherds of Christ prayers
10:19 p.m. - Mary's Message
10:25 p.m. - Morning Offering
10:29 p.m. - Songs
11:15 p.m. - Newsletter 1998 Issue 4 (The Peace of the Lord)
12:40 a.m. - Rosary of Light from July 10, 2003 #2
1:12 a.m. - Nursing Home #2
1:49 a.m. - Choose Life
2:51 a.m. - Glorious Rosary Aves
3:23 a.m. - Songs
4:00 a.m. - Mass
A Prayer for Intimacy with the Lamb
the Bridegroom of the soul
Oh Lamb of God, Who take away the sins of the world, come and act on my soul most intimately. I surrender myself, as I ask for the grace to let go, to just be as I exist in You and You act most intimately on my soul. You are the Initiator. I am the soul waiting Your favors as You act in me. I love You. I adore You. I worship You. Come and possess my soul with Your Divine Grace, as I experience You most intimately.
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August 30, 2003
Come to Clearwater, Florida
September 5, 2003
Prayer service at 6:20 p.m.
Also will be
broadcast on the internet
and from all centers.
Rita Ring will be there and
will sign books after the Rosary.
She will do a Blue Book Reading Live
in Clearwater, Florida at 1:00
on September 7th
and sign books at 3:15 to 4:30.
Song: Prayer for Union with Jesus
(refrain)Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart.
Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart.
I am Yours to possess. I am Yours to use. I want to be selfless and only exist in You. Help me to spoon out all that is me and be an empty vessel ready to be filled by You. Help me to die to myself and live only for You. Use me as You will. Let me never draw my attention back to myself. I only want to operate as You do, dwelling within me.
Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart. (refrain)
I am Yours, Lord. I want to have my life in You. I want to do the will of the Father. Give me the strength to put aside the world and let You operate my very being. Help me to act as You desire. Strengthen me against the distractions of the devil to take me from Your work.
Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart.
(refrain)When I worry, I have taken my focus off of You and placed it on myself. Help me not to give in to the promptings of others to change what in my heart You are making very clear to me. I worship You, I adore You and I love You. Come and dwell in me now.
Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart. (refrain)
Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart. (refrain)
August 30, 2003
Messenger: Everyday goes on in petty pace
Every morning a new surprise
A NEW DAY
A DAY TO LIVE AS God wants
us to live
Every day unfolds
Every day we must live the
death-resurrection
Jesus speaks: Today I ask you to offer up everything
you do for souls.
I allow you to experience sufferings
which you must endure.
Watch the Masses of Fr. Carter.
Have tapes available of the July 5, 2000
Mass.
Have discs available for the 5th and 13th.
Special graces will be released
on these days as you pray
on the 5th before the
image and pray on the 13th
before the Exposed Eucharist.
I love you so much.
7 years before Fr. Carter's death
December 18, 2000
Take Up Your Cross
December 18, 1993
Jesus speaks: Pain? Oh, how I suffered! The pain was so intense, I could hardly bear it. I was so wounded and so covered with blood. Think of a little gash and how it hurts when it begins to bleed. I bled and I bled all over. Such intense pain. Every time you experience pain, think of Me and how minute your little pain is. There was not a place on My body that was not covered with blood. There were deep wounds all over Me. My head throbbed from the crown they had placed on Me and I was forced to carry a big cross so heavy, I scarce could move it on My shoulder. My shoulder ached so badly I felt as if it was constantly breaking by the weight of the cross. But I carried it and pushed on My way. If I stopped, I was poked and pushed and hit. The crowd jeered and they forced Me on My way. What crime had I committed? Why was I forced to endure such torture? It was out of love of you that I continued that journey. I was God. I could have stopped at any moment. I was obedient to death to the demands of My Father.
Pain, child? I suffered so much for love of you! This is how I love you at this moment. In all that befalls you you must know at every moment that I know exactly what you are suffering. There is nothing that happens in your life without My consent and it comes from Him Who loves you.
Take your crosses and truly endure them. Accept them. Know that everything that happens in your life I have allowed. Accept it with the love with which I give it. You are being taught in that pain. You are suffering for yourselves and others. I endured all that pain. Did I once say, "Father, take it away?" I am your model. I showed you the way. I took it all, every last wound, every kick and smack and vileness. I took My cross and I carried it without a word. This is what I ask of you. Know that when you are experiencing pain or suffering, or being taunted by those around you, look to the Master for your course of action. I took it all, every last wound, and accepted it to My death. I did not say, "Oh, how awful." I did not complain. I walked in silence that bumpy road with a heavy cross, with My mother suffering by My side and I never complained. I accepted it all for love of you.
Carry your crosses, little ones. They are gifts from Me. Do not look for an explanation or a way to get rid of them. I will take them when I think you have had enough. It is in suffering that you experience My life more fully. It is in suffering that I speak to you in a special way. Endure it. I know every ache and pain you are experiencing. I am this close to you! Your pain may save a soul dead in sin or get a soul from purgatory. Accept all I send you and don't complain. A lot of the pain is enhanced by your rejection. A lot of your lessons are lost by your refusal to see that crosses come from Me. I give you crosses to share in My suffering. I love you so much, little ones. Know how personal I am with you: the very hairs of your head are numbered. Come close to Me and look into My eyes. I am truly here with you at every single moment. Think of Me as a person, but I am closer than any person could ever be! I am there and I know your every breath and I care about your every breath. Who could even do this for another? Others would have to sometimes think of themselves.
I am God and I can think of you at every instant. I am so close to you you do not have any comprehension. It is not a myth. I am truly present to you at every instant. Feel My presence. Make Me alive to you. Experience all I have to give you. You will know Me as your personal Jesus the more you read and re-read these letters. I write them to each of you. Only God could love you each this way. Focus on Me and you and how close I am to you. I love you so, little one. Whence you go you never walk alone. I walked a road of torture that led to My death for love of you! When will you realize what I say is true? When will you know how close I am to you and embrace Me as I so desire? You hold yourself back because you do not focus on My love for you. I would walk that path this day for you. I love you the same this moment as I did then. Oh, little one, you want to put your little crosses down so fast. Hold them and walk awhile with Me down the road to Calvary. Be by My side and share a little in how intently I trod out of love of you.
I am Jesus, Son of the Living God. I am alive in this room with you. I am by your side. A toothache, you say-what pain! Accept your pain. I want you to feel that pain now. It will go away.* It is so little. Heartache I know, heartache to love each of My children so much and be ignored or put at arm's length! Do you know how it is to love another and not have their love? I long for your love with Me, but you are busy. You do not have the time to be with Me while I await thee. I am an ardent lover Who waits for each of My children to come and experience this great love. You stay away from Me Who is always waiting and you search this barren desert for that which I have to give you. I watch you in this search and want you to come home to My heart. I am waiting for you, little one. Don't keep yourself from Me. Remember how I suffered for love of you. When you feel a pain, remember the pain I suffered for love of you. That is how I love you this very day. Take your cross and walk with Me. Come and be with Me. I have that which your hungry soul craves.
I am your loving Jesus. I love you, child. You do not know. I wait to be closer to you. You must see Me as this personal and this alive in your life! Oh, sweet one, I love you to My death and I love you this way today. I lament My children lost in darkness. I want to be united to you. Come and make Me the center of your life. I wait for you!
R. *My toothache is gone!
end of December 18, 1993
Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God; whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises. We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and Yahweh brought the acts of rebellion of all of us to bear on him. Ill-treated and afflicted, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb before its shearers he never opened his mouth. (Is 53:4-7)
- I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and runs away, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; he runs away because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. (Jn 10:11-15)1
He hung upon a cross on a hill called Calvary. Death was near. How much Jesus had already suffered! He had been derisively crowned with thorns. In a terribly weakened condition, He carried the heavy cross to the hill of Golgotha. There He was stripped of His garments and mercilessly nailed to the cross. After all this brutal and agonizing suffering, Jesus finally died.
Truly the Good Shepherd had laid down His life for His sheep. That magnificent Heart, overflowing with love for His Father and all of us, had beat its last.
On the third day, Jesus rose: ‘Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple: are you going to raise it up again in three days?’ But he was speaking of the Temple that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and what he had said. (Jn 2:19-22)
Yes, the Good Shepherd died and rose for our salvation. Behold, the paschal mystery of Jesus!
When we are baptized we are incorporated into Christ's paschal mystery of death and resurrection. St. Paul speaks of this marvelous union with Jesus: 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. (Rm 6:3-4)
Christ has structured the Christian life by the way He lived, died, and rose from the dead. It is obvious, then, as Paul tells us above that the pattern of death-resurrection must be at the heart of the Church’s life. Individually and collectively, we continually die in Christ so that we may continually rise in Him. Thus we pass over in a process of ongoing religious transition to a greater participation in Christ’s resurrection. It is true that our participation in Christ’s resurrection will reach its completion only in eternal life. Nevertheless, we begin the life of resurrection here upon earth, in the here and now of human life, in the midst of joy and pain, in the experience of success and failure, in the sweat of our brow, in the enjoyment of God’s gifts. As Christians, we should have a sense of dynamic growth concerning our here and now life of resurrection.
We cannot maintain the life of resurrection or grow in it without a willingness to suffer. This does not mean that we need to feel overwhelmed and heavily burdened in our lives. The greater portion of suffering for most Christians seems to be an accumulation of ordinary hardships, difficulties, and pains. At times, however, deep suffering, even suffering of agonizing proportions can enter into one’s life. Whether the sufferings one encounters are of the more ordinary variety or of the more rare and extreme type, Christians must convince themselves that to relate properly to the cross is to grow in resurrection, and growth in resurrection means we will also have an increased capacity to help give resurrection to others.
Pope John Paul II speaks of the role suffering plays in the Christian life: "Every man has his own share in the redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the redemption was accomplished. He is called to share in that suffering through which all human suffering has also been redeemed. In bringing about the redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the redemption. Thus each man in his suffering can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ…
"Those who share in Christ’s sufferings have before their eyes the paschal mystery of the cross and resurrection, in which Christ descends, in a first phace, to the ultimate limits of human weakness and impotence: Indeed, he dies nailed to the cross. But if at the same time in this weakness there is accomplished his lifting up, confirmed by the power of the resurrection, then this means that the weaknesses of all human sufferings are capable of being infused with the same power of God manifested in Christ’s cross. In such a concept, to suffer means to become particularly susceptible, particularly open, to the working of the salvific powers of God offered to humanity in Christ. In him God has confirmed his desire to act especially through suffering, which is man’s weakness and emptiness of self." 2
Dom Hubert Van Zeller observes: "Men and women who might be turning their afflictions over to God, who have only to unite themselves in spirit with Christ’s passion, are found so often to stop short, and even to make of their trial further matter for selfishness. Even if we do not rebel positively against God’s providential will, we can become so preoccupied with our troubles as to leave God out of account.
"Instead of making us compassionate for others we can squander compassion on ourselves. Suffering is meant to enlarge our hearts, not shrink them. With suffering goes the grace of patience, peace, fortitude, penitence and love. All this can be missed if we make the mistake of turning in upon ourselves as the result of our trials.
"To the Jews the cross was a stumbling block, and to the gentiles foolishness. What is it to us? Often it can be an emblem merely, the significance of the symbol forgotten. The cross is something in which we are, by reason of our Christian inheritance, inextricably involved. Do we yield to it or harden ourselves against it? The cross is not just two planks fitted together on a certain day in the history of the world, and of all the relics which we venerate the most sacred, but a fact of our human experience which may or may not be sacred according to what we do about it." 3
Contrary to what many think, Fr. Edward Leen reminds us that suffering is compatible with happiness: "If men are prone to err in conceiving the nature of happiness, they will necessarily err in judging of its opposite. They commonly think that a man cannot possibly be happy if he is a prey to constant sickness; if he is condemned to experience habitual poverty and to be buried in obscurity; if he fails to take an important part on the world stage; if he is unsuccessful in his enterprises; if he is deprived of the opportunities of intellectual or aesthetic development; and finally, if he fails to gain the applause and the esteem of his fellows. Now though all these things mean grievous sufferings for men, neither singly nor in combination have they the power to rob him of essential happiness.
"Apart from the consideration of the life of the Redeemer, certain undeniable facts of history justify this contention. The saints, in all ages, have been persons whose lot it was, generally speaking, to undergo greater trials and sufferings than others are called upon to endure. Yet they were habitually happy, buoyant and joyous human beings…
"The saints were not violently wresting words from their literal meaning when they proclaimed themselves happy. For the happiness they enjoyed was that which is proper to, and satisfying for man…
"God planned an unbroken life of happiness for man. The Fall modified, but did not prevent the realization of this plan. Suffering, but not unhappiness, becomes the condition of the earthly portion of men’s existence. God does not make unhappiness here to be the price to pay for happiness hereafter. To be happy, in the minds of all men, is to fare well, that is, to live excellently... The Saviour Himself suffered intensely, but He lived the highest life possible for men. He was, therefore, happy. He assured men that He could share His own blissful experience with them. It may appear paradoxical to associate happiness with the mental image of One Who is called the Man of Sorrows. But an analysis of the nature of happiness will show that it was fully realized in the earthly life of the Saviour…" 4
Caryll Houselander writes with great sensitivity regarding the second station of the Way of the Cross: "They put His own garments on Him again, and Jesus comes out from the judgment hall of Pilate to receive His cross.
"He comes to it gladly! This is a strange thing, for the cross is a symbol of shame, and it is to be His deathbed. Already He sees the very shape of His death in the wide-spread arms. From this moment He will be inseparable from it, until He dies on it. He will labour and struggle under the weight of it… Yet Christ welcomes the cross. He embraces it. He takes it into His arms. He lays His beautiful hands on it tenderly, those strong hands of a carpenter that are so familiar with the touch of wood." 5
Henri Nouwen tells this story: "I would like to tell you the story of a middle-aged man whose career was suddenly interrupted by the discovery of leukemia, a fatal blood cancer. All his life plans crumbled and all his ways had to change. But slowly he was able to ask himself no longer: ‘Why did this happen to me?’ but instead: ‘What is the promise hidden in this event?’ When his rebellion became a new quest, he felt that he could give strength and hope to other cancer patients and, that by facing his condition directly, he could make his pain a source of healing for others. To this day, this man not only does more for patients than many ministers are able to, but he also refound his life on a level that he had never known before." 6
- St. Paul tells us: But we hold this treasure in pots of earthenware, so that the immensity of the power is God’s and not our own. We are subjected to every kind of hardship, but never distressed; we see no way out but we never despair; we are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still have some life in us; always we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus, too, may be visible in our body. Indeed, while we are still alive, we are continually being handed over to death, for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may be visible in our mortal flesh. (2 Co 4:7-11)
end of excerpt from Newsletter 2000 Issue 2
Talk by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J.
given to the Apostles in the
Shepherds of Christ Movement
February 1, 1998
Copyright
© 2003 Shepherds of
Christ.