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| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
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August 7, 2015
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August 8th Holy Spirit Novena |
The Novena Rosary
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August 7, 2015
Today's Readings
Deuteronomy 4: 32-40
‘Put this question, then, to the ages that are past, that have gone before you, from when God created the human race on earth: Was there ever a word so majestic, from one end of heaven to the other? Was anything like it ever heard? Did ever a people hear the voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire, as you have heard it, and remain alive? Has it ever been known before that any god took action himself to bring one nation out of another one, by ordeals, signs, wonders, war with mighty hand and outstretched arm, by fearsome terrors–all of which things Yahweh your God has done for you before your eyes in Egypt?
'This he showed you, so that you might know that Yahweh is the true God and that there is no other. To instruct you, he made you hear his voice from heaven, and on earth he let you see his great fire, and from the heart of the fire you heard his words. Because he loved your ancestors and, after them, chose their descendants, he has brought you out of Egypt, displaying his presence and mighty power, dispossessing for you nations who were larger and stronger than you, to make way for you and to give you their country as your heritage, as it still is today.
‘Hence, grasp this today and meditate on it carefully: Yahweh is the true God, in heaven above as on earth beneath, he and no other. Keep his laws and commandments as I give them to you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and live long in the country that Yahweh your God is giving you for ever.’
Psalm 77: 12-16, 20
I reflect on all that you did,
I ponder all your great deeds.God, your ways are holy!
What god is as great as our God?
You are the God who does marvellous deeds,
brought nations to acknowledge your power,
with your own arm redeeming your people,
the children of Jacob and Joseph. PauseWhen the waters saw you, God,
when the waters saw you they writhed in anguish,
the very depths shook with fear.You guided your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Matthew 16: 24-28
The condition of following Christ
Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life? Or what can anyone offer in exchange for his life?
‘For the Son of man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each one according to his behaviour. In truth I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming with his kingdom.’
R. The person who is a leader
can be like Jesus and lead
men to do the dance God
wants – the dance of the
Father's will, the dance of
love, the dance of unity
and light –
A leader is to be in the
image and likeness of God, to help
build the Kingdom of God.
A leader can be dysfunctional –
prideful – nobody is going to tell
him what to do.
In dysfunctional homes, drinking,
eating, using, control, drama
the user forces his ways on the
family, group, a person not wanting
it can enable them, by begging
them to stop –
the user or abuser is self-
enclosed and is not living – he is
enslaved to his darkness, this addiction
using his position as a weapon to enforce
it – others are forced into his
unpredictability and drama and
control – he is not living life –
God is love - God is a Person –
the Holy Spirit works in those who are
holy – unifying leading – Men are
to focus on the goal of eternal
salvation – Men are to be baptized –
to pray for greater gifts of faith,
hope and love –
To learn love and friendship while on
earth to have love and friendship and unity
with God forever in heaven –
God is love – Heaven is for lovers –
those living by God's will
TEN
Christian Love (excerpt) by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J.
1. Our Need to Love and Be LovedChristianity is fundamentally a life of love. The Christian is one who opens himself to God's love, and responds with a love of his own. The Christian also realizes that his life is not only a love relationship with God, but also a going out of his self-centeredness to other human persons in various forms of Christian love. Finally, the Christian is one who realizes that in one way or another he needs the love of others and is willing to open himself to this love.
The Church, the People of God, must increasingly give witness to these multiple dimensions of Christian love. To the extent that the Church fails to do so, to that degree does she fail to be a faithful continuation of the Incarnation. For the Incarnation is above all a manifestation of love, and this in various ways. First of all, Christ is the tangible and irrevocable expression of God's determination to communicate Himself in love to men: "Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life." (Jn 3:16).
Christ is also the visible expression of mankind's response to God's love, for as man, Christ made this perfect response in love to His Father. Further, Christ is the overwhelming concretization of what it means to love one's fellowman. Finally, He is the visible manifestation of one who perfectly opens Himself to receiving love from others.
We Christians, the People of God, must continue these various manifestations of love contained in the Incarnate Word. By our lives we must give witness to the fact that we have opened ourselves to God's loving self-communication, and that we are responding to that love with all that we are. We must give evidence that we want to give ourselves to others in a life of loving service, and that we are open to the love which others graciously extend to us.
It is of prime importance that all forms of loving, human relationships flourish in the life of the Church. Examples of such relationships are those found in marriage and family life, religious life and other friendships. These relationships not only witness to our willingness to love others and be loved by them, but they are schools for such reciprocal love. These relationships increase my capacity to love others and increase my openness in receiving love. Furthermore, these various interpersonal relationships help me to be open in receiving God's love and responding to it. However, if these relationships are to be fully authentic, they themselves must be rooted in our love relationship with God.
2. Love of GodIt sounds so commonplace and obvious to say that God loves us. But if we could more perfectly realize what it means to be loved by God, our chances for complete transformation in Christ would be enhanced. With God's grace we must keep striving for a deeper comprehension of God's love. This love has brought us into existence, has redeemed us, and has given us a special mission in life. God in His love is ever with me, preserving me in life, asking me to accept Him more and more, desiring to take deeper possession of me in grace. God loves me, and He is my supporting rock, the one who will never fail me, the only one who can be my complete fulfillment.
God is the tremendous lover. And yet, we know that only too often we fail to respond to Him as we should. But we must keep trying. We must keep trying to fulfill more completely the commandment Christ has given us: "But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question, 'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law? ' Jesus said, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself. . .' " (Mt 22:34-40).
St. Francis de Sales, a great spiritual master and a Doctor of the Church, aptly describes how we are to love God: "We have two principal ways of exercising our love for God; the first is affective and the second effective, or as St. Bernard calls it, active. By the first we have affection for God and what he loves. By the second we serve God and do what he ordains. The first joins us to God's goodness; the second enables us to fulfill his will. The first fills us with complacence, benevolence, and spiritual impulses, desires, aspirations, and fervors, and causes us to use the sacred infusions and minglings of our spirit with that of God. The second pours into us the solid resolution, firm courage, and inviolable obedience required to carry out the ordinances of God's will, and to suffer, accept, approve, and embrace all that comes from his good pleasure."1
Father Joseph de Guilbert gives another excellent version of the distinction and connection between affective (internal) love and effective (external) love: "From what has been said about the Christian life being more perfect in proportion as charity elicits or commands the free acts of man in a more universal, actual, and intense manner, it follows that this perfection depends primarily on the exercise of affective charity. For if that disposition of charity does not inform the soul in some way, even the external acts which are perfectly performed in their own order will be of no supernatural value: and if this disposition is slothfully evoked or influences only weakly the external acts, then the acts will be of little value. But when the disposition is aroused energetically and has strong influence, then the external acts will be of great value. And if in such acts there are any imperfections arising from a source independent of the will (invincible ignorance or some physical or moral impossibility), the supernatural value of the acts will not in any way be lessened."2
Besides showing the connection between affective and effective love, these words of de Guibert indicate the primary requirement for dynamic progress in the Christian life. Love of God and neighbor must more and more influence everything we do. This love must become more actual, more conscious. Of course, all this must take place without strain. But we cannot equate strain and effort. It takes effort to live increasingly in a spirit of actual love. Sometimes a great effort is required. If we are not willing to pay the price of love, we will never develop into the Christians we are destined to become.
How do we know if we are loving as we should? If interior (affective) love is the more important, it is not always easy to judge. We have a tendency to confuse our feelings with our wills. If we feel completely dry, or even burdened with a sense of repugnance concerning our Christian lives, we tend to think that we are not loving God properly. Consequently, the best criterion we often have for judging our love of God and neighbor is the manner in which our interior love incarnates itself in external action. If, with the help of God's grace, we are doing our reasonable best to implement God's will in all the various dimensions of our existence, then we can be assured that we are loving as we ought.
Finally, we should be aware that God intends our love for Him to be focused in Christ, for it is in Him that God loves us and calls for our loving response. It is in Christ that we are being constantly led to a deeper love of the three divine persons. "For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rm 8:38-39).
3 Teilhard, in contemporary thought patterns, is enunciating a traditional Christian truth.3. Love of Man
"My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love. . . . Anyone who says, 'I love God', and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother." (1 Jn 4:7-21).
Our God is a God who knows and loves. This divine knowing and loving exists not only among the divine persons themselves. Father, Son and Holy Spirit also go out in knowledge and love to man and the rest of creation. Consequently, since our life in Christ is a share in God's life, we are called to love not only God, but also man and the rest of creation. The Christian has structured within his life of grace this deep desire – sometimes very latent – to give himself to his fellowman in various forms of love. If this desire is not thwarted, it can truly help change the face of the earth.
What are some of the characteristics of our love for others? First of all, our love of neighbor should exclude no one. It should embrace every single person the world over. As Christ's love for man was universal, so must ours be. And as Christ truly achieved good for men in His love for them, so must we. In other words, in our universal love for men we must be willing to act to help promote their good. We can at least do this in our prayer for their various material and spiritual needs. This constitutes no slight contribution of love, for prayer is one of the great means of channeling God's gifts to the world.
Secondly, our love for man must take the form of a life service in one form or other. Christ came to serve. He was fully the man for others. Can our lives be orientated in any other direction? Through our lives of loving service we make our contribution to God's creative and redemptive effort. God's love brought about creation and redemption. Our love united to His continues the process. Man and his universe are making their way back to the Father in Christ through the dynamism of love. It is interesting to note that this fact is at the heart of Teilhard de Chardin's cosmic evolutionary process in Christ.
Whatever the service is that we offer – as engineer, as doctor, as priest, as teacher, as mother, as nurse – it must be permeated with love. If it is not, it does not achieve its full effect in promoting God's creative and redemptive efforts.
At times it is only the motive of love which will keep a person faithful to his particular form of loving service. What but a deep love for her children supports a woman who has been deserted by her husband? What but a deep love of God and man can make a young man give up his family, the prospect of marriage, his homeland – all so that he may become a missionary priest? What but a deep love for the underprivileged can support an inner city worker amidst the squalor, the disease, the bitterness, the hopelessness which he meets daily? No, redemption cannot be continued without love – God's love or ours.
There is a final point concerning our service of love. We serve not only as individuals. At times we will be able to make our greatest contribution as a member of a group. This is an application of the communal dimension of Christianity. This common service could be as a member of a parish or civic organization, as a member of a religious order or a secular institute. There are numerous possibilities. One important thing members of such groups must realize: it takes love, sometimes great love, to remain properly selfless in group activity. There is no room in such group enterprises for the person who is always mistakenly looking for the wrong type of self-fulfillment at the expense of the particular organization. He who seeks his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life shall find it.
There is a third characteristic which must accompany our love for others. We must be willing to love without receiving love in return. This is a hard lesson for us to learn, but a most necessary one. Our Christian love is a participation in the love of Christ. And what is one outstanding feature of Christ's love? He has first loved man, and He has not always been loved in return. Yet Christ continues to love. In our love for others we also must be willing to take the initiative. God in His providence wants us to receive love from others also. But if this love seems to be lacking at times, or only faintly manifest, then God can supply for the lack. The important thing is that we ourselves keep on trying to love.
There is another characteristic of our love for man which pertains to those whom we directly encounter. Our love for these persons must manifest an appropriate human warmth. We are supposed to love God and man with our entire being. This means, in part, that our love is emotional. This is the way Christ as man loved, with His entire human nature. In the proper sense, Christ was a deeply emotional man. He wept in love over Jerusalem, and He wept in love at the tomb of Lazarus. We know also that the children loved to flock to Christ. He must have been a warm personality, for children shy away from those who are cold and austere. Our love, like that of Christ, must also be properly influenced by the emotions. Otherwise it is not a fully human love, and, therefore, not a fully Christian love.
In regard to our direct encounter with others, it is necessary that we be cognizant of another very important point. To a considerable extent, these persons experience God's love for them through ourselves and others like us. This is an application of the law of incarnation. God has loved man through the tangible, visible humanity of Christ. Christ no longer walks this earth, but the same principle holds true. We Christians are extensions of the heavenly Christ. In union with Christ we help in continuing the tangible, visible presence of God's love in this world. Through the love of our visible, concrete persons we continue incarnational love. In loving those whom I directly encounter in this manner – and let us remember I can love a person with a basic Christian love without "liking" things about him – I help to give them the courage to be and to become. Love received is a powerful force in developing the goodness in a person. Truly, when I love a person I help that person become what God destines him to be.
Furthermore, we in part show our love for others by allowing them to love us. A person grows by loving. In receiving love from others, therefore, we are loving them by giving them this opportunity to grow. We ourselves need this love which others give us. We are not self-sufficient beings; we are social beings who need others in so many different ways in going to the Father in Christ. We have to learn to open ourselves up to others and allow ourselves to be loved by them. At times in our pride we shrink away from this truth: that we need others – a need, of course, which must be always regulated by God's will. But we must resist these moments of pride that tell us we are self-sufficient. Remember, no man is an island.
1. St. Francis de Sales, On the Love of God, Vol. 1, Bk.
6, Ch. 1 (New York: Doubleday Image Books, 1963), p. 267.
2. Joseph de Guibert,
The Theology of the Spiritual Life (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1953), p. 53.
3. Cf. R. Faricy,
Teilhard de Chardin's Theology of the
Christian in the World (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1967), pp.
185-196.
end of excerpt
The Christian and Sin (excerpt) by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J.SIX
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
1. P. Schoonenberg, Man and Sin (Notre Dame, Indiana: Fides, 1965), p. 8.
August 7, 2015
Jesus: I am God, you should have no gods
before Me. I am with you.
I call and some do not answer Me.
I call you, what is your response?
Day after day, I wait by your bed to
be so one with you. I am a God
who loves you. You are the creation
of My Heavenly Father. I am love.
You close the door on Me and you
were created to be so one in Me and to
be united to God forever in the beatific
vision.
Two men looked out prison bars, one
saw mud, the other stars –
I love you so very much, I want to
come and dwell in your heart and
spread this good news, now, to the
hurting world. But your heart must
be open – not locked and closed down
with "gunk".
A woman went into the forest on
a sunny day and she could see the
blue sky and the sun peek through
little openings among the trees.
She came upon some debris left from
campers who didn't care about
their garbage and debris. In it all she
saw an old rusted cookie tin – lodged
in dirt and rubble. She found some
hard sticks and tried to get it lose
so she could open it. She worked and
worked and was able to free it, after
digging and pulling and moving things also
lodged in dirt around it.
The cookie tin was so rusted – she
could not even see what had been
painted on the can and she saw all
the rust and luckily had some gloves
in her pocket. She wedged the stick
under the lid and worked and worked
to remove the lid – finally she got in
and what was inside was dead bugs
that had deteriorated, dead, dead, dead.
Now a man is given his heart for
loving. He can treat it like the old
cookie tin and bury bugs alive in
it and not even care what he does
with his life. Mud is dirty, but yet
it surrounds men, is good for growing
flowers with light and water, good
for growing food to eat. But do you
know mud surrounds you and it
can be a source of food, of beauty,
of a place to walk, surrounding a
home and keeping it dry – mud is mud
and it has a purpose. Mud can help trees
and bushes grow to provide shelter
and beauty for this woman, but mud
is mud.
There is so much mud in the world and
there is so much blue sky above this
woman this day. Even though she was in
the forest – the ocean was somewhere with
fish and waves and beauty and water
that can contribute to life.
Where are you today? In this vast world
there is a place I want you to be
to bring life to things, to be loving,
to build My Kingdom, to pray for the
world, to have relationships – to walk
in the forest and see the blue sky and light
peek in at you – as the days of your
lives – veiled, but you know the
sun and blue sky are out there –
Why My pretty child would anyone
dig a hole and bury their eyes in
the mud?
Do you know that there are 3 Persons
in one God and the Persons of the Trinity
love you so much? Where people had
imperfect fathers – God the Father is
Perfect, God the Father created you
to love –
God wants you to love, little child.
I am Jesus and I wait at your door and
knock to come in. How are you at
doors – opening them to light, using
them to open worlds to the gift of
knowing God, how do you trust others
who tell you about God and show
you by their lives how they are witness
of faith –
Are there dead bugs in your heart –
knocked out dead –
Does the mud bring your vision down,
so you never see the sun and
blue sky peeking out, veiled before
you –
so you know God gives you the
beauty of the new day.
My people
Two men looked out prison doors –
one saw mud
another stars –
You have one life to live –
From January 27, 1992
I CAN NEVER LIVE THE
MOMENTS OF THIS DAY
AGAIN
WHEN I GO TO BED
TODAY IS GONE FOREVER
I MUST CHOOSE TO TREASURE
EACH MOMENT BECAUSE
IT IS THE ONLY
MOMENT I HAVE AND
IT ONLY LASTS ONE MOMENT.
end of excerpt
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R. Pray for These Things
1) Pray for the Pope & hierarchy to help us start prayer chapters.
2) Pray for Dan, Sally Jo, Richard, Carol, Margaret, Sue,
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3) Pray for the priests, the Church and the world!
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also for the spread of priests doing prayer chapters.
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10) Pray for Jeff - sales & health. Pray for Nick.
11) Blue Book 15 and cover and all involved.
For our Publisher and all involved
12) All intentions on my list, Jerry's list.
13) Priests getting Fr. Joe's book.
14) Pray for Fr. Joe's new book, cover & funds for printing & postage.
15) Donors and members and their families.
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17) Dan & Melanie, Catherine & mom, Gary, Mary Jo,
Jim & statues, Fr. Ken, Monsignor, Kerry, Tom & wife.
18) All who asked us to pray for them.
19) All we promised to pray for.
20) Rita, John, Doris, Sheila, Jerry, Regina, Sanja,
Betty, Sophie, Lisa, Eileen, Fr. Mike, Louie, Laverne,
2 Dons, Mary Ellen, Fr. Joe, all priests helping us,
Ed, Jimmy, Steve, a special couple, Rosie & all involved.
21) 2 babies and moms.
22) Funds and insurance.
23) Jerry's garage.
24) In thanksgiving for gifts, graces, & blessings received.
25) Spread the Blood of Jesus on all of us here.
26) Consecrate all hearts.
27) Cast the devil out of all of us here and all in Movement.
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