September 2, 2008

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

Chapter 5

The Christian Virtues

       Love

       Love is the Christian virtue. Jesus himself has summarized Christianity in terms of love; all the other virtues variously serve love's purpose. We want to be somebody—persons of real significance. Perhaps we think such a desire is egotistic and unbecoming for Christians; however, this is simply not true if our desires for greatness are actually authentic. 

       Jesus, in his own manner of life, has vividly pointed out to all of us where true greatness lies. He tells us to seek greatness, but not to be deceived about what greatness truly is. Christ dealt with the powerful and the wealthy, but he was not awed by them. As God, he is, of course, infinitely greater than they; even as man, however, Christ realized that he far surpassed them, for he knew that the Father had made his humanity perfect with the fullness of grace. But Jesus chose not to surround his greatness with any trappings. He was born into this world in poverty and simplicity and was looked down upon as a Nazarene of no social status, yet he stands out as a giant of greatness. 

       It is possible for a person to possess true greatness along with riches and social status—although this is no easy task—but no one is great because of these. A person is great because of the manner in which his or her true internal greatness allows him or her to properly use both riches and social status. Christ tells us this—namely, that a person is great not because of what he or she possesses, not because of social status, nor because he or she is admired by the crowds, nor even primarily because of great works he or she might accomplish, but simply because of what he or she is. Great works, if they are authentically great, are possible because of the innate greatness of the person who achieves them. They are incarnation, in other words, or an externalization of the primary greatness that is the person himself or herself. 

       Christ's greatness as man, then, was the innate greatness of his humanity. His greatness was the fullness and perfection of a truly human life—a life that was elevated above its mere naturalness to the life of grace. Christ as man possessed this life of grace in its fullness as a result of his human nature's close union with the divine person, the Word. Christ's greatness was not an isolated greatness; rather, it was a greatness that existed in relationships of love.

       Jesus' life was a life of love. He mightily loved his Father and his fellow humans. The poverty, the hiddenness, the disappointments, the accomplishments, the weariness, the joy and the happiness, the pain and the agony—all that constituted the earthly life of Christ was experienced and lived out within the framework of love. Jesus was the great man that he was because he was a great lover. He loved in everything he did—tenderly, manfully, with understanding and sympathy. He loved with complete devotedness and a deep, sincere concern for the individual. He loved with a passion for that which was true and beautiful and good. He loved with a complete conformity to his Father's will. He loved always and completely. He loved with a gift of himself, always pouring himself out, even to the point of death. He gave himself in love to the Father and to us until there was no more to give. This was the poignant beauty of Christ's life. That was his greatness, a greatness that was centered in love. He was a giant of greatness because of what he was—a tremendous lover. 

       We can be tempted to reject this marvelous example of Christ. We can seek our greatness and fulfillment in a manner that necessarily results in disappointment; we can strive after greatness in ways that God does not intend. These wayward wanderings, however, result in a feeling of dissatisfaction and frustration. If we follow these false leads, we will eventually come to realize that they have betrayed us. Indeed, these wayward wanderings possess the potential for nothing but betrayal, because they are not rooted in Christ and his way of life—the way to true personal greatness. 

       We must incessantly remind ourselves of the example that Jesus has given us. We must deepen our realization that our fundamental greatness consists primarily in what we are, and we are to the extent we love both God and others. St. Paul, in his own inimitable way, tells us of this: "If I speak with human tongues and angelic as well, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and, with full knowledge, comprehend all mysteries, if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give everything I have to feed the poor and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor 13:1-3). Our greatness, then, lies in our relating in love to both God and our fellow humans—yes, even those whom we will never know or see directly, but whom our love can nevertheless reach out and touch because of our union with Christ. With Christ, there are no space barriers, and, therefore, uniting our love to his can unite us to people the world over. 

       We grow as Christians both through a life that is centered in love and within the milieu of the human condition. This is the only framework we have for achieving our greatness or true personality, and consequently, we must not shirk the human condition. Jesus did not shirk it, but rather accepted it and manifested his greatness within it, despite the pain and even agony that the human condition at times heaped upon him. It is true that Jesus could rejoice during the course of his life because of the goodness, sincerity, and response of some of those with whom he dealt. The love that Mary and Joseph showered on Jesus, for instance, no doubt gave him great joy. During his life, however, Jesus often suffered because of the evil side of men and women—their pettiness, cowardice, insensitivity, selfishness, egotism. In other words, Jesus suffered at the hands of others because they were not what they should have been. Nonetheless, these experiences did not thwart the greatness of Jesus; he was always what he should have been despite the limitations of the human condition that surrounded him. Jesus was always the tremendous lover, and he loved even at those times when it was very painful to do so. 

       Our own greatness in Christ, our own growth as Christians, can develop smoothly and joyfully because, from time to time, we experience the goodness and love within the hearts of others, and this makes it easy for us to love as we should. Sometimes, however, the less wholesome side of both humanity and the human condition crowds in upon us, and we find it rather difficult to go on loving as we should. In the same way that Christ suffered because of others, we, too, as we try to love, suffer because of others. We suffer because others do not always understand us—this can be true even of those who dearly love us. We suffer because some do not appreciate what we do for them—and sometimes what we do exacts great personal cost. We suffer because others either reject us or make us the objects of their meanness and selfishness. We suffer because there are some who ignore us. At times we suffer so much that we are tempted to quit loving as we know we should. We are tempted to withdraw from the pain of giving ourselves in love into an egotistic enclosure of self-seeking, where, we think, we will no longer suffer at the hands of others—or at least we will not suffer so much. To surrender to such a temptation, however, is to forget what Christian greatness really is—namely, a life of love for God and man, a love that does not shrink from the pain that results from loving in an imperfect world, a love that is meant to become greater and more selfless regardless of the way others might treat us. Love, then, accepts both the joy and the pain of life and carries on under both conditions.

       Another characteristic of this highest Christian virtue is its concentration upon the present—love is now. Love is more concerned with the present than it is with the past or the future. Although love does not fail to give proper attention to either the past or the future, its main emphasis is upon the present. 

       We are past-persons, present-persons, and future-persons; however, we are mostly present-persons. The past, after all, is forever gone—we cannot bring it back and relive it. We can learn from past mistakes and otherwise profit through a proper reflection on the past; however, we must not allow our legitimate recollections of the part of life that has passed us by to deteriorate into morbid preoccupations concerning what has been, but now is no more. We must think of the future and properly plan so that we will enter the days ahead reasonably prepared for various eventualities. Thinking about future goals can also spur our present enthusiasm and  endeavors; however, to live too much in the future is a detriment to present achievement. Excessive thought about the future dilutes the energy we should be expending on the present. 

       Love is now. The more love matures, the more it concentrates upon the present. Love welcomes each day with a fresh joy and a renewed gratitude to God for the opportunity to once again be and become for him and for others. Love realizes that it does not fully possess the past or the future—it can only fully grasp the present, and it loathes to waste any of the preciousness that "the now" offers. 

       Love is gentle, love is tender. Love is sensitive to the gentleness in nature; it is moved by the softness of the freshly fallen white snow, the coolness of an autumn breeze tenderly stroking the brow, and the softness of the grass in May-time greenness. Much more important, love is sensitive to the needs for gentleness, for tenderness, in human affairs. Consequently, love gently comforts the grief-stricken parents of a child so tragically and suddenly snatched away in death; love gently encourages those to whom life seems hopeless; love sensitively tends to the needs of those who are so often and so easily forgotten; love rejoices in the tender embrace of a black boy and a white boy in their prejudice-free playfulness. Yes, the gentleness of love manifests itself in these and in many other ways, and, in so doing, imitates the gentleness, the tenderness, of Jesus himself. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, murderess of prophets and stoner of those who were sent to you! How often have I yearned to gather your children, as a mother bird gathers her young under her wings, but you refused me" (Mt 23:37). 

       The fact that love is gentle does not mean that it is not strong. It is precisely this, and the blend between its tenderness and its strength constitutes a facet of its attractiveness. Love is strong in many ways: It is not discouraged by the evil in the world that threatens to thwart the accomplishment of love's goals; it realizes that the strength of goodness is mightier that the force of evil, and that, ultimately, love wins out. Love is also strong in bearing with the temporary failures that are experienced in the pursuit of its purpose. Although love may be disappointed, it nevertheless realizes that the only failure it cannot conquer would be love's refusal—love's failure—to go on loving, and true love will never quit. Love is strong in its willingness to take the necessary means to achieve its goals, even though this might entail great personal cost, or cause misunderstanding or even hurt among those who are the recipients of this love. 

       Love is not jealous. It is, of course, tempted to jealousy, but true love refuses to yield. Love is not jealous of another person's affections, nor is it jealous of another person's talents. Love always realizes the important distinction between one's jealous feelings, which cannot always be willed away, and one's will, which can refuse to consent to the evil suggestions of jealous feelings. 

       Love is secure. A person who properly loves is in touch with his or her true self and realizes that he or she is tremendously loved by God. The person who properly loves feels secure in his or her exercise of love toward others. He or she feels secure enough to extend love towards others in various ways, even in those relationships in which little or no love is returned. In doing so, however, this person loves prudently and appropriately. That is to say, he or she does not try to force the love of friendship upon a person who does not seem to want this type of love, but rather, will love that person with a different, more appropriate love. 

       Closely allied to love's feeling secure is love's intuition in realizing the evils of possessiveness. Feeling reasonably secure of his or her self, the authentic lover does not try to possess the persons whom he or she loves, but leaves the other free. In fact, authentic love for the other makes the other more free and helps the other to grow in all ways—including growth along the paths of real freedom. The authentic lover leaves the other free to grow in all sorts of ways, to relate to other people, and to undertake new things—activities that might well make the loved one much less accessible.

       Love is contemplative. It realizes it must sustain and develop a contemplative awareness of reality if it is to love properly. To relate in love to reality as we should means that, first, we must view reality according to its true nature; that is, we must see things according to our faith  vision. Jesus has left us with this proper view of God, man, and the rest of creation. Jesus has told us both how to relate to God and his creation, and how to love. This faith vision must be consistently actualized through a contemplative or prayerful awareness of the people, events, and circumstances that are a part of our daily lives. If we fail, for example, to see people as they really are in their core existence—namely, created and redeemed by God's love—and, instead, allow ourselves to be absorbed by more superficial aspects of their persons, then we will not love them as we should. 

       Love seeks, therefore, a certain degree of solitude in order to nourish this contemplative attitude. A person cannot hope to exercise a contemplative awareness throughout the myriad and often complex happenings of daily existence unless there are periods of withdrawal during which he or she can drink more deeply of the wisdom that contemplation offers. A person must conquer the temptation that deceitfully suggests that the seeking of solitude is a selfish desire to flee the pain of human encounter. Authentic solitude is never selfish; rather, authentic solitude is a renewed opportunity for refurbishing both one's contemplative vision and one's determination to love more maturely according to this perspective. 

       Love knows what love really is, and this awareness is a result of love's contemplative thrust. One of the truths that emanates from the act of contemplation is the realization of what actually constitutes true love. This is no small accomplishment, for, despite the numberless volumes that have been written about love, one can still have only a blurred idea of what it really is. Love is the gift of self to promote the authentic good of the one or ones who are loved. The manner in which the gift of self is made is commensurate with the type of relationship. A doctor gives himself or herself to his or her spouse in one way, to his or her children in another, to his or her patients in yet another way, and to his or her friends in a way that is still further differentiated. Whatever way the gift of self is made, however, it has the same basic goal in mind—namely, to promote the real good of the other. Love realizes that it is not always easy to discern what really promotes the true good of the other; however, despite this difficulty, love is aware of its true identity—love, in short, knows what love really is. 

       Love is reconciliatory and integrative. Love hates divisiveness. It knows the difference between diversity and divisiveness. It knows that healthy diversity reflects the varied richness of human existence and is something to be desired. It knows, too, that divisiveness is the sworn enemy of community; divisiveness perniciously eats away at those bonds of love and union that are meant to unite the members of God's human family. Love, consequently, works to promote the integrative process that harmonizes human persons and human events according to God's holistic plan, a plan in which the numerous and richly diversified parts become increasingly beautiful the more they contribute to the health and functioning of the whole. 

       Love is trusting. Regarding a person's relationship with God, this attitude of trust grows in proportion to the atmosphere of love; as one grows in the realization of how much God loves him or her, and responds with a love of his or her own, trust in God matures and is a dominant facet of one's daily existence. A serenity of spirit becomes more obvious as the person grows in the awareness of both how much God cares and how supportive his loving embrace is, come what may.  

       This attitude of trust also characterizes one's relationship with others. One who is properly loving is not naive or oblivious to the fact that one can be needlessly hurt by others, that one's trust in others can be betrayed. On the contrary; one who is properly loving realizes that there is certainly an evil side to mankind, but nevertheless prefers to concentrate on the basic goodness of the human heart. This positive focus allows a person to trust that people not only will frequently act according to this goodness but, as a matter of fact, will actually be encouraged to do so when they themselves are the recipients of a true and sincere love. 

       Love is also affirming. By the very fact that one loves another, the other is encouraged to be and to become according to his or her uniqueness. Being loved enhances a person's sense of worthwhileness. A person who is loved is encouraged to develop his or her uniqueness, to feel more at home with himself or herself, and to accomplish further the special mission in life that only he or she can fulfill. 

       Love is not afraid to love too much. Sometimes people who deeply love a child or a spouse or a friend wonder if it is wise to love another so much. The fragility of existence is manifest, and the newspapers alone daily remind us how suddenly and unexpectedly loved ones can be taken away. Or, if death is not the event that severely wounds the heart of the lover, other circumstances can inflict the pain that results from a deep love, not the least of which is the perception that the one who is loved so deeply does not return the love at all. There are various reasons, consequently, why a person can wonder if it is possible to love another too much. 

       Jesus himself gives us the answer to this question. He has told us to love and to grow in love; it is impossible, then, to love others too much. We must be careful, however, to distinguish true love from elements of nonauthentic love. Nonauthentic love can cause all sorts of problems; one difficulty is the desire to wrongfully possess the loved one, a desire that can lead one to feel that he or she has loved too much when the desire is frustrated. Another problem that results from nonauthentic love is the misconception that love has failed either when it is not reciprocated, or when it is not reciprocated to the degree that it itself has loved, and, therefore, should never have been extended in the first place. It is also important to realize that authentic love, even when it is growing, can change its form in relation to a particular person. What was once romantic love, for example, can change to a love of friendship, or to that general type of love for neighbor that we should have for everyone. Consequently, although it is possible to say that a person can love another too much with the love of friendship if this is the inappropriate form, it is not possible to say that a person can love another excessively according to the more general form of love of neighbor. 

       Love is patient. Love realizes that, for the most part, the growth of God's kingdom occurs at a very gradual pace. Sometimes this growth process seems almost to halt, and a person wonders if the efforts of love are actually producing any effects. Patience conquers this temptation, however, and enables love's work to continue. Patience, consequently, helps prevent the waste of talent in the work of the kingdom. It seems that certain talented people have never realized their potential in promoting Christ's cause precisely because they were not patient enough with others and themselves. Patience is a virtue that is not much discussed, but is nevertheless extremely necessary. 

       Love is not proud, is not egotistical. Love is interested, of course, in the self and the good of the self. The authentic lover, however, realizes that the love of one's true self is based on the awareness that one has been created and redeemed by God's love, that one has been endowed with various gifts by the creator, and that these gifts are to be exercised in the loving service of God and mankind. Love, then, does not become selfishly proud in its accomplishments; rather, love realizes both that God is the ultimate source of personal accomplishments, and that one can achieve only what God helps a person to accomplish. Love is very much aware of Jesus' words that, without him, we can do nothing. 

       Love is both universal and specific. Love is universal in that it excludes no one; for example, it includes all mankind in its prayers. Love is very much aware, however, that one can say he or she loves mankind, but be sadly lacking when it comes to manifesting love in various ways according to the concrete setting of everyday. True love, then, does not shy away from the painful aspects of loving specific individuals in definite, concrete circumstances. Admittedly, such a service of love can be difficult, demanding, and unattractive in certain ways. Personality flaws in others, or particular personalities that are not attractive to the one who is trying to be of help, or indifference, or even hostility on the part of those one strives to serve—these and other realities are a true test of a person's willingness to concretely implement his or her avowal that he or she indeed does love his neighbor as the Lord commands. 

       Love is what it is all about. Jesus himself has told us this. We are and we become Christians to the extent that we love. Love gives meaning to our lives; it is the motivating force that allows us to endure the boredom of prosaic everydayness, and it is also the motivating factor that enables us to undertake the magnanimous, namely, that which tries our creative and staying power to the utmost. Love allows us to dream dreams; it also gives us the courage to implement these dreams in concrete achievement despite the fear, the anxiety, the pain, and the weariness that we experience along the way. Love allows us to bear with the ugliness of evil in the world; it also allows us to see that, despite this ugliness, the truth, the beauty, and the goodness of God's creation is even more manifest. Love accomplishes all this and much more; it is for all seasons and for all circumstances. Love is now.

end of Response to God's Love

                    If we want to win — we must be united —
                United to who — God of course and we are
                a mighty army of His love. Jesus is the head
                of the Church — as members of the Shepherds of Christ
                we join in one mind and one heart in the pure
                and sinless Hearts of Jesus and Mary — the New Adam
                and the New Eve.

                    But the devil wants people to seek dominance
                for dominance sake, to be divided, to be so
                sensitive they think of how they have been violated
                and how they dislike or even hate their brothers.
                Some, who say they are in Jesus' army, give into the
                devil, and take directions from the devil, because
                of pride and jealousy or envy or greed or hatred —
                thinking they have been wronged and blaming
                old wounds with venom on the backs of those
                they need to work with — IMPURE — Satan is the
                father of lies — Look at the lies satan told Eve in
                the garden that got us into this mess — now we
                all have a wounded human nature and all
                have tendencies to act impurely, jealously —
                seeking dominance for dominance sake, blaming,
                being divided with each other, competition, disobeying
                God's will for us, disobeying the commandments,
                not living by God's Word.

                    We must be a band of strong soldiers, docile
                like Mary, obeying God's will for us, willing to stand
                up for the truth — found in Jesus, the Most Sacred
                Heart — modeling our lives after Jesus and Mary, the
                New Adam and the New Eve.

                    I deliver the message of peace — of being
                team players — on the team of the Sacred Heart
                of Jesus, the Heart where in are all the treasures
                man seeks, where in is the truth — wherein
                man lives in love serving God for His honor and
                glory — not to be dominant over our brothers,
                or jealous or envious or greedy or blaming
                our brothers for wounds they didn't even do
                because of our own unforgiveness and old
                buttons from past wounds in us — bitterness —
                hearts of stone — not love — from our frozenness —
                our own lack of love to love God as is His
                due and to love one another — Everybody
                can't be chiefs — God gives us His rules — we
                were created for Him and we must obey
                Him. When a person lives to make being right
                for themselves their god — they are not under
                God — Satan wants men disunited — selfish —
                so divided and prideful — Satan tempted Eve to
                sin against God — Satan wants men to disobey —
                Christ is the head of the Church, the Sacred Heart
                of Jesus is the King of Heaven and Earth — we
                must recognize the King, Jesus, the Sacred Heart,
                and make Him the King and Center of our hearts —
                In this lies unity — a mighty army — Jesus is
                the head — we are under Him, our hearts consumed
                with love — not selfish vain glory — we see
                ourselves as a mighty army —
                the army of the Sacred Heart of Jesus —
                THE ARMY — Jesus Christ is King and Commander.

                    This is what we pray for in the Shepherds of Christ — Jesus
                gave Fr. Carter this commission — to spread these
                prayer chapters — praying for the priests, the
                Church and the world — being one — fighting
                in the army of Jesus —

                    Who is the enemy?

                    The devil — he wants us divided, jealous,
                envious, seeking dominance for dominance
                sake — disobeying the commandments — the
                jealousy rises — the devil can tempt someone
                with fallacious reasoning to see with jealous
                eyes — to pin a bunch of hatred they carry in
                them from the past — on an innocent other —
                like an alcoholic who can make a sad
                family — he is in denial — using control —
                manipulation — unpredictability to force
                his dysfunction on innocent others. The
                alcoholic is consumed with pain — the
                alcoholic can drink to numb his pain —
                to not live life for Jesus — but he has learned
                to be a survivor of that pain and he is
                stuck —

                    God intends us to be soldiers fighting in
                the army of the Sacred Heart — consumed with
                love for the souls Jesus died for — being selfless —
                realizing God has spread us out over these years
                to be His soldiers to lead souls to His Sacred Heart
                and then there will be one flock — under the Sacred
                Heart of Jesus — one flock and one Shepherd — living
                as team players in love.

                    People may do work together at work and go
                home and not give love and live in unity with
                those closest to them —

                    We need unity at work, play, home — our
                hearts — one in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary —
                building more and more the Kingdom of God's
                love —

                    It baffles me — it is so simple

                    I remember October 5, 1992 — 16 years ago
                and I got up and I asked Jesus if He would
                write a book for the world — would He use
                my hand — I was 46 then — He gave me this
                message

                    For 17 years I have worked to spread the
                message of the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
                since I saw this Heart on fire after communion
                December 17, 1991 — 3 years later my first message from
                Jesus was published and circulated — December 17, 1996
                after Mary appeared to me for 14 months every
                day and she appeared for 2 1/2 years on the 5ths —
                the image of Mary appeared like this on the
                building in Clearwater

 

Mary by day July 5, 2000

by night July 5, 2000

                    The sign of the rainbow —

                    God made a covenant with man to never
                flood the earth as He did at the time of Noah —

                    The ocean can be fierce looking, the rains
                beating down and tearing things up — God
                wants us to help the souls. Jesus gave His life —
                He is the Teacher — He teaches us about love and
                forgiveness —

                    The truth is in the Heart of Jesus

                    We need to pray the rosary as Mary said at
                Fatima —

Excerpt from the Spirituality of Fatima

by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J. 

            October 13, 1917

                In her message that day, Our Blessed Mother told the children:

    I am the Lady of the Rosary. I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and to ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary. Let them continue saying it every day.⁽¹⁷⁾

---

NOTE:

17. For background material on Fatima, I am particularly indebted to 
    Our Lady of Fatima's Peace Plan from Heaven (Rockford: TAN 
    Books and Publishers, Inc., 1983). p.7.

                    We need to pray the prayers in the Prayer
                Manual as Jesus told Fr. Carter at the end of the
                20th century —

                    Pray at 6:20

                            6:20 Holy Spirit Novena
                            6:30 Shepherds of Christ Prayers and Rosary

                    Willful men — men opposed to God's will
                produce chaos — The world lived in obedience
                to God, the Creator, lives in unity, under the
                Might of God — in the order God intends —

                    The sun rises and the moon comes up —
                all in obedience to God — Even in the
                destructiveness of the elements — we see an
                obedience to God — i e
                the flood of Noah —

                    It has happened this way from century to
                century — The world is directed by God — the
                eyes of God govern the sun rising and the
                sun setting.

(9 months before Mary's image appeared in Clearwater,

a message to Fr. Carter for the world)

March 26, 1996

For Fr. Carter from Jesus

Jesus:  To him who has eyes to see, they will see - not with earthly vision, but with the eyes of faith, and to him who has ears to hear, he will hear with the fluttering of the Spirit moving within him.

    I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I am the Almighty God. I say to the rocks to fall and they fall and to the grass, grow, and it grows, and to the sun, shine, and it shines. I give to you My love in these letters. Filled with My love, you will conquer this earth, not with weapons and powder or force, but with fires of My love. The fire will wipe out the hatred in the cold hearts and the earth will be covered with My celestial light. The earth will rock and I will appear in the heavens adorned in power and glory and the contrite hearts will be saved. I came to separate the sheep from the goats, the light from the darkness. I come and no one pays Me heed.

    To you, My beloved son, Father Carter, I have sent you on a mission to spread this fire that will cover this earth. The hearts of men will turn from their sick and desolate ways to hearts gentle as a little lamb.

    There will be one flock and one Shepherd and My staff will rule over all. Hearts consecrated to Our Hearts will lead the light across the earth. This light will be a light of intense brightness, brighter and hotter than any light from a flame. It will be the fire of God's love. The Spirit will move in the hearts of all consecrated to My Heart, and you will know how fire truly spreads, for the love of God is a fire. It is vibrant. It is encompassing. It is smoldering, burning deep within and speedily spreading on the outside. No fire on this earth can ever describe the burning embers that burn from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. No fire burns like the fires coming from My Heart and hearts filled with the love from the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

    I have written your name, Fr. Carter, in My Heart, never ever to be blotted out and this earth will be renewed with the fire of God's love through you. You are My beloved priest-son, forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Most holy and most sacred are your hands that consecrate the Host and write My precious newsletter for My beloved priest-sons. You are never unguarded. You are held within the deepest chamber of My Heart, and you will spread My love to the priest-sons of this earth.

    I am Jesus. You will spread My love to all souls on this earth. I love you with the tenderest burning love. I am Jesus, your beloved Savior.

end of March 26, 1996 message

                 Look at Fatima and the miracle of the sun —

                    Do we see the order in God's Plan — the
                sun rising the moon coming up — do we
                see - as at Fatima the colors of the sun —
                as it appeared — spinning like a host and
                almost crashing to the earth —

                    The message — that Jesus is truly present in
                the Eucharist and with us —

                    And the message Mary gave at Fatima
                October 13, 1917 — you must pray the rosary

Excerpt from the Spirituality of Fatima

by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J. 

            October 13, 1917

                In her message that day, Our Blessed Mother told the children:

    I am the Lady of the Rosary. I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and to ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary. Let them continue saying it every day.⁽¹⁷⁾

---

NOTE:

17. For background material on Fatima, I am particularly indebted to 
    Our Lady of Fatima's Peace Plan from Heaven (Rockford: TAN 
    Books and Publishers, Inc., 1983). p.7.

                God will not abandon us
                God created the world

                He set it out there — it is His creation

                God is perfect — God created the world in His
                    infinite wisdom

                How can we close our eyes and act like God
                    is not there —

                Do we not see the sun come up every day?
                Is this a reminder of this at Fatima?

Excerpt from the Spirituality of Fatima

October 13, 1917

    On October 13, 1917, there were more than 70,000 people gathered in the Cova da Iria in Fatima, Portugal. They had come to observe a miracle which had been foretold by the Blessed Virgin to three young visionaries: Lucia dos Santos, and her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto. (1) Shortly after noon, Our Lady appeared to the three visionaries:

    As the Lady was about to leave, she pointed to the sun. Lucy excitedly repeated the gesture, and the people looked into the sky. The rain had ceased, the clouds parted, and the sun shone forth, but not in its usual brilliance. Instead, it appeared like a silver disc, pale as the moon, at which all could gaze without straining their eyes. Suddenly, impelled by some mysterious force, the disc began to whirl in the sky, casting off great shafts of multicolored light. Red, green, blue, yellow, violet—the enormous rays shot across the sky at all angles, lighting up the entire countryside for many miles around, but particularly the upturned faces of those 70,000 spellbound people.

    After a few moments the wonder stopped, but resumed again a second and a third time—three times in all—within about 12 minutes. It seemed that the whole world was on fire, with the sun spinning at a greater speed each time.

    Then a gasp of terror rose from the crowd, for the sun seemed to tear itself from the heavens and come crashing down upon the horrified multitude.... Just when it seemed that the ball of fire would fall upon and destroy them, the miracle ceased, and the sun resumed its normal place in the sky, shining forth as peacefully as ever.

    When the people arose from the ground, cries of astonishment were heard on all sides. Their clothes, which had been soaking wet and muddy, now were clean and dry. Many of the sick and crippled had been cured of their afflictions. ⁽²⁾

---

NOTE:

2. For background material on Fatima, I am particularly indebted to 
        Our Lady of Fatima's Peace Plan from Heaven (Rockford: 
        TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., 1983). pp.7-8.
  

                    On April 17, 1994 I did a video, Messages
                from Jesus in which I talked about the
                Blue Books and the Eucharist — the sun
                spun in the sky putting out colored lights
                as I spoke (VIDEO - available Messages
                from Jesus April 17 1994)

                Less than a month before the corner of this old
                seminary fell off in minutes on Lucia's birthday
                after I got a message March 7, 1994 in Blue Book II —
                and March 13, 1994 — "nobody was listening"
                The corner fell off in minutes like someone
                cut it off.

                God has written His plan in the nature of
                    things —

                    dogs don't sing
                    plants are not animals

                God created these animals and plants as they
                    are — we cannot change a fish — nor
                    demand he live out of water

                God has ordered the world

                There is one Creator of the World —

                Nature obeys God —

                God created us to love —

                But we can instead of growing in deeper
                    holiness and in the image in which
                    God has created us — rebel against
                    His will — for He gave us a free will —
                    and not progress in the image and likeness
                    of God in our actions —

                    Man is willful — many men acting in rivalry
                to God's will —

                    Almost saying to God — when God wants us to love
                    and serve Him and follow His laws

                    "Ha - Ha - God — I rebelled against You"

                    What a foolish way for a creature to act against
                        God's will

                    Think of two children and their
                        mother says to them
                        "stay in the house — don't go in the
                        backyard"

                        the children are 3 and 4 years old —

                        knowing they have a free will — they
                            disobey mom — running disobediently
                            across the backyard to a
                            swing set — with a tall tree-house
                            at the top of it

                    The children go high in the tree-house
                        and when mom comes across
                        the backyard the children shout from the tree-house

                        "LA - LA - LA - LA - LA

                            come and get us"

                    She has to deal with this disobedience

                What do we do when we kill babies
                    in abortion and the blood is on our
                    country —

                    Do we cry out to God

                    "La- La- La-La - come and get us God"

                What do we do when we ignore God and
                    His laws —
                    When we hurt others and
                    don't call it sin

                Do we say

                "LA - LA - LA — come and get us God" —

                How can we disrespect the lives of others?

                God gives man a free will to obey Him or not to obey Him.

                The world is from God —
                    for God's purpose —

                Man exists to know, love and serve God
                    and to return to God when
                    man does so —

Isaiah 55: 10-11 

For, as the rain and the snow
    come down from the sky
and do not return
    before having watered the earth,
fertilising it and making it germinate
to provide seed for the sower
    and food to eat,
so it is with the word
    that goes from my mouth:
it will not return to me unfulfilled
or before having carried out
    my good pleasure
and having achieved
     what it was sent to do. 

                God commands us to love

                The goal is heaven — man can rebel against
                    God's plan —

                Man can choose to disobey God — sin mortally against
                    God's love and justice and not ask for forgiveness
                    and thus choose hell for his fate rather
                    than heaven.

                God loans us this world — it exists for Him and His
                    purpose.

                God created the life in the children in the wombs —
                    how can men choose to kill the babies —

                How do we know the Plan of God for a child in
                    their lives forming in the womb of their mother?

                God orders things
                It is God who allows the sun to come up and
                    the stars to shine —

                It is God who gives life to the baby in the womb —

                We hurt ourselves when we deny God —

                We hurt ourselves and each other when we
                    fail to love and live in hate and anger —
                    disharmony —

                God has the Plan — how can we act like He isn't
                    watching us — disobey His Plan for us — try to ace-out"
                    our brothers in God's Plan because of jealousy —

                God chose Peter
                God chose John
                God chose Paul
                God chose Matthew
                God chose Mark
                God chose Luke
                God chose John
 

                What is this competition?

                Are we not all part of God's plan, for God's purpose?

                Are we not to be one in love —

                One in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary —

                Look at Mary's message of Fatima

                We are called to live deeply in the pure and holy
                    Hearts of the New Adam and the New Eve —

                The Mass is the sacrifice of Calvary — sacramentally
                    made present —

                I beg at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
                    to help make reparation to God for the offenses
                        of men and my sins —

                I beg to God to help us to be as God wants us to be —
                I stand with Mary under the cross —

                I am so one in my heart with Mary —

                Praying to the Father, united to the sacrifice
                    of Jesus, praying in the Holy Spirit with
                    all the angels and saints and the souls in
                    purgatory —
                    begging for grace and mercy for the souls of the
                        earth —
                        praying for our priests and the Church —

                Here is a Prayer I got and picture

A Prayer before the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

    Let me be a holy sacrifice and unite with God in the sacrament of His greatest love.

    I want to be one in Him in this act of love, where He gives Himself to me and I give myself as a sacrifice to Him. Let me be a holy sacrifice as I become one with Him in this my act of greatest love to Him.

    Let me unite with Him more, that I may more deeply love Him. May I help make reparation to His adorable Heart and the heart of His Mother, Mary. With greatest love, I offer myself to You and pray that You will accept my sacrifice of greatest love. I give myself to You and unite in Your gift of Yourself to me. Come and possess my soul.

    Cleanse me, strengthen me, heal me. Dear Holy Spirit act in the heart of Mary to make me more and more like Jesus.

    Father, I offer this my sacrifice, myself united to Jesus in the Holy Spirit to You. Help me to love God more deeply in this act of my greatest love.

    Give me the grace to grow in my knowledge, love and service of You and for this to be my greatest participation in the Mass. Give me the greatest graces to love You so deeply in this Mass, You who are so worthy of my love.

-God's Blue Book, December 27, 1995

Isaiah 53: 7-9

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.

Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken.
Which of his contemporaries
    was concerned
at his having been cut off
    from the land of the living,
at his having been struck dead
    for his people's rebellion?
He was given a grave with the wicked,
and his tomb is with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
had spoken no deceit.

                The Church, in union with Christ, her head, helps
                continue the work of Jesus according to the
                pattern of Jesus.

                In the same way that the Church in general
                is the visible continuation of Christ's
                Incarnation, so also can her individual
                sacraments be considered particular, visible
                extensions of Jesus.

                Jesus unites Himself with the sacramental sign
                as He offers His grace to the recipient. In this
                sense, Christ and His sacraments become one,
                the sacrament and its minister are merely instruments
                that Christ employs to give Himself anew. The
                primary sacramental encounter is between
                Jesus and the recipient.

                    Christ offers Himself through the Church and
                her sacraments so that we might become ever
                more united to Him. This incorporation into Christ
                begins at baptism, through which the Christian
                becomes a member of both Christ and the Church.

                Fr. Carter says

Excerpt from Response to God's Love Chapter 7

...What is more, this incorporation into the life of Christ means being incorporated into his paschal mystery because death-resurrection was the summary mystery of Christ's existence. Death-resurrection was the central mystery whereby Christ gave us life, and it is the central mystery that the Christian must relive in Christ.

       Each one of the sacraments deepens our incorporation into Jesus' death-resurrection; each one achieves this in a somewhat different manner according to its primary purpose; finally, and very importantly, each of the sacraments deepens this incorporation within an ecclesial framework. The sacraments, because they are realities of both Christ and his Church, intensify the Christian's relationship not only with Jesus, but also with the members of the Church and, ultimately, with all others.

       The death-resurrection of Jesus, which is encountered in a special way through the sacraments, is most especially renewed in the eucharistic sacrifice. Consequently, we can see the logical connection between the sacraments and the Mass. Indeed, all of the sacraments point to the Mass.

       The eucharistic sacrifice renews and summarizes the Christ-event, and likewise summarizes our participation in this mystery of Jesus. Obviously, then, the Eucharist is a multisplendored reality. All dimensions of the Eucharist are profoundly interlinked with one another; as a matter of fact, all are dimensions of the Eucharist as sacrifice because the sacrificial note is the fundamental characteristic. We say fundamental because we presuppose the idea of Christ's real presence in the Eucharist. These two aspects have always been stressed in Church teaching, as Richard McBrien has pointed out: "Catholic eucharistic doctrine has been focused on two issues: the sacrificial nature of the Mass and the real presence of Christ in the consecrated elements of bread and wine. It is official Catholic teaching . . . that the Mass is a true sacrifice . . . without diminishing the value of the sacrifice of Calvary. Christ is the same victim and priest in the Eucharist as he was on the cross, although the mode of offering is different at Mass. The sacrifice of the cross was a bloody sacrifice; the sacrifice of the Mass is unbloody" (Catholicism, vol. 2, p. 763). Because the idea of sacrifice is so fundamental to the understanding of the Mass, we will begin our discussion of the Eucharist from this perspective.

       Christ's redemptive activity can be placed within the framework of sacrifice, a framework that had been developing over the centuries before the coming of Jesus. The theology of sacrifice can be summarized according to five elements: (1) the interior offering; (2) the external, ritual offering centered around a victim; (3) the immolation of the victim; (4) the acceptance of the sacrifice by God; and (5) the sacrificial meal.

       A very critical element of these five is the first, the interior offering. Our first duty is to surrender ourselves to God out of love; this fact flows from the truth that God is the Creator and we are his creatures. If we are ideally to fulfill our creaturehood, we must respond as perfectly as possible to the loving demands of our Creator. Because we ourselves and the gifts of creation that surround us are from God, we should offer ourselves completely to the Creator. Our gift of self to God is, in turn, centered in loving conformity to the divine will.

       In formal religious sacrifice, this interior offering is ritually externalized around a victim that is immolated or slain. The slaying or immolating of the victim symbolizes that it is being completely dedicated to God, and this, in turn, symbolizes the complete dedication to God of those who are offering the sacrifice because the victim symbolizes them. The sacrifice, if properly enacted, is accepted by God and is concluded with a sacrificial meal. Here, then, we observe in a succinct way the five elements that comprise sacrifice.

       In Jesus' sacrifice, the same five elements occur, although not exactly in the same order. There is the interior offering; Christ as priest offers himself to the Father in love for the purpose of adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and satisfaction for sin. This interior offering is then externalized at the ritual of the Last Supper. The victim, Jesus himself, is immolated upon Calvary. The Father gives a miraculous sign that he accepts Jesus' sacrifice through the resurrection. Finally, there is the sacrificial meal at the Last Supper.

       Because the first element of Jesus' sacrifice is the most important—the interior dispositions of his human will—let us expand a bit upon it. Jesus' offering of himself was a total offering, wondrously diversified in its rich completeness. It was an offering that contained the entire life of Jesus; although Jesus' sacrifice became formalized only at the Last Supper and upon Calvary, it nevertheless embraced his entire life. The offering, or sacrifice, of Jesus contained, then, his teaching, his healing the sick, his acts of kindness to the poor and the ignorant and the unimportant, his patient training of the apostles—all this and more was included. Jesus' offering also included his personal relationships with Mary, Joseph, Lazarus, and others; it embraced, as well, his thrill at the beauty of nature, the simple joys shared with friends, his welcoming the children who loved to come to him, the enthusiasm and zeal that buoyed him as he went about his Father's business. Moreover, Jesus' sacrifice included his endurance of the unpleasant side of the human condition—the pettiness and meanness of some, the hardness of heart he often encountered, the ugly selfishness that bursts forth and often mars the beauty of the person and that, ultimately, put Jesus to death.

 Unlike Christ's earthly sacrifice, which he and he alone offered to the Father, the Eucharist, by God's gracious design, is also the Church's sacrifice. It is Christ's sacrifice, but it is also ours, for we are priests and victims along with Jesus, the chief priest and chief victim. As Christ's offering of himself is renewed and continued in the Mass, our offering of ourselves is also included. Furthermore, just as Christ's earthly offering included everything in his life, so also the offering that we make of ourselves at the Eucharist is meant to touch all the authentic experiences of our Christian lives. Our friendships, our love for one another, our service to mankind—all this is part of our eucharistic offering. Bearing properly with physical pain, frustration, failure, misunderstanding, boredom, anguish of spirit—this, too, we offer at the altar. To love and be loved by another human—and to be in wonder at this mystery of love—is also a cherished part of our eucharistic offering. To enjoy a meal together, to walk by the seashore, to drink in the morning freshness, to feel the warmth of the summer sun and the invigorating cold of a winter day—this also we offer with Jesus. The Eucharist, then, gathers up what would otherwise be the too-fragmented pieces of our lives and gives them a marvelous unity, a Christ-like unity. The Eucharist permeates these pieces of our lives with the love, the beauty, and the strength of Jesus' own offering and then presents them to the Father under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We see, then, the richness and extensiveness of the eucharistic sacrifice's first element—the interior offering.

       The second element of sacrifice—that is, the external, ritualized offering—is easily recognized at each Eucharist because each Eucharist is a ritual of celebration. We all know that special days of celebration are important for both families and civil society. The celebration of a birthday or a wedding anniversary can do much to lift family spirits. The strictly ordinary is temporarily dispensed with; family members dress up a bit, have special food and drink, and otherwise make the day of celebration different from the usual routine of daily existence. Civil society acts similarly for its days of celebration; business and industry often close down for the day, parades frequently mark the occasion, and special banquets or galas help make the day seem special.

       The Eucharist is the main setting for the celebration of the Christian community. Some liturgies are very special moments of celebration—Easter and Christmas are obvious examples. But daily liturgies are celebrations, too, although obviously on a smaller scale than that of the major liturgical feasts. The daily liturgy can truly be called a celebration because a special event—the Christ-event that is centered in Jesus' death-resurrection—is always being called to memory and sacramentally re-enacted. Furthermore, each liturgy briefly raises us above—notice, we are not saying that each liturgy falsely separates us from—the ordinary setting of our lives. Refreshed by the special setting of the Eucharist and nourished by Christ himself, we are meant to return to the secular framework of life with a deepened desire to live Christ.

       We can easily conclude from what we have been discussing that the externals of the liturgy should not become too commonplace. Certainly the rather rigid ritualism of the pre-Vatican II liturgy is not what we now judge to be desirable. Any celebration, despite the fact that it purports to be something quite different from what the participants daily experience, still must allow the participants to feel at ease with one another and the total situation. The setting of the Eucharist must likewise allow the participants to feel basically comfortable with one another and able to experience a sense of familiar connaturality with the celebration. On the other hand, if the Eucharist is celebration, its setting, its ritual, cannot become so ordinary that its participants tend to lose sense of the specialness of the event. Remember, one of the purposes of celebration is to provide a special type of experience, something quite different from the ordinary course of our lives. Consequently, the liturgy, as sign or ritual, has to achieve a rather delicate balance; it must be enacted in such a manner that we will feel at ease while, at the same time, it still remains something special.

       The balance of ritual also has to be concerned with another factor. Ritual is also meant to be meaningful, that is, ritual is meant to point to the invisible realities of the liturgy in a way that is pertinent and attractive to the participants. The participants, for their part, have a responsibility toward the sign of the liturgy. The liturgy, as sign, presupposes the faith of the participants; no matter how perfect the external liturgy might be, it cannot be really meaningful to one who lacks faith. Conversely, the deeper the participants' faith is, the more meaningful is the liturgy of sign. We can also say that the more mature one's faith is, the better prepared he or she is to bear with possible deficiencies in the liturgy of sign. Persons of mature faith might well decry these shortcomings and take all reasonable steps to better the situation, but they will still love the Eucharist and derive deep meaning from it rather than give up participating in such a treasured event just because the external liturgy might be deficient.

       The third element of sacrifice, immolation, touches Christ and us because we are both victims in the eucharistic offering. The immolation of both Jesus and us is, obviously, an unbloody one. Traditionally, the immolation of Jesus has been seen in the separate consecration of the bread and wine. Moreover, the very words of consecration manifest Christ as being in the state of victimhood.

       Our immolation in the Eucharist is a mystical one. Summarily, we become victims with Christ by conforming our wills in love to the Father's will. Conformity was the essence of Christ's sacrifice, of his victimhood, of his immolation; a similar conformity must therefore be found in the victimhood and immolation of Christ's members. This mystical immolation is a lifelong process; each Eucharist that we participate in should mark a growth in our victimhood. As true Christians, we should desire to die more and more to all that is not according to God's will so that we might rise to greater life with Christ—both here upon earth and in eternity. Jungmann strikingly portrays the situation: "Every sacrament serves to develop in us the image of Christ according to a specified pattern which the sacramental sign indicates. Here the pattern is plainly shown in the double formation of the Eucharist; we are to take part in His dying, and through His dying are to merit a share in His life. What we here find anchored fast in the deepest center of the Mass-sacrifice is nothing else than the ideal of moral conduct to which the teaching of Christ in the Gospel soars; the challenge to an imitation of Him that is ready to lose its life in order to win it; the challenge to follow Him even, if need be, in His agony of suffering and His path of death, which are here in this mystery so manifestly set before us" (The Mass of the Roman Rite, p. 146).

       We have said that the fourth element of sacrifice refers to God's acceptance. If sacrifice is to have its desired effect, it must be pleasing to God. That the Father always accepts the eucharistic offering is certain, for the principal priest and victim is Jesus himself who is always supremely acceptable to the Father. What is more, the Father always accepts the subordinate priesthood and victimhood of the People of God, for even though the Eucharist may be offered through the sacrilegious hands of an unworthy priest, there is always a basic holiness in the Church that is pleasing to God. Because of this holiness, the Father always accepts the Church's sacrificial offering, for each Mass is the sacrifice of the whole Church and cannot be fundamentally vitiated by the basic unworthiness of any particular member or members—even if that member is the officiating priest.

       What do we say concerning the Father's acceptance of the sacrificial offering of the individual Christian? Such an offering will be acceptable in proportion to the Christian's conformity in love to the Father's will. Again, Jungmann has words for us: "It follows that an interior immolation is required of the participants, at least to the extent of readiness to obey the law of God in its seriously obligatory commandments, unless this participation is to be nothing more than an outward appearance" (Roman Rite, p. 146).

       The last element of the eucharistic sacrifice, the meal, is, obviously, a very important part. The Eucharist as meal is a rich reality. It is the sign of Jesus' complete self-giving and, consequently, a sign of Jesus' fathomless love for us. This sign actually contains what it signifies. In the Eucharist, Jesus comes to us in his entirety. There is no holding back on his part; his boundless love for us results in boundless giving.

       If the Eucharistic meal is a sign of Jesus' self-giving, it is also a sign of our self-giving. In receiving divine food, we pledge ourselves to a deeper God-like existence. We pledge that, in love, we will strive for a more radical giving of ourselves to both God and others. Each eucharistic meal that we participate in is a new opportunity for a more perfect assimilation to Christ and his mysteries, especially the mysteries of death and resurrection. Each eucharistic meal that we participate in increases our responsibility to live Christ, that is, to more fully incorporate the Gospel ideal in all that we do.

       The fact that our participation in the eucharistic meal is a sign of our self-gift not only to God in Christ, but also to one another leads us to a consideration of the communal aspect of the meal. The eucharistic meal is a great sign and cause of our unity in Christ. Rahner maintains that "insofar as everyone participates in the same meal of Christ, who is the giver and the gift at the same time, the Eucharist is also the sign, the manifestation and the most real actualization of the church insofar as the church is and makes manifest the ultimate unity of all men in the Spirit, a unity which has been founded by God in grace" (Foundations of Christian Faith, p. 427). We are therefore to receive the one and same Christ, the implications of which are far-reaching. In receiving the one and same Christ we are actually pledging ourselves to unity both among ourselves and with all mankind. We are pledging ourselves to uproot from our hearts those attitudes that work against the building up of community in the Church and in the world. We are pledging ourselves to look upon others with a sense of respect, love, and even wonder as we marvel at how God's love has created and redeemed each one, at how the blood of Jesus has salvifically touched each one. Our participation in the eucharistic meal truly pledges us to these ideals. We, for our part, must ask ourselves whether we are actually assimilating these ideals. We must ask ourselves whether we are allowing the Eucharist to transform us into more loving and concerned persons, persons less and less influenced by forces that disrupt and tend to weaken and destroy communal unity.

The discussion of the communal aspect of the eucharistic meal reminds us that the entire eucharistic sacrifice is a covenant act. What is covenant? In the context of salvation history, a covenant is an agreement, a bond, a union, a life relationship both between God and his people and among the people themselves. At the Last Supper, Jesus emphasized the covenant aspect of the Eucharist: "During the meal Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. 'Take this and eat it,' he said, 'this is my body.' Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them. 'All of you must drink from it,' he said, 'for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins' " (Mt 26:26-28).

       When Jesus speaks of his blood as "the blood of the covenant," we are reminded that blood sealed or ratified the Mosaic covenant at Mt. Sinai. Moses sprinkled blood upon the altar, which represented God, and upon the Jewish people. Because blood was a distinctive symbol of life for the Jews, such an action had a deep significance for them. This action of Moses symbolized the sealing or ratification of the covenant—a new life relationship between Yahweh and the Jews.

       The blood of Jesus has also formed a covenant—the new covenant. In the shedding of his blood, Jesus has established a new life relationship between his Father and mankind. Forming a core focal point of redeemed mankind are the people of the new covenant, namely, the members of the Christian community, the Church. The Eucharist, in recalling and sacramentally re-enacting the shedding of Jesus' covenant blood, is the Church's great covenant act. The Eucharist sustains the life of the covenant, nourishes it, causes it to grow to greater maturity. Through participation in the eucharistic liturgy we should be growing in covenant attitudes—in a sense of community, in a deep love of the Church, in a desire to contribute our share to the building up of this Body of Christ. We should be learning to curb our selfishness because it deadens a dynamic concern for the Christian community and makes us a burden to the brethren. Participation in the Eucharist should also be curbing divisive jealousy, forming us more and more as persons who want to deeply love one another so that it can more often be said of us, "See those Christians, how they love one another." The Eucharist can more radically shape us according to these covenant attitudes if we allow it. We repent concerning the times we have resisted; we rejoice concerning the times we have opened ourselves to the Eucharist's transformative power.

(End of Excerpt from Response to God's Love)