Mary has requested that the daily message be given each day to the world. It is read nightly at the prayer service from her Image Building in Clearwater, Florida, U.S.A. This is according to her request. All attempts will be made to publish this daily message to the world at 11 p.m. Eastern time, U.S.A.We acknowledge that the final authority regarding
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September 21st Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 4 Period II.The Novena Rosary Mysteries
for September 21st are Luminous.
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September 20, 2006
Messenger: Oh glorious morning
Sun of such beauty
Like a ball of intense light
Golden and lighted for the earth
against the blue sky —
over a blue ocean
Light to the world —
Oh God in the ordinariness of our
lives —
Your light shines as a beacon
light from Your feeble creatures
living a holy life
This my God is awesome
You raise us to such heights and
we are the poor banished children of Eve.
Amidst the darkness of some
today —
His light can shine to the
world through our
feeble hearts.
Open up men — let God's
gifts show as He lives
in you with His
precious grace.
We are not sterile, dry and
inactive —
My God lives in Me —
I am filled with His life inside of me.
Let Your light shine
Be as a beacon light to the
world.
Messenger: Come Oh Holy Spirit
fill the hearts of
Your faithful —
Oh fire of love
penetrate our souls.
He is light and in Him there is no darkness.
Excerpts from Rita's Spiritual Journal
1996 September-October Issue
Mother of Our Christ Life
Rita Ring writes: "Mary is always desiring to bring forth her children to a greater Christ likeness. It is through Mary that we join in deepest intimacy with Jesus' Heart. Jesus came into this world in the womb of His Mother through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is today, in the womb of Mary, in the heart of Mary, that we are transformed through the Holy Spirit more and more to the likeness of Jesus. Let us go to the heart of our Mother and ask the Holy Spirit to increasingly sanctify us that we may go ever more deeply into the Heart of Jesus, the Heart of endless love. We do not fully comprehend the love of God. We are so limited in our vision. We do not fully know how Jesus' Heart is truly burning and on fire. Do we know what it is to feel love burning in our heart? This is what Jesus felt when He allowed Himself to suffer during His Passion and to die on the cross. His Heart was on fire."7
7. Rita Ring, Rosaries from the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, to be published by Shepherds of Christ Publications.
1997 January-February Issue
Various Thoughts
Here is an excerpt from a spiritual journal: "I envision the sorrowful face of my beautiful Mother. I can see the face, so sorrowful-words cannot express the sorrow. This is the face Jesus saw on the way to Calvary. How could anyone describe the face Christ saw as Mary walked the nightmare path!
"I feel I am suffering, and I want relief. Behold the face of Mary on the way to Calvary. Behold the face of Christ as Mary looked at Him. Endurance! His face was covered with blood and wounds. This was the face of Mary, this was the face of Jesus. His way is the way of the cross-and the cross leads to resurrection. In all the sufferings, Jesus and May were comforted as they peered into each other's eyes. Let us be wrapped in the love of these two Hearts. Pure love unites with pure love and we are caught in the embrace. This love is found in dwelling in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. We are comforted by their love, even in suffering, even in great suffering."
1997 March-April Issue
Here are thoughts from one woman's spiritual journal on the Mass:
"The priest needs to feed the people with the love of God. When people come to the Mass and the sacraments, they are spiritually fed.
"The world cries out to be fed. The Church is the body of Christ. Jesus has chosen each priest and anointed him as Christ alive in this world today. The greatest calling is to be called to be a holy priest by our Lord Himself. How dearly He loves His beloved priests and longs for their love. As He suffered so during His bitter Passion for the lack of love of some of His chosen priests betrothed to Him, He was comforted by His holy priests. Jesus truly loves His sacred priests.
"Jesus must live in the priest. The priest's every action must be one with Jesus. He is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
"When a priest is filled with the love of Jesus, He will unite more deeply with Christ in the great sacrifice being offered to the Father. In the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the faithful will see Jesus through the priest offering sacrifice to the Father. We will lift our eyes and we will feel, at this great sacrifice, the presence of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We unite in offering sacrifice to the Father. We all unite as one and give ourselves in such oneness with Jesus, in such love to the Father, in the Holy Spirit. We die to all those things that are not of Him and join in this great miracle taking place. The Father looks down and He sees the sacrifice of His beautiful Son through the consecrated hands of His holy priests. Heaven unites to earth. Earth cries out in such jubilation at the great gift given from the Almighty God, and we unite as creatures giving ourselves as a sacrifice to our beloved Creator. Do we experience the presence of God as His power flows through the hands of a man, the priest who takes ordinary bread and wine and changes them into the Body and Blood of our Lord? Do we hear Jesus cry out, as He did at the last supper, with the intensity in His voice reflecting all knowledge of the upcoming events of His passion and death?
"Do we hear the priest say the words of consecration with the emotion of Jesus, about to give His life for His beloved souls? And the earth stands still. There is, at that moment, the sacrifice of Calvary sacramentally made present through the hands of the priest. Oh, that God so loved this world to give His only Son as a sacrifice and that God wants us in this deep oneness with Him. I give You myself, my beautiful God, as You so willingly gave Yourself to me on Calvary. I want to die with You.
"Love between two persons is mutual giving. It is interaction between two people. It is intimacy. It is dependent on how much we give. We receive intimacy, interaction, according to how much we put into it. God gives His all. We see Him hanging, covered with blood, crowned with thorns, hands and feet pierced. We see His precious heart, font of life and love and mercy, pierced. This is freedom. He shows us the way. We give ourselves. We sacrifice and beg to be made holy, beg to be like Him in this holy sacrifice. The most important aspect of our offering sacrifice is how we are in our heart. Are we one with Jesus, giving ourselves to our beloved Father Who is all worthy of our love? Who are we that God loves us creatures so much that He, Almighty God, becomes present, no less present than the day He walked this earth, through the hands of a man, and we take it so lightly. Think of Jesus calling out. Raise the Host high, beloved priests. This is the Son of God and you have been given the greatest honor on this earth.
"God comes to us. He gives Himself to us. Let us see ourselves as one in Him. Let us unite. Let us look at ourselves, all creatures of our beloved God, God, all Holy, all Magnificent, Almighty, all Powerful, and see what He gives us. Let us see ourselves as His creatures and Him as the Creator, and look at ourselves and see how we, and all men, are offending our precious God. As we unite, we beg, beg, with this holy sacrifice of His Son, for mercy. We watch it flow from the Father, in the Holy Spirit, through the font of grace and mercy, the pierced Heart of Jesus, through the heart of Mary, by the hands of the priest, who is one with Jesus, to us. We are so joined in such oneness with the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. We have given ourselves to Them. It is here, united to Christ in such oneness, that my sacrifice is received by the loving hands of the Father. It is in this oneness that He pours out His grace. We unite through Him, with Him, and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, and we beg for mercy as His creatures who have offended our beloved God. This is our gift to You, our beloved Father. As Vatican II says, in union with the priest, we offer the Son to the Father. We give Him the greatest thanks for this holy and living sacrifice. We unite with the whole Church. We ask to be nourished by His Body and Blood, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and increasingly become one body in Him. We join with Mary and all the saints and constantly plead for help through this sacrifice. Through this sacrifice may we make peace with You and peace for the salvation of the whole world. We pray in love and faith for your pilgrim Church, for the Pope, our bishop and all bishops, all clergy and all people. We ask the Father to hear the prayers of His family and ask Him in mercy and love to unite all children the world over. We ask the Father to take all our brothers and sisters that have died, that were good, into heaven. And we pray that we will have the vision of Your glory, through Christ, Our Lord, and we pray through Him, with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. All glory and honor is Yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever.
"We pray to the Father, with all our hearts and all our love, the 'Our Father.' We say every word. We say with such love, 'Our Father,' we pray that Thy kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. We want this kingdom here, we are all brothers and sisters and God is our Father and we want all men doing His will. We ask to be fed both spiritually and physically every day. We beg to be free from evil and have peace. We ask Him to keep us free from sin and anxiety and hope for His coming. We pray that the kingdom and power and the glory are God's now and forever. We give to each other peace and we beg for forgiveness and mercy. We are sinful, but we want mercy. We stand. We should shout out to the Father, "Look how sinful we are!" We beg for mercy for our sins and those of all men.
"I experience the action of the Holy Spirit in a special way from the Consecration of the Mass. It fills me with such anticipation to receive Jesus, and I want to be holy. From the Consecration, I give myself to the Father, united in the Holy Spirit, in a special way. Consecrated to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, I experience God. I love the Mass so much. The rest of this book that follows are my experiences during Mass, after Communion, and other times. Many are experiences at Holy Cross-Immaculata Catholic Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. For four months straight I experienced special moments with my beloved Jesus there daily."55. Rita Ring, The Mass: A Journey Into His Heart, to be published by Shepherds of Christ Publications.
1998 Issue 1
Here are certain reflections from a spiritual journal. Notice how Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Mary enter into the person’s experience:
"Well, the night was black, as black as black could be and the cold pierced my bones. I felt its chill go through my entire body and I wanted to scream and it happened—He gave me an outpouring of His life in my soul and my darkness was truly turned to light, another light, not the light of the eyes, a light of knowing God, the joy of beholding His heavenly embrace, the great illumination of another mystery. Oh such sweet gifts He gives when, in an instant, I pray my rosary and the Holy Spirit fills my heart with lights and the mystery lights up and I know, I just know, and I experience a great insight into God.
"This is the reason for this letter, for I laid on my bed and I wanted to cry and I was deeply afraid for the demons pressed in as rocks poking at me and hurting my precious skin. I laid in bed and I went into the womb of my Mother Mary and I asked for the Holy Spirit to flood me with His light and it came: death-resurrection, darkness-light, sorrow-joy, suffering and pain, but oh, the joy of His light, the joy of His glory. It is in the death there is the resurrection.
"So, I walk the road to Calvary. I mount the cross and I die. I offer sacrifice and in the morning when the night is done I see the glory of the resurrection. I experience His joy in my heart.
"So I went to bed and went into the womb of my Mother Mary and the Holy Spirit flooded me with light and I united deeply to my precious Jesus on the cross. I know Him and His love. I reminisced on all the places of deepest intimacy I had shared with Him and my heart burned. I wanted Him to be so close to me, and I loved Him so much. I cried out, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’ In that moment I knew Him. He had removed my bonds and set me free. I then knew Jesus as never before.
"I felt my great love for God the Father. I have been experiencing my littleness as a child and knowing my Father, seeing myself very little and knowing my Father and wanting as a little child to please Him. Then tonight I realized more His Fatherly love. I saw myself depending on Him, needing Him, crying to Him, loving Him and then I realized His might and love coming to me.
"So I knew in an instant. He gives you a light and you know. I experienced the Trinity. My heart was consumed. I was engulfed in the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I stopped to be in the embrace, wanting it to never end, for in this embrace I felt peace, a peace I had not felt before, so different from the days that had proceeded this moment, the days of suffering and trial.
"I mounted the cross. I felt the nails press deeply into my hands and feet. I felt the crown of thorns on my head. I said to Him, "Oh, why, my God, if you love me, do you make it so hard?
"And then I pictured Jesus on the cross. I saw His mouth with blood running from the corner of it. I saw the body of one close to death. I saw His wounds, blistery and red, pouring out His precious blood. I saw the hollowness of His cheeks and the exhaustion of one ready to expire in death. I saw the anguishing Lord Who came to show us His way. His way is death and resurrection. His way is pain and glory. His way is the way to eternal life!"
1998 Issue 5
Here are words from a spiritual journal: "For there is but one thing I seek-it is the desire of my soul to live in truth. As I live in Him, His truth lives in me, and I act in His truth. There is but one truth and it is His truth. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is alive in us and we live in His truth.
"I see the martyrs, those that were willing to give their lives for Him, for this truth. Many went to a brutal death in total isolation, wanting only their God. Within the soul is this intense craving for God that cannot be satisfied by any earthly person, place, or thing. Within the soul is this driving thirst for this intense union with God. It is a driving force that leads a soul, such as a martyr, to choose Him rather than one's own life on earth. It may not be that God will call us to martyrdom, but living in today's world which is permeated to such a great degree with secularism, we have many occasions each day to suffer little martyrdoms as we strive always to live in His truth. These little encounters with death, as I will call them, bring us closer to Him Who is the Truth. For every time we choose to die to that part of the world which is untruth and live for Him, we experience a new sharing in His resurrection.
"So many today think that suffering is something to steer clear of. True, we may take those means of alleviating suffering which are according to God's will. But in this life, suffering is inevitable. A study of the life of our Savior shows us this. In His truth He teaches us that suffering encountered according to the Father's will truly leads to greater life.
"I must speak further of the truth, for it is that I wish to address. There is but one truth, it is found in Jesus. That center of truth is found within all of us. But this place is affected by our surroundings and the information we allow ourselves to take in. In the purity of our reading material, in the proper screening of all we watch and things we engage in, we can keep this center of truth most optimally connected to Him Who is the absolute Truth.
"The truth is found in living in God's will. At every moment the Father wishes us to live according to His plan with Christ, in the Holy Spirit, aided by the maternal intercession of Mary. Living in this way, we help to bring about the reign of Jesus' Heart and the triumph of Mary's Heart."
1999 Issue 1
From a spiritual journal we are given these words concerning the Mass: "I love you, Jesus, I love you. I love you, in the deepest love that I experience in uniting in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Let our hearts sing with the love of God as we are transformed more and more into the creatures that are more like the Father intends us to be. In this great mystery of God's burning love for His creatures, we unite with our beloved Savior in deepest union. In the Holy Eucharist, He gives Himself to us, and we become one with the Father through Jesus, in the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives us a share in His life and He nourishes this life with His own Body and Blood. We become one in Him, and we are united more deeply to each other. We are one body in Him."
Various Thoughts
Here is an excerpt from a spiritual journal: "I envision the sorrowful face of my beautiful Mother. I can see the face, so sorrowful-words cannot express the sorrow. This is the face Jesus saw on the way to Calvary. How could anyone describe the face Christ saw as Mary walked the nightmare path!
"I feel I am suffering, and I want relief. Behold the face of Mary on the way to Calvary. Behold the face of Christ as Mary looked at Him. Endurance! His face was covered with blood and wounds. This was the face of Mary, this was the face of Jesus. His way is the way of the cross-and the cross leads to resurrection. In all the sufferings, Jesus and May were comforted as they peered into each other's eyes. Let us be wrapped in the love of these two Hearts. Pure love unites with pure love and we are caught in the embrace. This love is found in dwelling in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. We are comforted by their love, even in suffering, even in great suffering."
1999 Issue 2
We read from a spiritual journal: "We cannot have deep intimacy with Jesus if we only give him part of ourselves. We think we are holding on to things we need when in reality we are blocking that which we most desire deep within our hearts—profound union with Jesus. There is only one way to achieve this union. We must give Jesus what He wants. In this lies our true peace, and only in this."
1999 Issue 3
Here are words from a spiritual journal: "Time stands still and I behold my Lord. His kingdom is not of this world. I behold the Son of God, truly present in our midst. In the silence we know His presence. The closer I get to Him, the more I become one in Him and the more He becomes one in me. Oh, such oneness, to be united to God this way! Is anything of any more importance than being one in God? Jesus, make me one in You and let me know Your Father, my Father, through this loving union with You.
"How blessed we are with this life of divine love! How blessed we are with the love of Mary for us. My heart longs for this love of God. That we can achieve such union with God, that we can be one in Him and He one in us is such a marvelous reality. This is how we share in love with one another. There is a special oneness between us when we ardently love Jesus. We are close to others because of His love in us. The more we love God, the more we can love each other."
1999 Issue 4
Jesus is with us. He gives us various signs of His love for us. He watches us grow in faith and trust. He is with us as we suffer, knowing that suffering embraced according to the Father’s will, leads us closer to Himself.
Jesus watches us surrender, watches us turn our wills over to Him more and more. He sees us let go of that which He does not want in our lives. As we die more to the false self, He draws us closer to Himself. He is with us as our love for Him grows, and He is overjoyed as this deeper love brings us closer to His Heart.
Jesus is with us as we endure trials that at times seem as though they will never end. He knows that these trials, properly encountered, lead us to greater union with Himself. He is with us as we learn lessons through these trials.
He is with us in each pain and joy, loving us silently, always so much closer to us than we can ever realize.
From the day we were born, Jesus has watched us. He is forever by our side, guarding us, loving us, knowing the most secret desires of our hearts far better than we ourselves. He knows the Father’s plan for us. He knows the Father’s love for us. He knows the intimate workings of the Holy Spirit and, in a subordinate way, of Mary upon us to fashion us more and more according to the image of Himself.
Jesus is with us, oh, so intimately. He helps us grow in the awareness that He has come to give us abundant life. He helps us grow in the awareness that through His Heart, Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwell in a most special way within all those who are in the state of grace.
2000 Issue 3
From a spiritual journal: "Go to the tabernacle. Jesus will give us our answers. He is waiting for us to come. We must come and sit in silence and let Him work in our hearts. We must not be filled with fear, we should be filled with hope and joy. We must pray to the Holy Spirit to give us His wisdom to know the will of the Father. Mary is our Mother. She will help us with all our trials and all of our struggles. We must discipline our thoughts and go to the Heart of Jesus. It is through the Eucharist that we will be strengthened for our trials.
"This is how I am with Jesus. I am empty. I want Him to make Himself known to me. I didn’t have much theological knowledge when I started sitting in front of the tabernacle. I was looking for love from Jesus. Nobody loved me the way my soul wanted to be loved. I craved to be with Jesus. I wanted my heart filled. I wanted the craving I felt inside satisfied. I thirsted for love. I sat with Him present in the tabernacle and He filled me. He revealed Himself to me. He was the Bridegroom of my soul and I His bride. As I became more intimately united to Him, sitting there in silence and going to Him, I cried. I was so filled with love. I found what I was looking for all my life. He wrote the knowledge of Himself on my soul. He wrote this knowledge in the intimate moments I spent with Him at Mass after Communion and before the tabernacle.
"I struggle intently to do His work, and I am weary from running the race. I am tired, I am truly human, but the unquenchable love I have for Him in my heart is at the core of my existence. It is in Him I exist and in Him I love. I love Him so intently and yet I am so unworthy of His gifts given to me. I long more for the desire to help souls, and His desires become mine through my deep union with Him especially after the reception of the Eucharist. On this day (Feast of the Assumption), I felt the unquenchable purity of the Heart of Mary and the joy of dwelling deeply in His Heart in her pure love. It was a special gift He gave to me, to be wrapped in Mary’s Heart despite my faults. He gave Himself so completely to me. I only long for this, knowing this presence.
1998 Issue 3
I love this scripture. It burns my heart.
He is the image of the unseen God
and the first-born of all creation,
for in him were created
all things in heaven and on earth:
everything visible and everything invisible,
Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers—
all things were created through him and for him.
Before anything was created, he existed,
and he holds all things in unity.
Now the Church is his body,
he is its head.
As he is the Beginning,
he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way;
because God wanted all perfection
to be found in him,
and all things to be reconciled through him and for him,
everything in heaven and everything on earth,
when he made peace
by his death on the cross. (Col. 1:15-20).
Here is an excerpt from a spiritual journal: "And I opened my heart, but I waited and felt suspended in mid-air for my whole desire was to embrace Him and it felt as if He did not come. I suffered and suffered and wanted only to experience Him with this outpouring of His grace. Then His grace overtook my weary soul and He dwelt in me in this heightened form. The Bridegroom made Himself known to me and then it felt as if this intensity had left, but the lingering memory of this moment when He intimately united Himself to me was implanted forever on my weary soul, as I sit and wait for that day when I will experience the fulfillment of myself existing only in Him. I long to have oneness in the Divine Master, the Bridegroom of my soul. I love you Jesus, come to me, that I may know you most intimately. Embrace my soul and fill me with your gifts. I desire to experience the deepest union with you, my Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, Lamb of God. Through my union with you, My Jesus, I desire to experience the deepest union with the Father in the Holy Spirit."
And, "I rested my head on the pierced chest of my Savior. I felt His presence and put my head on His pierced wound. I see His side and I experience the wound within my own heart. His Heart was wounded by our sins, and I rest upon this wound.
"Open up the wound and go into His burning Heart. See the wound opening and enter into the great, red abyss of His fiery love. It is in the wound that I enter.
"His glorified body has this wound. It is from His pierced Heart that our life flows.
"The glorified wounds of Christ are my delight. He carried the cross. He bore the pain. He was pierced that we could live in Him!"
1999 Issue 3
Here is a Eucharistic prayer: "Lord Jesus. I love you so much! Help me grow in love for you. Help me to grow in the realization of the great love with which Your Heart beat for me upon Calvary. Let me grasp, with deeper knowledge, that Your Heart was pierced on Calvary with a soldier's lance for love of me. Take me, Jesus, ever more closely to Your pierced, glorified, Eucharistic Heart. And there, let me draw faith from this burning furnace of charity. Thus, strengthened, refreshed, and encouraged, let me go forth to live the Mass all day, every day."
1999 Issue 4
And we see a pillar against a dark sky. We see Jesus against the darkened sky and the Woman beneath and the scene cries out to earth, "Not my will, but Thine be done", not as spoken words, but the very vivid scene of the New Adam, the Pillar of Light, and the New Eve says this. What do you see as you look at the scene of the New Adam and the New Eve, the New Adam hanging from the tree in the place with a garden?
Do you not see the words as if they are almost written across the sky, "Thy will be done"? See her underneath the cross as she holds Him across her knees. His arms lay limp. And the words go across the sky again, "Not My will, but Thine be done". For He did the Father’s will to His death on the cross. He is placed in the tomb as she cries outside. Behold the most sorrowful Mother. Within her Heart is an understanding of the divine mysteries that far exceeds that of any human person. In her sorrow, in her tears, she knew so deeply the great gift that God sent--Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, the Savior of the world. She knew that her Son had to suffer these things in order to enter into the glory of His resurrection.
And on the day of His resurrection, Mary’s tears were now tears of joy. The victory of her Son has now been accomplished, and the victory will last forever. And on that first Easter morning Mary also knew that all of us, her children, are called to share in her Son’s victory-- His resurrection--now, and especially in eternal life. She is ever pleading with us that with the help of God’s grace we will do all that is necessary to share as fully as possible in the life of Jesus’ resurrection--here and hereafter. She wants Emmanuel to be with us to the greatest degree possible, now and in eternal life
end of excerpts from the Priestly Newsletter
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