September 25, 2008

Fr. Carter had a dream.

                Praying the prayers in the prayer manual
                    can help bring peace

click

                Please form a prayer chapter

                Pray in Church

                Pray in Families before the Fatima statue
                    with glass

                The Family that prays together stays together.

Mary by day July 5, 2000

by night July 5, 2000

                Praying the Litany to Mary
                Praying the Litany to the Sacred Heart
                The Seven Sorrows
                Promises to St. Margaret Mary
                Consecration to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart

Introduction to the Shepherds of Christ Prayers

Here are the prayers that so many pray every day at 6:30, especially for the priests. Prayer chapters have helped many priests in parishes and people in these parishes to grow in greater holiness.

Will you form a prayer chapter in your parish and pray with us at 6:30?

One priest praying the prayers can tremendously boost the prayer power.

These are the prayers Father Carter gave us to pray in the Shepherds of Christ Prayer Manual.

  2000 - ISSUE 4

A Prayer for Priests

Many of the laity pray for us priests, and consistently so. Is it not also fitting that we priests pray for all our brothers in the priesthood, and consistently so? There follows a prayer that can aid us in this endeavor.

"Lord Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the Flock, we pray that in the great love and mercy of Your Sacred Heart that You attend to all the needs of Your priest-shepherds throughout the world. We ask that You draw back to Your Heart all those priests who have seriously strayed from Your path, that You rekindle the desire for holiness in the hearts of those priests who have become lukewarm, and that You continue to give Your fervent priests the desire for the highest holiness. United with Your Heart and Mary’s Heart, we ask that You take this petition to Your heavenly Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen".

The above prayer is taken from the prayer manual of Shepherds of Christ Associates, a facet of Shepherds of Christ Ministries. The associates are members of prayer groups which meet regularly to pray for all the needs of the entire human family, but most especially for priests. If you would like a copy, or copies, of this prayer manual, and further, if you would like information on how to begin a Shepherds of Christ prayer chapter, contact us at:

Shepherds of Christ
P.O. Box 627
China, IN 47250 U.S.A.
Phone (toll free): 1-888-211-3041,
Phone: 1-812-273-8405
Fax: 1-812-273-3182

Act of Consecration (new)

"Jesus, You show us Your Heart as symbol of Your life of love in all its aspects, including Your most special love for each of us as unique individuals. Out of Your great love for us, You died a brutal death, nailed to the wood of the cross. Out of Your great love for us, You rose gloriously from the dead.

"From Your pierced Heart the Church with her life-giving Sacraments was born. In the Eucharist, Crown and Center of the Church’s life, You continue to give Yourself to us with the deepest, most tender, most on-fire, most complete love.

"Jesus, since in Your great love You give Yourself so completely to us, it is only fitting that we make a gift to You in return. It is entirely fitting that we give ourselves completely to You. Yes, we consecrate ourselves to Your most loving Heart. Each of us says to You, O Lord, our Savior and our Friend: ‘Jesus, take me wholly, take me completely to Your magnificent Heart. Out of love I give myself to You. Live in and through me. In love You give Yourself completely to me. In love and in a spirit of reparation, I want to give myself, with the help of Your grace, entirely to You. Take me, Jesus, to an ever closer union with the Father, in the Holy Spirit, with Mary my Mother at my side. Pierced, Glorified, Eucharistic Heart of Jesus I place my trust in You.’ "

"Dear Blessed Virgin Mary, I consecrate myself to your maternal and Immaculate Heart, this Heart which is symbol of your life of love, including your most special love for me as this unique individual. You are the Mother of my Savior. You are also my Mother. In a return of love, I give myself entirely to your motherly love and protection. You followed Jesus perfectly. You are His first and perfect disciple. Teach me to imitate you in the putting on of Christ. Be my motherly intercessor so that, through your Immaculate Heart, I may be guided to an ever closer union with the Pierced, Glorified, Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock."

 2000 - ISSUE 3

Heart of Christ, Heart of Mary

Pope John Paul II speaks to us movingly concerning the Heart of Christ: "The Heart of the Redeemer enlivens the whole Church and draws men who have opened their hearts ‘to the inscrutable wealth’ of this unique Heart....

"I desire in a special way to join spiritually with all those who inspire their human hearts from this Divine Heart. It is a numerous family. Not a few congregations, associations and communities live and develop in the Church, taking their vital energy in a programmed way from the Heart of Christ. This spiritual bond always leads to a great reawakening of apostolic zeal. Adorers of the Divine Heart become people with sensitive consciences. And when it is given to them to have a relationship with the Heart of our Lord and Master, the need also reawakens in them to do reparation for the sins of the world, for the indifference of so many hearts, for their negligence.

"How necessary these ranks of vigilant hearts are in the Church, so that the love of the Divine Heart shall not remain isolated and without response! In these ranks, special mention deserves to be made of all those who offer up their sufferings as living victims in union with the Heart of Christ pierced on the cross. Transformed in that way by love, human suffering becomes a particular leaven of Christ’s saving work in the Church…

"The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus reminds us, above all, of those moments when this Heart was ‘pierced by the lance,’ and, thereby, opened in a visible manner to man and the world. By reciting the litany and venerating the Divine Heart in general, we learn the mystery of the Redemption in all its divine and human profundity."

And the Pope also speaks to us about the heart of Mary: "The Immaculate Heart of Mary was open to the word, ‘Woman, there is your son.’ It went to meet spiritually the Heart of the Son opened by the soldier’s lance. The heart of Mary was opened by the same love for man and for the world with which Christ loved man and the world, offering up himself on the cross, even to that lance stroke from the soldier.

"Consecrating the world to the Immaculate heart of Mary means approaching the same Source of Life, through the Mother’s Intercession, that life which flowed forth from Golgatha, the source which gushes out ceaselessly with redemption and grace. Reparation for the sins of the world is continually being accomplished in it. It is ceaselessly the font of new life and holiness.

"Consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother means returning under the Cross of the Son. More: it means consecration of this world to the pierced Heart of the Savior, by bringing the world back to the very source of its Redemption. Redemption is always greater than man’s sin and ‘the sin of the world.’ The power of Redemption infinitely surpasses the whole range of evil in man and in the world.

"The Heart of the Mother is aware of it, more than anyone in the whole cosmos, visible and invisible. This is why she calls. She does not call only to conversion; she also calls upon us to let ourselves be helped by her, the Mother, to return to the source of the Redemption."⁵⁴

54. Pope John Paul II. Prayers and Devotions, edited by Bishop Peter Canuis Johannes Van Lierde, Viking, pp. 449-451.

Living in the Present Moment

I suggest that one of the most difficult acts of self-discipline in the spiritual journey is to concentrate on the present moment. We have a very strong tendency to often disregard the importance of the present moment by focusing in a wrong way on the past or in a wrong way on the future. When we give in to this tendency we suffer a significant spiritual loss. There are proper occasions for thinking of the past and the future. For example, we have to learn from the past and we have to prepare for the future, but our great emphasis has to be upon the present. There is a Latin axiom which says, age quod agis, which means: do what you are doing, concentrate on the present. And, of course, we are familiar with the term in the history of spirituality: the sacrament of the present moment. Growth in self-discipline should include a greater determination to get as much as we can out of the present moment. People with a terminal illness have an opportunity, as they prepare for death, for increased prayer, contrition, love of God. For those who have this opportunity of knowing with some certainty the time of their death, I’m sure as they look back on their lives, they are saddened by the times they did not use time and opportunities for the service of the Lord properly, and are overjoyed at those times in which they did use the present opportunity properly. A great means we have of living in the present properly is a greater focus upon our Lord. For if I have that awareness of the fact I am united with Jesus here and now, why should I be concerned so much about the future or the past? Yes, a great help in living in the present and deriving all the good we can from it for ourselves and others is an ever greater focus on Jesus, because the more I focus upon Jesus and the more I live with Him in the present moment, the more I am satisfied with the present moment. And so let us resolve to grow in that self-discipline which is required to really live in the present with the fullness of our being as much as is possible, with the help of God’s grace. To do so is extremely important for proper growth in the spiritual life.

Now is the time. Now is the time to live and to love. Now is the time to become more united to Christ, to be more one with Him. Now is not yesterday; now is not tomorrow; now is today, and today is a gift from the Lord.

Pope John Paul II and Fatima

On May 12, 1982, Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Fatima. One of his motives for his visit was to offer thanks for Mary’s intercession in saving his life relative to the assassination attempt a year earlier.

Some fifteen years later in 1997, the Holy Father gave us the following words regarding Fatima. Lynne Weil, a newspaper reporter, gives this account: "Pope John Paul said the series of Marian apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, rank as one of the most significant events of this century.

"The string of apparitions that ended 80 years ago was ‘one of the greatest’ signs of the times, ‘also because it announces in its message many of the signs that followed and it invites (us) to follow their call’, the pope said in a letter to Bishop Serafim de Sousa Ferreire Silva of Leiria - Fatima, Portugal. The message, dated October 1, was released at the Vatican October 14 (1997).

"Pope John Paul said the event at Fatima ‘helps us to see the hand of God’ even in the 20th century, with its wars and other mass tragedies. And it showed that despite having ‘removed itself from God’, humanity was offered God’s protection, the pontiff said.

"Pope John Paul recalled that in Gospel accounts of Jesus’ death, he invoked clemency on his captors even as he was being crucified and entrusted humanity to the care of his mother, Mary.

"The pope repeated the exhortation stemming from the Marian apparitions at Fatima that the faithful recite the rosary every day. He asked pastors to recite the rosary, and to teach others to recite it, daily. —CNS"

end of excerpt

                3 months to Christmas

                3 days in the tomb

                3 Persons in the Blessed Trinity

                3 days Jesus was lost

Luke 9: 7-9

Meanwhile Herod the tetrarch had heard about all that was going on; and he was puzzled, because some people were saying that John had risen from the dead, others that Elijah had reappeared, still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. But Herod said, 'John? I beheaded him. So who is this I hear such reports about?' And he was anxious to see him.

                When evil is done — we hurt others —

                Doing things with a bad end are wrong —

Ecclesiastes 1: 2-11

Sheer futility, Qoheleth says. Sheer futility: everything is futile! What profit can we show for all our toil, toiling under the sun?  A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm for ever. The sun rises, the sun sets; then to its place it speeds and there it rises. Southward goes the wind, then turns to the north; it turns and turns again; then back to its circling goes the wind. Into the sea go all the rivers, and yet the sea is never filled, and still to their goal the rivers go. All things are wearisome. No one can say that eyes have not had enough of seeing, ears their fill of hearing. What was, will be again, what has been done, will be done again, and there is nothing new under the sun! Take anything which people acclaim as being new: it existed in the centuries preceding us. No memory remains of the past, and so it will be for the centuries to come -- they will not be remembered by their successors.

 

There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven: 

A time for giving birth, 
a time for dying; 
a time for planting, 
a time for uprooting what has been planted. 
A time for killing, 
a time for healing; 
a time for knocking down, 
a time for building. 
A time for tears, 
a time for laughter; 
a time for mourning, 
a time for dancing. 
A time for throwing stones away, 
a time for gathering them; 
a time for embracing, 
a time to refrain from embracing. 
A time for searching, 
a time for losing; 
a time for keeping, 
a time for discarding. 
A time for tearing, 
a time for sewing; 
a time for keeping silent, 
a time for speaking. 
A time for loving, 
a time for hating; 
a time for war, 
a time for peace. 

    What do people gain from the efforts they make? I contemplate the task that God gives humanity to labour at. All that he does is apt for its time; but although he has given us an awareness of the passage of time, we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does.

                Jesus died for us, rose from the dead —

                Think of the physical pain Jesus endured —

                God has a purpose —

                God wants us with Him for all eternity

                We face the same problems sometimes day
                    after day

                We keep moving in the direction
                    God is calling us

Luke 9: 7-9

Meanwhile Herod the tetrarch had heard about all that was going on; and he was puzzled, because some people were saying that John had risen from the dead, others that Elijah had reappeared, still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. But Herod said, 'John? I beheaded him. So who is this I hear such reports about?' And he was anxious to see him.

               Mass — Sacrifice

                Mass is the Sacrifice
                    of Calvary — Sacramentally
                    made present

  2000 - ISSUE 4

The Eucharist

• At the Last Supper, on the night He was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us. (Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, No. 17) ¹²

• The Church, therefore, earnestly desires that Christ’s faithful, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators. On the contrary, through a proper appreciation of the rites and prayers they should participate knowingly, devoutly, and actively. They should be instructed by God’s word and be refreshed at the table of the Lord’s body; they should give thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn to offer themselves too. Through Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into ever closer union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all. (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, No. 48) ¹³

• Through the Eucharistic Sacrifice Christ the Lord desired to set before us in a very special way this remarkable union whereby we are united one with another and with our divine Head, a union that no word of praise can ever sufficiently express. For in this sacrifice the sacred ministers act not only as the representative of our Saviour, but as the representative of the whole Mystical Body and of each one of the faithful. Again, in this act of sacrifice, the faithful of Christ, united by the common bond of devotion and prayer, offer to the eternal Father through the hands of the priest, whose prayer alone has made it present on the altar, the Immaculate Lamb, the most acceptable victim of praise and propitiation for the Church’s universal need. Moreover, just as the divine Redeemer, while dying on the Cross, offered Himself to the eternal Father as Head of the whole human race, so now, ‘in this clean oblation’ He not only offers Himself as Head of the Church to His heavenly Father but in Himself His mystical members as well. He embraces them all, yes, even the weaker and more ailing members, with the deepest love of His Heart. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis AAS. XXXV, 232-233) ¹⁴

12. The Documents of Vatican II, "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy", America Press edition, No. 48.
13. Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Letter, Mystici Corporis, AAS, XXXV, 232-233.
14. Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests, as in special supplement, Inside the Vatican, November 1994, No. 14.

From Rita Ring

• The Sacrifice of Calvary is sacramentally made present in the Mass. When we pray the Morning Offering Prayer, united to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we act as intercessors, pleading to God that great graces be released all day through our prayerful actions as we act in love according to the Father’s will. Whether we are eating, taking care of a sick parent, enjoying time spent with a friend, working at our job, we can help bring down great graces for the world.

When we pray the Morning Offering Prayer we offer our lives to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, with the prayerful assistance of Mary, our Mother. Let us pray together united in our hearts in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. There follows a Morning Offering Prayer.

"My dear Father, I offer You this day all my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings in union with Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in the Holy Spirit.

"I unite with our Mother, Mary, all the angels and saints, and all the souls in purgatory to pray to the Father for myself, for each member of my family, for my friends, for all the people throughout the world, for all the souls in purgatory, and for all other intentions of the Sacred Heart.

"I love You, Jesus, and I give You my heart. I love you, Mary, and I give you my heart. Amen."

• From a spiritual journal we are given these words: "When a priest is filled with the love of Jesus, he unites more deeply with Christ in the great sacrifice being offered to the Father. The faithful more easily see Jesus, through the priest, offering sacrifice to the Father. They more easily experience, at this great sacrifice, the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

"At the Mass 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 desire to die to all the things that are not of God and join in the great miracle taking place. The Father looks down and He sees the sacrifice of His Son being offered through His priest. Heaven unites to earth. Earth cries out in such jubilation at the great gift of 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 His priest, who takes bread and wine, and changes them into the Body and Blood of our Lord? Do we hear Jesus speak, as He did at the Last Supper, with the intensity in His voice reflecting the 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 ones? And the earth stands still. There is, at that moment, the sacrifice of Calvary sacramentally made present through the words of the priest. Oh, that God so loved the 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 Savior, my beloved Jesus, as You so willingly gave Yourself to me on Calvary. I want to die and rise more and more with You in the deepest possible love for You and for those for whom You died a brutal, bloody death on the cross, and for whom You rose gloriously from the dead!"

 

  2000 - ISSUE 3

• Fr. Edward Leen, C.S. Sp., tells us: "Unless we are pleasing to God we cannot be saved, we cannot realize the purpose of our divine adoption. We cannot please God unless we resemble Jesus Christ, and the Blessed Sacrament is instituted for the very object of perfecting in us this likeness. Bodily food is transformed into the flesh of him that receives it; this heavenly food, the food of our souls, which is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, has the directly opposite effect: it changes him who receives it into Itself. It must not be forgotten that the presence in us which follows the reception of Holy Communion is a living active presence. Our Lord is more present with us than is a person with whom we are speaking. As He influenced whilst on earth those who allowed themselves to fall under the charm of His Personality, so He exercises a profound effect on the soul of the communicant, if that soul wishes to submit to His action. We cannot be in the society of one who is good without being incited to goodness; we cannot be with Our Lord—and we are as close to Him as our desires extend—without receiving the effects of His virtue and without being stirred to become as he was, without being drawn, in a mystical sense to become one with Him, to become ‘Christified’."³²

   

From Rita Ring

• 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.

• Mother Teresa of Calcutta shares these thoughts with us: "I make a holy hour each day in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. All my sisters of the Missionaries of Charity make a daily holy hour, as well, because we find that through our daily holy hour our love for Jesus becomes more intimate, our love for each other more understanding, and our love for the poor more compassionate. Our holy hour is our daily family prayer where we get together and pray the Rosary before the exposed Blessed Sacrament for the first half hour, and the second half hour we pray in silence. Our adoration has doubled our vocations. In 1963, we were making a weekly hour together, but it was not until 1973, when we began our daily holy hour that our community started to grow and blossom."³³

• St. Peter Julian Eymard, founder of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, tells us: "The Eucharist, behold the Christian's treasure, his delight on earth. Since Jesus is in the Eucharist for him personally, his whole life ought to be drawn to it like a magnet to its center."³⁴

• Henri de Lubac states: "The Church is a mysterious extension in time of the Trinity, not only preparing us for the life of unity but bringing about even now our participation in it. She comes from and is full of the Trinity. She is for us -- in a favourite phrase of Bossuet -- ‘Jesus Christ … communicated’. She is ‘the Incarnation continued.’ She is, as Dietrick Bonhoeffer used to say, ‘the presence of Christ on earth’ --- she speaks with ‘the authority of Christ living and present in her.’… St. Paul applies to her this same word ‘mystery’ which he had first used of Christ. She is after all, the spouse of Christ and his body." ¹⁹

        19. Henri de Lubac, S. J., The Church: Paradox and Mystery, translated by James R. Dunne, Alba House, p. 24.
      32. Fr. Edward Leen, C.S..Sp., In the Likeness of Christ, Sheed and Ward, pp. 250-252.
        33. Mother Teresa, Rosary Meditations from Mother Teresa, contact Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament, PO Box 1701, Plattsburgh, New York.
        34. St. Peter Julian Eymard, Eucharistic Handbook, Emmanuel Publications, as in Adoration, Ignatius Press, p.97.

Excerpt from Priestly Newsletter 1998 - ISSUE 4

    Shortly before he was to die from cancer, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin left us these inspiring words about peace: "It is the first day of November, and fall is giving way to winter. Soon the trees will lose the vibrant colors of their leaves and snow will cover the ground. The earth will shut down, and people will race to and from their destinations bundled up for warmth. Chicago winters are harsh. It is a time of dying.

    "But we know that spring will soon come with all its new life and wonder.

    "It is quite clear that I will not be alive in the spring. But I will soon experience new life in a different way...

    "What I would like to leave behind is a simple prayer that each of you may find what I have found—God's special gift to us all: the gift of peace. When we are at peace, we find the freedom to be most fully who we are, even in the worst of times. We let go of what is non-essential and embrace what is essential. We empty ourselves so that God may more fully work within us. And we become instruments in the hands of the Lord."³

---

Notes:

3. Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, The Gift of Peace, Loyola University Press, pp. 151-153.
    

 

• St. Ignatius of Antioch was deeply consumed with love for Jesus: "At last I am well on the way to being a disciple. May nothing, seen or unseen, fascinate me, so that I may happily make my way to Jesus Christ! Fire, cross, struggles with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs, crunching of the whole body, cruel tortures inflicted by the devil—let them come upon me, provided only I make my way to Jesus Christ."⁹

• Cardinal Newman tells us: "Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not born at random... God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, He lodges it in a body, one by one, for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us."¹⁰

        9. St. Ignatius of Antioch, "Ignatius to the Romans," as in The Treasury of Catholic Wisdom, Ignatius Press., p. 14.
        10. John Henry Cardinal Newman, Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations, Longmans, Green and Co., pp. 111-112.

end of excerpts

                Cleaning —

                Purity —

                We go to Mass

                We are fed with the Bread of Life

                    (1) The Word

                    (2) The Eucharist

                I give my whole self to God the Father in this act of
                    love — united to the sacrifice of Jesus
                    in the Holy Spirit

                We, as members of the Body of Christ, are united
                    to all the Masses going on around the
                    world

                Our lives, (baptized Catholics), as members of the body
                    of Christ, are an offering, a sacrifice offered
                    to God —

                Every minute of our lives we need
                    to offer to God —

                Why do anything if it is not doing it
                    because it is God's will —

                Every act is to be done for His honor and
                    glory —

                Acts done according to the Father's
                    will in love are most pleasing —

                    Jesus showed us this —

                Think of the physical torture — Jesus, the Son of
                    God endured for us — for our impurities, our
                    disobedience.

                Purity of intention — doing things just for love of God —
                    because it is the Father's will — no ulterior
                    motive — only living to be like Jesus —

                Not jealousy, envy, seeking dominance, lust,
                    getting a feeling of importance for us here
                    below, pride.

                Adam and Eve's sin was pride — not focusing on
                    pleasing and loving God — We all, us human
                    creatures, suffered original sin from the
                    moment of conception — except Mary.

                What good does it do to gain the world and lose
                    your soul?

                What good does it do to do any act for our
                    own recognition, attention —

                We must see ourselves as so precious to God,
                    but He wants us to be pure in all we
                    do — do all for His honor and glory — always
                    with our eyes on God and pleasing Him — doing
                    God's will —

                Jesus suffered to His death on the cross

                Jesus did the will of the Father

                Jesus showed us how to be.

                Jesus was the perfect Son of God —

                Our lives are short —

                We see babies come and grandmas and grandpas die —

                Yesterday I saw a car on its side —

                Trees were split

                Lights going out —

                We hold onto Jesus —

                We believe in spreading the devotion to the
                    Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart will
                    bring peace to the world.

                We must pray —

                Prayer Manual —

Excerpts from The Spirituality of Fatima

by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

    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

    Tell everybody that God gives graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Tell them to ask grace from her, and that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be venerated together with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Ask them to plead for peace from the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the Lord has confided the peace of the world to her. ¹⁹

17. Our Lady's Peace Plan, op cit., p.7.
19. Ibid., pp.9-10.

 

                Please help us now

                Please help us before the election.

                Tell God we are sorry for our sins —

                So much happens when I pray at the Virgin
                    Mary building, in China on retreats —

                    Come to pray with me —
                    Sing the Psalms — honoring God
                    Reading the Word
                    Making reparation

                God called me as co-founder of this Movement
                    to pray deeply in these special prayer
                    days for peace — for the priests, the Church
                    and the world.

                We are doing what the Fatima message asked for —
                    At the heart of the Fatima message is
                    reparation —

July 31, 1994

Words of Jesus to Members of
Shepherds of Christ Associates:

"My beloved priest-companion, I intend to use the priestly newsletter, Shepherds of Christ, and the movement, Shepherds of Christ Associates, in a powerful way for the renewal of My Church and the world.

"I will use the newsletter and the chapters of Shepherds of Christ Associates as a powerful instrument for spreading devotion to My Heart and My Mother's Heart.

"I am calling many to become members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. To all of them I will give great blessings. I will use them as instruments to help bring about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the reign of My Sacred Heart. I will give great graces to the members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. I will call them to be deeply united to My Heart and to Mary's Heart as I lead them ever closer to My Father in the Holy Spirit."

- Message from Jesus to Father Edward J. Carter, S.J., Founder, as given on July 31, 1994,
feast of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits)

Apostles of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus

My dear fellow Associate Members,

Jesus is calling special apostles to join a new division of the Shepherds of Christ Movement. Here is a message from Jesus given to Father Carter:

    My beloved priest-companion, I am requesting that a new prayer movement be started under the direction of Shepherds of Christ Ministries. I am asking for volunteers who are willing to pray before the Blessed Sacrament for one hour, twice-weekly. Members of the Shepherds of Christ prayer chapters, as well as others, are to be invited to join this movement.

    These apostles are to pray for the intentions I am giving you. For part of the hour they are to use the prayers of the Shepherds of Christ Associates Handbook. They may spend the rest of the hour as they so choose.

    I will use this new prayer movement within My Shepherds of Christ Ministries in a powerful way to help in the renewal of My Church and the world. I will give great graces to those who join this movement. The name, Apostles of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, is to be given to this movement.

    I am inviting My beloved Rita Ring to be coordinator for this activity.

    I pour out the great love of My Sacred Heart to all. I am Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock.

    This is indeed a special calling for us to unite in one heart with His Eucharistic Heart and pray for the following intentions:

1. For the spread of the devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary culminating in the reign of the Sacred Heart and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart.

2. For the Pope.

3. For all bishops of the world.

4. For all priests.

5. For all sisters and brothers in the religious life.

6. For all members of the Shepherds of Christ Movement, and for the spread of this movement to the world.

7. For all members of the Catholic Church.

8. For all members of the human family.

9. For all souls in purgatory.

end of Apostles of the Eucharistic Heart message

John 10: 10

...I have come
so that they may have life
and have it to the full.

Genesis 1: 26-28

God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.’

    God created man in the image of himself, 
    in the image of God he created him, 
    male and female he created them. 

    God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that move on earth.

Genesis 2: 7

Yahweh God shaped man from the soil of the ground and blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being.

Genesis 2: 18, 21-24 

Yahweh God said, "It is not right that the man should be alone. I shall make him a helper."

Then, Yahweh God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And, while he was asleep, he took one of his ribs and closed the flesh up again forthwith. Yahweh God fashioned the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. And the man said:

This one at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh!
She is to be called Woman,
    because she was taken from Man.

This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and they become one flesh.

   

Psalm 8: 4-9

what are human beings that you spare a thought for them, 
or the child of Adam that you care for him? 

Yet you have made him little less than a god, 
you have crowned him with glory and beauty, 
made him lord of the works of your hands, 
put all things under his feet, 

sheep and cattle, all of them, 
and even the wild beasts, 
birds in the sky, fish in the sea, 
when he makes his way across the ocean. 

Yahweh our Lord, 
how majestic your name throughout the world!

Genesis 3: 1-20 

   Now, the snake was the most subtle of all the wild animals that Yahweh God had made. It asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’ The woman answered the snake, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, "You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death." ’ Then the snake said to the woman, ‘No! You will not die! God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good from evil.’ The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was enticing for the wisdom that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked. So they sewed fig–leaves together to make themselves loin–cloths.

   The man and his wife heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. But Yahweh God called to the man. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden,’ he replied. ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked. ‘Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’ Then Yahweh God said to the woman, ‘Why did you do that?’ The woman replied, ‘The snake tempted me and I ate.’

   Then Yahweh God said to the snake, ‘Because you have done this,

   Accursed be you of
   all animals wild and tame!
   On your belly you will go
   and on dust you will feed
   as long as you live.
    I shall put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
    it will bruise your head
    and you will strike its heel.’

     To the woman he said:

     I shall give you intense pain
        in childbearing,
     you will give birth to your children
        in pain.
     Your yearning will be for your husband,
      and he will dominate you.

   To the man he said, ‘Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,

     Accursed be the soil because of you!
     Painfully will you get your food from it
     as long as you live.
   It will yield you brambles and thistles,
     as you eat the produce of the land.
   By the sweat of your face
     will you earn your food,
     until you return to the ground,
     as you were taken from it.
     For dust you are
     and to dust you shall return.’

   The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live.

 

Romans 7: 14-19

                  We were really punished because of the sin of
                Adam and Eve in the garden —

                    Before the fall Adam and Eve were
                immune to sickness and death —

                Man rebelled against God

                Man was to be obedient to God — Adam and Eve
                    disobeyed

                Through out salvation history
                    People were faithful and unfaithful

                God sent the prophets (as His
                    spokesmen) to recall the
                    people to their God —

Hebrews 1: 1-3

At many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the ages. He is the reflection of God's glory and bears the impress of God's own being, sustaining all things by his powerful command; and now that he has purged sins away, he has taken his seat at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high.

John 3: 16

For this is how God loved the world: 
he gave his only Son, 
so that everyone who believes in him 
    may not perish 
but may have eternal life. 

                Song: A Song from Jesus

                Jesus is the Son of God

                Jesus is the Mediator between God and
                    man

John 14: 6

I am the Way; I am Truth and Life.

Matthew 28: 20

and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’

                Jesus remains with us in His Church
                    today — He gives us truth and
                    He guides us —

Matthew 6: 19-21

‘Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and woodworm destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworm destroys them and thieves cannot break in and steal. For wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be too.

                God is love

                We have a loving Father —

                Jesus, the Son of God came to save us.

1 John 4: 16

We have recognised for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us.
God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.

1 Timothy 2: 4

  he wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth.