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R. What is God's will for us? We seek it –
If we were in the habit of rapid thinking
to accomplish a goal like
I want to be in control –
I want to be by myself –
I want to do it my way –
Then forcing decisions on a community,
a family, on others based on what I
want first – then we are not trying
to do God's will, but inject our will on
everybody based on our being in
control.
Life is to be lived, so we are working
God's plan – We are the soul being
used as an instrument in His Plan
and it is a Plan that has His
Might behind it – not just me wanting
to be in charge, get our control
and then we are content – as long as we
are the ones in charge and being in
charge is what makes us happy
(we think)
God does have a plan – there are
so many others involved in His Plan –
He can do in 5 seconds what we
can never do forcing our way,
it can be an isolated, controlling
way that is just to always be in
charge at all costs –
Praying to do what He wants,
learning obedience, waiting on Him –
Being in charge can be a god – We
will live our own way, we seek this,
it can become a god.
God put us here to prepare – to prepare
ourselves for heaven, learning to be
under God, learning to be an
instrument to be used by God –
Seeking the will of God –
Working in God's Plan with others –
Praying to the Holy Spirit to help
us to be obedient to God,
His Plan and to live in Him –
We are here to prepare for heaven –
becoming more and more one in God –
God knows when the timing is right –
God knows the plan –
God asks us to be His instrument –
A person who wants control, wants his
security – what makes him feel safe –
He can live his whole life from a
childhood fear and survival tactic –
He can listen to satan tell him he needs
to be in control
Heaven is a reward for those who loved
and served the Lord –
We are here to learn God's ways –
He is the Creator
He made us for a purpose –
The devil pressed on Eve – she wanted
to be equal to God –
The devil can tell us we will be
smart if we do our own thing –
It was a sin of pride on Eve's part,
She outright disobeyed God's commands
and we all suffered the consequences –
Doing her will was more important to
her than obeying a simple command
from God –
Mary wanted to serve God. Mary said
"Be it done unto me according to
thy word."
Mary was humble –
Mary lived to please God –
Mary's joy was in being the obedient
daughter of God the Father –
In the Holy Spirit Sequence
"Bend the stubborn heart and will
Melt the frozen warm the chill"
A person always wanting their will
first – where that is why they act –
works against God when his will
is opposed to God – so the devil,
like in the case of Eve – opposes
God through their willfulness –
they are instruments of satan – like
Eve was –
Satan is the great opposer – He tempts
the person to disobey just authority
and it can be a habit –
When told to do something in
rebellion they ignore authority
entirely – they oppose the command
from just authority – immediately –
They think they are free – being in charge –
being disobedient
like a rebellious teenager – you
know – mom and dad warn them about
drinking, sex out of marriage, driving
too fast – disobeying the law –
and they say – they don't need to
know what I'm doing – they can
say "yes" to mom and dad and immediately
disobey and get into big trouble –
I heard this said
Doing what God wants – even when
nobody is looking –
Mary lived to please her Heavenly
Father – He was looking – she did
what God wanted the best she
could – She sought the will
of God and she did it
"Yes" – Mary said "yes" to God –
Jesus said "Yes" to God
Call – Response
Joseph said "Yes" to God –
Spending time preparing in one's
relationship with God –
God is to be first in our lives –
God is real –
God is watching –
The devil tells the willful man to oppose
God and the one opposing God can
think he is doing his own will –
when he serves satan 24/7.
The Old Testament tells us the story of the
chosen people – many times they would obey –
many times they rebelled and served false
gods. Moses thought they were so willful
with no water or little water they
might kill him –
He was anxious because of their
anger against him and force
against him
God was running things – they
needed to obey and pray to God –
instead they acted like God didn't
exist to handle it with anger
and force against Moses –
Moses suffered – Moses was
trying to do God's will – the people
so many times were so rebellious,
making false gods and worshipping
them –
13From the Shepherds of Christ Priestly Newsletter 2000 Issue 3
The Father's Will for Us - Our Source of Peace
Pope John Paul II instructs us: "The Church, as a reconciled and reconciling community, cannot forget that at the source of her gift and mission of reconciliation is the initiative, full of compassionate love and mercy, of that God who is love (see 1 John 4:8) and who out of love created human beings (see Wisdom 11:23-26; Genesis 1:27: Psalms 8:4-8)…He created them so that they might live in friendship with Him and in communion with one another.
"God is faithful to His eternal plan even when man, under the impulse of the evil one (see Wisdom 2:24) and carried away by his own pride, abuses the freedom given to him in order to love and generously seek what is good, and (instead) refuses to obey his Lord and Father. God is faithful even when man, instead of responding with love to God’s love, opposes Him and treats Him like a rival, deluding himself and relying on his own power, with the resulting break of relationship with the One who created him. In spite of this transgression on man’s part, God remains faithful in love.
"It is certainly true that the story of the Garden of Eden makes us think about the tragic consequences of rejecting the Father, which becomes evident in man’s inner disorder and in the breakdown of harmony between man and woman, brother and brother (see Genesis 3:12 ff; 4:1-16). Also significant is the Gospel parable of the two brothers (the parable of the ‘prodigal son’; see Luke 15:11-32) who, in different ways, distance themselves from their father and cause a rift between them. Refusal of God’s fatherly love and of His loving gifts is always at the root of humanity’s divisions.
"But we know that God…like the father in the parable (of the prodigal son), does not close His heart to any of His children. He waits for them, looks for them, goes to meet them at the place where the refusal of communion imprisons them in isolation and division. He calls them to gather about His table in the joy of the feast of forgiveness and reconciliation.
"This initiative on God’s part is made concrete and manifest in the redemptive act of Christ, which radiates through the world by means of the ministry of the Church."
13. Pope John Paul II, as in Celebrate 2000!, Servant Publications, pp. 140-141.
November 4, 2013
Priestly Newsletter Book II - September/October 1997
In all this Mary offers an example. Selfishness was totally foreign to her. She did not belong to herself. She belonged to God. She was not closed in upon herself. She was completely open to God. When God spoke, she listened. When God pointed the way, she followed. She realized that life is not a process a person masters by carefully mapping out one's own self-conceived plans of conquest, but a mystery to be gradually experienced by being open to God's personal and loving guidance.
Selfishness, then, did not close Mary off from God's call. Neither did fear. God asked her to assume a tremendous responsibility. He asked her to be the Mother of Jesus. Mary did not engage in a process of false humility and say that such a great role was above her. She did not say that she did not have the proper qualifications for this awesome mission. Briefly, she did not waste time looking at herself, making pleas that she was not worthy, telling the angel he had better go look for someone else. No, Mary did not look at herself. Her gaze was absorbed in God. She fully realized that whatever God asked of her, His grace would accomplish. She fully realized that although she herself had to cooperate, this work was much more God's than hers.
Mary's words, then, truly sum up what is the authentic Christian response at any point of life, in any kind of situation: "I am the handmaid of the Lord," said Mary, "let what you have said be done to me".
R. Learning that we are here to prepare for
heaven
... Thy will be done on earth, as it
is in heaven.
How do we think about actions we
do –
Do we pray to do God's will –
Are we aware God is with us and we
are His instruments and He
is working around us –
Or does satan tell us, like Eve in the Garden,
to do our own will – and be in competition
with God –
"Bend the stubborn heart and will –
melt the frozen, warm the chill"
Ascension Thursday May 21, 1998
Jesus: (with great emotion) COME OUT OF YOUR TOMBS, COME OUT I CALL YOU!!!! I have imparted to you knowledge of myself, transforming your heart and soul to be more likened to mine.
I give you messages after the reception of the Eucharist for it is then I am most one with you. Put aside the thoughts of burgers and what have you in your minds and listen to Me you earthly beings.
Come out of your tombs, come out I call to you who slumber and sleep and do not hear the voice of the Mighty One. Your are like the dead that need to be raised. A trumpet horn blaring would not waken a man who is blind from birth. Only the Lord will unlock the minds of the senseless men, so foolish, but oh how I do indeed love them so.
Come out I tell you, I call you, in your sleepy state with scales in your eyes you do not see. If these scales were removed and a fresh lense graphed on the already existing eye, the men may see then clearly that I speak in these messages to bring about the Reign of My Heart and the triumph of the wailing woman's Heart on the earth.
I came, I gave the gifts and the world slept. My little ones, the apostles slept in the garden when my hour was at hand.
Oh my shanty little town, you are stuck indeed, in your ways. You walk the streets as blindmen and I shout to you.
My earth, come out of your tombs, come out and live a life rooted deeply in My Heart.
R. I was in the cage, it was a prison held on all sides by bars, I cried, I screamed, I felt no way to escape and low and behold I turned and where I had thought I was totally enclosed, a whole wall was not even there and I gaily walked into the free night and the sun followed me as I walked.
Jesus: Your earth is enclosed in a wall of their own making. They have put up walls to enclose themselves. They have traveled around in their little boxes and spit at the freedom that I wished to give them.
Freedom is in living according to God's will. Freedom is in Me.
Talk of chains, for you have some. You have bars and are enclosed in your stone or brick houses. A mighty fortress is your dwelling, you think. A mighty fortress is in the walls of My Heart. I am the gateway that leads to freedom. I am the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy One of the Virgin Israel. I am the gateway to heaven. I am God!
R. As I unite with Him in the most intimate experiences in the Eucharist, I become one in His desires and what He wants, I become more as He is. He is the life, He is the resurrection, He is God.
I become more in Him, His desires are my desires, the Father's Plan is imprinted in my soul during the Mass and the reception of the Eucharist and before the tabernacle. I am transformed immensely in those moments after Communion to being alive in Him.
God the Father: I am God, you are man, I have given My Son Jesus to you to unite your soul to Me. I am the Father, He is the First Born from the dead. Life will abound in heaven and on earth.
God has visited His people and now He Reigns. He has ransomed them with the Blood of the Lamb.
R. Some time between Ascension Thursday, May 21, 1998 and Pentecost, May 31, 1998.
I saw a vision of an open door, the light within it resembled the light of the vision of March 26, 1996 that can be found in the Apostles Manual (p. 34-36).
The open door was glistening with this reflective golden color mirror-like light. I cannot describe, as I could not describe concerning the 3 main visions, the first being March 26, 1996.
The closest light I can describe to this is the sun reflecting on the water at Tom's Farm but this too leaves an emptiness to its description.
There was a little white sheep at the bottom of the open, glistening door and the little sheep hobbled over a small threshold and went in.
The door was rounded on the top, no corners, like a semi-circle on the top, and the wall surrounding this door was black. The light I describe was within this door and peered out to me in the vision.
I heard our Lord over and over again cry out during this period, "Come out of your tombs, dead, dead, dead, you are dead."
I heard the words similar to the message of May 21, 1998.
I was walled in on all sides – BARS – a prison of my own making. I turned and there was a wall missing and I gaily walked into the free night and the sun followed me as I walked.
I hear Jesus speak: "I am the gateway that leads to freedom."
I know the sea of glass from the vision of March 26, 1996. I know the open door from the vision.
I know the Power, I know the Intimate Burning Heart of Jesus in the Mass.
Jesus: (Ascension Day May 21, 1998)
Your earth is enclosed in a wall of their own making. They have put up walls to enclose themselves. They have traveled around in their little boxes and spit at the freedom that I wish to give them.
Freedom is in living according to God's will, Freedom is in Me.
Talk of chains, for you have some. Your have bars and are enclosed in your stone or brick houses. A mighty fortress is your dwelling, you think. A mighty fortress is in the walls of My Heart.
I am the gateway that leads to Freedom. I am the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy One of the Virgin Israel. I am the gateway to heaven. I am God.
Come out of your tombs, I am alive, I am treated as a dead object.
Sing a new song, the dead shall be raised.
They conquered the devil with the Blood of the Lamb.
Pray to the Holy Spirit to come mightily on you.
end of May 21, 1998
R.
For all these years people who were
religious took the vow of
poverty, chastity and obedience –
Excerpts from the Priestly Newsletter Book I
September/October 1994
4The following words of St. John Eudes remind us of the glorious goal the Christian is called to: the most intimate union with Jesus. We, as priests, have the special privilege and responsibility of seeking this union with Christ in the highest degree:
“I ask you to consider that our Lord Jesus Christ is your true head and that you are a member of his body. He belongs to you as the head belongs to the body. All that is his is yours: breath, heart, body, soul and all his faculties. All these you must use as if they belonged to you, so that in serving him you may give him praise, love and glory. You belong to him as a member belongs to the head. This is why he earnestly desires you to serve and glorify the Father by using all your faculties as if they were his.
“He belongs to you, but more than that, he longs to be in you, living and ruling in you, as the head lives and rules in the body. He desires that whatever is in him may live and rule in you: his breath in your breath, his heart in your heart, all the faculties of his soul in the faculties of your soul, so that these words may be fulfilled in you: Glorify God and bear him in your body, that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in you.
“You belong to the Son of God, but more than that, you ought to be in him as members are in the head. All that is in you must be incorporated into him. You must receive life from him and be ruled by him. There will be no true life for you except in him, for he is the one source of true life. Apart from him you will find only death and destruction. Let him be the only source of your movements, of the actions and the strength of your life. He must be both the source and the purpose of your life, so that you may fulfill these words: None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die, we die as his servants. Both in life and death we are the Lord’s. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
“Finally, you are one with Jesus as the body is one with the head. You must, then, have one breath with him, one soul, one life, one will, one mind, one heart. And he must be your breath, heart, love, life, your all. These great gifts in the follower of Christ originate from baptism. They are increased and strengthened through confirmation and by making good use of other graces that are given by God. Through the holy eucharist they are brought to perfection.”
The following is an excerpt from notes taken during a retreat given by Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J. The retreat was given to a group of candidates for the priesthood. The notes were edited into book form: “We should not reduce participation in the life of Jesus to some sort of moral relationship. Moral influence coming from Jesus must be made possible by and based on an ontological influence. By reason of the Incarnation of the Word and the whole history of the life and death of Jesus, each of us is already personally involved in the life of Jesus. In fact the whole world including the life of every human being is really affected and determined by His human existence. In a narrower and historically perceptible sense, after being affected by Him we are incorporated by Baptism into that community which is His Body, and by this sacramental-ontological determination of our historical existence, we were drawn even further into His life…
“The imitation of Christ consists in a true entering into His life and in Him entering into the inner life of the God that has been given to us.”
5
The close union with Jesus which Henri Nouwen, St. John Eudes, and Karl Rahner talk about centers in our doing Christ’s will out of love for Him. Jesus’ will for us is, of course, the same as His Father’s will for us. St. Teresa of Avila, one of the two women doctors of the Church (the other is St. Catherine of Siena) tells us how the spiritual life is summed up in loving conformity to God’s will:
“All that the beginner in prayer has to do—and you must not forget this, for it is very important—is to labor and to be resolute and prepare himself with all possible diligence to bring his will in conformity with the will of God. As I shall say later, you may be quite sure that this comprises the very greatest perfection which can be attained on the spiritual road.”6 Again she states: “…love consists…in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything.”
7
A very popular spiritual writer of our time, Fr. John Powell, S.J., gives us thoughts concerning saying “yes” to God’s will. His words easily follow the above thoughts of St. Teresa:
“There have been quite a few times in my life when I have felt the winds of God’s grace in the sails of my small boat. Sometimes these graces have moved me in pleasant and sunlit directions. At other times the requested acts of love were born in darkness of struggle and suffering. There have been springtimes and there have been long, cold winters of struggle for survival. God has come to me at times with the purest kindness, at times with the most affirming encouragement, and at other times with bold and frightening challenges. I think that all of us have to watch and pray, to be ready to say ‘yes’ when God’s language is concrete and his request is specific—‘yes’ in the sunlit springtimes and ‘yes’ in the darkness of winter nights.”
84. St. John Eudes, from a treatise on the Admirable Heart of
Jesus, as in The Liturgy of the Hours, Catholic Book
Publishing Co., Vol. IV, pp. 1331-32.
5. Karl Rahner, S.J., Spiritual Exercises, Herder & Herder,
pp. 117-118.
6. St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, translated by E.
Allison Peers, Doubleday & Co., “Second Mansions”, p. 51.
7. Ibid., “Fourth Mansions”, p. 76.
8. John Powell, S.J., The Christian Vision, Argus
Communications, p. 147.
November/December 1994
11.Living out our life of consecration is living the life of holiness. Vatican II speaks to us about the priestly life of holiness: “By the sacrament of orders priests are configured to Christ the Priest so that as ministers of the Head and co-workers of the episcopal order they can build up and establish His whole Body which is the Church. Already, indeed, in the consecration of baptism, like all Christians, they received the sign and the gift of so lofty a vocation and a grace that even despite human weakness they can and must pursue according to the Lord’s words: ‘You therefore are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Mt 5:48).
“To the acquisition of this perfection priests are bound by a special claim, since they have been consecrated to God in a new way by the reception of orders. They have become living instruments of Christ the eternal priest, so that through the ages they can accomplish His wonderful work of reuniting the whole society of men with heavenly power. Therefore, since every priest in his own way represents Christ Himself, he is also enriched with special grace…
“Priestly holiness itself contributes very greatly to a fruitful fulfillment of the priestly ministry. True, the grace of God can complete the work of salvation even through unworthy ministers. Yet ordinarily God desires to manifest His works through those who have been made particularly docile to the impulse and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because of their intimate union with Christ and their holiness of life, these men can say with the Apostle: ‘It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal 2:20)”
11. The Documents of Vatican II, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, America Press Edition, Ch. 3, No. 12.
January/February 1995
4The Holy Father offers us some very meaningful words on the subject of faithfulness. Faithfulness, of course, is one of the chief characteristics of love: “Virgo fidelis, the faithful Virgin. What does this faithfulness of Mary mean? What are the dimensions of this faithfulness? The first dimension is called search. Mary was faithful first of all when she began, lovingly, to seek the deep sense of God’s plan in her and for the world. ‘Quomodo fiet? How shall this be?’, she asked the Angel of the Annunciation.
“The second dimension of faithfulness is called reception, acceptance. The quomodo fiet is changed, on Mary’s lips, to a fiat, ‘Let it be done, I am ready, I accept.’ This is the moment in which man perceives that he will never completely understand the ‘how’; that there are in God’s plan more areas of mystery than of clarity; that, however he may try, he will never succeed in understanding it completely…
“The third dimension of faithfulness is consistency to live in accordance with what one believes; to adapt one’s life to the object of one’s adherence. To accept misunderstanding, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practices and what one believes; this is consistency…
“But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test, that of duration. Therefore, the fourth dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one’s whole life. It is easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm. It is difficult to be so in the hour of tribulation.”
It is impossible to incorporate into our lives the dimensions of faithfulness about which the Pope speaks without a meaningful and evolving union with Jesus. Mary was Jesus’ most faithful follower because she had the greatest, the deepest love-union with Him.
Our love-union with Jesus is centered in our Eucharistic devotion, The more we take the means to draw from the infinite source of grace which is the pierced, Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, the more we are united with Him, and, consequently, the more one’s faithfulness grows. Our union with the Eucharistic Christ, in turn, depends greatly on our spirit of prayer. A consistent prayer life is necessary for the proper assimilation of the graces which flow from the Eucharist. Here, then, are our great means for our growth in union with Jesus: the Eucharist and prayer. And, again, increased union with Jesus means increased faithfulness. Let us ask Mary, the faithful Virgin, and our faithful Mother, to obtain for us the grace to grow in our appreciation of the Eucharist and the life of prayer. If we grow in this appreciation, and live accordingly, we come ever closer to Jesus, who desires to lead us to an ever deeper union with the Father in the Holy Spirit.
Some of the above thoughts are contained in the following passage from the Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests:
“To remain faithful to the obligation of ‘being with Christ’, it is necessary that the priest know how to imitate the Church in prayer…
“Strengthened by the special bond with the Lord the priest will know how to confront those moments in which he could feel alone among men; effectively renewing his being with Christ who in the Eucharist is his refuge and best repose.
“Like Christ, who was often alone with the Father (cf Lk 3:21; Mk 1:35), the priest also must be the man who finds communion with God in solitude, so he can say with St. Ambrose: ‘I am never less alone than as when I am alone'…”
5
Love—together with its faithfulness—bids us to make the most of life’s opportunities. Fr. Philip Hamilton, currently a pastor and formerly an Air Force chaplain and college professor, encourages us to seize the God-given opportunities for contributing to the life of God’s kingdom:
“Tucked away on the back pages of most of the Catholic newspapers that I read was an article about a great man’s death. The man has certainly been one of the most influential priests in the history of our country. He was Father Patrick Peyton.
“Father Peyton was born in County Mayo in Ireland. He came to the United States in 1928 with his brother Thomas. The two brothers entered the seminary joining the priests at Notre Dame in the Society of the Holy Cross. As a seminarian he contracted tuberculosis. He prayed to our Blessed Mother that he might be cured and be able to be ordained a priest. He was, and lived to the age of eighty-three…
“Father Peyton, Irish immigrant that he was, moved hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, to a renewed appreciation of the rosary. He is said to be the author of the phrase, ‘the family that prays together stays together’. And the rosary was the prayer that he offered the family. He traveled the world preaching the rosary. People came by the thousands.
“Father had a dream as a young priest. His faith and optimism made that dream a reality. How many young priests, perhaps much more talented than he, had such a dream? Perhaps even I. Yet instead of lacking confidence in self and others, he boldly went forward and with the grace of God deeply affected the lives of millions while the rest of us, in our cautionary security, continued in our little ways free of fear because we never tried. We were always satisfied with small success. How many thousands of young men and women, probably dozens even on Hilton Head, could touch people as Father Peyton; but they never will because they have become satisfied with the living without fear or rejection through not having tried.
“I am seventy-four years old; but as I think of Father Peyton while writing this little essay at five a.m. here in my office, I am filled with the eagerness in the years left me to shout loud and publicly, ‘Look out world, here I come to bring you the Good News of Christ! You and your children are going to know that I have been here telling you, showing you Who Christ is and what He can do in your lives.’
“That is how thinking about a man like Father Peyton affects me. What does he do for you?”
7
Our friendship with Jesus as His priest-companions, our faithfulness to Him because we love Him, very much involves Mary. She, under God, is the Mother of our Christ-life. She cooperates with the Holy Spirit in our ongoing transformation in Christ. Fr. Arthur Calkins, a contemporary Marian scholar, offers us these words on Mary and the priest:
“If every Christian ought to see himself in the Apostle John, entrusted to Mary as her son or daughter, how much more ought priests to recognize themselves as sons of Mary, as the subjects of a ‘double’ entrustment to her. I say ‘double’, because they are successors of John by a twofold title: as disciples and as priests. This is beautifully drawn out by our Holy Father in his Holy Thursday Letter to Priests of 1988: ‘If John at the foot of the Cross somehow represents every man and woman for whom the motherhood of the Mother of God is spiritually extended, how much more does this concern each of us, who are sacramentally called to the priestly ministry of the Eucharist in the Church!’
“No doubt there are any number of priests today who would say that such reasoning represents a certain ‘snob appeal’, a ‘clerical culture’ that should have disappeared after the Council. The emphasis now, they would maintain, is on equality: we all share the common priesthood of the faithful and priestly ordination does not make us better than lay people.
“Surely, it is true that the hierarchical priesthood which is received by the imposition of the bishop’s hands is conferred on the basis of the royal priesthood which all the faithful share. It is also true that of itself priestly ordination does not make one morally better than the laity…
“But the fact is that the Sacrament of Holy Orders configures the priest more closely to Christ the Eternal Priest to the extent that his soul receives an indelible spiritual character and his very being is transformed in a way that allows him to function in persona Christi, in the very person of Christ, as he celebrates the sacraments and intercedes as a member of and on behalf of the whole Church. Hence this scriptural injunction surely holds true for the priest: ‘When much has been given a man, much will be required of him. More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted’ (Lk 12:48). Saint Thomas Aquinas puts it this way: ‘Those who have been chosen for a superior position through the bestowal of Holy Orders also have been called to a similar height of holiness’ (Summa Theologica, suppl., q. 35, a. 1, ad 3)…
“Although Jesus had already entrusted every priest to his Mother from the height of the cross and the Pope has done it even hundreds of times, it is still necessary for the priest to do so himself if he would truly experience the power and the protection of the Mother of God in his life as her Divine Son intends it. Priests who have done so know the difference it makes.8
4. Pope John Paul II, Inside the Vatican, December, 1994,
pp. 29-39.
5. Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests, op. cit.,
p.15.
7. Fr. Philip Hamilton, Padre’s Point, Alt Pub. Co., pp.
151-152.
8. Fr. Arthur Calkins, Soul Magazine, January-February 1995,
p. 30.
July/August 1995
St. John of the Cross: “What does it profit you to give God one thing if He asks for another? Consider what it is God wants and then do it.”12
St. Ignatius of Loyola. “It is characteristic of God and His Angels, when they act upon the soul, to give true happiness and spiritual joy, and to banish all the sadness and disturbances which are caused by the enemy.
“It is characteristic of the evil one to fight against such happiness and consolation by proposing fallacious reasonings, subtleties, and continual deceptions.
“In souls that are progressing to greater perfection, the action of the good angel is delicate, gentle, delightful. It may be compared to a drop of water penetrating a sponge.
“The action of the evil spirit upon such souls is violent, noisy and disturbing. It may be compared to a drop of water falling upon a stone.
“In souls that are going from bad to worse, the action of the spirits mentioned above is just the reverse. The reason for this is to be sought in the opposition or similarity of these souls to the different kinds of spirits. When the disposition is contrary to that of the spirits, they enter with noise and commotion that are easily perceived. When the disposition is similar to that of the spirits, they enter silently, as one coming into his own house when the doors are open.”18
12. St. John of the Cross, “Sayings of Light and Love,” No. 70, as in The Treasury of Catholic Wisdom, op. cit., p. 495.
18. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Newman Press, Nos. 329, 335.
Excerpts from the Priestly Newsletter Book II
July/August 1997
9Augustine, one of the greatest intellects in the history of the Church, was also a man of deep feeling, of deep passion. After his conversion, his passionate nature was turned from a life of sin to a life of marvelous dedication to Christ. He is an outstanding example of how the human emotions, human feelings, are to be used in the service of God. There follow excerpts from some of Augustine's writings.
- From The Confessions, we read the moving words of Augustine: "Who am I and what kind of man am I? What evil has there not been in my deeds, or if not in my deeds, in my words, or if not in my words, then in my will? But You, Lord, are good and merciful, and your right hand had regard to the profundity of my death and drew out the abyss of corruption that was in the bottom of my heart. By Your gift I had come totally not to will what I willed but to will what you willed. But where in all that long time was my free will, and from what deep sunken hiding-place was it suddenly summoned forth in the moment in which I bowed my neck to Your easy yoke and my shoulders to your light burden, Christ Jesus, my Helper and my Redeemer? How lovely I suddenly found it to be free from the loveliness of those vanities, so that now it was a joy to renounce what I had been so afraid to lose. For You cast them out of me, O true and supreme Loveliness, You cast them out of me and took their place in me. You who are sweeter than all pleasure, yet not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light, yet deeper within than any secret; loftier than all honour, but not to those who are lofty to themselves. Now my mind was free from the cares that had gnawed it, from aspiring and getting and weltering in filth and rubbing the scab of lust. And I talked with You as friends talk, my glory and my riches and my salvation, my Lord God."
9. Confessions of St. Augustine, translated by John K. Ryan, Doubleday & Co., as found in The Treasury of Catholic Wisdom, op. cit., p. 128
11. Ibid., p. 273.
Prayer of St Ignatius
Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from the side of Christ wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Permit me not to be separated from Thee
From the wicked foe defend me
at the hour of my death call me
and bid me come to Thee
That with Thy saints I may praise Thee
For ever and ever. Amen.
Prayer for Union with Jesus
Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart.
I am Yours to possess. I am Yours to use. I want to be selfless and only exist in You. Help me to spoon out all that is me and be an empty vessel ready to be filled by You. Help me to die to myself and live only for You. Use me as You will. Let me never draw my attention back to myself. I only want to operate as You do, dwelling within me.F
I am Yours, Lord. I want to have my life in You. I want to do the will of the Father. Give me the strength to put aside the world and let You operate my very being. Help me to act as You desire. Strengthen me against the distractions of the devil to take me from Your work.
When I worry, I have taken my focus off of You and placed it on myself. Help me not to give in to the promptings of others to change what in my heart You are making very clear to me. I worship You, I adore You and I love You. Come and dwell in me now.
-God's Blue Book, January 17, 1994
A Prayer for Intimacy with the Lamb, the Bridegroom of the Soul
Oh Lamb of God, Who take away the sins of the world, come and act on my soul most intimately. I surrender myself, as I ask for the grace to let go, to just be as I exist in You and You act most intimately on my soul. You are the Initiator. I am the soul waiting Your favors as You act in me. I love You. I adore You. I worship You. Come and possess my soul with Your Divine Grace, as I experience You most intimately.
Excerpts from the Priestly Newsletter Book II
Issue 3 - 1998
9St. Catherine of Siena, doctor of the Church, gives us these inspiring words on the human will:
I acknowledge, eternal God;
I acknowledge, eternal God, high eternal Trinity,
that you see me and know me.
I have seen this in your light…
I see too
that you saw that perverse law in us
that is always ready to rebel against your will,
and you saw
that we would often follow that law (cf. Rom 7:22-23).
Truly I see
that you saw the weakness of this human nature of ours,
how weak and frail and poor it is.
This is why,
supreme provider
who have provided for your creature in everything,
and best of helpers
who have given us help for every need—
this is why you gave us
the strong citadel of our will
as a partner for this weakness of our flesh.
For our will is so strong
that neither the devil nor any other creature
can conquer it
unless we so choose—
unless free choice,
in whose hand this strength has been put,
consents to it.
O infinite goodness!
Where is the source of such strength
in your creature’s will?
In you,
supreme and eternal strength!
So I see
that our will shares in the strength of yours,
for out of your will
you gave us ours.
9. From The Prayers of Catherine of Siena, Suzanne Noffke, translator, Paulist Press, as found in Catherine of Siena, Mary O’ Driscoll, O.P., editor, New City Press, Prayer 14, pp. 74-76.
Issue 5 - 1999
9St. Teresa of Avila, one of the three women doctors of the Church, tells us how the spiritual life is summed up in loving conformity to the Father’s will:
"All that the beginner in prayer has to do – and you must not forget this, for it is very important – is to labor and to be resolute and prepare himself with all possible diligence to bring his will in conformity with the will of God. As I shall say later, you may be quite sure that this comprises the very greatest perfection which can be attained on the spiritual road."
Again she states: "...love consists ... in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything."
109. St Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, translated by E. Allison Peers, Doubleday and Co., "Second Mansions", p. 51.
10. Ibid., "Fourth Mansions", p. 76.
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Picture of Our Lady of Clearwater 4X 6
Prayer Brochure
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Books available in limited supply for this sale.
The more you use the Blue Books and
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R. Pray for These Things
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For our Publisher and all involved
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2 Dons, Mary Ellen, Fr. Joe, all priests helping us,
Ed, Jimmy, Steve, a special couple, Rosie & all involved.
21) 2 babies and moms.
22) Funds and insurance.
23) Jerry's garage.
24) In thanksgiving for gifts, graces, & blessings received.
25) Spread the Blood of Jesus on all of us here.
26) Consecrate all hearts.
27) Cast the devil out of all of us here and all in Movement.
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