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 these messages rests with the Holy See of Rome. |
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November 3, 2000 - First Friday
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.
Messenger: Include Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center in 6:20 prayers.
Messenger: Please pray for 4 urgent intentions!
Messenger: Dear apostles,
I give my heart to Jesus and Mary with you in love. May the peace of Jesus reign in your hearts. We never know what is in another's heart. If we saw ourselves from Jesus' eyes would we see the ways we treat each other as needing improvement?
So many of us were not sung a sweet lullaby by our mothers and we are looking for someone here to love us. The cry within our souls for love cannot be filled by anyone here. It is a gift that God has given our founder to us and all his writings. As we put more of the writings of our founder on the Internet we see more why Jesus chose this holy priest to tell the world about His Sacred Heart. Jesus' Heart is on fire for the children of this earth. He has revealed to us insights into His deep burning love and the plan of the Father. We are eager to know about our precious Savior, the One we love. Mary takes us into the Heart of Jesus and He leads us to the bosom of the Father in the Holy Spirit.
We never know the interior of a man's heart and soul. Only God knows what lurks beneath the surface. God reads the heart. Jesus gave His life for every soul. We must not judge or think we are better than others. If we are good, it is by God's grace.
We hunger, we thirst, we want the beatific vision, we want to be possessed by God. We walk the earth, we grow deeper in our love union with God and others. We see more His vision as we grow more in our life of grace. We are thirsty for His life. We want the world to be as He wants it to be. We feel we struggle alone many times in our journey to grow in greater perfection in our ways of loving. We want to be more likened to Him. He is always with us and Mary is mothering us in our spiritual journey if we let her. Yes our founder has helped us and written so much to guide us. Jesus led him. Here is an excerpt from the Spirituality Handbook on the virtues of faith, hope and love and a message Jesus gave to our founder.
Excerpt from Spirituality Handbook
"Because Christ in His humanity is Mediator of our life of grace, it possesses not only a Trinitarian dimension, but a Christic aspect as well. We can readily understand, then, why our grace-life is very appropriately also called the Christ-life.
"Our Christ-life is centered in faith and love. Christian faith gives us an extraordinary capacity to know realities about God and the things of God. The virtue of Christian love allows us to accompany this faith-knowledge with an appropriate love-response. Christian hope is the chief support of faith and love. Finally, all the other Christian virtues are variously connected with these three main Christian capacities." (8)
We hear much about faith and love, the two main Christian virtues. However, hope is also extremely important. One of the aspects of the virtue of hope is trust. Let's listen to a message of Jesus regarding trust:
"My beloved priest-companion, tell my people to trust Me unreservedly. I am Lord and Master. I am God. So many fail to trust Me as they should. I love all My people much more than they love themselves! The great love I have for each person should encourage all to trust Me! The more you realize how much a friend loves you, the more you place your trust in that person. I am your perfect Friend. I love you much, much more than your best earthly friend! Tell My people to trust Me completely. Tell them to say often, 'Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You.'" (Message of Jesus as given to the founder). (9)
Notes:
8. Edward Carter, S.J., Prayer Perspectives, Alba House, Staten Island, New York, 1987, p. 12.
9. Tell My People, op. cit.
(End of Excerpt from Spirituality Handbook)
Messenger: Today is the day the Lord has made. We cannot judge others, He wants us to love them, He wants us to pray for them, He wants us to lead them to Him. Our life here is to walk in His footsteps living His life, death and resurrection in our lives. Living united to the Mass at every second is so important. We are SHEPHERDS OF CHRIST. We pray with all our hearts for the souls He gave His life for.
The leaves fall off the tree and who would have thought soon the tree would be barren. But as we experience the wintry days our hearts turn ever more to Him. Our knowledge of God deepens, our love for God becomes ever deeper and our love for His precious souls grows.
We don't know what is going on in another man's heart and soul. We must love him, Jesus did—He laid down His life for His precious souls.
Do not underestimate the gift of the Healing Rosary. Look at the picture enclosed, it is on the PDF files, you can print it out. Look at Lucia's vision. See the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. See Mary stand by the altar. When you pray the rosary look at Lucia's vision and unite to all the Masses going on around the world. The Mass is a fountain of God's grace. Unite every prayer, every action (trying to live according to God's will) to the Mass and pray all prayers through the powerful intercession of Our Lady of Clearwater. Look at the pictures and pray, you can carry our founder's picture on the Priest Prayer with you and pray for his healing. I like to look at Lucia's vision and Our Lady of Clearwater and picture myself at the Mass, being so united to that font of grace, praying for the priest. Pray through Our Lady of Clearwater. I have the picture of our founder holding up the Eucharist. I like to look at this picture of our founder as I pray for his healing.
Messenger: Oh Jesus is so beautiful and so good to us. Please pray for our founder and all the Shepherds of Christ needs. Pray for funds and the building. PLEASE PRAY A HEALING ROSARY FOR OUR FOUNDER EVERY DAY.
I am united to you in our prayers, especially today between 12:00 and 3:00. Jesus likes us to pray and be united to Him on Friday between 12:00 and 3:00, if you must do something (like work, be with your family, etc.) then just be united in your heart. We are helping in the act of redemption. We long for the world to be as God wants. We love Him so much. Please pray for the elections in your prayers all day and pray for a special person for the next few days and all involved.
I love you.
The Messenger.
A Rosary for Healing or for Someone with Cancer.
On one Hail Mary bead or as many as you desire, say: (this is given for Fr. Carter, you can replace your loved one's name).
May God heal Fr. Carter through the intercession of Our Lady of Clearwater in union with the Mass and all the Masses being celebrated around the world.
Pray the Hail Mary or Hail Mary's then pray this after the Hail Mary.
May the cancer be uprooted and thrown into the sea.
We believe with all our hearts.
After the Glory Be— pray the following petition.
May Fr. Carter be healed through the intercession of Our Lady of Clearwater if it be the holy will of God.
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Note: You can look at Mary on the image rosary while you pray this rosary. |  |
Note: The above section can be printed out from a PDF file, and you can pray the rosary looking at the pictures.
Messenger: Included is the excerpt from Fr. Carter's book, Response in Christ. Pray for us to get these books to you and the daily message too.
As we put on excerpts from Father's book, pray to the Holy Spirit before reading. God is working in these great works to give us knowledge of Himself and insight into the divine mysteries. We must pray for grace and ask God to expand our hearts and give us greater insight into the mysteries of God. Tell Him how much we love Him and want to grow in our deep love of Him and know Him more and more.
Our founder's writings are treasures from God. Read them and know that we will receive insight from God when we read them. In time we will know more and more about our God. We must be patient and take what He gives us. Read the writings with an open heart and don't become frustrated. We must be so grateful He has given us these great works to grow deeper in our relationship with Him. Take what you receive at each sitting, don't ask questions, just try to let God work in the words given to reveal more and more of Himself.
As directed by Jesus—today we include the section on hope. Yesterday we included the section on faith. These are from Response in Christ. We must still read the Letter to Hebrews and keep the other Chapters on Grace and the Mass handy so we can read them often. They are treasures that when opened and read with an open heart help us to understand more fully insight into His divine mysteries.
Messenger: Please pray for the healing of Father Carter through the intercession of Our Lady of Clearwater.
Messenger: CAN YOU HELP US BY GIVING US ROSARIES FOR THE SCHOOLS REQUESTING THEM?
Mary speaks: PLEASE MAKE WALTER'S ROSARIES. THE SCHOOLS WANT ROSARIES AND THERE ARE NOT ANY ROSARIES LEFT.
Mass Book II Entry
Through Him, With Him and In Him
Excerpt from Response in Christ (by Fr. Edward J. Carter, S.J.)
NINE Christian Hope
1. God as Object of Hope
If faith gives a special vision of God and His plan for us, hope enables us to desire to participate in the realities of faith's vision. Hope enables us to desire the supernatural order with God at its center. This desire is to be partially fulfilled on earth, but perfectly in eternity. Hope also enables us to trust that the good and omnipotent God will give us the means of achieving our desire. Moreover, hope, as do the other Christian virtues, contains a communal dimension. The virtue of hope is concerned not only with my own personal relationship with God. It also gives me a desire to want all men to participate increasingly in the mystery of Christ.
Our need of hope for the maintenance and growth of our Christ-life is immediately evident from the very nature of the life of grace. As we have said before, our merely natural efforts cannot achieve grace and develop its life. Grace is completely above nature, although, obviously, not contrary to it. God must always take the initiative in giving us grace. This He is always willing to do. The point we are stressing here is that we are completely helpless in the supernatural order without God's assistance in grace. The need for hope or trust in God is manifest. It is not that God refuses to give us grace unless our hope is what it should be. In His mercy and love He can overwhelm a person with His grace even though that person had been previously void of supernatural hope. However, the general principle is that we receive from God according to the measure of our trust in God.
We have every reason to trust greatly in God. Christ reminds us of this: "Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?" (Mt 6:26). Here is another truth which should bolster our trust in God. The Father loved man overwhelmingly even when he was His enemy in sin. He showed this love by giving His Son to live and die for the human race. How much more, then, we should trust in God's love, now that Christ has re-united us with the Father.
This does not say that we always find it easy to trust as we should. In time of special difficulty or crisis, as our heads are bowed in anguish, we can especially experience the difficulty of properly hoping in God. Yet it is precisely at these times when trust is all the more necessary to us. Despite the pain, then, we must trust, even though at times it seems we are hoping against hope. We must learn to trust as did Abraham: "Though it seemed Abraham's hope could not be fulfilled, he hoped and he believed, and through doing so he did become the father of many nations exactly as he had been promised: Your descendants will be as many as the stars. Even the thought that his body was past fatherhood – he was about a hundred years old – and Sarah too old to become a mother, did not shake his belief. Since God had promised it, Abraham refused either to deny it or even to doubt it, but drew strength from faith and gave glory to God, convinced that God had power to do what he promised." (Rm 4:18-21).
God can act similarly with us as He did with Abraham. He can do great things with us if only we allow Him to do so. Among other attitudes, we must have that of hope or trust. We must trust that God can bring us to maturity in Christ. We must trust that the Father will give us all the graces necessary to accomplish our mission in life, difficult as this mission may seem at times. We must trust in this manner despite the great sense of our own weakness which can become especially manifest at times. As a matter of fact, the more we experience our own weakness, the more optimistic we should become.
This was the attitude of the saints. I think we often view the saints in the wrong light. We imagine that they must have felt very secure in the strength of their spiritual development. It seems rather that they were more aware of their weakness and helplessness than we are. Because of such an awareness, they more and more went out of their weakness into the strength of Christ. Therefore, they were secure. But, paradoxically, they were secure because they knew how weak they were. They became secure because they gave themselves completely to Christ, and to His reign of strength within them.
In our own measure we can imitate the saints. We, too, can learn to build upon our weakness. The realization of our weakness should actually increase our hope. The more we admit our helplessness, the more God tends to strengthen us with His grace. As long as we do not capitulate to our weakness, let us glory in our helplessness so that Christ may possess us as He desires. St. Paul tells us: "So I shall be very happy to make my weaknesses my special boast so that the power of Christ may stay over me, and that is why I am quite content with my weaknesses, and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and the agonies I go through for Christ's sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong." (2 Co 12:9-10).
2. Hope and the Secular City
We have mentioned that the Christian's virtue of hope concerns not only himself and God, but others as well. Hope is one facet of our grace-life in Christ. It therefore partakes of that dimension of grace which links the Christian with man and his world.
Under this social aspect of hope we would now like to discuss ideas concerning the Christian and his involvement with the world. This relationship can also be termed involvement with the secular city.1 In other places – for example, in the chapter on the Church – we have discussed the Christian's temporal involvement. It is not a case, consequently, of discussing this dimension of the Christian's life for the first time. It is rather a question of giving a more unified presentation.
Why do we connect such a treatment with the virtue of hope? There are other possibilities, but the concept of Christian hope does offer a logical opportunity for the discussion of Christian involvement with the secular. This is so because one of the thrusts of Christian hope is toward that which is not yet possessed in full. This is also one of the obvious dimensions of man's effort here below. He is always eager to build a better world, to progress to a higher form of temporal life than that which is at present possessed. This is true especially of contemporary man who is keenly aware that human life is not static, but is ever reaching out in an evolutionary desire for that which has not yet been attained. Christian hope elevates this natural desire of man and incorporates it into an effort of unifying all creation more and more into Christ: "Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning to act upon when the times had run their course to the end: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth." (Ep 1:3-10).
This linking of Christian hope with human endeavor is one of the basic tenets of Teilhard de Chardin, a man who has contributed so much towards contemporary Christianity's awareness of the necessity of proper involvement with the secular. "Teilhard . . . bases his ethic of conquest on Christian hope . . . and situates the notion of 'conquest' precisely in eschatological perspectives . . . his idea of conquest is that it is a broad effort to build the world in view of the eschaton."2
Why should the Christian be concerned with the secular? Why can we say that the Christian should passionately love this world with all its authentic values? Why can we say that the Christian should love this world and desire its progress more than the nonbeliever? The answer to all these questions is simply that this world belongs to Christ. Through His human nature Christ has united to Himself not only man but also man's world. The entire temporal order has entered into the redemptive process. In the words of Vatican II, "Christ's work of redemption is directed both toward the salvation of men, as individuals, and at the renewal of the whole secular order. Hence the church's mission is not only to preach Christ and his grace to men, but also to bring the secular order to perfection by permeating it with the spirit of the Gospels."3
Christ, indeed, is the center of a new creation. In the view of Teilhard, Christ is the active point of convergence who gathers to Himself the evolving universe with all its various facets of progress.4 Through His humanity Christ is gradually leading the universe back to the Father. At Christ's second coming the transformation of the universe will receive its final touches, and then Christ will present to the Father the new creation in all its perfection.
In the meantime, before Christ's second coming, we Christians must contribute our share as we help Christ build a secular city which will blend properly with the total process of the new creation. What we accomplish does make a difference, not only in the sphere of the spiritual, but also in that of the material. The shape that we help give to the secular city will in some way remain for all eternity.
The Christian, then, is called to have a deep concern for the secular. Provided his secular involvement is accompanied by the previously discussed dimensions of the cross and transcendence, there is no reason why the Christian should not feel at ease with the secular and rejoice in his relationship to it. Because of his relationship to Christ, who in His humanity is at the center of the created order, the Christian should realize that he has a special, vital affinity for involvement with the temporal order in all its various dimensions. The manner in which this affinity is implemented will depend upon one's basic vocation and the personal graces attached. Yes, even the cloistered contemplative is called to be involved with the secular through the means available, such as prayer and sacrifice.
All of us have to be convinced that we are shaping our eternal destiny within the context of the secular city, the life of this world. God has given us no other milieu. Within this secular city we are shaping our eternity by giving ourselves in various ways to the service of man and his world. We thereby are shaping our eternity by helping to shape the eternity of the entire temporal order.
Each Christian has a peculiar contribution to make in the shaping of the secular city. No one else can fulfill your role, because no one else is the uniqueness which you are. What are the various contributions to be made to the building of the city? Some contributions are obviously highly spiritual – a priest administering the sacraments. Some contributions are in the area of the material and the physical – the work of a scientist. Some persons contribute to the furthering of the secular city in the neat, peaceful confines of an office.
Others contribute amidst the dirt, the poverty, the disease and the explosive anguish of the inner city. Some are asked to contribute, seeing little or no visible results of their efforts. Others are blessed with the consolation of observing the visible fruits of their labors. Some must labor surrounded with almost insurmountable difficulties. Others work at the building of the city almost unimpeded by any such obstacles.
There are many Christians performing many different tasks amidst many different circumstances. The common element in all this is that each Christian is helping Christ draw man and his world closer to Himself. It can be a painfully slow process, and the world in its historical evolution has at times seemed to be going away from Christ rather than toward Him. In all this we have to have faith that our effort in Christ does make a difference, whether that difference is apparent or not.
Christ, despite the suffering in His life, rejoiced greatly in the accomplishment of His work. Let us also, despite the pain and the effort and the suffering involved, rejoice greatly in the Christian task allotted to each of us. Let us realize that such rejoicing mingled with suffering is part of the death-resurrection involved in evolvement of the secular city. Just as death-resurrection was present in the life of Christ, just as it is present in the life of the Church and each Christian, so it is present in the evolving world order. Through the process of pain and effort and suffering we believe that the world is slowly but surely being more perfectly inserted into newness of life, into Christ's Resurrection. Through our Christian hope we desire to make our contribution to hasten the process. As we so labor with Christ we look ahead to the hour at which Christ will bring to completion His redemptive work. Then, as all becomes subject to Christ in perfect harmony, hope or expectation will be fully realized in regard to the entire universe. Let us recall the words of St. Paul: "After that will come the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father. . . . And when everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subject in his turn to the One who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all." (1 Co 15:24-28).
__________
1. For a novel approach to the secular, cf. W. Lynch, Christ and Prometheus: A New Image of the Secular (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1970).
2. R. Faricy, Teilhard de Chardin's Theology of the Christian in the World (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1967), p. 176, footnote.
3. Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, No. 5.
4. Cf. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), pp. 121-123.
(End of Excerpt from Response in Christ)
Prayer List for apostles for interior use in the Movement. Pray hourly.
Spread the Blood of Jesus on everyone, consecrate their hearts, cast the devil out, pray for coming of the Holy Spirit in a special way for all people involved on this list.
Pray Father Carter is healed through Our Lady of Clearwater.
Pray for Father Carter's doctors.
Please pray for one new very important intention.
Pray for all involved in buying the building.
Pray for designated priests, Fr. Mike, Fr. Smith, Fr. Ken, all priests involved in the Imprimaturs translations including all bishops. Pray for Fr. Joe, Bishop Ed, Fr. Don, Father at Tuesday Masses, Fr. Tom, Fr. Bill, all priests involved with Walter, Fr. Hagee and special priests.
Pray for Father's sister Merle, for all of us servants, handmaids, apostles and vocations to all 7 categories.
Pray for the elections.
Pray for an audience with the Pope.
Pray for all Jesuits involved, all those over us. Pray for the 4 urgent intentions.
Pray for the rights to the books.
Pray for the process of getting Father's books on the Internet.
Pray for money to reprint the books.
Pray for the Imprimatur on the Priestly Newsletter Book II.
Pray we can send it to all bishops and Jesuits.
Pray for Perry and family and discernment.
Pray for all sub-centers and all out-of-state rosaries.
Pray for the sisters' mailing, nursing home mailing, bus mailing.
Pray for Rosary Factory.
Pray for Genevieve's daughter and Sheila's mom and Jerry's dad, Bernice's daughter.
Pray for Paul and Joan discernment.
Pray for all book covers.
Pray for B & M and Tina and Terry, all printing jobs, companies involved.
Pray for 5th, the 13th, the 17th.
Pray for the Internet team and the daily messages.
Pray for building up of Morrow, Ohio, Dale, Indiana, other sub-centers.
Pray for the Holy Spirit Center and all involved.
Pray for all our families, children in school, college mailing.
Pray for lots of rosary makers and rosaries for the schools.
Pray for funds and grace.
Pray for Paul C., Margaret Mary, Steve and Sheila, Monica, Angie, Marian, Cathy, Joe, Nick, Mary, Emily, Joe, Doris, Glaci, Dunkers, Joan R., Morgan, Mark, Walter, Janice, Mike A., Margaret, Ron, and Harold.
Pray for Fred doing the paper and all involved in priestly "start-up".
Please pray for all Shepherds of Christ children.
Excerpt from November 1, 2000 Daily Message
Messenger: One of the officers in the Movement said he figured out he had three different color of trousers, grey, reddish-brown, and blue. He said he lined up his trousers in the closet this way - grey, reddish-brown, and blue, grey, reddish-brown, and blue, grey, reddish-brown, blue. When the novena mysteries were joyful he wore grey, when they were sorrowful - he wore reddish-brown, and when they were glorious he wore blue, that way he could keep track of the mysteries. His wife said she uses the red rosary with the sorrowful mysteries for His Blood and the crystal rosary for the glorious mysteries. I gave her a blue rosary for the joyful. I tried this because I pray rosaries all day and sometimes I lose track. As I prayed the mysteries today, which are the joyful mysteries, it was wonderful because I looked down, saw the blue rosary and knew it was the joyful mysteries. I also prayed the glorious mysteries. I looked down and saw it was crystal. I was excited to pray the sorrowful mysteries with the red rosary, it had even greater significance on the red beads.
Blue - Joyful; Red - Sorrowful; Crystal - Glorious. I live the rosary, I love it so much.
(End of Excerpt from November 1, 2000 Daily Message)
Messenger: Rosary in Clearwater, Florida - November 5, 2000.
Messenger: Mary wants the Red Rosary Book printed. It will cost $12,000 - $14,000 to get them reprinted.
Messenger: Pray for Perry.
(Please copy and pass out to family and friends.)
Mary's
Message from the Rosary of August 27, 1996Mary speaks: I stood beneath the cross of my Son, and my Heart was in such pain for I saw Him before my eyes. I saw Him covered with blood. I saw Him die. My Heart, my children, my Heart to watch my Son, but my Heart, my Heart, how I suffered for my little children of the world that give in to this world and give up the love of my Son. O my little children of light, I give you this message. Carry this light into the darkness for your Mother Mary, for I stood beneath the cross and I cried. I cried for the little ones. I cried for the young ones, the ones that do not care and will lose their souls. How do I make you see for you will not listen to me? What can I do? I come. I appear. I beg. I plead. I give you these gifts from my Son, and you reject me. I do not deliver messages very often anymore for I have been ignored. The message is the same. You do not read the messages I have given to you. Please help me. Help the little children. I appear. I appear. I appear, and I am ignored. I stood beneath the cross, and I cried. I cried, and my Heart was in such anguish for my little children, for I am searching for them this day as I searched for the Child Jesus. Please, please help me. I cannot hold back the hand of my Son any longer. I am Mary, your Mother. I ask you to help my children. You are my children of light.
Song: O Lady of Light, shining so bright, be with us this day, guiding our way, O Lady, O Lady of Light.
Mary speaks: I appear to you as Our Mother of Sorrows.
(End of Mary's Message)
MY VALENTINE FOR JESUS AND MARY
AND THE WORLDI _________________ give my heart to
You Jesus and Mary on this day
_________________
I promise to help spread the devotion to
the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Q: How do I feel we can grow closer in our relationship by seeing ourselves as children in the Father's family?
Copyright
© 2000 Shepherds of Christ. Shepherds of Christ Ministries
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Morrow, Ohio 45152-0193
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