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.

 I appear my children on this former bank building in Florida, Our Lady Clothed with the Sun.

February 15, 2005

February 16th Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 6 Period I.

The Novena Rosary Mysteries
for February 16th are Glorious.

    

 

February 15, 2000 -  Feast of St. Claude La Colombiere

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: St. Claude was a Jesuit priest who with St. Margaret Mary spread the devotion to the Sacred Heart.

I asked my Jesus if I could give Him a Valentine every day and He told me He would like that. He asked that the Valentine be included daily and that we fill it out every day and give it to Him with that date.

He asked that we circulate this Valentine to children, adults, to as many as possible that all will give their hearts to Him and dwell in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

We are children of the Father. It is to the children that God will reveal the secrets of the kingdom.

Jesus speaks: Take down your stiff shoulders and your heavy beards, the ones that you think give you authority. My men, do not hide your baby cheeks, for it is the face of the young and humble that My Father wishes to see, it is the child that comes, playful and ready to pounce into His loving arms. You are but children playing on the surface of the earth for a day to come in which the glory of God will be revealed to you.

Oh stiff necked men, it is the offering of self as a little child that He desires. The servant serves if he is faithful to the Master. What Master would hire the man that is willful and does his own way? The servant lives to serve the Master. The Master looks with favor on the ones who serve him.

In your world you have been taught to all be the leaders, to do as you will, to seek for the top so there is no one above your head. You prod each other and knock one another down trying to get to the top. The only top you should want to achieve is a place of honor under the Master's feet.

For I am the God of the Earth. I am your Master, you are My children at play. You are learning the lessons of the Mother and Father. You are the sons and daughters of God. You cannot for a moment forget your Father, for your very life depends on Him.

It is a journey, this life of yours. See it from the top, from the eyes of the beholder, from the One Who creates and gives His beloved creatures a free will to prove their love and service of Him. Some, the little stubborn ones, do not serve, but fight off other brothers to take their place of dominance.

There is but one Victor to follow, it is Christ the Lord.

There is but one place of honor, it is under My feet.

1 Corinthians 15:20-28

In fact, however, Christ has been raised from the dead, as the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. As it was by one man that death came, so through one man has come the resurrection of the dead. Just as all die in Adam, so in Christ all will be brought to life; but all of them in their proper order: Christ the first-fruits, and next, at his coming, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father, having abolished every principality, every ruling force and power. For he is to be king until he has made his enemies his footstool, and the last of the enemies to be done away with is death, for he has put all things under his feet. But when it is said everything is subjected, this obviously cannot include the One who subjected everything to him. When everything has been subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the One who has subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.

Jesus speaks: And so you want a victory, you want a place of honor. I show you the Mother Mary.

Luke 1: 46 - 55
The Magnificat

And Mary said:

My soul proclaims
    the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit rejoices
    in God my Saviour;
because he has looked upon
    the humiliation of his servant.
Yes, from now onwards
    all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty
    has done great things for me.
Holy is his name,
and his faithful love extends age after age
    to those who fear him.
He has used the power of his arm,
he has routed the arrogant of heart.
He has pulled down princes
    from their thrones
        and raised high the lowly.
He has filled the starving with good things,
    sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the help
    of Israel his servant,
        mindful of his faithful love
--according to the promise
    he made to our ancestors--
of his mercy to Abraham
    and to his descendants for ever.

Jesus speaks: My men, you must pray the rosary, you must live the rosary, you must model your lives after Our two Hearts.

My men, you are to walk a road of patience being crowned and beaten and watching the children of the earth at play as they are taught sin by the world, and, My men, you cry. Oh cry with Mary as she hangs now on your building in Florida and is ignored. For three long years. And I hung on the cross for three hours.

Oh the minutes seem like hours, the hours like days, the days turn into nights that are long and weeks that seem endless. I carried My cross to the hill of Calvary, mounted it, and then died a brutal death to show you the way of the Good Shepherd. He laid down His Life for His flock. To His death on the cross He did the will of the Father.

A life - a child is born, a baby at the breast, the milk of greatest goodness is given from a mother's breasts, the child is cuddled and loved, and then the child is put into the world in nursery schools, day care, elementary schools, high schools. The child is given sick games, many times by parents who do not withstand the pressures of the world.

Are your children being taught about the commandments?

Are your children being taught about the will of God?

Are your children being taught about My word and how to let it settle in their hearts so that My Life will live in them?

Baby GirlAre your children being taught about the gift I give you in the Eucharist, Myself?

Jesus speaks: They come into the world, their sweet tender cheeks, their little sweet voices come out, gentle, cute and loving, and then you set them loose in your world to be taught, and the once warm breast milk turned cold as they are fed such garbage that is teaching them to go to the dead.

Mary speaks: My babies, my babies I cry to you.

Jesus speaks: My children, I loved you to My death on the cross.

Oh My babies, My Father created you with little sweet mouths and little gentle sighs, and your world has taught you about cold hearts.

Oh My men. You are being chastised for ignoring the Lady of Fatima. You think that the devasation of World War II was dead bodies.

When Mary said at Fatima a great War would follow, the devastation was far more than the dead soldiers and broken hearts of women and children who lost their loved ones. It is the results today of your children who have been eaten alive by your world and its ways. A spiritual death and you do not see it.

My men, you think you can ignore the Lady. If you would have obeyed her request when she appeared daily July 5, 1994 - September 5, 1995, and used the Rosaries from the Hearts of Jesus and Mary as we told you and consecrated your hearts, you would not be suffering so today.

In a last attempt to reach you with the message of the Eucharist she appears on the building in Florida. She cries out to give your hearts in consecration to us and to pray the rosary.

When I give gifts and messages, and you fight the messengers, you fight Me and anger Me.

I am a kind and gentle God, and I love you.

I appeared February 5, 2000, under the image of My Mother, for I am a God Who loves His people.

I am the Light of the World.

You must obey the commandments

I call you to pray, to consecration, to love, to pray the rosary.

I give you My truth, I give you My word, My word is not to be changed.

I give you My Church, you are to love her.

I am your God, I bent over in the garden, and I sweat blood. I saw before Me the children of this age.

I love you so, I want you to love your God and love one another.

I plead and I beg that you help me and not fight the message I give you.

I beg you to deliver the message as I deliver it to you for the sake of souls.

Life here on earth is but a drop, compared to eternity.

I ask you to include the message February 17, 1994, and the Valentine at the end.

Please help Me, do not fight the messenger for delivering the message I give.

Picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Seek True Treasures

God's Blue Book II Cover

February 17, 1994 5:30 a.m.

Jesus speaks: My little ones, how are you doing? Are you getting bogged down in this weather? Do you know yet that you do not control the elements? You live every day and you think you have much to do to control your actions but you do not see the eyes of Him Who watches over you with loving care.

I give to you this earth and all you need to sustain your life here. Man worries about the earth and if this or that will happen. Man has become so independent that he thinks he controls all things and he needs to worry about his present and future.

You, My favored, chosen ones, know that life here lasts but a moment and like smoke it is gone without a trace. Look at your ancestors. So few people ever remember their ancestors, yet your ancestors thought that at every moment their actions were so crucial. Little ones, you hold on to life. You hold on to these little happenings here and you worry in vain! Look at the big picture, My little ones. Here today, gone tomorrow, and where are you going?

The days go by with such speed. "Oh," you say, "Where have the years gone?" You think every second is so important. You worry, you fret, you wander empty roads and I watch you. I see you with your emphasis on the moment. You are being deceived, My little ones. It is in seeing the moment as part of eternity that you really know what is going on. Each moment you live, you are the teacher about the God Who dwells in your breast. Each moment you live, you are My messenger to this cold, scared world. Nothing you do means anything except as you are serving Me.

Take off your glasses. Behold the life above. See every moment as a drop of the life to come. See every moment as part of eternity. All these drops together make up your pass into My kingdom.

You worry, you wonder, you fret, you hold on. I give you a toothache, I take it away. One second and a toothache is gone. Is that not how it is with life--one second and it is gone? Oh, how those little precious moments seem to die away and you scarce can remember what happened! Yet during people's lives those moments seem earth-shattering. Those moments are yesterday's forgotten memories. You hold on, you fret, you fume and I watch you let go of each moment, only to become forgotten by today.

Store up your moments as part of eternity. Every moment here is part of your pass to My kingdom. How are you living this moment? Is it used to give service to Me and preach My gospel? Are you making all your moments count towards your eternity? Each moment is but a breath and it is gone. Did you use the moment I gave you to do My work? This time is not yours. I can snatch your moments away in one breath. It matters, My children, only as you choose to serve Me and spread My love!

If everyone had God as their primary goal, what love you would possess. What power you would know, because God is the mightiest force. I have all the power. Other power is false power!

Do you get it yet? Do you think anything you hold on to is so precious here? Here today, gone tomorrow, and I snatch you from your seats and you never return to finish what you deemed so important.

Are you comprehending My words here? The body is but an instrument to get you around. Reach with the spirit within. Live from the soul. Communicate with Me in your soul. Look for the unseen world that surrounds you constantly. Die to yourself.

You have a soul at this very moment that is a vibrant spiritual force alive within you. Live from your soul, My little ones. Focus on your soul. Live from your heart. Do not fret and fume for the things of this world. Here today, gone tomorrow, and then forgotten. Today's moments, yesterday's forgotten treasures. Do they mean so much or do you forget what seemed so important?

Reach with the soul. Live for God. Each moment is your chance to store up treasures for eternity. They will never be forgotten. What you do to help others to know Me will never be forgotten. How you loved will never be forgotten. How you gave lives on in those you touched. Your love is like a bubbling brook. It bubbles and keeps on bubbling. Your selfishness dies the moment after you live it.

Love is the force. Love is the power that reflects the God above. Love is not selfish. Love does not demand its own way. Love gives and doesn't stop giving. On the day of judgment it will be found in the hearts of those you touched. Think of only yourself and watch your moments become yesterday's forgotten moments. Love your brothers and watch the world reflect the love you gave, from now to the end.

Love or selfishness? I call you to love. I call you to plant a seed that grows into a mighty oak. Plant My seeds of love. Ask not how you can attain your goal but how you can fulfill the goal of God. Love God, love one another. Too simple, too hard for many.

Love, children. Reflect the God Who dwells within your soul. Store up your moments forever lest they become yesterday's forgotten treasure.

Like ripples on a pond, your love never dies. It reaches on and on and goes into the moments of eternity. Love is lasting. Love never dies. Love God, love one another. Die to yourself and live.

God's Blue Book Cover

To The Reader

Messenger: Jesus wants to share His love with you. He comes in these letters to tell you how you can be in intimate union with Him.

All of us possess everything we need to have an intimate union with Him. He has written to me since October of 1991. For at least a year I sat in front of the tabernacle and begged him to talk to me. I wanted words. I prayed to the Holy Spirit and begged and begged Him to baptize me. After a long and seemingly endless search, trying to hear God, He told me to "feed the hungry." For six weeks this was all I heard. I thought maybe I wasn't feeding my children well or eating well enough myself. What a long wait for three words! At long last one day, as I was writing to Jesus, I received a letter back. He told me, "I am Jesus, Son of the Living God." I did not want to write this but it kept coming-and so many other messages. I knew nothing of anyone getting messages. I wrote them, reluctantly, and hid my notebooks. The letters kept coming-a lot in the night-and I would be awakened by long letters which I felt compelled to get up and write down. I read these letters privately and my life began to change. I felt a new life within me.

Messenger: Jesus told me to feed the hungry.

Luke 9: 11-17
The return of the apostles
Miracle of the loaves

But the crowds got to know and they went after him. He made them welcome and talked to them about the kingdom of God; and he cured those who were in need of healing.

It was late afternoon when the Twelve came up to him and said, 'Send the people away, and they can go to the villages and farms round about to find lodging and food; for we are in a lonely place here.' He replied, 'Give them something to eat yourselves.' But they said, 'We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we are to go ourselves and buy food for all these people.' For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, 'Get them to sit down in parties of about fifty.' They did so and made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing over them; then he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd. They all ate as much as they wanted, and when the scraps left over were collected they filled twelve baskets.

Messenger: Jesus gives Himself in the Eucharist.

Please help me spread His message.

Mary speaks: My dear children, I am Mary your Mother. Please help through your prayers and funds to do what the Father has asked you to do.

Messenger: We are in dire need of funds to continue the work as our Lord and Lady have directed. The Father wishes us to circulate this material and to buy the Florida Image Building for the purpose of spreading this material that the souls of this earth will give their hearts to Jesus and Mary in consecration and pray the rosary. This is Jesus' Movement to help bring about the reign of His Heart and the triumph of Mary's Heart through spiritual renewal of the Church and the world, praying predominantly for priests and for all souls, including the youth and  families. In giving our hearts to Jesus and Mary our hearts will be hearts of love.

end of February 15, 2000

     

  

Shepherds of Christ

A Spirituality Newsletter for Priests
and Others Interested in the Spiritual Life

2000 - ISSUE THREE

SPECIAL ISSUE!

This is a special, expanded issue for the purpose of giving an overview of the spiritual life. At times it is profitable for us to review briefly the various elements which comprise the spiritual life. We hope this special issue will be helpful for such an exercise, and that it will speak to the heart as well as to the mind.

WE ARE EXPANDING OUR READERSHIP!

We are expanding our circulation by explicitly inviting to our readership those who are not priests, but who are interested in the spiritual life.

The Newsletter will still be written for priests in a special way. Yet we feel much of the material will also be of interest to those who are not priests.

To reflect the fact that we are now expanding our readership to include all interested parties, we think it is appropriate to offer a new act of consecration which is not worded for priests only, but one suitable for all.

CONTENTS

Chief Shepherd of the Flock

An Overview of the Spiritual Life

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and runs away, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; he runs away because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. (Jn 10:11-151)

The Good Shepherd gave His life so that we may have life and have it in abundance. In this issue we offer an overview of the life Jesus came to give. We begin by presenting a brief sketch of the spiritual life. This will be followed by content which speaks in a more detailed manner about the various dimensions of the spiritual life -- our life in Christ.

A Sketch of the Spiritual Life

The Christian life is rooted in the great event of the Incarnation. We must consequently always focus our gaze upon Christ, realizing that the Father has spoken to us in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. It only remains for us, then, to strive to understand with greater insight the inexhaustible truth of the Word Incarnate (Heb 1:1-2).

What was the condition of the human race at the time of Christ’s coming? In some ways, people were much the same as we are today. There were those just being born into this world of human drama. There were those who, in death, were leaving it, some of whom had grasped but little of life’s meaning. There were those who were healthy and vigorous. There were those who were sick and lame. Some especially felt the burdens, the grief, the suffering of the human condition. Others were ebullient and desired all the pleasures life could provide. There was some good being accomplished. Immorality, however, was rampant. What St. Paul tells us concerning the time that immediately followed Christ’s existence certainly could also be applied to the time of His entrance into the world. It is, in short, an ugly picture that St. Paul depicts for us (Rom 1:22-32).

Into such a depraved condition Jesus entered, with a full and generous Heart, to lead the human race from the depths of sinfulness to the vibrant richness of a new life in Himself. Through His enfleshment, this Christ became the focal point of all history. The authentic hopes and dreams of the human family, now so overshadowed by the ugliness of sin, came converging upon this Christ. He would gather them up in Himself, give them a new luster and brilliance and dynamism, and would lead the human family back to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

Christ was radically to release us from the dominion of sin and elevate us to a new level of existence. This life Christ has given us is not a type of superstructure which is erected atop human existence. Although nature and grace are distinct, they do not lie side by side as separate entities. Rather, grace permeates nature. The Christian is one graced person. The Christian is one who has been raised up, caught up, into a deeper form of life in Christ Jesus. Nothing that is authentically human in the life of the Christian has been excluded from this new existence. Whatever is really human in the life of the Christian is meant to be an expression of the Christ-life. The simple but deep joys of family life, the wonderment at nature’s beauty, the warm embrace of a mother for her child, the agony of crucial decision making, the success or frustration that is experienced in one’s work, the joy of being well received by others, and the heartache of being misunderstood—all these experiences are intended to be caught up in Christ and made more deeply human because of Him.

Jesus has come, then, not to destroy anything that is authentically human, but to perfect it by leading it to a graced fulfillment. The more God-like we become through Christ, the more human we become.

We, through our incorporation into Christ which occurs at Baptism, are meant to relive the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In doing so, we are not only accomplishing our own salvation, but we are assisting in the salvation of others also. The Incarnation continues all the time. Christ, or course, is the one Who fundamentally continues the Incarnation. But He enlists our help. The world no longer sees Jesus, no longer is able to reach out and touch Him. We are the ones who now, in some way, make Christ visible and tangible. In union with the invisible, glorified Christ, and depending on Him as our source of life, we continue the Incarnation in its visible and temporal dimensions. This is our great privilege. This is our great responsibility.

The Christian is initiated into the mystery of Christ, into his or her role in prolonging the Incarnation, through Baptism (Rom 6:3-4).

It is not sufficient, however, that we be incorporated into Christ through Baptism. All forms of life require nourishment. So, too, our life in Christ must be continually nourished. How can we continually keep in contact with Christ? There are various ways as we live our life within the Church. We contact Christ in a most special way through the liturgy, above all in the Eucharistic liturgy. Through our most special and most personal meeting with Jesus in the Mass, we are more deeply incorporated into Christ. Also, we should remember that all the sacraments make up part of the Church’s liturgy.

The reading of Scripture provides another special opportunity for meeting Jesus. This is true for both Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament prefigures the New Testament and leads to it. It is obvious, however, that we meet Christ especially in the pages of the New Testament. How true it is to say that not to be familiar with Scripture is not to know Jesus properly. We should resolve to read from Scripture daily.

We also meet Jesus in our interaction with others. Everyone we meet, everyone we serve, is in the image of Jesus. We have to take the means to grow in this awareness. If I truly believe that everyone has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, how should I treat everyone?

These, then, are some of the ways we keep in contact with Jesus. Common to the various ways of meeting Jesus is a certain degree of prayerful reflection. Our contact with Jesus in the liturgy, in Scripture, and in our interaction with others, and so forth, will not be all that it should be unless we are persons of prayer. The light and strength of prayer enables us to keep in contact with Jesus as we should.

We live out our Christ-life in an atmosphere of love. Indeed, the life Jesus has given us is centered in love. It has its origins in the mysterious love of God (Jn 3:16).

Our new life in Jesus has arisen out of God’s fathomless love. Christ, in His descent into human flesh, has established a milieu of love. The life He came to give can flourish only in the framework of love. Indeed, we can summarize the meaning of the Christian life by stating that it is our loving response to God’s love. The pierced Heart of Jesus, this Heart which shed its last drop of blood in the greatest love for each one of us, is the symbol of God’s tremendous love for us. Christ’s Heart also calls us to respond by giving ourselves in love to God and neighbor. Yes, Jesus invites us to respond to God’s love by giving ourselves in love to Him in an ever closer union. The more closely we are united to Him, the greater is our capacity to love God and neighbor. The more closely we are united with Jesus, the more closely He unites us to the Father in the Holy Spirit, with Mary our Mother at our side.

The Indwelling of the Trinity and the Life of Grace

The spiritual life, the life of holiness, begins at Baptism. Archbishop Luis Martinez says:

"When we are born we are endowed by God with all we need for our human life, a complete organism, and a soul with the full range of faculties. Of course they are not all developed from birth, but we have them then as the source of everything we are going to need in life. And thus it is also in the spiritual order. When someone is baptized, he receives in all its fullness that supernatural world which the Christian carries within his soul. He receives grace, which is a participation of the nature of God; the theological virtues, which put him in immediate contact with the divine; the moral virtues, which serve to regulate and order all his life; and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the divine, mysterious receivers for picking up the Spirit’s inspirations and movements."2

Another author states: "The Three Divine Persons inhabit the sanctuary of our soul, taking their delight in enriching it with supernatural gifts and in communicating to us a Godlike life, similar to theirs, called the life of grace.

"All life, however, implies a threefold element: a vital principle that is, so to speak, the source of life itself; faculties which give the power to elicit vital acts; and lastly, the acts themselves which are but its development and which minister to its growth. In the supernatural order, God living within us produces the same elements. He first communicates to us habitual grace (the life of sanctifying grace) which plays the part of a vital supernatural principle. This principle deifies, as it were, the very substance of the soul and makes it capable, though in a remote way, of enjoying the Beatific Vision and of performing the acts that lead to it.

"Out of this grace spring the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit which perfect our faculties and endow us with the immediate power of performing Godlike, supernatural, meritorious acts.

"In order to stir these faculties into action, He give us actual graces which enlighten our mind, strengthen our will, and aid us both to act supernaturally and to increase the measure of habitual grace that has been granted to us.

"Although this life of grace is entirely distinct from our natural life it is not merely superimposed on the latter. It penetrates it through and through, transforms it and makes it divine. It assimilates whatever is good in our nature, our education and our habits. It perfects and supernaturalizes all these various elements, directing them toward the last end, that is toward the possession of God through the Beatific Vision and its resultant life." 3

Our being in the state of sanctifying of grace and the special indwelling of the Persons of the Trinity within us always exist together. We cannot have the one without the other. Our life of grace, which is a sharing in Trinitarian life, allows us to know and love Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a most intimate fashion. Through grace we are in the image of the Trinity, and we enjoy special relationships with the Divine Persons.

Again, we listen to the words of Archbishop Martinez as he speaks about our relationships with the Divine Persons:

"Love, we have said, is the foundation of devotion to the Holy Spirit, as it is also the foundation of Christian perfection. But love as a reflection of God, as His own image, is something that encloses within its simplicity a boundless wealth and a variety of forms. Who can fathom the depths of love?

"Human love in all its manifestations is admirably in harmony with the love of charity; it is confident in filial love, trusting in friendship, sweet and fruitful in the love of husband and wife, disinterested and tender in the love of a mother. Our love of God must include all these forms of human love; every fiber of our heart must vibrate when the harmonious and full canticle of love bursts forth from it. But since God is one in essence and triune in Persons, our love for Him takes on a particular aspect accordingly as it is directed to each one of the divine Persons.

"Our love for the Father is tender and confident like that of children; eager to glorify Him as His only-begotten Son taught us to do by word and example. Love for the Father is the intense desire to have His will fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven. Our love for the Son, who willed to become flesh for us, is characterized by the tendency to union with Him and transformation into Him; by imitation of His example, participation in His life, and the sharing of His sufferings and His Cross. The Eucharist, mystery of love, of sorrow, and of union, reveals the characteristics of this love.

"Love for the Holy Spirit also has its special character, which we should study in order completely to understand devotion to Him. We have explained how the Holy Spirit loves us, how He moves us like a divine breath that draws us to the bosom of God, like a sacred fire that transforms us into fire, like a divine artist who forms Jesus in us. Surely, then, our love for the Holy Spirit should be marked by loving docility, by full surrender, and by a constant fidelity that permits us to be moved, directed, and transformed by His sanctifying action.

"Our love for the Father tends to glorify Him; our love for the Son, to transform ourselves into Him; our love for the Holy Spirit, to let ourselves be possessed and moved by Him."4

Life In and With Jesus

Christ has structured the Christian life by the way He lived, died, and rose from the dead. It is obvious, then, as Paul tells us above, that the pattern of death-resurrection must be at the heart of the Church’s life. Individually and collectively, we continually die with Christ so that we may continually rise with Him. Thus we pass over in a process of ongoing religious transition to a greater participation in Christ’s resurrection. It is true that our participation in Christ’s resurrection will reach its completion only in eternity. Nevertheless, we begin the life of resurrection here upon the earth, in the here and now of human life, in the midst of joy and pain; in the experience of success and failure, in the sweat of our brow, in the enjoyment of God’s gifts. As Christians, we should have a sense of dynamic growth concerning our here and now life of resurrection.

We cannot maintain the life of resurrection or grow in it without a willingness to suffer. This does not mean that we need to feel overwhelmed and heavily burdened in our lives. The greater portion of suffering for most Christians seems to be an accumulation of ordinary hardships, difficulties, and pains. At times, however, deep suffering, even suffering of agonizing proportions, can enter into one’s life. Whether the sufferings one encounters are of either the more ordinary variety or the more rare and extreme type, Christians must convince themselves that to relate properly to the cross is to grow in resurrection, and growth in resurrection means we will also have an increased capacity to help give resurrection to others.

We are meant to share in all of the mysteries of Christ here below—we are meant to relive them in our own lives. And all of these mysteries are directed to the crowning mystery of Jesus, His resurrection: "As the Church is ever re-enacting, during all the ages, the life story of her Divine Spouse—undergoing in the Mystical Body what He suffered in His Natural Body, so it must be too, in some measure, for every individual Christian that lives in real unity with Christ. It was thus that the saints understood the life of the Divine Master. They not merely contemplated it, they lived it. This was the source of the immense sympathy they were capable of experiencing for Him in His different states. They felt in a certain measure what He felt, and what is true of Our Lord’s life considered as a whole must be true in no imperfect or limited manner of that which was the supreme and crowning mystery in that life—namely, the Resurrection. This must be, not merely a fact in Christian history, but a phase of Christian experience …We do not readily perceive that, in God’s plan, not only the Cross, but the Risen Life that followed it, is meant to be part of our terrestrial existence. Christ did not pass from the Cross straight to heaven. The Christian is not meant to do so either. In the case of Jesus the Cross preceded, prepared and prefaced a risen life on earth. In the case of the Christian the Cross is meant to play a somewhat similar role—that is, to be the prelude to a risen life, even here below.

"The Cross cannot be completely understood except it is viewed in the full light of the Resurrection. It is the latter, not the former, that is the ultimate mystery for us…The Cross is a means, not an end; it finds its explanation only in the empty tomb; it is an entrance into life, not a mode of death. Any death that enters into God’s plan must necessarily issue forth in life. If He lays upon us the necessity of dying it is in order that we may live…In order that we may live as we ought, our rebellious nature must be crucified. Crucifixion always remains the only mode of salvation.

"God sends trials and crosses simply to deaden in us the activity of the forces that make for the decay of the spiritual life, in order that that spiritual life may develop and expand unimpeded. According as the life of perverse nature ebbs away from us on our cross united with Christ’s, the Divine Life that God has placed in all whom He has called begins to make itself more manifest and to display increased vigour and vitality…It is to that Resurrection, that life in death, that God directs all the circumstances of our life—it is the object He aims at in His dealing with us." 7

In his above words, Fr. Edward Leen, C.S.Sp., speaks about a special episode of our participation in the resurrection of Jesus. He speaks of our Christ-life, our life of grace, in the highly developed state. We should all strive for this state. We must realize, however, that all those who live in the state of grace are, in an essential way, living the life of resurrection. They are alive in Christ Jesus.

"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 of 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...

"You belong to the Son of God, but more than that, you ought to be in him as the 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.

"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." 8

Because of the uniqueness of each Christian's existence, he or she presents Christ with a unique opportunity. Each Christian has the vocation to offer Christ his or her humanity so that Jesus can live in that individual in a special way. This Jesus is Priest, Prophet and King. To the extent that an individual Christian offers his or her humanity to Jesus, that person has an unique opportunity to help to continue the work of the redemption--an opportunity that no one else can fulfill. Likewise, to the extent that an individual fails to offer his or her humanity to Christ, Jesus loses the opportunity to continue His redemptive work according to that person's uniqueness.

"One day, walking on a busy street downtown, he saw a television set in a store window. The program was about our Home for the Dying in Calcutta, and it showed our Sisters taking care of the sick and the dying.

"The man confessed that when he saw that, he felt the urge to kneel and pray, after many years of not ever kneeling or praying.

"From that day on, he recovered his faith in God and in humanity, and he was convinced that God still loves him."11

You share my burdens,
You take them upon yourself.
You listen to me fondly when I tell you my troubles.
You never fail to lighten them.
I find You at all times and in all places.
You never leave me.
I will always find You wherever I go.

Old age or misfortune will not cause You to abandon me.
You will never be closer to me than
When all seems to go against me.
No matter how miserable I may be,
You will never cease to be my friend.

You tolerate my faults with admirable patience.
You are always ready to come to me, if I so desire it.

Jesus, may I die praising you!
May I die loving you!
May I die for the love of you.12

The Father's Will for Us  - Our Source of Peace

"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

The world needs peace. Individual nations need peace and families need peace. The Church needs peace. Each of us individually needs peace. We must work for peace through prayer, fasting, and other Christ-like activities.

And just what do we mean by peace? St. Augustine says peace is the tranquility of order. God has put order into His creation and this order must be respected and promoted if peace is to prevail. To the extent that the human family lives according to God’s will—lives according to the order or the plan God has established for creation—to that extent does peace exist in the various segments of human society. To the extent there are violations of God’s plan, of His will, to that extent peace is absent.

If we are to be instruments of peace, we ourselves must be at peace. Our personal peace is that tranquility of order which results from our doing God’s will. The more we are united through love with God in the doing of His will, the more we experience peace.

Sometimes the sense of peace we experience is so strong that we can "feel" it pulsating throughout our being. These are periods of what we may call the experience of extraordinary peace. This type of peace usually is not an everyday occurrence.

Most of the time we live immersed in a more subdued kind of peace which results from our daily attempts to do God’s will in love. It is that peace which is a welcome and sustaining companion as we walk the path of everyday life with its usual assortments of joys and disappointments, successes and failures, laughter and tears.

Occasionally, very deep suffering may enter our lives. It is during these times that we need special determination to preserve ourselves in a basic peace of spirit despite the very significant pain. One may wonder how a person can be at peace amidst the experience of great suffering. St. Francis de Sales in one of his writings—and I have not been able to locate the exact place—offers an analogy which I think is very helpful. He asks us to picture an ocean body of water at the time of a violent storm. The surface of the water becomes extremely turbulent. Francis asks us, as we use our imagination, to descend beneath the surface of the water into its depth. What do we find? The more deeply one descends away from the turbulent surface, the calmer the water becomes. Likewise, says the saint and doctor of the Church, should it be with us during times of profound suffering. Although the surface of the spirit may be very agitated, one can still maintain basic peace of spirit by going deep down to one’s center where God is more directly experienced. Here the person experiences a calm, a basic peace, although the suffering remains.

If we are trying to do God’s will in love, God intends us to be at peace. The more we conform to God’s will, the more we are living according to the order He intends for us. In turn, the more our lives are in harmony with the order established by God, the more we experience peace—peace being the tranquility of order. The more we ourselves live in this manner, the more fit instruments we become for promoting God’s order and consequent peace throughout the various segments of society.

"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."15

"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."16

Again she states: "...love consists ... in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything." 17

The Holy Spirit and Mary

The late Archbishop Luis M. Martinez of Mexico strikingly speaks of the ongoing cooperation of Mary with the Holy Spirit regarding the reproduction of Jesus within us: "Christian life is the reproduction of Jesus in souls…

"Now, how will this mystical reproduction be brought about in souls? In the same way in which Jesus was brought into the world, for God gives a wonderful mark of unity to all His works. Divine acts have a wealth of variety because they are the work of omnipotence; nevertheless, a most perfect unity always shines forth from them because they are the fruit of wisdom; and this divine contrast of unity and variety stamps the works of God with sublime and unutterable beauty.

"In His miraculous birth, Jesus was the fruit of heaven and earth…The Holy Spirit conveyed the divine fruitfulness of the Father to Mary, and the virginal soil brought forth in an ineffable manner our most loving Savior, the divine Seed, as the prophets called Him…

"That is the way He is reproduced in souls. He is always the fruit of heaven and earth.

"Two artisans must concur in the work that is at once God’s masterpiece and humanity’s supreme product: the Holy Spirit and the most holy Virgin Mary. Two sanctifiers are necessary to souls, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, for they are the only ones who can reproduce Christ.

"Undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary sanctify us in different ways. The first is the Sanctifier by essence; because He is God, who is infinite sanctity; because He is the personal Love that completes, so to speak, the sanctity of God, consummating His life and His unity, and it belongs to Him to communicate to souls the mystery of that sanctity. The Virgin Mary, for her part, is the co-operator, the indispensable instrument in and by God’s design. From Mary’s maternal relation to the human body of Christ is derived her relation to His Mystical Body which is being formed through all the centuries until the end of time, when it will be lifted up to the heavens, beautiful, splendid, complete, and glorious.

"These two, then, the Holy Spirit and Mary, are the indispensable artificers of Jesus, the indispensable sanctifiers of souls. Any saint in heaven can co-operate in the sanctification of a soul, but his co-operation is not necessary, not profound, not constant: while the co-operation of these two artisans of Jesus of whom we have just been speaking is so necessary that without it souls are not sanctified (and this by the actual design of Providence), and so intimate that it reaches to the very depths of our soul. For the Holy Spirit pours charity into our heart, makes a habitation of our soul, and directs our spiritual life by means of His gifts. The Virgin Mary has the efficacious influence of Mediatrix in the most profound and delicate operations of grace in our souls. And, finally, the action of the Holy Spirit and the co-operation of the most holy Virgin Mary are constant; without them, not one single character of Jesus would be traced on our souls, no virtue grow, no gift be developed, no grace increased, no bond of union with God be strengthened in the rich flowering of the spiritual life.

"Such is the place that the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary have in the order of sanctification. Therefore, Christian piety should put these two artisans of Christ in their true place, making devotion to them something necessary, profound, and constant." 18

The Church

We live out our spiritual lives within the Church. The Church is a multi-splendored reality. Let us reflect upon some of the key ideas connected with the Church.

Now Christ’s body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole. And those whom God has appointed in the Church are, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers; after them, miraculous powers, then gifts of healing, helpful acts, guidance, various kinds of tongues. Are all of them apostles? Or all prophets? Or all teachers? Or all miracle-workers? Do all have the gifts of healing? Do all of them speak in tongues and all interpret them? (1 Cor 12:12-17; 27-30)

However, it is necessary that such graces be distributed to each individual as one plays out his or her part in the drama of human existence. Such a distribution of grace is the work of subjective redemption.

Jesus still walks the earth as the work of redemption continues. However, He now walks the earth according to a different type of existence. He does not walk the earth in His physical body, but rather in His Mystical Body, the Church, the People of God. Through the members of His Church, Christ continues to be present as He teaches, administers the sacraments, extends His mercy -- all done through the members of His Body, the Church. This mystical Christ, in turn, derives all supernatural power from Christ, the Head, who reigns gloriously with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

The Church, therefore, is the earthly continuation of Christ’s redemptive Incarnation. This mission which the Church has, although a great responsibility, is also a great privilege. In proportion as each Christian offers and commits himself or herself to Christ, the Church in her entirety more and more mirrors forth Christ to the world. This Christ, whom the Church portrays to the world, is the Christ who is Prophet, King and Priest.

"The Church is my mother because she brought me forth to a new life. She is my mother because her concern for me never slackens, any more than do her efforts to deepen that life in me, however unenthusiastic my cooperation. And though in me this life may be a fragile and timid growth, I have seen its full flowering in others...

"Happy those who from childhood have learnt to look on the Church as a mother! Happier still those whose experience, in whatever walk of life, has confirmed its truth! Happy those who one day were gripped by (and whose appreciation of it ever grew) the astonishing newness, richness and depth of the life communicated to them by this mother!" 22

"If you live in the Church and try to use the power of the Church to increase the life of the Church, then the power of the Church will make you yourself whole; and in your wholeness you will help to make your family and make your world. But you will be building for a more than earthly beatitude because you will be building the city which is eternal. Here you build in shadow, you build for a future which is invisible, and so you can only build in hope. And often your plans will be wrecked and your dreams come crashing about your ears, and you will need the strength of the Rock which is Christ to give you patience and fortitude...

"And when death has come to you...the Church will bless you for the life you have added to it, and there will be men to heed you better than they did when you were here...

"But you, for your part, will be no longer in the shadow but in the glory of the Light inaccessible; you will be in the City that is yours because you helped to build it; you will see Him at last as He is, and be wholly with Him; and you will have no more any mourning or weeping or any other sorrow, for all these former things will have been transmuted into happiness and peace, and you will walk with Him--together with all those you have helped to bring to Him, even until the end of the world--you will walk with Him in happiness for ever, in the cool of the eternal evening." 24

The Sacraments

The Church’s existence centers in her liturgy. Vatican II says: "The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the fountain from which all her power flows." 25 The Church’s liturgical life is centered in the sacraments and, most especially, in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. We will briefly consider the sacraments in general, and then more extensively develop ideas about the Mass.

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

Christ offers Himself through the Church and her sacraments so that we might become ever more united to Him. This incorporation into Christ begins at baptism, through which the Christian becomes a member of both Christ and the Church. What is more, this incorporation into the life of Christ means being incorporated into his paschal mystery. Death-resurrection was the summary mystery of Christ’s redemptive existence. Death-resurrection was the central mystery whereby Christ gave us life, and it is the central mystery that the Christian must relive in Christ.

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

The Eucharist

"Adoration of Christ in this sacrament of love must also find expression in various forms of Eucharistic devotion: personal prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, Hours of Adoration, periods of exposition—short, prolonged and annual (Forty Hours) - Eucharistic benediction, Eucharistic processions, Eucharistic congresses. A particular mention should be made at this point of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ as an act of public worship rendered to Christ present in the Eucharist, a feast instituted by my predecessor Urban IV in memory of the institution of this great Mystery.

"All this therefore corresponds to the general principles and particular norms already long in existence, but newly formulated during or after the Second Vatican Council.

"…The Church and the world have a great need of Eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet Him in adoration and in contemplation that is full of faith and ready to make reparation for the great faults and crimes of the world. May our adoration never cease."29

"But, inasmuch as it is your offering and mine, and that of every other member of the Mystical Body ... we can limit the effectiveness of God’s great Act of Love; we finite beings can set bounds to the veritable flood of God-life made possible by the Infinite Son of the Infinite Father." 30

Yes, the effectiveness of each Mass, which makes the sacrifice of Calvary sacramentally present, depends in part on the holiness of the entire Church offering it with Christ to the Father in the Holy Spirit, including the holiness of the individual priest offering and the holiness of his participating congregation.

Yes, the effectiveness of each Mass, which makes the sacrifice of Calvary sacramentally present, depends in part on the holiness of the entire Church offering it with Christ to the Father in the Holy Spirit, including the holiness of the individual priest offering and the holiness of his participating congregation.

If all, then, have a responsibility to grow in holiness in order to render the Mass more efficacious, the priest has a special duty to do so. His goal must always be to grow in holiness -- to grow in union with Christ the Priest, this Christ Who leads us to the Father in the Holy Spirit with Mary at our side.

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."

"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.

Priesthood

The above thoughts on the Eucharist easily lead us to thoughts on the priesthood:

"If the service of the Word is the foundational element of the priestly ministry, the heart and the vital center of it is constituted, without a doubt, in the Eucharist, which is, above all, the real presence in time of the unique and eternal sacrifice of Christ.

"The sacramental memorial of the death and Resurrection of Christ, the true and efficacious representation of the singular redemptive Sacrifice, source and apex of Christian life in the whole of evangelization, the Eucharist is the beginning, means, and end of the priestly ministry, since ‘all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate are bound up with the Eucharist and are directed towards it.’ Consecrated in order to perpetuate the Holy Sacrifice, the priest thus manifests, in the most evident manner, his identity.

"There exists, in fact, an intimate rapport between the centrality of the Eucharist, pastoral charity, and the unity of life of the priest, who finds in this rapport the decisive indications for the way to the holiness to which he has been specifically called.

"If the priest lends to Christ, Most Eternal High Priest, his intelligence, will, voice and hands so as to offer, through his very ministry, the sacramental sacrifice of redemption to the Father, he should make his own the dispositions of the Master and, like him, live those gifts for his brothers in faith. He must therefore learn to unite himself intimately to the offering, placing his entire life upon the altar of sacrifice as a revealing sign of the gratuitous and anticipatory love of God."35

"This most holy Synod desires to achieve its pastoral goals of renewal within the Church, of the spread of the gospel throughout the world, and of dialogue with the modern world. Therefore it fervently exhorts all priests to use the appropriate means endorsed by the Church as they ever strive for that greater sanctity which will make them increasingly useful instruments in the service of all of God’s People." 36

What Vatican II puts before seminarians regarding spiritual formation can also obviously be implemented by priests: "Spiritual formation should be closely linked with doctrinal and pastoral training. Especially with the help of the spiritual director, such formation should help seminarians learn to live in familiar and constant companionship with the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son, in the Holy Spirit. By sacred ordination they will be molded in the likeness of Christ the Priest. As friends they should be used to loyal association with Him through a profound identification of their whole lives with His. They should live His paschal mystery in such a way that they know how to initiate into it the people entrusted to them. They should be taught to look for Christ in many places: in faithful meditation on God’s word, in active communion with the most holy mysteries of the Church, especially in the Eucharist and the divine Office, in the bishop who sends them, and in the people to whom they are sent, especially the poor, the young, the sick, the sinful and the unbelieving. With the trust of a son, they should love and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was given as a mother to His disciple by Christ Jesus as He hung dying on the cross." 37

What Vatican II puts before seminarians regarding spiritual formation can also obviously be implemented by priests: "Spiritual formation should be closely linked with doctrinal and pastoral training. Especially with the help of the spiritual director, such formation should help seminarians learn to live in familiar and constant companionship with the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son, in the Holy Spirit. By sacred ordination they will be molded in the likeness of Christ the Priest. As friends they should be used to loyal association with Him through a profound identification of their whole lives with His. They should live His paschal mystery in such a way that they know how to initiate into it the people entrusted to them. They should be taught to look for Christ in many places: in faithful meditation on God’s word, in active communion with the most holy mysteries of the Church, especially in the Eucharist and the divine Office, in the bishop who sends them, and in the people to whom they are sent, especially the poor, the young, the sick, the sinful and the unbelieving. With the trust of a son, they should love and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was given as a mother to His disciple by Christ Jesus as He hung dying on the cross." 37

"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 subject 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!’…

"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".39

"Consecration, too, establishes a special bond between priests and the redeeming mystery of Christ. Because Jesus brings his own consecration to fruition through sacrifice, those on whom he bestows his pastoral power are called upon to realize in themselves the definition of the good shepherd who gives his life for his sheep. Priests cannot limit their sacrificial offering to the ritual performance of the Eucharist. They are called upon to commit themselves completely by making that total gift of their own selves which the Eucharist implies for their own personal lives. Their commitment to sacrifice is not just the one required of every Christian by virtue of the universal priesthood but the one demanded of them by a consecration that is specifically the priest’s own.

"As to the mission of the priest, it is entirely an expression of redemptive Incarnation in its pastoral aspect. The Incarnation is revealed in this mission because the powers bestowed on the priests to be exercised in the name of Christ are divine powers: the power to hand down revealed truth authoritatively, the power to offer… Christ’s own sacrifice in the Eucharist, the power to forgive sins and to mediate Christ’s holiness, the power to lead the community and to promote the development of a kingdom which is God’s own. Thus, the priest emerges as the man of God, the man in whom God acts with a special power.

"The priestly ministry brings redemption to fruition also because of the indissoluble bond which Christ establishes between service and sacrifice. The Son of Man has come to serve and to give his life as a ransom for mankind. Prolonging this service of the Son of Man and making it available to men in every age and place means prolonging at the same time the sacrifice that imparts freedom. All the aspects of the priestly ministry bear the distinctive mark of sacrifice. The priest cannot impart the truth and the life of Christ, nor live his pastoral love, without a profound commitment to the way of the cross." 40

And here are further words of Fr. Galot: "As a mediator, the priest is a shepherd in the name of God, or more precisely in the name of Christ, and through Christ, in the name of the Father. In the priest is realized the prophetic oracle of Ezechiel in which Yahweh promises to be the Shepherd of his people. (Ezek 34).

"Some implications of this principle must be underlined. The priest does not draw the inspiration for his pastoral zeal from his own feelings, from his own personal resolve to create a better world. He is shepherd on the strength of God’s pastoral intention and represents specifically Christ the shepherd. Consequently he is called upon to fulfill his pastoral mission not according to ideas of his own and his own personal ambitions, but in keeping with God’s own dispensation and the design of salvation devised by the Father and carried out by Christ. Like Jesus himself, the priest is at the service of the Father."41

"Prayer likewise enables us continually to rediscover the dimensions of that kingdom for whose coming we pray every day, when we repeat the words that Christ taught us. Then we realize what our place is in the realization of the petition: ‘Thy kingdom come’, and we see how necessary we are in its realization."

And here are further words of John Paul II to priests: "Dear brothers: ...you who have put your hand to the plough and do not turn back, and perhaps even more those of you who are doubtful of the meaning of your vocation or of the value of your service: think of the places where people anxiously await a priest, and where for many years, feeling the lack of such a priest, they do not cease to hope for his presence. And sometimes it happens that they meet in an abandoned shrine, and place on the altar a stole which they still keep, and recite all the prayers of the Eucharistic Liturgy; and then, at the moment that corresponds to the transubstantiation a deep silence comes down upon them, a silence sometimes broken by a sob... so ardently do they desire to hear the words that only the lips of a priest can efficaciously utter... So deeply do they feel the absence of a priest among them!... Such places are not lacking in the world. So if one of you doubts the meaning of his Priesthood, if he thinks it is ‘socially’ fruitless or useless, reflect on this! 42

"This being with others and is made concrete through service. Jesus presented himself as the Son of Man who came to serve others (cf. Matt. 20,28; Mark 10,45). John presents Jesus as laying aside his garments in order to wash the feet of his disciples, asking them to follow his example (cf. John 13, 4-16)... As the German Bishops say in a document on the priestly service: ‘in all these and many other New Testament texts, there is no trace of either hierarchical triumphalism or authoritarian arrogance. On the contrary, these texts speak of a special mission of devoted and unity-oriented leadership, and of an assumption of service for the Gospel’

"The note of service immediately corrects any misunderstandings which could be connected to the authority aspect which the priest receives over his community. We have to distinguish between authority and power. Jesus taught with authority. But his teachings like his actions were always aimed at the liberation of persons. The same should be true of the Christian pastor. He receives authority with his priestly ministry, but ‘this is something very different from a license to lord it over those under his care. Rather his authority always exists for the sake of service. Christ has given us the example: his ultimate service was the laying down of his life for his friends’ ."43

Prayer

No matter what prayer method I use, my prayers should always be Trinitarian and Christocentric. I should always strive to realize that the Father speaks to me through Christ in the Holy Spirit, and that I respond to the Father through and with Jesus in the Holy Spirit.

As prayer develops, it usually becomes more simplified. Beginners in the life of prayer often experience numerous ideas and images regarding God and the things of God together with various acts of the will. As prayer develops there usually occurs a simplication process which is threefold. First, acts of the intellect become fewer, even to the extent that one idea clearly predominates. The acts of the will also become fewer, and that of love more and more emerges and, in summary fashion, contains all other movements of the will. Finally, prayer’s simplication process reaches out and touches everything in the person’s life. The person sees life harmoniously unified in Christ, and this simplified vision gives a sense of concentrated purpose and strength to one’s existence which was previously not present.

Prayer and its growth process are not void of all difficulties. The path of prayer, as with the spiritual life in general, is not always a smooth one. Sometimes we encounter lesser sufferings along the way; sometimes the pain is more severe. The sufferings, if properly coped with, are meant to lead to greater union with God. It is once again a question of living Christ’s paschal mystery of death and resurrection.

One of the common difficulties encountered in prayer is that of coping with distractions. It is only in higher mystical prayer, during which God takes special hold of the faculties, that distractions are completely absent. In the more ordinary stages of prayer, we will always have to cope with them. The challenge, then, is to strive to bypass distractions when they do occur. Essential concentration on God and the things of God is still possible although distractions come and go.

Dryness in prayer is another common suffering. Often God bestows sweet consolations upon one beginning the life of prayer in order to help the person become initiated into the rewarding but arduous life of prayer. Often, as prayer progresses, the periods of emotionally-felt consolation may become less frequent. A dryness of the emotions is noticeably present. The person, grounded in the practice of prayer, is now strong enough to continue in it even though times of emotionally-felt consolation may be less frequent. One is learning to seek God, rather than just God’s gifts of consolation. In seeking God, the person will also receive consolations as God chooses to give them.

Of all the difficulties encountered during prayer, surely the most painful is to experience God as seeming to be distant. This is such a penetrating type of suffering because it strikes at the very heart of prayer—the fact that prayer is a special meeting with God in which I strive to be aware of God with heightened consciousness.

There are two basic reasons for God seeming to be distant. God can actually be more distant because the person is at fault. There is something of considerable significance which the person is doing and should not be doing, or something which he or she should be doing and is not. The solution to the difficulty is obvious. Corrective action should be taken. If, however, upon examination the person honestly cannot discover any such significant commission or omission, he or she can be reasonably assured that this is a trial associated with prayer’s growth process. Passing through this trial successfully, the person will discover that the relative darkness has turned into a greater light, and a closer love union with God in Christ is now experienced.