Daily Writing
| Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing |
|
April 22, 2008
April 23rd Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 7 Period II.The Novena Rosary Mysteries
for April 23rd are Luminous.
Sidney Rosary
April 23, 2008 at 6:20pm
Please tune in!
April 22, 2008
February 5, 2001
and the heavens were opened and a voice was heard
Matthew 3: 17‘This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him.’
I know so very deeply that God sent His Son to this earth to teach us to be likened to Him.
In Genesis chapter one it says we were created in the image and likeness of God
In the account in Genesis with regard creation the Creator tells His plan for His creatures
that they are created in the image and likeness of God
In seeing Jesus in the mural in China on the cross
I knew so deeply the message this is my beloved Son in whom I am well please.
God gives us the Son
God gives to us baptism - the sharing in His life and elevates our knowing and loving capacity so we can be more likened to Him
We are the sons of God
God created us in His image and likeness
God is love
To be in the image and likeness of God we must learn to love
God is love
God gives to us the greatest commandment to love Him
and to love one another like ourselves
Matthew 22: 36-39
'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?' Jesus said to him, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself.
Our lives are lived to be likened to Christ.
The wounded human nature tends toward jealousy, greed, envy, lust, pride, dominance for dominance sake, jealousy
In heaven there is no jealousy
in heaven there is no pride etc.
To reach the eternal reward to be prepared to enter heaven we know there is love in heaven
there is not division in heaven
there is no anger in heaven
Father forgive them - Christ says on the cross - they know not what they do.
In John 17 the prayer of Jesus is for the oneness
so beautiful
John 17: 21-23
May they all be one,
just as, Father, you are in me
and I am in you,
so that they also may be in us,
so that the world may believe
it was you who sent me.
I have given them the glory
you gave to me,
that they may be one as we are one.
With me in them and you in me,
may they be so perfected in unity
that the world will recognise
that it was you who sent me
and that you have loved them
as you have loved me.
Our Father who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Oh plan of Yours oh heavenly Father
it is love that You want us to have
You created us in love.
Your love so very sweet
Your gifts - the talents given to us to serve You
I am but Your little child
when I see Jesus held in the arms of Mary
I see the perfection of the Son of God
who is all pure and holy
having seen that heaven is a reward promised to him who loves and serves the Lord
In seeing Christ as a baby I know
You are telling us
that we must be more in the image of Jesus
that we live our lives not giving into the tendencies of our wounded human nature
We are like babes in the pure Immaculate Heart of our Mother - her spiritual womb as
The Holy Spirit performs His marvelous wonder on us bringing us forth more and more in the image and likeness of Jesus
the pure and holy One
Jesus, the Son of God
Man is given such a gift in Baptism
Man's knowing and loving capacity elevated in this great sacrament
Oh Holy Father my Beloved - the incarnation goes on in us as we live more Your Plan for us to be molded more and more in the
image and likeness of God.
Oh little son of Him
what dignity God gives to you.
God the Father loves us mightily to have created us in the image and likeness of God.
Adam and Eve sinned
Heaven is a reward promised to those who love and serve the Lord.
My delight to live according to the Father's will in love.
For we were created in the image and likeness of God
that all our actions are to be guided by God's rules and precepts
in the knowledge given through our beloved Catholic Church
and in the precious Word of God.
We know Him in His Word.
We put on Christ.
We are His light in the world.
We are gathered
we are instructed,
we are sent.
In the Priestly Newsletter to the far ends of this earth to spread the great gift of the Two Hearts of Love.
This era of peace Mary promised at Fatima
this era of Love Fr. Carter believed in when he began the Newsletter for the priests and hierarchy.
Father how good You are to us.
Oh all Good God we live to serve You.
Jesus who died for us and is our Savior
to be like Him
we too die to the imperfections, but we recognize our role in this redemptive work
being so identified with Him.
We boast of the gifts God has given to us in His Church
the fountain of His life.
To have greater life in Him
to be so abundantly saturated with His precious grace
to live in Him.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in the graced soul.
I am never alone for His life is in me.
I live in Him.
The truth is in me.
The Spirit of God lives in me.
I am one with the Divine Almighty God.
He outpours His life to me.
He nurtures me with His Body and Blood in the Eucharist.
Oh Divine God to taste at Your table
to be filled with Your life
to live as members of the Body of Christ
to live in this world living more abundantly in Him, Our Divine Almighty God.
Oh little son of the Father are we
held in the Heart of Mary
Babies at her breast and she loves us more than any earthly mother
she is sinless and so pure in her love.
Family
Father, Mother of love
The Spirit fills us with His life.
We are not rigid, but we are burning with the love of God alive in us.
Spontaneous in our joy of having God's light in us
We shine to the world
We witness
We recognize our calling to live as St. Paul says
Galatians 2: 19-20
...I have been crucified with Christ and yet I am alive; yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in me...
Spirit of God fill my soul with Your burning love
impart to me wisdom
let the life of Christ be my meditation that
I may be as I was created more and more molded in the image and likeness of God.
Oh Father
You are all good
Your love for me is more than I can ever fathom
You created me to be filled with Your wisdom and Your love.
Your Son Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.
You my God are in me and I am in you
oh God I love You so much
Prescription of Peace
See the vision of peace in your hearts —
Know God has called you to the vocation —
Rest in His love
Want only God's will
Like a man knowing a treasure in the
field — he searches for the pearl of
fine price
The pearl of fine price for sinful
man is being likened to Jesus —
modeling our lives after the
"Son" of God
And the Father says
"This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased"
Peace is found in our own hearts
Peace, Love and Joy
Seeing peace in the world
See and pray for that vision
See through the Father's eyes
See through the eyes of the
Creator
Seek peace and love among men
God created us to love Him
He loves us mightily — we are
His creation
Live in the truth
Know the Spirit of God — alive in
us.
Pray to the Holy Spirit, beg for His
Wisdom —
Pray the rosary — meditate on the mystery
of Christ in the rosary
Meditate on the life of Christ in the
rosary
See Mary's role as our spiritual
Mother
Know the Incarnation goes on in
us
We are always being formed more and more
in the image and likeness of
Christ
Meditate on His life in us
Know the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are dwelling
abundantly in our graced
baptized soul.
Go to Mass — be so one at the consecration
uniting our lives as a sacrifice
united to the sacrifice of Calvary
sacramentally made present —
Say the Morning Offering
Realize that we are offering Our Father
our lives united to the Mass all
day to help for our salvation and
the salvation of souls —
We work so that men will go to heaven —
like our brothers we love —
We spread the Good News
Jesus has died
Jesus is risen
Jesus will come again.
Love beyond Love
Love God's will —
In that lies the prescription for health
We are to help bring the era of peace
and love
We must see through the eyes of
God — the Plan of the Father —
God is light and in Him there is no
darkness
Beg for deeper life in Him
Embrace the Father's will —
Be aware of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
dwelling in us
Obedience to God in the vocation He
has called us to
serving in love
Servants, Handmaids, Apostles of the
Good Shepherd
God is love
Bad habits are to be discarded
Do we act like Christ
Do we know the Holy Spirit's action
in us molding us more
and more in the image of God
God is the Ultimate Mystery
Excerpt from Response to God's Love,
by Father Edward Carter, S.J.
1 The Mystery of Christ and Christian Existence
...In reference to Christianity, God himself is the ultimate mystery. Radically, God is completely other and transcendent, hidden from man in his inner life, unless he chooses to reveal himself. Let us briefly look at this inner life of God.
The Father, in a perfect act of self-expression, in a perfect act of knowing, generates his son. The Son, the Word, is, then, the immanent expression of God's fullness, the reflection of the Father. Likewise, from all eternity, the Father and the Son bring forth the Holy Spirit in a perfect act of loving.
At the destined moment in human history, God's self-expression, the Word, immersed himself into man's world. God's inner self-expression now had also become God's outer self-expression. Consequently, the mystery of God becomes the mystery of Christ. In Christ, God tells us about himself, about his inner life, about his plan of creation and redemption. He tells us how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit desire to dwell within us in the most intimate fashion, how they wish to share with us their own life through grace. All this he has accomplished and does accomplish through Christ. St. Paul tells us: "I became a minister of this Church through the commission God gave me to preach among you his word in its fullness, that mystery hidden from ages and generations past but now revealed to his holy ones. God has willed to make known to them the glory beyond price which this mystery brings to the Gentiles—the mystery of Christ in you, your hope of glory. This is the Christ we proclaim while we admonish all men and teach them in the full measure of wisdom, hoping to make every man complete in Christ" (Col 1:25-28).end of excerpt from Response to God's Love
Fr. Carter says: It is in and through the human life of Christ that God instructs us and gives Himself to us. God has intimately thrust Himself into human history through the enfleshment of Christ Jesus. In and through the human history of Christ God has spoken to us, has redeemed us, has raised us to a new life. Through the joy, the suffering, the labor, the sense of accomplishment, the frustration, the acceptance and the rejection, the pain and agony, the peace and happiness—all of which comprise the life of Jesus— God was giving Himself to us. The mystery which is God Himself was being revealed to us and shared with us. The mystery of God had become the mystery of Christ: God's concrete plan of redemption through His Incarnate Son.
The life of Christ, then, is the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ is the Christ event; it is all the happenings or events of Christ's life, each of which in its own way helped accomplish our redemption. We may speak, consequently, not only of the total, unified mystery of Christ, but also of the individual events or mysteries of Christ's life. True, Christ's mysteries of death and resurrection are central to His redemptive effort, and in some way contain all the other mysteries of His earthly existence.
Fr. Carter says: The world no longer sees Christ, no longer is able to reach out and touch Him. We are the ones who now in some way make Christ visible and tangible, existentially present to the world of men. In union with the invisible, glorified Christ, and drawing upon Him as our source of strength, we continue the Incarnation in its visible and temporal dimensions. The fact that we do this poorly at times because of our human weakness and sinfulness does not change the great privilege and responsibility which is ours—we, the People of God, do help continue the Incarnation. We are the Body of Christ. We are the mystical Christ. The People of God must continue to reincarnate the mystery and mysteries of Christ. It is true that the Church and the Christian do not help reincarnate Christ in exactly the same way from age to age.
Christ is the entrance of eternity into
time, God present among us in human
form. The Son is assuming human
flesh subjected Himself to the
historical dimension of man's existence.
Fr. Carter says by reliving and reincarnating the
mystery of Christ, the People of God are
not only accomplishing their own
redemption, but are assisting in the continued
application of Christ's redemption to all
men. The Incarnation continues on for
all time. Christ, of course is He who
has become Incarnate, and He is the One
who fundamentally continues the Incarnation.
But He enlists our help.
John 11: 25-26
Jesus said:
I am the resurrection.
Anyone who believes in me,
even though that person dies, will live,
and whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Do you believe this?
From Tell My People
"What I say to you in the dark, tell in the day-
light; what you hear in whispers, proclaim
from the housetops." (Matthew 10:27)
Jesus Has Come To Give Us Life
Jesus: "This is the day celebrating My Resurrection (Easter). The day of newness of life. I am Lord and Master. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Tell My people to come to Me if they wish to experience life in abundance. I want to give all an ever greater share in the life of My Resurrection. Without Me you cannot be happy, nor have peace, nor have real joy. Tell My people to surrender to Me more and more. The more they do so, the more they will experience My love, wisdom, power, peace, joy, happiness, mercy, and goodness. Within My Heart My people will find these riches. I am Lord and Master! Please listen to My words."
Reflection: Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has come to give us life, and to give us this life in abundance.
When we were baptized, we were incorporated into Christ and His Church. When we were baptized, we received the life of sanctifying grace. This life is a created sharing in the life of the Trinity. Truly, we are called to live a God-like existence according to the teaching and example of Jesus! It is our duty and our privilege to develop our life of grace—our Christ-life—through our participation in the Mass, through the reception of the sacraments, through prayer, and through all other good works. Indeed, we are called to love God and neighbor more and more.
What a glorious life has been given to us! In a spirit of thanksgiving, and together with Mary our Mother, let us always strive to know Christ more intimately, to love Him more ardently, and to follow Him more closely, so that He will always bring us to a closer union with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
end of excerpt from Tell My People
Dying to our non-authentic self is rising to the self we are really meant to be
by Edward Carter, S.J.
Jesus' entire life was centered in His death and resurrection; His entire life was also contained or summed up therein. These two key events comprised His paschal or passover mystery. The word passover has a very basic and literal meaning. The word contains the idea of religious transition. While upon earth, Jesus was always experiencing such transition. He was always in a process of passing over, passing back to the Father. He was gradually achieving a new state of existence for His own humanity and for the entire human race. That new life was the state of resurrection.
As His mortal life beautifully and poignantly unfolded, He was in process to the definitive point of death. His death, in turn, was the passageway to resurrection. This death marked the final mortal act of Jesus. It was the final act of His earth-bound life in which He would conform His will in love to His Father's will. His death was an act of final pouring-out of Himself. It was His final libation, His final kenosis—His final Self-emptying in love. All the acts of His life previous to Calvary participated in this culmination of final kenosis which was His death. All through His life Jesus was undergoing this emptying out, this giving of Himself. He was always giving of Himself, always concerned about others, always loving, even though this meant great suffering and hardship at times. Yet Jesus always viewed suffering and hardship very positively. He always saw it as leading to greater life. He suffered as no one else ever has or ever will, yet He suffered with dignity, with a perduring optimism, with a basic peace of spirit, with a happiness which could not be extinguished despite the pain.
For me to read the emptying Fr. Carter talks
of I know the emptying of myself
in giving my life to God the Father —
united to Jesus in the Mass, in the
Holy Spirit.Emptying is the word
Because God strips us of our will
that our will is given more and more
to His will — no matter how hard it
is — no matter how much fun it
may have been once —At the consecration of the Mass —
my soul is so one with Jesus —
one with God —
all I am —
my sacrifices in this mission come
together in the act of total submission
to Him — for whom I live — for nothing
makes any importance to me than
pleasing Him and doing His will —Now I know more since last retreat
nothing makes any sense, but
living to be more and more in that
image of Jesus and
that is to love —to love means to want what God
wants —
to say yes to the difficult as well
as the enjoyable —to see the souls God died for and
His Plan for all of us
To want God's will more than anything
that we could have here below —Oh God to serve you is my delight —
my body aches to want so much
to have the world the way that
would please you andI feel as one tied to a pole with
Your vision in my soul —
so filled with belief for an
era of peace and love —Oh God if I love enough, pray
enough, give enough will
your arms reach favorably out to us —
for I know how mightily you love us and
how You want us pure more like
You —My soul aches to see the blindness and
my tears flow for I want so
to please You my belovedOh God thank You for all Your gifts —
Oh God the Eucharist is everything
to me
Oh God, I adore You, I love You and
I beg for what we need to
do this work,
For the grace and vision and holiness
for those involved —Oh God I lift my soul to thee —
Oh the Mass is my delight —The emptying at the consecration —
My soul is one with Thee and
My feeble attempts offered in
such an intensity in my
spirit —
giving in the Mass
myself to youBut it is then I empty myself
My life is the act of giving —
My emptying of myself to help
to accomplish your Plan as
You have directed meOh heavenly Mother —
I see you under the cross and
I know the anguish more and more
of souls being lost despite
the gift of your Son to mankind.How did you endure, if not to
know of those to be saved —
To want the Father's will —
So much to love it
Like your Son loved the Father's will
Who died doing the Father's will —
So perfectly —
Compliance of the Son of God to
the will of the Father in
the pure act of holy love
God dying for us
So we could be saved
Available for $750.00
Fatima/Clearwater Glass Statues available.Call or go to China
1-888-211-3041
6015 N. State Rd 62
China, IN 47250
or call Clearwater
21649 US 19 N
Clearwater, FL 337651-888-321-7671
1-727-725-9312
Brand New Internet Store
