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Exodus 3: 1-6, 9-12

Moses was looking after the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led it to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame blazing from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing, but the bush was not being burnt up. Moses said, 'I must go across and see this strange sight, and why the bush is not being burnt up.' When Yahweh saw him going across to look, God called to him from the middle of the bush. 'Moses, Moses!' he said. 'Here I am,' he answered. 'Come no nearer,' he said. 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your ancestors,' he said, 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' At this Moses covered his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Yes indeed, the Israelites' cry for help has reached me, and I have also seen the cruel way in which the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now I am sending you to Pharaoh, for you to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.' Moses said to God, 'Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' 'I shall be with you,' God said, 'and this is the sign by which you will know that I was the one who sent you. After you have led the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.'

 

Matthew 11: 25-27

At that time Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

 

16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 23, 2006

INTRODUCTION – (Jeremiah, 23, 1-6; Ephesians, 2, 13-18; Mk. 6, 30-34)  (I used the following as introduction to the penitential rite):   In the Scriptures, those who were leaders of God’s people: kings and priests, teachers and other spiritual leaders were often compared to shepherds.  Frequently these leaders were more interested in serving themselves than they were in providing good leadership for God’s people.  Jeremiah, today’s first reading, blames the kings of Judah for the destruction of the nation under the Babylonians.  In today’s gospel our Lord views the people of his day as sheep without a shepherd and has compassion on them.  He is a good shepherd.  He desires to lead his followers to glory and eternal happiness.  The way to follow him is through faith and love.  For the times we have failed, we ask his forgiveness and his help to do better. 

HOMILY – Last Sunday’s gospel ended with Jesus sending his apostles out to neighboring towns to preach repentance and to heal the sick and drive out demons.  Today’s gospel begins with their return.  They had much to tell Jesus.  They must have been excited to have been able to do some of the same wonderful works they had seen Jesus do.  But they were also worn out.  Jesus said, “you need to rest,” but they weren’t getting any rest where they were as so many people sought their ministry.  Their escape from the crowd proved to be unsuccessful. 

Two thoughts struck me that deserve further reflection.    (1)  Jesus told his apostles, “come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”  The need for rest is something most of us can relate to.  There is so little time and so much to do for most of us.  Yet we need time to rest!   There is even a law telling us to do so.  The law says:  “Keep holy the Lord’s day.”  We usually think that means go to church on Sunday (or Saturday night) and it does.  But originally it also allowed people to take a day off.  That commandment began as a gift to the Israelites who had just escaped from slavery.  It told them they didn’t have to work seven days a week as they had to do as slaves.  They were no one’s property.  They were free to take a day off and no one would punish them.  They would give some of that day to God who created them and had done so much for them and the rest they could spend with their families.  This is one of the things that has made Jewish families so strong.  Jesus did not annul those ten laws God gave Moses.  He wants us to continue enjoying this gift he gave to the Jews.  I would like you to notice in today’s gospel when Jesus said to the apostles: “Come away…”  He was inviting them to take some time to relax with him.  We do that when we come to Mass.  We stop our busy-ness for about an hour and we spend it with him.  Sometimes I see people yawning at Mass or during the sermon.  They get embarrassed if they know I saw them.  I’ve said before that doesn’t bother me.  Prayer is very relaxing and if we haven’t had enough sleep, we start to yawn.  I just hope you don’t relax so much I lose you!  When you leave here and go home, I have one word of caution.  Watch out for the TV.  Good programs can re-create us and inspire us, but much of the stuff on TV does for our mind what junk food does for our body.  It satisfies us momentarily but doesn’t provide any real nourishment.  And be careful not to let the TV or internet take over our lives or isolate us from our families (which happens in some homes). 

(2) Notice our Lord didn’t ask his apostles to teach the crowd.  Jesus alone was the teacher.  They didn’t know enough yet to teach.  They were being trained to heal people and cast our demons and they could preach that people must repent of their sins.  They wouldn’t be ready to teach until the Holy Spirit came upon them.  We need to reflect that Jesus helped people not only by healing them but by teaching them.  The Catholic Church continues Jesus’ ministry of teaching in a variety of ways, not least of which is the Catholic School system.  But our learning about God and about Jesus Christ does not end the day we leave the Catholic School.  What we learned about our faith in school was just a little bit, because it was all we could absorb at the time.  We can recall what the poet Alexander Pope said: “A little learning is a dangerous thing.”  The danger is that we assume we know enough about our faith.  St. John of the Cross tells us no matter how many mysteries and wonders we come to understand about God, “…the greater part still remains to be …understood…” God is infinite and God's love is infinite.  This is another good reason to come to Mass every Sunday and also a good reason to spend time reading the Scriptures.  It is normal for people who follow Christ to consider themselves disciples of Christ.  If you look up the word “disciple” in the dictionary, you will find it comes from the Latin word dicere which means “to learn.”  If we think we no longer need to learn any more about God and about Jesus Christ, then we should no longer call ourselves disciples.  For with Christ we are always in the process of learning.

 

 

From the Mass Book

 

  

A Prayer before the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

    Let me be a holy sacrifice and unite with God in the sacrament of His greatest love.

    I want to be one in Him in this act of love, where He gives Himself to me and I give myself as a sacrifice to Him. Let me be a holy sacrifice as I become one with Him in this my act of greatest love to Him.

    Let me unite with Him more, that I may more deeply love Him. May I help make reparation to His adorable Heart and the heart of His Mother, Mary. With greatest love, I offer myself to You and pray that You will accept my sacrifice of greatest love. I give myself to You and unite in Your gift of Yourself to me. Come and possess my soul.

    Cleanse me, strengthen me, heal me. Dear Holy Spirit act in the heart of Mary to make me more and more like Jesus.

    Father, I offer this my sacrifice, myself united to Jesus in the Holy Spirit to You. Help me to love God more deeply in this act of my greatest love.

    Give me the grace to grow in my knowledge, love and service of You and for this to be my greatest participation in the Mass. Give me the greatest graces to love You so deeply in this Mass, You who are so worthy of my love.

-Mass Book, December 27, 1995

 

January 2, 1997

"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."

"The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."

God pours out His grace in this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is the greatest gift when God gives Himself to us.

We share with God His life, given to us abundantly in the Mass.

He gives Himself to us, and we give ourselves to Him. The great love affair between God and man: His Holy Mass.

The priest is another Christ to us. It is Christ present, through the priest, celebrating the Mass. We must see Christ in the priest, see Him celebrate the Mass, see His beautiful brown hair, His gentle face, see Him, Our Savior. This Jesus Christ that came was born an infant and gave Himself to His death on the cross that we would share His life. See Him now in the Mass, giving Himself in the greatest gift of all. He gives us His divine love and His divine life.

Oh, we thank You for Your life. We know He died and rose and gave us a sharing in His holy life. His life is now abundantly poured, as a fountain to us, especially in the Mass.

Then we hear His Word. Let the Word of God penetrate our being. Let us feel this Living Word of God. As a two-edged sword, it comes forth with such conviction and love and it penetrates the souls of the faithful with such love. It is food indeed, food for our soul.

He is the Good Shepherd. He speaks to us. He gives us all we want. "There is nothing I shall want." (The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need. Ps. 23:1).

He gives us green pastures, and His water pours out and refreshes us. He outpours His grace as a fountain to feed us with His life.

He is a just God, good and kind, all loving, for He is love. We want for nothing for He outpours His love and His life to us in the Mass. We feast on His Body and Blood and are fed with His Word. We become one in Him and He shares Himself with us.

It is through the Mass celebrated by the hands of a holy pries that we will experience the Mass the way Christ intends. These writings are insights which hopefully will help lead you to the spring of life-giving water, the fountain of love and life He outpours in the Mass.

There will be a new earth when men will see with the light of seven suns. They will know God. A people walking in darkness will see a great light. They will no longer be blind, they will be enlightened, they will love God with the greatest love in the Mass. They will feast on His Body and Blood and will be united as one body in His holy Church through His life given to us in the Eucharist.

We will drink copiously from the fountain of grace which He pours out in the Mass. We will be filled with His love, absorbed with the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and feasting on His divine life.

We see with the vision of God. We partake in such a union with God. We see with the light the Spirit gives to us. The priest celebrates the Mass and we know God with such an intense knowing in this union. We are saturated with His life flowing from the hands of His consecrated priest.

And I look at Him, the priest, and I see Jesus there. I see Him giving Himself to me. I see the new and Holy City. I see with such clarity the great gift that God gives to us in the Mass!

We learn how to love in the Mass, for we unite to God. He gives us such an intimate sharing in His divine love that we carry His love out to the world. In this union we know His loving to an intense degree and we carry this love out to others. We share in an intense way in His divine act of loving. He, Who is Love, gives Himself to us and we are absorbed in His love and we know intensely how God loves. We are filled with love for God and for each other, for, in the oneness He is loving through us. He gives us lights into His loving capacity and we know His loving power in an intensity we did not know before.

We then pray. We offer up our intentions for this Mass. It is now we who intercede to Him to outpour His grace on us and help us with these intentions.

We pray for this reign of peace when the Sacred Heart of Jesus will reign and the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph and men will fervently love and adore God with burning love. We pray for all souls and the Church and we beg for His help, His love, His grace.

We offer ourselves as a sacrifice. We offer the bread that will become the Bread of Life.

The priest mixes the water and the wine and we realize how His Divinity mixes with our humanity.

We offer the wine that will become our spiritual drink--His Blood.

I give myself to Him and I beg to be cleansed of my sins with the washing of the hands.

"May the Lord accept the sacrifice of your hands for the praise and glory of His name, for our good and the good of all His Church."

We ask Him to accept the gifts we want to give Him, we give Him thanks, we lift up our hearts in thanks and praise and we sing out:

"Holy, Holy God, of power and might..." we sing Him praise and thank Him, "Oh, God we love thee so much."

My heart is so filled with such awe. I cry because I love Him so much.

Every word in the Mass, I love. The priest consecrates the Host and changes it into the Body and Blood of Christ. Hear Christ say to us: "This is My Body", "This is My Blood".

Oh, it makes me cry for I am so struck with awe at what happens at the Consecration. I unite in the oneness with the priest, with Christ and with all present, with heaven and earth. I am one in that moment, united in the sacrifice of Christ giving Himself to the Father.

This is the moment when I unite in such oneness with Christ in the purity of Mary's heart. I give myself as a sacrifice. I offer myself to the Father.

The Father looks down and He sees us united to His Son's Sacrifice. It is in this oneness that His grace is outpoured on us, that we die to that which is not like Him and that the Holy Spirit works in the heart of Mary and fills us with His life.

I am in ecstasy as I realize more and more the great gift of love that God gives us in His holy Mass. I am taken to such heights, being wrapped in the presence of God. It is rapture, this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

It is a great gift, experiencing this intense presence of the Almighty God: Through Him, With Him, and In Him.

We pray to the Father the prayer as Jesus taught us and beg, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

We pray: "For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are Yours, now and forever."

We beg for peace in our hearts. We share this peace with one another. Then we beg of the Lamb of God. I want to get down to the ground and beg for His grace, mercy, and forgiveness for our sins.

Please, God, I see us as a sinful people. I want the grace and mercy to flow abundantly.

He raises the Host and says: "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, happy are those who are called to His supper."

We respond: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word and I shall be healed."

I receive the Almighty God in Communion. All I want is Him. Oh, God, I want You, I adore You, I worship You, I love You.

Oh, for this moment when God gives Himself to me. Oh, God, words do not express this time--this intense presence of You within my being. Oh, sweet Savior, I love You!

You share Yourself so intimately with me. You imprint on my soul a knowing of Your Divine Being that is so intimate in this Communion when You give Yourself to me.

Oh, let our hearts be open to His grace that we may know this great gift more, that we will partake more fully in this greatest act of love with Divinity.

He shares Himself with us, the Almighty God, in such oneness. This is the greatest way to bind us with each other, to unite with each other in the Mass and Communion.

And so I sing the love of God, the love of His Mass. I beg you to pray for the grace that He can teach you in these writings about His most intimate love affair with man, the gift of Himself--the gift He gives us in the Mass.

The Holy Sacrifice, the sacrifice of Calvary, sacramentally-made-present in the Mass when He gives Himself to us with the greatest love!

And what does He ask in return? He asks that we love one another, that we give Him the glory, the thanksgiving, the adoration that is His due as the Almighty God.

He sends us forth with His blessing to share His most intimate love with all. We go forth as other Christs in the world. For He is alive this day and He lives in us and He gives His love to others through us. We act as channels of His life to one another.

The Mass is the richest source of His life. His life flows through the body, the Church, especially through the sacraments and the Mass.

Oh Jesus, from the fountain of life that pours forth from your pierced Heart, give us holy priests whose hearts are consecrated to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary to celebrate the Mass--that there is such oneness between the priest and Christ that His grace will flow copiously.

We thirst for the fountain of life pouring forth from the pierced Heart of Christ. It is His life we seek and find in the Church. It is His love we want and we experience the greatest love affair with God in the Mass.

These books on the Mass are accounts of my intimate love affair with our Almighty God. Many experiences were enlightenments I received in the Mass.

I strongly advise all to pray, to say the Holy Spirit Prayer, the consecration prayers, and the Prayer before the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, before Mass.

This book is the journey into the red room, the inner chamber of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the gateway, the pure and Immaculate Heart of His Mother.

It is in the Mass we give ourselves in such love to our Holy God. He gives Himself to us and we give ourselves to Him.

end of January 2, 1997

 

 

  

  

 

   

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      Betty is a handmaid who has prayed in the

        China Church for 11 years. To get from her

        house to the church she uses a walker and

        must go over a creek and a little bridge.

        We wanted a little place she could rest

        by the Church. We need about $1,000 to

        make this happen. Can you help us?

 

 

 

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July 31, 1994

Words of Jesus to Members of
Shepherds of Christ Associates:

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

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

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

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

 

  

 

  

 

The China Church is over 140 years old

and we pray in there 24 hours a day.

It needs stucco and so does

the community building.

Can you please help us?

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is 150 years old.

Jesus told us to repair it

which we have been doing.

We need $13,000.00 for this work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pieta - Marble	Pieta - Color	Holy Family
St. Anthony - 18	St. Francis - 18	St. Joseph - 18
St. Therese - 18	St. Rita - 18	St. Clare - 12
St. Rita - 12	St. Padre Pio - 12	Divine Mercy - 12
Sacred Heart of Jesus w/glass - 18	Our Lady-Guadalupe w/glass - 12	Limpias - 8
Immaculate Heart w/glass - 18	I Heart - Ivory w/glass - 18	Our Lady of Grace w/glass - 18
Our Lady-Mt. Carmel w/glass - 18	Our Lady of Lourdes w/glass - 18	Infant of Prague w/glass - 24
Sacred Heart of Jesus w/glass - 24	Sacred Heart -Blessing w/glass - 24	Sorrowful Mother w/glass - 24
I Heart - Ivory w/glass - 24	I Heart of Mary w/glass - 24	Our Lady of Lourdes w/glass - 24
Our Lady-Guadalupe w/glass - 28	Our Lady of Grace w/glass - 24	Our Lady-Mt. Carmel w/glass - 24
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	Size	Price	Quantity
Holy Family	24"	$180
Limpias	24"	$125
St. Anthony	24"	$125
St. Claire	24"	$125
St. Francis	24"	$125
St. Joseph	24"	$125
St. Jude	24"	$125
St. Padre Pio	24"	$125
St. Therese	24"	$125
Divine Mercy	22"	$125
Angel	22"	$100
St. Philomena	20"	$100
St. Philomena	16"	$65
St. Joseph	18"	$65
St. Francis	18"	$65
St. Anthony	18"	$65
St. Rita	18"	$65
St. Therese	18"	$65
Pieta - Color	15"	$75
Pieta - Marble	15"	$75
Holy Family	12"	$60
St. Padre Pio - standing	12"	$40
St. Padre Pio - sitting	8"	$50
St. Rita	12"	$40
Divine Mercy	12"	$40
St. Claire	12"	$40
Limpias	8"	$25
Our Lady of Guadalupe w/glass	28"	$500
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel w/glass	24"	$500
Immaculate Heart of Mary w/glass	24"	$500
Immaculate Heart - Ivory w/glass	24"	$500
Infant of Prague w/glass	24"	$500
Our Lady of Grace w/glass	24"	$500
Our Lady of Lourdes w/glass	24"	$500
Sacred Heart of Jesus w/glass	24"	$500
Sacred Heart -Blessing w/glass	24"	$500
Sorrowful Mother w/glass	24"	$500
Immaculate Heart of Mary w/glass	18"	$300
Immaculate Heart - Ivory w/glass	18"	$300
Sacred Heart of Jesus w/glass	18"	$300
Our Lady of Lourdes w/glass	18"	$300
Our Lady of Grace w/glass	18"	$300
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel w/glass	18"	$300
Our Lady of Guadalupe w/glass	12"	$200
Fatima w/glass	11"	$150
Fatima w/glass	18"	$250
Pilgrim Virgin w/glass	12"	$160
Pilgrim Virgin w/glass	15"	$200
Pilgrim Virgin w/glass	18"	$250
Pilgrim Virgin w/glass	27"	$450

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