Shepherds of Christ Daily Writing        

November 21, 2015

November 22nd Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is 
Day 4 Period II.

The Novena Rosary Mysteries 
for November 22nd
are
Glorious.


Pray for special intentions.
  

Pray for Dan & Melanie, Jimmy,
Fr. Joe, Sonny & family, Blue Book 16.

Please pray for funds & grace.

    

 

 

Give the gift that Counts.

Blow Out Sale for Reprinting of Blue Book 1, 2 & 3

While Supplies Last

Blue Book 1   -  $4 each plus postage
Blue Book 2   -  $4 each plus postage
Blue Book 3   -  $3 each plus postage

Call 1-888-211-3041 for Doris

 

                  

New Homily Book - Cycle C
Available $10.00 plus postage

 
 

  

The Feast of St. Francis Xavier is December 3rd.
 
This has always been an important Feast.

 

 
 

There will be the special 5th service on December 3rd.
 
This will be played on tape December 5th.
People are called to come and pray both nights in Florida
and to pray in China
and to tune in and pray on the internet
for the Church and the World.
 
Come to the Virgin Mary building - the Building of the Two Hearts
 
and pray for the world through the intercession of Our Lady of Clearwater,
 
Mary Queen of Peace for Peace in the world.
 
Also December 17th is the anniversary of  Mary's apparition in Clearwater 19 years ago.
 
Come to the 6:20 Prayer service December 17th.

There will be a procession.

 

 

                 
                November 21, 2015

                R. Presentation of Mary in the Temple –

November 4, 2013

                R. Mary was taken to the temple to give
                herself to God.

                    Mary was selfless, Mary was
                conceived without sin. Mary was
                chosen by God to be the Mother of God. 

 

Priestly Newsletter Book II - September/October 1997

Scriptural Reflections

In all this Mary offers an example. Selfishness was totally foreign to her. She did not belong to herself. She belonged to God. She was not closed in upon herself. She was completely open to God. When God spoke, she listened. When God pointed the way, she followed. She realized that life is not a process a person masters by carefully mapping out one's own self-conceived plans of conquest, but a mystery to be gradually experienced by being open to God's personal and loving guidance.

Selfishness, then, did not close Mary off from God's call. Neither did fear. God asked her to assume a tremendous responsibility. He asked her to be the Mother of Jesus. Mary did not engage in a process of false humility and say that such a great role was above her. She did not say that she did not have the proper qualifications for this awesome mission. Briefly, she did not waste time looking at herself, making pleas that she was not worthy, telling the angel he had better go look for someone else. No, Mary did not look at herself. Her gaze was absorbed in God. She fully realized that whatever God asked of her, His grace would accomplish. She fully realized that although she herself had to cooperate, this work was much more God's than hers.

Mary's words, then, truly sum up what is the authentic Christian response at any point of life, in any kind of situation: "I am the handmaid of the Lord," said Mary, "let what you have said be done to me".

 

                R. God created us so very special
                and many of us as children were
                taken to Church and given baptism.
 

                        Excerpt from Response in Christ by Edward J. Carter, S. J. p. 8

    Through Baptism therefore the Christian is incorporated into Christ's death-resurrection. Baptism pledges the Christian to die to sin and ideally to all that is not in accordance with God's will, even though sin is not involved. Baptism also pledges the Christian to live vitally his new life in Christ, his share in Christ's Resurrection. As he is incorporated into Christ through baptism, the Christian is also made a member of the Church. Awareness of this simultaneous incorporation into both Christ and the Church emphasizes for the Christian the fact that his life of holiness in Christ is to be lived out in community. In other words, the Christian lives in Christ within the People of God, within the Church. This stress of contemporary spirituality upon the communal aspect of Christian holiness is firmly rooted in God's revealed truth. Throughout salvation history God has lovingly communicated Himself to man within the covenant framework with its communal dimension. He has also asked for man's response in love within this same covenant framework.    end of excerpt

 

               

Excerpt from the Spirituality Handbook

An Overview of the Spiritual Life (excerpt)

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, of 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. In the words of St. Paul: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by Baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (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. We contact Christ in a most special way through the liturgy, above all in the Eucharistic liturgy. Here the entire course of salvation history, as centered in Jesus, is sacramentally renewed and continued. 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.   end of excerpt

 

                R. Baptism is a sharing in His life.
                Our knowing and loving capacity is elevated.

                Also

Excerpt from the Spirituality Handbook

Consecration to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

To consecrate means to make sacred, to make holy. Only God can make a being holy. So to speak of our consecration is to speak of God's activity in making us holy, His activity of giving us a share in His own holiness. At Baptism we receive a share in God's life, a share in His holiness. Christ is the Mediator of this grace life. We are baptized into Christ, into His death and resurrection. In Baptism we become holy by sharing in the holiness of Christ. We become consecrated, sealed with the divine holiness. We belong to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit.

On our part, we must respond to God's consecration of us. We must live out the consecration of Baptism. We must realize what God has done for us in Christ and live according to this awareness. We need to live the life of holiness and grow in it. In other words, we must develop the life of grace, the Christ-life.

What God has done for us in Christ involves Mary. God has given us a Christ-life, our life of grace, and Mary is the Mother of this Christ-life. Consequently, living out our life of consecration to God - living out the Christ-life - includes allowing Mary to increasingly be the Mother of our Christ-life.

Consecration to Mary, therefore, is an aspect of our consecration to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is entrusting ourselves entirely to her maternal love so that she can bring us ever closer to Jesus, so that we can increasingly live out our consecration to God in Christ.

At Fatima, Our Lady asked that we consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart. Mary shows us her heart as a symbol of her love for God and us. She asks us to make a return of love to her, to consecrate ourselves to her, to give ourselves to her completely. She wants us to entrust ourselves to her completely so that she may help us love God and neighbor.

As stated above, consecration to Mary is an aspect of our consecration to God in Christ and she has asked for consecration to her Heart so that she may assist us. Christ, in turn, invites us to live out this consecration to Him through consecration to His Sacred Heart. We see the divine symmetry: consecration to the Immaculate Heart helps us to live out consecration to Christ Who reveals His Heart as symbol of His life of love in all its aspects, including His tremendous love for each of us individually. His Heart also asks for our love in return, a return which ideally is summed up in consecration to Jesus' Heart. Through this consecration we give ourselves completely to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart. In this consecration to Jesus, we promise to strive to live according to His Father's will in all things.8

8. Edward Carter, S.J., Mother at Our Side, Faith Publishing, Milford, Ohio, 1993, pp. 15-17.

 

 

                From the Priestly Newsletter Book III by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J. - 2000 - Issue 3

The Indwelling of the Trinity and the Life of Grace (excerpt)

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.

2. Archbishop Luis M. Martinez, The Sanctifier, Pauline Books and Media, pp. 124-125.

 

                R. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwell in the graced
                baptized soul!

  

Excerpt from Response to God's Love by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

    ... 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.

end of excerpt

 

                R. How is the attitude of men for such a
                    gift?

                Does man have the attitude the Father
                    wants –
                    Man is to have sorrow for
                        his sins –

                Christ came for us –

                Do we make reparation for our sins?

                Do we say we are sorry for offending God?

                Christ came
                        Priest
                        Prophet
                        King

                Jesus is the chief spokesman of
                    the Father –

                In offering sacrifice – the interior attitude
                    of the person is important –

                Christian Life and Celebration

                The Christian life considered as
                    response to God's love

                God first loved us.
   

John 3: 16

For this is how God loved the world:
he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him 
    may not perish
but may have eternal life.

 

                R. The Heart of Jesus is symbol of
                    God's love for us –
                    God calls for our love in
                        return –

 

Matthew 22: 34-40

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question, 36 '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. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.'

 

                R. We were created in the image and
                    likeness of God –
                    What we do to our neighbor
                        we do to Jesus –
                    Hating our neighbor is
                        hating Jesus –

                God gives us a share in His loving
                    activity in baptism –

                The more we are united to Jesus,
                    the more we share in
                    His capacity to love!

 

2 Peter 1: 3-7

The generosity of God

By his divine power, he has lavished on us all the things we need for life and for true devotion, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these, the greatest and priceless promises have been lavished on us, that through them you should share the divine nature and escape the corruption rife in the world through disordered passion. With this in view, do your utmost to support your faith with goodness, goodness with understanding, understanding with self–control, self–control with perseverance, perseverance with devotion, devotion with kindness to the brothers, and kindness to the brothers with love.

 

                R. Spiritual Life

                Everything we do should be an
                    expression of our Christ life.

                Everything we do should be done
                    according to God's will.

                Everything we do is to be centered in love.

                Life is to be rooted in Christ,
                Life is to have a Christic
                    structure or pattern –

                If you take a fish out of water
                    it dies –
   


   

                R. If you see this:

                    Life is in God!

                We must respect the nature of
                    a thing –

                God made us social
                    To be healthy we must relate to others –

                    Man cannot fly –
                    Birds fly by nature –

                The only way the life of Baptism can
                    develop is in Him –

                God gives us a sharing in His life
                    in baptism!

 

Galatians 2: 19-21

In fact, through the Law I am dead to the Law so that I can be alive to God. I have been crucified with Christ and yet I am alive; yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in me. The life that I am now living, subject to the limitation of human nature, I am living in faith, faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not setting aside God’s grace as of no value; it is merely that if saving justice comes through the Law, Christ died needlessly.

 

From the Priestly Newsletter

Cardinal Newman said

                    "... everyone who breathes, high and low,
                    educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman,
                    has a mission, has a work. We are not sent
                    into this world for nothing; we are not born at
                    random. . . God sees every one of us;
                    He creates every soul, He lodges it in
                    a body, one by one, for a purpose. He needs,
                    He deigns to need, every one of us.
                    He has an end for each of us... we are
                    placed in our different ranks and stations, not to
                    get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to
                    labor in them for Him, as He rejoiced to do His work,
                    we must rejoice in ours also.
"
                                   
(Discourses addressed to mixed congregations)

 

                R. God knows us more intimately
                    than we know ourselves.

                God loves me – more than I love
                    myself –

                If I ever realized how wonderful
                    it is to be redeemed by
                    God's love – I would be
                    happy –

                If I build my self image on what
                    others think of me –
                    then I am not happy –

                If the stock market crashes and
                    I get my self image from
                    money – then I can crash too –

                When I don't live according to
                    the Father's plan for my
                    vocation – the world is
                    poor for my not giving
                    as I should!

                I am uniquely given to the world
                    by God – to serve Him as
                    He wants –

                All life is meant to develop to its
                    greatest Christian potential!

                Look at the emphasis on perfecting
                    basketball skills - and all the
                    different ways the world is
                     – in perfecting skills - like
                    computer skills

                    What about the spiritual life of
                        loving and going out as
                        Jesus called us to be?

                How many Christians care about
                    developing their Christian existence?

                We are to not think about perfecting
                    being a good scientist and
                    not work on being a good Christian –

                The Christian life can be considered
                    as life in the Holy Spirit.

   

1 Corinthians 2: 6-16

    But still, to those who have reached maturity, we do talk of a wisdom, not, it is true, a philosophy of this age or of the rulers of this age, who will not last long now. It is of the mysterious wisdom of God that we talk, the wisdom that was hidden, which God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began. None of the rulers of the age recognised it; for if they had recognised it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but it is as scripture says: What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, what the mind of man cannot visualise; all that God has prepared for those who love him; to us, though, God has given revelation through the Spirit, for the Spirit explores the depths of everything, even the depths of God. After all, is there anyone who knows the qualities of anyone except his own spirit, within him; and in the same way, nobody knows the qualities of God except the Spirit of God. Now, the Spirit we have received is not the spirit of the world but God’s own Spirit, so that we may understand the lavish gifts God has given us. And these are what we speak of, not in the terms learnt from human philosophy, but in terms learnt from the Spirit, fitting spiritual language to spiritual things. The natural person has no room for the gifts of God’s Spirit; to him they are folly; he cannot recognise them, because their value can be assessed only in the Spirit. The spiritual person, on the other hand, can assess the value of everything, and that person’s value cannot be assessed by anybody else. For: who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser? But we are those who have the mind of Christ.

 

                R. Jesus leads us to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

                LOVE IS THE GIFT OF SELF TO
                OTHERS TO PROMOTE THE
                GOOD OF THE OTHER OR OTHERS.

                What do you think is some of the
                    mistakes of what people call
                    love?

                Love respects the relationship
                    with others –

                How is the American culture teaching
                    us about love?
                    It it a hindrance or a help?

                What are some signs of proper
                    self - love?

                What are some of the joys and
                    pains of involvement
                    in the experience of love?
                    (love makes oneself vulnerable,
                    giving myself – is opening
                    myself and knowing I can
                    be rejected)

                    (A man can hold out year after
                        year and give 3 or 4 words
                        in that time and be so
                        blind to see –
                        how his preoccupation is not loving
                        and he has reduced himself almost
                        entirely to that.)

                God calls us to give in love –
 

Matthew 22: 36-40

'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. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.'

 

                R. Do you think loving a person
                    becomes easier or more
                    difficult as time passes?
                    (The more we open ourselves to
                        another – deeply – the more
                        we give and when rejected
                        by them, punished by them,
                        treated with out kindness or
                        care by them – the harder it
                        can be to continue.)

                Why is receiving love from a person
                    an act of love on my part
                    toward that person?
                    (God commands us to love –
                    love is giving and receiving –
                    a person wanting things their
                    way and closed up tight –
                    in and out, unpredictable,
                    afraid to trust anyone –
                    is not really giving –
                    when one loves – they know
                    how to receive love and not
                    run away or get into
                    love - hate relationships –
                    Some hurt others for showing
                    them love because they
                    have not grown in love.)

                The title of a book is tough love.
                    What do you think that means?
                    Is love tough?

                What are some things in today's
                    world that shows a serious
                    lack of love in their hearts?

                As a parent what would you do
                    to show love to a child who
                    is of the age to leave the
                    nest?

                Discuss these topics with
                    someone

                    Escapism
                    Laziness

                Everything we do is concerned with
                    dying to ways not likened
                    to Jesus and rising to new
                    life in Him –
                    Dying and Rising in Christ is
                        the Pascal Mystery –

                    Fr. Carter always talked about
                        radical renunciation –

                To follow Jesus, we must die
                    to unloving ways –

                God is love –

                Nobody suffered more than Jesus.

                We must renounce whatever gets
                    in the way of following Jesus.

                God the Father allowed His Son to die
                    for us.

                Whatever God asks of us is for our
                    own good.

 

Matthew 11: 28-30

‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’

 

                R. Even the heaviest cross is light
                    compared to the cross
                    Jesus carried with the
                    sins of the world –
 

Matthew 12: 46-50

He was still speaking to the crowds when suddenly his mother and his brothers were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him. But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, 'Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?' And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'

 

                R. Jesus sacrificed His Blood for
                    our sins –

                Jesus is love!

                The more we are in the family of Jesus,
                    the more we do God's will!

                Jesus tells us to deny ourselves and
                    follow Him –

                What good does it do to gain the
                    whole world and lose our
                    soul.

 

Matthew 16: 24-26

The condition of following Christ

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life? Or what can anyone offer in exchange for his life? 

     

Matthew  8: 18-22

Unconditional commitment

When Jesus saw the crowd all about him he gave orders to leave for the other side. One of the scribes then came up and said to him, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus said, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’

    Another man, one of the disciples, said to him, ‘Lord, let me go and bury my father first.’ But Jesus said, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.’

   

                R. Jesus tells us to humble ourselves
                    as a little child –
                    not act childish and
                    immature – fighting,
                    holding our breath, pouting
                    etc. –

                The more child-like we become –
                    dependent on God – the happier
                    we will become –
                    like a little child depending
                        on mom and dad.

                We should live each day as if
                    it is our last!

                The Christian life as response to
                    God's love is loving God
                    first and loving our
                    neighbor as ourselves –

                There are the 3 loves
                    (1) Love of God.
                    (2) Love of neighbor
                    (3) Love of self

                The three must go together!

                I cannot find salvation if I do
                    not love my neighbor –

                I am actually hating myself
                    when I don't love my neighbor,
                    my salvation depends on this –

                With regard to human suffering –
                    it is not that there is so much –
                    but so much is wasted!

                Some can try to live life with
                    embittered self-enclosure –
                    it doesn't work –
                    it isn't life at all!

                We are to be wounded-healers.

                Some people have suffered – so much –
                    like Betty and she held up her
                    head and smiled and she prayed
                    for us all.
 
 


 

                R. Fr. Carter wrote a book The Pain and
                    the Joy –

 


 

                R. In it he addresses Death/Resurrection

                In it he addresses:

                    Uncertainty –
                    Crucial decision making
                    Loneliness
                    Renunciation
                    Self-discipline
                    Failure
                    Transition
                    Rejection
                    Everydayness

                Fr. Carter says all these are forms of
                    the cross

                We cannot –
                    use escapism as an answer
                    Escapism is morbid flight
                        from painful reality

                    He says escapism is immature
                        flight from painful reality –

                Questions he asked were

                What are the common forms of
                    loneliness?

                Is there a difference between being
                    alone and lonely?

                What is my response to handle
                    loneliness properly?

                Is loneliness a result of my
                    own choices of self-enclosure?

                There are two kinds of loneliness
                    1) one need be, sickness, age, etc. –

                    2) one need not be – because
                        of choices –
                        isolating oneself
                        not properly relating to
                        God and others –

                What can a person use for escapism
                    to draw themselves from
                    relating properly to God and
                    others as God wants?

                What command does escapism
                    violate that God calls
                    us to?

                Jesus: Escapism wastes the
                    precious moments of life given
                    by God to that individual,
                    properly relating to God and
                    others is what life is about!
                    This lack of properly relating
                    to God and others is what
                    has contributed to escapism,
                    loneliness, divorce, arguments,
                    fighting, hating.

                Living in the moment is the only
                    moment you can live.

                As you grow older, loneliness
                    grows when one did not
                    properly relate to God and
                    others.

                A man danced one dance –
                    all his life –
                    he lived to perfect the dance
                    that was the wrong dance –

                What a waste!

                I give you the prescription for
                    life. Love of God, others and
                    self – None of these can
                    be missing –
                    living unloving ways is not following
                        Me –

 

                Jesus: A person can be in a room with
                    people I called them to love
                    and be lonely because they
                    never properly even worked
                    at loving God or others.

                I am love –

                Heaven is for lovers –

                R. All Christian virtues support love –

                Love is the goal!

                The person must want the goal to
                    love – it must be in their
                    will to love –

                Pray for the grace to love and
                    cooperate with that grace
                    given –

                Love – is living the vision of
                    Faith –

                Faith gives a new vision to man, a
                    vision of seeing through God's eyes –
                    His plan for us.
                    Everything is in proper
                        relation to what God wants –

                    Everything is in relation to God.

                Hope – is to live according to faith –
                        and trusting God will give
                            us the reward God promised –

                Love – Living the Vision of Faith –

                We share in God's loving activity
                    because of baptism –
                    loving supernaturally –

John 4: 10

    Jesus replied to her:

    If you only knew what God is offering
    and who it is that is saying to you,    

 

                R. We learn to love
                    (1) friendship
                    (2) marriage
                    (3) family life

                God first loved us

                God loves us personally –

                God wants our love in return –

                God created us with a unique purpose –

                The virtues are supernatural faculties –

                Natural life expresses itself through
                    will and intellect–

                The Divine participation expresses
                    itself through the
                    Christian virtues –

                Participation in God's loving activity

                Love – Response to God's love

                    1) love of God
                    2) love of others
                    3) love of self

                With regards love of neighbor
                    in particular in
                        1) friendship
                        2) marriage and family

                Faith is a participation in God's
                    knowing activity
                    our knowing and loving
                    capacity is elevated in Baptism.

                Faith and love are the two most
                    important virtues –

                The two most important dimensions
                    of the human person –
                    the two most important faculties
                    are
                    (1) intellect
                    (2) will

                The intellect is so important
 

Genesis 1: 27

God created man in the image of himself,
    in the image of God he created him,
    male and female he created them.

 

                R. Human persons were created in
                    the image of God –

                The intellect allows us to participate
                    in God's knowing activity

                The will allows us to participate
                    in God's will activity –

                Intellect and will allow us to reflect God.

                Faculties of human person < intellect

will

                Faith – elevates the intellect to a
                    new level

                Faith – what faith gives man
                    cannot know by natural
                    reason

                Love – elevates our will –

                Hope gives us the capacity to desire God,
                    desire to live the life of faith,
                    and trust that God will do so –

                HOPE < desire to posses vision of faith

trust God will help us

                Prudence – helps us to make right choices
                                according to God's will

                Justice –  (1) To give others their due
                              (2) We must respect the rights of others
                              (3) We cannot harm their good name,
                                    - unless there is a good reason,
                                    - a teacher, if child is bad.

                         Purpose < individual - right of unborn
               - right of infant in womb
               - (50,000 abortions)

society

        Courage or Fortitude – courage to handle the
                            difficult aspects of life

        Temperance – handle sense pleasures
                            properly according to God's will

        Humility – realization of our creaturehood
                            and living according to this realization

        Mary did this perfectly –

        Mary was blessed, but she realized
            the greatness was from God

        Humility doesn't mean I hide my talents –

        Humility makes me realize where they
            came from –

        If I don't recognize my gifts –
            I don't thank God for my gifts

                Humility makes me see
                    TRUTH
< what my gifts are
and thank God

makes me see what is
wrong with me and
needs improvement

        A proud man does not grow –

        God resists the proud and gives grace
            to the humble

        The more humble we are, the stronger
            we are because we draw
            our strength from Jesus –
 

2 Corinthians 12: 7-10

    Wherefore, so that I should not get above myself, I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to batter me and prevent me from getting above myself. About this, I have three times pleaded with the Lord that it might leave me; but he has answered me, ‘My grace is enough for you: for power is at full stretch in weakness.’ It is, then, about my weaknesses that I am happiest of all to boast, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me; and that is why I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and distress for Christ’s sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong.

   

        R. No man is an island –

        We are to help others attain their eternal life –

        Mutual Interchange

        How many people do you think it
            took to make an ordinary meal?

        The Church is communal!

        Man is a social creature.

        The Church is the body of Christ!

        The Church is communal!

        The individual needs CHURCH.

        If any individual says they don't
            need Church and they can live
            the Gospel on their own we
            say:

        (1) God didn't intend it that way –

        (2) We must have community
                the life of the body is the soul –
                the individual needs the Church –

 

        R. Christ is the Head

       

        Church is the body (Mystical Body
            of Christ)

        When one person doesn't carry out
            their mission –
            the whole body suffers –

        If we look at a basketball game –
            we see if one guy doesn't play with
            the team and holds out – plays
            bad – the whole team suffers –

        Look at the family – if one person acts up –

        Whatever we do that God wants – it
            helps the whole body –

        How about the orchestra, the
            family, the basketball game?

        We must follow Christ –
            Die to those ways not like Christ
                (unloving, selfish, angry,
                resentful, etc.)

            Rise to new life in Christ

        Christic pattern of the Church –

        Christic pattern of the individual Christian

        Christic pattern of the world –

        We celebrate the pascal mystery
            every day of our life –
            death/resurrection –
       
                   

               

 

Give the gift that keeps giving.

6 different Blue Books for $30.00 including postage 

       


$
6.00


$5.00


$4.00


$2.00


$2.00


$3.00


$3.00


$3.00


$3.00


$3.00


$3.00


$3.00


$3.00


$3.00


$3.00

 
 $5.00                        $5.00

Books available in limited supply for this sale.

 

The more you use the Blue Books and
    become one with Jesus – more
    intimate with Jesus –
    the more your lives are a blessing and
    everything you do in life can help
    to bring down great grace for the world
    because of your being so
    one with Jesus.

 

Guiding Light Homily Book Series

Fr. Joe’s Books


Cycle A –
Steadfast to the Son


Cycle B –
Focusing on the Word


Cycle C

Feed My Soul

 
Cycle A
 
Inspired to be Genuine

4 for $20 plus postage of $5.95 

 

These books can be given to:

1) All Priests

       2) Good for Music Ministers
       3) Good for DRE's
       4) Good for Deacons
       5) Good for Principals of Schools
       6) Good for Teachers
       7) Good for Mom and Dads

     


 

                Given March 21, 2014

                R. Pray for These Things

                1) Pray for the Pope & hierarchy to help us start prayer chapters.
                2) Pray for Dan, Sally Jo, Richard, Carol, Margaret, Sue,
                    Jack, Jean, Amanda, Matthew, Special intentions.
               
3) Pray for the priests, the Church and the world!
                4) Pray for the spread of prayer chapters,
                    also for the spread of priests doing prayer chapters.
                5) Pray for the spread of Blue Books.
                6) People going to Florida and China.
                7) Vocations to all 7 categories.
                8) Pray for spread of Consecration and Rosary.
                9) Pray for pope helping us.
               10) Pray for Jeff - sales & health. Pray for Nick.
               11) Blue Book 16 and cover and all involved.
                    For our Publisher and all involved
               12) All intentions on my list, Jerry's list.
               13) Priests getting Fr. Joe's book.
               14) Pray for Fr. Joe's new book, cover & funds for printing & postage.
               15) Donors and members and their families.
               16) Healing of the Family tree.
               17) Dan & Melanie, Catherine & mom, Gary, Mary Jo,
                    Jim & statues, Fr. Ken, Monsignor, Kerry, Tom & wife.
               18) All who asked us to pray for them.
               19) All we promised to pray for.
               20) Rita, John, Doris, Sheila, Jerry, Regina, Sanja,
                    Betty, Sophie, Lisa, Eileen, Fr. Mike, Louie, Laverne,
                    2 Dons, Mary Ellen, Fr. Joe, all priests helping us,
                    Ed, Jimmy, Steve, a special couple
, Rosie & all involved.
               21) 2 babies and moms.
               22) Funds and insurance.
               23) Jerry's garage.
               24) In thanksgiving for gifts, graces, & blessings received.
               25) Spread the Blood of Jesus on all of us here.
               26) Consecrate all hearts.
               27) Cast the devil out of all of us here and all in Movement.

 

 

 The Wedding Rosary 

Crystal Image Rosary

$40 plus shipping

 

Original Image Rosary

8mm glass beads
in a matching gift box

$40 plus shipping

 

  

Give the gift that counts.

                Give to your priests Fr. Carter's Books plus postage.

Tell My People                    $5.00
Response to God's Love    $8.00
Response in Christ              $8.00

      

 

Old Mass Books with the Imprimatur 
$2.00 plus postage


 

New Mass Book with Imprimatur   
$8.00 plus postage


 

New Parents & Children's Book with the Imprimatur
$8.00 plus postage


 

Fr. Joe's Cycle A – Steadfast to the Sun – Starts in Advent
$5.00 plus postage

Give the gift that keeps on giving!

Give to your priest.


Fr. Carter's Priestly Newsletters Book II
$6.00 plus postage

     

Get a canvas print of Mary's image
with a sliver of glass and a little
bottle of Jesus and Mary water.
The glass will be fixed behind the
back of the picture.
$200.00 plus postage

 


Shepherds of Christ Ministries  
P.O. Box 627  China, Indiana 47250

Telephone: (toll free) 1-888-211-3041 or (812) 273-8405  
FAX: (812) 273-3182

Main Shepherds of Christ Page


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