Wednesday 30th June Mass of the Day

 Jesus had similar trouble in his own town. They wanted to push him over a cliff and these gentiles on the other side of the lake  wanted to drive him out of their district. What had happened to this herd of pigs was too much to take. They understood nothing but knew that this person was dangerous. Were these pagans the other "great nation" promised to Abraham? They together with the descendants of Isaac both rejected their God who was in the flesh teaching and showing his power. 

In the collapse of religious faith that is happening all around us today we can be sure that Jesus is still being rejected. Even in the centuries of faith it was also the case that many cried "Lord, Lord" but in their hearts were filled with themselves and the love of this world. Today there are no pressures from the "world" to conform to the teachings of Jesus but there are still some who try in to understand that " In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God" for without God everything in our lives in this world is meaningless.

Dear Lord, let me always remember that the dust in the eyes of others could be a great rock in my own. Let your Holy Spirit be with me as I try to follow the "The Way, The Truth and The Life" with sincerity of heart and firmness of purpose.

 The declaration by St Peter of his belief in Jesus is reciprocated by the Lord with his gift of "The Keys". It is this gift that is the justification for our institutional Church. It is a commission from God directly to Peter and the other disciples and it tis the same commission that has been  dishonoured throughout history as the Church grew in numbers and the Clergy grew in power. Dissolute prelates, priests and popes fill the pages of history books. Even Peter who obviously believed his declaration would abandon the Lord on Calvary. But on Calvary would remain the beloved disciple and Mary our Mother with the other women and it is this group which forms the Church of Love.

Jesus is God and would know what was to be the result of his commissioning words. We who are struggling today in the grip of a plague of virus and the more serious  betrayal of Christ's teaching by many of his ministers know that God will save us and the saving Grace will not be a vision but the reality of Mary's prayers of Love in our hearts..

Dear Lord let the unwavering confidence of St Paul bolster me to do your will today and everyday that I will be here on earth.

 God listens to our pleas for mercy. Abraham was able to talk brazenly to the Lord and seemingly mollify the Lord's anger at the wickedness typified by the  behaviour of the people of the cities of the plain. God, knows , however that the guiltless cannot be found in those dens of iniquity. God's mercy is always just and those who whitewash their guilt are putting themselves outside God's sphere of mercy. We do not win anything from God by our own efforts; all is Grace. The sun shines on us all; we do nothing to win our lives but God is all Love and complete Knowledge of everything even of the virus which is blighting our lives; and so he gifts mercy all we can do is plead for it. Jesus is very much to the point. There is no bargaining with him. To follow or not to follow is his straightforward offer. He does know our weaknesses and our commitments. He is the same God revealed in the Old testament and offers us the choice to live according to the Law that he has come to protect. I have that choice and the complete freedom to say yeah or nay.

Dear Lord, our freedom to choose to live in the light of your love is sometimes a burden as the attractions of the world are so appealing. I can live this day without forgetting your Love for the support of your Saints and Your Mother are always present in Your Light of heaven.

 The first reading teaches that God did not create us to be only worldly beings. We are like God in that we will never end. That is the "image" of the "image and likeness". We are created to be with God for all eternity which means that we will become part of God's time. We will not be aware of this "Time" for we will see God as he really is and will so be the complete "image and Likeness". The Devil however has other plans for us and never ceases to try to take from us God's gift of Life. We need to use this earthly life in the service of God by being aware of him and loving him by following his commandments. We are not abandoned to do this on our own. Jesus is always with us and has infinite mercy to spread throughout the billions of humans who have ever lived and our now living. God knows us all and tells us to bend our will to the Truth he reveals to us in his creation. Jesus has brought the Saints to heaven even now. Heaven is not "another country" but is the living "Communion of Saints" led by Our Lady. We are saved. But we must actively participate in that redemption given to us by the torture of the Cross and the "sword piercing the heart" of the witness Mother of God.

Dear Lord, I pray that this today I will remain free of sin and be consistent in thoughts and deeds.

 The Oak at Mamre has inspired the painters of many icons. The visitors are seen as the Trinity our triune God who has revealed himself as the Father Son and Holy Spirit. Abraham receives him in the spirit of Bedouin hospitality; nomads take care of all they find wandering in the same deserts where they too may be lost and destitute in need of the same stranger's care as their own guests of today. Sarah has reason to laugh. She doesn't see the generations who will be descended from what seems to her to be a "daft" prophecy . Out of her descendent God  begets the Son who together with the Holy Spirit is taking rest in the shade of the tree at Mamre. It is hard to visualise these moments in scripture when the eternity of God is present in human temporality. It happens everyday when The Sacrifice of the Son is repeated in a lawful Mass and is our guarantee that the words of Jesus are absolute and nakedly True. "I am the Bread of Life" " I an the Way, the Truth and the Life".

Dear Lord, let me be aware this day of your Eternal present and let me do nothing to obscure your infinite goodness. Let me learn to habitually avoid sin, at least as habitually as I now fail to do your will.

 We can know of God because he has revealed himself. Scripture is the record of his revelation. We are the recipients. Much of what is read is not one hundred per cent clear. The length of life of the individual Patriarchs from Adam onwards is a huge question mark. What is recorded as God's promise to Abraham is with us today as a nation of Israel still exists although it too has lost the Faith in  God that is the sole reason for its existence. Science today strives to prolong our lives on earth but nobody seriously strives after a patriarchal length of days.

Jesus says "Of course I want to cure you". Then he tells the leper to show himself to the priests for it is they who can, according to the law of Moses, declare a leper free of his disease. Jesus throughout the New Testament shows his support for the organised religion as it existed in his days. In these days much is made by anti-clerics of Jesus' opposition to the scribes and the Pharisees even though he tells us that he comes to fulfil the Law ( established religion) not to change it. Our priesthood is founded by the Lord and has the huge responsibility of shepherding the people of God to the Truth that comes from God. That this responsibility is sincerely recognised and practised is not obvious in today's Church.

Dear Lord send your Holy Spirit into the hearts of your faithful and may the sincerity of belief found among your people be an inspiration to your Priests. Let us see holiness in the lives of your priests.

 The story of St John the Baptist is told in few words but most Christians remember his dramatic death at the behest of a dancing girl. His words " I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandal" though show that he was aware as were  the other prophets that God was speaking through him; he knew that his place in life was to bear witness to the coming of Christ. My place in life is similarly clear. I must be alive always in the presence of God. My witness has to be to the Father Son and holy Spirit and always to avoid sin. The prophets seem to have been given graces that we have not experienced. Is it possible that we are too tied to our lives in this world  and do not welcome the grace that would send us into the wilderness of a solitary life; but not solitary for God would be all in all. "Be holy" said Jesus, "for my Father in heaven is holy". This seems so beyond my grasp that I don't make anything but a cursory effort. "My yoke is easy and my burden is light" tells me that all efforts are supported The Son took on our weak flesh and suffered in mind and body to enable us to be pardoned  and to receive the Holy Spirit the  channel of all that is Good.

Dear God let me not forget that you are always with us and may this day be without sin for me and all tour people.

 Our world is full of people. God has created us to do His will; but he doesn't enforce this upon us. Our bodies grow according to God's rules for the matter from which we are formed is determined by rules of our Creator We cannot determine our bodies by our wills. It is our wills that have to conform to God's own will. We can choose how we will behave in the world that is our "now".. God chose Abram. Only God knows why this choice was made there was nothing special about him. We who try to be aware of God's will in this "now" know that from this world full of people there is only one "I" and that "I" is willed by God to know love and serve  only Him. This is the Truth for every "I" to live by. Rich or poor, clever or untalented we have been chosen as was Abram to accept and acknowledge God's will; everything that  "is" has its being from God and our human being has been chosen to share in God's eternal being by using our own free choice which also comes from God  There are so many of us in the world but I am fully seen by God; each and every one of us are valued as individual equals by Almighty God.

Dear Lord let the fruits of my work today be sincerity of heart; penitence for sin and pure love for your people my neighbour.

 The most well known names of the resistance to the dissolution of the monasteries of England and Wales are remembered today. How many high-ranking clerics other than St John Fisher resisted the king and the reformation that began during his reign? We know that there were not many. How many of our hierarchs have resisted the denials of the life willed by God for us to live". Go forth and multiply was God's command but controlling our fertility is accepted as the norm now. Marriage is between man and man and woman and woman. Surgical operations alter the sex of those who request it and the life in the womb is a nuisance to be got rid of. Nothing can condemn fornication and no voices are  raised against the falseness of homosexuality. My Bishop claims that the mass he celebrated with the active proponents of homosexuality was full of a palpable "love". The Mass, the remembrance of Jesus passion and death was treated as a vehicle to celebrate "pride" in sin. What more are we to face as this mindset continues to lead us away from God and into the gates of hell. 

Dear Lord your saints in heaven were able with your help to overcome the dangers of their times on earth. Please send us priests and bishops who demonstrate that they truly believe in the love promised by you and are able to resist and condemn the sinfulness of these times.

 Today those who live in Christ can read the beginnings of their relationship with the Living God. We have little knowledge of the times after  Adam and Eve except for Noah's acceptance of God's warning,  but with Abraham begins the record of God's revelation to first his favoured nation and ultimately with the redeeming work of Jesus. None of us can hold that in our minds. The desert nations relied on their memories with which they held their genealogies. The scribes became valued as a class because their records became our sacred books recording the deeds of of prophets and of kings and God's dealings with them

 Today we have the fleeting yet permanent records of our machines. They are even used to create wealth out of capacity to produce unbreakable codes of numbers.  We have so much to occupy us today that we are convinced that that we are beginning to create a world that has no need of God.  We all must die and our blockchains will disintegrate. We will be judged by the Judge with whom there is absolute Wisdom Truth  and Justice and with whom there is no shadow of deceit. No matter what our successes or failures of today, we will all die and then we will know truth for we shall see God as he is Face to Face.

Dear Lord save me from the dangers of hypocrisy and let what I pray come solely from you, returning myself to your loving care. I ask this in the name of the Father, Son and holy Ghost.

 Job is taught that no matter how rich and powerful a man may become in the world it is as nothing in God's eyes. Everything that comes from God is a good for our benefit and of course we do not always understand the good especially when we feel pain in mind or body. .God's  rules for the physical Universe are bit by bit being discovered and rapidly as more and more scientist live and work to this end. God's rules for living as a human have all been revealed from the dawn of creation . It is God who teaches us that  we need to please him to be truly human. Jesus is asleep in the boat that is out of control but shows the disciples then and us now that he is here with us at all times even to the end of time. .

Dear Lord may today become a time in which I praise your name by being aware that you have redeemed me  from my sin by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Your Holy Spirit brings this grace at all times for your Being is Love in which by Faith Hope and Charity I can share.

 Yet again we see that the early Church was as troubled as our own experience in this modern age. St Paul classifies himself as a "fool" as he is boasting about his own deeds. He is in argument with others who have put themselves forward to act as Apostles and he is asserting that he has experienced much more tribulations than they who have justified their false claims by reference to their suffering. "I have done much more for the Church than you" is a familiar claim in parish disputes and it is still foolish today. St Paul's list of sufferings is nothing but impressive; he claims to be feeble but this is certainly over the top humility, 

In today's Gospel Jesus gives us hope that it is possible for us to have "heavenly treasure" and the eye is seen as the  organ of right judgement as it brings light to hearts. "What a darkness that will be" is comment from God on the futility of everything that is not seen in  His light. We are to open our eyes to the pure illumination that comes from God; the salvation that is ours though the sufferings of Jesus and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are all here for us to see in the light  of our Creator.

Dear Lord  how much greater must St Paul's anxiety for the state of your Church be in these days. All is in your hands, we are truly feeble let your will for only Good things blind us to evil so that we can know the Love that comes from you.

 Ever since the establishment of the first congregations the Church seems to have been in a state of defence against individuals and false teaching. St Paul warns the Corinthians to be aware of the false prophets teaching their own version of Christ and his Gospels. The first years were particularly chaotic and even after the texts used were formalised the false versions still circulated among  sects and adherents of Charismatic leaders. Today the basic texts, commentaries and opinions run into millions of words. Forests innumerable have been felled and squids by the thousand have been slaughtered to preserve the words of Christ and the teachings of the Church  All of these words are today available anywhere on earth to any person who has a keyboard linked to the WWW. Knowledge used to be admired for its own sake but today Wikipedia provides us all for everybody anywhere.

Jesus says when you pray go into your own heart and recognise God as Holy, know His will and follow it so that the holiness of being in His presence can be here on earth, only ask for sustenance for this day; forgive anyone who offends you for this will be the measure of God's forgiveness of you; let us not be tested in mind, soul or body; save us from sin.

Dear Lord let me not confuse words spoken and written about you with You, the Father Son  Holy Spirit You are God and I must know what I can about you; love you completely by also being complete in my obedience. help me Lord

 St Paul coins "The Lord loveth the cheerful giver" as he speaks of alms giving. We who give cheerfully will never be without for we are beloved of the Lord. There is a real moral quandary for us today. We do need to do our duty to the poor but those who administer  the gifts we make have increasingly come under suspicion. We know of high salaries and moral corruption not only in the Church but also in secular organisations. Many dioceses face bankruptcy because of compensation they have been forced to pay having been found guilty of covering-up bad behaviour on the  part of the clergy. Do we continue to give for our gifts to  be used in this way. 

Praying should be private; praying should be done in the heart; praying should not be performed to show off one's piety . Jesus asks us to question ourselves about our sincerity. You are not going to church you are not part of the local congregation. You are questioning the teaching of the Church about the validity of Sacraments  administered by unworthy ministers. You are writing thoughts from your heart that can be seen all over the world. Are you truly raising your mind and heart to me Father, Son and Holy Spirit.?

Deas Lord the answer is known only to you. I need to pray. My sinful deeds need to be curtailed and this prayer log is one way of doing this. I don't need anyone to read what I write for it is directed to You.. I may be alone but You know me. Please help me to do your will.

 St Paul is very much like a modern clergyman when asking for donations; there is within his words a subtle challenge to do better than other congregations. St Paul himself had nothing that was his own for everything was in Christ. Christ had nothing although his wealth was that of our total universe he has emptied himself and taken on nothing more than our humanity. We must love, pray for the best to happen for all mankind. We must not categorise people as friends or enemies. We must look at each person we meet and see in them the image of Jesus. We are all saved by the same Sacrifice.

Other people may not see us in the same way. For others we are the "haves" or "have nots"; not only in wealth but also in talents, physical appearance. Sometimes they express their disgust at us by words spoken or spread via this technology that I am using. These are the ones we must love not to anticipate change in them or reward from the Father but that is the simple yet perfect rule for our lives. A rule that is pure gift, grace that overflows from the love of the Trinity.

                                            I have just written this but can I live it?

Dear Lord help me to understand the words of long ago and find in them the  living faith in the Father that you showed us by your short time on earth. Help me to put God before all but also know that each person is the same as myself and not to be harmed in any way.

 A Moslem friend once remarked how difficult if not impossible  it would be to follow Jesus in the light of "offer the other cheek". He was right. This saying goes against our intimate knowledge of ourselves in interaction with other people.  Slap!!!! Flush and retaliation is what we know and horrified instant regret; frantic apologies if we have assaulted a loved one and guilt for not being as Christ want sus to be. St Paul was aware of this too; aware that human beings are prone to all sorts of Evil. He is not bragging but merely categorizes the "slaps" that we must all endure in trying to live a life that will be pleasing to God. We must actively pursue the virtues purity and all that is holy. Our human nature must be tamed and remodelled in imitation of Christ's humanity so that we take on Christ and reveal him by our actions. All this be done in humility without the affectations condemned in the Pharisees. God is with us we were created to know the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for it is from and in the Trinity that our only eternal salvation comes.

Dear Lord help me to face the inconveniences and annoyances of my everyday life in a way that is as you directed. Forgive me for the offences I have committed in the first 3 hours of this day.

 The Lord speaks in the Old Testament through the mouths of His prophets. What they say is not only a condemnation of wicked backsliding but also teaching and explanation as in today's first reading. This image has been in men's minds for more than 2000 years. Today the  parable of the the cedar tree is  displayed on the flag of Lebanon. 

St Paul urges us to remember that it is better to live  the life that comes from God than to be concerned only with our life in this world. Still living,  we  put our spiritual life first and when exiled from the body we can be received into the realm of the Lord; into the tree planted by God. What we do in our living bodies will determine how we are received in death. 

Jesus' parable of the mustard seed is still with us and we have difficulty with this bodily image. The image of the  "mustard tree" does not appear on the flags of any of the world's nations but inspires  all the Christians of the world. The Church of Christ needs to be not grand and glorious, ready for felling, as the cedars of Lebanon but tiny, insignificant yet full of the Living Lord  tending with great love all his people of this physical universe.

Dear Lord my prayer is to keep this bodily life of mine free form sin and let my goal be to live Your Life here on earth  Let me be without attachment to the world but let my prayers bring your Love to the hearts of all peoples.

 All mothers ( fathers too) are amazed by the beings that they have given birth to; they cherish  memories  in their hearts and so the memory of the  emotion when the baby first smiled is forgotten or rathe smothered by many subsequent equally momentous memories. Now we have millions of images daily generated and saved by machines such as the one that I am now using.

 Two thousand years  the memory had to be in the heart. Mary knew that the child with her had been begotten by God At his birth there had been many signs and portents.

 St Paul knew that this is a new creation and that although some of the early Christians had known Jesus in the flesh, Jesus is now present to us in the Spirit and it is this Holy Spirit that speaks in hearts to lead us to God We can become the Goodness of God for Jesus has in obedience to the Will of the Father and by his own Will become a sacrifice to conquer sin. His sacrifice,  death and resurrection, is eternally present for the Holy Spirit to spread through out History at all times so that early Christians newly converted and we the hesitant followers of Christ in modern times can confidently say "Our Father who art in heaven " and know  the support we need will be always with us. Our Church may give few signs of holiness but we can be sure that it is the conduit through which the Holy Spirit enters into our world. Jesus is present with us  throughout the whole of Time.

Dear Lord I pray that your Church may act truthfully as your foundation for humanity's spiritual awareness and growth and that you can ensure that I can grow  in your love with sincerity of heart that focuses not on itself but on you and your creation. Help me Lord

In today's feast the Church connects a brief outline of God's revelation. He cares for his people Israel. It seems that he does particularly favour one People and in favouring them keeps himself away from the others. This is difficult for us to grasp for God as we know him has no favourites and  opens his heart to all the world so that all can be saved .The Passion of the Son releases a superabundance of merciful love. St Paul is well aware of this and teaches that it is within God, who has no beginning or ending, that the redeeming Act of His Incarnation is a Sacrifice of atonement for all sin. In God there is no sin but we live our freedom in time and it is in time that we sin. The Holy Spirit the eternal Love that flows  from the eternal Father and Son is incarnated in the humanity of  Jesus and made by loving kindness, into the Heart of Jesus and freely available  to us weak sinners living here in time. 

This is what the Church has been instructed to proclaim over the centuries and created to perform. The Liturgy is the visible sign of God's presence. The Mass is the presence of God at the Sacrifice on Calvary and we are the Church of Love remaining  at the foot of the cross after His Apostles had all deserted him. 

I don't want to read into this image the obvious analogy  that applies to the crumbling edifice that is God's Church today.

Dear Lord, each day my thoughts repeat themselves as I try to live according to your Grace. The Sacred Heart pours out Infinite Mercy let me not forget to open my heart to respond to this .

 Each day I try to reflect on the revelation of God as preached to the early church. I have the word "reflection" as a replacement for "contemplation" or "meditation" which seem to be too self-consciously pious. Today St Paul uses a different meaning of reflect. We need to mirror the Glory of the Lord. Although the Holy Spirit is present in each individual that presence shines forth and is reflected by each of us to each other. Our Church is not a people by birth but  the people of God by the reflections of Glory that we should be for each other. 

How can this be? Jesus tells us that we need to have the practise of the Law, (not its words increased by human scruples as Scribes or Pharisees,) in the innermost part of our being so that we practise Love without being aware that it is this  that we do. Anger is murder, lust is adultery. Anything we do against one another is sin which keeps us from the true worship that God requires of us. We must not have mortal sin in us if we want to be fed by the Eucharist that is God's shining presence in our world.

Dear Lord you know that I am trying to live these latter days of my life in the way I  should have lived all my days let me be truly penitent and may our mother whose instant "Yes" was your incarnation come to the aid of that failing patient, your Church. 

 St Paul's letters are a treat to read; his message is always consistently clear and flawlessly presented. I have written the first sentence after reading today's Epistle but I can't instantly recall what it was. I am writing this again with the intention of praying and and preparing for today. This is the message the words of which I cannot recall clearly, but its seems that I am a proof that what is written in the heart comes from the Spirit and  cannot die. Moses shone with the reflection of God's Glory that comes from the Law; but this fades. Jesus promises us that the Law is fulfilled by following him. By keeping all the commandments each individual living on earth can come to salvation and shine with the Glory of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.; the Glory that was promised to a people but is now welcoming each individual of humanity.

Dear Lord may all the people of the world come to know and worship the Love that is the Father's, Son's and Holy Spirit's and may I not in reaching temporal goals, lose sight of  my final end.

 We need always to  be aware that it is God's revelation of himself that we read in the Scriptures. The missionary work of Paul and his companions has the guarantee that it is the Word that is being preached. Christ is the manifestation of God; more than that he is the Word together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We too can see the Spirit in our hearts as did Paul and we must recognise it and put it first in all our works. Jesus wants our works to be seen as an  example and a light to all the world. We are the salt that can bring out the true taste of God's creation but not by hiding our true Christian selves. 

This brings me to the "no". Paul reminds the early church that there is no "yes and no" about Jesus' message. Jesus is "yes" to the Father and we must be the "YES" without quibbles to him. We the "Church Today" must not collapse into a confusion of messages promoted by the growth of "human knowledge " but must be a clear "Yes" to the promises of our Triune God.

Dear Lord help me to see clearly your Will for me and with the support of the heavenly Church Triumphant let your Will be seen in my works this day.

 Today's support from St Paul prompted me to think as I read it that there is no need for change if I can continue to put my faith in God. I can suffer ( I am afraid of this) and receive consolation. I can live and I can die. Tomorrow is only another day. If today is genuinely devoted to God so tomorrow can be no greater. My first thought has to be God and Jesus' blessings are what I need to aim at. I need to keep myself out of my mind and learn to automatically choose the right. I do not need to be a winner the other is also a child of God. Have I ever truly mourned for my dead? What have I ever gone without for the good of others? My life has always had my personal satisfaction as its goal. I don't think I have ever been in a position to show mercy but forgiveness to another is another matter. I know that if all the scabs of sin are cleared away there is in me a purity that is from God. Let me scrape away the dross so that this can see God. How can I make peace within the corruption that the Church has become? Each day I face this question and sometimes respond to foul bloggers; but, what is this?

Dear Lord you know what I am please direct me on the Way and let me be receptive to your Holy Spirit. 

 Our dependence on Almighty God is this feast of Corpus Christi. Jesus the Son has been sacrificed to the Father and been accepted in the Eternal Love that is the Holy Spirit and we the people of God can only stand back in awe at this Truth which is our Life our only being without which there is nothing which means I cannot even imagine such a state. Our lives are created with  the same Love which is the Trinity and our rightly lived lives will not end with the death of our bodies but continue not in time but in the Being that is God. This Sacrament which is not only the memorial of Christ but is also the reason that God clothed himself in flesh, God cannot suffer in his Being, to make the perfect sacrifice, is the ever greater thing on this earth. 

Dear Lord, this Body of Christ is the reason for our Church our Clergy and ourselves, let us always keep this in our minds and truly repent for the sins which we still cling to. May your Mother and ours help us by her prayers. Keep us from unholy communions and let my soul become as you created it to be.

 The Angel Raphael reveals himself as a messenger of God and emphasises how in this world some conduct is righteous but not so with God. We should shout out our love for God. We need to broadcast His praises. We need to tell all about his Glory. We need to live according to the Gospels. In these days we have become voiceless. I remember when there was always a Catholic voice raised in public. During the war when Hitler's deputy was interned after flying to Scotland a Catholic priest organised  a rally in Leicester to demand that he be exchanged for 100,000 inmates of German concentration camps. In these days the only public appearance of our Clergy has been to apologize for vile conduct and coverup. We are loth to shout our support for God's Church when its leadership is less than praiseworthy. 

Do I think that I am shouting out my joyful belief in God by clicking this keyboard?

Dear Lord your first revelation was to a people in these times your Son and Holy Spirit speak to the individuals who make up the People of God. Let each one of us know that you can support us  when we speak unpalatable truths. 

 All our joys come from the Lord. This is how we too must praise God. This is too how we must thank God. This is too how we must trust God. The relationship that Tobit and his family have with God is the message that is given to us today to be part of our worship in church and outside it for that matter. All the good things that we experience come from God. 

The sufferings that we sometimes face make this hard to be remembered. Tobit's joy in his returned sight and in his new daughter-in-law wipe out the times of sightless  suffering. God has scourged him. Jesus too is to be scourged with the torturer's flail. He too suffers to the utmost and seems to lose trust in his Father. Many of the sufferings of mankind are hard to reconcile with our understanding of a  Loving God. Many people are faced with so much suffering that their hearts and minds cannot be raised out of constraints of pain that bind them. Being the Son does not remove the human suffering of Jesus the man. The source of this pain is my sin.

Dear Lord you know that I really do want to be able to praise you with the fervour of your people of old. You know that I cannot keep from sinning in my thoughts and words. Let me not be so immersed in myself that I forget to pray for all the people suffering from the results of Man's injustice. Lord save thy people.

 The saga of Tobit continues and what is emphasised is the foremost place given to the praise of God. Tobias approaches his bride in the spirit of Genesis. All is for the love of God and he prays that he may live together with Sara into a peaceful old age. The man will support the woman as she will him and he prays that God will keep them from hardships; He will pity them.

A scribe asks Jesus the question about the commandments and Jesus tell us that the most important thing in our lives is to know and love God and that we must treat all people in the way we would want to be treated; the Golden Rule. It seems that Jesus was always in confrontation with the Leaders of Temple Worship; they indeed worked to weaken Jesus' preaching  and ultimately contrived to have Him crucified by the Romans. There are those who use this apparent animosity between Jesus and the organised religion of his day to condemn all our clergy; Jesus, in fact practises the Golden Rule and sometimes, as today even  praises a scribe or Pharisee .

Dear Lord help me to follow the teachings of Jesus in all that I do and think. Today I will labour please give success to the work of my hands and if that cannot be let me accept the failure without resentment, knowing that only good things come from you.

 The story of  Tobit this morning begins with the lamentation that is pure praise for God and recognition that if we look towards God we become miniscule in his sight. God is complete Justice so Tobit sees his plight as completely justified; he and his nation, the people of the Covenants have sinned countless times. The story continues, very much like a modern soap, and God's providence, the writer, has begun to move the plot. The female lead is also afflicted in an unfathomable way and is scorned by all. She considers all her options but decides to beg the Lord for death. The prayers of both are answered and the Mercy of God is sent as Raphael the Archangel.

In the Gospel there is another plot to catch Jesus out. Of course it fails but in its failure Jesus assures us that there is most definitely a life after death. A life that was revealed to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; God is the God of the living and man may die but continues in the Life of the Resurrection. After death all the modern nonsense and preoccupation about sex and gender will be nothing. We will be like the Angels, not in that we will have no bodily existence but in that as we are with God there will be no reproduction of our species.

Dear Lord, I thank you that I am able to fill my time with work and yet know that this happiness as a tiny cog in your creation too will pass; grant me time in which to confess my sins and let me be sincere in my amendment.

 The Tobit story which is today's first reading is hard for us to relate to as  although it was written only 300 years before the birth of Christ, it is set in a age remote from the one that was the setting for the New Testament, the time of the Exile. The story illustrates the ways of God which are not man's ways. Tobit is, as was Job, a God- fearing man who was stricken with a random misfortune that was surely going to test his faith. What a panic he fell into when he was sure that the kid had not been acquired licitly. We feel the desperation of the blind man who only wanted to do what was right but was hampered by his handicap. His wife sees the kid as a reward for all the times he had done good to his neighbour in days before the random act of fate which had blinded him. His faith was in God and in the covenants made with Abraham and Moses. 

The New Testament Jesus is put to the test by men and he definitively separates politics and religion. The problem that we face today is that politics does not accept this and imposes non-Christian norms onto the people of God. Some of our Church leaders seem to have lost their primary purpose and are more than ready to concede their Faith which comes from God to the twin Caesars of popularity and power. Why are the nonsenses about sex and gender not condemned for what they are, evil stupidity.

Dear Lord, may we regard the faith displayed in the Old Testament as pointers to the true faith brought to us by the Holy Spirit from You and the Resurrection.  May I find your mercy and pardon for all my sins which are such an offence to Your Saving Grace.