30/11/2021

The meeting by the shores of Sea of Galilee. The called are just minding their own business, mending their nets. It is as if we were working on our cars and a complete stranger, a passerby, said those words to us "Come follow me and I will make you mechanics of souls". How quickly did Andrew and his brother and the other soon to be Apostles understand what they had done in their response. God is perfect freedom without any constraints and in his freedoom he only does what is good. Our human freedom was created by God to enable us to willingly chose what is good and right to do.

The first Apostles were chosen by Jesus and were thus given grace to choose the right path. They were not forced into their choice and in the same way as Mary had been given the freedom to respond "Let it be", they to could have refused. We too centuries later are also give the freedom to respond in the same freedom to the same call from eternity.

St Paul, writing thirty or forty years after the event that unfolded out of that "Let it be" and the meeting on the shore has no doubts that the belief in our hearts and the Word on our lips will bring us to salvation. God's Mercy is for all mankind but we have to opt for that in the freedom that God has given to us. 

Dear Lord let all your people, clergy and sheep, acknowledge the greatness of your Glory and the Witness of your Son so that the Holy Spirit will support us in the choice we make in our created freedom to know, love and serve you in this world.

 29/11/2021

The Church prepares for the nativity of Jesus the true man and Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the true God by recalling from the Old Testament scripture that points to a change in the revealed relationship between God and Man. Today that change is celebrated by Isaiah and confirmed by Jesus in Galilee. We are told nothing about the truly pagan centurian except that he had a blind faith in the authority of this Jew, one of the subject people to be controlled by his cohort.

Jesus tells us that the centurian's is true faith. That must be hard for his Jewish disciples to stomach for, even though a subject people the Jewish Galileans, knew that they were God's Chosen People, so the gentiles who filled Galilee were held in contempt for their eating of pigs and all the other ways they did not follow the Law.

Even today we can ask how the Centurian was given the grace to believe in the way Jesus knew that he did. We all know so much more than he did and struggle to follow and believe the teaching of Jesus and his Church. What happened subsequently in the life of that centurian and his daughter who was saved by Jesus? Were they among those who continued to follow Our Lord but were devastated by Golgotha?

Dear Lord let my faith be as sharp as the centurian's sword to cut through all the clouds of doubt and sin and come to the holiness that is a result of your grace and sacrifice. 

 28/11/2021

As we begin the count-down to Christmas the season of Advent prepares us for the Nativity. But Jesus had been with us for 8 months growing as all humans, and mammals for that matter, in his mother's womb for he is begotten not made. He is now nearly ready for birth and becomes progressively heavier for his mother to carry and support with her body and she has to accompany Joseph and his family to Bethlehem to complete the censs ordered by the Roman civil power. Jesus comes into a place in the world as a result of rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and departs with the same humility.

To feed us with his Love and redeem us from the darkness of our sins God who is all powerful and evergreater accepts the basic things that all humanity has to face. Birth into a State. This is unimaginable humilty on the part of our God and its purpose is shown in the Resurrection after the torture of his death on the Cross.

Jesus warns us that human life can easily be corrupted. We have countless examples that we know in our own lives and to these are added examples on a daily basis from those even who have dedicated their lives to God. priests and Bishops continue to scandalise us by their failings and many of us, I am one, never go into into a church for we are afraid to support the cynical ungodliness of our pastors.

Jesus (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) promised to be with us until the end of time and we have confidence as always in his words.Would that our Church displyed the confidence to openly confess the sins of the clergy and to inspire us to believe that she  is striving after the holiness that comes from our God. 

Dear Lord; I try each day to raise my thoughts and heart to you but I am still held back by my attachemnt to self. May your Mother who carried and supported your life within her for nine months and then fed you throughout your infancy help us  to bear witness to your purpose for our lives.

 27/11/2021

Today Daniel makes it clear that the visions he sees are within his mind. This makes it more difficult for me to follow him. All our perceptions take place within our brains and I know that I think in words and I cannot imagine what it was to see such a vivid image and to interact with it as if it were part of reality.

Thank God for the words of Jesus. He knew this prophecy of Daniel and had discussed it with scribes and pharisees when he went missing in the Temple but, although enigmatic at times, his Word is straight forward without mystical cloudings.

"Stay awake" means what it says; that we should always be aware that what we are experiencing now is surely going to come to an end. "Praying at all times" means what it says; that we should always raise our beings to conscioness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. "Watch yourselves" means what it says;don't let the earthly life, bodily  pleasures and innocent wordly cares and woes, overshadow our purpose to know, love and serve God.

If we follow his word and life; if we accept his Grace, his Faith Hope and Charity then we have nothing to fear, not even the beasts of Daniel's vision.

Dear Lord let me stay true to your teaching this and every other day. Let me know your peace and let all the tumult within your Church pass away as do all things of this world.When I stand before you either on my last day or Judgement Day hold not my sins against me and let your Mercy preserve my soul in your Eternity.

 26/11/2021

The people who first heard and saw Jesus must have been familiar with what we call the Old Testament they were people who kept the Law of Moses who gave suuport to the Temple in Jerusalem. They met on the Sabbath in their local synagogue. Even the sinners were aware that their neighbours followed this way of life. Some of those who listened must have been"Greeks" or at least Hellenized. All of them were interested in the "gods" and of tapping into a supernatural form of life which would favour them during their lives and protect them from the unexpected dangers such as plague and invasion by foreigners.

The Jews who listened would have been as familiar with the sayings of the Book of Daniel as they would have been with the other Wisdom Books. This vision which is so alien to me that I think of invasions from Outer Space and other Holywood creations was not at all that to the readers of 2000 years ago. Did they accept it literally as many contemporaries accepted the stories about the Olympian gods?

It is an accepted part of our Scripture now and is presented to us as we come to the season of Advent when our Church asks to prepare for the Nativity by contemplating the Last Things. Jesus did promise us that he would return and that until he did the Holy Spirit would fill the hearts of the faithful. We have to accept God's word for what it is, not a vision of the night, but the Eternal Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Maranatha

Dear Lord may my being always be aware of you and let my prayers be added to the thousands of supplications being made to you. Protect my family from all harm and let your grace turn them to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 25/11/2021

Daniel today demonstrates that God will not desert his people who in sincerity of heart of heart and with humility ask for his aid aganst the rulers of this world. Jesus words are a prophecy of the sacking of Jerusalem and less than 50 years after his resurrection this happened and Titus destroyed the Temple.

It is no wonder that the early Christians accepted the preaching of the Apostles and disciples. What about the Jewish priests and teachers of the scriptures? They were asked to reject all that they were and believe that what had happened on Calvary was an event planned by God. An event that had to replace Temple worship.

Jesus truly did bring division and not peace. This certainly is true of those first years long ago when there were witnesses to the resurrection still living on this earth. Each convert was faced with the imminent expectation of the return of Jesus. The Apostles knew their task and did wander from city to city in the known world first to bring the "Good News" and then to support the groups who had first believed. 

The political structures of their times were based on first Greek and then Roman power. Philosphers knew the teachings of their Greek predecessors. There was thought but wealth and power were the objects of all the states. Jesus too had recognised the power of the kings of this earth. He had divided the things of Caesar from the things of God and his first Disciples had been forced to recognise that his Kindom was not of this World by the events on Calvary. God was not Caesar but the Resurrection proved that God was ever greater. Darius learnt this but we are still learning.

Dear Lord let me remember throughout the length of this day and every day that may be left to me that you are ever greater than any human structure and that your Church on earth is your crucified but resurrected body not some human thing as it has become.

 24/11/2021

Daniel continues;  the hand writes; the king reads and Daniel interprets. We must not put our faith in kingdoms and empires. In Jesus' days on earth the Old Testamen recorded the rise and fall of Israel and Judah. There were other records of Chaldea and the Greeks and mysterios Empires in the east.Alexander is still remembered in central Asia.

Two thousand years later many other powers and kingdoms have risen and fallen. Our Church too has been through a long  period where our Bishops were part of the political structure of Europe and never willingly gave up sovereignty even as the Papal States dwindled. 

There is no doubt that Jesus told his disciples not to seek political office. Our Church today in its hierarchical structure owes more to the Roman Empire than it does to the carpenter of Nazareth. The Structure is the enemy of many who humbly try to understand the Word. Jesus never said anything about Artistic Heritage; beautiful buildings or spectacular liturgies in Foreign languages.

He gave his body as bread; his blood as drink;and his Word with the express commandment to remember him in the Mass. We only need the Sacraments all else is human frippery.

Dear Lord help me to put away all sinful acts and thoughts and let my words offered up in prayer be heard and corrected as needs be. Let my inner "pharisee" be silenced and let all my being strive to do the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 23/11/2021

Jesus warns us against false prophets. Daniel tells the king that all political power will collapse for it is all built on clay. Jesus tells us that the Temple will be no more. Daniel tells us that the "stone" will not pass away and that God's Kingdom will last for ever.

If we take God's Kingdom to be another political system we are led into an undecipherable maze. Jesus saves us from that for his message is clear. "My kingom is not of this world". Jesus teaches us that all creation will continue as it is with all the events that happen then and now to continue for we "do not know the day or hour" of his coming.

Jesus teaches us that we must remain in his Love during our lifetimes. We do that by following his commands and we must never forget that his is the perfect Life. He is the Word of God. God's presence in our humanity. Tempted as we are but never sinning. Dying to rise again, Jesus the perfect man stands on feet that are roooted in Eternity. The perfect Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit showing us that God in abandoning the Son to death cleanses us of our sins and offers us in the Resurrection supported by the Holy Spirit, the only way to Eternal Joy. Everything else in life is  built in the clay of creation and is totally insecure without the support of God.

Dear Lord again I turn to you to put myself in your hands. Thankfully I am aware of my own weakness but you who are conscious of everything know how much I need your grace to live in the way you want me to. Mary your mother is mother to all of us may she help those who do not think that Grace can be theirs.

 22/11/2021

I don't know what to make of the reading from Daniel .It is certainly history that is being told to illustrate the power of God's actions in this world. That comes later. At the present point of the story it is as it were a propaganda piece for vegetarianism. It is needed to prepare the way for the main points which leave us in no doubt that God guides his favoured ones. The Hebrews have sunk yet again to their lowest point and have been taken in captivity to Babylon. It is in these situations of abasement that the Lord shows his mighty hand and saves us from the results of our sins. 

When we are lowest it is as if humility is forced upon us and if we accept our situation and turn to the Lord for the very littlest of comfort he can provide for us, then he wil listen. The world, however, is always the same as when Jesus was asked whether the tower fell and killed the 18 because they were more sinful than the other people in Jerusalem. Were the Jews more sinful than the rest of mankind or was more asked of them because more had been given?

The poor widow was destitute but was able to offer her all to the Temple, that treasure house of Wordly and Heavenly riches. The widow is well known throughout the world but we know nothing about her except this act. The Gospels are full of people about whom we know nothing but they and we are all known to God.

Dear Lord let me listen to your scripture with an open mind and heart and find your truth in the most unlikely places. We are so far from your time on Earth and hampered by possessions and knowledge help me to obey your rules for life and know that the widow is with you in the Glory of Heaven known to you as only a faithful soul can be.

 21/11/2021

Wondering about Daniel's vision I notice that he looks "into it" which seems to show that he was outside of the vision which would mean that it was not like a waking dream, happening only inside his head. Jesus confirms that he reveals truth to us by his witness. Jesus repeatedly tells us that his Kingdom is not of this world and reveals it by accepting death at the hands of the Romans although it was  his own people who delivered him up to them. 

The People of God, Israel had had an expectation of God sending to them a leader, the Messiah who would lead them to glory in this world. Daniel's vision is not of an Empire of this world but of an Eternal Sovereignty. Not only does Daniel look into the vision but his conscious mind also tries to interpret it. The One looking "like a son of man" is to become the almighty ruler of our Universe. We know him as "Christ the King".

Dear Lord help me to join your Church in celebration of your Almighty power. Let these words be your truth and let there be no swerving from your truth by neither me nor Your Church.

 20/112021

The teaching about heaven with which Jesus responds to the casuistry of the Sadducees tells us that our future in heaven will be different from how we live our being here on Earth, He tells us that we will be as the Angels are. Jesus  showed himself as the first fruits of the resurrection not as a reanimated corpse but with a glorified body unchained by the laws of our physical universe. He tells us that "to God all men are alive"which asks us more than it answers. The asking, however, is compatible with the totality of his teaching for "My Kingdom is not of this world"

God is portrayed as taking an active part in the history of Israel. Antiochus' downfall is attributed to his sacking of Jerusalem and profanation of the Temple. If we try to find God as a support of our social and political systems we are faced with numerous paradoxes. God promised that he would always be with our Church and here too paradoxes abound. Today we are a remnant of disunity even within the Church with the Keys. What we are witnessing in these times can be witnessed by all of us. In the past the wickedness of the clergy within our institutional church was not instantly apparent. 

Off the cuff remarks by the popes were known only to confidants but now we are having to constantly respond to Twitter and the never ending streams of corruption within the ranks of those called by Jesus to feed us the sheep. "Don't look, don't read" is not good advice for the unsavory events that are happening today . Jesus did not call us to be ostriches but to be his sheep led by the "Good Shepherd".

Dear Lord, please accept my wish to worship you and become a faithful servant. Help me to care for those in my family who do not know you and let me find the  way to be absolved of my sins leading to truth and Life.

 19/11/2021

Jesus offers no words of comfort to those who desecrate the Temple. Doing business with the symbol of Mamon always results in some form of dishonesty and to do that money-making in the one place dedicated to God brings anger to the one who has only preached love of God and love of neighbour. Finding anger in God faces us with a problem for in God there can be no fault. Not caring for the House of God is such a grave error that Jesus, who is God and  knows everything, lets himself show to the World that he will not tolerate corruption in His Temple then and now.

Our Church has grown so huge and rich over the centuries that "den of thieves"comes readily to mind. All over our world the word of God is being preached and contemplated by us the Body of Christ on Earth . In Eternity Mary and all the saints worship the Lord as he truly is. Only there, in Heaven, can we be sure whether we have made a sacrifice, a worship, worthy of the Lord for here on Earth we cannot be sure. 

There is a contrast between the preaching and the doing. There are many who enjoy a life now that is incompatible with your calling of them to "feed my sheep"we too are called to live holy lives on Earth and we know that you will be  always with us. Are you channeling your Grace through the corrupters whom you drove out of the Temple? Is it really true that sinful clergy truly fulfill your command and that there is a Sacramental true Being of you on the altars of sinful priests?

Dear Father, my being is prostrate before your Glory; fill my heart with the fire of your Holy Spirit that I may become less confused and receive the Son, Jesus once more in Holy Communion worthly confected by a Holy Church.

 18/11/2021

Jesus weeping over Jerusalem has become a random thoughtless semi-blasphemy in my country. Similar to the now used abbreviation OMG it is only a noise that comes out of a mouth or flashes on a screen to express great surprise. I try to give more value to words and always seek to find meaning. God's Word is Jesus and all that the creation and the incarnation gives to us. "And the word was made flesh and dwells among us". Jesus the Word is totally God and so knows eternity. Jesus the man is like us impressed by the world and the works of man; so his knowledge of everything includes our futures which are not predetermined for they result from our use of our freedom. 

Our future that Jesus sees does not happen because the The Father, Son and Holy Spirit will it to but it will be as the billions and billions of choices made by us interact with each other and creation. The only predetermined act is the attonement made on our behalf by God and of course we cannot really understand that God knowingly became human so that he would die not just an ordinary death but ignominiously, tortured on a cross.

God has willed that this creation will pass away and that we are able to see his Glory. All of this is known by God who as the Almighty shares his Being of  Father, Son and Holy Spirit out of love for us and his world. We have to know him, love and serve him in time-driven now so that we will be welcomed into the eternal Now; the All in All.

Dear Lord, help me to understand to the limits of my abilities the meaning of so much that is difficult in scripture and in your Church. Let my soul be what you intend it to be and let my will recognise how to be true to your Love.

 17/11/2021

The story of the Maccabees' resistance to the attempted Helenisation of  King Antiochus continues in today's reading. We too have to resist the apparantly systematic destruction of all things Christian by our Liberal/Libertine society. We are humans created man and woman. Our sexes are part of God's creation but the vanity of science has filled our minds to such an extent that there is an assumption that because we understand how something works we can do what we want with it. Many of us are brilliant and capable of sending men to the moon; messages can be sent around the world and back in the twinkling of an eye. Great buildings are built in cities and surging rivers tamed. All is done in God's Creation for there is nothing that is done in this world that is not done without the  material which God created.

The Law of the Lord is far more important than the manipulation of matter. Jesus knows that we are part of human society which has developed out of his creation. He knows that even as we walk with him especially, towards Jerusalem, thoughts of prestige and power begin to take over our minds. So he tells the story/parable of the talents.The message seems to be that  punishment will come to us if we do not make good use of what we have in this world and total destruction will be the reward of enemies of the king. But I have never ever been comfortable with this parable and still it is so today. A quick glance at Wikipedia shows me that I am not really alone in the difficulties to be found in this parable even Milton has his own slant which seems to have in it some sort of contradiction "They also serve who only stand and wait" to the servant who made nothing of his talent.

Dear 

 16/11/2021

The resilience to brute force showed by Eleazar is somethig that I do not to have to try to emulate. Not only was it brute force that he resisted but there was also the mental pressure of his contempories who had chosen to obey although they had tried to disguise their apostasy in the way out that they suggested to him.

We have been told that when we are persecuted for Christ's sake the words to defend ourselves will be given to us; and so it was with Eleazar whose elequence inspired the remnant who revolted against the edicts of the King. There are places in the world where Christians are subjected to legal pressure and persecution. We  have to have questions about the treatment of our Church in China where something is not quite right about the Vatican's diplomatic efforts.

The man in the sycamore tree is an easily remembered image but do we always remember the social pressure that was put upon Jesus as a result of accepting an invitation to eat at the house of a sinner. All organised religion has its human social conventions but in the Israel of Jesus' day not only were there strict dietary laws but the law restricted whom you could eat with. Those dietary laws abolished by our Saviour still exist in Islam and Judaism.

The social pressure that Jesus was always under is as nothing to the torture he was to undergo on Calvary. All of us who feel socially isolated because  of our beliefs must take heart from Jesus' words when he tells us "that he comes to seek out and save what was lost". We must also pray that what we believe about our isolation is truly the Word of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and that we are also known to the Mother of God and all the saints in Eternity.

Dear Lord the Communion of the Saints is the Holy Spirit feeding us with the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May my soul always be open to that Love and may I learn to also share it with all peoples on earth. May your Holy Mother and Saints reach out to support those who are in desperate straits.

 15/11/2021

The persecution of people because they believe what they have is the truth has been part of human society since we started to have an understanding of what it is to be human. This understanding of human nature has grown as has the number of people in the world for each of us although sharing a common nature/being are obviously different from our mothers and the millions of individuals who make up the rest of humanity. God in the Old Testament treated Israel as a Person . The community was well-loved as a favoured son and there was for his people a common justification. In his revelation God chose prophets to speak for him revealing his pleasure or dissatisfaction.

Jesus is the Incarnation, not too long after the apostacy relived in Maccabees, of the Word, the Eternal Being, walking as an individual man and speaking to his listeners one to one. Those men, women and children, sinners, mockers blasphemers and listeners too saw and heard God not as a beloved people but as a beloved person.

We all have a conscience and the ability to know right from wrong. Jesus leads us all out of blind sinfulness and reveals to each of us  the light of his truth. His Church founded on Peter has so many, dead and alive, of us in it that, using our human freedom, there appears to be many ways truth and light. But the truth is always in us guided by the Carpenter of Nazareth. We must not excuse ouselves.We must not sin. We must not allow the potential for sin to refuse the Word of God, lead us into the stupidity of any sin for sin is not only evil but also the way to Total Death where the totality of being is to weep and gnash our teeth.

Dear Lord, let me be aware of your Mercy as I live through this day. Guide me through the morass that holds me back and let the Glory of your Being, Father Son and holy Spirit lead me to everlasting life.

 14/11/2021

Jesus tells us that the endtimes will be revealed by certain signs and that "this generation will not have passed away" before he will have returned. Of course this was a great problem to the Apostles and first converts who had accepted Jesus', the Resurrection, with an urgency begotten by fear of an imminent end. 

Today we have two thousand years to look back on and we too are waiting of the Parousia. We are and have been Jesu's "this generation"for a long earthly time but, of course, God's Eternity has no such thing as time and the Infinite Intelligence contains all knowledge including knowledge of me. He has created me to have a purpose in this world. He has a purpose for creation. He has a mission for each and every one of us.

He has not left us alone and brought out of humanity qualities that reflect on his greatness and power. If creatures can build on from his creation in such a spectacular way what must be the infinite possibilities for our God who has humbled himself in atonement for our sins to the extent of accepting on the cross the annihilation that is death?

Our mission is to bear witness to God's Being by accepting his revelations and acknowledging our sins which still continue despite the gruesome sacrifice of Calvary. Our mission is to build up the mystical being that is Christ's body on Earth so that in it we may find the holiness that is available for us, in our created freedom. The Sacrifice of Calvary is repeated in a human version of eternity here on earth and in the Eternal Presence it is always there.God send us holy priests.!

We are still the first generation . Maranatha

Dear Lord you know that I am still struggling with myself over the Church which seems to have lost sight of your promise to be with her always even to the end of time. Help us all to to find in her the Love shown to us by your mother and the few who did not desert you both in the garden and on Calvary.

 13/11/2021

Today's Gospel gives us an enigmatic text that is surely aimed at all who have followed but not seen. It tells us that the  Lord knows we have had a long wait; that we must not lose faith and he will undoubtedly  return to earth, into human time; his feet on the earth yet reaching to the skies. Our Lord will then be looking for faith.

The answer to the engima is with us. Our human lives must be modelled on his and that before all we must put  God by whom we have all been created out of nothing for the dust to which we shall all return was not anything before the Word was spoken.

The people of God have been saved from the power of Pharoah and the materialism that worshipped idols of wood and stone. But that worship of idols has not been eradicated. Our Church's concern for its reputation and its wealth and its ignoring of the pain of clerical sin, which is felt by us all, has put the human structure of Christ's Body on earth before God. Where is the Faith in that?

Dear Lord, my prayer is, as always, that I may truthfully know love and serve you and that these moments of prayerful concentration stay with me throughout this day and that your loving care be with me and my family and all of your people.

 12/11/2021

The Gospels and the preaching of Paul are obviously inspired by the one whose words are recorded in John. Although the first Christians were filled with an anticipation for the imminent return of the Lord, Jesus himself speaks to us believers of the much later times and he asks us to think of this.

 The Father and He are One. It has been God's purpose for all eternity that we his people should witness the unity of God and take on that unity of purpose to be together. Together but still persons who individually have been called by God to not only follow the Way, the Truth and the Light but also to return our own gifts of talents with interest.

I have to ask myself how do I measure up. St Paul always knows that he is doing the Lord's will so following his example I have to say that I do try; but could it be a lot more? All of us are the objects of Our Lord's prayer to our Father "may they be one". We are all called to know the Love that comes from God; it is the Holy  Spirit working within us at all times and we need to repeat that Love first to Father, Son and Holy Spirit and then to our neighbours and ourselves

The body in which we are to find the unity that we all long for is now the Church, which although it is mishmash of egos each of whom has a different vision, is unified by the one Sacrament that should be protected and exhalted by the priesthood, which has the privilege and sacred duty of guiding us along the right paths to the wholeness with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that is holiness.

Dear Lord you know that sometimes I feel the joy of pondering your law but to maintain that delight I need the unity of your Church with the oneness of your Mother and Saints who have  maturity with the fullness of Christ.

 

 11/11/2021

The praise given to Wisdom is praise given to one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is the power of our consciences to know right from wrong. It is given to all mankind as the intelligence of man. If we hold on to it we will not be deceived for it is God's support for our beings. The writer believes that it is an emanation from God and this idea is latched on to by early intellectual heretics who did find themselves misled into a morass of knowledge, Gnosis. It was not Wisdom however that did the misleading but their own pride. Recognising their own abilities and knowledge surpassed the humility that Wisdom gives us to know how small we are in relation to God. We are small in ourselves but great in the Love that God gives to us.

"The Kindom of God is with us" is Jesus' answer to the Pharisees. Jesus the eternal Word and Son was before the eyes of his questioners. We continue to ask the same question. Jesus still gives the same answer. Our Church is largely built on coping with that first disappointment; disciples longed to see him again, They had to wait for their own deaths. Many millions of us have lived lives filled with hope for the return of the Lord and now know the Eternity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Last Day will come in its own time and there will be a New Creation. Wisdom tells us to listen to God's Word in hope and know that he has prepared rooms for us and all his faithful discples in Eternal Being; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord let me listen to your Word and let me not succumb to prideful and sinful thoughts. Care for all your world and bring comfort to the sick of my family who are all known to you.

 10/11/2021

The words of Wisdom are adressed to all in authority. Kings and presidents, CEOs and executives, mothers and fathers and to me too for I have the authority to act in the human freedom that was created for me in my being. It is better to be small in this world for the Lord judges those in power more strictly. Or does he? I have the responsibility to use my free will to choose what is from God and reject the devil and all his works and all his pomps. The Sacrifice of the incarnate Son was for us all to be able to acquire the forgiveness in the mercy of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the inspiration and support burning out of the Trinity to be here for all; powerful as well as me.

The lepers outside the Samaritan village obeyed Jesus specific comand. They made their way  towards Jerusalem and became aware of their cure The one who came back to thank and honour the giver of the gift was a Samaritan. Was his gratitude greater because he was an alien? Jesus knows the answer to this for he brings the lack of gratitude on the part of the nine to our attention. The cure of the Samaritan was completed by the faith he showed in his gratitude

We all have to cooperate with the Lord. Some of us are rich and poweful in this world and some are  poor and weak. It seems the leaders of our Church have locked themselves into the trappings of wealth and power. The Catholic Church's  £200,000,000 loss in London yesterday was it as the 18 deaths when the tower at Siloam collapsed? Can it be counted as warning to forget the wealth and material things of God's mission to his Church and to concentrate on the truth? All sins are known to the Lord. What suffering he underwent to save us from them! The Institutional Church has to let out the Church of Love that is somewhere imprisoned within it and then we may all hear the words. "Your faith has saved you ".

Dear Lord you know the confusion that has beset me today and I thank you for the clarity that always comes from silencing myself and opening to you Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Let my will alwys co-operate with yours.

 09/11/2021

In the readings today we have the Temple, the Church and Jesus and, of course, ourselves. Over it all is the creation and the Will of God. God gives Ezekiel a vision of the temple and exact instructions of how to build it. St Paul sees himself as an architect building up the Church founded by Christ himself. We today are still that body. Jesus knows that ahead of him there is what is truly an ordeal even for God to have to face.

The image of Jesus clearing the Temple of businessmen is an easier one to picture and bring into understanding than what we sometimes have from Jesus. We are not told whether or not the merchants, even the pigeon sellers, returned the following day but the image of death and resurrection was beyond the comprehension of those of us who heard the words. 

Each day and everyday the mystery of Jesus, his words and body, his being are celebrated in Masses all over the world but does that mean that if he returned today he would find faith on earth. Can I be sure that the Body of Christ on earth is pleasing to our God. The Church has to keep the door to the Way, the Truth and the Light always open and unblocked by sinfulness and misguided teachings so that sinners such as I have access to the Gift of Mercy that she has the keys to.

What a magnificent building is St John's but as dust in comparison to St John's beloved and devoted being.

Dear Lord give me the toleration to meet with Charity the onslaught that I have to receive. You alone my God know what I am and I ask that you give me words that are true but  will not cause offence.

 08/11/2021

Althoigh the reading from Wisdom begins by personifying wisdom as an independent being which can be sought after to give strength to our beings and understanding, by the end of the passage it is clear that the writer is addressing the Holy Spirit. The Trinity was not known at the time this was written but God's various qualities were recognised and worshipped. God's knowledge of us all is what makes me always aware of my own sin which although known to God, I do not want to shout it from the rooftops. The pardoning of sin comes directly from God and not by some Human and crafty explanation. 

Truly Jesus is speaking to our leaders in today's Gospel. All our clergy need to be stirred up by this Gospel. There is a narrow way that leads to heaven and one thing is certain. Offering the Mercy of God to unrepentent sinners is not being Christ-like in any respect. "Go and sin no more" is a categorical command from the Son of God. 

The Sacraments instituted by the Lord need our co-operation to be effective. The Sacraments are not  a magical form of words that need to be repeated in a dead language by a man dressed in extravagant clothing; dripping with lace. They are a deserted naked broken body bleeding to death on a cross. A body full of despair with only his mother and best friend to witness and suffer with him.

Dear God you know that I do not want to be led into blasphemy by unthinking adherence to sinful clergy. Please protect me as only you can do. Please let me have touches of your grace that fills the eternity of heaven.

 07/11/2021

Jesus is in the this world and dies once for all. The second teaching this morning is very clear about that. "Once for all"is a common phrase from the New Testament which has more to it than the simple words that make up the phrase. Jesus has died, resurrected and ascended into heaven once and all of us before and since then are saved from sin by his action. Jesus the Word through whom all that we see and know around us was created is eternally begotten of the Father and in his incarnation brings Heaven into human flesh. And he dies. He dies. Once for all.

Elijah is a means of showing the mercy of God to a pre Christian world. Jesus condemns the trappings and pride of the clergy of his day. He even condemns their prayers. Large sums given to the treasury of the Temple do not impress him at all. He knows the hearts of all and recognises that the poor widow gives her all with a sincerity that is absent from the rich.

The "once for all" sacrifice continues today, Sunday, all over the world as it does timelessly in the Eternity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. How much  is the Death and Resurection of the Lord obscured by "fine linen and purple"? How much more do I need to bring  me to the acceptance of the will of God and total generosity of the two widows?

Dear Lord my sin which you know I recollected this morning was not repeated. I thank you for this mercy and may I be able to avoid all sin as I continue in these the last days of my oppurtunity to bear witness and serve you in this world. Let my disatisfaction with your Church on earth not alienate me from your Mother and saints in heaven.

 06/11/2021

I don't know whether his named friends are known to scholars but one of them was certainly not of the lowly as he had a house in which the Church in Rome could meet. The names are tantilising glimpses into the past for those names belong to individuals and it is individual persons who receive the call of God. I know that Jesus founded a Church which is his physical presence on earth but it is the individual members who are saved and not the corporation. The "I" who is saved is saved by the will of God visible in Jesus and not by the Church holy or sinful as she may be. 

She was certainly holy in her foundation the names of Mary and John have not been forgotten even though they have been burned from the rood-screens of churches in this country. Holiness was the aim of the Apostles and it is this that was preached in the first centuries. Holiness is still the message that is preached by scripture and from the living pulpits but our love for God is not confined to his institution. God speaks to me and to every other individual. "I suffered and died for you. My love will never fade. Do not be confused by your failures. My salvation is still there for you even in the Church which has become forgeful of its mission in concern for itself as an institution".

The individual pharisees who laughed have become proverbial as hypocrites and cited by all who are unhappy with our Church. Today's gospel should be permanently engraved on all our hearts for it is not in its structure that the Church becomes weak but in the constancy of all of us. We are the Church.

Dear Lord may my purpose to love and worship you show itself in constant sincerity. Father Son and Holy Spirit you are my beginning my aim and my end. Let me show this by my deeds.

 05/11/2021

St Paul is not looking for his own glory. He is completely focused on his own mission. He knows himself to be a priest of the New Order. He is one with Christ. He preaches but only to those who have not yet heard the Word. This is why he covered so much ground in his life-time. I cannot say that the text he quotes reverberates within me, but it was obviuosly important to him. That is why he quotes it for although he does not wish to preach to the converted he does not leave us alone but continues to this day to reinforce the teaching we have received as parts of the Body of Christ.

Jesus during his time on earth constantly amazed and shocked his listeners and he continues to shock us who listen to his words. He is not offering the steward as an example to be followed but he is telling us that we all look after our worldliness with astuteness but we have got it the wrong way round. It is the Kingdom of God that we must serve with our whole beings. God will take care of the world. Putting our all into preserving an institution, a religous order a building even an environment is not serving the Kingdom. God loves his creation and counts the hairs on our heads and knows even the smallest of beings. It is my individual soul that he cherishes and not my idea of what it is to be man. My soul is the living entity that my freedom allows me to nuture and grow in the Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It is we as individual children that he comes to save but we need to be aware of this and avoid the "big picture" that fascinates our blinkered souls to the detriment of the Kingdom.

Dear Lord help us to care for the welfare and holiness of all your people. It is a humble heart that you have rescued from total death.

 04/11/2021

Today we are assured that Jesus is the Lord of the whole of humanity. He is our guide our teacher our example and our friend. He does not exclude any of us from the salvation he brings. The salvation he brings releases sinners from the chains of sinfulness. There is great joy within God that sinners seek the the Grace made available to all of us. We sinners have to breath freely when we realise that the disaster awaiting our sinfulness does not have to happen now that the Mercy of the Lord is with us. The Kingdom of God is present with us today.

St Paul emphasises the teaching of Jesus revealed in today's Gospel. The rejoicing over the lost sheep is part of Christian culture as is the lady looking for her drachma. Paul tells us that we are not to disdain any other human being. We know ourselves and the care we have for ourselves also must be given to the other.

"Care" for myself means that I have to recognise my own sins to be able to  share in their forgiveness. I look to myself and accept that I have to constantly guard against sin. Is not that same care to be applied to my brother? I am not judging when I see or hear or have it thrust into my face that in the present world there is a huge number of people who seek to challenge God in his very Existence.

My efforts here are a poor attempt to oppose the world and to remain in the Grace that many of our pastors seem to have rejected. The priest should warn the sinner about the insult he is to the Crucifixion when he does not follow the teaching of the Church on the reception of the Sacraments. The sinner has to recognise his own sinfulness for we will all have to be scrutinised by Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the Lord is Lord of the living and the dead.

Dear Lord enlighten me to a clear knowledge of myself and let me avoid all sinfulness and condemn it in myself. Let me not be blinded by the failings of our world and of our Church but to always spotlight my own sins before seeing the sins of others.

 03/10/2021

We are all aware of our own selves and respect our own being. We know and love ourselves and know that we are persons. We consider ourselves first in all that we do and say. Well I do! Self first is the beginnng of all sin. In the earliest recognitions of God it is this self-love that is guarded against.St Paul tells us this when he echoes Jesus in preaching that all the commandments of the Law are summed up in "Love thy neighbour as thyself."

This morning's hard, even brutal, saying of Jesus is beloved of Moslem proselytisers who quote to defame Christianity. I don't think that we should try to explain it away as it does tell us the extent we should aim our devorion to God. We know ouselves and next we have to know God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Knowing God is truly beyond our human consciousness but to do so is the goal of the Self that I know  in my own being. First I know the Love which surrounds me as a baby and return that love to my mother and family but very quickly I have to learn that I must control this "Self" if I am to live with others who are faced with the same awareness and difficulty of control that I am.

Life is God's first gift to us and his grace supports us in the doing of his Will. The Sacraments are the visible signs of his faith in us .The celebration of the Eucharist is entrusted to first the Twelve and then to millions of priests. It must be celebrated "worthily in faith" for it to be the sacrice that has won for us the grace to be accepted by the Being of God to know him, Father, Son and Holy Spirit as he really is.

Dear Lord, let your recorded words open up the hearts of all priests and faithful to the immensity of your Saving Grace. May all egotism and vice be eliminated by the infinite grace brought into being by the  first Eucharist on Calvary.

 02/11/2021

Today we begin wirh a huge choice of readings.Yesterday I felt confused but today we begin with the reassurance from Wisdom that we will remain in God's Love even after death. That our being will continue with the eternal Being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The psalm is one which was known  to all of us in my childhood and its comforting words became a part of most funeral services, Protestant and Catholic alike. 

We have witnessed a huge collapse in Christianity. We have been part of it. We cannot cast blame for this and must accept that we have failed the Lord. Each day I pray but do I proclaim the salvation won in agony on the cross? In the first days after Calvary there was in Jerusalem a great witnessing prompted by the resurrection. The Holy Spirit stirred up many  of the people to proclaim that Jesus who had been killed was still alive; that the Kingdom of God was with them. How is it that that beginning has now crumbled to what we are today?

I don't think that God has forsaken us on the cross of unbelief and I do believe that at the return Jesus will find faith on earth but not in the place I have always expected it to be.

Dear Lord, today your earthly congregation remembers all the souls that have departed this life. May we also remember that it is by our cooperation that your will is completed. Yet again I ask to become a witness of your foregiveness of sins and may my departed family who are all known to you receive the peace that only you can give.

 01/11/2021

The first sentence from St Paul has me really confused. I have still not fathomed its depth and complicalities. He seems to say that we have Mercy shown to us because other men are still sinners. Those who are still sinners are sinners because of the Mercy shown to us. At the moment that is what I think he says and I better leave it at that for the moment and later on I will return to it.

Jesus continues with one of his radical themes. The ones that have nothing will be the ones who are given most. Even in this world we must invite those who have lost everything into our homes to share of our plenty. Jesus tells us that we must accept the economic migrants as well as those dispossed by political upheavals. Jesus has never taught that there is such a category as "deserving poor". In black and white, help those who face poverty is what he tells us to do. In today's world there is no shortage of refugees, victims of drought etc. for us to put these words into practise unjudgementally. Our judgements may be correct but we are the ones who must repond to the needs of the poor. good or bad.

God has imprisoned us in disobedience only to be witnesses of his "Being", that is Love and Mercy; the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord help me to find understanding of the message of your young pharisee Saul so that the teaching of our St. Paul may bring you into my soul. Let my actions not make a liar of my thoughts and words.