31/01/2023

We have to keep fighting against sin which sticks like velcro and ruins our souls also just like velcro ruins knitwear. We have to keep fighting against sin to the point of death by making Jesus our goal and our example. We have to tell future generations about the Lord and prepare them by making known the Love that is Father Son and Holy Spirit. I know that I have not done this during my lifetime and as I get closer to the end I become more aware of how easy it is to make excuses for my sins.

I have witnessed and been part of the collapse of  Christianity as the leader and setter of moral values in Europe. St Paul has stressed more than once the theme of competition. We have to run the race. We have to keep on fighting. We have to train. His congregations have to be teams composed of individuals all with different gifts and abilities who support each other in the quest for holiness which is the "power"that disabled woman felt when she touched the hem of Jesus' garment.

Our Church is the living body of which Jesus is the head. Jesus, the Son of God, the same substance as the Father, the Word who is there at the start of time to be together with the Father, the Holy Spirit one God. The Trinity of Persons is the Evergreater substance that is the Love first revealed in Eden and prepared in Gethsemane to be nailed on a cross to show for ever the power that is Eternal Love. 

This is what I believe and I pray that the institution can forget patrimony, disregard tradition and become truly the Church founded by Jesus, preached by the Apostles and loved to the point of death by the Holy Ones of God. Each of us past, present and future has been given the freedom along with the obligation to do this.

Dear Lord, let me not lose sight of these words with which I begin my day. I will, with your help let all whom I love know this Faith which I ask to be able to maintain with sincerity of purpose and integrity of being. May the prayerful support of Mary be with our leaders to turn them from the things of this world that they may be true to their vocations and seek holiness for themselves and their flock on earth and forgiveness for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 30/01/2023

The scribes and Pharisees knew of the nearness of God from their sacred scriptures. Paul lists the "saints" of whom he was aware but whose great deeds of Faith were nothing in comparison with Jesus who fulfills all that God has promised. I like Paul's style of clumping the deeds done by these faithful Jews all together giving an impression that  wonders were an everyday occurrence in  Palestine. This was true of the 33 years of  Jesus pre-resurrection life, however, and thus true Holiness again was given to the Holy land. Paul was, of course, a Resurrection Christian whose knowledge of the Jesus' mission on Earth had been learned from the eyewitnesses in the same way that ours has. 

Jesus preached not only to Jews but also to the mixed communities of the Decapolis and to the people of Lebanon around Tyre and Sidon. I cannot imagine how a herd of five-thousand head of pigs could ever have been controlled and was even needed as the population was not solely pagan. The numbers used in the New Testament to describe crowds are not to be relied on as literal truth but are of the nature of estimates, embellished for literary effect. Even the Evangelists not withstanding their guidance by the Holy Spirit are only humans recollecting their experiences of previous years.

The people who followed the man who had been restored to humanity to see Jesus were both afraid of and amazed by the wandering Rabbi who had restored this man, whom they knew as a violently dangerous maniac, to rationality. I wonder, did the cured one continue to spread the news of Jesus' power and authority? Was he present at the Crucifixion? 

On a different level I ask myself how I would  have felt if it had been my herd that had been driven over a cliff.

Dear Lord the psalm for today's reading was undoubtedly known and possibly sung by you during a Sabbath worship in a Synagogue. In it there is again another warning against pride. Truly self-love is the source of most that troubles our world at all times. Let me become true to your teaching and let the selflessness with which Mary responded to Gabriel's message and thus revealing Father, Son and Holy Spirit be the example that I must follow and the support that I need.

29/02/2023

If we all were to try to practise what is preached in all of the readings for today's Masses we would be living together on this earth in the peace and tranquility God wants for us. The Israelites didn't quite make it. At least, the ones we read about in the Old Testament didn't make it as the "Chosen People" although individuals and possibly some groups e.g.the Essenes did maintain an obedience to the spirit of the Law.

Love is never putting yourself first. The first family in Genesis are recorded as having produced the first killing, the first murder and since that time our race has maintained an unholy history of growth in wealth, in power, in knowledge. God knows this and could stop it but the freedom given to us  means that we have to choose for ourselves to become the creatures that God wants to be. All of creation is as it was created  , "and it is good" except for us who are continuing to destroy God's work both in ourselves and in our world.

One of Paul's first churches in Europe was soon at strife amongst themselves. The Corinthians dwelt in an anciently civilised community which meant that they had a rigidly hierarchical society and although converted to the Resurrection Faith by the charisma of Paul could not adapt to the love for each other that had been shown by our crucified Lord.

Preaching on a hillock in Galilee in the person of Incarnate Son,  Father, Son and Holy Spirit told us how we can bring ourselves to the holiness that would make us fulfill his will. The first of our kind failed even though the Hindu and Buddhist ancient texts show that they tried and are still trying. God even chose a group to especially favour, Jesus was preaching to their descendants, but they went so far in disobedience as to agitate the civil powers in Palestine to kill the Son of God.

Our own world today is nothing but strife. All organisations create their own versions of dissension rivalry and hate. It is only by each individual in the world trying to be in this life the human that we could all be if we treated the Word with the honour, devotion and obedience that his Evergreater being revealed in Galilee of the Nations.

Dear Lord, "I thank you for the wonder of my being" and pray that I can use your grace to increase my integrity and Faith. I am afraid that my being is too weak to escape from self-fixation and truly return the "Love lavished on all the World". May the prayers of Mary help us all to live in the words spoken on the Mount and may she and all the saints who even not present as she was at the "Sermon" implore the Holy Spirit to fill all our souls with the Love that comes from doing the will of God.

 28/01/2023

 As I read the first of this morning readings I could not but help to have in mind St Paul's warning that no matter what our good deeds, our wisdom, our understanding it is by love that we will be measured . In my day there have been in our Church very many theologians, men gifted with great intelligence. There have also been episodes that have totally disgraced our Church by their lack of anything but self-love.

This has also been true throughout history, where the leaders of our Church have become powerful rulers of territory challenging kingdoms and empires. It should never have been that there was such an entity as a Papal State. No wonder the Vatican today is a mess of vanities where there are struggles over wealth and power."My kingdom is not of this world" is as easy to understand as "Thou shalt not kill" or any other of God's ten gifts to Moses on Mount Sinai but seems to have been impossible to obey

Jesus, our Lord our God did not lie to us. His is another "world", another "kingdom" of the Spirit which is the reality that has been revealed by the prophets and in our final revelation by Father Son and Holy Spirit in the Incarnation, Life, Death and Glorious Resurrection.

Jesus knows what it is to be man, he knows that prideful very centre of my being that is the cause of any difficulties I might experience and he warns his closest friends, the first believers, to have no human ranks among themselves. What is it about "Call no man Father" that our Church has not understood. Wisdom  is not the ability to twist words and grow our ideas. It is the gift that enables us to live in Love, as did the Word of God. Jesus owned only his bare necessities for living and died even without those. How can an Archbishop clothe himself in enough cloth to dress the "five-thousand"when he is supposed to be the guardian of Christ's teaching and Sacraments here on earth.

Dear Lord help me keep myself from sin and know that our Father is in heaven and that those with the greatest spiritual gifts are still only feeble men if they do not with open hearts turn each day to the Wonder and Glory of God. He will be with his Church even in the travesty, the mummery symbolised by one of those whose gifts should have overcome his pride. May Mary who is Theotokos not only because she carried the Life of the World in her womb but you also held the bloodied, lifeless corpse after the crucifixion pray that the worldly riches of the Church be liquidated and just given directly to the poor. Let us pray for the Church that she  become the place where prideful prelates can understand Jesus who had nowhere to rest his head and not just soulessly repeat his words.

 27/01/2023

The persecution of the early Christians was first experienced in Jerusalem where Jesus had been the first victim, the High Priest and the Sacrifice, once and for all. Jesus was crucified and the way the truth and the life was opened for all and for ever. The Mass is the reflection of that once and for all, eternal event. 

Jesus the co-equal Son empties himself of the power of his divine being and freely accepts the abandonment by the Father. Even though Jesus knows what the outcome will be, the pain of this abandonment becomes real in his acceptance of human time and in the garden he pleads that it might pass and  the cry of the Son on the Cross is ultimate pain that we his creation have brought to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God cannot be understood. My words are confused lost in the mystery that I can worship but never understand. Mark tells us that the Apostles who lived and worked with Jesus had to have some of his sayings explained to them but he does not claim to have had secrets told to him and the other disciples that were not shared with all humanity.

God wants us all to turn to him of our own free will. In our humanity we share the instincts of the animals but we are much more than our pre-coded bodies which flinch from pain and can pursue pleasure. Each one of us at the moment of conception has our soul breathed into us by the Holy Spirit. 

The Incarnation has changed the nature of humanity both body and soul . Our Souls are a precious image of God's own nature and have to be protected from the rampaging evil that still fills the world. That is what the old penny catechism means by "know love and serve".

Jesus by emptying himself to become the seed smaller than the mustard seed and accepted by Mary has become the Resurrection, our protection from all evil but we have to make the choice for ourselves. God has created us to be free beings and it is in our free choice of Truth in which he delights and fills us with his love.

Dear Lord let my being be filled with your love and the wish to serve you during my life-time. You know what I am to become. May your Mother the source of your body help me and all her children to become the holy ones that you have created us all to be and may her prayers and those of the saints protect us from the devil and may your mercy continue to inspire the penitence of the Holy Souls.

 26/01/2023

The Apostolic Succession is not just a phrase to be trotted out in discussions about the True Faith and the validity of Sacraments but is the Holy Spirit, the Truth of Father Son and Holy Spirit present in all generations after the Resurrection. There is nothing in the tradition recorded in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches that is different from that preached by the Apostles.

The Worlds where that preaching is proclaimed are different only in their abilities to understand matter and to manipulate it. We are still dust and to dust we will all return. This is true of first century Jerusalem and also true for today. Jesus is the great light seen by the wise men and when we see the same light we have to share it for it is to all men that Father, Son and Holy Spirit made the last of his revelations with the founding on Peter of the Church that will be supported to the end of time by the Body broken and by the Blood shed for us on Calvary.

I have great love for my family but show my Faith to them with timidity which is not what has been given to us. I am now trying to justify this timidity in my head even as I type these words. It is basically that I am too weak to challenge their lack of faith and justify myself by these prayers and meditations recorded as this Blog which is known only to God as it has been read by nobody. My timidity is a fear compounded of seeming to be stupid and pride in what I write.With God's help I will this day try to find ways of opening this blog so that it can be accessed by anyone but especially by those whom I hold dear.

Dear Lord, I know that you are with me and that it is myself who does not take the step of proclaiming the Joy of Faith with the power of your love. Let the Prayers of Mary and all the Saints strengthen me to accept your grace and fulfill your will for me in sincere obedience.

 25/01/2023

St Paul's conversion on his way to Damascus is probably the third most staggering event in the history of mankind. It is also a result of God's direct intervention in the affairs of his creation, our world. There has never been anything greater than the Incarnation and the Resurrection, but the results of Paul's conversion have shaped both the Church, Christ's Body on Earth and the way of life that is followed by most of the world's population even if they profess to be non-Christians and even Atheists.

The first Christians who were convinced that Jesus would be returning on the "clouds of Heaven" in their lifetimes must have been disappointed that this did not happen but this disappointment is not recorded anywhere that I have read about. Modern Christians have tried to access the Holy Spirit by speaking in tongues. Snake handling has been part of some renewal movements. I have never heard of "poison drinking"being tried by any sect. The curing of the sick is what we still practise and their sacramental anointing  is still one of the functions of the Priesthood.

Reading these words of Jesus recorded by Mark, I feel the sort of pressure felt by our Bishops when forced by secular authorities to account for their cover ups  made to protect their abusing priests. The scandal of their coverups is as great a sin as the abuse inflicted on their victims but they felt forced to deny knowledge of wrong doing. We should all openly face up to our sins and trust to the mercy of our Father, "the Dad"of Jesus..

Denying the truth of part of the Gospel is truly gut-wrenching for me but I feel forced to say that Jesus is not recorded in the Gospels as ever having drunk poison or picked up snakes and the Incarnation is the proof that Father, Son and Holy Spirit never expect us to do anything beyond human capabilities. Jesus stretched his human body to the absolute limits on the cross before accepting death as the completion of his Father's will for him. It is death that leads to a new beginning before that Last Coming when God will be all in all and our present bodies will become like the body of the Resurrection.

Dear Lord, you know that I am sincerely trying to live as you have wanted us all to do from the days of Adam and Eve until now. Jesus is the template of perfection and he assures us that we can move mountains if our Faith is strong enough and similarly the snakes and poison of Mark are figures of speech rather than literal proofs of holiness. May the prayers of Mary our heavenly Mother be fruitful in the grace that pours forth from the blessed wounds of Jesus our Lord and our Saviour who is both truly man and with you and the Holy Spirit one God, Creator and Inspiration.

 24/01/2023

The Law that Jesus and most of the people that are recorded in the Gospels practised was the Law of Moses. They were the people that had recognised the revelation by God of his will for mankind. They were the chosen people. 

The Hebrews is a deeply thoughtful encounter between the Old and the New. Jesus in his three years of human life was the perfect example of the life God wills for us to live. It is the faultless "playbook", faultless "code" that each of has to chose for himself and attempt to programme into our beings. 

We are the natural intelligence that has nothing artificial about it. Animals are perfect in what they are for they are pre-programmed to be. They are what they are by the will of God but we have to choose for ourselves from the many roads and "codes" open to us the ones that will lead us to the perfection of being that has been revealed.

Jesus had started his mission in Nazareth but left the household of his extended family and come to Capernaum. Although they had been displeased by the crowds that had immediately flocked around the "healer"that Jesus was instantly perceived to be, they still knew him as their brother and Mary knew a lot more. So, having heard about what was happening in Capernaum, they went there to see him.

There is one criterion for being in the Jesus' family. We know that we should always choose to do the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to enable us to do this Jesus the Resurrection, the High Priest and Perfect Sacrifice is with us till the end of time to take away the sins of the world.

Dear Lord help me not to be pleased with myself and know that actions are always more than words.All that I am and do are known to you and I pray that the sincerity that I feel in my heart is not phony and that I can avoid the sins that once committed stay within my skull even though they are forgiven. I know that your Mother was not rejected by you in Capernaum and that she stayed close to you even to the end and she is still with you and all your saints in the bliss of eternal worship. May her prayers be heard and your mercy overflow the Holy Souls and sinners here on earth.

 23/01/2023

The Holy Spirit inspired depth of thought that we read in the "Hebrews" is truly staggering. I always relate time in the Gospels to my own experience of life. 

This encouragement to Jewish believers in the Resurrection was written and read within 40 years of Jesus' time on earth. During that time some of those who had been eye-witnesses had died but the Good News from Jerusalem had been proclaimed from India to Spain and the basic structure of our Church established, although still a work in progress.

The interpretation of the meaning of the witnessed events that we now know as "Dogma"or "Theology" had already started and disputes had also begun, for as in "Chinese Whispers", each of our remembrances of the same words and events are processed by each of our individual brains and each of us believe in our own memories and arguments.

Forty years is not so short a length of time, much can happen in that time. Within the first forty years of my lifetime Hitler had been defeated, India and other Asian and African nations have been freed from Colonialism, Israel returned to Palestine, men had walked on the moon and the second Vatican Council had concluded.

All of these great events which happened are still discussed and argued about not only by Historians but also by all who have an opinion, although none of us can claim the infallible authority that is God's Word for our beliefs in these facts of history.

The challenge hurled in the face of God by the changes I have witnessed in accepted moral behaviours, however, is something much more diabolical. It is Beelzebub sneering at the bloodied body of Christ dead on Calvary. Children born today are being encouraged to deny the nature of their being and the sinful stupidity of Homosexuality is encouraged in our classrooms.

God does not lie. We are created "man and woman" and a millstone is the promised reward for those who scandalise our "little ones" both children and adults. God does not lie.We are promised that the Word in Father, Son and Holy Spirit will still be with us even when we have destroyed the whole of creation. God does not lie. He is the way, the truth and the life.

Dear Lord,you know the sinfulness of my life. You know that it is hard to find true Faith on earth and that I am weak in the face of the mortal dangers which fill our time. You know the evil that has corrupted our Church. The  sacrificial blood that you poured out on Calvary defeated sin "once and for all". May Mary and all the Saints pray that hearts on earth be opened to the Holy Spirit and thus find their true Father in heaven one in Being with Jesus Christ and know him as do the Holy Souls making atonement for their sins in Purgatory.

 22/01/2023

God is everywhere is not just a theological concept but the Truth. The presence of God is something that I must become aware of in my innermost self. My being is totally my person; I am the only one created thus. God is Creator Father, Saviour Son and Love pouring out Holy Spirit. 

Trying to understand and describe God is not a fruitless task even though it cannot be ended for it is sure that we are only able to catch hold of a bit of an idea of God but nothing of his reality. Trying to make human sense of this living and dying that is common to us all has to depend on God's revelations of himself.

St Paul was blasted into belief on the road to Damascus and he never lost hold of the living Christ revealed so dramatically. It was not so for his disciples. Squabbles, backbiting, new ideas/doctrine soon disrupted the churches that he founded. The Jewish of his congregations could find support for his teaching in their Scriptures but what about the pagans whose religious faith was in household gods and specific temple idols and whose minds were attuned by human philosophy.

St Paul tells us all that Faith has to be in the Crucifixion.The lifeless body, held by nails, covered in blood is there for God's own sacrifice of himself is the only way that sin can be destroyed. Jesus prepared our world for this by leaving his family home and gathering a motley crew of disciples who, gifted as no other humans, were to join him in his mission of salvation.

Dear Lord you are  our light and our help and not only is it your being that is everywhere but your awareness is always of everything. May Mary whose home you left to begin your public ministry continue to support the forlorn here on earth and the Holy Souls whose penitence is crying out for mercy. Show me the way to love and worship as a human should.

 21/01/2023

It was pretty cold last night as befits St Agnes' eve, but I read the mass readings for today as I wanted to stay with the thread of To the Hebrews. 

The writer is living and learning his faith. He is simultaneously teaching and understanding. The concept that Jesus had become the perfect sacrifice in continuation of the liturgical worship that had begun under the leadership of Moses and Aaron in the days of the nomad people continually moving on to feed their flocks and to collect manna, was not the immediate proclamation of the Apostles after the Resurrection. For them the Resurrection itself was the "Good News" that God had given to them.

We do not know much about Jesus' childhood. We do know that he grew up in Nazareth and that he was subject to Mary and Joseph, who was seen to be his father. We have a pious notion of the "Holy Family" which is a typical nuclear family of the Western experience. The hints that Scripture gives about Jesus' family, in fact, tell us otherwise. Jesus the child, youth and young man must have grown up in the typical sprawling extended family of his day and in such a group there is always in addition to the "black sheep"one "nutcase" an outsider who is still part of the family but noted for his eccentricities.

The family had tolerated Jesus for the qualities that were recognised by the scholars in the temple but when he started to expect them to feed the throng of sinners, sick and beggars who had soon attached themselves to him, that stretched their toleration to breaking point. Jesus their brother and uncle was mad. there was no doubting it, he must be put away, cast off. Is this why the " The Son of Man had nowhere to rest his head"?

Dear Lord in your lifetime on earth you were always surrounded by people whom you loved. Sometimes your Father called and you prayed in the perfect Love we know as Father Son and Holy Spirit. We as mankind need to be in a community. I feel cut off from family, who do not believe and from the institution that your body on earth has become today. Let the prayers of Mary who  must have had such difficulties in domestic life especially after the death of St Joseph be answered that my family and my Church know that it is only in this life that we can be prepared by openness to your Grace for the Eternity which is the Joy you have prepared for all of us.

 20/01/2023

St Paul can seamlessly flow from  the inspiration that he is recording in his letter to the Hebrews to the recorded testimony that he studied as he grew up and under the tutelage of Gamliel. The Holy Spirit confirms that Jesus is indeed the the New Covenant replacing the Old as was revealed to Jeremiah. God reveals that the Chosen People, the ones gifted with the revelation made to the prophets, have abandoned that grace and chosen new paths for themselves.

The psalm is a song of joyful praise. It is pure happiness. Mercy and faithfulness have met and become united as one. We can be faithful in our merciful response to divine justice. We can know the Father Son and Holy Spirit as Jesus the human son of Mary and the Incarnation of the total being of God he is as Word.

St Paul proclaims that we have a High Priest who is Truth and unimaginable Glory. The psalm thanks God for this and in the Gospel we witness Jesus choosing disciples to become Apostles, the first priests ( "do this in memory of me" ) of the New Covenant. This simple group called by God to be his witnesses to the Life, Death and Resurrection has grown into the tangled institution that we call the Church today.

We are all responsible for each other. The teaching of the first century is still the only way for us to live our lives. It is much more than human teaching; it is the revelation by God of his Love. I know that, although "Now anything old grows more antiquated until in the end it disappears" could be applied to me, the Church as the Body of Christ will last until the end of time.

Dear Lord we your people on earth are in need of Sacraments the outward signs of your Grace confected to be the sustenance for our souls. You have chosen your priests today just as you did your Apostles. You protected your Apostles from themselves and it seems that only one was lost. Only you can know that, for your perfect Justice, which is far beyond comparing with our own, is tempered by your perfect Mercy. Hear the prayers of Mary and your Saints that clergy and all your people can at this moment become united enemies of sin and lovers of your Evergreater perfections.

 19/01/2023

The first thing that I try to do as soon as I open this machine is read the Mass Readings on Universalis. Then I have to open Blogger to begin straight away my thoughts and prayers. Often, in the split seconds that this takes, my mind is snatched from the Word by the trivialities that spring up unsummoned on the screen in front of me.

This morning "My God I delight in your law in the depth of my heart" from the Psalm struck an immediate chord with me and I was filled with empathy for the psalmist's words. I saw with joy the reading from "Hebrews" as bedrock for the faith which has been taught by the Apostles and the Church from the first days after the Resurrection before there were any Scriptures of the Good News.

The Old Testament's Covenant was renewed in the Temple. The writer of Hebrews knows our New Covenant is Jesus. He is priest, victim, sacrifice and temple for is man as we are and eternal Eucharistic presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in his Church.

I can understand why St. Antony took himself into the desert away from the distractions of Alexandria. I can understand for my mind is always so ready to chase trivialities that even as I read the Gospel this morning, the thought came into my mind that although Jesus told those he had cured to keep it to themselves he knew that that was a forlorn hope, so he made ready to get into the boat to avoid the crush on the shore.

Dear Lord you know that I am happy to be alive. Job taught us that we must accept everything that comes to us in life as your will. You know the sinful messes that I have created by myself and that at this moment of human happiness all of the dangers you have pulled me from are forgotten by me. May Mary and all the Saints help me to atone for the evil of my sinfulness and to never forget that the Crucifixion had to precede the joy of the Resurrection.

 18/01/2023

There is not a lot that we can know about Melchizedek. He was a priest who blessed Abraham in the Promised Land. He was a priest before the arrival of Abraham at Salem. Abraham recognised his priesthood and donated to him the first recorded tithes. 

The Middle East of Abraham's days was a territory that was sandwiched between the Empires ruled from the North and East by the ever changing power of Hittites, Medes Persians Assyrians etc. and the permanence of the power that was Egypt ever waxing and waning to the South. All the rulers attributed their success to the favour of one of the gods of their pantheon of deities but in some localities one temple became the centre of a cult devoted to a particular idol and became famous. Such a cultic leader was Melchizedek. There was no religion with a codified system of belief as we know it today although the Egyptians had developed rituals the hymns of which have influenced parts of the Old Testament and its foundational Monotheism.

The Tent of Meeting and the Ark of the Lord were finally brought to rest in the Land of Melchizedek and the Sons of Aron became heredity priests. The History of the Jews and the Law of Moses became the Holy Scriptures and grew into the religion we can recognise as God's revelation of himself to the whole world so that all mankind can be redeemed.

Jesus makes it clear that over scrupulous devotion to detail is not what is required of a priest. His priests have to be good shepherds who will literally and figuratively lay down their lives for their sheep. He is nowhere more the Good Shepherd than when he suffers and dies on the mountain where Melchizedek of old had been a priest. 

Our priests are presented with exactly the same difficulties as we all are in facing up to the temptations that the comforts, pleasures and ease of modern life bring about but they are supported by the special grace that being called by Father, Son and Holy Spirit gives to them. They are not called to pride, privilege or power but to poverty of person in sincere imitation of Our Lord.

Dear Lord you know how many years that I have now completed on earth. You know the disobedience in which I have lived. Let this first day of my new year be completed without adding new sins so that I may know the grace which you pour out on the whole earth. May Mary and all the saints continue to reinforce the faith of  the descendants in priesthood of Jesus, our God and High Priest, so that they may serve Father, Son and Holy Spirit by fulfilling their duty of care for their flock and call to personal holiness.

 17/01/2023

God cannot deceive us. That is an impossibility for God. Nothing in God's creation can lie. A lion is always a lion and cannot claim to be an Elephant. My body cannot deceive me I am a man or I am a woman. My DNA never changes. 

We humans can deceive each other and affirm our intention to speak truthfully by an oath. God's promise to Abraham was confirmed by an oath solely for the benefit of Abraham and his descendants. The new covenant reveals more about God than did the old. Father, Son and Holy Spirit were made known at the Annunciation and the security of this last revelation in which we live was confirmed by something much greater than mere words. The Word through "whom all that was made was made"sealed on the cross the guarantee of our redemption as Jesus the incarnate, true man and true God.

Jesus chose to do the will of his Father. He cannot lie. He showed on the cross the mystery of death. He breathed out his spirit and the world was without the living presence of the Son of God. But he had already instituted the Eucharist and prepared his Apostles (including Judas) to be priests of the new covenant.

The Apostles had the rest of their lifetimes to reflect and understand what Jesus had done at the table in the upper room  for their tears of despair at the failure of their hopes in their "Messiah"became shouts of joy and amazement as the Good News of the Resurrection spread throughout Jerusalem.

Dear Lord strengthen the resolve of thy priests that they may by their holiness of life continue to confirm the Truth you revealed to the world in Jerusalem. May we all remember the pouring out of your mercy which took place on Calvary and may we join the three Marys and John at the foot of the cross in sorrowful "awesome wonder" for this is what you have willed to do for us even in our sinfulness. I rely on your Mother and saints to support my prayers that I can win the battle against my sinful weaknesses and that I may turn my whole being to you as did St Antony and the other hermits of his century.

 16/01/2023

I am really trying to keep pride out of this record of prayer. Yesterday I was pretty impressed with what I was writing and lost it in cyberspace never to be recovered. Today I have been truly impressed with the passage from Hebrews and want to keep it that way. Let reading the words inspired by the Holy Spirit be my prayer and my reflections take second place for Father Son and Holy Spirit know what is happening in my head and the only benefit of my fingers on keyboard is for me to stop everything and put God first for a few minutes each day.

I was vaguely aware that the Letter to the Hebrews was an important source of God's revelation. I am beginning to recognise why this is so. The knowing part of know, love and serve  God is to be found revealed in the Scriptures directly through Moses and the prophets and into our New Testament

The first years of our Christian Church was an obedience on the part of the Apostles to preach to the whole world and simultaneously a growth in understanding of what had been totally different about the three years that they had been with Jesus. Mary is the only human to have known and loved the Incarnation for the nine months she was literally Theotokos and the thirty three years of Jesus' human life.

Jesus faced many questions during his preaching days. Some were genuine enquiries by those who were perplexed in their Jewishness and wanted to put him into some human category that they could understand. We have many examples of the poor Pharisees trying to catch him out but there were some genuine seekers of enlightenment and it is those souls open to God who "go out to the whole world". We receive their message but it is the priests "for ever" who have to perpetuate the  inconceivable "sin offering"that comes out of the very being of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord let your Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your priests and help them to find the courage to shout out your love for all mankind by denying the lies with which "the Father of Lies"captures the stupidity that is the wisdom of mankind. Let your Mother's prayers be heard and let us know the tenderness with which she cared for the perfection of your childhood and  the awe with which she and all the saints are in the presence of your resurrected being.

 14/01/2023

So much of what I have understood of Church teaching during my life until 2023 was very quickly established in the very first years of the Apostles' acceptance of Jesus' command to "go out to the whole world and spread the Good News". The Apostles did not sit at home pondering and recording. 

They did of course ponder. How could they do otherwise having lived with the Son of God and witnessed the greatest event in history? They had listened to the "Word" and had been called to become the double-edged sword of the first century, the laser-beam of our more technically advanced twenty-first, to teach the whole world how to separate our souls from the attractions of physical being so that hearing the Word that is Jesus we might do the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The idea of priesthood is under a lot of pressure these days. I don't know of any instances of priestly failure recorded in the Acts of the Apostles but of course, in the Gospels we already have the squabbling behind Jesus' back of the very human disciples seeking rank and favour, of mothers seeking to influence the careers of their sons, misunderstanding, "Get thee behind me Satan" and downright denial by Peter. Judas was present in the upper room and received the command "Do this in memory of me" he had partaken of the first Eucharist and been chosen in the same way as the others.

There are many sincere readers of the Scriptures who deny that Jesus had the intention of forming a priesthood and a Church to safeguard his Eucharistic Body. They are sincere but wrong. We have to face the real problem of corrupt clergy by the transparency of the broken naked body of  God suffering in and for our humanity on the cross and by remembering that "It is not the healthy that need a doctor". "Where two or three are gathered in my Name, there am I in their midst."

Dear Lord all your creation is known to you. I am a grievous sinner who knows that your forgiveness is part of the way the truth and the life and knowing this say the right words but am unsure in my heart that I am knowing, loving and serving with  every breath of my being. Your Mother Mary is the only perfect human in whose being there is no trace of sin. May she with all the saints pray that we all may come to the holiness that is honest "the fear of the Lord".

 13/01/2023

The Rabbi who is writing the Letter to the Hebrews is still devoted to the Father who lead his people out of slavery in Egypt. The Old Testament is still his Scripture and he seems to know it like the back of his hand. He has also seen the risen Lord and knows that God's revelation is available to all although he is writing to a Church that is composed of the descendants of the Israelites, whom he is using as examples of God working through humanity. 

For the Israelites God's "place of rest" was the reality of Judah, Israel, Samaria the Roman province of Palestine. The Old Testament which has not seen the Resurrection is vague about our beings after death. Sheol is a shadowy place which contains both the "Bosom of Abraham" and the pain of the Dives, the rich man. For St Paul "the place of rest" comes about through Faith and should be the main object throughout our lives.

Jesus too emphasises Faith as the greatest virtue that we need to have if we are to be cured. In the first place, we have to know that no matter how heavily they weigh on our consciences and how evil we know them to be, our sins can be forgiven. Jesus is God and in oneness  with Father and Holy Spirit he is Evergreater than we can possibly imagine. Here he is a living man watching the stretcher being lowered through the roof of the house in Capernaum.( I wonder what the householder felt about the damage to his property). He has been truly dead as are all of our ancestors and he is still living as the first -born of our new humanity as Head of the Church.

The Greatness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is our place of rest. We cannot imagine or visualise this Greatness now but it is the reality that is promised to all humanity if we have faith in our hearts and righteousness as our goal in living.

Dear Lord let me be true to you as were your mother and your first friends who, although humans the same as we are, by witnessing your life and pondering your words came to believe in the promise made originally to their forebears. May Mary and all the saints worshiping  you in Eternity implore guidance for all your Church and forgiveness  for all of the souls who are misusing our freedom on Earth or atoning for that in Purgatory

 12/01/2022

The leper was cured by Jesus who is always ready, "Of course I want to ", to respond to our cries for help. We all of us know of personal instances when this does not seem to happen and in the Gospel there were many who were not cured as Jesus was not there for them "Jesus stayed in places where nobody lived". 

In the Epistle we read of  how God appeared to be in much of the Old Testament, angry and to be feared. Moses who had seen the very being of the "Existing Nameless one" was even kept out of the homeland which was entered by the children of the backsliders and moaners he had guided through the desert and kept  from their sin.

St Paul to whom the Letter to the Hebrews is usually attributed, was typical of the first Christians in that he was a Jew who had been dragged out of the womb of the "Chosen People", kicking and screaming into the reality of the Resurrection. He had been reborn and knew that the revelation on the road to Damascus was the truth that he must preach to all the nations and which we all must never abandon."Keep encouraging one another " for we will be with Father, Son and Holy Spirit "only if we keep "our first confidence to the end".

I still don't understand why Jesus seemed to hide from those seeking a cure. There is much in God's revelation of his will for me and for all of mankind that I cannot understand. I can only bow my head and say "Thy will be done".

Dear Lord help me this today to grow my trust in you and avoid anything that separates me from your Love "knowing You" can never mean understanding for that is unimaginably limited by what  I am. May Mary who is the example of the perfect "knowing, loving and serving" that you created our humanity to be, continue to lead all your Saints in the their never ending praise of You and support for the needy on earth and for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 11/01/2022

It is clear from today's first reading that the Apostles and early Christians had quickly come to an understanding of the huge significance of the recent events that they had witnessed. The eternal Son had become truly flesh and blood. He was completely human even though it is entirely possible that he could have had a totally spiritual being as an angel but chose to be a human, a fellow Jew descended from Abraham. 

The first Church was not just good fellowship and charismatic gatherings but was also a careful listening to the Holy Spirit. Mary's pondering in her heart became the norm for the first Christians. The Acts of the Apostles recalls the exuberance of the first years; the rapidity of conversions but the letters of Paul reveal the depths of thought and the fight against false teachers. 

The theology of the Church was not at first a collection of books understood by a few scholars. That is the "letter of the Law" that the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had become and condemned by Jesus. "Theology" was the proclamation of the Resurrection by eyewitnesses and their disciples. Jews were the only opponents for they knew Father Son and Holy Spirit in the person of the Father. All the other gods were supported by local rites and mysteries but without, at that time, a codified underlying structure as was the Old Testament, although they did attempt to develop systems in response to Christian thought.

Jesus cured the sick and drove out devils and thus by the grace of God attracted the Apostles Simon, Andrew, James and John. They witnessed the first public words and deeds of Jesus on earth; they were destined to also witness the last and thus with Mary bring the way, the truth and the life to all subsequent generations and to us.

Dear Lord help me to pray with my whole being . Let me follow Jesus into the lonely place that is my room and there in my heart do what I can to know, love and obey. May Mary continue to lead the Saints in the eternal worship of heaven and pray for the grace that if our hearts are open can fill the whole world with your love.

 10/01/2023

The Letter to the Hebrews reveals how the first Christians were always interpreting what they had witnessed in the three years that Jesus had walked the earth There were many who had seen the Lord alive and preaching and many of them had seen the tragedy of Calvary and the result of the complete shock of the Resurrection. 

It is amazing but true that eyewitnesses do not always recall the same event identically as each other so in the first centuries there were as many versions of the Good News as there were witnesses. The versions of Scripture we now know as the New Testament were not codified until the middle of the fourth century. Prior to that the recollections of the Apostles and disciples were fragmented throughout the Roman Christianised world. Not only were the deeds of the witnesses recalled differently but the lessons, the revelation by the Holy Spirit for us to learn, were interpreted differently too.

The letter to the Hebrews is a very early attempt to tell us what Jesus is and as such it is part of the basis of billions of words written since then that have also attempted to understand how it could be that the carpenter's son from Nazareth had been crucified buried in his tomb and then risen from death in what was  seemingly the same body ( St Thomas even checked for us the wounds not only by sight but also  by touch) that had been buried in the  Tomb.

The Gospel reading recalls Jesus the living man, a devout Jew who, following the Law of Moses, was keeping his Sabbath holy by joining the congregation in Capernaum. He not only joined the Synagogue but took a prominent part and as he read from the scrolls the charisma that had called the fishermen to follow the stranger from Nazareth was felt by all present as authority

God's creation is far greater than his revelation to us. There are other beings whom we know as Spirits, Angels or Devils and it was one of the later seeing the God he had revolted from who screamed out in fearful recognition. God chose to redeem our world lost by the sin of Adam by becoming human as were Adam and Eve and in this humanity become the sanctifier of our corrupted nature.

God the Evergreater Trinity cannot been explained by all the Theologians, saintly or otherwise, for he is truly beyond comprehension.  He is, however, always knowable as his grace enables us to reflect on the Love which has been lavished on us by so great a saviour and to return that Love by loving conformity to the will of God. Our Faith is in the Father our Hope is in the Son and our Love is the Holy Spirit "thrice blessed three in one."

Dear Lord, help me to return your Love and avoid sin and the occasions of sin. Let me become selfless in my being and learn to live always in your grace praying for all those who wilfully deny you. May Mary whose bearing of you from the first moment of conception cannot be forgotten and who knows you in the humility of your complete humanity and the Glory you now have, help us all this day on earth to live in grace and praise of you our Creator God.

 09/01/2023

The Church has now concluded the festivities of Christmas although in the pre-Vatican 2 calendar they continue until the feast of the Purification. The first  readers of the Letter to the Hebrews were all Jews as were the majority of the first Christians. They accepted what they had seen in Jesus', life, death and resurrection as a continuation of the revelation of God's care for them which was recorded in their scriptures and continued to follow the Law that they had inherited from their fathers.

Jesus' call to Simon Andrew John and James was from one Jew to an other. It always amazes me that it happened in an instant and his call was immediately answered. God's call is to all men but we avoid the simplicity of the positive answer that God, who never forces, has created us to respond. We think that we are too tangled up in cares of the modern world but those first disciples, who were literally tangled up in the tools of their trade, instantly dropped their ropes and their nets and walked after Jesus.

For the first Christians their faith in Jesus was not a novelty but a simple continuation of their worship that was part of their daily lives starting with "Hear O Israel". It is no wonder that there were disputes in Jerusalem about circumcision and other self-definers of God's favour practised by the chosen-people. For the "God-fearers" and pure pagans the Proclamation of the Resurrection and the preaching that became our Gospels was entirely new so it is not surprising that it was in Antioch, a Greek city, that our fore-bearers first referred to themselves with a new name for a new beginning, Christians.

Dear Father in heaven let my faith, hope and love grow as did that of the disciples who knew your Son Jesus on earth and may the Holy Spirit fill your Church with love so that there is no space for the human sin that defaces it. May Mary and all your saints share with all sinners both us and the Holy Souls the grace of the Glory that is theirs out of your bounty, in the never ending joy of Heaven.

 08/01/2023

Again our Church presents the revelation that has come from God over the centuries. Isaiah is truly inspired and God for whom everything that comes to us is an Eternal now guides him to proclaim that what is treated by men as the exclusive possession of their nation will become the way for all men to know, love and serve their Creator God.

In the Gospel Jesus openly asks to be Baptised. John knows that he is the Son long promised to bring salvation and so does not want to comply. Jesus insists because all men should accept and follow the rituals of righteousness which are earthly signs that we recognize Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is the "dove" and the "voice". 

St Peter makes it clear that prior to the resurrection he was a Jew and did not even consider that Jesus was to be the Saviour of all humanity. What he reveals to Cornelius' household is also news to him and the beginning of the mission to the whole world.

We have all received the fruits of this commission. We know the history of salvation. "I am the way, the truth and the life". We have to believe this in our hearts and confess it with our lips (or computer keyboard) for without Jesus, where would we find the message of eternal life?

Dear Lord let me this day accept your grace and grow in thankfulness. May Mary and all the saints add their prayers to mine and those of the whole church here on earth and of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 07/01/2023

John's letter warns us yet again of the Anti-Christ who is so quickly present in his first century world. There are already false prophets who contradict the Good News and the world is full of spirits which inspire but cannot be trusted until they have been discerned as either good or evil.

Are these spirits literally present or are they the thoughts that come into our minds from somewhere seemingly at random. Is our world filled with Angels and Devils who are continually at war for the souls of men? The spirits that John writes of are very real to him but not to be feared because the devils can be contained by an Act of Faith. Jesus is God Incarnate, born of Mary, lived in Palestine was crucified, died and was buried to rise again on the third day.

If we are to become the person God has created us to be we must make this confession for it is the grace of Jesus on Calvary that feeds our souls. The first centuries of the Church founded on Peter were spent in continually battles against those who wanted to be prophets of their own versions of the Good News. 

The battle has still not subsided but our now seemingly weakened Church which civilised the tribes of invaders that overcame the Western Empire has now to face the greatest spirit of the Anti-Christ opposing God. It is we ourselves, mankind who are still Adam and Eve deliberately choosing to live praising and worshipping the achievements of mankind and forgetting the babe, our God Incarnate who is still revealed to wise men.

Dear Lord you know how mankind can access so much information and how so much that appears on our screens does not build up the Body of Christ that is your Church to the end of time. May Mary and all the saints continue to plead for our hearts to be opened to accept your grace which is your gift to us but does require the assent of our loving will.

 06/01/2023

The showing to the "nations" symbolised by the "wise men" is the first revelation of himself made by God to the whole world. God's ways are always good but they are beyond understanding. Many people lived and died without the knowledge of God's purpose that has been revealed to us by the poverty of the birth of the baby in  Bethlehem. 

That is a fact that prevents any more speculation. God chose what we know from History to happen in his creation and we can look back in wonder at the works of pagans which fill the various parts of the world. Godless humanity achieved wonders of human thought and only God can know why these souls were allowed to strive without awareness the Word through whom all creation came to be.

The Incarnation is God's complete revelation of himself. The mystery of Being is revealed as a Love that is created by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We too can only leave our "Gifts" before the "babe of Bethlehem" and then spend the rest of our lives, through the grace of God to become the reality of being what Love has created us to be.

Dear Lord may the return of myself to doing your will on earth be  acceptable as thanks for the wonder of my being. May Mary whose knowledge and love of you is greater than any of the wise men then and now continue to plead for your merciful response that the emptied vessels at the wedding feast become filled with a Faith even greater than at first.

 05/01/2023

John's story of  Jesus' gathering the 12 Apostles differs in his Gospel from that in the Synoptics . The truth of each Gospel, however, is not in the place of each word but in the Holy Spirit who fills them with God's being here on earth. There are in the Gospels touches of plain humanity. We see this in the squabbles about potential places in the Kingdom that break out intermittently and today Philip displays the Judean capital's scorn for the the uncouth, provincial town of Nazareth.

John's letter emphasises the fact that we can feel at ease in our own beings. The happiness promised to us by Father, Son and Holy Spirit need not only be ours after death. It can be experienced here on earth.  Those of us who can live without sin and can examine their own consciences in the the total light that is the Love of God can be without fear as they continue their lives on Earth.

We bury Benedict today. His has been a long and fruitful life. Hitler Youth to Pope is a journey that will never again be made. So he is a unique human. In heaven there is no marriage or giving in marriage, it is the spiritual fulfilment of our souls and I suppose that there is no higher or lower as God is all in all. I pray for his soul in hope that he has been welcomed by Father Son and Holy Spirit and that his  earthly teaching and preaching have not been in vain.

Dear Lord, I pray that I may be able to scour my conscience in my remaining years not because of fear, but  because you have given me the opportunity to be the spotless Adam of your creation. Let me become a part of your Church on earth that is succoured by the prayers of your Mother, Mary and all the saints who are with you as sinless Souls no matter what has been their place on earth.

 04/01/2023

Sinfulness need not be a spectacular affair. Holiness too can be unheroic. John the Baptist was not a reed trembling in the wind he was a powerful magnet drawing many to make a renewal of their faith by the sign of baptism to wash away sin. He even drew the attention of  Herod who listened to his preaching. He lost his life for not ignoring the sinful relationship between Herod and his brother's wife. His holiness was heroic but no greater than that of the widow who contributed her all to the House of God.

The sinfulness that most of us are aware of in our lives is usually an offence against chastity. In the case of Kings and other celebrities it is a spectacular event. In our Church the almost daily reports of sinful clergy have been compounded by attempted cover-ups and the ignoring of victims. But there are many more of us who attempt to fail in secret to honour the Seventh Commandment and so are challenged not to cast the first stone. God knows even the most lowly sinner and welcomes his repentance.

In today's world the sinners seem to be always before us. We are told by many that we should not be "judgemental" but what else can we be in the face of the direct challenges hurled in the face of God by those who wish to promote sex as a recreational activity with the control of procreation and count conception as a mistake that can be corrected by killing the unborn child. 

All sin is offensive to the holiness our God gives us the freedom to choose and no matter our station in life it brings its own reward which is the abyss outside of the love of Father Son and Holy Spirit. A consciousness that is the pain of the eternal awareness of  loneliness that knows that it has rejected the Love that is always ready to receive the repentant sinner, spectacular or lowly.

Dear Lord let my prayers be heard and my sins forgiven It is only in holiness that we can remain free from sin. Let us all remember that it is to worship you that we have our beings and that your mother Mary and all the Saints in heaven are always there to help us in the daily battle for righteousness and avoidance of sin. 

 03/01/2022

The reading from John's gospel presents us with a unique moment in the history of our world. The last of the old testament prophets greets the Son, who is to complete the Covenant with the Jews, by recognising Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. "There is the "Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world" ". The baptizer continues to say that he did not know this himself but it had been revealed to him by God , the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and so we have the Trinity present in time touching the created world so that we to must see that it is good.

We have been born into this world to follow the Baptist in recognising the holiness of God and to be true to our baptisms in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit for it is Jesus who has carried away the guilt of our sins and enables us to approach the righteousness of God. There is nothing in Man's magnificent use of the created world that approaches the grandeur of the creation itself and there is nothing in it that will last.

We have to know that we are at odds with the worldly values that surround us. We have to be on guard that the commonplace of sin does not seduce us into complacency. Bodily comfort can become our be-all and end-all and without any obvious sin we join the throng on the primrose pathway. Our being has to be always directed to the Love of God and in this we are always guided by the Holy Name of Jesus.

Dear Lord let me become the devoted child that you have created me to be. Let not my body and mind be causes of sin to stain my soul and to ignore the pains borne by Jesus on Calvary . May Mary who cannot understand sin and hates its evil continue to bathe us in your compassion as she prays in love for the sinners on earth and Holy Souls in purgatory.

 02/02/2023

St John's letter continues to warn us of the dangers that are brought to us by false prophets. Jesus is the Anointed One of God and if this is denied we have become liars. I know that I have never denied anything that is revealed of God by the Church and Scripture and I have taken pains to understand this revelation

The reality of denial, however, is not only in thinking and speaking but is to be found in the depths of the conscience that warns and refuses to condone sinful actions. When I act in denial of  my own conscience, I sin and thus deny everything in my life that has been revealed of Father Son and Holy Spirit.

My conscience is not my own. It is another of God's creations that make up the unity of my being. It is the non-animal part of my humanity. It is the image and likeness of God's freedom given to all humans, it is the freedom to control not only the body but also the soul which can thus lead us into the presence of God.

There is no place for evil in a man fully ordered to good by an obedient conscience and although I fail to fulfill my own words each new beginning is filled with the hope that this time I will do well. 

Pope Benedict has now to face the Father. He was a man who worked diligently to encourage and bolster up millions by sharing his faith through his gift for writing and teaching. Now he will know the answer to a question that  has come frequently come into my mind when reading his and his Friend Balthasar's writings. "How is it that a Church blessed with such powerful and believing intellects should contain within it so many priests and prelates who are unable to devout themselves sincerely to  caring for the souls in their charge?"

Every human has to complete one task for himself. We have to ensure that our own souls are ready for the invitation to the wedding feast and we can only do this by our obedient acceptance of the Love poured out for us on Calvary.

Dear Lord may this day be a fulfilment of hope, a reward of faith and an epiphany of Love. Guard me and mine in the shadow of your wings. May Mary's prayers be felt in the hearts of  thy children here on earth  and for the Holy Souls may there be continued hope that their penance will do what our faith has taught us it will.

 01/01/2023

My purpose is to start each day by reading the Mass Readings for the day and accepting the reflections that they inspire. This is my "purpose" but on turning on the computer my mind gets captured by the trivia of the headlines and in spite of myself I start to reflect not on Mary's place in God's plan for mankind but on the salaries of footballers.

Jesus is the living blessing of our God on his creation, man. This is not easy for us to acknowledge and fully believe in the intensity of this truth.  It was not  well argued polemic that turned the hearts of deeply committed Jews to a belief that the oneness of God was a Trinity of coequal persons. St Paul although steeped in the teaching of the Old Testament had come to believe that "God sent his son, born of a woman and subject to the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons.".

Jesus' life, death and Resurrection is the most important event in the History of the World and for many of the witnesses it was witnessed as the greatest of Blessings ever received by mankind. Moses had led them out of Egypt into a land of milk and honey but the Blessing of the Resurrection is righteous living in this world and a place in the presence of  Father, Son and Holy Spirit for a new mode of living without end which we call Heaven.

Today is a Church Solemnity for God's plan comes about through the only woman ever conceived without sin, full of grace, the body from which grew the body of God and so we give thankful praise Glory to God for  Immaculate Mary, Mother of God, "Theotokos".

Dear Lord let me this day the first of 2023, live without sin and in a positive prayerful being turned towards you. May Mary not be embarrassed by the exuberance of our praise of her for she knows that it is only the Lord our God who is to be worshipped, and help us  achieve the pure heart that is the perfect worship of You Our Father contained in her total submission to your will