28/02/2023

Do not babble as the pagans do. God knows everything.

God cares for us as our parents care for us. He is the head of our human family. We do what the Father wants because he only wants what is good from each and everyone of his beloved making us as heaven, where there is only the holiness of Love willed by Father, Son and Holy Spirit, on Earth. Help us to care for our bodies without depriving others. We need to recognise that we do sin, which is very hard for those who take pride in their sin, and to ask for forgiveness. God forgives us by the measure of how we forgive others who do harm to us. Let your Love  redirect my will as soon as I am tempted to deny you by deeds or words that are against your revelation. There is Evil that tries to negate the Revealed Truth that Jesus completed. Let my willful being be saved from the jaws of the lion that seeks to devour our souls.

My brain does "babble". Random thoughts continually fill my mind. Memories of good and evil. Huge embarrassments of long ago cause me to cringe anew.  The theme music  of daily life plays on  a loop; the background music to my being. But each day there is also prayerful activity even for only a few moments. 

Those few micro seconds of me straight to God happen and are then lost but they are the moments that give me the confidence to say in trust; "Our Father who art in heaven".

Dear Lord, let me not be overcome by the "King Baby" that, as you know,  is still the centre of my being. Let the sincerity of my words be seen in my actions and help me to avoid all sin. May Mary continue to be the heart of your Church and let her prayers and those of all the Saints inspire all clergy to show to us the "sheep" that they really know that you are the "Good Shepherd".

 27/02/2023

We are living our lives to be holy.There is nothing more important for us to do this day than to serve our God.  We have to know God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, We have to serve by worshipping what we know. We have to love what we know and serve for the God we know and serve is Love.

The Law revealed to Moses explains to us how we can live in holiness. We are individuals and known as such by God. As we grow through childhood we become aware that we are living with others and although at first we can get anything we fancy by screaming blue murder, we soon learn, especially if we have siblings, that we are not the centre of the Universe. Many of us do not learn this lesson well and throughout our lives know, love and serve only ourselves. These are the "goats.

We are loved by God and he teaches us that we have been created to use our human freedom to chose during our lifetimes words and deeds that reflect the Love that he is. God's will is that I should grow up from infancy when my every wish is my command and taking charge of my being put others before myself.

All sinfulness happens because we allow our own beings to become our God who must be obeyed by all. As we prepare to celebrate the Liturgy that commemorates the most important event in History we must in adult but childlike Christian humility remember that Jesus teaches us that his "Abba" is "Our Father" and that by the grace of God, we can live in holiness. "For this cause I came into the world that I might bear witness to the Truth".

Dear Lord, I pray that my thoughts and deeds today are all guided by your Love and that I avoid sin and the occasions of sin . May Mary's and all the Saint's prayers for all sinners bear fruit in repentance and acceptance of penance. May all victims of sin avoid blaming You as each sinner has the freedom to choose to sin or not to. 

 26/02/2023

We are asked by the Church this first Sunday of Lent to reflect on what we are. It is certain that we are, that we exist. There has been a long period of time before us. Genesis reveals that our first parents chose to listen to Satan and turn away from God. There is a huge question that has faced all mankind since the Fall. Our God is Evergreater. Why did he not crush Satan when he first rebelled?

God respects his Creation. His spiritual beings the Angels were created to be free and out of their choice came Satan and all of mankind's spiritual enemies. This still leaves the question unanswered. We believe that there is nothing greater than God. We have to accept that what we face today is what God wants even though it is beyond our understanding.

Jesus the Son is inspired by the Spirit to leave his friends behind and go to a lonely place to be with his Father and pray in his humanity. He fasts and even though he is one with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit his earthly being, man, is attacked by Satan who loses in this Cosmic Struggle. Jesus' body has many more trials and tribulations to undergo before "it is finished".

St Paul, who although a tent maker had spent his life as a fervent Jew in studying the Scriptures before he had been blinded by the Resurrected Christ and perceived the light of God's revelation,  knows that the doom of death brought about by our first parents' wrong choice has been eradicated by God's self chosen humiliation as a man and horrific suffering and death.

The witness for this is the Glory of the Resurrection. This is reality. We can only bow our heads and worship in wonder.

Dear Lord help me to accept my life in your creation for what it is. Help me to close out sin and open my being to your grace which you pour out over all the world. Send your Holy Spirit into the the Structure that is your Body on earth that it may bravely face Satan and help to bring "the sheep" to the sheepfold of the "Good Shepherd. May the constant prayerful help of Mary and all the Saints with you in Heaven, be with us on Earth and with the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 25/02/2023

God has a "Chosen People", the Nation Israel" but the holiness that is like God's is achieved by the holiness of the individuals who make up that Nation. The Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah is preaching to Jews with words that are meant for all humanity. A Jew is not blessed by God because he is a Jew but because he knows his place in the Nation, Israel. He is not blessed because he begins and ends his day with "Shema y' Israel" but because he breathes and lives by the Law and especially observes the Sabbath. His prayer has to lead to personal holiness supported by good deeds.

A Christian is not blessed by God because he is in the Church. A Christian is not blessed because he affirms that Jesus is the Son of  Father Son and Holy Spirit. He is not blessed because he knows that he is in the Church founded by Christ on Peter..He is not blessed because he acclaims Jesus as Lord but because he lives and breathes by the will of the Father and witnesses this by his good deeds.

This morning Jesus again provokes thought about the man, Jesus. He too would have begun his day with "Shema y'Israel" and done everything to follow the Law. The Pharisees catch him out for he is again not scrupulous about the company with whom he shares food. Jesus rebukes them. "I have not come to call the virtuous but sinners to repentance." It is the sick who need the doctor.

The Pharisees get, yet again, an awfully bad press but today is Jesus recognising them as "the virtuous"who do not need to be cured?

Dear Lord let me remain open to your grace and with full penitence seek forgiveness for all my sins.May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints who know the perfection of your Love continue to support me and all sinners here on Earth and in Purgatory.

 24/02/2023

The ways of God cannot be known by any man. We know of God because he calls us. He first revealed himself to the chosen people. Isaiah is inspired by God to call that nation back to integrity. But at that time there were many other people in the world who had not been given the benefit of a covenant and lived in ignorance of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Were their lives lived without the benefits God promises to us?

 Was might right for them and was the fickleness and the bloodlust of their pantheons the only inkling that they had of the Eternal God of Love revealed to the Jews?

I trust in my personal Faith which has happened by the accident of birth. My family were Catholics and I grew up going to a packed church on Sundays. I have always known of God and been aware in guilt of many sins that  kept me back from the holiness that I wished to have then and I still long for; to truly know God, to worship as  the pure human soul that he has created to be my eternal being and at the end of life I want to be in the Glory of my Lord.

The readings from Scripture are again, in the Isaiah, God calling to his people to turn back to the single-minded services that is his due. David is again my confession calling for Mercy. Jesus is sharp and to the point. The disciples who are already friends with God as they walk with Jesus, and literally follow him have no reason to fast. 

It will be a much different matter for them after the horror of Good Friday.

Dear Lord I know that I must answer to you for the way I have lived my life; you are a strong master and expect me to use my life to return a soul that has accepted the grace you have poured out and increased its human holiness. Your Mercy is my hope for my own efforts to be true to your Love have always foundered. May Mary and all the Saints in Heaven continue in their supplications for living sinners and for the Holy Souls which with your Mercy will accept me one day.

 23/02/2023

Jesus quietly tells the disciples that he will have to suffer ignominiously before he completes his mission. Then he speaks to all of us. We all know what "take up the cross" means. We all have experience of some sort of suffering that must be borne. We all know Jesus as the ultimate example of undeserved suffering. Did the people who were listening to him before the Crucifixion have any idea what he could mean?

Moses speaks to the wanderers who are about to enter the promised land. God has prepared for each of us a "promised land" which is located nowhere in this world. Each day we have to keep the words of Moses in mind for they are the words of God to each and every one of us. As we continue to live our daily lives there are always terribly important choices that we have the freedom and the responsibility to make.

Nothing is more important for us than living according to the word of God for there we can enjoy the Grace that is the never ending Love, our free gift from Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are all known as we know ourselves. God has prepared a dwelling place for all his children and from the depths of his being he pours out his Mercy onto each of us in our individuality.

God wills only what is good. Our choice is stark. Life or Death. World or Heaven. Good or evil.

God knows by experience all about how it is to be human and so does not offer instant rewards or punishment. Our lives are our opportunity to make the right choices by making use of the redemption won on the cross, hanging from nails, scoffed at by his chosen people, crowned with hateful thorns, deserted by most of his friends, by a man who gave up his own life so that the whole world could be saved.

Dear Lord let me not be overcome by pride. let my prayer be humble knowing that it is you who pull the words out of my heart. May I be supported by Mary and all the saints in heaven to make this Lent a holy one so that I can begin to atone for all the sins of my life that I have now forgotten or pushed to the back of my mind.

 22/02/23

The Holy Spirit speaking through the prophet Joel assures us that God is always ready to accept the penitence of the sinner. If the whole community turns back to the Lord, if the whole of Israel shows it repentance for sins by fasting to take control of their worldly bodies, then the Lord's compassion will again bring his Mercy upon them. God has a covenant with the Jews, a community of the People of God.

The Psalm is the repentance of an individual for  having committed a grave sin. Adultery, fornication any perverse sexual activity has lost most of its significance in this age of same-sex so called marriages, co-habitations and multiple divorces but, for David his sin was a grotesque attack on the holiness of the Lord. David knew that by sinning he had cast filth into the face of his benefactor who had shown him only kindness and love. This psalm is a truly human sign of the penitence I need to emulate this Lent.

St Paul  tells us that every day is the the favourable time to ask for Mercy, for God is always ready to hear our repentance for sin. As a Jew he is aware of Community, the People of God and  preaches as part of a new community, the Body of Christ on Earth. Jesus also first preached to the Jews. He preached to the total community, but suffered, died and became the Resurrection not for the sake of any special community or institution but for the sake of each created soul.

Jesus does not tell us to abandon the way to Sacramental Grace he founded on Peter but to be aware that in our "secret place", the core of our beings there we can find our loving Father, Son and Holy Spirit who knows everything and in the totality of his grace pours out forgiveness on each one of us.

Dear Lord, this Lent may my intentions not be broken into the decorative paving slabs that lead to Hell. Let me use your grace to humbly accept your Mercy and know in my heart the enormity of your Sacrifice on Calvary. You know that I am thankful for the ease of my life. May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints of Heaven bring relief for those suffering agonies on this Earth and may their suffering be received by you as reparation for their unknown sins. 

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 21/02/2023

St Peter Damian's was a voice pleading for the condemnation of the cesspit Church of his day. The moral corruption of clergy, the power of prelates and the forsaking of the Cross had produced more than two centuries of failure for the Church that had been founded to channel the Grace gained for us by the humility of our God.

There is no-one who can read today's readings without recalling Jesus' condemnation of the Pharisees. "Do as they say but not as they do". The passage from Ecclesiasticus comforts us with the steadfastness that the love of God brings to us. The psalmist has no doubts that if I truly trust in the Lord then I will live and be secure, confident that he will never desert me. The Psalms are all lovely and especially this one. They were the prayer book of Jesus and their words are recollections of the joy of knowing Father, Son and Holy Spirit which sometimes happens when we escape ourselves and for a moment, a fleeting second truly know our place in Creation.

Even the first group of disciples, walking in the company of Jesus himself, was already disputing about rank. Human quarrels have continued since those first days to mar the love that has to radiate from Christ's Body on Earth. 

Reading the history of the Popes in St Peter Damian's time it is hard to believe that such an organisation has been able to continue. The Holy Spirit cannot be in the vast wealth that cripples the grace of the Father won for it by the humility of the Son, he is not in the stupidity of  hedonism that dominates the lives of false bishops and priests, but the people of the Church still stumble along. 

It must be in the "little children" who cling devotedly to "Our Father" and to Mary, our Mother that there is the Faith and Holy Spirit that Jesus will find at the end of time. It is true that there is "no salvation outside the Church" but the true Church is found only in the hearts of men and not in their possessions and organisational structures.

Dear Lord today is a  day of resolution as we begin tomorrow to prepare for the Three Days that have saved mankind. Let my will become firmly fixed on your Will for all mankind and may the prayers of Mary and all Saints be heard and look favourably on your servant Flo whose funeral is today. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen  

 20/02/2023

I missed the Transfiguration on Saturday. Today Jesus and the disciples have come down from Mount Tabor and yet again there are crowds around them; some wanting to hear the words of Jesus; some wanting healing and some just wanting to be there. It must be the humanity of Jesus that snaps at the persistence of the crowds. "How much longer must I be with you" is not an irritated response from Father Son and Holy Spirit, the Creator of our Universe and of all that is in it. Jesus is also truly man.

The wisdom praised in the first reading is not the same as human intelligence. If it were our world would be a far different place than it is today. The wisdom praised is more like the Faith the lack of which Jesus bemoans. It is not the brainpower that starting with the Ancient Greeks has become more and more powerful until today I am able to access the entire History of the World and the mysteries of matter at the click of my mouse.

Knowledge is a deceptive good; like gold it can be amassed and like gold in our world, it does not perish. Wisdom is what helps us  to face "the wonder of  being", to know that we have been created, to know that we are not "the gods" that our achievements seem to make us and most of all to know that there is an Evergreater Being who has created us to know love and serve for our Creator, who gives us wisdom to use our freedom to do his will, is Love.

Dear Lord you know what I need to do to make holy preparation for your great feast. Help me to face my sinfulness and with honesty strive for the holiness that is your will for me. Let me have the wisdom to truly avoid the occasions of sin and this Lent pour your grace into my heart and into the hearts of all your poorly shepherded souls on Earth. May Mary and all the Saints eternally present in your Love continue in their supplications for all sinners on Earth and for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 19/02/2023

I missed yesterday. This morning, Leviticus presents us with a summary of the Ten brought down from Mt Sinai by Moses. Dear Lord if your first choice had listened to your Word they would not ever have hardened their hearts as they did on  numerous occasions  while in the process of growing into the nation and people that still, today, are the witness of your Covenant with them.

Paul does not speak of a nation or a people. He avoids the egocentric nationalism of the Pharisees and their descendants. He tells each one of his congregation and also the millions of people that have lived are living and will live after them that Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons one God, loves, knows and supports each one of us in the freedom he has created for us. The Ever-greater person lets us chose to become a home fit for holiness that is our target as we worship.

Jesus returns to the roots of the Commandments. God does not approve anything we do that harms another person. The inner being of the Trinity is only Love. We have been given responsibility for our Earth. The deaths in the Earthquake in Turkey/Syria are not sought by God. The greed of the rich who built the tower blocks is no greater than the greed of the Vatican or of the "rich young man" who went sorrowfully away. The sun does shine on us all. The Material Universe is what it is. It is not programmed to make judgements about the morality of nations or individuals.

It is not Church structure that brings us to God but persons in the Church can reach a God-given perfection. It is my personal holiness that can make the Church the Holy of Holies; the dwelling-place on Earth for the Mercy bestowed by the suffering Christ; a dwelling place fitting, as much as it can be in human eyes,  for my Lord and my God.

Dear Lord let me learn to recognise your gifts to me, let me too be of humble of heart so that the pride that rises like the yeast in dough that is proving as I write this, does not continue to smother the grace you have encouraged me to seek out. May Mary's prayers help young people to withstand the lure of glamour and bodily satisfaction and may the sincerity of atonement in Purgatory come closer to the Mercy that guarantees a place in Heaven.

 17/02/2023

Our forefathers had huge problems to face as they left behind the hunting and gathering that was their fate after Eden. They did meet other humans and could not understand their speech. There is the presence of the Holy Spirit in all of the Bible and the tower of Babel could be a record of the People of God's first encounter with Ziggurat structures in Mesopotamia built by people whose language they did not understand. Human emotions are again attributed to God and he is portrayed as being in fear of what he has created.

Jesus, God's complete revelation of his triune Being to the people of Earth, tells us that we must never let our material successes, our own Towers of Babe, blind us to the fact that our life on Earth is not the be all and end all of our existence. Young and poor, old and rich we all have to die and it is at that final moment we will all know the reason for our worldly being.

The "some will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God come with power" needs to be pondered with faith in our hearts as there is not an easy explanation. Jesus' other mysterious sayings all came to be understood in the light of events; e.g. "This is my body" the words of consecration uttered before the crucifixion. Peter asked about John "What about this man" and was answered by the brusque rebuke "What is it to you"?

 So many things about God are unknowable as everything that we do know about Father, Son and Holy Spirit is revealed to each of as the person we are meant to be when we turn to God, in emptiness of self, hoping to be one of the "Happy to be people, the Lord has chosen as his own".

Dear Lord you know that I feel touched by your grace and happy to be alive this morning. May I live today as I should without being sidetracked by knowledge of the failings in response to your love that are my sins and those of your Church. May Mary to whom the unborn Incarnation infancy, and youth of your Son were entrusted, continue with all the Saints to pray for all hearts to be opened to your Grace and for your Mercy to accept the spiritual atonement that is Purgatory.

 16/02/2023

There is a well known and often used saying in the North of England, "There's nowt as queer as folks" and in these times we can vary it a little to say "There's nowt as queer as "woke" folk". God's sign for his covenant with Noah has been stolen to be the badge of the enemies of both Mankind and God. Their pride is their sin and their  diversity is the unity they have with Satan. 

They are also plain daft as reproductive organs define male and female even in the animal kingdom. Those who have had the misfortune to be born indefinite must be treated with respect but the patronising seekers of uniformity are a voluble minority who need to go the way of the child molesters who, a few years ago began to seek a lowering of  the age of consent.

Jesus knew Satan as the opposition to Father, Son and Holy Spirit that all, except himself and his mother, experience in our beings. Jesus heard the words of Peter and treated them as if they came directly from the "Tempter" he had rebuffed face-to-face in the aloneness of the desert.

Peter became the foundation on which Jesus began the human structure which with the guidance by the Holy Spirit was to maintain his presence on Earth. After 2000 years, we know this as the RC Church. Poor Peter! What a responsibility to have been put onto one man. 

Of course, Peter was not alone and he had not only Mary and the Apostles to support him but many enthusiastic men and women joined the witnesses of the Resurrected Christ in full belief in the Holy Spirit and expectation of the Second Coming. St Paul in particular knew that the resurrected Jesus Christ had not left us alone as he had been in the desert and then in that hiatus between his death and Resurrection.

"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are God's". Jesus knew that the assaults by  Satan would begin as soon as he returned to the Father and continue to the end of time.

 Today,in the North of England, there is being played out yet another drama involving the Church structure and the wish to placate Caesar. An Archbishop of the Church, having been ordered by the Vatican to investigate nefarious conduct by a Bishop and also the events that lead to the suicide of a Cathedral Dean has avoided his duty by passing it to a lay person who had been given the title Chief Operating Officer of a different Diocese. What has this purely worldly administrative role got to do with Our Lord and his redemption of mankind, the saving of souls?

Popes, Archbishops priests in fact all members of the clergy and dedicated orders are absolutely nothing if they are not the "things of God" in that they form the visible form of Christ's Mystical Body. Almost immediately, however,  the acceptance as a necessity for there to be a human organisation originally to take care of "widows and orphans"but which was soon overcome by the same power of Mammon  that had corrupted the much vilified Judas, there began the conflict between holiness and worldliness in which today's English Hierarchy have faithlessly thrown in the towel. Westminster and Birmingham at the IICSA and Liverpool today.

Let them admit that there are many failures among the clergy who have damaged children and others. Let them admit that it is an added sin to pretend that this is not true. Let them admit that Church property is theft from the poor. Let them admit that over the centuries their predecessors in both West and East have always failed to make the right choice between God and Caesar. 

Europe's great Cathedrals and Monasteries are proof of this.

Dear Lord you are Creator and Saviour of Mankind. I know that I am responsible for my own life and I, although still upset by the failings of richer and powerful, am still aware that I fail in total response to the truth I read in your Gospels and writings of holy men. Please stir up the faith of those comfortable prelates who cosy up to the Caesar/ worldly society of our times and cannot  defy Satan by preaching only truth without regard for their own status and wealth. May Mary and all the saints continue to pray that thy people on Earth are not mislead by miscreant clergy and that reactions to others' misdeeds does not become the dominant force in my life. I know that I am always in need of Mercy and hope to share the same with my generation of Holy Souls in purgatory.

 15/02/23

The people who first began to fill the region we now know as the Middle East were close to God and were guided by him. They did not have the wealth of sources that we have when it comes to explaining the natural events which they experienced. They were self-centred and  interpreted their worldly experiences through their own awareness of them. 

They were, however, given a consciousness of God and their interpretation of spiritual awareness projected onto God their own humanity, their acceptance or rejection of other humans, love or hate, strength and power. Thus the first part of the story recorded on the scrolls has God as a super-human, walking with Adam in the garden. 

The Old Testament contains the record of God's self-revelation and of man's response. God has a total awareness of everything that has happened, is now and of all the possibilities that could be or will happen, for in this world each individual is known to him. Each individual is good and is loved into being. But each individual is also free now and thus there is an incalculable number of possible futures and pasts that might have been, known only to God. 

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit has through the Incarnation, teaching life, death and Resurrection completed the education of Mankind. God has made known, Hiself, the Trinity that is His being and the Love that limits our Freedom. He has founded his Church and promised to be with her to the end of time.

What are we doing in response?

Dear Lord, may I be open to receive the Grace that you lavish upon mankind and by prayer seek to do your will in everything that I am. May Mary the only sinless human being since Adam and Eve before the fall continue to plead for sinful humanity that we might reverse our sins by growing in our love for you. May the Holy Souls who now totally aware only of you and of their sins receive the grace that previously they rejected.

 14/02/2023

There is never any doubt about the teaching Jesus revealed to his first disciples in Palestine. His message was first to the Jews but the pagans too heard his words and were intrigued and even in awe. We are not given the details of his daily life and sometimes there seem to be contradictions in Gospel accounts. Jesus is reported to have said to those he first cured to tell no-one about the miracle they had received. This would have been a pretty tall order for the manacled maniac from whom Legion was expelled and for the blind who were filled with the joy of sight.

Today, however, Jesus instructs some of his disciples to act as did John the Baptist "to go out and prepare the way for the Lord" he is starting a public awareness campaign. His instructions are clear. Prepare nothing for this first mission. Your brief is to announce that the Lord is close to us; the Kingdom of God is at hand and show this by the poverty of your persons Hold onto nothing but obey and trust. Walk without footwear. Let your feet feel the dust and pebbles between your toes.

These instructions are very far from me in time and completely "odd"for my cultural consciousness. Imagine some scruff coming to the door shoeless, or uninvited into your garden and greeting you with "Peace"and if "peace" is not returned the visitor turns on his heel and goes to do the same at the next house. We call it "cold-calling" today and put notices on our doors to deter the unwelcomed strangers .

I don't think that we had a debriefing in the Gospels about the results brought back or met with on arriving at the towns so prepared. The message to be announced by the 72, however, is for all times. There is never any change in the Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The pagans who heard St Paul and Barnabas, however, have an immediate joyful reaction to the clarity of "I have made a light of you for the nations". This isn't too surprising as the  Apostles were radiant with the certainty of the Resurrection; the way, the truth and the life; God with us. The only light that will never dim.

Dear Lord you know that these thoughts that I have put into words have been found in my heart and I am happy to read them even though I know how unreliable I can be. You never deceive. I have to drop my self concern and strive to follow you today. May the prayers of Mary and all who are with you in Paradise come to my aid now and may the Holy Souls continue to wait in hope that they can truly atone for their sins and thus welcome your Mercy into their hearts.

 13/02/2023

Dear Lord, I can only appeal to you with a sigh that comes straight from the depths of my heart. Jesus was overcome by the persistence of the Pharisees who still wanted a sign even though they were witnessing the incarnation and he sighed a sigh that I can still hear. I am still like them persistent, but for me it is in my non understanding of the Evil which I know is ever present in my being. 

It seems from Genesis that Adam and Eve were not alone in the world which was teeming with animal life and you too were always with them witnessing the crime of Cain, you marked him so that others would not harm him. I have to ask you why you did not stop the crime.

I do know that my own sins are the result of my own freedom choosing evil. I choose to succumb to temptation, to the self-centredness that  accepts every temptation as my right to have. But poor Cain and poor Abel! Cain did not have the the guidance of the prophets, the history of the Chosen People. He did not have Mary and the Incarnation. He did not have the teachings of Jesus, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Poor Cain was there alone in the Universe, totally aware of  and absorbed in his own being and he began to hate his own companion and victim.

Dear Lord, whence did that evil come? I do not want to know evil. I want to know Father Son and Holy Spirit and with the Grace freely won for all of us on Calvary come into your presence which is only Love but now I am weeping for the weight of responsibility carried by that first family in Eden which results in the unimaginable pain of the Cross witnessed by your and our Mother Mary. May she and all the saints pray for the grace refused by all sinners on Earth and awaited in the suffering of Purgatory to be freshly bestowed upon all creation.

 12/02/2023

Mankind has always been in the care of God. We are still the same humanity as were our first parents but have by our labour and ingenuity changed the face of the Earth. Some say that we have not changed it for the better. They are probably right, but God has revealed that the Earth is ours to live in and use. He has further revealed that our only important task for us living in this world is to know, love and serve. We have to remember that what has gone wrong in the past has been the result of the first disobedience. We are not programmed by our instincts but, although we have the same instincts as animals we have the freedom of will to control them. God does not create any of us to sin.

The reading from Ecclesiasticus rightly reminds us that we have been given the tools with which to control our environment but without Wisdom they are nothing. Each moment of our lives gives us the opportunity to do right or to do wrong. Wisdom begins with "the fear of God",  we have to worship in awe for we exist and God has made himself known to us. The Psalmist is sure that to follow  the commands of God in every detail will bring us to happiness. 

Jesus, however, warns us that obeying the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is not just a matter of precision in our private or public daily liturgy. Again he warns that the fiddliness of the professional religious class, the scribes and the Pharisees, the priests, has taken the place of the Holy Spirit in Temple worship. 

Jesus, the Lamb of God is in the world to be the ultimate animal sacrifice of mankind to God. He is pure Love, total obedience to the will of the Father and as such our Lord and our God. He has fulfilled the Law. In him we have the exemplar of perfection to be followed every moment of our lives. To honour the will of the Father we have to bring the Holy Spirit into our lives by following the Son to Calvary.

Scrupulous washings and phylacteries were not wrong in themselves but had become distractions that had turned religion into a matter of appearances rather than the raising of individual minds and hearts to God, to keep the joy of the "Law" in their hearts.

Dear Lord let me hear the words of Jesus and keep them in my heart to protect me from all temptations. May Mary lead all the Saints in the true worship that we can only strive for on Earth. May all we sinners open our hearts to you so that we can become all that you made us to be and may your Mercy pardon all the Holy Souls who are now truly aware of their sinfulness but secure in their hopes.

 11/02/2023

I have to read the Genesis account of the disobedience of Adam and Eve aware of the way I too can sin but also find excuses for myself. God is telling us by this Holy Spirit inspired text that we have to fight for our lives on Earth. I am sorely tempted to view the story as nonsense and am loth to try to wrangle my way round the simplicity of the black and white, good or evil. Why does God want us to go through life when in his own perfection he has no need of anything that I could give?

We have to accept, however, what we know as the only reality of which we are part. Myself and the millions of other things and animals are in this place in this time, in this life. The whole thing is difficult enough to make sense of without the further result of the being that is "thought" which cannot be turned into the particles of Quantum theory but which is present wherever there is a human being.

When I accept that "I am" and with Descartes become "thought" my questions just multiply for we are more than "thought"; I have a body that needs feeding, clothing and is programmed to reproduce. I can  accept by an act of faith/will, that the Bible texts of thousands of years ago reveal that we are not the be all and end all of this Universe. The whole wonder of the star-filled night sky, the beauty and power of oceans, the variety of life both the Leviathan and the almost invisible viruses are the creations of the Love of Father Son and Holy Spirit and I am one individual atom of mankind created to do the will of the Father by responding obediently to his revelation of himself and thus can accept his grace  to join him in the never ending perfection that is his will for all of us.

Atomic particles spin around but, although we cannot see them they are still material being. I am a hybrid being of physical matter, here we can find sub-atomic particles, and soul that is the image and likeness of our Creator. It is my soul that has to accept the grace to know, love and do the will of our Father who art in heaven. I have to respect my body for it too is God's creation but never forget that it is dust composed of sub-atomic particles which will return whence it came.

Dear Lord let me retain your grace to continue to use my freedom to chose to do your will for me by resisting the temptations that surround me. You know that the "serpent", the devil, Satan is a powerful and insidious enemy of your Love. May Mary whose "Yes" to you opened the way back to you for all humanity continue to support all sinners both on Earth and in purgatory and plead for comfort for our brothers and sisters suffering in the places known to so many of the earliest Christians who are now in Heaven.

 10/02/2023

 Being aware that I exist, knowing that I am alive is fraught with problems. Being made aware that God has created me brings more problems. All mankind has faced the same problems. The root of all evil is not money; it is itself. 

Nobody has answered the question that is prompted by our knowing that bad things happen in the world. In my lifetime millions have been slaughtered in disasters both man-made and natural. Many children have been born weak and disfigured. There are people whose bodies are not quite definitely  male or female.

We all ask why it should be that today many are suffering atrocious living conditions following the deaths of thousands of victims of the earthquakes in Anatolia and this is only one location where the goodness of God is not apparent.

I can be happy in my less than perfect being  by turning to the  revelations that begin in the Old Testament but I have only faced the evil from which I  need to be delivered in my own self. I do not know the pain and suffering cold, hunger and thirst that is the objective evil known by many this morning.

Jesus did not ignore this question which has been asked by millions of us poor mortal souls. We are all sinners, except for Jesus and Mary, and the 18 killed by the collapsing tower at Siloam were no greater sinners than the  disciples who questioned him about it.The chain of historical human decisions and pride that resulted in the collapsing buildings in places where the Church first grew to be "Christian"  is known only to Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we must put our trust only in God for our true being is in our souls.We must not????

Dear Lord you know how difficult it is to witness the evils of this world. The disciples saw your body on the cross as the end of all their hopes. In fact it was an event that was needed for the links of  our chains of sin going back to the Garden to be broken and for the Resurrection to bring the surety of faith into our hearts. May Mary who although created without sin held its results and defeat in her arms on Calvary plead  the the grace to turn us all away from sin in this world and obtain forgiveness as do the Holy Souls in Purgatory. 

 09/02/2023

God our Father Creator loves us with the Love that is the being of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He loves us  into our human being in the creation that first was known by Adam and Eve. His Love for us is also respect for the being he created for us to become naturally. We are "little less than gods" in that we have human freedom which makes us superior to the other worldly beings whose instincts, their programming from which it is impossible to break free, control their limited lifespans. Since the fall, our bodies  also have preprogrammed  limits on length of life but our souls are absolutely free within the limits of Love. That is why Adam could name the animals in unison with God, welcome Eve and then misuse the freedom God has given to us.

Each day I relive the first day of mankind. I come out of non-consciousness into the world. Unlike Adam my mind is filled with memories of both experiences and of events. I know that I have to pray and then face my daily tasks. Today the tasks were an instant mess as I began with interacting with a remote voice on my computer. I was trying to report a fault with my boiler. When I began to talk to a human he too might as well have been a computer for he was keeping to a script that made no allowances for the interlocutor.

I am strictly warned by Jesus not to be angry, to be self-controlled at all times. I am not made happy by the performance I put on this morning. What really makes me feel bad is that the grace I receive from God was not all present in my deeds.

 Jesus was not denigrating the pagan woman. She, at least  didn't react with the anger evidenced by me this morning. In all humility she used her freedom and put it to our Lord that we are all human and that  scraps left-over from any meal need never be wasted . She did that of course not knowing the greatness of God whom she was addressing; she was just responding in hope to the Nazarene whose reputation for power and authority had preceded him from Galilee.

Dear Lord, I thank you for the Love which enables me to pray each day and for the grace which you have bestowed on all of us. May the prayers of Mary and all the saints be heard for the ones suffering in Syria and Turkey, places where your Church first grew to be called "Christian" and for us all on Earth and the Holy Souls paying for their worldly sins in Purgatory.

 08/02/2023

Jesus is our saviour. He it is who drags me out of my sinful self and reveals the wonder that is Father Son and Holy Spirit. There is nothing in the unholiness of heart, the sins of which he warns us in Mark's Gospel that I have not known to some degree and of which, at this moment, I regret entirely. God isn't fooled and reminds me that although at "this moment" I abhor sin I must not fool myself for I know by experience that sin can be stronger than my prayer.

Adam and Eve have everything a human could wish for. They have life, a beautiful environment, no hardships and a Creator who reveals that he has only Love and respect for mankind, the summit of his  creation, asking but one thing in return. We immediately refuse wanting something ever greater and now our lives are limited in time and full of conflicts within ourselves and with our neighbours.

"Happy fault of Adam that gave us such a great redeemer" I first heard "Felix Culpa" in the pre 1955 liturgy of Holy Saturday which took place in the early morning and it struck a chord then and still does. Our God wants only Good for us but he gave us a choice to accept his Love or refuse it. Freedom is the greatest of Life's gifts and the most dangerous for in the fullness of time in which I live self-centered disobedience with all its pomps and works has come to dominate our world in the same way it did the first humans in the Garden.

Dear Lord "I thank you for the wonder of my being", I thank you for so "great a redeemer" and I beg that we use your grace to root out the weeds of lust, pride and avarice that are strangling your body on Earth, our Church. May we open our hearts to receive your grace as did the Marys  and John at the foot of the cross when they received your bloodstained corpse and may our prayers joined with theirs be as fruitful as was the garden before the fall.

 07/02/2023

St John's Gospel begins with the first fact about ourselves that I heard, as a boy and youth at the end of mass, sometimes thought about as a man and today am face to face again in this morning's first reading. What is it in me that I can know as God's Image and Likeness?

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God". God is Father Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Incarnation of the "Word" and was thus with God in the beginning and it is "his image and likeness" in which mankind was created. How can I understand the ways of the Evergreater creator of our Universe? And yet he has created me a little less than a God.

Jesus was with God before the creation of the Universe and "I am created ", have the being of which I am always aware as a fragile image of my Creator who poured out his love in the immensity of this Universe and maybe in eternal repeats of his Being of which we have no knowledge.

Jesus is still with us as real in the Sacrament as he was to the senses of the Apostles after the Resurrection. His own honouring of his Father and mother became the total sacrifice of himself on Calvary. We can use his grace to follow the example of his way of perfection but, we do not do that by wrangling our way out of doing his will in all things.. 

Man is man. Woman is woman. "Male and Female"he created them". Parents are to be loved and cared for especially in their dotage. There is nothing that can be thought, said or done by "Image and Likeness" that breaks the demarcation lines set in stone for Moses and by the life, death and Resurrection of he who is creator of all.

Dear Lord, you know that the pharisees were also in need of a shepherd and I know that you condemn them for their pettifogging "holier than thou" but when challenged "to cast the first stone" they shamefacedly sidled off-stage. My soul is mine for the saving and for you there is nothing that is impossible, let me make my soul curban an offering to you that this time I will complete. May Mary's prayers be heard for those suffering in the region that was a first centre of "thy will on Earth" and may she and all the saints continue to implore thy grace for all sinners both here and in purgatory.

 06/02/2023

There has to have been the first of everything we know. God revealed himself to the Jews and let them explain the world that they knew and we know today in terms of the Father, Creator of all things. There is no way that the people of Genesis could have made sense of Evolution over periods of millions of years. The timescales are God's but they are translated into human time. The first week of creation asserts that what was created was good. It was out of Love that it grew and could be only Good. 

There is nothing in the created "Big Bang" that is the ever expanding Universe that can come close to the infinite Being of our never changing and always ever greater than anything we can know God. We must thank Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the beauty of creation and  for the freedom to study and grow in the understanding that we have of our world and of our place within it. We must try to accept that each one of us is a new Adam or Eve who arrives in the Natural World to be welcomed by the instinctive "Mother's Love" which is the gift of our Loving Creator to all animals, including us, that Our Father bestows on all the world.

Mankind has been filled with an ever greater pride in itself by its free use of intelligence to understand the material of our World. God has largely been cast aside, Man is the Greatest of all beings and Humanism rules.The Truth, however is that  we are still all the Adams and Eves of the first creation and we like them are still damaging the "Good"that was the "Garden" both physically and spiritually by the same misuse of our Godlike freedom that we inherit as Original Sin.

Dear Lord may the peoples of the Far East come to the realisation that the teachings of Jesus accepted by the  Christians of Nagasaki whom they slaughtered are still the truth for all as they are the sure way to new life everlasting. May Mary with all the martyrs of Asia continue in their prayers for all mankind and for the souls waiting for God's Mercy.

 05/02/2023

God never changes. Jesus was born to reaffirm the Love which is Father Son and Holy Spirit . The time we measure and which shows itself in our growth and decay begins with the moment of creation, the Big Bang, out of the created material of the Universe which stretches unimaginably out of the night sky.

God never changes and he filled the mind of Isaiah to preach the  Love that grows out of Christ crucified way before Jesus walked on this Earth. St Paul, a devout and learned Jew, emphasises to the sophisticates of Corinth that he brought to them not God known as an intellectual concept. He preached Jesus  a naked bloody corpse a criminal hanging dead with other criminals on a cross outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Jesus tells us, his disciples, that we are in the world to use our lives to reveal highlights of God's Glory. We have to keep active those missing heart beats, flashes of loving faith, when first we recognised our beings as souls created to know love and serve. Even though it seems that we have blanketed out the taste of Faith with innumerable time filling pleasures and Godless pursuits, we must take Jesus seriously when he tells us to wear our hearts on our sleeves and brightly shine out our witness to our Resurrection Faith. It is for timeless being that we have been created.

Dear Lord you know that my personal failings and recovery have been many and that these moments  I try to spend with you are a pathetic attempt to "shine" a bit among the billions of words that fill the new space created by man's manipulation of your created material. May Mary and all the Saints continue to support and comfort faithful and sinners on Earth and the atoning souls in Purgatory that form the "internet" of your Mystical body.

 04/02/2023

St Paul advises that we never lose sight of God. We must always acknowledge his "name". We must never forget that it is the reality of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that is the source and mainstay of our lives and of the world around us.. We must not sin for it is by staying holy that we can avoid the "Lord, Lord" of empty words and do the will of our Father who is in Heaven.

Jesus knows that the Apostles were exhausted by their first missionary journey and sought to give them the opportunity to rest. There was to be no opportunity, however, and the crowds guessed their destination and got there before them. In our times, the overwhelming response of the people to the presence of Jesus in the early days of his mission is  matched only by the enthusiasm of the religious revivals of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Today the many church buildings that filled the villages, towns and cities in England are empty or put to other uses. The collapse of once thriving church communities is one of the great "signs of our times". Do we have to accept this as the Will of "Our Father who art in heaven"? It is easy to pose the question  but as for an answer, it has to come to each of us in our hearts that are open to the Resurrection Truth revealed by word and deed in Palestine so long ago. 

Dear Lord, I know that there is nothing that is not known to you. Please let me make my being a witness to your Love and let my good intentions become good deeds, May your mother Mary and the communion of Saints which has you as its being, bring to the minds of all on earth that you have a purpose for each one of us and provide the grace for us to perfect that will and become the person you want us to become.

 03/02/2023

The words of St. Paul have been read millions of times but they never change. Christ is God so he never changes. The teaching of the Apostles reveal the way of living that the Father has created us to follow. The basis is Love. The Golden Rule encapsulates all of the commandments except the first which  reveals the Evergreater that loves us into being. That Love has to be reciprocated during our time on Earth.  "Do not do to another what you would not want done to yourself" is the only way to return God's love to him. "Human Rights" were given to Moses long, long ago, they are not some human thinking and did not promote the "right to sin".

The first century Roman Empire was a place where the rich got richer by growth of military conquest. Many lived in a state of physical comfort similar to what we live today where slaves did the work  that technology does for us now.

Medical progress has made it possible to overcome the material downside of breaking the "Golden Rule". The Joy of Sex can be easily satisfied without fear of immediate consequences. Today, even sexual perversities are considered to be essential to humanity  and promoted by "Human Rights" agitation. But 2000 years ago, John the Baptist fearlessly faced the political powers of his day and preached that Herod's relationship with Herodias broke God's law.

Jesus is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow. He is our example and our goal. His human person is still with us in the spiritual body given to us by the Sacrament. The three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their timeless certitude of being know love and care for us today, yesterday and tomorrow but we in the confines of human time have to use our freedom of spirit to atone for the sins of yesterday, and avoid those of today and tomorrow.

Dear Lord let me welcome your infinite Mercy into my heart and let my soul become what it should be. I know my sins and you know them with the pain they caused by their ingratitude. Let me strive for holiness aware that all is possible for you and that the prayers of your Mother and all the saints are ceaselessly raised to implore your Mercy on all the Earth and Purgatory.

 02/02/2023

All the events of Jesus' life on  Earth confirm that  the Father, Son and Holy Spirit first chose to make the revelation of God to the people of Israel. The Jews are still the chosen people although today they show less belief in their covenant than do we Christians in ours. This Feast of the Presentation is a remembrance that continues to emphasise that Jesus true God is also true man. Joseph and Mary follow the Law exactly and dedicate him to God as the circumcised first born of their family. 

Our Faith emphasises that our bodies have to be controlled by our souls and that there is no need to undergo the pettifogging scrupulosity to avoid "defilement of our body" practised by the Pharisees. Our defilement of soul, sin always begins with our choice of disobedience to God's will. One can understand why the messy business of birth could have been seen as a source of ritual impurity in a society that wore phylacteries and had rules about hand washing. 

The ceremony of "Churching" of mothers forty days after birth seems to have been  forgotten by our Western Church and there is no "defilement" in the monthly "period" dreaded by so many women. Our bodies are unmarked by original sin but, under the influence of pre-Christian philosophers the Spirit has been considered to be by nature, a higher order than the physical body. Lots of heresies and arguments were faced in the Church because of this opinion The Incarnation cancels that argument.

We still know that our souls live on after our bodies die. We also know that the Incarnation of God took place in Bethlehem. The ever begotten Son had grown in the womb of the Virgin Mary and thus dignified the whole of human nature body and soul. The corpse of Jesus was not revived but reborn/resurrected into the new way of life/being that God has prepared for us all at the end of time, of course, our freedom can still refuse the free gift of God, but totally mindless to do so. 

Dear Lord may I be always open to receive your word and believe it with sincerity. I am always the same "I"and can easily fall into prideful self-love. May Mary's example of selflessness always be present in my thoughts and let my being totally surrender to your Will, for you are the Mercy that has saved  sinners here on Earth and will pardon the Holy Souls who are atoning in Purgatory.

 01/02/2023

I feel closer to St Paul than I do to the Bishops here in England. 

Reading this morning's Gospel  I was struck with Jesus', although he was amazed by the lack of Faith, acceptance of his situation vis a vis his neighbours and family. He accepts that their familiarity with him as a child who had been seen on the streets and fields of Nazareth, growing up as children do, coloured their thoughts about him. They must have known about the only event of his childhood recorded in Scripture and he could have been known as "that clever boy of Joseph whom the Scribes listened to" but on them this "Nazrani"  had nothing, as a grown man, like the impact he had had on the beaches of the Sea of Galilee.

"Judge not lest you be judged" is a dire warning and so is Paul's "take care that no root of bitterness take hold and begin to grow". Whole Christian communities have been destroyed over the centuries by this bitterness that arises when we listen to ourselves and invest our whole being in ourselves and not in the only Christ who brought Father, Son and Holy Spirit to his people living on earth.

There have been many decades in History when the institution that Jesus founded to confirm the holiness that is the will of his Father, the reason for his suffering and the Glory of the Resurrection did not act according to the Gospel. Is knowing that whole dynasties of Popes and Bishops and Clergy have been corrupted by the Devil World and Flesh which we condemn with the confirmation of Baptismal Promises by our way of Life, not making a judgement in favour of Truth.

Is it not sinful to passively accept the de facto holiness of the "Church" when we can see the hypocritical waywardness of those who have been given both the seal of the Priesthood and the Keys by the Good Shepherd. 

Of course, I feel closer to St Paul than to the Bishops for he is closer to Jesus, my Lord and my Saviour God.

Dear Lord, you know that much of your Church is not doing your will on Earth. I also know this, but also know that repentance for my sinfulness is the only goal that I am capable of reaching and that only with the Grace that you have poured out for us all. I think that Mary was not happy with the reception you received "at home" but know that there was no bitterness in her. May her prayers and those of all the saints continue to support us here on Earth and let the "Holy Souls in Purgatory Time" have their sins washed away so that their Souls can be filled with your merciful  Love.