31/03/2023

Jeremiah, who reveals the word of God, is still completely human and does not turn the other cheek to his tormentors. Jesus, who is both God and man, gently explains to those wishing to stone him that they are mistaken  and that there is no blasphemy in him. 

They are accusing him in what they feel is good faith based on the first commandant. Jesus is speaking to them in the Temple for he, Son of God, has been preaching, doing good and fighting Satan throughout Palestine for three years precisely because the Chosen People have corrupted the Law. Now is the favourable time for God is with us and the Law is complete.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit have revealed to us that God is not of this world. He is nowhere in the vastness of the Universe and at same time everywhere for his Greatness is ever Greater; his Being is in everything except sin.The billions of words of Scripture and Commentary do not contain God. The Love of God has been incarnate on Earth 2000 years ago and is only in the Life, Death and Resurrection of Mary's Son, Jesus and in the Sacrament he bequeathed to us.

Yesterday I finished reading Pope Benedict's retelling of the Gospels. I felt his faith and sincerity of belief burning from the words as pure and straight as a laser. He must, however, have known, even as he wrote, that the Institutional Church, in which he had had such a prominent part, has been as guilty of sins as great as those of the evil regime he had served, some 80 years previously, as a boy gunner in the Hitler Youth.

Dear Lord, help thou my sincerity, let me atone for the sins of my youth for all sins are equal in that they are offences against the Love of God. May Mary's and the prayers of all the Saints bring holiness to your Church that we, your little one, can feel total confidence in the Sacrament that her priests confect with you.

 30/03/2023

God is Being. He is "I AM". He is Father. He is Son. He is Holy Spirit. Father is Father Son and Holy Spirit.. Son is Father Son and Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is Father Son and Holy Spirit. God is the Trinity of Persons in Infinity of Love.

God's Being is Spiritual and it is Love. .Jesus speaks openly as Son in the Temple. Some of The Chosen People hear and want to kill him there and then. Jesus is in the World to offer himself to God as the Sacrificial Lamb of God. He comes to take away the sins of the world but the infinite grace of Incarnation, Death and Resurrection does not imprint itself on our Freedom.

The Love that is God has to be returned by our free choice. Death that Adam brought into the World has been defeated but our world is still full of the wickedness that hated the man in the Temple to the extent that he was scourged, mocked and crucified.

The Resurrection is the first sign " the first fruits" of the Spring of  New Life, the New Creation that will be the Second Coming. In the many mansions of the Father's heaven our souls can be in the bosom of Abraham or experience the mercy-filled punishment that is our due for ignoring the revelations of the Father, the sufferings of the Incarnate Son and the always available grace of the Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord I believe that your love has opened a way to heaven for all humanity. You know how much this weighs down on my soul for I see and experience  a world characterised by Pride Lust and Greed. Your life, teaching death and resurrection  brought to us the Joy and righteousness of the Acts but all too soon we have lost or deliberately ignored the Good News. May Mary's prayers and those of all the saints  open all the souls on earth to the grace that hates sin and to the Holy Souls brings Mercy.

 29/03/2023

We are drawing closer to Holy Week. I know that my penance has not been anything like enough. I know that my consciousness of the enormity of sin is still lacking. In my mind I am still happy to read sacred texts and commentaries but I still fill too much time with the mindlessness that is my TV screen. My spirit is willing but my total being here on Earth is still weak. 

We know that "Daniel" is not a "historical  person" in the way that Jesus is but his "book " was written at a time when "wisdom" was flourishing throughout the civilized world. All over the world the success of agriculture and the use of slaves was permitting the growth of wealth and subsequent leisure time which could be used for intellectual activities. Everywhere in the world humanity aspired to understand by its own efforts the meaning of life/being but God gave the true answer to that  question  first to his chosen people and when they failed to realise the value of his gift he completed his revelation Himself Incarnate to be known by all the world.

Our Scriptures tell us all we need to know. They tell us that we and our world are created out of God's Love and that as such we need to return that love by confirming our knowledge of God. We do this by conforming our way of life to his will as revealed in Scriptures. He is "our Father" and he is in Heaven and we have to live righteously in the sure knowledge that everything we know with our senses, the Material Universe, will pass away as will our bodies but his Word will stand and he wants us to choose to stand with him in the timeless Love that is Perfection of Being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, may I really know how loving you are. May your grace come into my heart. Not words but the feeling that I can have for created beings. May that wordless love be also for you. May Mary continue to lead in prayer the Saints in heaven and may your angels carry your mercy to us sinners on Earth and to those in Purgatory. Maranatha!

 28/03/2023

The followers of Moses must have come out of Egypt quite well equipped with all the necessities for life in the desert. They had been able to manufacture for themselves the "golden calf" and in today's first reading, Moses made from bronze a serpent which brought healing to those bitten by one of the poisonous snakes that afflicted them. I am always loth to deny anything that has been recorded in Scriptures and hate to strive to find a hidden meaning, an allegory beyond the stated facts.

The New Testament has no secrets. Jesus did speak in parables. His miracles really did happen. The Gospels are not "newspapers" but they do bring Good News. They are the collective remembrances of the most important times in the history of the world.made by the chosen ones of God. The first to be chosen is Mary and then the Apostles and finally St Paul.

The evangelists recorded their "memoirs" in later life but the essentials that they contain have been inspired by the Holy Spirit and St Paul is the first to receive that teaching as a "mission" and preach to the "whole world". 

The Jews that made the first congregation were in contact with the Apostles who knew everything that Jesus had made known to them. The Ascension had focussed the minds of the Galilean fishermen and their souls had been fortified by the Holy Spirit. The Church was founded in the Upper Room and by the shores of Lake Galilee but  they continued to pray in the Temple. 

It was openly in the Temple that Jesus' spoke these final words as a free man directly to the people beloved of the Father. When he began to write, St John had for many years cared for Mary as he did for his own family. Nobody has known Jesus better than his own mother.The presence of the Mother of God in his own house for so long must have had some influence on John's Faith in Father, Son and Holy Spirit and so we can accept him as the Theologian, the unveiler of "Christ our High Priest".

Dear Lord so many years have passed since you taught throughout Palestine and some of us feel alone. I pray that I can keep myself open to your grace and avoid falling into sin again. May your mother Mary continue to continue to lead the Saints in pleas for the grace to drive Satan out of the "whited sepulchre that much of your Body on Earth has become and may the Holy Souls in Purgatory soon receive the Grace that you made for us all by your suffering on Calvary.

"

 27/03/2023

Scribes, Priests, Elders, Sadducees  and Pharisees do not get a very good press in the New Testament. We tend to see them as a "brood of vipers", "whited sepulchres" whose sole purpose is to frustrate the Son in his teaching and to ultimately put him to death. Their reality is that just as all the disciples of Jesus they believed in the teaching of the Old Testament and tried to put God first in their lives by pondering the Word recorded in the books of the Old Testament.

Today our religious leaders Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, Abbots and Priests do not get a good press in this age. They do not deserve one. The words of Jesus that tell us that we should listen to the words of the Pharisees but not follow their example are especially true of the Institution that the Catholic Church very quickly became once it started to take a role in the things of this world. 

"My kingdom is not of this world". "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's". These sayings are direct commands of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In yesterday's reading from St Paul he tells the Roman Church. "People who are only interested in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God".

The disgrace that was the Church warring for centuries about control of territory is still with us in Dioceses that struggle to optimize the return on capital and in so doing employ the "publicans" of today; lawyers and accountants, servants of Mammon which is totally "Caesar's.

God has always been in the covenants of the Old Testament. He is still truly present in the Sacraments of the Church. He is the Word that we read in the whole Bible. We have to look hard to find him but he is still our Good Shepherd in the Church he founded on Earth. 

Susannah's accusers paid the ultimate price for their evil hypocrisy. Jesus challenged the Pharisees who demanded the death penalty and still challenges us to check out our own souls before condemning others. The Pharisees had to accept the undeniable truth about themselves and walked away. Good for them! 

Lord, where can I go? You have the message of eternal Life.

Dear Lord you know that I can be nothing without your grace. Let me be sincere in my preparations for your Great Week. Let me be guided only by your Holy Spirit to abandon the things of this world and put all my trust in you. May your Mother lead all the Saints in prayer that the integrity of the Church return to that of the days of the Apostles without the jealous squabbling for rank in the eyes of the world  that marred her then and still today. Let us all put God first in our lives.

 26/03/2023

The psalmist is calling out to God for all of the living and the dead. We the living are feeling the loneliness, which knowing that we are miniscule and helpless in the vastness of our Universe, sometimes paralyses our consciousness of being. The dead know that they have no more chances to serve our Father in righteousness  and those who are accepted into Eternal Life know that all thanks and praise are due to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Paul teaches that in our lives we should be devoted to spiritual matters. We should always be focused on God; Father who creates new life in Son; Jesus who obeys until death; Holy Spirit who is the living God in our lives at this moment of life. 

Today's Gospel makes it clear that the mystery of three persons in one God is part of the New Testament revelations. St John's drama is played out like a film script complete with voiceovers and flashbacks so that the audience is not left alone to try to make sense of the narrative.

Jesus has an, at first, enigmatical reaction to the news of Lazarus illness but after delaying for two days he confirms that Lazarus is dead and his death will become an irrefutable confirmation of Jesus' Sonship. One disciple encourages the others to go with him to Bethany and is ready to face death together with Jesus.

Before the final scene outside the tomb Jesus tells his friends,and us, exactly who he is in relation to God and to us. There is no room for quibbles "IAMIAM the resurrection and the life!  " I thank you Father". That is all we need to know on earth but out of the host of witnesses there, only Martha and Mary stayed with John and Our Lady to the bitter end on Calvary.

Dear Lord, may all the prayers that are part of our lives today be heard with the grace that will enable us to overcome the snares of temptation found in the smothering of consciousness that is the empty  plausibility of the material world . May Mary's prayers to seek out the lonely, bereaved and damaged of this world that they become aware of the Loving Mercy that is freely available to those who use the freedom that is part of our human nature created by you our Father in heaven be heard and bring comfort to all thy people.

 25/03/2023

I am amazed and strengthened in my Faith when the readings chosen for the mass of the day show how the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus. The hearts of the disciples on the road to Eumaeus burned within them as the unrecognised Jesus explained to them the meaning of the Scriptures. 

The Father has begun his revelation in the Old Testament, the Son completes it in the New and it continues in the Church which is in the hearts of believers that are kept open and seek the Holy Spirit.

The disciples and Apostles who were devastated by the Crucifixion, were at first uncomprehending of the Resurrection, again lost by the Ascension and then so filled with the Holy Spirit that within fifty years of Jesus' life on Earth they could come to the understanding of God's purpose that is still the only guide we need to living holy lives.

Mary's acceptance of her role was never going to be otherwise as she is the Immaculate Conception. Her soul was untouched by Original Sin. Her freedom was self curtailing as she was able to see no alternative to the will of God except with horror. 

A very popular hymn sings to God "How Great thou art". God is always Greater and no more so than when his Love for  his created beings becomes the humility that deliberately chooses to be an embryo in the womb of Mary for nine months. She is indeed Theotokos.

Dear Lord let my heart stay open today. Let me not be distracted. Let love for you become integral to my being and let me truly hate all sin no matter how trivial the tempter makes it seem for it is my sin that adds to your human pain on Calvary. May Mary who leads all your Saints in Heaven, who knew your growing presence within her and the desolation of your death continue to plead for all her children on Earth and in Purgatory.

 24/03/2023

One of the things about our lives taught by Jesus is that there is a a clear division of souls after our deaths. We hear of "sheep and goats", "paradise" and a place or state of "weeping and gnashing of teeth". The Old Testament is more concerned with reward and punishment in the here and now, in our present lives.

In the reading from "Wisdom" this morning the word "Hades" is used to reflect on our beings after death. "Sheol" the "landfill" rubbish-dump for Jerusalem is also  used to indicate a state of shadowy being after death. In the parable of poor man rich man, Lazarus is compensated for his lifetime suffering while Dives is in torment unable even to communicate with the "Bosom of Abraham". He has had his reward.

The Psalm tells us that the "Lord is close to the brokenhearted". Our spirits are not crushed by God. It is we ourselves who have to know that we have done nothing for ourselves. There is no such thing as the  "self-made man". We have to crush our own egos and pride. Many of us in this twenty-first century live lives as comfortable as did the richest of Jesus' time on earth. This is a great burden for us as our mental and physical comfort continually reassure us to the extent that we never give a thought to the creator  of everything which we cling to, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus joins the Feast of Tabernacles separately from his family. He is recognised in his Father's House on the day that his people celebrate God who was with them when they wandered in Sinai. The Temple wants to kill him there and then but that had to happen at a later Feast.

Dear Lord, I need to thank you always for my life. Teach me to pray from my heart. I keep on thinking that I have not done any penance for my sins. Let me accept everything that you will for me.May Mary with all the Saints continue in their support of the Holy Souls and we sinners here on Earth. Let me always avoid self-satisfaction knowing that without the sacrifice made on Calvary nothing would be possible for me.

 23/03/2023

At the foot of Mount Sion God listens to prayers that come straight to him from the heart of his chosen one who is himself aghast at the behaviour of his messed-up people who are children that have to be guarded on every step of the way to the promised land. They are not the "little children" whom Jesus told us to be, praying to "Our Father". They are spoiled brats stamping their feet at God in the "temper-tantrum" that is remembered by our mothers but forgotten by the adults we two-year-old toddlers,have become. The toddler has a chance of winning the clash of wills between mother and child but the human will that is pitted against the Evergreater; against Father, Son and Holy Spirit has no chance at all.

Moses is the "Chosen one of God"and by his integrity never closes his heart to receive the special grace that comes from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is something more than this. He is the Eternal Word who is identical to the Father and makes it clear in these last days of his incarnate self on earth what his purpose has been, is and will be.

We all have to recognise that each of us is known with love by the Father. We must recognise that God has no need of us and that his Love is never earned by any one of us. Even Mary was created to be what she is now in Heaven. The created people addressed by Jesus. "The Jews" is each and everyone of us who are created to have the freedom to know, love and serve. 

"Knowing" is sitting as Martha did; it is not the "book-religion" of the scribes and Pharisees which had become man's pride in his own knowledge and intellect. "Loving" is to be like Jesus reflecting the perfect human version of God's Love back to him by keeping the mirror of each of our individual souls as polished as it became after Baptism. Serving is the result of our God-given Faith Hope and Charity which in our freedom we have to use to choose; Life or Death;self plus Jesus versus self plus Satan; resurrected life versus an eternal death of which our immortal souls will have some pain-filled knowledge even though God is full of Mercy and Compassion.

Dear Lord, you know my failures this morning. Thanks to your Mercy I have not lost complete control of my will as happened in the past. Is it possible for me to be part of your Church without being present in any liturgies? You know my morning reflections and inspire them sometimes bringing a joy to my heart that I am always afraid could be pride. May Mary who bore the perfection of humanity with joy in the stable at Bethlehem and mourned her dead son on the emptiness of Golgotha, together with the  Saints pray that we on Earth and  penitents in Purgatory may come to be close to the holy reality you have created us to be and thus do thy will on Earth as it is in Heaven.

 22/03/2023

In the Gospel Jesus tells his listeners what is for them a harsh truth. In their minds he is attacking God by claiming equality with the Lord who is one in being, indivisible and unapproachable except through the Veil and into the Holy of Holies. They want to kill him for he is an affront to God. They feel that it is their duty to protect God. 

Jesus has already told the religious authorities that doing God's will, righteousness, can only come from the heart. They know that he does not hold the priests and pharisees in any awe.The minute detail of the Rabbis' interpretation of the Law is an intolerable burden that can only lead to the hypocrisy for which "pharisee-ism/clericalism" has become a byword. 

But Jesus does not condemn any of us. It is to bring a new form of life into creation that he, Father, Son and Holy Spirit  has walked the highways and byways of Palestine and is now disputing in the Temple. 

In the first reading Isaiah's hope is for a restoration of the material world. He is inspired with God-filled hope for the good life dreamed for in the image of a land "flowing with milk and honey" and also praised in the Psalms. His "Messiah" is the same one that  the first disciples mistakenly thought they had found when first Jesus called them to follow him.

The words John puts into the mouth of Jesus have been written much later than the events. John was with the public mission of Jesus from the first day and had been entrusted by Jesus with the care of his mother. He and his brother, as did all the disciples, missed the literal truth of "My Kingdom is not of this world" but now at the end of his own life and inspired by the Holy Spirit, he is able to order his mixed bag of memories into the coherent discourse that is his Gospel.

Dear Lord,  help me to live knowing that your grace will always save me if my intentions are pure and unselfish. I need great help to follow you to the Cross for our new life flows from your wounds on Calvary. May Mary and all the Saints who are living the promised new life of Heaven continue in their prayers that we on earth and in Purgatory can be forgiven for our past sins and be protected from them for today.

 21/03/2023

Ezekiel's vision of the Temple is so exact that models of it can be made. John's Gospel is so accurate an account of God's purpose in the Incarnation that the writer is "The Theologian". 

All the Scriptures are inspired by God. St Paul's teaching that is recorded in his letters comes from God. St Paul did not have the benefit of knowing the pre-resurrection Jesus but once he had overcome the Apostles' initial mistrust questioned all who had known Jesus and was able with his  scholar's intellect inspired by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word that is confirmed by the Jesus of the Gospels.

The first Christians knew only the Psalms and the other texts that proclaim the Glory of God and the holiness of His people Israel. The first generation were inspired by their recollections of what they had seen and heard. "Chinese Whispers" is not only a game but also the reality of our human memory. Each eye-witness of an event can retain a memory of that event that differs from person to person. The first witnesses also expected that the beloved Lord would return as he promised and were not encouraged by that expectation to record their experience which still filled their hearts.

The first Church was centred around the Jewish Liturgical Blessing that became a remembrance of the Last Supper. It is noteworthy that none of the disputes in the Acts about how to get around the problem (for Jews) of sharing a meal with the ritually unclean "Pagans" mentioned the Temple sacrifice. It was not until the fourth century, by which time hundreds of texts claiming divine inspiration were in circulation, that the Church found it necessary to confirm the authenticity of the books that are today our New Testament.

It is known that John's writings were composed late in his life. They were truly recollections in tranquility of the moments of his own experience that he knew had been touched the Evergreater, Father Son and Holy Spirit. He had also cared for Mary the only human, other than her son, born without sin. They must have talked together. What they said has not been recorded.

Dear Lord, let us today accept your grace as did the first Christian. Let us all accept the New Testament for what it is, the Truth of God which is Father, Son and Holy Spirit for us to know, love and obey for what we are has been justified on earth two thousand years ago. May Mary continue to lead all the Angels, Apostles and Saints in Heaven in the praise and glory that we the forgiven and penitent on earth and in Purgatory hope to join when decided by you.

 20/03/2023

Joseph, the man Jesus called father on earth, is very much the forgotten man in the history of salvation. All that we know about him is the essential role that he played as "father" in the first years of the incarnate Son. We do not even know when he died nor do we know the members of his family. That he had one is known only by default. "Your mother and brethren are without" is answered by Jesus with an exhortation to his disciples that stresses that we have to ignore everything in our lives that is not "with him".

This is another example of Jesus' hard sayings that apparently contradict "my yolk is easy and my burden is light". It also raises questions about " honour thy father and thy mother". The New Testament is not a "Western" where the "goody" is at first beaten by the "baddy" but finally rides off into the sunset. The New Testament is where we find the authentic history of God on earth. Jesus' body is the result of the Holy Spirit's action in Mary. This is the reality that Jesus lays before us.

Joseph was the first of us to come face to face with this reality. He must have, at first, been dumbstruck and filled with rage. "The Lord is with thee" is also the inspiration for the man Joseph who had the greatest responsibility ever given to any one of us. Responsibility and joy for the child who ran to him and called him "dad" was God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit the Evergreater creator of our spiritual and material Universe.

Dear Lord my heart is open to you to receive the grace I need to sustain my life on earth and my commitment to living in your footsteps. May I bring no harm to anyone this day and let me keep on learning that it is possible for me to do your will on earth. May Mary, Theotokos, whose domestic life was supported by St Joseph join her heavenly prayers with his and all the saints and with those of the Church on earth and in Purgatory. 

 19/03/2023

In John's Gospel this is the only Passover celebrated in Jerusalem . It is the time of God's culminating Sacrifice. Jesus, the Son, accepts the will of the Father, is crucified and raised to a new form of never-ending life, to open the way for the Holy Spirit to fill the hearts of the faithful. Our new covenant has one Sacrifice which is endlessly repeated in the Being of the Trinity and remembered in this world by the  bloodless, spiritual sacrifice offered to bring  the real presence of God into our hearts and into our church buildings.

Samuel whose whole life was dedicated to God is guided to David by the Lord. The youngest of the sons was trusted to guard the sheep. The experience of guiding and guarding the sheep was the recollection  in his later years that inspired the much loved psalm" The Lord is my Shepherd". All our lives can become much more fruitful and meaningful if we can gain and retain the spiritual calm and peace that comes with the absolute trust in God that is the essence of this ancient prayer.

St Paul teaches that we should live in the absolute light of faith. Sin keeps itself hidden. St Paul would have to rethink his images in my world where sin shouts from the roof tops, stares at Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the face, and in challenging our God denies his very existence. 

Dear Lord let your grace keep me from  sin that I have fought against all my life. I hope that I can become truly penitent and in always trying to do your will, show in.my life the Love that you lavish on the whole world. May Mary lead all the saints in the struggle we have on earth against the selfish gullibility that makes us easy prey for Satan and all his works.

 18/03/2023

God's revelation of himself always tells that what he wants is "love" not sacrifices. Time as we know it began with the creation of our material universe. The first humans with body and soul as we are were told to be free but within one Law only. Their wrong choice resulted in the world that I am in at this moment.

Hosea tells us in a striking image that our love for God must not be like the morning dew that disappears back into the air as soon as it is touched by the rays of the sun. The first Christians, all devout Jews, were reminded of Hosea's "on the third day" when trying to grasp the "Resurrection" and retain it in their understanding.

Jesus completes Gods revelation. What we have known about the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the last two millennia is complete there will be nothing new that God will reveal to any future generations until the Last Day, the end of time. 

God's revelation is to all mankind. This means to every individual human soul. Righteousness, living within God's law, is the totality of what we are all allowed in our freedom. Our church, founded on Peter, is incapable of completing Jesus' mission when it acts like those among the Apostles who first of all missed the whole purpose of the teaching of their Rabbi. They argued about rank in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The historic reality of our Church is that more often than not its hierarchical structure has meant more to its clergy than its role given by Jesus. How can any Cleric read this morning's Gospel without squirming in the depths of their beings? Holiness does not come from office within the Church, it comes from God's love for the those who sincerely in the depths of their beings, turn  to him for forgiveness.

Dear Lord, you know everything about me. Let me know you so that your grace can work in me and keep me free from the sin that seems to be present in  all humanity, even in your Church. Let Mary your mother who was created sinless and so can know what a horror sin is to you, continue to be the sinless heart of your Church and by her intercession bring back selflessness to the office holders of the damaged human institution your Church has, yet again, become.

 17/03/2023

Those of us who have been born after the three years of Jesus' mission on earth have received a special blessing. "Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe". The Apostles who had seen the miracles and who had absorbed Jesus' teaching; had had to overcome the grotesque mystery of the Crucifixion and then faced by the Glory of the Resurrection were given the task of remembering all that they had witnessed and proclaiming the Great News.

The vast majority of Christians who have ever lived and died fall into this category of "blessedness". The Gospels are not a "real time" journalistic account by an embedded "special corespondent" but rather a memoir written some time after the events that they record. Scholastic criticism of authorship and recorded texts is, no matter how interesting and erudite, of more importance to the scholars than it is to believing Christians.

It is probable that someone other than St Peter produced the final version of today's first reading.( There is nothing novel about today's ghost-written" memoirs" of princes and politicians.) St Peter who got himself into all sorts of messes by wanting Jesus to be something that he, Peter, could understand was finally appointed by Jesus to lead the Church into the continuation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit on earth that he himself is in the Blessed Sacrament.

The Holy Spirit is always in the Gospels. They are always true even when at their weirdest. Peter and the others dropped everything, their families, their possessions, their livelihoods to follow Jesus who was not then the Risen Lord. They were truly blessed for they too did not see anything more than a working carpenter and yet as working fishermen themselves, by the grace of God, believed and walked after him.

Dear Lord help me to take your life on earth into my heart that I might try continue to be "in your image and likeness" a soul who wants no more than to accept, return and reflect the Love that is your being. None of the disciples knew you more than did your mother from whom you took your first nourishment and received loving maternal care. May she and all the saints in your Eternal Glory not forget the struggling souls on earth and the penitents accepting their punishments in Purgatory.

 16/03/2023

Jesus refutes those who tried to understand the miracle they had just witnessed by attributing it to Satan's power. Evil is completely evil and stands firm as one force challenging Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Only a "stronger man" can defeat the "strong man guarding his palace". Jesus rather abruptly changes his topic from "Satan" to himself and his listeners. We can be sure of our place in the Kingdom only if we are with Jesus. There is with Jesus only "yes" or "no".

The first "yes" from me came at Baptism and I have repeated those vows many times since then. I have repeated and listened to the Creed devotedly. I know that God's Mercy is never absent from our world. Jesus is the last of the prophets. God himself has walked among us as he did with Adam. With an unimaginable suffering on the Cross he has taken into himself all the sins that there can ever be so that we can be able to live as the "Man" we were created to be.

Although our material world has changed so much, each living soul is faced with the same "yes or no" as  was the crowd listening to Jesus. The psalmist prays that we listen. God speaks directly through Jeremiah "Listen to my voice". The Resurrection assures us that God is with us. I can complain to God that I do not want to add to the sins he has forgiven but always do. Only if my heart is sincerely open to the forgiveness won on Calvary can I even begin to live my life knowing, loving and serving.

Dear Lord, forgive my sinful weakness of being. Can I ever come to have  the complete revulsion at Sin as you have? Let me hand over to you all the lies, deceits and selfishness that characterise my life. There is nothing greater than You. Save me again and let all sinners come penitent to kneel at the foot of your cross. May the the prayers of all supplicants on earth and in heaven bring us to an awareness of our faults and to hope for your ever greater Mercy. You are God. Have mercy on me.

 15/03/2023

Moses received the Law on Sinai and Jesus completes it in the land that was promised to the People of God. God revealed to Moses the rules that we must live by if we are to enter the Eternity guaranteed for us by Jesus' finalisation of the Covenant, the completion of God's purpose. These are the final times. The whole of God's will has been made known to us. The mode of our living has to be that of Jesus, Love and obedience.

The New Testament is the historical record of God's time on earth. He was truly the same human as we are. The moment of the Incarnation was the same as ours, an egg was fertilized in a womb. The same but so different for Mary herself had been conceived without sin and the Word has been without sin from the very beginning.

Jesus lived the life of a devout Jew, listening to and reading the scrolls. He devoted the seventh day to the Lord and honoured his mother and father. Of his early life we know nothing exceptional except for his astounding the scribes in the Temple when he was about 12. He was still Son, the Word, and with the Father and the Holy Spirit one God.

The beginning of the events that were to seal God's purpose on earth, to remove the power of sin, to show how we could do his will for us began in the thirtieth year of his life and are faithfully recorded in the canonical books of the Church. We are now preparing to understand by reliving the last three days. Our words are useless when we try to understand Jesus in the garden, on the Cross and in the tomb. We can only pray that we will be able to share some small part of the immensity of what the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit has done for us.

Dear Lord save me yet again from myself. Let me come to be careful when I use words about you.There is nothing more that I can do than know love and serve. Let me be open to your grace that I might achieve this goal with a sincere heart. May Mary for whom all the events of your life are still "now" in the Eternity you have made open for all the saints and penitent sinners still strive to share her holiness and love with us who are still living less than holy lives on earth and awaiting the finality that is to come in Purgatory.

 14/03/2023

The Old Testament is the account of God's revelation of himself to his chosen people. It is not an exclusion of other humanity from the Love that is witnessed in the whole of creation. The Book of  Daniel is not "historical", a record of events witnessed by the participants, as is the whole of the New Testament. It is a vision of the Glory of God given to its author. 

The author is a devout Jew who has pondered the works of the Lord in his heart which, filled with the Holy Spirit, is inspired to understand that the Temple sacrifices, so important to him and his people, are in reality nothing to God who already has everything. The prayer of Azariah begins by witnessing that God cannot deny himself and so the sincere contrition, humility and obedience of our human souls is much more important than the animals that they offer and burn on his altar. God cannot deny himself . He is gentle and merciful. Two centuries after Daniel was written this gentleness and mercy walked and talked throughout the promised land.

Peter is not satisfied by "as we forgive those who trespass against us". He knows that people who are forgiven do not necessarily refrain from doing harm again. Jesus responds with the familiar parable which is not only part of the bedrock of Christianity but  also illustrates a familiar part of  human nature. 

Jesus again teaches that Father, Son and Holy Spirit have to be witnessed by humanity with total integrity. It is useless to try to keep a little bit of ourselves hidden from God. When we confess it is fundamentally flawed if we try to hide as did Adam and Eve in the Garden. I am worried in these times by the revealed duplicity of many of our Priests and Prelates and am afraid that the damage that is being done to the Church is beyond repair.

Dear Lord, let thy Holy Spirit reinforce the Love that is the heart of the Church. Send us Holy Priests whose integrity can shine forth scattering those who are not true to the example of Christ. May Mary's radical obedience be the standard of holiness for which we all can strive and may her prayers and all the saints in heaven continue to support the penitence of sinners on earth and in purgatory.

 13/03/2023

Jesus was not a stranger to the people of Nazareth. He was known to some of them by name as the son of Joseph a woodworker. Some had heard of his staying behind in Jerusalem and how worried his mother had been at that time. That had been years ago.

In today's Gospel Jesus is commenting on the story from the Old Testament which is the first reading at today's mass and he has obviously been faced by some annoyance among the congregation. It is not unknown in these days for parishioners to be annoyed when a new person arrives in a parish and starts to "take-over" and is supported by the priest.

In Nazareth the annoyance was directed against one of their own who had got "too big for his boots".  Who does he think he is, this carpenter son of Joseph, to tell us our religion.? We can all become petulant when somebody disturbs our unthinking complacency.

Jesus is still with us. Each day he calls us to open up our hearts; to feed, the hungry; to give up all our wealth; to follow him by accepting our cross. We are all known by Father, Son and Holy Spirit who always offers to us the Love that is the Being of God. Do we respond by smothering out the Grace in the mass of experience that is our daily busyness just as the congregation tried to silence the Word by throwing him off a cliff.? Or do we welcome him into our hearts?

Dear Lord you know that I do not come near to your example of perfect holiness. A few prayers and thoughts seem to be the best that I can offer. I think that it is not enough just know you in my mind and soul. Show me the way to actions that are truly good deeds. May the support of Mary and all the saints be always with me and all sinners on earth and with the Holy Souls in purgatory.

 12/03/2023

To know why I am hunched over my keyboard this miserable March Sunday morning I have to abandon the "I" and open my being to the Holy Spirit who is also Father and Son. God never turns down a contrite soul and knows the most hidden depths of myself which I cannot know by myself alone. 

The Samaritan woman knew that her total being was an open book to the Jew she met at Jacob's Well. She was instantly aware that this meeting was an event in her life like no other she had ever experienced. Jesus was such a spiritual force that she could only believe the  "Messiah!"and immediately ran to announce this to her neighbours. John tells us that these too were were convinced by Jesus' words and presence. I wonder whether this immediate faith stayed with them. 

St Paul tells that we can be sure that our faith is true even though we know ourselves to be sinners . Jesus suffered and died for the very reason that worldly man is sinful and without any hope of winning by himself alone, the Glory of Heaven.

The free gift of God's Grace is available to us all even though it seems locked into stone as was the water at Massah in the desert. The Church founded on Christ's rock, Peter is the one sure source on earth of the living water of God's mercy. We have to knock hard at the doors of this institution. Knock hard and knock again to knock some sense into our Institutional Church. 

Dear Lord we are all in your hands. Please renew your Church so that priests and prelates can shine out in their holiness and not be the tripping stones of doubt they are for me and many others. May Mary and and all the Saints of heaven protect your clergy from Satan and all sinfulness. May all struggling on earth open their hearts to your Love and thus become the beings that you created to be your own image and likeness.

 11/03/2023

The readings today are a complete summary of the teachings found in the Old and New Testaments, the  revelations God has made of Himself to the Human Race.

The response to the psalm "The Lord is compassion and Love" tell us directly what our being in its freedom has to strive for here on Earth. Father Son and Holy Spirit delight in showing mercy and we also can find no greater delight, in this world, than when we sincerely hold fast to that compassion for us and share it with all our neighbours.

God is infinity of love. He does not dole  it out sparingly. He does not give out ration books from which we have our ticket stamped every time we draw on his Mercy. He is the Ever-greater who knows every thing and wants only good for all his children. 

The father's non-conditional love displayed in this morning's familiar parable was too much for the eldest son to instantly accept as being just. We are all able to take our place in Our Father's love for granted and get on with our lives in complacency. We can forget that our Creator also has rights and that he can do good things for whom he pleases. He went through the tortures of Holy Week to provide on earth a visible source of his Loving Mercy. 

The pain of humanity is not an unknown quantity to our God and the Grace of the Sacraments was purchased by pain that is unimaginable in Son, Jesus the Christ emptied and abandoned, "Eli, Eli lama Sabachthani," on Calvary.

How can we repay such a gift?

Dear Lord, keep me from the envy that makes me jealous of your gifts to others. I am responsible for my own soul and must follow you into loving all. I have to wish good for all the World that each and every soul might know your loving mercy as did the "Prodigal" and I too on all the occasions, vaguely remembered by me, but known absolutely by you. May Mary who held the corpse of Jesus continue with all the souls in heaven to implore the mercy of God for the struggling ones on earth and for the penitents forgiven but still paying the just amount of penance in Purgatory.

 10/03/2023

The Bible is filled with characters that have great personal charisma. They are the ones chosen by God. The powers that ruled the pagan Middle East were also filled with leaders of great charisma. The world is still ruled by leaders who have great charisma. Our children throughout much of the World are captivated by the "stars" who have great personal charisma.

Charisma arises out of the self confidence that is displayed to the world and is close to the self-love that is the Pride that precedes a Fall. In the history of mankind there has been one man whose Charisma is the reality of his Being. All the preceding Prophets, Princes and Patriarchs were not fit to buckle his shoe and this was realised in the same way as Joseph's brothers recognised  their brother's Charisma. Jesus' contemporary Priests and Pharisees realised that they were as nothing if this Galilean remined on this earth.

God walked the earth so that the weak, the poor and the pitiful might know that even though we do not display any gifts that might single us out, Father, Son and Holy Spirit knows and loves each one  of us. It is not necessary to be given "a coat with long sleeves", or even "of many colours" to know that we are loved by God. Jesus teaches us that he has chosen "the humble to shame the proud". There has never been anything more poor and pitiful than the corpse abandoned on the Cross.  Blessed are we not in riches or Charisma but in the sincere humility that allows us to accept the unsurpassable gift of life and use it to return God's love. The love shown by the Marys and John at the foot of the Cross is the reason our  Institutional Church can survive all her scandals and failures in her worldly leadership.

Dear Lord may we let our lives be guided by humility. We need to have your self-sacrifice as our guiding light and abandon the self that is captivated by the lures offered by Satan even to the "little ones of  this world" May Mary and all the Saints for whom there is now no time plead for our souls and those of the suffering in Purgatory. Send your Holy Spirit to return the quest for Holiness to the heart of the Church you built on Peter.

 09/03/2023

My heart, my very being is known by God. I respond by prayer and my will. I try to maintain my approximate holiness. God knows that there is nothing more devious that my being which is always aware of its place in the world and even when I set out to pray can be taken up with worldly trivialities.

The people of the Old Testament were well aware of the importance of water for life. Some of them had spent a lifetime wandering from well to well in Sinai. I too have been a wanderer in that my life has not maintained the constancy of holiness for which God has created us. Father, Son and Holy Spirit warn us through Jeremiah that we should not have faith in what we are achieving in this world. No matter how great Man's mastery of creation shows itself to be, it will not last.

The psalm continues the contrast between those whose beings are always focussed on God and follow his path and those who have been misled  by Satan and their own egos to place all their trust in the created things of this world and ignore the Creator.

Jesus is the last of the Old Testament. The owner's son has come to the vineyard. Abraham warns Richman that the tenants will never give up self-centred Pride even if someone should return to life from death. Jesus' people of the Covenant are still with us and still in denial not only of Jesus but even of their own revealed knowledge of God. They control the Promised Land  by killing more than they are killed. 

The History of the Jews continues in our times very much as it did in the Old Testament but now most of them deny the existence of the God who has always loved them.

Dear Lord you have always chastised those whom you love whenever there is a need. Let me not only be aware of You but always live without sin striving to accept the perfection of soul that you have won for me. May, Mary who on earth was the perfection we should all strive for, in her heavenly perfection now lead all the Saints and Angel in imploring your Mercy for all the sinners on earth and in Purgatory.

 08/03/2023

God was never far away from the Jews of the Old Testament. As for them, they were certainly no better than we are. Backsliding was commonplace and stubbornness in resisting Good and embracing Evil seems to have been their main characteristic.

The mother of Zebedee's sons knew God whose deeds were recorded in the Scrolls and whose Temple dominated the Promised Land. She knew the deeds of the prophets and the messages they had proclaimed. For her, Jesus was another prophet but this time a greater one who would establish a Jewish, Kingdom of God, on earth.

The other ten Apostles were outraged by James and John. In their eyes the two brothers had sent their mother sneakily  to curry favourable treatment when the Kingdom was established. At this point in the New Testament nobody had really understood the Mission that Jesus was carrying out everyday in his human life on Earth. The ten who felt that they had to protest also expected some sort of high ranking postition and felt the competitive spirit that the prospect of promotion always inspires.

Our understanding of God is always far, far away from the infinite reality that he is. Jesus is true man, but a man who is true God. We can ponder that mystery but our understanding which is highly capable of manipulating matter cannot rise to the heights that is the Evergreater Being, Father Son and Holy Spirit.

In prayer the perfect man on earth was always one with the Father and so knew what he had to face in Jerusalem. It is just not possible that even Mary could anticipate the Resurrection. The Apostles are not super human their squabble in today's Gospel is just a normal human misunderstanding of their Rabbi's role on earth.

Dear Lord, stop me from babbling self-consciously and let my prayer be a heart and mind open to thee that my soul may grow in love and obedience. May Mary and all the Saints pray that we who still struggle on earth can accept your grace and thus follow your will for us.

07/03/2023

I have recently been skimming through a dictionary of Popes and have been ashamed that what I had been  taught was anti-Catholic exaggerations was in fact the truth about most of the Popes who were really tied up into the world and all its pomp, works and splendour supported by the sins of their flesh.

I try to read the Mass readings for each day as soon as I get up. I am often amazed how apposite they are. I also wonder how they affect the priests and prelates who also read the same words.

 "Call no one father". Why do we call priests "father" and why do they let us? "Father" is only the beginning as there seems no end to the list of clerical titles; canon, monseigner, vicar general and others before we get into the bewildering world of the Episcopacy.

God tells his disciples directly "Call no man on Earth your father, you have only one Father and he is in heaven". Why does "Father Brown" not believe this?

Why do those who provide special masses for the so called LGBT community tell us that the sin of Sodom was breaking the rule of hospitality when it was totally perverse sexuality? Will the many priests who continue to abuse and those who mock the sufferings of Christ by distributing hosts to the unrepentant and to those who define themselves by Pride in their sin, dare to face Jesus. 

How can the priest "do this in memory of me" knowing that the grace of Jesus' life, death and Resurrection can only be received by souls that are free of sin? The "Body of Christ" is only available to the repentant and "Pride" cannot ever be said to be that. All priests should be witnesses to the truth and never fudge the revealed clarity of  Father, Son and holy Spirit.

Dear Lord your truth and love is till an unbroken thread running through the seamless garment that is the Scriptures. That thread is also still to be found in your Church for there is nothing that can break  Mary's love for your children accepted by her on Calvary. The Institution is still too worldly, so am I, but Mary who said "yes" and all the Saints who have come through the Great Persecution that is our lives on Earth live and pray in the eternal moment of Joy that is never changing. May their prayers continue to bring your forgiveness to all our souls on Earth and in Purgatory.

 06/03/2023

Jesus speaks to us all. He tells me that what I write should not be just empty words. The book of Daniel is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is the Word in the the special world that is God's people, Israel. It is God's self consciousness of the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit making himself known to the being that humbly raises his eyes to God. The writer of Daniel is aware not only of God but also of his own place within Israel and speaks for all his community.

Jesus is the Word. He is God in the same human body as I am. He is totally God. He is the fertilised egg carried in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary for nine months before being born in Bethlehem. Jesus shows us the way that we are to stay in the holiness that is the reason for our being. 

Jesus is first present in the special world of Israel. There he takes on the shame that is ours and the Evergreater submits out of love for us to the "wages of sin".The Resurrection promises to be with us always. The Church of Peter is where we can be sure to find the Lord and his Sacraments and this Church preaches to the whole world.

Jesus' life, death and Resurrection speaks to us all. He was deserted in his final hour by all except John and the three Marys. That desertion has been repeated too many times during the last  two thousand years by the Institution that  he founded among the Apostles, on Peter, but the love and compassion that stood at the foot of the Cross has never weakened and is still available, overflowing, so that even outside of the Institution there is still the Church without which there is no salvation.

Dear Lord, you know that I am alone in my worship. Help me to overcome the self-love that is still a too greater part of my being. Help me to avoid sin. May Mary and John who remained with you at the moment you cried out on Calvary continue their prayers for all sinners both on Earth and in Purgatory.

 05/03/2023

My understanding of my existence and my life here alive today begins with the first reading at today's masses. Abram is the one that God chose to be the father of the souls that would have the Evergreater God revealed to them; to have the covenant explained in its fullness; to know the merciful redemption; and have the freedom to make the choices that will determine our futures after our deaths.

Many centuries later St Paul reaffirmed that God's purpose was for us to live in holiness. Our freedom decrees that we have to make the right choice for holiness because that has been the loving origin of our  Creation by Father Son and Holy Spirit before time began. Jesus scandalised his listeners on more than one occasion but especially by "Before Abraham was, I am".

The nature of being, existence, is known only to God; faint glimpses have been seen and then expounded by great intellects but no human is capable of grasping a concept of God that is complete for he is the Evergreater. Some souls have had great experiences that have come to them in this world. St Paul knew that he had been carried into heaven. St Francis' faith was witnessed by the wounds that appeared on his body.

It seems impossible that after such a revelation of the Glory of the being of God as reported in today's Gospel, St Peter could return to the sinfulness that would deny Jesus not even once but three times. Thus is the foundation stone of our Church. Our first Pope was a very weak man who having chosen to follow stumbled more than once on his path to the glory of martyrdom. 

The first Church founded and filled with eye witnesses of the Resurrection became the institution which has displayed so many disavowals and contradictions throughout the centuries; Jesus' "my kingdom is not of this world"  has only ever been witnessed in its total denial by Papal States of which the Vatican is the last remnant. Even the hypocrisy that has been the rule rather than the exception in Rome has not been able to make the reward of sainthood for most of the Popes. They have been really bad men.

The Church has always been peopled by the sinful. St Peter is surely not the only one of the Apostles who failed to match his preaching with the teaching and example of Christ. However, within the onion layers of our Church, well disguised, perhaps, there is always the promise of Christ "I will be with you until the end of time". supported by Peter's "Lord,where shall we go, you have the message of eternal life?"

Many of us have searched for an alternative answer but the only certainty in this life is provided by the historical events that happened 2000 years ago in Palestine. Not the founding of a Church but the Incarnation life, death and Resurrection of Jesus, true man and true God. 

Dear Lord let me come closer to what you have made me for, let my sinful thoughts be kept out of my consciousness, let me see the good in your Church and not be blinded by the failure she is in many ways.Your guidance comes to her at the times of most need. Please find a way for her to assure us that the Sacraments of your Grace are still made by you working with your priests. May Mary who still has room in her heart for all your children continue  to lead the prayers of all the angels and saints to fight against Satan who is the enemy I cannot love.

 04/03/2023

Jesus tells us today in the Gospel, that reciprocated love is as natural as breathing. Our love for others has to be something better than that. Elsewhere, he also tells us that he is not the "strong task master ", in fear of whom the third servant buried his apportioned capital and returned the same without any loss or gain, for his load is not heavy and his yoke is light. O Jesus, you know the weakness of our humanity, you know it to a much greater degree than I know it myself and you tell us in your love for sinful man, that we must be as perfect in our being as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is God!

He does not tell us to be God or even to be Godlike but to be in ourself, as it were, a new Adam, God's perfect Man. For this Jesus came into the world to suffer and die to atone for the first sin which is with us when we are born but is washed away by Baptism. Oh how I wish that all potential for sin had not been with me during my life. 

 Gods's promise to Moses has only one requirement from his "Chosen People". They must curb their human freedom and live lives according to  His commandments, statutes, and accordances by listening to his voice. The Chosen People time and time again refused to listen to the Word sent through the prophets so in these "Last days" God came to make in our time and world the perfect atonement for the sins of imperfect man.

We have to love our enemies. Even for me in the comfort of my peaceful home it is sometimes difficult to love those who love me. Elsewhere in our world my brothers and sisters, children have to face war, poverty hunger and violent enemies seeking to take their goods and even their bodies. Love my enemies? It's difficult for me to find one but for many in this world their struggles are totally, for me, unimaginable and as for loving the perpetrators of any violence. I am a sinner. Lord have mercy.

Dear Lord, you know that in my sinfulness I have created many difficulties for myself and others during my life. Let my prayers bring some relief to those who are dying at this moment as a result of violence. May your Mercy welcome those victims into paradise as you did the good thief on Calvary and may the love and prayers of Mary and all saints bring respite  through penitence to sinners on Earth and in Purgatory.

 03/03/2023

For thousands of years God has been revealing to us that our lives are to be led in righteousness. He is quite clear that we are free to do as we please but that our freedom has to show that we know that he is our Loving Creator and that we can understand how and why we must control our sinfulness. 

God scoffs at an opinion that attributes to Him a wish to destroy the life he has created. He calls to all  sinners that we have to have to cry out from the depths of our despair and shame. We do not have to remain in sin, our destiny is not in oblivion or in eternal regret but in the joy without end for which he has created us.

The outward observances of the Temple can only be pleasing to God when they are more than skin deep, They have to be the outward sign of inward grace. Jesus again offers the Pharisees as examples of hypocrisy. I can find many similar examples in my own life without looking at the spectacular failures of our own Church.

There cannot be holiness in my life without inner integrity. The "me" that is in the world must first of all have a holiness that puts Father, Son and Holy Spirit before myself; a holiness that puts the needs and persons of others before myself; a holiness that listens to the words of "Our Father" and does them.

The Funeral prayer of the Church, the "De profundis" is today's psalm. It tells us that our God is always ready to forgive but we must make the efforts needed before we hear these words from our graves.

                        "If you Lord should mark our guilt who would survive?"

Dear Lord you know what I have been trying to do at this keyboard this morning. I pray that I can become more acceptable to you but know that you are with me to love and guide me. May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints help all to come into your presence and may the soul of Bill you know him find peace in your love.

 02/03/23

Although the Church, the institution that has emerged throughout the passage of time, seems far distant from that witnessed by the Gospels and the Acts, she has not lost the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The daily Liturgy of the Church in the World is as truly as inspired by Father, Son and Holy Spirit as is that of the Religious Orders. It is hard to believe that the Church supported violence against the Jews at any historical time as the Scriptures, both Old and New are the core of her liturgical practises.

Today it is the extollation of the Faith that was the Heart of the Jewish Nation that begins the liturgy. Esther is portrayed as having the knowledge that God is always with his chosen people even in their exile from the Temple; "I am alone and have no one but you". The psalm takes up this theme and sings of thanks for the faithfulness of our Father.

Jesus, true God and true Man was brought up in the bosom of a righteous Jewish family. He was totally as Jewish as was Esther. He is the final revelation of the will of God whom he now shows us to be three persons but one substance. He is the son of the owner of the vineyard who is killed by the tenants to takeover possession of what has never been theirs although they had the use of it by permission of the Father.

Jesus teaches that God has been, is now and ever shall be ready to listen to his people but that if we want to inherit a place in the vineyard, his Kingdom, then we have to treat other people as we would like them to treat us.This is still a very big "ask" for all of us.

Dear Lord help me to be at peace with myself and all the others that I encounter each day . Let me always be able to to truly know that each one of us on Earth is here to conform to your will and have only love in our hearts for that is the greatest of the gifts you give to us. May Mary and all the Saints of heaven be heard by you as within their Joy there is always room for even more of the faithful who do your will on earth. 

 01/03/2023

St Paul knows without doubt that Jesus has brought to the world the only thing that is necessary for us all to share, the grace of Faith. Paul's Faith is total belief in his oneness with Jesus. His Hope is that he will receive from God the perfection that Jesus has brought into the world. It is his Love that enables him to proclaim the Resurrection and to follow the Cross to his personal Good Friday.

Jesus has warned us that our Faith has not to be only skin-deep. Many of the Pharisees and priests were meticulous about their outward observance of the Law. This is the same hypocrisy that is so easy for me and all of us to hide from ourselves but not from God. Each day I try to open my mind and heart to Father, Son and Holy Spirit but after these minutes I am again the person that is uniquely the one created by God, the I that is the "hidden room" where Jesus tells to be at home with the Evergreater who is his Dad, our father who loves us to the extent of the Cross and all that leads up to it.

St Paul also had a hidden room but he lived in our world and was uniquely chosen to preach Christ. He shouted out his Faith and accepted his personal Cross. He could without any trace of hypocrisy proclaim the message that had been given to him. The message was for us to put Jesus foremost in our lives and to bear witness to him by living our lives  in the light of his Love.

We cannot do this by hiding in our "hard-drives". We have to become a reflection of the light of perfect Faith, Hope and Love that shines out over the whole Universe from Calvary.

Dear Lord, you know how difficult it can be for us to maintain awareness of our primary purpose. Satan knows that your grace is our only defence against sin and is in these high-tech days finding billions of ways to distract mankind into disobedience. You know my weakness; let my freedom make only right choices and thus come to be on Earth as it is in Heaven. May Mary and all the Saints continue to bring unity to the whole Church; joyful in Heaven, struggling on Earth and penitential in Purgatory.