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.