30/04/2023

God's revelation of himself to his favoured nation had been completed when Peter, his chosen rock on which to build his Church, addressed the crowd gathered in the Temple to celebrate Pentecost. 

I have been born into my Faith. All of those listening to Peter and he himself had been born into their Faith. Faith in God has been received into our beings at birth. My Faith has grown and been fed by religious practices and  Scriptures. I have never been argued out of my Faith by heretics or philosophers no matter how skillful. My readings from the Fathers and from modern theologians have only confirmed the Faith that is recorded in the Scriptures celebrated in the Liturgy.

There has to be something more than skilful words that convinced those who listened to Peter. His religion was the same as theirs but so terribly different. God had a son! The man executed for blasphemy by Crucifixion the previous month was alive again  and had been seen by these Apostles. Their wives sisters and daughters knew women who repeated the same words about the Resurrected Son as this man speaking in the Temple.

Father Son and Holy Spirit was clearly present with Peter and the others in those first days of the Church. There was no worldly power in their group, there were no great scholars, there were no doctors or golden mouths there were only, in the eyes of the world, unimportant men and women who had been gifted by God with the faith that knew that their lives would not end in their deaths and that the Creator /Saviour and Love asked only that they know, love and serve him in this world. They were not left alone to do this but were also promised the loving guidance of a Good Shepherd who was also their Spiritual Food.

Dear Lord let me be only sincere in my thoughts and faithful in my deeds. Let me stay with you at all times so that secure in your grace I can rebuff sin. May Mary who witnessed all of your life and the planting of the seeds of Faith continue to support the Church, teach sinners to seek forgiveness and implore you for the Mercy that is needed by all on Earth and in Purgatory.

 29/04/2023

If we live in the light revealed by the Scriptures it is possible to live without sin. The light of the Scriptures is the Truth and the sinless Way revealed by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We can as humans investigate the material  Universe. We have learnt many facts about Matter. We can cure disease, we can go to the moon, we can breath underwater. We can manipulate the genetic matter of our own bodies. These are scientific facts but they are not God's Truth.

If we live only in the Facts of Matter there is no Truth in us. All of our "Facts"can be completely destroyed as time passes. The abilities of the wonder of Artificial Intelligence can not last an assault by Atomic weapons for it too is a physical Fact. Only God is Truth. Father Son and Holy Spirit has no beginning or end. 

The Facts of our being are not only physical. God has created for us each a soul which has Freedom. A free will which can compare Facts and Truth. Our will is not only free but it is supported by God's revelation of himself. Jesus is a Fact of History. He and Mary are both Fact and Truth. The Eternal Word, the Truth, is incarnate in the flesh of Mary a created Fact. 

Adam, Eve, Mary and Jesus are the only Humans in whom there is no sin at birth. St. John is writing inspired by "The Holy Spirit" to stop us from sinning and to teach that when we do sin we must remember that Jesus died in bitter pain to open up the floodgates of God's Mercy. In St Mathew's Gospel we "the little children" are gathered in by the wounded and loving arms of the Fact of God on Earth and we are comforted by Truth.  

"Shoulder my yoke and learn from me for I am humble and gentle of heart. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Dear Lord let my being be always open to your Mercy. Let me not deceive myself for my sins are the nails that pierce your real body, a physical Fact as much as is my own. May Mary whose physical body nurtured the growth of your body in our world of matter, continue in the the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit to lead St Catherine and all the Saints in worship and in pleading for your Mercy to be showered down onto sinners both on earth and in Purgatory.

 28/04/2023

God's revelation of himself on the Road to Damascus brings about a conversion known as one of the most spectacular in the whole history of mankind. Saul having harried the nascent Church in Jerusalem was on his way to do the same in Damascus. Father, Son and Holy Spirit stops him and reveals himself as Jesus. Saul then experiences a total blackout for three days before sight returns to Paul.

Jesus was not seen until the third day of his entombment. Paul could not see until his sight returned on the third day of his blindness. The Jews had been the strongest monotheists of the ancient world. Saul had been dedicated to the study of the Scriptures of "IAMIAM". When his sight returned he began to preach. "Jesus is the Son of God". This is indeed speechless wonder!

When Mary Magdalen saw the "gardener" she saw the risen lord but was disturbed in her own being to the extent that she "knew" but did not recognise. All the first recollections of the Resurrection have this quality of "seeing" but not "knowing"until Thomas touches the wounds and Jesus not only eats with the Apostles and even cooks for them by the shores of Lake Galilee.

There is nothing but clarity in St John's memoir of Jesus' teaching at Capernaum. IAMIAM is the source of life. I am his Son. Life comes from the Father into the Son and the Son is the Bread from Heaven that is always available to ensure that all mankind can believe and thus accept the Holy Spirit the Loving Mercy that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, you know that accepting the holiness that your Church needs to be the vehicle of your Will on earth, has always been difficult. You have always tolerated the sinfulness of priests and prelates but we who sincerely try to know, love and serve are more than disappointed as we come to know more about the personal sins of clerics and the institutionalised perfidy of prelates. May Mary and all the saints pray that all priests act in accordance to the words they preach and not be satisfied with a glib, "I 'm a sinner too". We all need heartfelt repentance and to seek penance in this life before entering into the Spiritual purging of Purgatory.

 27/04/2023

Jesus is "the living bread that has come down from heaven". The pure "Life" and "Love" that is the "being" of God" was walking the roads of Palestine and revealing to the "crowd" how to understand the wonder of their beings and their history. The people who listened saw a man just as they were. 

Many who listened were familiar with the Scriptures and were fertile ground in which to plant new seed "Could this be the "Messiah" who had been promised? The fishermen had asked this of themselves when first called and no doubt this question was always in the minds of the Jews to whom Jesus had first preached.

Many of the non-Jews, those who had listened to his preaching and witnessed or heard of his miracles around Sidon and in the Decapolis would have been mystified by the concept of "Messiah"and asked for explanations from their Jewish neighbours. St Philip was sent to do this to the Ethiopian.

Jesus tells us all directly that we have to eat the Bread of Heaven if we are to know eternal life. He is the Bread of Heaven. With Jesus there is no guile. He is what we see and he says what he is. He is a man such as we are. He bleeds out his human flesh to become the ever present Sacrifice in the Sacrament of the Altar. 

The Evergreater Father, Son and Holy Spirit is ever present in the bread and wine of the mass just as the man Jesus was at the Last Supper and on the hill at Golgotha and this will be so until the end of earthly time. God's Eternity is known only to himself.

Dear Lord, you know that I believe your words but doubt the intentions of the corruption that has damaged your Church. May Mary's pleas for the water to be turned into wine once more be witnessed by a renewal of holiness that will overcome the damage to your Church done by my sins and those of the whole world. 

 

 26/04/2023

According to English Law today, Saul could have been prosecuted for murder as although his was a passive role, he had only guarded the clothes of those who killed St Stephen by stoning him to death, there was in effect a "Joint Enterprise" which resulted in the crime. 

St Paul was part of that crime and he emphasised his role in it by becoming a leading light in the first systematic campaign against the heretical sect that was disturbing the religious beliefs he had spent perfecting as a disciple of Gamliel.

The Resurrection is the Father uniquely acting in his created Universe. St Paul is Jesus acting uniquely on the road to Road to Damascus. St Paul's completed life is the  mission whereby The Holy Spirit uniquely spread the  Good News and thus founded the Church on the rock, St Peter.

Each one of us is also uniquely created by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have to use our beings "to cry out with joy" in unison with all the created Earth. We have to "see" Jesus i.e. know him in the Liturgy and in the Scriptures. We have to be sure that we are "saved" and ready to  enter into the Kingdom of Heaven for no matter how evil our sins, they can be and are forgiven ( remember how both St Peter and St Paul are both grave public sinners but forgiven), when we repent and open our hearts to receive the Mercy that is the Glory, that is the Love of God.

Dear Lord, the depth of my being is known only to you. Help me to stay repentant, open to your mercy and ready to do your Will. May Mary born without sin and Theotokos pray that all we sinners listen to our consciences and not bolster up our selves by finding excuses and false "gods", the many "isms"that plague our lives. May she and all the Saints implore your Mercy to accept the Penance being lived by the Holy Souls in Purgatory. May we all come to know the New Life at the end of time while we avoid Sin in all of our present "nows". Maranatha!

 25/04/2023

To be a Christian we have to know that we have a mission. Jesus' life on Earth was to do the will of his Father. That is also our mission. We have to show by our lives that we know that there is something greater than just being alive. We have to show that we can face any adversity. We have to be secure in the knowledge that God knows each of us and will not let us be tempted beyond  the limits of our strength.

Today I am having to force myself to respond to the readings at mass. I have not witnessed any of the "signs" listed by Mark. I have not witnessed the Resurrection but totally believe in the Incarnation, Life, Death and Resurrection of the Son of God and of his miracles done on Earth. For some reason I really don't want to believe in "Tongues", "Snake-handling", or "Poison-drinking".

Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead. He was never a carnival act. The Son of God never babbled, played with snakes or drank poison to gain attention. His person was enough to draw the crowds to him. His miracles were confirmation of the Love that is still his being. They were not the proof of supernatural powers of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We who see the immensity of the night sky, the beauty of the world, the wonder of our individual being and know the Love that comes from God have no need of useless tricks to help us turn each day, in thanks, and pray "Our Father ...

Dear Lord , the Jews needed signs, the Greeks wisdom; we their spiritual descendants need only loving Faith and humble contrite hearts. May Mary around whom has grown here on earth many false superstitions, lead all the saints in the reality of prayer that is Your Love for Mankind incarnated in her womb. May their pleas be heard and may all human souls living on Earth and waiting in Purgatory be totally open to the forgiveness that you shower down on us.

 

 24/04/2023

It seems that St George's feast has been transferred to today as yesterday was a Sunday. At the time of the Council there were a whole host of changes to the Calendar that had remained unchanged since the Council of Trent. Although a very popular saint, the legends around that "name" owed as much to paganism as to the knight of the red cross patron of Crusaders and patron of England.

 I seem to remember that at that time there was much agitation to drop saints about whom there was a lack of historical evidence, from the Universal Calendar. "Duplicate" feasts were also dropped which annoyed me as "St Peter's Chair in Rome" 18 January, my birthday was combined with "St Peter's Chair in Antioch".

At the time of Trent the Church had institutionalised itself to the extent that it had been putty in the hands of Roman aristocrats, French Royalty and Spanish degenerates for at least twelve hundred years. Jesus had reassured Pilate "My Kingdom is not of this world" but within four hundred years Bishops of Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Byzantium and Cyprus were squabbling about not only theology but also about the extent of their political authority.

The legacy of that disobedience to the Word of God is still with us. We are not making war against each other as did the Crusaders taking the words of Rome at their face-value and grabbing what they could  from Byzantium for there was no sin in killing either Muslims or Greek heretics, but the Mystical Body of Christ is still a scattered mosaic of churches, cults and sects lacking the unity in love and obedience that we all owe to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, help me to turn to the Church Triumphant with you in heaven for the support that my Faith needs here on Earth. May Mary and all the saints pray for all of us who are unable to believe that Sacramental Good can coexist within the sinful body for whom "ex opere operato" has become "going through the motions" and not the true intention to unite actions done here on Earth with yours in heaven and so care for our souls on earth.

 23/04/2023

In my lifetime my country dedicated to St George has gone from being a uniformly Christian country to become a place of mixed beliefs with the formerly Christian majority without any belief whatsoever. God has not abandon us and yet we should see this decline as his will for us as his is the "Kingdom, the Power and the Glory for ever and ever."

"Abide with me " is such a beautiful prayer. It comes to mind for this older football fan as the crescendo of "worship" that used to precede the Cup Final, whenever the "Road to Emmaus" is read at mass or at so-called "Celebrations of life".

All of us know that we are individuals. I know that I am not you.We have to live with other people. As we grow we all start in a family. We expand our contacts into street or buildings. We live in villages towns and cities. We have become lost in the crowded human community that fills our planet.

 The powers of Mammon treat us as their possession. It is these powers of Mammon that try to  define what makes us human. What happens to my politics, possessions, and personality that moment when I know that I am dying? We again become individual persons for it is each individual that dies alone. 

The Church is the guardian of God's family on Earth. God's family is all the souls who know that their "Father in Heaven" loves and knows each of us as the individual that we are all begin life as and will end it in the same way too. Corruption and filth have weakened our trust in the Institution but in Mary and John standing at the foot of the cross we have the heart of the Church that beats with the love of Christ. This is how he will be with us to the end of time.

Dear Lord, you are ready to welcome us to the Sacraments that you have entrusted the Church to guard as the food for our living souls. Help the many who cannot avoid the quibbles brought about by the shameful behaviour of clerics. Let my trust in your Love be confirmed by the prayers of your mother and all the Saints in heaven and may this individual sinner on earth together with all his brothers and sisters open their hearts in penitence and together with the Holy Souls receive your mercy.

 22/04/2023

Our God knows all of us. He knows us as individuals and as "nations", the physical race into which we all are born. Our souls, however are "persons" and known and loved by our names. In our belief, we are all Jews for God's revelation was made to the descendants of Abraham and perfected in Jesus the Incarnation, Life, Death and Resurrection in Palestine. Our souls are the eternal element of our being and belong to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus had told his friend Martha at Bethany that Mary had chosen the "better part" by sitting at his feet listening to him. The "Commonwealth" that was the first Church grew spontaneously without a "business plan". The rapidity of this growth had lead to problems. There were two separate groups in the Church, which were defined not by blood but by language.

The Apostles knew that the Lord had given them a mission to proclaim the Resurrection and the Parousia that was to come. For them this was the "better part"and so the business of sharing out food and goods was an intrusion, a distraction from their prayers and preaching.

Jesus had founded the "Church"but had left its earthly structure up to his Apostles. I always remember how he had stopped the mother of James and John when she had canvassed on behalf of her sons. He had, however,  made it clear how his grace was to be distributed on earth. Baptism was to be in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit and his preparation for his execution at the Last Supper was to be his ever present memorial, the Holy Eucharist, our thanksgiving for the forgiveness he had won for us on the cross.

The Sacraments are the obvious "better part" for they concern our souls and the way to Eternal Life and they are the eternal God-given heart of our Church. It is the structure of the man-made institution and  its administration that has always been the source of the problems that have always been with us even in the "us and them" disputes of those first months in Jerusalem.

Dear Lord, may all Bishops and Priests be always aware that it is  their own souls and the souls of the people they have been entrusted with that is their responsibility. May Mary and all the Saints pray that all clergy seek holiness and thus inspire rather than disappoint their charges. May we sinners on Earth be open to your forgiveness and may the Holy Souls in Purgatory be purged by your Mercy.

 21/04/2023

St Paul's own Rabbi offers the Sanhedrin some very rational advice. The same rationality is repeated by Pascal some 1700 years later. Pascal defended the rationality of belief in Christianity in the form of what is known as "Pascal's wager". It is logical to live the life of a believing Christian even if you cannot truly believe for if there is Judgement after death you have avoided sin and so will be saved but if there is nothing you won't know anything about it as you too will have disappeared into that void of nothingness.

There may be human wisdom in both Gamliel's advice "to wait and see" and Pascal's wager but there is no true belief in Anselm's "ever greater" God. We do not know whether Gamliel was true to his words and accepted that the growing Church really did come from God, but we do know that his "school" was active in persecution. Saul guarded the outer clothing of those who bludgeoned St Stephen to death.

The miracles of Jesus and continued by the Apostles are the "signs" that the people needed to convince them that their Messiah had come. The Jews of the first century were a tightly knit community of believers who knew in their very beings that they were God's own people. It must have been very hard for them to accept that God could have offered redemption to the unrighteous and unclean Gentiles.

It wasn't easy for the Gentiles to believe either. The intellectual sophisticates of Asia Minor and Athens had to have their minds convinced that the perfect purity of the "good" that their philosophers had sought had been a  broken and bleeding criminal's corpse on a cross in Palestine. 

The Holy Spirit did prevail and Paul's proclamation of the Risen Lord became the Church where the wisdom of the Greeks was retained even in the remotest corners of Europe. We all have personal miracles where we know that Father, Son and Holy Spirit have entered our lives and God gives each of us the adequate amount of wisdom to choose Life rather than Death. We need to use our free will wisely and without cynicism prepare with love for the judgement to come. 

Dear Lord, may I continue to find support for my acceptance of your will for me by turning to you in prayerful contemplation. May your Angels guard me from all evil and let my prayers be witnessed by my life. May the prayers of Mary and all the saints of heaven be the support of our Worldly Church and the inspiration for all of us to turn to joyful holiness.

 20/04/2023

I am the "poor man who called and the Lord heard him". We are all born "poor", helpless, totally dependant on our mothers. We all grow to be children and remain "poor" even if we are born in a palace. Worldly riches, however, can and do conceal the poverty of the human soul within the body of a pampered child who soon grows to become dependant on and in love with  the riches that prevent the camel from passing through the eye of the needle.

We in the West have become so rich that we have insulated ourselves from God by a culture that sees our success in scientifically controlling not only base matter but even our life itself, as the one and only reality. Life still comes to an end, however, but we  continue trying to deny the weakness of our our now revealed "poverty" by "celebrating the life" of the dead one whose remains after cremation fit into a container that can be carried in one hand.

I thank God that I began my life in the love of a family which, although not perfect, sincerely tried to practise the faith the Truth of which the Apostles defended before the Sanhedrin. I have always been "poor" for I have often wasted the grace that comes from God. I have often stripped myself of this grace and become truly "destitute "in sin. True wealth is to be found only in the Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that is freely available so that "Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal Life". 

The Incarnation, Death and Resurrection has given us all the Holy Spirit "without reserve" and thus we "the poor" can die into riches way, way beyond our imagining. The choice is ours.

Dear Lord you know me. I know that empty words are no prayer. Let me in sincere poverty implore your forgiveness and love to be showered on all who are known to me. May Mary and all the saints plead for your grace to be accepted by all of us still enthralled by Devil, World and Flesh and may the souls of the departed become aware that their pains are Justice tempered with Mercy for it is only through the suffering of Jesus that our sins can be forgiven.

 19/04/2023

Living in the "light" for me takes place every morning that I read the Mass Readings of the day and open my being to the Word that they are. I am ready for anybody to read my prayer each morning but nobody ever does. Am I truly living in the light?

The first thing that I see when I start my computer is the world as news. Nothing lasts and the utter tripe that fills my screen each day is total futility. I truly cannot understand how anybody would want to live their lives on the passing level that each morning's glance at the screen reveals to me.

"My kingdom is not of this world"is not a political statement it tells us that our lives are something much greater than the world filled by the intelligence of mankind with wonders that could not have been imagined by the Apostles at the time they were questioned by the Sanhedrin. They knew a much greater wonder. They proclaimed the Resurrection into the faces of Christ's executioners not out of revenge but out of the Love that they had received from the Holy Spirit.

The " World" captures and captivates our attention because all the difficulties and problems we face can fill the time we live and divert our minds from God. Even the totally obvious futility of playing with balls has the capacity to glue our minds to the moment and absorb our passions into something like the timelessness of eternity.

Our human lives are in this world but it is for what we are to become that we are living. The total being that is the ever greater Father Son and Holy Spirit has ensured that all of us can live now in the Light of his Love and thus defeat the snares and deceptions that assail us all in this world. We have to continue to choose Life to be able to die successfully.

Dear Lord help me to do your will. Let my life become a witness to your Love. We know the utter mess I had been making of my life when you pulled me out into the Light. Let me join my gratitude to the prayers of  Mary and all the Saints and together let us all pray that your Mercy falls like the shower of roses revealed to St Theresa during the pain of her life in Normandy.

 18/04/2023

The readings for this morning reveal how the teachings of Jesus and the blinding Glory of the Resurrection had had their immediate impact.The Church in the first reading is the result in this world and life of "the love of neighbour as your self." It is the beginning among the people who had known Jesus, of the Church founded on the Rock and it grew but in doing so also lost the pristine innocence of its first weeks in Jerusalem.

St John's Gospel is the divinely inspired memoir of Jesus recollected by John in his old age. It is not a "true narrative" but the interpretation of remembered highlights of the Life inspired by Love. I think that as St John had been given the responsibility of looking after Mary within his own "household" his recollections were also supported by those of Mary. The billions of words of "Theology" available today all start from the Gospels and especially that of St John. He is the "Theologian".

Those first two decades of the Church are the ideal for all Christian life. Problems were at first overcome by prayer but even when they know Christ, people are still human, full of self and ready to protect their own. Deacons were appointed to ensure impartiality in the division of material needs and then overseers ( Bishops) became a necessity and thus human corruption first seen in the canvassing of Jesus by the mother of James and John, began in the infant hierarchy.Within three centuries the Papacy had taken on the worldly trappings of the Empire and acted as if it had forgotten "My kingdom is not of this world".

The worldly wickedness inside the Petrine Church is still with us as much as it has ever been. However, Father, Son and Holy Spirit through the words of Jesus has promised "to be with us until the end of time." Our Baptism has freed us to accept the "heavenly words" of the Holy Spirit so that even amongst the past and present evil men, who have neither fear of God nor respect for man but still rule the Institutional Church, we can find "the small quiet voice"that brings to us the Love of God that the prayers of St John and Mary keep flourishing in the hearts that are open to receive it. There has always been a Church of the Spirit and it can still be found.

Dear Lord, open the hearts of all your people to receive the merciful grace and comfort that is beyond all understanding and let us be able to without doubts join in the Liturgy that is the remembrance of you and renewed Sacrifice of your Body and Blood. May Mary and all the saints in the perfect worship of Heaven pray for forgiveness for all sinners here on Earth and for souls awaiting pardon in Purgatory.

 17/04/2023

Each day when I read the Mass Readings I know that I am trying to confirm Faith and Hope in the revelations of himself made, through the Church, by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I am also trying to control my self-love that always comes between me and my love for God and for my neighbour .

There are some people for whom my heart goes out. They are usually little ones or my family. It is especially easy to have warm feelings for God's creatures but it seems to me that my love for God has got to be something greater than my affection for the little dog that I will be looking after tomorrow.

I am the being made by God and I can not be more than that. I have to accept that when I am doing my best it cannot be greater than the limits of my ability. I am always supported by the Holy Spirit and although I can feel no shaking either externally, as did the disciples, nor internally as did the Saints in Heaven, I have been reborn. My Baptism is always with me and that spiritual rebirth will be with me to the end of time.

Dear Lord help me to stop looking at myself and just accept that your Mercy guards my being reborn in Baptism and safeguards me now and for evermore from the snares of world, flesh and devil. May Mary the, Immaculate Theotokos, guide me in living for God and for others by abandoning myself entirely, as she did, to will of God.

 16/04/2023

There are no written records that survive from the period of the events recorded in the New Testament. The earliest fragments of the texts of the Acts are dated some fifty years after the Resurrection. By that time "The breaking of bread" had taken on the liturgical significance first mentioned by St Paul 30 years before that. 

The first Christians, who had not then acquired that name, lived with Apostles and others who had seen the Risen Lord and although they were unable to find the words to analyse their supernatural experience; they knew what they had seen and spoke with confidence to persuade others.

Jesus was not a wraith, a ghostly Spirit. The living Lord was flesh and blood. He breathed air and ate food and yet his body was not contained by the physical universe of which he was still part. We can ask Thomas what it was like to put his hand inside the flesh of his Rabbi and he has no reply except to worship. "My Lord and my God !"

Thomas was blessed for his total commitment as were all those who met in the Portico of Solomon. The "Breaking of Bread" has become the first liturgical event of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit has been breathed into the Apostles directly by the Son who has been raised to new life. God has put new wine into old wineskins. Baptism has recycled our flesh into vessels fit for the New Bread and Wine of the New Covenant and our first priests have been given a spiritual power that is not for their own benefit but to be shared among the people of God.

At the Last Supper, before Jesus blessed the broken bread and the wine, he performed the menial task of a household slave. There were no theatricals, no lace, no bells no Magna Capas. There was only the total humility of the Love that ranked sinful humanity higher than his Godhead.

Dear Lord, you know  that I keep repeating what I have learnt about you.You are my Father and my goal in life is to become ready to accept the punishment for the scourge of sin I have laid on you. May my atonement be sincere. and after the necessary punishment let my soul reach the perfection of Heaven where Mary and all the Saints join their prayers to those of thy people on Earth and in Purgatory. Thy will be done.

 15/04/2023

Today's readings at mass complete a week during which the Church invites us to meditate on the events which are her beginnings. In the Acts we see the first days when the Apostles begin to realise that they have been part of something more than the revelations they know from the Scrolls of Scripture.

We have to feel human sympathy for the Scribes and Pharisees. These are men just as we are. They have been born into the Chosen People in the Promised Land and have tried to serve the Temple of the Lord. They know that they are doing God's Will as revealed to Moses. 

They have been unable to answer the questions posed by the proclamation of the Resurrection of that "nuisance from Galilee" other than by denying that it ever happened. The uneducated "workmen" continue to cause outbreaks of "enthusiasm" in the Temple and many worshippers are accepting their teachings.

Today we hear them facing  the hard facts of their situation. An undeniable miracle has been performed as it were on "Live Television"; all Jerusalem knows about it. The "name" of Jesus was invoked and the "celebrity" cripple was completely cured. They knew that such an event had to be sanctioned by God as did all the witnesses but the certainty they had in Scriptures and in their own office had to have them avoiding the issue and as second Pilates they washed their hands by avoiding the challenge that each one of them faced.

Their fudged answer did not achieve very much but their descendants maintain it to this day. This too has got to be God's Will.

Dear Lord those of us who can know our own sinfulness have received a great grace. The Chief Priests then and the Institutional officer-holders of your Church today have a great problem in that the trappings of worship block out the Holy Spirit. This is undoubtedly the work of Satan. May Mary and all the Saints of Heaven continue to pray for all sinners to accept their guilt and to pray for a share in the mercy for all won on Calvary.

 14/04/2023

Today we read how Peter and John were detained by the Temple authorities. They were surrounded by the elders, Sadducees and Pharisees and Peter, who is now a new man, spoke sincerely without fear. I always am flummoxed by the use of the word "name" in these Biblical contexts. I bless myself "in the "name"of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and Jesus denied that he cast out devils in the "name" of  Beelzebub.

Peter is filled the Holy Spirit and tells his interrogators that "Jesus" is the only "name" by which we can be saved. Peter, himself Jesus' literal foundation stone for his Church tells us that the "name" of Jesus is the keystone  that was rejected. Peter is not his own authority for this. He is not speaking in his own person, his own name, but is inspired by God.

It seems then that  that "name" is "person" or "being". Peter speaks in Jesus'"name" so it is the living "Christ" that is being interrogated again by the High Priests. It is the living Christ who is ready to bring us all to be with him in new life and new creation. 

No one has a monopoly on the "name" of Jesus. "No-one can come to the Father except through me" does not confine our God to the institution he founded. The first three centuries of the Church were lived out in the Glory of the Resurrection, coming to an understanding of Jesus' mission  and establishing what it was that they had received from the Apostles, but most of all the  conviction that Jesus would soon return bringing about the Final Judgement and the End Days. 

In a remarkably short time, however, it seems that her main function came to be maintaining the human institution and its status quo symbolised by the power of the"Keys" and not by the total love for Father, Son and Holy Spirit and selfless love of our neighbour that is the way, truth and life  of Jesus'  "Name".

Dear Lord you know me. Help me to see myself as you see me. Let me see the hidden recesses of my being where Satan tricks me into trying to hide from you as did our first parents in the Garden. May Mary and all the Church Triumphant pray for the sinners of the Church on earth and in Purgatory that we might accept the Mercy that is showered down on us.

 13/04/2023

"The Acts" are a record of the wonderful events in Jerusalem more than 2000 years ago and are completely historical. They really did happen and the actual sites are still there and can be excavated. They are still very much a Jewish affair as the Temple was the focus for the worship recorded in the "Acts". Peter speaks with authority. 

They are all Jews. They are all worshipers of the same God as their forefathers but Peter is no longer the spineless wreck he was on the night of the trial. He tells them to their faces that they are responsible for the tragedy of Calvary. They are all guilty.

Then he comes to the difficult bit. They did agree to the killing of the Lord but only because they did not understand what they were doing. It was God's will that Jesus should be the perfect sacrifice in his favourite place on earth.

For us too who have grown out of roots planted in the Old Testament and have had centuries of Christianity to grow nearer to Father, Son and Holy Spirit it is still difficult to believe that some men, the same as we are, actually hammered iron nails through the defenceless hands of another human being because it was God's will to become the perfect sacrifice to atone for my sins.

We are all in need of merciful forgiveness and the ultimate horror of the Crucifixion tells us why we have to have a hatred for sin for it is also a fact of  history that my sins did crucify the Saviour of the World.

Dear Lord you know my being. You know that I am willing to be open to your love and more than willing to accept with gratitude your revelations and the teaching of the Church. My weaknesses are still with me; may Mary your mother continue to pray for all sinners on earth and in Purgatory that the Mercy that is capable of overpowering all evil and won in such torment on Calvary be welcomed into our hearts.

 12/04/2023

If the New Testament was a film the "Acts" would be "St Luke 2".  In the first reading, the Church of the Apostles is still centred on the Temple for we are all still Jews. The God we know is still the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and His Temple is where we worship. It is also where we follow Jesus' example to proclaim the message of his Father and inspired by the Holy Spirit we proclaim the Resurrection. In today's first reading it is also where God upholds our mission and cures, in plain sight of all, the former fixture at the "Beautiful Gate" who runs and jumps up the steps into the Temple.

In the Gospel reading St Luke shows us a "flashback" to the first days after the Crucifixion. The two disciples are undoubtedly part of the group who had been to Bethany to see the resuscitated Lazarus and joined the throng on Palm Sunday. They had suffered the unimaginable gall that the Crucifixion had been for all the Apostles and disciples. They had also heard of what had happened  on the first day of that week but had not been sufficiently moved to stay with those who remained in Jerusalem. The hope that Jesus had enkindled had been brutally extinguished. There was no hope for Israel.

As they trudged back to Emmaus the stranger appeared and after listening to them began by scolding . "You foolish men". Their hearts began to burn at the recognition of the Truth the stranger expounded from the Prophets but they still did not recognise their Rabbi. They must have been with him for some time when they invited him to stay. He broke the loaf and they saw Jesus. They immediately rushed back to Jerusalem.

The "Breaking of the Bread" is accepted as a reference to the Last Supper but this need not necessarily be true for we do not know when they could have been told about the events of that meal and their significance. It could be a simple time-marker of the moment when they saw that he who had been a stranger was in fact Jesus. Thus, we are all taught that Jesus is always with us and we will see him if our hearts are ready for our eyes to be opened. Maranatha!

Dear Lord I am always ready to think about these familiar passages from scripture. I know that I have failed to live up to them during the "acts" of my own life and you already know that I will soon see evidence of how we have abandoned you who pours out love and suffered so much pain to inaugurate a new covenant for your people. May Mary and all your Saints plead for thy Church and have her strip herself of all the trappings of worldly wealth so that you can be with us and we can be with you in the bread that she breaks.

 11/04/2023

The risen Lord is never instantly recognised by those to whom he shows himself . The story that the stone to close off the tomb was intended to prevent was instantly used to deny the proclamation of the Resurrection. Jews and Moslems to this day repeat that the Resurrection was a deception planned by Jesus and executed by his followers. 

Jesus was mocked at his trial and is still mocked today by those who choose to believe that the disciples, that scattered bunch of vagabonds, who were not only unable to defend their Rabbi but also made no protest at his trial or place of execution, was capable of the organisation required to pull off such a coup.

The Resurrection is as much an Historical fact as is the death of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. To deny it is to deny the evidence of all historical records; evidence that hits straight in the eye as did the arrow at Hastings.

All humans are created to know, love and obey. We are also unprogrammed intelligences. We have free minds that can become so impressed by our own capabilities that we deny that there is anything greater than we are but, we all die which is a human habit from which, no matter how much we impress ourselves, none of us can break free. Jesus' Resurrection is not resuscitation, it is not a rebirth on the Wheel of Life, it is the first fruits of the Last Days which will be the renewal when only "my word will stand". Maranatha!

Dear Lord let me this day be ready to lose the happiness that it is for me to be alive. I am an undeserving sinner who is truly humbled by your gifts and does not know how to express gratitude. I am your creature. Do with me what thou will. May Mary our Mother continue to protect all her family for although I am undeservedly blessed, there are millions still who need help to open their hearts and minds to our Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 10/04/2023

What a difference we see in the Peter some seven weeks after the shamefaced, despairing weakling who could not respond when challenged about his discipleship, we saw on the morning of Good Friday. 

Jesus is so far above us that words really do fail when trying to grasp a concept of his being. He did teach, he did cure the sick, he did feed the hungry, he did face up to Satan, he did raise Lazarus from the dead. He is God and simultaneously a Man as human as we are. He is way above my understanding. I can only, in awe, say "Yes" to him or totally reject him. 

Peter is only a man and as such we can relate to his weakness and take heart from his recovery. For three years Peter had followed his Rabbi throughout Palestine. He had prayed by his side both privately and publicly, in synagogues  and in the Temple. He had rejected him at the time of the trial and avoided the cruel spectacle of the death on the cross. We can see in Peter all the evidence we need, as sinful men, to live in hope of Heaven.

He is as weak as I am but having been chosen he really does become the rock on which the Church can be built. He is filled with the Holy Spirit and this morning, in a loud voice, he proclaims the Resurrection in the very faces of those who had chosen Death.

Dear Lord you are indeed the Evergreater God. Father Son and Holy Spirit you fill us with your Grace. We can join with Peter in his witness to your Love and with Mary as our Mother we can as her children plead for the forgiveness and Mercy that we can only receive but never earn. You are the Lord. Maranatha.

 08/04/2023

We all have a part to play in God's creation. We are all in the world. We are all tiny specks of immortality in the vastness of the Universe. We can only be the one created by God to be ourselves, the very, very small "I am" to honour and worship the vastness of the "I  AM" revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai.

Today is remembrance of total emptiness felt two thousand years ago by the disciples in Jerusalem. Some of us who had bayed for the Crucifixion of Our Lord didn't really know, what the fuss had been about. They were the permanent inhabitants of the Holy City, twofold superior by both race and place of birth. They had joined the welcoming throng on the previous Sunday caught up in the excitement of being in a crowd. They were the mindless core of the mob that, demanding the death penalty, that crowd had become by Friday.

Some of us are unable to look each other in the eye. We had all witnessed the shame of each other's guilt. We could comfort ourselves by concentrating on the treachery of the "the thief" our treasurer and the barbarity unleashed by the Pharisees and High Priests of our Temple. The human race has always blamed others for its own sins. It really did all start with the Adam of this evening's first reading.

The only guiltless being there in Jerusalem and in the whole world that "Empty Day", was the one who was suffering the most pain for she had the most love not only for her dead Son but for the Priests and executioners and for for the "lost sheep" who are all still her children.

Later in this Empty time of loneliness and compassion the Church will in the most Sacred Liturgy lead us from the Empty Tomb through the history of God's Care and Providence to the Proclamation of the Resurrection. Would that this Resurrection Faith remain strong in me, in all the Faithfull, and especially in the clergy.

Dear Lord help me to be at peace and find you in my heart to always be my defence against the Devil,  my protection against the flesh of my being and my avoidance of the corruptions of this world. May Mary for whom the prophecy of Simeon is a reality of her being continue to care for her children given to her at the foot of the cross and may she and all the Saints join in this evenings' "Exsultet" resounding throughout the world.

 07/04/2023

Today it is finished! God's revealed intention for the chosen ones has become complete. The story that begins in Eden and follows the chosen people in the Old Testament has ended in the Tomb.

We can only imagine how great was the grief of all the disciples at that moment. In our own minds we know what the outcome will be but for those first disciples there was only emptiness and sorrow. Even Mary who held the wounded and bloody corpse of her son disfigured in death had no idea what would happen the day after the Sabbath.

In his inspired memoir John makes it clear that he remembers the Crucifixion as happening on the day before the Passover. Judas is present among the arresting soldiers but the kiss to identify the Lord is not mentioned. The halfhearted resistance has the corroborating name of the wounded man whose relative is to confirm, later that morning, Jesus' prediction of Peter's denials.

Isaiah's Suffering Servant has fulfilled the Scriptures. The Father, Son and Holy Spirt has been guiding his people to this point and we too, even after 2000 years have to take breath and gasp for at this moment where is Jesus, our God on Earth?

Dear Lord, let me live out the rest of this day in the awe with which I have begun it. You know that I am not just going through the motions. I have tried to hide myself in the past and can only be grateful to the people who were your instruments in bringing me to the Hope, Faith and Love and for the wonder of your Glory on Calvary. May Mary and all the Saints who have completed their earthly lives in righteousness implore  that your saving grace  falls like the "shower of roses" of St Therese, to become our shield against all evil and source of our love.

 06/04/2023

Today we remember in thanks the Mystery of Faith, the Eternal Sacrament of Forgiveness, the Body and Blood, the fortifier of our souls, the ever greater Sacrament  bestowed on humanity by the Ever Greater Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the eternal significance of the events that begin in the Upper Room and conclude in the tomb.

St Peter as the foundation Rock of the Church which is to be the Guardian of the Way, Truth and Life appointed  by Jesus, plays a prominent part in John's memoir of the "get together", the "team dinner" that the twelve ate with Jesus in the upper room. Judas is the only other one mentioned.

We only know St Peter from his "cameo appearances" in the Gospels. We know that he was married and had a mother-in-law. He was the owner or part-owner of a boat and fished in lake Gennesaret to support his family. He was neither rich nor poor as he was able to drop his work and follow the Lord instantly and neither was he held back by his wealth.

His interactions with Jesus, however, present a character that is consistently as impetuous as was his first reaction to the Lord. He is always the same, bluff and straight forward. He is the "Yorkie" of the gospels."Where shall we go?" Let me build three tents" and today's "In that case wash the lot of me"always make me laugh in appreciation of our common humanity. There is also human hope for us all in his refusal to accept Jesus' warning of his straightforward triple denial that is only hours away.

I too know that I am sometimes truly overwhelmed by the Love of God and cannot believe that I will ever deny Our Lord again. Here again I am warned that there is too much "I" in my reflections but that God knows my heart better than I know it myself. May Mary who is not mentioned in any of the accounts of this last meal but who was to be there to the end on Calvary (Was she there as all first century women to prepare food and wait on the menfolk?), lead all the saints in prayer for we sinners on earth and in purgatory as they too await the second coming of Jesus when God will be All in All. Marantha!

 05/04/2023

Each day I feel that I search out the readings of the day with a "disciple's" ear. The "tongue" that writes  these reflections/prayers is my own but prayerfully aware of the Holy Spirit. 

One of the textual problems that the Gospels bring to all generations since the first is the discrepancies between the nature of the Last Supper in St John and in the others. Is it the Jewish Passover meal that Jesus' tells the disciples to prepare for or is it a preparation for the New Passover that is to be sealed in his own blood to be shed on Calvary? 

God  knows everything. He knows that I am resisting the thought that always questions how it is possible after Good Friday for Satan to still have such evil power in my life and in the life of the world and even in the life of the Church.

God is unknowable so I cannot understand what is His will for Evil. As a human I would prefer it if Father, Son and Holy Spirit would annihilate Evil now.

I believe that the "Last Day" is not the day of my death. Jesus was put lifeless into the tomb. His "last day" devastated the Disciples but he was to be the "First-Fruits of the New Life". "The Last Day" is the day when God is ready to be "All in All" . We humans have been created to be the chosen witnesses and our souls and resurrected bodies will be part of the great choir of Angels and Saints led by Mary welcoming the Second Coming.

There is nothing cheap about the grace that is won for us by the Sinless One. He gives it to us willingly if we open our beings to receive it. I would like to be free from awareness of evil in myself, the world and the Church. Jesus as usual shows us the way. In the Garden, he prays to be relieved of the torture he has chosen to accept for the the forgiveness of my sins but "Thy will be done" is the acceptance of God we all have to follow.

Dear Lord, strengthen the frailty that is my soul. I would like to be without weakness and truly live without pride and selfishness the life for which I always forget to thank you. May Mary and all the Saints continue to worship you and plead for the grace that we on Earth and in Purgatory have so great a need. Let us never forget our Saviour guiltless yet full of our self-generated  sins pleading to be released from this torment prostrate in the Olive grove.

 

 04/04/2023

The promise of the Lord revealed by Isaiah is fulfilled in Jesus. The Great Nation, however, is not of this world. It is not yet a material Kingdom it is the  Spiritual Body of Christ which links the souls of all believers in the unity of of the Word. The Word is God. Jesus is God and Man and we are God's creation in his own image and likeness.

In poor Judas we see our corruption. He has been pilfering from the common funds of Jesus and his Apostles. As we all can be, he has been habitually sinful for some time although he has successfully covered it up. The Father does not force righteousness on any of us. Jesus, too,knows that Judas is less than honest but allows him to exercise his freedom for the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit has to be willingly returned to be effective.

"Satan" enters into Judas at the moment he is offered bread by Jesus to partake of the meal. Could this mean that he sealed his fate at this moment. It takes only a moment to sin but its effects can be life-shattering not only for the sinner but  also for many. We all have to be free from Mortal sin to share the Sacrificial Meal that is the Eucharist, if not, Satan can enter into us and grasps tight hold of this chance we give him in our freedom.The Father of Lies never refuses an opportunity and what was a moment can easily become a wasted life that refuses Love and chooses Death.

Judas is not the only sinner at table in the Upper Room. The rock on which Jesus is to build his church is also there and he refuses to bear witness to God, not once but three times during the action of that Thursday and Friday night. That first Church is our hope and our Faith. Jesus and his mother Mary were the only sinless ones. The rest are just like us a mixed bunch of humanity whose only strength comes from the seemingly weakness of the Cross and the Glory of the Resurrection.

The gates of the Kingdom are always open to us but God will accept only free choice for we are made in his image and likeness and have been given total freedom within the norms that are the Ten Commandments. Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Dear Lord, may I learn how to pray in the peace that comes from you. I cannot do anything without your support. May I grow in Love to be able to know the grace that comes to all whose consciences are kept free from self love and thus have cleared the way to receive your free gift of Faith, Hope and Charity. May your people receive the grace that comes to us via the prayers of Mary and All the Saints and may the Institution that is your Mystical Body on earth live up to her mission and dig up and discard the stumbling stones she litters on our way to you on Calvary and so to the Promised Land.

 03/04/2023

I am always embarrassed by the image of Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha, using her hair as a towel. There is a physical intimacy about the scene that I cannot avoid each time I read it. I always have to shake that thought out of my mind and concentrate on how St John reveals the hypocrisy of Judas who bewails the waste of money. The poor will always be with us and also the hypocrites. I know that for sure as I know that I have never lived up to the promises to avoid sin that I continue to make and break.

The Apostles and early disciples of whom the family at Bethany are among the few that are named  were well versed in the Prophets.They were not of the Temple elite. They had however spent three years in the company of Jesus and prayed with  and been taught by him. Their Bible was the scrolls of the Old Testament and when in the time after the Resurrection they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to make a coherent account of what they had witnessed they could find in the Prophets and Psalms the texts that pointed to the three years of Jesus' public mission.

The Old Testament readings for Holy Week are all part of what would have been read by the first congregations in the Upper Room and Portico of Solomon.They and the recollections of the Evangelists bring the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit into the hearts of all who are ready to listen and welcome him.

Dear Lord you know that I am a tiny atom of humanity. You know that being human can be joyful and also bitter hopelessness. Your way is our only way so let me shout out with you in human compassion and weakness for I too know that "Thy will be done" is the complete knowing, loving and serving that I am capable of thanks to the"being for us"of your life on earth. May the worship of  Mary and all the Saints who are now secure in their place with you continue to bring guidance to all human souls still living in bodily reality  and Mercy to those in the agony of regret that is Purgatory.

 02/04/2023

Our Gospels are records of Historical events. Now that I have stopped reading the Gospel for today it is  still in my mind but not verbatim or complete. So it was for the eye-witnesses of the events themselves.

After the Resurrection the cluster of Apostles and Disciples together with the Marys and other women who remained in Jerusalem began to understand what had happened and talked, I imagine incessantly, about the events they had witnessed since they we were first called by Jesus. There was no need to make a record for these were the witnesses and they had crystal clear memories.

I have said before that the Evangelists were not journalists embedded within the disciples. Each one of them wrote their Gospels many years after the events. They recorded what had become the less than now crystal clear, group recollection of the passion, death and Resurrection of their Rabbi, Jesus, the Son of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and as Jews they were inspired to show how the events were "according to the Scriptures", which they continued to pray everyday.

St John has pondered within his heart and been also inspired to offer his thoughts about how God was with their Rabbi, not only with but was in truth both man and God, Jesus. The masses of my youth always ended with what the Church sees as the beginning of all faith for before all time began. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

Tradition tells us that Mary received the filial care of John after the resurrection and the tragic destruction of Jerusalem . John's inspiration was the Holy Spirit but his example for living and prayer was not only our Saviour but also the Most Holy Mother of God who was taken out of his care directly into the Eternal Love of Heaven.

Dear Lord help me continue to live in Hope for holiness, in sincerity of Faith in total acceptance of the Love poured out in forgiveness for our sins on Calvary. May our Church listen to the Word and have hearts open to receive the grace that is the eternal Hosanna of Mary, Angels and Saints of Heaven and may the peace of God overwhelm the evil that is flourishing in hearts of violent men everywhere on Earth.

 01/04/2023

The Old Testament is the record of the revelations made by God to the first humans after Adam. Adam and Eve had misused the freedom that is essential to our humanity and chosen the deception that was supposed to make them gods and thus added by their own choice original sin to God's initial concept of a person, a being who would be capable of knowing loving and serving in freedom without the programming that all of God's other creatures require to be what they are.

God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit has always in his mercy corrected his peoples' failures. Ezekiel was one of the very special Jews who had been able to retain his devotion to the Lord and had thus been granted revelations/warnings to share with the Chosen People. Each of us who hears this mornings readings at mass are still familiar with God. He is not for us a word uttered in exclamation or worse still  initials proclaiming surprise in a text-message.

I am always aware when reading St John's Gospel of what the word "Jew" signifies in my awareness of the history of  humanity. Scholars of today tell us that he is referring to the "religious authorities"and not to all of the "chosen people"who are also Jews as is Mary and all of the Apostles. We are told that God "does not have favourites" but the "Chosen People" have again reoccupied the Holy Land and are clearing it of Gentiles as did their forefathers three millennia ago.

Dear Lord you looked on your creation and you saw that it was good. You know the sins that continue even though you have been,in the begotten not made Jesus, the perfect sacrifice of atonement made for us. Your Church that is visible is sorely lacking and I am often weak in faith. May Mary and  the Saints implore your Grace so that all the Church may return to the joy of the Resurrection and may I avoid sin for this day. Maranatha.