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.