29/06/2023

The people who gathered together to pray, proclaim the resurrection and await the promised return of their friend and teacher whom they now knew to be the Son of God, lived in a situation on earth experienced by nobody before or since those days.

They had witnessed the preaching of Jesus during his public ministry. They had been in awe at the proof of his power over material being. Water had been changed to wine, the blind really did see, the lame did walk and they themselves were the poor to whom the Good  News had been preached. They knew that Lazarus who had begun to rot in the tomb had been brought back to live on and to pray again with them.

Most of all they had seen, touched listened to and eaten with the Crucified Jesus who although retaining in his flesh the holes made by nails and lance was the now gloriously revealed New Life, living Son of God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit who now filled their beings with grace and the understanding of what had been dimly recognised  during their lifetimes.

The Institutional Church celebrates today the words of Jesus to St. Peter and the Missionary work of St Paul. Neither Simon nor Saul had shown themselves to be potentially great Saints before the Resurrected Lord had spoken to them. 

St Peter who had confirmed his human weakness in the garden, at the trial and on Calvary,  had seen something in the empty tomb and had this confirmed by the later appearances of Christ in the Upper Room and in Galilee. St Paul had originally cast himself,  in his fierce monotheism, as an "Enemy of Christ". God was having none of that and brought him both to his knees and his senses on the road to Damascus.

Thus we have weak human vessels filled with the Holy Spirit, acting in the roles previously reserved for the beauteous Angels as the Messengers of God.

If we can live with these remembrances of the Apostles, recorded by Evangelists, always in our minds we can truly relax in the certainty of the Love that Jesus promises to all mankind until the end of time.

Dear Lord, let my Faith grow strong to resist sinfulness and Let my hope overcome my weakness in the face of sin and let human Love as personified by your Mother become the heart of my soul. Save all thy people, dear Lord and turn us all away from the self-love that corrupts in your Church the "ordained" and non ordained alike.

 28/02/2023

This morning I looked at the readings for St Irenaeus' mass. I wanted to brag to myself that I knew who he was. What I did do was look at the first reading of that mass from St Paul's letter to Timothy. Avoid idle "speculations"!

In today's Gospel for Wednesday Week 12. Jesus is speaking to all of us. Beware false prophets! In her liturgy the Church really does continue Jesus' message into our lifetimes. 

It is how she acts on that message that really bothers and makes me want to cry for the stupid nonsense that Bishops and Priests have perpetrated and then tried to cover up. Don't they know that there is nothing that can be concealed from "Our Father who art in Heaven"? Jesus tells us to call no man "fool" but how are we to refer to those who are reading the Church's texts today and then continue to try to  deceive first themselves and then God.

Abraham received the "Word" in a dream, he didn't  know the origin of "being" by Philosophical speculation but by listening directly to God. Through him the whole of mankind was shaken up by the true God who was ready to accept the sacrifice of physical wealth in animal form as the token of worship, thanks and praise for the Love with which the Being we now know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, created all that is real.

 The rottenness that disfigures the face of the Institution that the community of friends and disciples of Jesus has become so obvious that I cannot believe that the confected "Eucharist" can be relied on to be the Sacramental Real Presence. The Church's teaching on this which relies on God not requiring holiness on the part of his priests for them to act with him during the Liturgy falls easily, in my opinion, into the category of "idle speculation"and has long been perpetuated  by the "false prophets", who have acquired the vast economic wealth of this world which shackles our Church to the profane. 

Today Jesus himself warns us about the futility of expecting good fruit from a rotten tree. I can hear him and believe the simplicity of his Truth. How can anyone close his ears to the purity and clarity of the Holy Spirit? Can the Father still look on his Church and his creation and "know that it is good".

Dear Lord, my prayer is always that you take back your Church from the "Pharisaical" hordes of Clergy and hangers-on. Let us the simple be bolstered in our Faith rather than mocked by self-centered clergy of all ranks. I pray that I can be a part of the "Spiritual Church of Love" that has always been present despite the malfeasance of clergy and that Mary, John and Irenaeus and all the saints plead for the return to the Church of the Holiness that your hands conferred on the Apostles. You know my sinful state Lord, please help me and all sinners to return to sincerity of Faith, Hope and Charity. Amen!!

 27/06/2023

In the first reading, the History of God's dealings with the "Chosen Ones" continues with Abraham and Lot's journey to Canaan and the decision to separate as they were both becoming wealthy in  animals and families.They needed more room for pasture and agriculture. There was also the problem of the original inhabitants. I have always been bothered by the what it entails to be one of the "Chosen Ones". Jealousy immediately asks, "Why not me Lord?".

Jesus is the definitive answer to that reaction but we all know that the Israelites did engage in land clearances and occupied God's gift to them by force. Their heirs although mostly Godless are doing exactly the same at this moment. "Is this your Will Lord?"

The long history of the Jewish people recorded in the Old Testament is a result of the prayer and meditation on their ancestors' reaction to God's providence. The "people of God" is treated as a unit acting within  God's Will. Disasters occur in that history as a result of the Nation's unrighteousness but God is always open to the prayer of individuals who are outstanding in their fervour and obedience.

Jesus has brought salvation to each individual soul. He confirms that God does not save us by right of birth or Religion, but knows every hair on all the heads of every human living and dead, person to person. If every member of the Human Race always reacted to their providential situation in accordance with God's Law there would be no evil on earth. There has always been the Golden Rule. "Do unto others as you would be done by them"is the mindset that opens our beings to the Love of God and leads us to the "Way, the Truth and the Life without End.". 

Dear Lord you know what I am more than I can know myself. I hope that I can grow in Faith and in Love. Let my prayers bring me into unity with Mary and the Saints and may their merits help me to avoid the sins of which I am still capable even though Jesus has brought Salvation to our world.

 26/06/2023

I am only able to accept the Gospels as they have been translated and recorded over the the centuries. Jesus says "Don't judge"and I immediately retort "but if I want to avoid sin I have to make a judgement before I make a choice"! Then I want to make a new translation. "Don't judge" becomes "Don't condemn".

My retort is not a rash contradiction of the words of Christ but rather a reaction to those whom we all know who have become so "unjudgemental" as to have turned Mercy into leniency. If we observe sinful behaviour amongst our peers and our betters we cannot ignore it nor can we condone it.

As always, Jesus speaks person to person. Many of us are and have been present to hear his words but it is to each one of our individual souls to whom they are addressed. We must not judge others before we judge ourselves. This emphasis on our personal responsibility, our freedom, for all that we do in life is fundamental to the teaching of Jesus. "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone" was enough to shame even the Pharisees who hearing it could not bear to stay in Jesus' presence.

Appalling sins committed not by me but by far too many clergy against the "holy innocence of children" have again damaged the Church during this latter part of my life. Many of us now know that every priest is not all he that should be and avoid Mass which was in our youth the most important part of our lives.

 I also remember, however, that even then my personal life was also full of sin for which I am responsible and for which I continue to beg forgiveness in the hope that the Love which Jesus assigned from the cross to Mary and John is also the Church of the Spirit, the institutional governance of which was to be Peter's.

Dear Lord you know that my life in your Providence has really been easy; that I have not done enough to spread your Gospel; and that now I am trying to live according to your Will. May Mary and all the Saints pray that I can respond in truth to the loving grace of you Father, Son and Holy Spirit and that a place for penitence will be found for me in this world or the next.

 25/06/2023

Jesus warns us that we have to declare our Faith from the "housetops". Jeremiah is suffering for doing this. Paul explains how it all came about. Adam did exactly what he was told not to do. Jesus, having emptied himself of his divinity conformed to the Father's will even though  as true man he was "sore afraid".

We are to be confident that God will support us in this world. Jesus was dead on the cross. Satan had failed in the temptation in the desert but the rich and powerful were, as ever, ready to do his work for him. Jesus was dead. Only John and the Marys remained at the foot of the cross united in the sorrow that had become despairing panic in the majority of the disciples. 

At that moment of fear the other disciples had lost all contact with our Father. After the Resurrection they became New Men and lived the New Life that Jesus has promised for them. A New Life of the Spirit that was never to end even at the end of life in this world. Filled with the renewing Holy Spirit they were able to remember Jesus' teaching in all its fullness.

My weakness when face to face with temptation is truly the "bane of my life". Jesus has forgiven and eradicated the harm that my sins have caused. I seem as nothing in this world of Mammon. Calm serenity has not been a characteristic of my life but remembering "so there is no reason to be afraid you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows" puts me in touch with "Our Father" and the worship for which I was created.

Dear Lord all the combined brains of all of humanity cannot contain your "being". Each individual Adam or Eve can, however, "walk with you in the garden", accepting your loving mercy for it is you who create us to return Love. May Mary and all the Saints continue in joyful praise and commend us thy people on earth, and totally penitent Holy Souls of Purgatory to thy everlasting Mercy.

 24/02/2023

The whole of creation is known in its entirety down to the last particle that forms the matter out of which everything that we can know by our senses was created. Mankind is a "wonder" for God has created us to have an awareness of "being". All of humanity living or dead has this consciousness which knows that it exists as an individual in a universe that also has "being" and is thus our reality.

St John the Baptist is the last of the Old Testament prophets. After Mary, he is the first to know the greatest of all God's responses to his creation, the Incarnation. Man has always been overcome by his own consciousness of "being"and thus set his own freedom against God's Providence which we still openly challenge although God has taught us to pray "Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven".

St Paul's teaching recorded as having taken place on Cyprus is probably the very first part of God's Overseas Missions. It is Truth that never changes. Truth from God who is the Evergreater. He is unimaginable Potential, real Power, and never-ending Love.

We have all been created out of nothing in God's "image and likeness" with the potential to know, love and serve. The Church as founded by Christ gives us real power to do this for in her we can find the Real Presence. We all exist  because we are known and loved by God. It is out of Love that God creates and it is in awareness of Love that we can use "our freedom in being" to become the men and women God has created us to be so that we can enter into his presence at the end of life.

Dear Lord may I today avoid sin and may the "forerunner" your human cousin join with your mother and all the Saints and we sinners on earth and in purgatory in prayer for the Loving Mercy without which  living bodiless souls, Saints, and we living bodies with souls cannot thank God for the wonder of being and freedom from sin.

 23/06/2023

Jesus makes it quite clear that how we respond to living in this world is our chance to "store up treasures in heaven". 

The huge sum of money that is the value of the world economy, the "Wealth of Nations" adds nothing to the Glory of Creation. God has not created physical being, matter, to be anything other than for us to experience the joy and love made known to us by the revealed non-created Being Father Son and Holy Spirit. 

All of creation is Good because God "saw that it was Good", but we, all human beings, are the pinnacle of created being for we have been been created with "a being" that is the "image and likeness" of God's own self.  Retaining this basic knowledge that is revealed to us is in Holy Scripture is the only way to preserve the light of knowledge, received by the "eye", in the holiness that it is in God. 

St Paul takes on the role of a "fool". He boasts about his life when he knows that all his deeds are the result of  totally aligning his freedom with God's and accepting as God's Will all that he meets with in his life. 

The usual type of "fool" who dominates this world already has a "closed eye". He avoids his conscience and avoids God. He has acquired a place in this world worthy of his own opinion of the greatness of his own self. He ignores " thou fool this night thy soul will be required of thee".

Paul boasts of "feebleness" and thus turns his "boasting" into thanks and praise of God who is "his all in all". "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me".

Dear Lord, I know that I need to be scrupulous  when starting each day for I am easily self-captivated and proud of these attempts to understand the Mass readings. I hope that I am really turning to You. May all the souls of heaven led by Mary continue to spread your Mercy over our world and may we the sinners on earth use our time diligently to prepare for the life everlasting you have destined for us.

 22/06/2023

The letters that St Paul wrote to the Church located in different places around the Roman Empire have become part of the New Testament. He had learnt much about Jesus' time on earth from the disciples/Apostles he met in Jerusalem and Antioch where he had spent time after his blinding conversion on the road to Damascus but he had no authoritative texts except from the Old Testament to justify his teaching.

To the Corinthians he uses the image of the Church, the group of believers united by belief in the Resurrection and the Eucharist  to form one body as the Bride wedded to Jesus the Christ as bridegroom. The image of God wedded to his people was familiar to the Jews from the Old Testament Scriptures but would have been hard to grasp by newly converted pagans. It is also an image that is largely forgotten and unexplored in today's Church.

St Paul himself had been overpowered by God. He had differences of opinion with St Peter among others. He is filled with the Holy Spirit and knows that any interpretation of Jesus life, death and Resurrection other than his, is false. To justify that belief he only has himself and his deeds to bear witness and casts himself as the little poor one in conflict with the learned, high and mighty.

The essence of the "Lord's prayer", its meaning, is so basic to Christianity that it must have formed the first preaching that followed on from the proclamation of the Resurrection. It is not an incantation, babble of the pagans but the basic state of mind with which we are to face whatever God's Providence has in store for us. It is the guide lines from Father, Son and Holy Spirit for us to follow at every moment of our lives. 

It is the practical message of the Holy Spirt that can shape our lives into the holiness beloved by God.

Dear Lord forgive me the sins that I choose to allow into my being when I lose contact with my conscience and choose to ignore your love. My weakness as a human being is no excuse for by the suffering of Jesus we have been given all that is needed to refuse Satan. May Mary and all the Saints continue to support the parts of the Church that still have her original holiness and let the hierarchy come to the radical solutions that are needed to restore the "Our Father" as the basis for life.

 21/06/2023

St Paul continues to encourage the Corinthians then and Christians of all times to ensure that the gifts falling to us from God's providence are shared equally throughout the world. The material wealth of the world has grown unbelievably since the Incarnate Person of God, Jesus, shared in the human life of his creation. Inherited wealth and human work means that there is no need for any one to be homeless or hungry. There is absolutely no need for this, but the poor are always with us.

Yesterday a computer pioneer came to my mind because his software was giving me grief. Jesus tells us not to publicize our good deeds by any sort of self-glorification. The billionaires who are fond of their foundations in this world should take note and try to understand exactly what Jesus means by "they have had their reward". 

Our Church which has a pile of money, art and very valuable real estate has always faced difficulties in trying to manage this wealth. Judas was the first finance officer and since then all attempts at maintaining or growing the "Patrimony of St Peter" have resulted in following the precepts of this world and an institutional Church the public face of which is less than holy.

I worry that this prayer, which is my daily response to the Scriptures read at Mass, is a pathetic attempt to justify in secret what all the Pharisees then and now do in Synagogues and at other public places. I want to pray in my secret room which is my heart and truly turn over my life to the Providence of the Father, the Mercy won by Jesus and Inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord you know how soon I can lose equilibrium of soul that you show to me when I am trying to worship. I cannot deceive you. Now is always the favourable time and it is now that I can ask for pardon for all sins which I have forgotten but which are one with the lance that pierced your side. I cannot imagine that pain. May Mary who witnessed and compassioned  all your pain plead for your Mercy to protect me from further sinning and to reserve for me a place with the Holy Souls in Purgatory. 

 20/06/2023

The greatest of God's gifts to us is Life, being a part of his creation and with the consciousness of it too. The greatness of life is that it is our opportunity to know, love and serve God by resisting the world, the flesh and the devil. Today the World in the person of Bill Gates is interfering with my mind. I cannot get into my Windows account and I am peeved. Yes, in a very childish way.!

Google and all the Social Media have turned themselves into the "non-mystical body" that is as it were a worldly anti-church offering real-time communication to all the living  as does Christ's Mystical Body, his Church on earth, offer Spiritual Communion with both the living and the dead. The worldly networks that can connect every individual in the world can do in the twinkling of an eye what St Paul did with such difficulty. Google has even turned itself into a Universal Calendar complete with its own "canonised" secular saints and "Feast Days".

Today's Mass Reading from St Paul is an appeal for funds to those suffering from a famine in Jerusalem. The Church has always taken "love thy neighbour as thyself" to heart. It was to care for "widows and orphans" that the first deacons were appointed in Jerusalem. St Stephen is recorded has having forgiven his killers in the words of Jesus "Father forgive them they know not what they do".

Jesus tells us that in addition to loving "our neighbour as ourselves"  we also have to love our enemies. Our lives are lived in the Providence of God, the sun shines and the rain falls on the honest and the dishonest alike but our response to providence is entirely up to us. God as created us as free beings to respond to his self-revelation, his commandments and his providence as we so wish and thus choose for ourselves death or eternal life. 

Dear Lord, let me implore your mercy for me and all my loved ones . Let me learn what it means to love my enemies not only as an idea made of words but as a genuine prayer for the welfare of all from the depths of my being. You except none of us from your salvation let my ability to love become as yours. May Mary who has always known how to love without reserve continue to pray for all who love and hate me. Let me avoid sin this day.

 19/06/2023

St Paul preaches that "Today is the favourable time". 

I take it that he means that "Now" is the time we have to be without sin in our thoughts, words and deeds. It is "now" that I have to be true to my calling. It is "now" that I have " to Love the Lord my God". It is "now" that I have to love my neighbour equally as I love myself. The past has gone. I know it as a time of lost opportunities and of many sins for which I have to beg forgiveness. The future is a big "may be" but a "may be" in coming with the sureness of its end.

God's Providence is always "now". We can build on the past. We can learn the lessons of the Scriptures. We can follow the historical stages of God's revelations of himself. We can gain a perfect knowledge of Theology and of Liturgy and we can demonstrate this knowledge of how the Church has taught us to grow in sanctity in the past by sermons and books. We do not live alone with our thoughts of God. God does love each individual person but he also knows us as a tiny part of his final creation, Mankind. It is with and for all of us that the incarnate Son walked and talked in Palestine. 

Our lives can only be lived Now and with the humanity for whose sins did the Saviour Son in total agreement with the will of the Father accept the cross to become the Mercy of the Resurrection which in the Person of the Holy Spirit, himself Father, Son and Holy Spirit, fills the world with the free gift of God.

We do have to align ourselves with God's will, however, even to the extent of "turning the other cheek"  if we are to avail ourselves of this "free" gift that was won for us at such great a price.

Dear Lord, may each moment of today be the favourable time without sin for me. Let me know, love and serve in the sure hope of the cleansing of Purgatory to ready me for your Eternity. May the prayers of Mary, all the Angels and Saints who can be with the totality that you are be the support of all sinners who in confessing their guilt plead for your Mercy.

 18/06/2023

Today I am reminded of why it is that I am ready, happy, to start my day in this way. I am a body and soul on earth. I am a being created by God, one of the billions who fulfill God's providence during our lifetimes in his creation. God is the Trinity beyond our comprehension but, who in the joyful love of his own being, created a universe to exist in the time that is the reality in which we all live.

God loved his creation into being and especially loved the Jews whom he chose to be the receivers of his revelation . God imprinted within the beings of all his creation the code which determines the objective reality of all the parts of the world that we can know and wonder at as we learn more and more about  the physical characteristics of our objective reality.

In mankind, however, he created the greatest analogy to his own Ever-greater, image and likeness,  individual freedom. Although the knowledge of what each individual's  outcome will be is known to God it is not embedded in our being, image and likeness, as is our body's DNA. Even the Incarnation has not been enough to overcome Man's self-deceit. We have became overpowered by the wonder that is man and all his work and chosen to worship ourselves rather than the Evergreater, Father Son and Holy Spirit.

God's compassion for  sinful man is Jesus, begotten not made, self-emptied of his ever-greater power, God from God, light from light accepting all the sins of creation into his divine being and purging them when we are still sinners as St  Paul preaches so that we are able to fulfill Love with which and for which we are created.

During his time on earth, Jesus did create the Church. He gave us the structure based on his own group of friends but he also gave us a "Mother". An Immaculate Mother untouched by sin, a perfect but totally human Mother who even to this day guarantees the presence of her Son, Jesus,  even in the often marred by sinful clergy Apostolic Foundation his Church has become.

This why I am happy try to begin each day in this way.

Dear Lord, you know my many sinful failings help me to avoid them this day and help me in the work that I have to do to welcome my family. May the prayers of Mary together with all the saints be answered and let your mercy shower down as the roses seen by St Theresa whose short life was filled with an abundance of pain and of Love.

 17/06/2023

Today the Church follows up the Feast of the Sacred Heart with that of his mother's sinless heart, her soul.St Paul tells that we should judge no-one by the standards of the flesh. Jesus has overwhelmed us by his love. He has purified us by his death. 

The sinless one becomes sin and takes away the sins of our humanity. Now we can be as sinless as Adam was when first created. This is more than just another gift of God. We have to accept it as a new creation and regulate our lives so that we are always open for the ways and truth of Christ to become our very being. Meditating on this mystery brings us to an awed silence of adoration.

Jesus lived away from public awareness for thirty of his thirty-three years. God was secretly present in Nazareth and was known to the relatives of  Mary and Joseph, to his play-fellows and to the Synagogue as Joseph's son, the young carpenter.

Today's Gospel contains the only recorded event from those thirty years. It is, fittingly enough, an account of participation in the great feast of Passover. Jesus was a faithful Jew, one of the People of God and accordingly followed the Temple Ritual in addition to the Synagogue meetings he attended with his relatives

St Paul does not preach condemnation of our material beings. He tells that now that  we know the immeasurable spiritual grace of Christ all of our standards and choices in our worldly lives have to ignore worldly judgements and look only to the Spiritual Truth of Christ for their justification.

Dear Lord, you know my failings, my sins, you know how soon I regret them. Help me this day to be true to your teaching and look to remove the forests out of my own eye before presuming to judge my neighbour. May Mary whose sinless being is with you, body and soul to lead all the Angels Saints in heavenly adoration continue to plead for grace to fill the hearts of all on earth as it did her own immaculate heart .

 16/06/2023

Today the Church reminds us that Jesus is a complete human being. God's love for mankind has shown us that only he can wipe away our sins. My own punishment is not enough to create, by washing away personal guilt, the child-like purity that God willed for all of us to have. This can only be achieved  by God eternally emptying himself to become true man while being true God.

God's total being is each of the persons of the Trinity. Jesus is not only the sacrificial victim that wipes away the sins of the world he is also the Word/Son who is eternally known by Father and Holy Spirit in the Being which God shares without any dimidiation of himself,  with the reality of creation.

"I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls", the loving kindness of Father we hear in these words of  Son and the security of Holy Spirit they bring to our souls are all that we could wish for in life. Previously Jesus has told us that we have to respond to him with total sincerity even though that response will bring strife and the sword to our lives. Are the theological and philosophical attempts to resolve the contrasts between these opposing positions  the work of the "learned and the wise" whom we are not to take for our role models? 

We cannot avoid seeing the strife that surrounded Jesus during his public ministry. His own family were embarrassed by him. The synagogue  wanted to throw him over a cliff in Nazareth. Satan launched a direct spiritual attack on him. The wise and learned conspired to trick him, to disprove him by his own words. The secular authorities did the bidding of the High Priests and his disciples abandoned him on the hill beyond the city walls.

Where in all of this pain and strife where do we find the heart of a child? Mary believes totally in the will of the Father, knows implicitly that Jesus can change the water into wine and accepts the bequest made from the cross. Our Lady is born without sin and just accepts  all that God wills for her. 

The grace poured out from the pierced heart of the Lord saves us from sin and thus we can all become "the mere children" beloved of Father, Son and Holy Spirit" just as Mary is.

Dear Lord I thank you for the gift of faith and hope to live this day in peaceful love. My sins are grievous and I cry out for your pardon so that this confusion that is my being avoids doing harm in thought word or deed to any other person. May I grow closer to Mary who without stain of sin is created to be Queen of Heaven and first disciple of your Son.

 15/06/2023

St Paul is speaking of and to the Jews of the Old Testament. They are devoted to the scriptures but their minds do not accept the Light of Christ, the foretelling of which is the sole purpose of the revelation made to them and their ancestors.

Jesus tells us straightforwardly that it is by our relationships with each other that we will be judged. All of us who have ever been given the gift of Life will be judged on our conduct towards each person we meet in this world.

Paul's message is that Christ is everything for us; Christ in his mother's arms, Christ walking with his disciples, Christ near to despair in the Garden, Christ dead on the Cross is the finality of Gods' witness which becomes Christ, the Son, in the Glory of the Resurrection who captured Saul, the persecutor, on the road to Damascus  and was then witnessed and preached by St Paul for the rest of his life.

St Matthew, who had walked with and been taught by the carpenter from Nazareth, had experienced the joy of being with the "Messiah", had been enthralled by his wisdom and sorely disappointed by the outcome on Calvary records in his Gospel,  how Jesus, by his words and deeds epitomised the Law of Moses, and by his death becomes the triumphant Glory and Light of God's Love in the Resurrection.

All who are living now are walking together separated by disputes, irritated and annoyed, disgusted by the behaviour of others great and small, already knowing that "Hell is other people"and not within us, will have at our time of death  have to face ourselves in the Light within which there is place only for Truth.

How can any of us face that eternal reality without the Mercy that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

Dear Lord help me to live according to your teaching revealed conclusively by Jesus. Let me know you as Father and sustained by your Holy Spirit let me turn away from sin and direct myself only towards you. May Mary and the Saints of heaven continue to beseech your Grace for all of us on earth who cannot accept that living in your Providence is the only way that leads to your eternal Glory which is an instant that knows no before or after. Have Mercy on all our souls let the forgiveness poured out on Calvary bring pardon to the Holy Souls who are learning to forget self and love only you.

 14/06/2023

I am not able to be part of any congregation of the People of God. The Church that has been my support during most of my life now seems to be lacking in the Holiness that comes from God. The depravity of individual priests has been unacknowledged by too many Bishops for all of my lifetime for me to feel confident that she is the guardian of the source of holiness that Jesus founded her to be.

St Paul is preaching a Spiritual Church. He is inspired to repeat our Lord's condemnation of the "Law"as practised by the " holy ones" of his day. The Glory of God shone out of the face of Moses to the extent that he had to protect his flock from the brightness by wearing a veil. That brightness, however, faded and the "Law" became a sanctimonious burden to be inflicted on the people by the "whited sepulchres" condemned by Jesus.

We are all free beings created by God. Our freedom is a gift of God and has to be used within the boundaries that God has revealed to us. Jesus is complete holiness. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He promised to be with his Church founded on St Peter until the end of time.

 I pray that I am still part of that Church as I know that there is no where else to find the revelation that Jesus has completed, sealing it with his blood and with his Resurrection confirming that Father, Son and Holy Spirit loves and wants to welcome each one of us into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Dear Lord help me to be more open to your Holy Spirit. Let me not be lead by my own self. Let me not  drown in excuses for sin. May Mary and St John and the other Marys who were the only mourners left at the foot of the cross pray that my Heart may become part of the Spiritual bond created by your words from the Cross."Behold your mother, behold your Son."

 13/06/2023

St Paul assures us that with God there is no ambiguity. What you see is what you get. The world we live in is reality. It is the same world that God created out of nothing and since that moment he has been aware of everything that has happened and provided for all his creation.

Today we think that life is much more complicated than when Jesus walked around Palestine. Technology can fill each moment of our waking lives to the extent that the yearning of our souls to know God is smothered by the noise that enters into our very being. At this moment I am, for these few minutes each day, trying to meditate and pray but I am using this computer to do so.

Jesus tells us not to hide our commitment. Let our deeds shout out that we say "yes" to God and "no"to the World. I cannot even in my own family persuade any of my offspring that only the Lord has Eternal Life and that all worldly goods will pass away.

The only signs that my life is piloted by Faith are these few words I  hope will one day come to light and maybe intrigue a reader to look for more. My light is no brighter than this but it is my "yes" to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, let your Holy Spirit guide my life this day. Let me become a complete "yes" . The "nos"of my life have crucified our Saviour but your resurrected Love is the Mercy for which I pray. May Mary who is the perfect "yes" join with all the saints and angels in the never ending Joy that is the praise of your Glory in heaven and ask for the light of God to enter all the souls who sin on earth or await pardon in purgatory. AMEN.

 12/06/2023

What does the much loved "Sermon on the Mount" mean in today's world where there is a concerted effort to deny both the Providence and the very Being of God? 

Jesus promises consolation for the "poor in spirit". Is the "welfare state" this consolation? Or are anti-depressants?

Jesus advises "gentleness". Today's world promotes "assertiveness" as a necessary virtue. 

Mourning the dead has been transformed to "celebrating the life". 

What is "right" has become the reversed morality that says "Gender is wrong" and that abortion is right.

Mercy comes from God but can be misinterpreted when it is confused with leniency.

Most of the entertainment industry is devoted to corrupting the "pure in heart".

"Peace" has not really been had on earth anywhere where there is man.  Romans wiped out whole provinces and called that destruction "peace." What is happening in Ukraine is Putin's search for his idea of peace.The few tribes in the vast open spaces of Africa, America and Asia were always ready  to wage war with each other even before Europeans took sides in these homegrown conflicts.

What we are to make of "I do not come to bring peace but a sword" in the light of the seventh beatitude comes to my mind as a question to which I cannot find an easy answer. I will not however ignore it and will search first of all in the Fathers and other early Theologians to see how they responded to this apparent  contradiction in Christ's teachings.

Dear Lord you know my innermost thoughts. Help me to pacify the conflicts that unsummoned disrupt my prayers . Our Lady in heaven pondered you in her heart, may her prayers and those of all Saints bring  your Mercy to me and to the recently dead and dying.

 11/06/2023

I believe in God. I believe in the history of salvation as revealed in the Old Testament. I believe that the Son of God, Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary is the completion of God's Contract with his "Chosen People and offered to the whole world, I believe that he founded his Church on Peter and gave her the authority to confect with him in heaven the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.

Today that Church celebrates the presence of the Corpus Christi, the hosts consecrated at mass, the real Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the physical bread and wine which is constantly consecrated by Jesus in heaven and repeated here in time by priests of the Catholic Church.

Today is a moment of Faith, a complete trust in God, a moment of Hope, that trust will result in eternal life, a moment of Charity, the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit will fill all of our hearts. In the physical universe that we inhabit time passes and we change as do all created beings, but Corpus Christi is the Eternal in our World and is a moment when "the Good or guilty share therein with sure increase of grace or sin".

Dear Lord, I thank you for the knowledge  that you have entrusted me with my own soul. I hope that I am not wrong to avoid what your Petrine Church has become and trust in your Mercy to continue to care for me in my solitude. May I be one with your Church lead in Heaven by Mary from whose body you begot our Saviour, Jesus, our Spiritual Food, Corpus Christi.

 10/06/2023

Why do I envy others? Why am I discontented with my life? 

The truth is that I am not discontented or envious at the moment. I am happy to wake up each morning and face the coming day without pain or fear. It has taken me a long time to reach this peace that comes only from a clear conscience. I thank God for remembrance of past sins and humiliations which tells me that I am now getting closer to being the person that I was created to be. 

Tobit and the poor widow are what we all are created to be. They are humble, thankful and in awe of the Lord. They live their lives in the full knowledge that they can be without sin and that whatever they enjoy or suffer in life it is what God has in store for them.

I know that I have sinned. I have humiliated myself in the eyes of the world by drunken escapades and other irresponsibilities which fill me with more than regret. The semi-contempt I feel for myself in that I am now "past it" in the eyes of the world and have turned to God in these my last days is countered by the knowledge that the Father accepts the salvation won for all mankind by the Son and it is through the working of Holy Spirit that I can accept the grace that fills me with joy and sing with Tobit. "Blessed be God for ever"

Dear Lord you know that I am sincerely seeking to make amends for the time I have wasted during my life. I hope that the realisation that all that happens in this life is a result of your providence and that Evil is a product of my sins is not false. Let the Holy Spirit continue to fill my soul and let my prayers be united with the prayers of Mary and all the saints to inspire all sinners to open their hearts to receive the grace which is the sole purpose of the being of all mankind.

 09/06/2023

We read the conclusion to the story of God's Providence for Tobit and his family. We know that all the main characters accepted their lives as a gift from God. I do not think that I have ever accepted this. I do know that I have lived in a sinful way and believed that this was the result of  the weakness of my will combined with the temptation to accept the pleasures of the flesh. 

I have often turned to God to relieve the painful guilt of my sinfulness, but it is only now in my old age that I can say with Tobias "Blessed be God"and begin to understand how my life has been always directed by God's providence and that I have always lived in God's Mercy for my sins are too numerous to name. I have read and written many words about God, sometimes my skull has been cracking with all the turmoil going on inside it.

The Patriarchs were all individuals who were touched directly by God to begin to fear and understand His ever greater Being and to accept their lives as a fruitful gift from the totality of Being that had named Himself "IAMIAM".

At the conclusion of the Old Testament, the Son disputes with the descendants of the prophets. Only he knows the Father. He also knows what is to happen when his "hour" arrives. This morning's Gospel tells us that the listeners accepted what he said with "delight".What was it that gave them "delight"? Was it  merely the way that Jesus confounded the arguments of the "learned and the wise"? Or was it a "delight" in Jesus the person, lovely and full of wisdom? 

Dear Lord, is it pointless for me to address you for already you know me as I really am.? My prayer is directed towards you but it is to help me that I turn to you. Jesus taught us to pray and I say the  "Our Father" for it contains everything that we need to know on earth. May the Angels, Saints and Mother Mary continue to find those on earth whose lives are still sinful and in danger of being lost. May the Holy Souls in Purgatory accept their penance and complete it in joyful thankfulness for that is your Justice.

 08/06/2023

The story of Tobit illustrates how we can all experience good and bad fortune in our lives. This good or bad comes not from a soulless blind and ice-cold "Fate".The civilisations of the Far-East have developed along ethical lines but without the benefit of God's revelation and so their aim is always to accept or placate "Fate" which is the inexorable march of time over which none of us has any control. Shamanism is still practised in Korea and Japan to control spiritual entities which can help or harm a person's fate. 

God revealed himself at the dawn of time to Adam and Eve and maintained that relationship with the Chosen People. God has never deserted humanity and it is his providence, the personal loving will of our Father, that determines the way we face up to the realities we encounter during our lives. 

Nobody can explain why it is some of us are born into poverty and some into riches, some of us are healthy from day one but others have a pre-blighted body to deal with on their journey through life. We all have to ask ourselves why it is that Father, Son and Holy Spirit who in their one being generate an ever-greater Love, can be the Providence that drowned so many in the Ukraine and in Haiti yesterday.

Each one of us is a soul and a body. Each one of us is known intimately by God. Each one of us has to return personally Love to our creator and provide the loving care for each other we all require. Each one of us who raises his voice in anger, each one who strikes another, each one who orders others to do this are the atoms of Evil that attack the Loving Reality of Providence and grow to become the collective Evil that is lead by the Ruler of this World. Not one of us is compelled to break the rules for human living given to Moses but if we do, let us blame ourselves for the misuse of God's greatest gift, our personal freedom.

Dear Lord, you know how hard it is to understand your ways especially when we are lead astray by the clerics ordained by you into the priesthood. Let your grace be accepted and used with sincerity by all of us on earth and may the prayers of the Saints lead by Mary shower down little Saint Theresa's vision of roses falling from Heaven onto us all.

 07/06/2023

Each individual one of us lives out our lives in a unique way. We are each a complete being and each of us lives in God's Providence with complete freedom as to how to react in our encounter to the many faceted reality that is our world. 

The story of Tobit is the story of one man and his reaction to his circumstances in life. He is more than miserable; he is lamenting his condition but knows that it is God's Providence, not an impersonal "fate", that has brought him so low. Just as I am now alone responding to the Scriptures with my individual being there were thousands of others then reacting to reality as they experienced it. All human life is unique as is each moment of time.

Tobit who knows his own sins calls out to God for forgiveness. Amongst the millions living then, Sarah heard the disrespect in which she was held by her father's slaves. Sarah had been brought low by the mysterious deaths of her potential husbands. As she contemplated suicide her conscience called her to a better way to confront her reality. She and her family knew the Law and so she turned in prayer to the Lord.

Jesus in the Gospel is confronted by the "No life after death" wing of the Temple Authorities who put a carefully crafted "thought experiment" question to him. They were used to catching each other out by sophistry but the human intelligence of  Jesus was enough to unravel their nonsense. It is not, however, human intelligence that tells us that after our resurrection, the last day, " we will be like "angels" and that there will be no marriage  for it is the Son who reveals this to us all.

Dear Lord, let me remember the joy which has inspired the psalm today. Let me know your ways and let me follow them with sincerity of heart and firmness of will. May Mary who displayed only faithfulness during her time on earth bring comfort to souls suffering in purgatory and open the eyes of us all on earth to the way, truth, life that is Jesus, Son of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 06/06/2023

The story of Tobit continues in this morning's first reading. His misfortunes begin with his blindness. His wife complains that his righteousness has only brought misery to his family. In the Gospel, Jesus is still being attacked by the big-shot clergy of his day.

The scribes and high priests although belonging to very different theological backgrounds, they are divided by their beliefs in a life after death, present a unified front to attack Jesus. Jesus can never be fooled by man's intentions and so we hear "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's".

The problems of the extent of  Church authority in this world are still with us, although increasingly swept under the carpet. Were our Bishops and priests right to close our churches during "Covid"? Is possible for "marriage" to take place between individuals of the same sex? Can mankind possibly over-rule the law of God?

Jesus did tell us that there is an institution that he founded to ensure that his presence would be with us in the world until "the end of time". In the very public setting of his trial, he also told the representative of worldly power, Pilate  that  "My Kingdom is not of this world". Do we really think that God's providence would contradict the Word? So what are we to make of the fact that the political power of the Papacy did exist for most of the 2000 years since the resurrection.?

 Jesus' foundation soon claimed for itself "Supreme Power on Earth"and millions had to die over centuries for the "World" to finally win this struggle between Pope and Emperor and confine the worldly Power of the Keys to one only of the hills of Rome. Has the Spiritual Kingdom  founded by Jesus completely disappeared or can it be found if we search hard enough?

The behaviour of popes bishops and priests over the centuries has also done very little to confirm the moral or other worldly authority of the Church. Recent revelations of the personal sins, even against children, of clergy do not give me much confidence that I can truly find the Jesus, "Do this in memory of me" within the Church that claims Apostolic Succession as the guarantor of her being the Spiritual Body on Earth of her Founder.

Dear Lord, I know that you have not abandoned your people. I know that somewhere within your Church there is still beating the "fire of your love". I am only one sinner who in the past, has wasted much of your grace but by its ever greater power has sincerely returned to you. Mary, John and all the Saints are the perfect Church with you in Eternity, please listen to their pleas and let your love pour out over the whole world and bring to their senses Pope, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Canons, Deans Priests, all of the ordained to do your will and refrain from their sinfulness which brings not only them but also us all to ruin.

 05/06/2023

Tobit and the other exiles were deprived of the centre of their worship. Their temple was no more and they were no longer in the Promised Land. They still remembered Zion and the Lord. This consciousness of their relationship to God manifested itself in their solidarity as a people, continued observance of festivals and corporal works of mercy. 

Tobit is ready to invite a poor man to eat with him but the feeding of the hungry has to wait as he is compelled by his conscience to first bury the corpse abandoned by murderers in the market place. His devotion to God displayed in his care for his "fellow man" is scorned by his neighbours.

Jesus' parable is so obviously about the Father and his love for his Chosen Ones that everyone who heard it, Scribes and High Priests, knew that it was aimed at them. The "clergy" were afraid to act because the listeners seemed to approve of Jesus and his message. They even ignored the blasphemy  implied by "owner's son ". 

We read the parable in the light of 2000 years of Christianity but they who heard it for the first time knew only the Old Testament scriptures. Maybe "Son of God" was so inconceivable a concept that it did not register at first. They went away without acting at that time but later that week it would be part of the main evidence used to justify the Crucifixion.

Dear Lord, let me  maintain the consistency of Tobit in devotion to you. Show us how the Church can be one with you. Help our English clergy to overcome the pressures of our national culture and know that nice living in comfort and pleasant surroundings is an affront to the spirit of the Gospels. May Mary and all the saints support all our priests in their devotion to virtue and avoidance of vice. Send us a new St Boniface to repeat in present day England what he did in Germany and may my sins and those of the Holy Souls become ready to receive your boundless mercy.

 04/06/2023

Today the Catholic Church asks us to celebrate the total being of God, the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

She also reminds us that if we are to be "Catholic" this is the last day for us to pledge ourselves to our professed belief by receiving the Eucharist in a "state of grace" brought about by Sacramental Confession.

God has never said directly to us IAMFATHERSONANDHOLYSPIRIT. 

 "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased"

 "You will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit".

"Who has seen me has seen the Father".

In Rudyard Kipling's novel "Kim" the boy Kimball O Hara would lose himself in a semi-mystical trance in questioning "Who is Kim?" The word "Kim" is itself the word for "Who" in Turkic languages. He asks "WHOISWHOIS" and, whirling dervish-like, loses himself in the depths of his own soul.

In the Jewish Scriptures "IAMIAM" reveals a person responsible for "Being", the Creator , the Almighty Father. In the New Testament, Jesus, Christ, True God and True Man, reveals all that we need to know about the Kingdom of Heaven and three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit are with us as one substance, even to the end of time.

The wonder of the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory of the Trinity, is with us not to understand but to worship with the totality of our finite beings. God is unknowable except in what he reveals to our openness to him. If we seek him out as did Nicodemus we too will be given direct answers to what is troubling us. Our God wants to bring us all into his Eternal Kingdom. Why do we refuse such lavish love?

Dear Lord, You know that I hope that I am within the bounds of your Mercy. I hope that your Church is much more than the Human Institution it became as soon as our first prelates took on the trappings of worldly rulers. I hope that your grace can find me. May Mary lead all the saints in praise of your total being and may the grace of your Mercy flow over all of us bringing forgiveness to sinners on earth and complete penance to the souls in Purgatory.

 03/06/2023

Today the Church celebrates the faith displayed in martyrdom by Charles Lwanga and his companions. Africa has suffered much at the hands of Christian and Moslem nations who have used great force to take from the Africans what they wanted with no justification at all other than "might is right".

In the first reading the writer continues to praise God for the peace of mind brought to him by wisdom. He can understand his place in the world and his relationship to God. I too find comfort in trying to understand the scriptures and theological commentaries on them.

Jesus is confronted by the theologians of his day. They are challenging his "authority" to speak about God as he has not taken part in any formal "formation" process. The interpretation of the Law is in their hands alone. Jesus knows that they are worldly wise and sets them up with a sophist's unanswerable question as his reply.

God's ways are not ours. Jesus could have answered the chief priests and scribes directly. God could have saved Charles from death. We are all aware of events that leave us questioning why God does not act either to support victims or prevent tragedies from happening. In Gethsemane Jesus pleaded that the cup be taken away from him but in his perseverance he won for us salvation. 

In this world we have to accept God's Providence as the only reality we can know here and  entrust our entire Faith, Hope and Love to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the sure knowledge that in that moment when we die we will be the simple ones to whom our God reveals everything that we need to be fulfilled in the being he has created for us to share.

Dear Lord, may I have the grace to face death in complete loving acceptance of your will. Heaven cannot be won even by the most heroic virtue for it is you who decide and are perfect in your judgment. Our Lady is the only human who has been created fit for Eternity may she and all the saints welcome today the unknown martyrs and devoted souls who by thy grace have persevered in their devotion  to you until the hour of their death. May their souls and the souls of all the Faithfull departed rest in peace. Amen.

 

 02/06/2023

The first reading in today's mass could have been taken from any pre-Christian source. The sentiments are 100% human and unguided and could have been written by any sage of the ancient Middle-East.

The writer is sure that the most important thing for a human being is to be acknowledged by his fellow man and to create a legacy of fame and fortune. It seems to me that mankind has always had  the "celebrity-culture" which today is the focus of so many lives around the world. The only difference between then and now being that becoming famous has been democratised. Our influencers do not have to be produced only by lineage, education and ancestral wealth but can become celebrities without going out of their own bedrooms.

The psalmist, however, knows that the only "glory that will not fail" belongs to the God of Israel, and that we all, "illustrious or not", need to put our human heroes aside and sing praise to him who takes "eternal delight" in his people. To know that God loves us is much more than riches for he "crowns the poor with salvation".

Jesus, true man and true God, does something odd this morning. He "curses" the fig-tree because it is not producing fruit out of season. Could it be that our Lord has a sense of irony and mocks all of our petty irritations which, although less than sinful, disturb the equilibrium of our souls.

There is nothing ambivalent about his actions later that day. There is a right way to use the Temple. The purpose of our Temple of the Resurrection is to praise God and to exemplify right action, morality. Our Church leadership has to avoid their focus on the things of this world i.e. financial balance-sheets and building funds, and avoid becoming entangled in fashionable cultural trends.

We are men or women and "Pride" in sin should be condemned outright rather than brought into our Cathedrals by those who should speak out against the sinful laxity of our times. Jesus was never afraid to speak the truth to the powerful or to the weak. What is the matter with our clergy today?

Dear Lord, forgiveness is what we all need from you. Help me to avoid anger and selfishness that I may make my soul open to your grace. How can I move mountains if I am not sure that I will remain without sin for the rest of this day.? Strengthen my faith and help me to see in your mother the perfect faith that enabled her to accept without question her part in your plan and let these words not be "noise" but sincere acknowledgement of your Loving Mercy.

 01/06/2023

In today's readings, two sons are subjected to incredible pain.

Poor Isaac in the first reading was forced to come to the realisation that his father was ready to slaughter him as a Sacrifice to God who had captured his father's entire being.

Jesus knows that his "hour has come" and knows that he has to use his human freedom to subject his human will to the will of his Father. He pleads with Peter and the others for the loving support that he has taught we owe to our "neighbour" especially in his hour of need. They sleep.

I have heard it preached that the drama of Abraham and Isaac is, as it were, a fable told to forbid human sacrifice which was a commonplace in the first years of humanity."Do not teach your children that God ordered Abraham to kill his son!"

The earliest years of our Faith were similarly blighted by those who could not accept the Crucifixion, "a scandal to the Jews and a foolishness to the Greeks", as the torture and death of a real body. Jesus on the Cross was some sort of wraith or deception. This is still the teaching of Jews and Moslems.

 Jesus undoubtedly consecrated his Apostles to become priests of his new Sacramental Covenant but their authority was to be exercised within his own Eternal High Priesthood. Our priests say the words of Consecration but our Sacrament is confected in heaven by the action of the High priest whose feast is celebrated today.

Dear Lord, you know the doubts that are generated in the hearts of your faithful by the lack of belief in either faith or morals of too many of your clergy. Teach us how to reform so that we all can feel confident that the words of institution are spoken at Mass with a firm belief in your Son, our High Priest. May Mary continue to lead the faithful priests on earth and the saints in heaven in their continuing fight against the evil powers of darkness that smother our world in disobedience and sin.