30/09/2023

For the Jews of Jesus' day the return of their ancestors from their captivity in Babylon was still a hugely important event which was kept alive in their minds every time they heard the Scriptures or visited Jerusalem. 

Zechariah is one of several prophets who are given visions of the rebuilding of the Temple. His image of a city guarded only by God who was located in the Temple did not come about and ruined walls are a characteristic of all the cities of the Old World that are still visited today.

Today Luke tells us that when Jesus was seemingly admired and accepted by all he warned his disciples that there was a lot more to him than preaching and miracles. He was the Son of man and had a role to play in the world of God's Providence; he had to destroy the power of sin by making for us a direct line, as it were, to Salvation. A line that has always been open at God's end but which we have, in the confusion and sinfulness of our worldly lives not used to contact him.

The image of God being at the other end of a telephone line is much too simplistic to apply to "our Father who art in heaven" but does emphasise the forever open loving relationship he offers to all his human children. The Incarnate Word is with us to know and be accepted. The arms stretched wide in bitter pain on the cross enfold us in infinite Love. 

This is the meaning of the words the disciples couldn't understand when spoken by Jesus and the event when witnessed on Calvary could only bring despair.

Dear Lord, Let me be truly yours in all of my being. Let me not lose touch with your mercy and be devoted to you in every moment of my life. Let these be more than words but the truth of my being that recognises its sin and cries out for mercy. May Mary never forget as she leads the Heavenly Chorus of Angels and Saints in praise of you that as Theotokos she is a direct part of the Salvation that Father Son and Holy Spirit revealed ultimately by the Resurrection but others of us, having initially rejected it by sin, look to her to plead for the grace which the Crucifixion of your and her Son brought into the world to be given to us, sinners as we still are. May all of us come to know your grace by cleansing our beings of sin and opening ourselves to your everlasting free gift of Loving Mercy. Amen

 29/09/2023

The greatness of Father Son and Holy Spirit is such that there is nothing that he lacks. The nature of his being, Love, is a continuously self-fulfilling creation of beings. It has been revealed to us by this Love that there are other than ourselves sentient beings who as spirit are in eternity but are also able to act in worldly time to do the will of the Father. 

Mary received news of her vocation by the "message of an angel". There is sometimes a wish to understand why God acts in the way he does. We ask ourselves "Why Mary?"or "Why an angel?". 

Before God's revelation to the Jews all humanity was telling itself stories to explain each individual's self-awareness. After Adam there was no more Evolution. Each human being was completed with image and likeness of God in its "isness", its being and also aware of the realness of the world around it, "the other than itself".

We are not illusions. We are the creations of God, we have the ability to choose how to live our lives and our infinite God has an infinite number of choices for us to make each moment we are alive in worldly time. Only God has the ability to process the billions of free choices made by each of us and their interactions with the billions of other choices made by those with whom we are coexistent. He is our Ever Greater Father and although he has revealed the right pathway for us to follow we are free to act in his creation as we wish and thus cooperate or not in his Providence. There is no such thing as a predetermined fate.

The Apocalypse is a Jewish vision of the spiritual universe modified by the final revelation of Jesus. It is fittingly the last book of the Bible as in its images it clearly hides more of God than it reveals. I do not know what part my Guardian Angel has played in my life but I can remember one occasion that I had resigned myself to death but was able through "my own?" efforts to disentangle myself from the netting and reach the surface.

Dear Lord, Let me continue to live not only aware of, but also thankful for your love. Nathanial was promised a sight of heaven's unending contact with earth through the mediation of your spiritual messengers confirming that  we are not left alone to complete our lives in dedication to you. Mary was totally shocked by Gabriel's message, may her prayers, the prayers of all the saints and the Chorus of Angels be heard in our hearts and imitated here on earth. Overpower the evil that is the Father of Lies. You are our God and your Loving Mercy fills our world with joy. Let my soul live only to know your loving salvation. Amen

 28/09/2023

There is always purpose in the Church's choice of readings from Scripture. 

The return of the Exiles from Babylon and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem is effected by IAMIAM through the worldly kingship of Darius. Haggai is inspired to silence the doubters by reminding them that although they have "laboured in the vineyard" the results have been meagre. They are commanded to place the rebuilding of the Temple before all projects aimed at their own material comfort.

The New Testament reading from Luke, is very short. In it the Herod, the son of the King Herod who slaughtered the Holy Innocents,  and who, even though he liked to hear the word of God as preached by John the Baptist, had had Jesus' cousin decapitated, is making enquiries about Jesus.

All sorts of rumours about the uneducated carpenter who was challenging the religious authority of the Scribes must  have been circulating around Herod's part of Palestine. For some, this Jesus was the long awaited "Messiah". For others he was a new ruler who would cancel the crippling debt of the poor. For some he was John the Baptist returned to life or maybe another of the Scriptural prophets.

Worldly living is always in the providence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We can treat it as the only reality and act as did the returning exiles until awakened by the word of God delivered by Haggai. Jesus taught us that we are to discriminate between God and Caesar. "My Kingdom is not of this world". We can never accept the decrees of Providential Rulers in whose power we find ourselves to be, claiming for themselves authority that  belongs to God.

The early Christians refuted the Emperors who claimed to be gods. They were martyred. How do we live in our democracies that challenge every single one of God's precepts usurping for themselves an authority greater than God's?  We have no need to await an answer for Jesus' words; "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's" are true for all time. The words are true but how am I to act them out?

Dear Lord, I know that I am of a generation that has been completely seduced by material success with a worship of our own bodies feeding our love for Mammon. Help us to recover our "delight" in you and accept that the salvation of the poor lies in our dedication to you and not in forgetting "your delight in us" by thrusting away your mercy. May Mary and all the saints continue to plead that our complacency in your worldly providence be shaken to its very core. Let us all be awakened to the need for holiness as that is your will for me and all other people i this world. Amen.

 27/09/2023

I do not have a deep knowledge of Scripture and I try to approach each of the readings as it comes. Sometimes I am prompted, usually by something that I cannot understand, to check the context. This is when Wikipedia is a wonder to be acknowledged with thanks to God, and with a donation that reflects its value to all of us who want to continue learning all our lives.

In today's reading, the Old Testament becomes more than the history of the place of Israel in God's Providence. Today we have to listen to the prayer that comes out of Ezra's deep meditation into his relationship with God. Ezra has been tormented by the knowledge of how many of the people of God have been contaminated by intermarriage with non-Jews.  

He knows that all of them have suffered because of these sins but that the contract between God and Moses is still the only way they have of knowing God. It is their racial heritage that has to be preserved for only the descendants of those who came out of Egypt with Moses can be the inheritors of the Covenant and by following the Law of Moses they are truly the people of God.

Our Lord condemned the Pharisees of his day for their slavish adherence to their "father Abraham" and to the Law of Moses. The "Word became flesh and dwelt among us" to show us the way which had been lost. 

Today we can be sure that Jesus preached to all nations and that his kingdom is not of this world. Ezra returned to Jerusalem with what he considered to be one race and the wealth that made all the temples of the world into the central banks of all the Empires of the world before the birth of Our Saviour.

This is the Mammon that Jesus drove out of Herod's Temple but is still with us as the "Patrimony of Peter" that has hamstrung the Vicar of Christ since the second century.

Dear Lord you know the limits of human thinking. My reflections about your will for mankind are limited by my capacity. I have no problem in recognising both my limitations and my sins but I do hope that I am raising my mind and my heart to you. Forgive me my sins and help me to recognise your ways. May Mary who stayed with you until your death continue to plead for the Mercy that is real human blood pouring from a real human corpse on Calvary and the same Body and Blood, the Holy Eucharist on the Altar. May my sins and the sins of all the world be forgiven so that we can atone to receive with hope the punishment that you decide for us. Lord forgive us our trespasses. Amen

 26/09/2023

The rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem is treated in the Old Testament as a unique event. Even the words of the proclamation, however, reveal that Darius was trying to rule his vast new empire by seeking the cooperation of all his subject peoples not only the Jews. It refers to IAIAM as the god whose  "name" dwells in Jerusalem. Similar building or renewal of temples took place all over his empire.

"History" in the Old Testament is an entirely one-sided view of the events of God's Providence that were experienced by all the peoples of that part of the world not only by the Jews. The terrible events of all wars are always committed by both sides and by men who have not had the courage to disobey evil commands. Our individual exculpating "If I hadn't somebody else would have done" carries no weight with God.

In our modern democracies we have the opportunity to vote for our leaders. The problem that we all face is that there are no political parties that advocate keeping to the "Will of God" and condemning  the comfort of Hedonism and the avarice of Mammon. 

The public face of our Church lost all moral authority when the sanctity of the Blessed Sacrament is lost by its distribution to unrepentant sinners. The Body of Christ is not magic it requires true intention by the Clergy in its confection with heaven and true yearning for forgiveness which requires confession and repentance by the recipient.

Today's Gospel tells us that all souls are equal. Even the Immaculate is still also a created being as we are. Once God has been seen all our created souls will have no emptiness until the End of Time brings us to a New Creation.

Dear Lord, let me be protected this day from all sin and let my heart be open to receive your grace. May the pains of death not overcome my longing for you. Let my readiness to accept punishment be shared by all who have shared my sin. May Mary's prayers and those of our brothers in Heaven be heard that your mercy still is available as we on Earth and in Purgatory seek it out.

 

 25/09/ 2023

We all live in the same time which is measured by the fixed rules of the of the relationship between the relative movements of our world measured in days, hours and seconds, the moon months and the sun seasons and years. Human time is thus measurable it cannot be controlled by man but it is the when and where we live out our lives. 

Humanity is, as far as we know, the summit of creation and all of us are souls which are  eternal beings reflecting the Glory of God ( image and likeness) and minds and bodies which are the "dust" of the material world and thus limited by when and where we are born and  in death will rot. God creates us to live in order for us to use and care for his earthly creation of which the most important part is our souls

Cyrus was part of God's Providence as are we all. God never forces anything onto mankind but guides us at first through prophets and then by the Incarnation reveals that we can all choose to attain the eternity he has created us for. Cyrus thus by an act of his own will fulfilled the Will of God and ordered the rebuilding of the Temple. This was an earthly act as was its destruction. "My kingdom is not of this world".

Jesus tells us today that if we catch a glimpse of the light of Eternity we should not hide it but share it with our friends and family. Cyrus and the other great rulers, the stars, the celebrities have played their part in God's Providence and shone in this world with brilliance but in death  have learned the truth of Jesus' message which at no time is hidden under a bushel. We all from the highest to the lowest dwellers in Providence have to answer for the condition of the eternal part of our being, our souls not for our care of buildings and Trust Funds.

Dear Lord let me learn how to accept the Love that is the being of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and throughout this day also accept what I encounter in your providence. May Mary and all the Saints within their timeless immersion in eternity not forget the needs of all our souls which are still living on this Earth or atoning for their sins in Purgatory.Dear Lord, have mercy on us all. Amen. 

 24/09/2023

What does St Paul mean when he says that his body is glorified in the Lord?   St Paul had an experience unique throughout history on the road to Damascus. He was chosen by the Resurrection. 

The other Apostles had been called by Jesus of Nazareth who was definitely a man the same as they were. The Glory of the Transfiguration was only witnessed by Peter James and John and of these three only John did not desert the Lord on Calvary.

The Resurrection, the event of Father Son and Holy Spirit taking possession of Jesus' corpse in the tomb was witnessed by no man. It was God touching our World directly to show us that his Love is greater than the confines of time and space that govern creation. All the recognitions of the risen Lord were not instantaneous but nobody except St Paul was blinded in the act of seeing. St Thomas even touched the wounds that were still evident on the body the first fruits of the new creation.

God has created us to have the freedom that is a reflection of his own. He has revealed to us the way we should limit ourselves by only acting for the good of others. St Paul knows that the Glory that blinded him and stopped his persecution is still with him and manifest in the work he still does on earth but his soul is longing for the presence of God that is heaven.

I am sure that the St Paul who prayed that he was ready to lose his soul if that could bring about the redemption of his own people would teach that the Glory of God is that a fraction of a  second in world time of true repentance would be accepted and earn the full reward of Mercy. God, however is also Just and he would know the deceitful who would try, as it were , to climb over the back wall of the vineyard in today's parable and then present themselves for the full wage.

Dear Lord, your Glory is beyond my comprehension. I cannot say how great thou art but as a man I can show by my deeds that I believe what I think and say. Have mercy on all sinners let us all know that in the beauty of our world we witness only a miniscule of your Glory. May Mary your mother for whom the Glory of your choice of her was delivered by the message of an angel lead all the repentant sinners of heaven in a never ending chorus of praise that becomes a small part of your Glory and may your Mercy not be rejected by any for we all are in need of it.

 23/09.2023

"The life that I now live  is not mine but the life of Christ who lives in me". There is a lot to be pondered in this sentence alone but St Paul continues "The life I now live in this body I live in Faith." St Paul is the perfected Jew of the Old Testament. Jesus is the the total fulfilment of the "Law" to which Paul is now dead. Paul and we are live in the Resurrection, Jesus Son of God. 

The influence of theologians who have tried to abandon the concept of soul as being an accretion from Hellenism and not found in the Old Testament  is seen in the translation used for this morning's Gospel. The Douay version "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul" tells us yet again that  God's world, the Kingdom of God, is not the here and now of the material universe. There is a definite difference between our present temporal life and the eternal life to come. Why then does the Church refuse to recognise this difference by calling a soul a soul?

St Paul a "SuperJew", a product of Gamliel's famous school, has a clear concept of "soul" although that "word" has not been used in this translation. He is an "I" as we all are and thus is an individual. He has a body which is not his "life" . He has given up his old life to live with the life of Christ but he still has his  own body and the "I" who "knows" all that he experiences.

So he is thus a person, a body and a life. I know that I too am also this. A person, a unit of being, a body, a decrepit old thing, and a soul which I have to guard for it is the spark of the eternal love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and my responsibility to return to the Master without stain of sin. 

Dear Lord may I clear my mind of all that does not add to my openness to your grace. May my body continue to plod along and may my Soul find the true peace that comes from you. May Mary for whom there is no time, lead  St Pius and all the Saints in the praise and pleadings for the forgiveness that you never refuse to the truly penitent especially the Holy Souls who still linger in time working out their deserved punishment.

 22/09/2023

I hope that I am not one of "the self-conceited with a craze for questioning everything and arguing about words". I certainly do write a lot that comes into my head. I have to trust that Our Father who knows and loves the sparrows that are two a penny knows me and can accept my repentance for all my sins.

This is what I understand about St Paul's advice to Timothy. He says that all disagreement and discord in the Churches comes about because the selfishness that each one of has is allowed to shape our beings and we allow ourselves to become enslaved by our physical bodies.

He is warning St Timothy to teach that "the Way" brings for us spiritual benefits that are much more than wealth and that his flock must be "saintly and religious, filled with faith and love, patient and gentle". This is what Jesus by his life of complete acceptance of his Father's will and confirmed as the Truth of God by his Resurrection has taught us.

Any attachment to Mammon will keep us from following the way, the truth and the life. We excuse ourselves by claiming that we are "poor in spirit" and even though we have more than enough that is necessary for daily living we are still "following Jesus in prayer and worship" and do support charities.

Rich women supported Jesus and his closest disciples. The rich young man gave up "learning about eternal life" literally preferring his great wealth. All Institutional Christian Churches Orthodox, Catholic or Reformed are organisations that are closer to this world than to the Kingdom of Heaven. They are trapped by the formation of their clergy which leads to     "jealousy  contention, abuse and wicked mistrust"  and the attachment of their flocks to the now of this life which concerns us more than being witnesses to our Ever Greater God of Love.

I am trying to keep my being focussed on understanding God's will for me but I am, undoubtedly, still part of the material reality that is life in this world. I do not place any trust in it for although it is not an illusion as some believe, it does keep on interfering with the sincerity that I hope I show to God and causes confusion in my mind that disturbs my soul.

Dear Lord, Let my prayers be heard and my soul be open to receive the Love that is your being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Let the power of the Holy Spirit overcome the weakness of my being that I may be strengthened in Faith Hope and Charity and fear nothing in this world. May Mary who also knew many of us in addition to being Theotokos continue to pray for us who are sinners pressed on all sides by the wonders of the material world in which we live that we never forget that what we receive as free gift was won for us by the pains you her Son endured. We cannot know or even imagine anything like this for he emptied himself of God to do so. May our souls and the souls of all the faithful departed come into your Glory at the end of time Dear Lord hear my prayer and let it become my heavenly reality.

 21/09/2023

St Matthew was a tax collector. This does not mean that he had a secure, pensionable job in the Roman Civil Service. To meet the job description for such a post in the Roman Empire you had to provide the amount demanded by the Governor and then by force squeeze it and your profit out of the population little by little. You had to be the mean and merciless master of the parable of the talents.

"He got up and followed". I can visualise Jesus strolling with his friends to Peter's place where they were going to have their simple meal together. They passed by the seated publican with whom the disciples  avoided eye contact. He was feared by all and  only loved by his family. Perhaps he had heard gossip about this stranger who was coming towards him with some fishermen he knew and collected from. He heard the words. He did what he was told.

Of course, it might have been just an invitation to join the gathering to which Jesus had been invited. But in the context of the  Gospel and the Life of Jesus it was much more.It was a vocation, a call to change his way of life. Matthew, himself, accepted it as such.

When Jesus replies to the Pharisees he does not win debates, although it sometimes seems like that. His life is spent in teaching the way to heaven. By his humanity he is a Jew with all that entailed in the First Century. He knows the depths of the Law and consistently corrects the errors of the rigorous scrupulosity that had corrupted it.

St Matthew, a grasping servant of Mammon accepts his spiritual vocation. St Paul, a rigorist Pharisee had been given an insight into the meaning of "the glory of the resurrection" and today confirms to his converts that Father, Son and Holy Spirit wants only "mercy not sacrifice" and this is "selflessness, gentleness and patience" for this is "the peace that binds us together" The Love that is our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord you know how much better I feel when my thoughts and prayers arise unbidden out of my heart. You know what I am trying to say. You first and let the rest follow. May Mary who must have witnessed more of your public life than the wedding feast at Cana continue to pray with St Paul, St Matthew and all the saints that all of us on Earth accept our lives as a vocation to fulfill the will of God and with grace won for us respond accordingly. Amen

 20/19/2023

"The mystery of our Faith is very deep". "You can say that again", is my flippant first response to St. Paul. 

For me it is all about God and me. How have I lived my life? I know that I have not been as true to the teaching of Jesus as I could have been. Prior to the Incarnation it seems that God was not present to his creation except in the Jews. This is more than a "mystery" in the sense of a problem to be solved. It is the same as life itself. That the Jews were chosen means that others were not.

Today the Church celebrates the  Martyrs of Korea. We believe that because they were executed for their belief in Jesus their souls went straight to the Father. Jesus prayed that his executioners receive the mercy of his Father for they were "just following orders", they did not understand what they were doing. 

How could they have done? The mystery of our faith revealed by the Resurrection is beyond intelligence to understand. We too cannot understand. We have to live as Christ in our souls by a free act of our human will. "Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe."

The Korean executioners were living in a civilization that went back beyond the time of Christ. They had achieved for themselves a cultured stability that was no more inhumane than that of the few Christians, who were also slave-owning, that they had traded with since Europeans had first been encountered.

Today's world is bulging with those who do not know the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This is not by ignorance but by choice. Europe has nominally been Christian for 1000 years. All the ancient Cathedrals, monasteries and churches testify to this. In the market-place of our Global village, however, we the children are still shouting to each other and do not share the joy or sorrow of our God whose martyred human heart was opened by the lance to pour his Mercy over all the world.

Dear Lord your presence with us in our world in our flesh has to dominate all our selfishness and pride. The mere thought of you is enough to demolish the wall that sin creates between my soul and its creator. It is a thought that has to fill my whole being body and soul. May Mary, the only immaculate lead the souls of Kim and the other Koreans to plead as she did at the foot of your cross for the belief that can become you in the depths of our souls. May we search out for the forgiveness that can bring us all into heaven.

 19/09/2023

Jesus promises that if we come together as a community with the same intention of raising our hearts and minds to be one with him in worshipping Father, Son and Holy Spirit then He is also in our midst.

When we join a congregation of worshippers our primary purpose is to seek His presence and be one with him. The first converts were all Jews and so in their prayer they reproduced their Synagogue Sabbath meetings.Their focus, however, was not the Scriptures but the Resurrection, Jesus the Messiah was with them. They had received the Holy Spirit.

As with all groups of people the disciples were prone to disagreements. This was even more true when complaints about the Gentiles who were joining Paul's "Churches" began to be made and decisions about dietary laws and circumcision could not be avoided. The Soul of the Church then and now is the Resurrection but we human beings are all aware of ourselves first and need the gentle hand of Our Father to teach and guide us to the righteousness that loves our neighbour as ourselves. Even when Jesus was preparing his closest disciples for their roles in bringing the Good News to us all, there were squabbles about hierarchical positions in Kingdom that was to come.

We are with Jesus because we have not lost touch with his hand as we navigate the Way. What happened to the son of the widow of Nain after he was brought back to life in this world by the hand and prayer of the Son of the Father? One hopes that he experienced the joy of seeing the Risen Lord as one of the 500.

St Paul's advice to Timothy on how to prepare his converts to be self-governing has to be read today by all our clergy. I too am ashamed that my life has fallen far short of  Paul's "Job Description" of a priest and a deacon which is also a description of the qualities that all Christians must have to be true followers of the God who was born as man, lived, died in torment and is the Resurrection. This Jesus is "the way, the truth and the life" who will be with us always until the end of time.

Dear Lord, Could it be possible that the recipients of such grace as received by the widow and her son ever forget you? I know that I who have been equally blessed by your sacraments can easily fall into sinful ways. My family knows very little of you and lives at ease in the world as do I. You know how much my prayer is sincere and how much lacks true humility which is the acceptance of grace and and the realisation of how little I am. May Mary whose mother's love of you has never been matched lead all the Angels and saints in gratitude for your the Mercy you continue to pour down and thus save sinners on Earth and in Purgatory.

 18/09/2023

Sometimes I find it  difficult to get started on my only dedicated time for prayer during my day. Today is one of those days and of course my sloth is enhanced by a computer glitch of some sort. St Paul tells us today how to come together in prayer. We are told to pray first for our political leaders for they provide us with the stability that we all need if we are not to be distracted from the reason for our creation.

 

Jesus taught us that prayer is the best thing we can do in our lives on earth. The whole of his life was a prayer to the Father that the consequences of the sin of Adam be wiped clean and each of us after baptism would become a new Adam but not add to the sin of the world. St Paul's teaching the importance of prayer for political stability must be a reflection of Jesus own words, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's" and not become the focus of our lives. 

The institution that was founded by "Thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my Church"  very soon fell into the clutches of Mammon and thus the shepherds could justify the "things of this world" which even in the second century filled their time to the detriment of prayer.

I was born into a world that was racked by war. I remember bombs falling, beams of  searchlights piercing the night sky and newspaper pictures of our "paras" landing at Arnhem. Since infancy I have not been personally troubled by man's inhumanity to man. Millions of my contemporaries, however, have never known stability for even the earth where they live is itself unstable and prone to natural disasters let alone the manmade disaster that is the organised killing of our neighbour, that we call war.

Jesus' miracles are the work of the Father in response to the perfect prayer of the perfect man. Today a man of authority, a representative of the "stability" that was Rome has sent messengers to ask Jesus for help. The news of Jesus' miracles had quickly spread and "been the topic of the day" and this pagan had also been impressed by what he had heard. He must have been inspired by the Holy Spirit for blind faith without the support of belief is "astonishing" indeed.

Jesus has taught us that to live in righteousness we are first to know the Father. We do this by following in Jesus' footsteps, being attentive to his words and thus live in holiness. If we have answered a vocation to dedicate our all to Father, Son and Holy Spirit we have to remember this at all times. 

Praising the Rule of St Benedict and its emphasis on stability doesn't cut much ice when the writer has just come back from another overseas trip. Secular Clergy have been plagued ever since Judas pilfered from the bag, by the temptations that come with an authority which they in their in their self-centered pride transform into power. Popes, prelates and priests also have to answer to God for their lives on earth. Who am I to point the finger? Who is Francis to judge?

Dear Lord, let my being be open to your saving grace. Let me learn how to pray and let the grace of Heaven be directed by Mary and all the saints towards the sinners both on Earth and in Purgatory. Turn the eyes of the powerful prelates inward that they might become examples of faithfulness and not disturb the faithfulness of their Flocks.

 17/09/2023

The first of our readings at today's mass warns about resentment and anger.They are both allied with pride and selfishness and require repentance and reciprocal forgiveness.

In the Second St Paul tells us that we are living in Christ. We are never to forget that our being after our Baptism is one with Christ, we have become Christians. We have to persevere and keep our will active to accept and return the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are able to do this because we are never abandoned by Our Father, Jesus' Abba.

Most of the times when I have ever lost my temper have been within my own family. A switch gets clicked and I rant and rave. I even know that this is what I am doing and continue until I calm down. I feel ashamed about these episodes but do not bear resentment. That does not make up for the pain I cause to those I love the most.

St Paul also tells us that even the most insignificant of us has influence on others. This is because not one of us is insignificant to Our Father in Heaven. The Billionaire, the President, Emperor or King, the Bishop dying surrounded by the luxury that he has known all his lifetime has no more value in the Justice that is God's awareness of how he has lived his life than the victim of people traffickers drowning in the English Channel. The arrogance of  "do you know who I am?" carries no weight in the sight of God.

In times of anger I sometimes feel that I am justified. If the Perfect Man was justified in showing his anger when he cleared out Mammon from Temple, cannot I be also forgiven for my temper tantrum? 

Of course I do know the answer which is quite straightforward as it come from Jesus. Let the measure of the forgiveness you beg from the Father at the end of your life be the same as the forgiveness that you have meted out to those that have angered you during it. Jesus is completely straightforward in all his teaching but that does not make it any easier for us to obey.

Dear Lord, I hope that I am  ready to receive your Mercy. I must be very close to my last breath and know that I have always been full of  "good intentions" that have not been realised. May Mary and all the Saints keep all sinners on earth and in Purgatory in mind as they praise you for the Mercy which you can show to all sinners who are truly repentant and seek your forgiveness.

 16/09/2023

May God have mercy on the souls who were recently torn from their bodies by the sort of flash flood that Jesus uses as an image in today's Gospel. The peoples living in the dry regions of the world have always been, paradoxically, subject to floods. Jesus' listeners knew exactly what he meant as they themselves lived in houses that had steadily encroached into the wadis that had been dry for decades.

St Paul knows himself to be a sinner. He is far distant from his God but Christ has used him to show that we need never despair for if we sincerely beg forgiveness for our sins the Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit will envelop us and we will be supported in our new life of penitence as he has been since his conversion.

Both Cornelius and Cyprian, whose feast is today, as Bishops of quite large flocks were confronted by the large scale defections from the Church in the face of systematic persecution. What were they to do about those who, after the persecution wanted to return to the Church? One answer was to accept them as "penitents" but not allow them to ever become fully communicants. 

Cornelius as Bishop of Rome refused to condemn his brethren to this sort of "non-being". The schematics believed that that perfect holiness of Jesus should be seen in the Christianity that had been established by the him. I find it not hard to be swayed by that point of view. Even in the third century there were thousands of people who proclaimed "Lord Lord"but did not act as he did. 

Jesus' message was all about saving souls. He did not offer respect to the paraphernalia or self importance of the religious authorities of his day but he did respect their teaching, the Scriptures. In the third century he spoke directly to the Agatha, Agnes, Marcus, Cornelius, Cyprian and all the other martyrs who truly followed him to the death. 

The Church of the third Century was already too concerned about its place as an organisation in this world. Later in the first millennium it would it would bear very little resemblance to the Jesus who had proclaimed that the Kingdom of God is not of this world.

Dear Lord, you know what I must do to follow the path through life that will match your will for me. Let me find this path and stay true to it. It is true that only you can forgive sin. You specifically passed this authority onto Peter and the other Apostles so Cornelius and Cyprian were following in your merciful footsteps. The problems created by unworthy clergy are still with us. Let your Church on earth be purged of the wickedness that does no good for any of us sinners who sincerely seek your grace. May Mary who was already leading the saints in heavenly prayer in those days continue to do so that I and all other sinners can repent of our sins and die to receive our deserved punishment in Purgatory.We are all in your hands . Thy will be done here today as it has always been and will ever be so. Amen

 15/09/2023

I am here again this morning a soul looking to God for the forgiveness and mercy that has been given to us by the Incarnate Son. As I try to be completely free of this world and to all that I cling as a living human, my mind is able to know that God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit by his Providence keeps the world in being as a reflection of the Love that is his inestimable Being. God IS. IAMIAM is beyond all time and timelessly knows how Adam and Eve sullied the perfection that was Creation. 

God has never left us alone and has responded to the moral weakness of Humanity by offering us glimpses of his Glory to inspire us, that no matter the many wonders humans are still creating and perfecting, to know that there is only one way to be human and that is to recognise and return his Love and to self-limit our beings so that we do not destroy our God-like souls by sinful pride.

There have only ever been two sinless human beings. Mary is the only "super-human".The Holy-Spirit ensured that her Soul had the perfection of Eve without any of her and Adam's legacy of original sin. That is why Theotokos never died.

Her Son, Jesus God is IAMIAM without limits of time or space but choosing to be truly human by emptying himself, in all the stages of  natural human development. He was conceived into time, born and grew to manhood.

Many of us think that this seems like a lot of palaver to go through for an All-Powerful God but that is what it means to believe in God and even if we know all the secrets of the Universe, God is still the Evergreater and only has Love for us.

 That Jesus chose to experience manhood tells us that there is something special in being human more than just breathing, eating, drinking, reproducing and dying. Jesus' total humiliation and death on the cross was countered by the total glory of the Resurrection.

The mother standing and weeping at the foot of the cross had all her sorrows blasted out of existence by the return of her Son to whom she would be united without undergoing the pains of death. Being thus chosen and favoured by Father, Son and Holy Spirit really does make Mary Supermother of all mankind.

Dear Lord I pray as always that I never become self-satisfied in anything. Strengthen my being by your grace that I may resist all that attracts me to sin and help me to return your love sharing it with all my family and by joining my prayers to those of Mary and all the saints whose souls never cease to praise you. May all our souls seek your grace and may the Holy Souls in Purgatory soon receive their complete forgiveness in heaven.

 14/09/2023

The story of Jesus' life on Earth is told by the Evangelists who spent three years of their lives with him. Paul is totally a response to the Resurrection. Mathew Mark and Luke are records of God's deeds and words in the limited human time that Jesus spent on Earth. St John's is the last Gospel to be written. St John records the direct teaching of Jesus in greater detail than the other three. It was written towards the end of his long life and for Christianity it fits that definition of poetry as "Emotion recollected in tranquility".

St Paul who was trained as a "Theologian" in the school of Rabbi Gamaliel was the most formally educated of the writers accepted as inspired by the Holy Spirit and hence accepted into the Canon of the Church at the end of the fourth century.

St Paul's letters were the earliest part of the New Testament to be written. They were Paul's attempt to explain and understand the events of Jesus' life and teaching that he had learnt from the first Christians who had accepted their fierce prosecutor as a brother in Christ. St John would have known of St Paul's letters but St Paul could not have read St John's Gospel. It was written after St Paul's martyrdom.

Today's passage from Paul's letter to the Philippians is not only beautiful but it is one man's inspired meditation on the Glory that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. St Paul who would have willingly  cried "Crucify him, Crucify him" with the crowd that bayed for the life of the blood covered, thorn crowned reject of humanity presented to them by Pilate can now find only the Glory of God in the humility of that broken man, soon to die on the cross.

The cross is the center of Paul's paean of praise so rightly celebrated. John reports what he must have learned directly from Nicodemus. John was uneducated at the time of the first converts. He had listened to Jesus for three years and had thus grown in wisdom. The fluency of the discourse he attributes to Jesus is not the unlettered Aramaic of the fisherman called by Jesus but the Hellenic sophistication that he has acquired since the time at the foot of the cross when he witnessed the death of all his hopes and also accepted Mary into his home. 

All Christian Theology is based on Scripture and is foreshadowed particularly by John and Paul but the reality of our belief is not the billions of words that have been written about our individual response to God. It is God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, ever greater yet humble "even to accepting death on a cross" . "Yes God  loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

That is why we celebrate today the "Feast of the Holy Cross".

Dear Lord, I hope that I am not only "pleased with myself" for this mornings thoughts and words. I am pleased that they must have been inspired by the Love you have for me. Let me come to accept this Love and return even the tiniest bit that is known by You who are the provider of only good to me and mine. May Mary who must have inspired St John on Earth and talked with him about her Son lead all the saints in heaven in prayer for their struggling brothers and sisters here on Earth and for the benefit of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 13/09/2023

There would be nothing bad have ever happened to us as individuals, families, communities or states if we all had lived in God's Providence following the rules he has revealed as Son to us.

Jesus is the Son of God. He is the perfection of Humanity. He is how we all should be. He lived in this world for thirty-three years without his Godhead. He was subject to the laws of human nature just as we are. He did resist the same temptations that assail us. The perfect prayer of the perfect man was answered by God and thus his followers witnessed miracles. He has known from all eternity his place in creation. When alive as man and subject to worldly time his human self "dreaded his hour to come". At his death he cried out the fear that all mankind has in the helplessness of death.

St Paul preaches "Christ". The  Glory of the Resurrection had blinded Saul on his way to confront the dissension caused in the Synagogues of Damascus by followers of Jesus who claimed that he had been resurrected and that all who followed "The Way" would also pass through death to life. They taught that Jesus' "Way" superseded "the Law of Moses"and therefore he, Saul, would stop them even as he had witnessed in Jerusalem. But God stopped Saul and Paul has been captured for ever by Christ. 

The temptations listed by Paul are part of being human. They are the part of God's Providence that we pray to avoid through the power of prayer as did Jesus in the desert. Most of our lives now are lived in a desert of temptation and we it is hard to feel blessed if we think about the state of our world, our country and our Church. 

The first Christians suffered and died for their witness to Christ. Today our Church is denounced as criminal not because of its teaching but because of its "Pharisee-like" hypocrisy in failing to follow that teaching.

Jesus' eyes are still fixed upon us. Father Son and Holy Spirit never change in the Love they lavish upon us. When we place ourselves unflinchingly honest in the sight of God the blessings promised by Jesus are ours and the grace to stay true to our vocation will bring us to peace of mind in this life and the wonders to come that are beyond all imaginings.

Dear Lord, there is nothing that you do not know about me and about your creation. You know that the only thing I want for myself is to become as Jesus, sinless and devoted to you. I regret ever having succumbed to the temptations that I have encountered in life and pray that I may have a "good death". May Mary, the only sinless natural human continue to lead the worship of all the angels and saints and may her prayers make open the gates of heaven for all repentant sinners on Earth and those paying the price for their sins in Purgatory.

 12/09/2023

When we are taught something new our teachers have to make use of images of what we do know so that we remember the new in its differences from the old. 

Today St Paul makes us think of Baptism as a complete stripping away of all flesh. He compares it to circumcision. Before Baptism we were guided in our lives only by our  bodily needs but the spiritual cleansing that is Baptism by Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a sinless new beginning. 

The earliest Christians had first been instructed in Faith and then Baptised. Most of us were baptised as infants and we have had to devote our lives to the Church in which we, by the providence of God, find ourselves. Later Church members would conceive of our births as a predetermining act by God. This of course resulted in the "empty second hand, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ." that St Paul warns us against.

Paul is writing to educated people of the first century. He is teaching them, and us, how to complete their lives in this world to be accepted into the Resurrection which is Christ's gift to the whole world. When he speaks of "debts" our Christian formed understanding thinks "sin". But in the time of the Roman Empire "debt" would have been understood as the crippling burden of financial debt endured by most citizens.

The "triumphant procession" would not have been just the figurative language it seems to us  but was a reference to the celebratory, triumphant displays of rulers slaves and bounty granted by Rome to its victorious generals and their legions. It is more than possible that Paul and some of his readers had witnessed  Claudius' Triumph to celebrate his successful invasion of Britain.

All of the above happened in the "real time" that is past for us. For the timelessness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit everything is still as Now.  St Paul, the Colossians, Claudius were real people of those times. They are all known to God as each one of us is today. The billions of us who have lived since then have all had the same freedom to choose to follow or not the path to Blessedness that Jesus began for us with his choosing of the twelve who were to be with him throughout the years of his earthly ministry.

 Individuals 

I believe that God knows me exactly for what I am. I also believe that  billions of others  are known by God in exactly the same way as I am known. 

I am known by God as body and soul. Body a product of natural creation in the same way as all mammals. Soul with a similarity to God himself is an individual new creation at the moment of conception. A free Spirit within the reality of  creation but with a necessity to self-control into containment within the will of God.

I know God as the Evergreater revelation of himself through the Bible, Old and New and through the Apostles who continued his revelation and who tried to respond to the mystery that captured their hearts and minds 2000 years ago in Palestine. They who saw the resurrected Lord had also seen his corpse bleeding out on the cross.

I loved the Church, in its liturgy, its prayers, its teaching until I was shocked by the immorality and abuse that had been skilfully and wilfully hidden from view in my lifetime by all levels of the Church.The history of past corruptions I had dismissed as unbelievable exaggerations or fabrications.

Now I realise that since the time she started to clothe herself in the physical trappings of the Roman Empire, there has never been a time that she has been what she claimed to be. Christ's Body on Earth.

"My Kingdom is not of this World." leaves no room for misunderstanding. God's Providence in the reality in which we live has to be judged by the revelations made by the the Prophets, by Jesus' life on Earth, his death and Resurrection. There is no room nor reason for Mammon in Jesus' Church. 

As soon as donations were received they should have been redistributed to the suffering poor. St Paul did this but it was a practice that soon disappeared and the result was our Worldly Church today which is more concerned with the administration of what they call the Patrimony of St Peter, who had no such thing to bequest, than in being true to God and the Kingdom of Heaven.

 It was not intended that the lifetime of Christians was to be spent in the maintenance of the hedonistic lifestyles of priests and prelates and of the beautiful buildings built with the best of intentions to praise God. God, who is the creator of all has no need of man-made beauty and is mocked in St Peter's in  Rome by those who mar our souls by sin and help to destroy nature by their addiction to wealth..

Some years ago I read that the English Cardinal with all the names who was more fond of the "great and the good" than he was of his own flock, and who spoke with an Irish brogue acquired from Reading and Bath had "hidden" one of  his "abuser priests" in a Confessional at London Airport. I had confessed at both Heathrow and Gatwick and was disturbed by wondering that I had missed the grace of Absolution. I had been sincere but what about the charlatan to whom I had confessed? And what about his superior who had placed him where he had?

The Church's position on the validity of Sacraments is very clear. Jesus is the one who produces the ontological change, the priest has to use the correct words and material and have the right intentions. I have engaged in many fruitless conversations on the web in connection with this. At the moment it cannot be denied that the Church's advice to her priest is "Go through the motions" and don't even respond to the concerns of parishioners. Of course the direct reply is disguised in Latin. For some that is enough to make it truthful.

How can a priest have right intentions when he consecrates, if he intends to distribute communion to those whom he and the rest of the congregation know are living together without the benefit of matrimony. This is happening every week in Catholic Churches in England. Our Bishops are for ever collaborating with an organisation which rather than express repentance wears "its sins with pride". 

How it can be that Our Lord in heaven will co-operate with a sinful abuser-priest to confect valid sacraments is still for me an unsatisfactorily answered question. God cannot tell lies. Not so our Bishops, Not so!

 11/09/2023

In today's Gospel Jesus anticipates the probing by the Pharisees that he knows is surely to follow his words. Jesus is the perfect man and has emptied himself of the power of God. As a perfect human with a perfect intelligence he already knew that he had caused the Pharisees to be concerned. The man Jesus knew that today was no different and that the leaders of the congregation would be waiting for an opportunity to challenge him. He did not have to be God to answer the challenge made to his teaching by Synagogue and Temple.

Jesus teaches us how to pray. His whole life is the perfect prayer to the Father. In our midst for thirty three years during the Empire of Augustus and Tiberius he became a part of the Providence of God as a true man. Man does not have the ability to change the reality of the moment in which he is living, but God does.

 All Jesus' miracles are the work of Father Son and Holy Spirit who answers the perfect prayer of the perfect man. Jesus tells us that we too have the ability to move mountains if we have perfect faith in God and proves this by the "wonders that he wrought and indeed we are glad".

For centuries the people of Colossae had been living in a well developed culture but were always close to the chaos of war. In many ways they were as we are today. They had "heard it all before". They were people whose forefathers  had seen Alexander and before him Darius. They lived surrounded by the wonders of nature. The petrified waterfall of Pamukkale is close by. There were also among them  descendants of Jewish prisoners transported there from Babylon three hundred years before.

We do not know by whom the Word was brought to them but St Paul treats them as true believers who will understand the secret, the Mystery that is Christ present "when two or three are gathered in my name". They know as well as we do that we can only be bound together in the Holiness of God by that Love which pours out of the heart of Christ Crucified and covers us with living Mercy which to preserve we must share with the whole world. That is the open secret spread by Paul.

Dear Lord, forgive me my sins and let my whole being be open to receive thy grace. Humanity is all one in your eyes but you know each soul who lives or has ever lived on Earth. May Mary who may have known in Ephesus Colossians and neighbouring Laodiceans lead all Saints in praise of the Glory of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and let us all be sure that Jesus assures us that our true happiness is not to be found in this World.

 10/09/2023

There are only a few words in today's Mass readings. They answer the question of the rich young man. "How can I enter the Kingdom of Heaven?" 

Ezekiel tells us that we do have responsibility for our brother's behaviour. God reveals through him that when we see sinful behaviour we must warn the perpetrator face to face. If that fails then do the same before witnesses. If we do not comply with these instructions, God will hold us responsible for the other's misdeeds.

St Paul warns us about the dangers of debt. Thousands of people in his day were living lives crippled by debt. Jesus' only act of violence was to overturn the benches of the money changers in the Temple. The Pharisees in the spirit of today's first reading condemned him for associating with "Publicans"the last layer of the corruption that was Caesar's system of squeezing money out his conquests.

A popular "anthem" of my youth and sung by another Paul and his mates, is absolutely true. All we need is love. First love of God and then love for each other for Love can do no harm. Love knows that each of is known by God, that each of us can choose to return to God his love which he has lavished upon us.

Jesus told us to gather together in small groups in awareness that he would be present with us. St Paul and the other Apostles spread this message throughout the whole world. God wants each one of us to live without sin. The Apostles, Mary and her friends were as insignificant in the Empire of Caesar as I am in the world today but their foundation is still with us after the Empire has been long gone.

Would they recognise in the Vatican of today the love of God and neighbour that Father, Son and Holy Spirit had inspired within them or would they cry out with their Lord and friend the last words from the Cross.

Dear Lord, forgive me for my sins. I am sorry for I know that even the sins of the little ones like me are your pains on Calvary. Help to find two or three whom I can join  in  worship that is untainted by Mammon in the teeming desert of the Web. May Mary and all the saints who have no trace of sin pray that all us sinners on Earth can find true repentance and the repentant ones waiting for merciful release from the pains of purgatory come to know the joy of God's infinite Mercy

 09/092023

If I try to put myself into the shoes of those who listened to St Paul and were drawn into believe in Christ's Good News I am struck by how those peoples' experience of living so closely resembled our own. Of course they didn't get up and put the kettle as I have just done.

 They couldn't turn on the radio or TV to get the latest news. Each one of them, however, would awake into their own reality and hope to get through the day in the "quiet desperation" common to those who have not received the Good News with true Faith. 

The Resurrection changed everything and those to whom St Paul was writing although they were living in "interesting times" had accepted that mankind would only ever be misled by "Caesar" and that they, just as we are, were living in a worldly society which was the result of Mankind's refusal to live aware that we have only one true "Emperor" whose kingdom is the Eternal Empire of Heaven.

St Paul warns those Citizens of Colossae in the Roman Province of Asia that they must not drift away back into that sea of turmoil that was the Empire of Nero, who would himself condemn Paul to death, ruled by the unrestricted will of man. They and we are in the world but not of it now that we both have been baptized.

We are even more mislead by the leaders of our Society than they were. Our Age has proclaimed  to have no need of God. We are told complete untruths and top ignore God's Will. It is easy for anyone to  become the overburdened camel. The modern mob can still be provided with enhanced "bread and circuses". Man can create intelligences and control life itself. The very very rich and stupid can have their carcasses frozen with the intention of some future revivification.

The Colossians were aware of all the vagaries of being alive in the first century but just as we have, they had heard the Good News and can live in hope of a better life to come. 

Dear Lord let those citizens of Rome whose faith has brought them into the Glory of your Now continue to be lead by your Apostles, whom some of them met, and by Mary who too lived through the ravages  that was Pax Romana of the 1st Century, in prayer for your grace to bring repentance into the hearts of sinners on Earth and Mercy to the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 08/09/2023

No matter how we feel this morning, the Church's chosen readings for mass tell us that we should be joyful. Our Lady's birth was the beginning of the worldly process that would complete God's gift of salvation to all mankind. It is God's will that his creation in his  "image and likeness" should live in holiness to be the "Human Being" that knows, loves and serves in the physical reality that is the Universe.

We have no record of the date. St Matthew and all the Apostles who knew her did not ever get invited to a "birthday party" but they knew that it was out of her humanity that the only begotten Son was born. The length of the genealogy  that begins his narrative is for us tediously long but even today there are still illiterate dwellers in the deserts of Arabia who remember similarly long lists of the names of their forefathers.

Luke and Matthew were trying to emphasise Jesus' place in the history of the Jews that can be found in the Old Testament. It is the record of God's providential relationship with his chosen people. It is the "according to the Scriptures" to which the Scribes and the Pharisees were devoted and which our Lord made no secret of their fulfillment in himself. 

Every time that we begin to think about Jesus we have  to know him as true man and true God. The Incarnation was unknown except to Mary. Joseph was totally dumb-founded for he knew the girl he was to marry as a quietly God fearing credit to her parents. His shock at her pregnancy was completely soothed by the Holy Spirit and he was thus chosen to be the first man of true faith in the Son of God.

Before Jesus, IAMIAM, the wholeness of God revealed himself to the prophets. "The Lord is going to abandon them till the time she who is to give birth, gives birth" but with Mary and Joseph he for the first time openly reveals himself as a Trinity of persons and a oneness of being. Our Lady totally believed and Joseph was the first to believe with her as he continued to care for Mary, Our Lady, Theotokos.

Dear Lord, I only want to pray. To worship you and to keep free from sin. Meditating on that day in Nazareth when you inspired St Joseph to accept your revelation made to Mary as truth without cavil makes me want to sing out with joy. How can it be that a Church with such glorious beginnings has fallen into the unholy mess much of it is today? May Mary, whose birth we celebrate with joy today lead all the Saints in prayer that the mercy of Father, Son and Holy Spirit continues to protect us from the snares of the Devil whom St John saw as crushed under her heel.

 07/09/2023

St Paul is writing to the recently converted at Colossae. We all today have the same need to pray and to try to understand God's will for us. The needs of all generations since the Resurrection are still the same. The circumstances, our place in God's Providence, are very different. Jesus and all the others we read about in the New Testament lived in the Roman Empire.

The "Pax Roma" is a great misnomer as there was never complete peace within the borders of the Empire. Some of  the first disciples expected Jesus to lead a rebellion against the the puppets of the Emperor. Jesus tells us time and time again "My Kingdom is not of this world". God's will for us is to live lives without sin. We are to live always in his presence and although aware of "Caesar" we are to obey only God. It is better to be killed rather than deny the supreme power of God and directly worship Mammon. 

The huge Temple complexes seen by St Paul were always used as treasuries by the the pre-Christian Civilizations of the Middle East. ( Egypt was somewhat different). The gold that covered the Statues in the Parthenon was stripped away and melted down whenever needed, usually to pay  the Wagner Groups of their day. Another huge Temple was also seen by St Paul in Ephesus and it too was Mammon's. 

The Pope St Leo is praised for deterring barbarian tribes from pillaging Rome. This was not the first time that the Church founded on St Peter had became entangled with the kingdoms and Empires of this world. It was not the last either. 

I know that Jesus did not say to St.Peter "thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my Church to rule the world". Our Church's long history of trying to compete with Mammon for political ownership of men's souls has failed because the attempt is intrinsically flawed; it goes against God's Word. That attempt in direct opposition to the sayings of our Lord has resulted in the mess that is  the Western Church today. 

Today (07/09/2023) it is announced that science has created an "human embryo-like-being" is there any Bishop in our Church who has the moral authority to deny this act as an affront to God? They always fudge on sexuality. Will any one of them disturb his own Episcopal comfort to condemn sin for what it is?

Dear Lord, please stop us now. You are our God. There is too much denial in our world. Help us to overcome the evil that dominates your providence. The tiny ones such as I am are useless to fight the mountains of money that disfigure your creation and the egos that completely deny you to your face. May Mary and all the Saints join me in pleading for mankind to know that the crucifixion of Jesus was not a bloodless myth and was needed to provide mankind with all the grace needed to self regulate ourselves into holiness. We need to do your will. Help us all poor and rich alike.

 06/09/2023

All of us live in God's Providence. There is nothing that is or ever has been independent of God. It is when we forget this  and attribute our success or our failure to our own selves that we grow in pride and our faith is reduced. St Peter's is the only mother-in-law that is mentioned in the Gospels. There must have been others but what place they played in the lives of the Apostles we have not been told.

 Some of us from birth are assigned roles in the drama of life that is God's providence that are not possible for all of us. The sons of kings expect to be kings. Some of us are born more intelligent than others and can think their way into greatness. What about the Apostles? They were chosen by God from among the people He has always favoured to be the direct receivers of the Final Revelation. They abandoned everything including family to follow Jesus.

We are told very little about what effect this free choice by all the Apostles had on their families. At first the wives and families must have been shocked to their cores. Mary and St Joseph had to be reassured by the message of an angel but the families of the Apostles had to wait as Jesus' message unfolded. The mother of James and John in anticipation of earthly glory sought to influence Jesus. Did she stand with Mary at the foot of the cross, did she see the resurrected Lord? How did the family of Judas  react to the part their son played the night before the Crucifixion?

Each soul that has ever been created is known to Our Father. Some are carried and born as they flee from evil. Some are instantly pampered by the good things of life. Some are not so welcomed by the love that is due to each child as are others. Some are seen as a threat and are killed in the wombs of their mothers as were the infants slaughtered by Herod.

God says to each one of us individually "Receive your being given to you in Love, you are my child and I am your God; the only thing I ask of you is to love and thus avoid all evil. Fear not, for my Mercy is with you always even to the end of time."

Dear Lord help me in my pondering. Help me to stay true to you each day. Help me to do deeds of goodness and let the prayers of all the mothers, mothers-in -law, wives sisters and daughters who were abandoned by their menfolk for thy sake bring to those still sinful on Earth the spirit of repentance and the Mercy that we all need to do thy will. 

 05/09/2023

In his prayers, St Paul remembers all those who have accepted the Word preached by him. In his letters he encourages them to remember the moment that they first believed. In his time with the Thessalonians he must have covered the whole of what we know as the "Apostles Creed", the summary of God's revelation to the whole world, preached in the first century by Paul and all the Apostles, but not formalised until the fifth . 

He would have spoken to the Jews about the Messiah known from the Scriptures. The pagans would have had to have their idols broken. I do not know whether or not there was a deep belief, similar to that of the Jews' belief in IAMIAM, by the pagans in the spiritual reality of their gods. Julian tried to create one but failed.

 Paul did have some physical confrontations with "the synagogue" but with pagan devotees the most noteworthy one that I have noticed took place in Ephesus. There the Temple of Diana was the central bank of Asia Minor and its priests were concerned that international confidence in the strength of its deposits should not be undermined by these "nutters" from Jerusalem who were teaching that the things of this world are valueless.

The Resurrection is the "sun" of our faith. Everything we know of God's revelation begins with the impossibility of a man rising from the dead. The "Son of man must rise from the dead" was meaningless, even to those who had been Jesus' longtime disciples, until it happened. Jesus performed many miracles in his time on Earth but it was the Resurrection that became the core of the Faith that was reinforced by the Holy Spirit into the Apostles to be the irresistible message, the fire of faith that still burns on Earth although many of us forget and even deny it.

Dear Lord the devil left the man in the synagogue by the lake in fear of you. Would that the devil Mammon which we on Earth have allowed to take over your providence and your Church be destroyed. Fill the hearts of your priests with the spirit of Truth which will resist the "Fornication" and empty time-filling which was the "Sign of the Times" defeated by you and your Apostles in Ancient Rome and still with us. May Mary who is always the Immaculate one and all the Saints, who are now in the changeless state of grace of Heaven, bring your mercy to all sinners on Earth who are ready to become penitent and to those sure of salvation but suffering just punishment in Purgatory for their waste of your grace and Love when living on this world.

 04/09/2023

In the first years of St Paul's preaching he emphasised the Parousia. The Apostles originally taught that Jesus would return in their lifetimes. They had suffered the unbearable sorrow of Good Friday and the intolerable emptiness of Holy Saturday. Jesus' Resurrection on the third day had brought with it a joyful understanding of what they had been witnessing over the previous three years of discipleship. 

There could be no doubts now that Jesus' Kingdom was not of this world and and in their first prayers after the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit they taught themselves and their converts to pray that the Lord would soon return from His Father in Heaven. Maranatha.

In today's letter to the Thessalonians Paul assures them that their dead loved ones will also be present at the Parousia. There will be no advantage for the living over the dead for the end of time will bring all of us to Eternity, Life Everlasting where we will be truly happy in fulfillment of God's will for his creation. Paul is preaching to real people and he knows that all of us have souls which still live on after the death of our bodies.

In the Synagogue of Nazareth Jesus' the Carpenter's son is asked to read from the scrolls. I don't think that this would have been the first time that this had occurred for he grew up there in a devout family. He was previously known to the congregation but now had a reputation, which had quickly spread from Capernaum, as a "wonder worker".

At first, the words of Jesus are received with awe. The Quorum knew who he was and are amazed that he has changed so much since last they saw him. Jesus challenges them to understand God's Providence. What we know and do with our lives in the human reality in which we are living. Why are some cured but not all ? Why does God permit evil to happen? Why are Jews the chosen ones?

The rest of Jesus' teaching on earth still makes these direct challenges to us all. My life has been spent trying to face these same questions with the help of the grace of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This grace is won for us by the same Jesus whom his neighbours wanted to throw off the cliff into the waste heap outside Nazareth. Jesus it is who, three years later completed God's revelation of himself with the Descent of the Holy Spirit onto those gathered in his name in Jerusalem and who promises to be with us until the end of time. Maranatha!

Dear Lord, I pray that you will look with favour on my efforts to bring my life into the holiness that you have made possible for all mankind. All of as are created equal and can choose  to be for you or against you. Help me to be true to my Baptism and resist the Devil, the World and the Flesh. May Mary the sinless being from whom you begot your humanity continue in her loving support for the sinners on earth and for the repentant in Purgatory.

 03/09/2023

Jeremiah is totally the creature of  the Lord. He is not happy to be a figure of scorn, the butt of jokes. Testifying to the Word of God has not brought anything but struggle to him. Struggle with his listeners and struggle within himself. IAMIAM always wins. Jeremiah proclaims the "EverGreater" and is still derided.

The soul that has lost touch with God, that seems to be abandoned, screams out in the empty space that is any man who has lost touch with God. God's Love is better than life itself. St Paul tells that we have to use our minds to consider the meaning of "God" and the meaning of "Life". 

The Gospel translation that is being read today does nothing by changing the words with which we have been familiar for centuries. The world of clever clerics calls our for recognition of its "cleverness" and can only make itself known by the changes it makes to Liturgy and Bible Texts.

"What does it profit a man if he wins the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul?". This is not a "hard saying" but the direct truth from God to us. Those who prepared the new translation are claiming that the Jews knew nothing about "soul" which is a Hellenistic concept. There may be human truth in this but it is insignificant as Jesus is the entire revelation of God for all human time.

The OT Jews also had no concept of a "Trinity of Persons and a oneness of being", of Jesus "true man and true God", "of begotten not made". God has revealed of his Evergreatness that which we can understand and make use of. He is sufficient to the day the Goodness thereof. The Bible is the pattern to which all Theology must conform.

 The New Testament is God's final revelation of his being. It is not some human thinking. There has never been any reason to change the Translation to suit the findings of modern scholarship The clerics thus employed should have been filling their time on earth by walking amongst the poor in God's footsteps, within the stench of the sheep rather than sitting in beautiful libraries surrounded by the peaceful quiet and fragrance of the ivory towers of Academia.

Dear Lord do you not burn in the bones of anyone alive today? You know that the successors to your Apostles show all of their weaknesses but little of their strengths. You know that my conscience being lives on after my body has been burnt. You too have this "being" that is created by the Father God to receive the Love that is Father Son and Holy Spirit. May Mary who wept and cared for your dead body on Calvary lead all the Souls that are the Mystical Body of her Son in loving obedience to Christ/Jesus that we on Earth can avoid all sin and by penance open our souls to receive thy mercy of which there is no end.

 02/09/2023

There are some beautiful images in all the psalms. Today the rivers clap their hands, the hills ring out their joy for in creation we can know something of the Majestic Glory of God. People rejoice and give thanks for the salvation from sin that comes to us from accepting God as our "ruler"on Earth. 

The psalmist sings of the the Covenants of the Old Testament. The prophets of the Old Testament had to continually remind the Chosen People of the need to always remember that they had to praise God by obeying his commands with joyful thanks. 

St Paul knows that the Thessalonians have learnt to live in peace with each other directly from Father, Son and Holy Spirit for he is teaching and writing in the first years of the world that has been redeemed by the Incarnation. God has chosen to become man, to share our life and death and to reveal the Glory to come by his Resurrection. He has walked with and taught his disciples.

First of all, Jesus taught by example. He is the perfect man and we should strive to imitate him. It seems to be an impossible task but our Saints both men, women and children have stretched their humanity to the limits, as did he, in devotion to God. Jesus also taught directly. Sometimes, he would capture their imaginations with a story and his listeners would interpret the message for themselves or sometimes the Apostles would ask him for an explanation.

For me, today's parable falls into the category of "hard sayings of Jesus" i.e. a category that seems to be contradictory to the Gospel and thus not easy to understand. I have, for example, been able to be at ease  with "I come to bring a sword"which does seem to contradict "peace I bring to you", but today it seems that the third servant is condemned  for feeling and being powerless before God. That is indeed a "hard saying".

Dear Lord, you know I keep on trying. I bumble along but sometimes trip over a boulder that I should try to move around. Please give me the grace to understand your teaching and the sincerity to imitate your life. May Mary and all the Saints, who must have sometimes misunderstood your word's, pray that all sinners on Earth accept your mercy with the gratitude and never to be doubted sincerity of repentance of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 01/09/2023

Jesus left us many parables. They all have the same basic message that we should live our earthly lives in holiness to be ready for their end. The foolish virgins locked themselves out of heaven because they were not prudent. Prudence is being wise before the event. God's incarnate life, teaching, passion death and Resurrection was to give us the grace that is the fuel of faith needed to keep our souls alight ready to welcome the "bridegroom".

St Paul accepted that straight forward message in the revelation of  the Resurrection made to him on the road to Damascus. St Paul makes it clear that holiness cannot come from "fornication". Many Western anti-God formerly Christians condemn the teaching of St Paul and there are some "foolish fornicators"who claim that our God commends their vices because they are doing them with what they call love. They mock all who do not join them in their sexual practices and also they mock the consciences that try to break free of habitual sin.

Science has broken the link between procreation and sexual pleasure. The human fruitfulness that is God's gift to us is denied. Conception is prevented but if this measure is unsuccessful the unwanted child is killed. We claim that life in the modern world is different than it was in the Palestine of Jesus. Saying this is no more meaningful than saying that today is not yesterday for the nature of mankind has not changed.

In my life time, I have sometimes actively pandered to my own lust and at others I have been ambushed into fornication. I do know though, that I could have avoided each sin and that without the mercy of God I have not won a place for myself even in Purgatory.

Dear Lord, guide with your grace the true repentance that is the only essential for your Mercy to overcome the sins that have ruined my soul. May Mary and the Saints in Heaven cherish your grace and plead for us sinners on Earth and in Purgatory. May my sins be forgiven but not forgotten as I continue my way through this life. Amen