31/10/2023

Many millions of words have been written about the "Glory of God". Very few people have actually experienced the physical manifestation of this "Glory". St Paul was one of them, another was Moses. Both of these men had something even much more than a spiritual revelation. Moses had to wear a veil to protect the Israelites from the traces of that Glory remaining in his visage  and St Paul had to have the veil removed from his eyes so that he might see again.

Our world is full of wonders. Our world turning around itself and orbiting the Sun has been inhabited by fabulous animals and is today being modified/damaged by the most wondrous of all creatures. Our world has been picked out from the teeming millions of stars and planets to be the place which is blessed by the Incarnation. 

St Paul knows that our Saviour has been as much a part of the created universe as we are ourselves. He also knows that God is ever-greater. After the Ascension, God the Holy Spirit has remained with us in the Sacramental life of the Church, in the Love that is Being for Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and in the Communion of Saints lead by his Virgin Mother, Our Lady, Theotokos.

St Paul knows that Creation will not be perfected until  we are together with Our Saviour at the end of time in the Glory that is the newly created Cosmos. This is the Hoped for Eternity that the Resurrection reveals to us.

Dear Lord may I live out this day secure in the hope that derives from your Love. May my soul know that it is not only the body that sins but that my freedom is responsible to avoid sin so that my being, body and soul, can be welcomed into your new creation at the end of the time of this world. May Mary and all the saints continue to pray for us and all the faithful departed. Especially today as we prepare for the Feast of All Saints. Amen

 30/10/2023

St Paul tells us that  we are heirs born free to choose to live lives free from the sins of the body. We are co-heirs with Christ. We are all able to live as Christ did because we share his sonship. He suffered in the body to free us from slavery to sin; we share the liberty of the " sons of God" and can always choose suffering over sin. We have to become "spiritual" in the world of our lifetime; we have to follow the example of the "true man" whose perfect human life should be the model for every beat of our human hearts.

Jesus in Palestine 2000 years ago has emptied himself of the limitless power that is God. He is a son of Adam, the only being created in the image and likeness. He has a soul and this has to face all human temptations. He is God; he knows that he is God but by an act of will inspired by Love and Mercy he accepts to live life as every other human being.

Elsewhere he tells us that Faith can move mountains and proves it today by mercifully straightening the crippled body of the old lady. As the Incarnate Son, Jesus is as constant in his humanity as he is in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All of his miracles are the result of the prayer he makes as a man, at all times, to his and our Father. We too can do this and become a miracle of Love.

Dear Lord, forgive me my sins. Let me have no resentment or anger against any of my personal family and  huge family of humanity of which Jesus is the head. Let me live by one standard and become as constant in Faith as Jesus; even to accepting whatever death I will have to face. May the prayer of Mary and all the Saints bear fruit in the lives of sinners here with me and bring forgiveness to the Holy Souls.

 29/10/2023

The psalm today proclaims our praise for the Lord. The three readings tell us why we do so. A thousand years of  God's providence for mankind are covered from Moses to Jesus and we today  have had another two thousand years that mankind has lived within the ever changing times provided by God. The times and the individuals change but God remains unchanged, the beginning and the end of time, the ever-greater focus of our existence.

I know that I am a sinner but I also know that God's forgiveness and mercy are far greater than any sin. He has consistently made known to us that we can all live lives in freedom according to his will and that he is the support of Faith and source of never-ending Grace.

Moses has seen the Father. It is this revelation that confirms that I have to put other people before myself.  Paul's whole life is a mission of service to spread the Good News. He confirms his words by his deeds. He can live without sin and the Thessalonians have not only witnessed this but followed his example.

Jesus, the Word, has emptied himself of divinity to become the perfect human. He does not respond to the casuistry of the Pharisees, ("Do you not think that my Father would give 10 legions of Angels?"), as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but as man to man.

I have been created to know, love and serve God and without doing any harm in thought word or deed to any other person. If everybody alive seriously tried to do this who would ever have tried to bomb whole nations out of existence or looked away from any disabled beggar?

Dear Lord, all that I can truthfully be within your sight is this pathetic sinner who cannot get rid of the ego that loves itself more than it does You and my neighbour. My freedom leads me into sin. I know that I can serve you only by accepting without any reservation your aid to conquer my will. May the prayers of heaven which is joy in your presence be heard and let my resolve to do your will become fruitful in this world and find forgiveness in the next.

 28/10/2023

The readings for today's mass are short. Jesus spends a night in prayer. He is truly man. He is also truly God. He has chosen to become empty of all the power of God. The ever greater Father, Son and Holy Spirit has become totally man even in his worship. 

The Incarnation is timeless as "Will of the Father" but within time as Jesus, son of Mary. St Paul knows himself as a "Roman Citizen". He also knows himself as one of the "Chosen People". The citizens of Ephesus have been aliens, non - chocen gentiles, but are now the Church.

The Apostles are all chosen by Jesus to be the foundation on which will be built his mystical body, the guardian of our souls, the channel through which will flow all the gifts from Eternity to  support in the Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit each created soul in the wonder that is Creation.

I am "Alone but Known" because I cannot join my brothers and sisters in Christ in the Institutional Church that became very quickly, more Roman Citizen than Mystical Body. I hope that in my prayers I can find a true path to the Mercy of Father, Son and Holy Spirit directed by the prayers of Mary and all the saints in the Mystical Body of Christ, the supreme union of Heaven, Earth and Purgatory.

Dear Lord, help me to pray. Let me not be lead astray by thoughts that should conform themselves to your revelation and teaching. I thank you for the security in Faith that I feel in the depth of my being. Let me become a willing prisoner of your Love and may these prayers and the prayers of all the faithful bring Mercy and forgiveness to all sinners here on Earth and to those repenting in Purgatory.

 27/10/2023

Jesus looks at us all in today's Gospel and condemns our hypocrisy. He is more than severe. He is not "gentle Jesus meek and mild". He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit telling us the naked truth.

St Paul's words in his letter today not only describe me but have been uttered by me many times during my life time. I know that, even this morning, sinful thoughts began to come into my head.

Today is " the times" for me. Each second of my life is when I have conscious being. I am free to make the sign of "my times". Before I know objective reality that is "other" for me, outside of my consciousness, I am " created human being" in the image and likeness of God. 

Our God in his eternal Love knows billions of us living and dead. He is not an "unknown god" but has revealed himself to us through prophets whom most of us rejected. The Incarnation is the direct participation of Eternal Power self-limited to the "times of creation" .

The "sign of the times" is Jesus, Father Son and Holy Spirit, revealing to every individual his Love and can be found as did St Paul within each of us. We only have to want to respond with sincerity for even the Pharisees and executioners are forgiven by the Love that flows from the Five Wounds of Jesus, crucified on Calvary.

Dear Lord, you know each one of us in the "time" created for us by your Providence. Our world is a mess ruled by Mammon and Sensuality. Love of money and fornication are both chosen by the souls you have created to grow in love and selflessness. May the ceaseless prayers of Mary and all the saints break through the crust of sinful physical material that the wonders of this life used by Satan to confirm us in our sins has built all around us to masquerade as the "sign of the times", but are only my excuses in sin.

 26/10/2023

St Paul's letter to the Romans continues the image of slavery.

God, however, has created us with the freedom to choose to either live enslaved to hopeless sin or willingly to live lives devoted to the Love which manifests itself in the Incarnation. We are miniscule, feeble and powerless beings even though collectively we seem to have achieved so much . The Love which is Father, Son and Holy Spirit has created us to be free beings for whom the only righteous choice has been empowered by the promise of the Holy Cross.

"True man" means that Jesus is exactly the same as we all are. His body is begotten not made. He has all the organs of any mammal, just as we have. He is the human Son of the Father and faced the same temptations that assail all of us. Thinking as a human he wished that his "Baptism" would soon be over.

He tells his disciples that he will not enforce  "peace on earth" by Divine power. Resurrection does not change the humanity of our being. Our world will always  be composed of individuals who continue to put self before the "other". 

The blazing fire is not that of destruction, that is in the power of Satan. Jesus longs for us all to be consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit which is the strength of the New Creation, the Resurrection, the only hope.  Each of us can and must break the chains of slavery and turning with gratitude to Father, Son and Holy Spirit pray; 

"Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven; Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."

Dear Lord let the words of your guidance to us become the prayer of my heart to share with all your Church, living and dead. Amen

 25/10/2023

St Paul's letter to the Roman's continues as this morning's first reading.

 We all have to live without sinning. For Paul this true life. His conversion on the road to Damascus had, for him, been a "death". His new life is the free gift of Faith; Christ living in him. The Resurrection is now his own life. 

His righteous holiness is not a product of the Law, outward restrictions that contain him as does a strait jacket, but comes from his own soul which has been filled directly from Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We must not confuse this presence of interior grace, spiritual freedom from sin, as a "freedom" to sin. We are now all free to choose our way of life; the bodily life of the Word, His death and Resurrection has destroyed the power over us that sin has had since the Fall.

St Paul calls us "slaves of Righteousness" but that is more rhetoric than truth. We can make ourselves "slaves to sin" but "Righteousness" is the " glorious freedom of the sons of God".

Jesus tells us that we all live bodily lives in the Providence of the Father, the "master" in this morning's parable, but He warns us that it is we who direct our own lives. God has revealed himself to the whole World but it is God who knows and loves each one of us as "My Father" in heaven. Let us know him as pure Goodness and live every moment in the responsible reality that it is to be known by God.

Dear Lord, hear the prayer of my heart and let my words come from the soul that is the spirit of my being. let me be captured to do your will as was Saul on the way to persecute you. May your Mother lead all the Saints in prayer that we the living on earth can know that sin only succeeds in our lives because we let it. Let us all become righteous and respond only to your grace and may all the souls awaiting your pardon pay for their sins with the grace that is made available by the Sacrifice of Calvary. 

 24/10/2023

The teaching in the  letters of St Paul was obviously not instantly in his mind after the Resurrection stopped him in his tracks as he hurried to carry the Temple's messageof persecution from Jerusalem to Damascus. He already had devoted his life to the Law and had studied the Scriptures. His life had been delight in the story of salvation and in IAMIAM and his revealed Law.

For nearly 80 years I have been aware that we all live in God's Providence. I have heard the story of salvation read, I have read for myself commentaries and prayed to be relieved of my sins, against which I have always fought . I have often lost that fight. Today I read Paul's advice and support to the Romans and as I did so I knew that his words were the Truth which has guided my life up to and including this moment.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are only Love which is fruitful in the "Big Bang" of creation. For all we humans there is to be an individual ultimate, personal and final Big Bang. I pray that the master will find me not only aware of the finality of that moment but fully prepared to be ultimately an individual known and loved as the man I was created to be.

Dear Lord, although I know that you know everything. I don't think that what I do each morning is pointless. Jesus never ceased to pray. Faith reveals to me that you know me only with Love. My good will has not always shown itself in my life. I am always afraid that doing this I may be pandering to my own love of self. Hope tells me that I have to know love and serve and thus accept your free gift of eternal life. Love confirms that Mary and all the saints pray that more and more of us on Earth can become aware that Jesus has won for all sinners here on Earth and in Purgatory the free gift of forgiveness and salvation.

 23/10/2023

St Paul teaches that we have to believe. We have to have Faith. It is Faith that breaks down the walls of our foolish pride and lets us rejoice that we are known by God. It is through the action of our Faith that we become "considered" by God, known and blessed by the right choice for God that we have made.

St Paul is a perfected Pharisee. The Resurrection forced him to recognise that he and the other scribes and Pharisees had turned God's Temple into a sham  and how to find Father, Son and Holy Spirit within the temple that his being had become. Body and soul he was filled with Christ. St Paul was a living temple and it is to become as he was that we all have to live in the time God gives to us.

Prideful Mammon is our greatest enemy on Earth. Jesus consistently teaches that our treasure is to have Faith only in himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit. The way to become "rich in the sight of God" has been cleared out for us by the incredible humility of the Incarnation. 

Jesus has broken the power of sin and with Faith alone we too can have the life of Christ living within us. Our Church was founded by Jesus. He is the Eternal Word who by his life on earth has shown to us that living by Faith in God is not a "treasure" beyond our reach but that even I can reach that perfection of Love.

God wants in timeless eternity for his children yesterday, today and tomorrow to join him, His Son, Mary and all the Saints in the Glory that is the Holy Spirit. It is a glimpse of heaven on earth to have been given this Faith.

Dear Lord, hear the prayer that is the silent sorrow, regret and longing to atone for all my sins. I thank you that I can overcome the baby voice inside me that congratulates, loves and thinks myself a treasure, but I wish it would go away completely. May Mary who is the perfect example of Faith Hope and Love lead all her heavenly children in their pleas for the forgiveness won by her Son to be accepted by all sinners great and small living and waiting here with me and in Purgatory. Amen.

 22/10/2023

We are all born into freedom. Cyrus was doing the will of God even though he did not know it; we all always have the opportunity to do or not do any of our actions, good or bad. At that time God had revealed only to the Jews that we are to live within the Law of Love, but Cyrus had for himself decided that it was better to placate the different peoples who formed his Empire by letting them worship their own Gods, within their own cultures.

Paul knew that the Resurrection which confronted him on the road to Damascus was the Jesus the proclaimers of whom he had been authorised by the Temple to seek out and destroy. He had been part of this persecution in Jerusalem. 

Paul preaches the power and the glory of God, but most of all Love. Although he never uses the word "Trinity", he believes in three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit which are always together as one God of Love.

Humanity damages itself today as always by not thanking God for the wonder of "being". This has lead us into the self satisfaction that is "pride". There is nothing that we have done with created matter that can match the first creation out of nothing of which we are a part.

Despite everything that God had shown over the centuries to the Jews of two thousand years ago they still did not live by his Word. They had turned the Law of Moses into a sham of hypocrisy and ritual excesses.

God has never given up on us. The manifest Glory and Power of the man Jesus threatened the self love of the Priests. His words troubled them even though they read many of them every day in the scrolls of the Law. The Incarnate Son cannot be trapped by casuistry from any source.

Even though, Jesus always speaks without guile, "a spade is always a spade" for him, Bishops, Patriarchs and Popes very soon began to mingle their responsibility for maintaining the newly created Sacramental Being of the Altar with the political affairs of "Caesar". 

We should all be aware by now that "The Kingdom is not of this World". Jesus taught  that in it there is a place for all of us. The things of this world will all corrode into dust as will our own bodies. The Father creates and knows the eternal soul of each of us, the Sacramental presence of Jesus feeds us throughout our lives and the Holy Spirit is the fire of Love which is God and to be shared with and by all of us. Amen

Dear Lord, let me truly thank you for life which is a gift without measure. Your power and glory are for ever and it is your wish for all to conform to your will and become a part of your Eternity. May Mary and all the Saints support your clergy that their hearts become devoted only to you with true care for the souls entrusted to them.

 21/10/2023

We must not disguise our faith in God. We are to live in this world but not give any value to its Godless standards. How do we declare our devotion to Jesus in the presence of men? I am trying to do it now but nobody reads this record of my morning prayer. 

God knows that many have tried to put Jesus' words into practice. Many who did so in the past were persecuted by the institution that the worshipping community founded by Jesus on St Peter and all those who had known him face-to-face in this world, has become.

The followers of heresy were not all wiped out by persecution. Some continue to display contempt for the standards of this world and live by the teaching of Jesus in the privacy of their own homes or in communities in isolated locations throughout the world. God save them!

"The Holy Spirit will teach you what you must say". What we all were able to see at the public enquiry into institutional cover-up of crimes by clergy against children was the humiliation of prideful prelates. One half-second of thought is enough to tell us that using anybody child or adult for sexual satisfaction is against the will of God and if not instantly acknowledged as such cannot be forgiven. 

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are total Love beyond our comprehension. The Incarnation is the confirmation that that Love is mercy. Jesus, the Son of Man, is One with Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the forgiveness that accompanies sincere repentance for sin, even for his executioners, but today he also tells us that the sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven.

Dear Lord, today I can witness the power of nature throughout our land. God save those who are suffering from events much worse in other parts of the world. Jesus, Son of Man, You have fulfilled the Father's will, and given us all hope of heaven. We cannot sin against the Holy Spirit if we remain true to You. All salvation comes from You but we must seek it out with sincerity. Mary, your mother is the perfect example of created humanity and it is her prayers for our protection against all sorts of sin that can bring forgiveness and the fullness of redemption for all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory.

20/10/2023

Today's readings give the support that I know that I need in my life. 

"Good deeds" is a bit  overpowering. For me it becomes avoiding my obvious, even to myself, sins. For St Paul it was certainly much more. He was helped up from his encounter on his way to persecute the incipient Church in Damascus and, never-looking back, he preached the Gospel until the day he was beheaded. His life became a "good deed".

Our Lord cured the sick, fed the hungry taught us how and why  to pray. Those are good deeds that we all can repeat but his ultimate "good deed" is that he is God incarnate in the same physical body as we are; he is begotten, lives and dies to become the Resurrection. 

Our all-powerful, ever-greater God knows us all. The "tuppenny sparrow" and hairs on our heads are always present to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He knows exactly what a human being is capable of and teaches us by his example.

I may doubt my own integrity and capabilities;  I have sufficient memories to so do.  Jesus, however, knows me in greater depth than I know myself. He tells me that he is my refuge and that we all can know the Joy of Salvation. I have to believe him for the man who preached throughout Palestine and suffered the agonies on Calvary is God.

Dear Lord, you know that I am a weak and fragile follower of your way. Let me know and be consistently thankful for the joy that your words bring to me. I have never been justly dealt with for my sins. Let me accept whatever punishment they deserve that I might look on the heavenly joy that is known to your mother and all the saints. May they pray for me as together we unite in prayers for all sinners here on Earth and in Purgatory.

 19/10/1923

One of the questions that trying to live our lives as God wants us to brings up the question which St Paul tackles in this morning's first reading. How can God deal justly with the souls born before the final revelation, which has been with us for the last two thousand years, for they include not only the chosen and guided ones but pagans too.?

I could say that we just have to accept it as the will of God for the ways of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not man's. At one of the Diocesan Assemblies that were fashionable in the UK around the turn of the century. I heard one Bishop, now an Archbishop, issue the opinion that even though we were not happy within the Church as she is today, we have to accept her for what she is as what we have is the will of God.

St Paul asks the question "Is God, the God of Jews alone and not of pagans too?" The Church that grew out of the peaching of St Paul and the other Apostles was quite soon compromised by administrative needs. Jesus had rebuffed the mother of James and John when she asked for favoured places to be reserved in his Kingdom for her sons. All the Apostles had quarreled about their status.

The Church had to guard the Sacramental new way of being created on Earth by the Son's Life Death and Resurrection. It was to do this by holiness. Each individual has the responsibility to live by obedience to justice and mercy, to thus bear witness to the Love of God through  human love for each other.

There is only one God. Is it his will that human society worship Mammon and Venus before him? Is it his will that his Church fail in her duty to confect and guard the Sacramental holiness that is the only reason for her being. Can I live the life of Faith outside of the Human Institution that Christ's foundation become very quickly after he ascended into  Eternity , Father Son and Holy Spirit?

Dear Lord, I cannot do any better than this. I try to ponder your ways and live without sin. Help me to remain secure in the knowledge of your Loving Mercy. Help your Church to read and preach your Scriptures and defend all Clerics from the attachment to worldly power that has always been the downfall of the hierarchy. May Mary, who asked for herself nothing other than to be doer of your word, became the bearer of your body both in birth and in death,  lead us all today in praise and in humble supplication for peace on Earth and forgiveness for all sinners both us the living and those waiting in Purgatory.

 18/10/2023

Dissent and division have accompanied the Church since the very earliest days. The fact that Paul mentions the trouble making copper-smith by his name indicates that his dissent had to be taken seriously. Some of us leave the Church for the same reasons as Demas. The complete collapse of public worship in Europe is certainly another "going to Thessalonica" for former followers of the way prepared by St Paul.

St Luke stayed with Paul and was a "friend of God who made known the glorious splendour of his reign". There is no complete scholarly agreement about the men who actually composed the books of the New Testament. The books that we now consider to be the authentic message of Father, Son and holy Spirit to support us in this world were codified in the fourth century as a measure to combat heresies which had grown along with the Church.

None of the evangelists name any of these 72 who went ahead of the Lord to prepare the way through Palestine that Jesus intended to take. The message that they had to proclaim was that the Kingdom of God was near to them. They would undoubtedly talk about the miracles that they had witnessed and about the "aura" of the Lord which attracted "multitudes" as a magnet draws in iron-filings to itself. The Resurrection was to prove the truth of their proclamation "The Kingdom of God is near".

Dear Lord help me to sincerely live according to your will for me. May my penitence grow greater as my sins get farther and farther behind me. Let me accept your Word in humility and ponder it throughout this day. May Mary and all the saints of heaven pray that the violence that always stains your homeland with blood come to a halt and that you accept the unjustly slain into your peace. Let that "peace" carried by the 72 finally come to rest to make your chosen ones live in a truly Holy Land.

 17/10/2023

This morning I am determined not to repeat the mistakes of yesterday so I have got up early enough to use the peace and quiet of morning to calm my mind and heart, to begin the day by the knowing, loving and serving which were missing from my life yesterday.

St Paul is more of an Old Testament prophet today, although he knows that it is Christ of the Resurrection that fills him with new life. He condemns the idolatry of the pagans. If I were there I would remind him that God did choose the Jews to be the first to receive the revelations that make our lives on Earth meaningful. The Jews definitely had an advantage over the rest of us. 

He condemns the intellectuals, the philosophers of his day but they too had denied the "Gods". It was only Julian in the fourth century who was able to make  paganism into Religion. He had received a very well founded Christian education along with Basil the Great. God works in mysterious ways.

Jesus, as he does throughout his life, condemns the scrupulosity of the Pharisees who, true to form, blame Jesus for not washing before eating. If it were the custom of the Jews to eat from the same plate as each other washing before eating seems to be an understandable norm. But Jesus continues to condemn the "religious" who know all the rules but have lost the spirit.

St Paul blame the pagans for their response to the wonder of the creation. Seeing the wonder of creation all mankind should cry out in praise of such a great work and realise that there is one God who name it all. The psalmist got it right. The heavens do indeed proclaim the the Glory of Lord but God called only the Jews until the Incarnation of the Son proclaimed the ever greater glory that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord I am always in need of ever greater forgiveness.  Thank you, cannot be enough for your great mercy but it is all that I can say. May the  prayerful communion of Mary and all the saints of heaven unite with ours on earth to defeat sin on Earth and your Mercy to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Dear Lord save the pagans who are also known to you and who cannot be blamed for ignorance.

 15/10/2023

The first reading fills my mind with the goodness of God. The mountain is the superabundance of our Creator God who is touching our earth with only good things, a superabundance of the goods of creation. Isaiah is inspired by his inner vision to give glory to God for the greatness of his creation.

The song of the Shepherd King gives praise to God for the peace revealed by his care. All Christians have to love this image of the Good Shepherd and we all know that it is Jesus who carries the crook and staff to guide and protect us. 

St Paul who well knew the God of Power and Might, the IAMIAM revealed in the scriptures had had an Earthly encounter with the Resurrection, the Incarnate, Son begotten not made. He had literally been blinded by the Light of Christ, recognised the authority of the Father and filled with the Holy Spirit.

From that time he was propelled into his mission he lived the life of Christ which he recognised in his being. He thanks the Philippians for their gift but is not being ungracious when he tells them that the Christ in him is all that he needs.

It is a reminder of how Jesus himself did not stop his preaching just because his family wanted to see him.

Today's parable is familiar to all Christians. It explains how it is that Jesus was present with the people of Israel in the first century of enlightened time. God is not to be ignored and even though  the chosen guests refuse their invitation we who have been dragged in from the highways and byways have to be also ready in our souls for the call of the Lord.

Dear Lord, help me to accept you into my heart so that I may pray with integrity. You know how a petty annoyance has so distracted me that I am ashamed to continue as I am forcing prayer and not feeling it grow in my heart. May Mary, Theotokos,  who carried you as a human mother pray that I may calm the distractions in my soul and walk calmly behind you into the peace you have created us all to know and enjoy. You are the Good Shepherd.

 14/10/2023

As I read today's mass readings I had to ask myself, "What do I think I am doing beginning each day in this manner". The passage from Joel is yet another warning that IAMIAM is all powerful and ready to take action against those who are enemies of the Chosen People.The Psalm is  another paen of joy in the Justice and Goodness of God . The one line gospel passage is a lone voice of praise for the created being, humanity, Jesus which the Creator of all that is real has accepted to become from the moment of conception to the death on the Cross.

In my brain which, hopefully, controls the typing fingers at the end of my arms there are all sorts of things stored, my knowledge. That knowledge has come to me from my senses which are the guardians of my body. These senses are what I share with all animals. 

"Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts which you sucked".  

The answer, that is still coming to me, to the question that I asked myself this morning and most moments of the day is that I am doing this because the Lord, Our God is great and full of compassion and I am trying to pray. IAMIAM has, out of love for us, done for us the unthinkable. He has become a mammalian body in a human womb to be carried  by a human mother, to be born, to live as do all humans and to suffer unimaginable pains and death. He has thus reveled to us the Trinity of his being and the meaning of our life.

The meaning of the awareness of being that is the life of  my soul is that God became man and has given us the means to avoid sin.

Hail, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus! 

Dear Lord you know that I was feeling pretty good as I struggled to find the words to express the message my soul has found in these my end times. Forgive all my sins and help me to achieve integrity and love for You and all your creations including those who are continuing to slaughter humanity. 

May Mary's prayers bring some of the Holy Souls to paradise this day and may she continue to lead all the Saints in prayers for all the World that we may use the grace won for us to live as Father, Son and Holy Spirit would have us live in this world to be ready for the Spiritual life that will be ours to the end of time.

 13/10/2023

On this feast day of St Edward the Confessor it could be said that the way in which we live out our lives today does not bear witness to God. 

The entrance Antiphon could be interpreted as saying that it is impossible to be alive without doing the will of God. This is not true for in life there is always sin created by the misuse of the freedom within us. 

The grand arrogance and cynical violence in the service of Mammon displayed at this moment  by the successors to the chosen ones of God and their opponents in Palestine is an obvious denial of "Within your will, O Lord, all things are established and there is none who can resist your will".

We are all confronted with the problem of evil when we become victims of violence, natural or man-made. Why me? Why does God allow floods, earthquakes and the man-made violence of war to litter this world with the dead and dying?

Jesus teaches us that the "Golden Rule" is the only way to live the Holy Life, the way to the eternal moment of heaven that his life and resurrection reveal to us. The sages of the Old Testament knew this but their religion became too wrapped up in its own accoutrements and became not the Word of God but some "man-made thing".

The Apostles had ample warning from Jesus that the Kingdom was not of this world, but very soon the Popes and Patriarchs were acting in the image of Caesar. Today the Church celebrates the holiness of the last Saxon King of England. His life was holy. He lived to serve God even though he was a King.

The rulers of the Church, contemporary with Edward, were so corrupt in Rome that the name Pornocracy has been coined to describe the baseness to which the successors of St Peter had fallen. This disgrace was not achieved by fulfilling the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit but by the free perversity of mankind. We can all stop it by living without being corrupted or corrupting by individual sin which is the source of all evil. We and the angels are the only ones of God's creation who can sin.

"Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from our own created evil." Amen

Dear Lord,  Help us to alleviate the suffering that seems to be inevitable for all the Arab nations. I am sorry for forgetting that you know the truth and integrity of every individual soul. Let me pray only for myself to be able to accept the grace that is offered by you "Our Father" and to everyone as the individuals you know each one of us to be.

 12/10/2023

In this morning's Gospel Jesus tells us that God is always aware of what we need. Malachi tells us that, although the arrogant seem to be the blessed of this world in that the ones who ignore the Lord have all of the riches, there will come a day of reckoning.

Jesus points out to us how persistence in prayer and centering each day on obedience to the ten commandments is obedience to the will of God. We all have to live in the world and our lives are a succession of deeds. 

Jesus' persistent message to us is that the "Kingdom is not of this world." The Universe in which we live is not the limits of what God has created for us, or for which we have been created. We can be responsible for our own deeds for it is we who decide to give our children good things and keep them safe from the harmful "scorpions" of this world.

Today the Son tells us that the hands of the Father are permanently open to give loving care to us his children. As we knock and receive it is the Holy Spirit that touches our being with the saving grace created anew on Calvary. Realising that this is the true meaning of our lives we can only bow our heads in awe. "Hallowed be they name".

Dear Lord, let me remain true to these words and the spirit of which they are a reflection. Let me be one with the Church in raising my heart and mind to you. May, my prayer join with Mary's and all the saints' asking that all the "arrogant" fighting for themselves in Palestine remember that God is Evergreater, greater than Islam and greater than the "Shema" of the "Chosen People".

 11/10/2023

God is Our Father and is thus ready to forgive our sins. Jesus tells us that to pray we have to acknowledge God as Our Father. 

Everything that makes up this universe, in which I am smaller than RNA in any virus, is  produced by God. In his Triune Being he is Evergreater and the word "Love" is the nearest anyone can get to understanding the being which knows each one of us as an individual;  the same way we all know our selves.

Jonah has become petulant with his father. He is fed up with the way the Lord is using him. Strange journey to huge city, the comfort of shade here and gone in the night, scorching hot wind. "I might as well be dead" is his reaction to God's Providence. 

Each one of us is known to Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the same way as Jonah was. The phrase "Quiet desperation" has been used to describe the way most of us live out our lives. Jesus' Resurrection transforms that stoical acceptance of life into Hopeful Joy.

We all have to become prophets and keep God foremost in our lives. We have to live in awe of the Greatness of God and pray. Pray even as did Jonah in the dust and Jesus on the cross.

"Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven"

Dear Lord, let me become free of self-satisfaction and let my soul sing with the joy of knowing you. I know  that words do nothing for you but for me they are the only way of expressing the longing and regrets that my sinful life has been. May Mary and all the saints continue implore for you to show Mercy to all the souls who are, even as I write, dying as a result of mankind's blindness and deafness to the message of the Resurrection.

 10/10/2023 

"if you should mark our guilt who should survive". Is there anyplace on our Earth where we can live without being conscious of the sin that is flourishing now or has flourished there in the past?

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are Love in their eternal communion. We are to be witnesses to that Love and freely accept it to rule our lives as we strive after the perfection that is following the way of Jesus.

We cannot guess how many are being killed in the Middle East today. The source of Civilisation the land between the rivers, the Indus Valley, the Nile Valley have been soaked with blood throughout their histories.

Yet again Palestine, the land where God revealed himself to unlettered herdsman as  "Being" in its entirety; where he had first created out of nothing the human soul, the "being" in his image and likeness, where everything he made was "good" is ruled by the devilish desires of men who have refused the loving intercession of the Son of God our only redeemer and Resurrection, the complete final revelation of our Lord, our God. 

They are all sincere these leaders. They are not hypocritical in their way of life. They are full of hatred and prove it by their deeds.

We have failed to live by the Word, incarnate Son of God, since the moment that we and the successors to the Apostles and Evangelists, our leaders, stopped sitting at the feet of Jesus and lead his Church, the visible sign of his spiritual being, away from the Kingdom of God into the world of Mammon supported by the evil of Mars.

That happened very soon after the Martyrdoms of Peter and Paul.

Dear Lord, help me to overcome all that keeps me away from the devotion shown to you by Mary and may both she, her sister and brother be with you in the eternal reality that you have made known to us as the meaning of our lives on Earth. May Mary, your mother, in the joy of your presence in the Glory that is Your Kingdom still be mindful of the sinners on earth who are so desperately in need of physical and spiritual grace and care. I pray that the light of Mercy can greet the thousands, killed by the injustice of men, who will today stand before you the Just and Merciful Lord.

 09/10/2023

Jesus is a man in the world. All of his words and actions are telling us how to live our lives in righteousness. Righteousness means conforming to the revelations of God's Will for us as individual souls. 

Jesus is the Resurrection. Jesus is the perfection and new life of the forgiven Adam. He is the message that we can all live by  so that when the event happens and our lives end we can be ready.

Today we who are far away from the death and destruction that is befalling so many people in the land where Jesus walked and in the Mountains of Asia have to pray for the souls who are answering for their lives before we do.

Jonah is one of the many messengers inspired by the Holy Spirit whose words  have been ignored throughout history. Most of mankind is still living under the impression that what happens in the world is predetermined by God. Today the sailors draw lots ( have a raffle) to find the guilty one who is being attacked by his god.

The victims of natural disasters are all living in dangerous places which have a known history of instability. The dangers inherent in the location are exacerbated by man's greed to exploit God's creation. The dead and injured are not  random or targeted victims of God.

 The victims of war are all the victims of men even though some of them use a name of God as their war-cry and others have consistently rejected the messengers whom the landlord repeatedly sent to the vineyard. There is not one of the fighters or victims living and dead who do or did not have the completely free-will that is part of the created being that is human life.

Dear Lord, let me be open to your grace and  live this day without sin. Let me prepare for my death, which is getting ever closer, by prayer and atonement for sins which are getting ever vaguer in my memory but which are still an affront to your infinite goodness. May those fighting in Palestine come to their senses and know that no matter how their ancestors faced off against each other their only right action is to care for each other for all men are brothers living in sight of God. 

 08/10/2023

Is it the will of God that today men are indiscriminately killing each other? I often think about the Providence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and ask myself whether or not the events in real time that we all experience in our daily lives all happen because God wills it so.

The fathers and grandfathers of the today's Israeli fighters suffered one of the greatest injustices of History. Was Auschwitz the will of God? Is the modern state of Israel doing the will of God? Is there anywhere in the world where true Righteousness can be found?

Yesterday I was at war within myself as a result of not being able to understand Ebay charges. (pathetic!) I was really messed up in my soul and mind by petty sums of money.(pathetic!) My pride hated to be the "loser". (pathetic!)I knew that it wasn't right for me to pay for services I had not intended to purchase. (pathetic!) I was angry.(fatal and sinful!)

God's will is for each individual soul who dwells on earth to live by the rules of his love. The Palestinian attacks which triggered yesterday's killings in Israel were neither motivated nor allowed by God. They were the result of angry men deciding that they would do something to alleviate the injustice that has been the norm of their lives since 1947.

The Kingdom of Heaven begins in the hearts, minds, the souls of each individual. Jesus teaches the true "way" is non-violence. War begins as anger in the hearts of men and it is this anger that adds to the suffering of this world and to the pains endured for us on the Cross.

Dear Lord, let me live this day in peace and hear my prayers and all the prayers for peace being offered throughout the world. May Mary and the first disciples who have seen their homeland ravaged throughout history plead with our Father to be seen to intervene in the present conflict and let the Church founded on St Peter with you as the corner stone purge itself of all that is not pleasing to you.

 07/10/2023

This morning I have read the mass readings but I am still full of the cares of this world and cannot overcome the mental disturbances that have been caused by not being able to solve problems with ebay charges.

In the world of Mammon the charges are very little but I am hit in my pride that I have made mistakes. This is not a hypothetical situation for me. I am not able to find the peace that I usually do when trying to understand the message of the scriptures.

I often wonder how it is that the cares of this world so captivate  people that they can live without giving God a thought. These last two days have pretty much answered that. Even though my will is trying to overcome the thoughts of invoices, overcharges and labels. They keep on coming back.

There is no pleasure in this turmoil of stupidity. I am not acting a role. I have been trying hard but have easily fallen away from the peace that comes from Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Today's mass to celebrate the Rosary began with the message of an angel. I will repeat that now with a plea for help in overcoming this miniscule problem which for me is a mountain that my faith is not big enough to move. 

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen

Dear Lord you know. Please help me this day. Amen

 05/10/2023

In the first reading Nehemiah conveys to us the great joy felt by all who were present in the  Square before the Water Gate. He names scribes and priests but the image of the "people" calling for the scrolls to be read and then rejoicing, eating, drinking and having fun because they had heard the Law read to them captures the imagination in the same way as does Breughel's' paintings of Mediaeval life. 

This happiness in the Law makes me wonder how it was that these " Holy People", joyful in thanksgiving for the freedom to be enjoyed while living  life in obedience to the will of God, sinned to the extent that the only way to atone was for the Word to become man and offer himself as the Perfect Sacrifice.

In the Gospel, St Luke writes of seventy-two disciples who were sent out to prepare the way of the Lord. These are not named but would have been known to Jesus. If 72 is a real number and not akin to "a couple of dozen" i.e. an vague indication of more than single figures the "multitudes" of all the Gospel narratives were indeed approaching the "five thousand" who were fed on the mountain.

The only text that they could have preached was their own belief in Jesus the man. "We have found the Messiah". St Francis repeated the missionary poverty of "no purse, no haversack, no sandals" but his message was of God incarnate, babe, cross and  Resurrection.

Dear Lord, how can it be that it is so easy for me to sin when you have revealed all that there is to know about how to live as your children. Your life is the only way that we need to follow. Help me to put myself into your shoes and subjugate my ego to the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thy will be done. Amen.

 04/10/2023

Today's readings are about cooperating with the will of God. 

We are all called to live a life that is a fitting recognition of the Love that the Lord lavishes on all his creation. "He saw that it was good".

We are all to respond to God's creation of each one of us "body and soul" with joyful thanks even on a dismal, British downcast autumnal day.

The main characters in the Old Testament were called to be seen to act for God in his Providence. But there were millions of unnamed who were known to God just as much as were Noah, Abraham and  Nehemiah of today's first reading.

I feel sorry for St Francis as his vocation was soon hijacked by the Institution which constructed a Basilica over the poverty of his abandoned chapel. He did nothing for fame but tried to live his life not as an anonymous Christian which meant accepting visible poverty as the indispensable companion for love of Christ.

Jesus told the man that he and his disciples met on the road that to follow him meant to have and expect nothing along the way. Our social obligations have to take second place. The way has to be as straight as a well-plowed furrow.

Dear Lord, help me to shake off my attachments to the world as does a dog shake off the rain from its fur. St Francis teaches us to love all Nature. Animal life is your creation as are the mountains and the ocean. It was in a desert that you faced the devil as a mortal man and refused to release yourself from what was to come. May Mary's prayers together with those of St. Francis and all the saints aid us in human time to continue forward in your Love with the hope that we will not deprive ourselves of your Mercy and will be able to accept the punishment of Purgatory for the sins for which we cannot atone in this life.

 03/10/2023

A Moslem colleague once said to me that the most outstanding thing about Jesus is "Turn the other cheek".

There are some sects that have tried to turn these words into the reality of their lives on Earth. Nobody can say that these people are wrong but, the Church founded on Peter has condemned them as heretics.

Jesus completely denied a place for Mammon in the Temple. The driving out of the money changers from the Temple is the only violent act recorded of Jesus. Our Crusader popes even had promised a plenary indulgence for those joining the rabble that, inspired by greed for Mammon, sacked Constantinople.

In the morning of the Crucifixion Jesus told Peter to put his sword back into its scabbard. "He who lives by the sword will die by the sword". Since then Popes and Bishops have blessed armies and the weapons of war.

St Augustine was gifted with an amazing intelligence and was able to develop the concept of a "just war". "He was too clever for his own good ". Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the person of the Incarnation accepted the unimaginable agony in the Garden and death on the cross.

In today's Gospel, Jesus rebuked James and John for their request to destroy the Samaritan village. He himself knew that the rejection of himself by some of the Galilean villages would not be beneficial for those villagers. He is not seeking revenge when he knows that the Temple of Jerusalem will be destroyed. 

God has always known everything possible that can happen in his creation. He has given us all free will which means that there are billions of possible outcomes for each second of human life. The events of world history are known by God in his timelessness but have never been an inevitably predetermined fate. 

Dear Lord, In your love for us there is no room for anyone to become an inevitable victim. But there are innocents harmed and killed everyday. May the hearts of us all be opened to receive your grace that ensures we make holy our time on earth and refuse to be guided by sinful men slaves of their own egos and supported by Satan. Your mother Mary witnessed your suffering may her call for us to care for all her children be answered today. May my sins and those of all sinners be forgiven and receive your mercy in the fullness of your justice.

 02/10/2023

We are all living on this Earth in the time allotted to us. We are thus given the gift of life and in our infancy become aware that we are not here alone. The creation of each one of us in time and space is the beginning of our knowledge of God's Providence and of our part in it. 

Our History Books record events of the past and Biographies tell of great men but the true History of our world which is the interaction of each one of us with his "neighbour" is known only to Our Father.

The disobedience of Adam and Eve was entirely their own doing. None of us are created to be damned. Each of us can chose to do the will of God. God makes himself known through the choices made by the Jews through whom he first revealed himself to mankind. 

What I am really trying to do as I think about the first and second returns to Jerusalem is to believe that Our God did not predetermine historical events that are behind us. I have no problem in believing that I am responsible for my own sins, but...........?

How could "Our Father" let his children unleash the horror that was the "Killing Fields" of Cambodia ? "Why were the "Gas Chambers" of Auschwitz even thought of? Military Strategist in London actually sat around a table in Whitehall and cynically took the decision to bomb the houses of the workers in German factories as that would be a more effective way to disturb wartime production than aiming at the factories themselves.

The land of the "Nations" was first cleared by the return of the exiles from Egypt and then by the return from Babylon. Today it is still being cleared by bullets and bulldozers but this time most of the settlers do not claim to be cooperating in the will of God.

All of the evil that has ever been in the world is the misuse by mankind of his freedom in God's Providence which allows us to be souls in complete freedom but with bodies only restrained by the laws of the physical universe. 

Mankind can only be true to God in the the individual beings of men. I am one of the same mankind as of all the saints. The sinners that are also within our midst can only be saved by their own choice. I am one of them too.

Dear Lord, May the final petitions of the the guide to prayer Jesus gave us be heard and understood by all the peoples of the World. Let not  the wonderous success of man in our world "lead us into temptation" and let each each one of us "be delivered from Evil" that we ourselves create by ignoring your Love. May Mary,Theotokos, lead all Saints and Angels in  prayer for the sinners on Earth to become as mindful of their iniquity and the vastness of your Mercy as are the Holy Souls in Purgatory. 

 01/10/2023

Yesterday I had to take longer than usual to complete each moment of my morning's preparation for the day ahead. I have to know that it is the "pagans" who babble and that even if my thoughts as typed  are confused and unintelligent that is not an issue, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit know the integrity with which I try to raise my mind and heart to Our Father.

Today the words of Ezekiel, the Psalm,  Paul and Christ are the complete history of faith and are eternally the Truth of God revealed on earth. 

Our personal sin damages the perfection of creation and God's Providence. 

The psalmist prays that God unfrees our will and takes from us the freedom that is the perfection of our being.

St Paul sings the most perfect hymn to the Incarnation.

Jesus tells us that the perfect human being does the Will of the Father.

I know that have typed enough for, although, I am intrigued to know happened to John's congregation, the clarity of today's readings needs to be pondered and acted upon throughout the rest of my life.

Dear Lord I understand the humanity of the plea made by the Psalmist. But You do not want us to be only the highest of your order of animals. We are  to be your image and likeness alive in Creation, living in worldly time. The words of the prophets were heard for a time. You know that I am fearful for the future of your Church on Earth as it seems unable to resist sinfulness. May my prayers be joined to the Heavenly Chorus in praise of you and in pleas for your forgiveness and Mercy for all repentant sinners living on Earth and in Purgatory.