30/11/2023

St Paul is writing today to the Romans, the congregation of believers that was founded by St Peter. St Peter in today's Good News  is literally minding his own business. He is working with his father and his brother Andrew by the side of the lake, when a stranger greets him and his brother with "Come follow me and I will make you "fishers of men".

They stop work and follow him.

We have to know from this that Jesus had an irresistible attraction for those he had chosen. They had not heard the Good News but they had an instant gift of Faith. St Paul writes to us via  his letter to the Romans that if we want to be saved into the Kingdom of God we must believe in our hearts and confess with our lips.

Not all those who met Jesus on Earth were converted to Faith as were these first Apostles. The rich young man went "sorrowfully away" and on Good Friday hundreds bayed for his death. God knows us all individually and offers himself to the whole world. He never forces us by his power but always offers us the choice to accept his Love or not.

I know my own heart and am thus ashamed of many of my deeds. We can only seal our personal acceptance of God's choice of us by showing by our deeds that we are followers of His Will. Father, Son and Holy Spirit knows the glory of Eternal Being. God knows the Joy of perfect freedom and offers us, his created image and likeness, a share in that freedom so that we can become like him. We are all living in time to prepare for the promised joy of Eternity.

Dear Lord help me to become part of your mystical being united on Earth with your mother and all the saints in heaven praying for ourselves and for the Holy Souls, who are awaiting in hope-filled atonement, to find the grace to open our beings to the Faith that will inevitably result in  the delight of your Mercy.

 29/11/2023

Jesus today gives warning to his disciples that they are going to face great difficulties in their lives as their commitment to Father, Son and Holy Spirit will force them to live lives in public opposition to the World. They will be attacked by their closest friends and families, by the religious authorities and by the state. 

There is no need for them to prepare "press handouts" nor have PR consultants, for, when they face public ordeals the Holy Spirit will give them inspiration to speak the truth that comes from God. They must not be afraid for God will not let them be reduced to Belshazzar's knee trembling panic as narrated in this morning's episode from the Book of Daniel and unfortunately repeated in our own lifetimes by witnesses appearing before the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in London.

The writers of "Daniel"are not recording an eye witness account. The hand was not greeted by a thousand mobiles recording videos of what they were seeing. They are writing an account of what was for them the Glory of God acting in human time to shape what they knew as the historical events of hundreds' of years previous to them.

The texts of our New Testament were not finalized as historical documents until the fourth century but they are historical documents recording the words and deeds of Jesus remembered and preached first in Galilee  then in Jerusalem and finally to the whole world,.

The Evangelists were either eye-witnesses or knew them personally. Peter and James' first Church began the interpretation of their experiences with Jesus. Paul had been blinded by the Resurrection and proclaimed the objective reality of that event built on the Faith he had in IAMIAM, a Faith which was becoming aware of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Today 29/11/2023 I am praying that I can pray in Faith Hope and Charity with an integrity that is trust in Creation, in Truth and in Loving Inspiration.

Dear Lord you have left us in your Creation which is becoming a more and more an overpowering World  devoted to the Mammon of materialism. Help us by Grace to remember that "the writing on the wall" has returned to dust long ago but your Word still stands and that the Grace won on Calvary is forever available directly from you and by the intervention of your mother and all the saints. May my prayers become with theirs the "faith that can move mountains" and let them together shower the world with the rose petals that brought relief to St Therese in the pains of her death. Amen

 28/11/2023

The forecasting of future events either by interpretation of dreams or astrology is one of the bases out of which empirical science has grown. All of us wonder about what our futures will bring to us. 

In the story of Daniel the writers know the history of Middle Eastern Empires and can construct, hundreds of years after the events, Nebuchadnezzar's  "prophetic dream" for Daniel to interpret and thus prove his credentials as an interpreter of dreams.

In today's Gospel reading Jesus looks at the Temple and forecasts its destruction. History told the writers of the Book of Daniel that the empires would come and go. We have no record that Jesus really did predict the destruction of the Temple as all the written accounts post date that event.

Predictions about what will happen in the world governed by human time are impossible to make for God has given each human being the freedom to make his or her own choice within His Providence that we are created to join. This freedom to choose  is what allows each of us to make our own personal story in time and prepare for the inevitable personal End of Time. The past results of all those individual choices is our History "what we will be in the future has not been given us to know".

Father, Son and Holy Spirit have Eternal Being. They live totally beyond our comprehension. The more we try to pin God down in our consciousness the less we know him for he is truly the Evergreater. The Universe came into being as the manifestation of the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Adam and and Eve are the "top of the range" of created being but by misuse of the freedom that is where we find our "image and likeness" they managed to bring sin into the perfection of our world.

The Jesus, the perfect human being, of today's Gospel knows that he is to flood the created being of the Universe with the Merciful Forgiveness of His Other Eternal Being. He knows that he must cancel sin and evil by becoming the Perfect Sin Offering that IAMAM although he refused that of  the perfect faith of Abraham, accepts to be the freely given Human Sacrifice of his Son, God from God, Begotten not made, of one Being with the Father, through him all things were made and with the Holy Spirit giver of life, Light from Light.

God has many, many names but although three persons only one vast, impenetrable Being which knows everything that is his created Universe. He knows us with Love. May everything that is praise his Name with thanks and joy.

Dear Lord my heart and mind has tried to raise myself to you but I know that there is that spark of self congratulation seeking to become satisfied. Let me be able to cancel pride and humbly become aware of your truth in my attempts to prepare myself for the Eternity that you have prepared for all your Children. May Mary who is the only human being to know the depths of your humility as she felt You the baby developing in her womb plead for evermore Mercy to be shown to all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory and continue to praise you,  with all the Saints in the timelessness that is Heaven.

 27/11/2023

The Book of Daniel is not written by any of the human protagonists. I have to say that because I remember very clearly that when a Deacon preached in our local church from this book many years ago he set the scene by referring to its composition date, about 200 years before Christ only to raise the ire of one of the congregation who stood up at the end of his homily to castigate "this man", one of the newly appointed "Permanent Deacons",  and all the others who denied the literal truth of the Bible.

We can all make mistakes. Yesterday I thought that we would begin the "First Week of Advent" today but, of course every week begins on a Sunday. 

Some years ago I too succumbed to anger in the same local church. I had written  a letter to the Editor of the main Catholic Journal of England condemning the modern practice of having Christmas trees in our churches, even in the sanctuaries. 

I had pointed out that the "Christmas Tree" is undoubtedly the symbol of "the commercialization of Christmas" and takes away the integrity of homilies warning us about "the commercialization of Christmas" when preached in front of a Christmas Tree. Our priest took my complaint self-centredly and put on a performance of righteous anger attacking  and condemning me from the ambo.

I am still ashamed of my response but still suspicious of the "Institution" not only because of the sinful corruption with which it is still filled but also of its historical performance. "Outside of the Church there can be no Salvation" but does the Vatican have a monopoly on the mystical body whose life-blood is the Grace created by its head on Calvary?

Dear Lord, you know that my heart has been broken by acknowledging the sinfulness of the Church. I am outside of the Sacraments but filled with hope that I can be given a place in your Mystical Body and that I really do pray with personal integrity and honesty. Your Mother is the source of your humanity and is "Our Lady". I pray that my prayers can be joined with hers and those of all the saints in "heart-felt praise of your Kingdom, Power and Glory" and that I can for today avoid adding to the sins of my life. Blessed, be God for ever.

 26/11/2023

Today's feast, Christ the King, begins the last week of our liturgical year. During his lifetime and even at his trial before Pilate, Jesus asserted that his Kingdom was not of this world. The Kingship that is celebrated today is  that of Father, Son and Holy Spirit's supreme power over the Universe. 

As we read those words we know  that God is truly beyond our comprehension and that it is only through the revelations of the Old Testament that the Apostles could begin to understand the teaching of Jesus.

Jesus told his disciples that he would go to Jerusalem where he would suffer and rise from the dead. His disciples were shocked and asked themselves what could be the meaning of "rising from the dead". We too have to ask ourselves what can be the meaning of "Kingdom of Heaven"?

Although the Church did not affirm the divine authority of the books of the Bible, Old and New Testaments, until the fourth century the orthodox belief that forms the rock on which the Church is founded came together within 30 years of the Resurrection. The Apostles were convinced that Jesus would return from "His Father's House" in their lifetimes.

More people are today living far better material lives than at anytime in the past. The beauty, comfort and hedonistic pleasure of living as "material beings" is suffocating our souls' awareness of the breath of the Holy Spirit. 

We can easily subdue the "still calm voice" that calls to us all. We cannot, however, subdue the ultimate power of Christ the King. In world-time he is our Good Shepherd but he is also the Just Judge who will decide our place  in His Eternity.

Dear Lord help me to continue to live this day in the peace that comes from avoiding sin. Let me know you to the ultimate that is possible for me. Let me begin to return your love and let all we sinners be halted by the prayers of Mary and all the saints. Let us and the Holy Souls wash away the sins of the body/mind and be prepared for your Kingdom by the Grace, Mercy and Love that is you "ALLINALL".

 25/11/2023

In today's first reading the war between those who refused to become "Hellenised" and the Jews faithful to God's revelation to them, is going in favour of the Jews. King Antiochus has been overcome by depression at the news that has reached him. The Temple has been freed from the "Abomination of Desolation" and is again protected by high walls.

Many had been killed during the war but going through the minds of the victors there must have been the joy of that is "I will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord". They were as happy as were the German people when Hitler triumphed in Paris in 1940. Five years later Hitler too succumbed to depression.

During the last centuries of the Old Testament the Rabbi's had not only existed in a cocoon of "Bible Studies" but had also been part of the human trend to think about what it means to be alive and to worship God. God's revelation to Moses had ensured that for them there were no personalities to be appeased; no Joves or Astartes. 

IAMIAM is the Creator and had revealed how each personal human being is somehow like him but is also totally inferior. Humans are to worship the Lord and prove that they do so by their deeds during their lifetimes. There is no clear teaching about how we are "image and likeness" within the books of Moses but by the time of the Incarnation there had grown two parties among the Priests and Rabbis. Pharisees believed in resurrection/eternal life after death i.e. our life itself is part of our likeness to our Creator, the Sadducees didn't.

Jesus brings the Merciful Love, that is the being of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and forgiveness of sins to the whole world and has risen to prove by his Resurrection that God's Love is eternal and that we can share in it by our own choice for we also have a share of God's freedom.

Dear Lord tomorrow we will close this liturgical year. Our Church really does follow and repeat your teaching. On earth you did condemn the Pharisees who knew the right way to pray and live on earth but of themselves many lived in hypocrisy. Help me to be part of the Church as founded in your mother and St John. John took Mary into his household. May I be joined in prayer with all who know and return your Love as did the solitary figures at the foot of your Cross and renew in the Institution the remembrance of the warning you gave in "My Kingdom is not of this world".

 24/11/2023

The deaths of Andrew and his companions in what is now Vietnam could have been avoided if they had apostatized. The friends of the Maccabees who tried to convince them that living would give them the chance to fight against their enemies had already accepted the Greek way of life and were deeply shamed by the stalwartness of the brothers.

The psalm is that composed by King David in celebration of the donations made by himself and the whole of the People of God and of the decision itself to build a palace for God, the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. His further comments make it clear that he knows that God has no need of their efforts for everything that they have donated has its origin in God.

Jesus drives the merchants and  bankers out of the Temple. He knows far, far better than King David that God has no need of anything. The Jews of the Old Testament had been guided by God to make sacred a place on earth and to worship there by sacrifice. They themselves had corrupted the Temple into a place of business. Jesus always condemns hypocrisy at any time and any place. He also supports the integrity of faith that truly follows his example. 

That Father, Son and Holy Spirit knows us is all that can matter to the souls he has created. All the thousands of nameless martyrs live on in the Eternal presence of God and we too can share the reward of their faith if we choose to accept the Grace created for us by Our Saviour and added to by their personal integrity, our share in the Holiness that is  God.

Dear Lord help me to become steadfast in my wish to follow your teaching and example. You know that I am weak and inconsistent in my behaviour. Help me to become steadfastly committed to doing your will and to put all of my trust in you. May Mary lead all the Martyrs and Saints in the unceasing prayer that it is to be in your presence that the Grace of Mercy drowns out Guilt of sin from all us sinners living on earth and in purgatory. Amen

 23/11/2023

God has created us to be part of the worshipping community which was at first confined to the descendants of Abraham. The pagan myths of east and west were man's attempt to find a reason for what each human then and now knew as the mystery of being. Rudyard Kipling's Kim would lose himself in a trance by pondering the name Kim (who) asking himself over and over again "Who is Kim?" This is still possible for anyone today.

All the peoples of the world searched for meaning in their existence. Each individual sought for understanding of himself an "I" in the midst of the natural wonder of the world and the teaming universe of the night sky. The search for worldly comfort and riches is revealed as futility to each one of us as he dies.

God chose to reveal himself as IAMIAM only to the Jews and gave to them the strict limits of how to live and use the goods of this world. Jesus is the ultimate revelation of IAMIAM. He is the Resurrection that is still with us which was first made to the Chosen People.

The message that "Death is not the end " was preached by Jesus to the Jews and non-Jews of Palestine and proven by the Resurrection, the apex of Revelation that has been spread throughout our world during the last 2000 years.

At the time of Abraham, God did not guide the pagans.  They were not offered the opportunity to accept or refuse. I know that all my sins are the result of own will. I have never been forced to refuse the Love of  Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Most of the Jews then and now, undoubtedly did refuse Jesus by their own choice. 

I am always responsible for my own sins, but Jesus offers unconditional mercy to those  pagans who hammered the nails through the hands and feet of the Saviour of the  World. "Father forgive them for they know not what they do". I pray that God neither condemns those unwilfully ignorant of his purposes or those whose mission it has been to go out to all nations and spread the good news.

Dear Lord your gift of individual freedom to all created souls is what makes us to be in your image and likeness. It is also makes us responsible. May I continue to be aware throughout this day that I am in your care and that you will defend me should I be assailed by the insidious attacks of Satan. May our Spiritual and your bodily mother continue to lead the Good Souls of Heaven in their prayer that the Holy Souls atoning in Purgatory and the Struggling Souls on earth my be forgiven and turn to you with the Joy that comes with your Mercy.

 22/23/2023

I don't think that "Maccabees" is accepted by the Rabbis as part of Scripture. Our Church chooses this passage for the obvious message that we must not accept the laws of Kings that breach the Law that comes from God. 

The last time the problems that arise out of conflict between  Church and State came up in the mass readings of the day, the Gospel was Matthew's version of the Parable of the Talents. Luke's version adds the reported treachery of the King's enemies to the basic plot of the drama but the essential story is still the same, although we are all equally allotted at birth.

We are created souls to live in the world. We are born into created time and space which is God's Providence. A rich/poor father and mother are obviously not the child's doing nor are they "fate". We are created as free beings and have to learn with the help of God's grace that this life has to be lived as beings in God's image and likeness, free but holy. 

When thinking about Matthew's version of this parable I came to the conclusion that our traditional interpretation is not right as the King goes away and leaves his stewards to their own devices. The hard and exacting King offers no guidance or care along with the talents. 

Our God is crystal clear about what he wills for us to be. He does not need us to build skyscrapers and spaceships. He has no need of Art. He hates sin. We have to be in our hearts as innocent as the babies who are being slaughtered in Gaza and aborted throughout the world.

Jesus the Son who is also Father, Son and Holy Spirit showed us how to live and organize our world. He is still present with us as the head of his spiritual Church on earth; the Mystical Body of Christ on earth; not Basilicas, Cathedrals,or Monasteries; not the lovely but empty parish churches that grace the European landscape but the still quiet voice of the Holy Spirit that we can with only a little effort hear and answer in our hearts.

Our "hard master" has not gone away deserting his people but is "hard" only against sin, the misuse of our freedom/talents. Our Loving Eternal Father pours out his loving mercy through the human blood of his Son crucified for us but now the free gift of the Resurrection which is to be shared equally by all of us to reject the world, the flesh and the devil.

Dear Lord you know what a mess of good intentions, thoughts and words I am. Let me find your grace and hold onto your hand that I may be guided on the right path through the snares of the world to the place you have prepared for me. May Mary who has never known the power of sin but witnessed the horror of its effects on Calvary, lead all our brothers and sisters who know you now face to face to pray for even more grace to flood the souls of sinners here and in Purgatory. Everything is possible for you but we can do nothing without your grace.

 21/11/2023

Today's Liturgical Feast celebrates the day Mary was dedicated to God in his Temple in Jerusalem. There is no record of this event in Holy Scripture but it is mentioned in noncanonical writing and tradition that has survived.

Mary is a created human being as are we all. We can say though, that she was there at the beginning with the Word, the first to be redeemed by the Cross for she was chosen to become the source of the humanity that was Jesus on Earth, in life, death and Resurrection. 

Eleazar was in his lifetime a teacher of the Law and became in his death one of the "Scribes and Pharisees" whose deeds become the teaching that we should follow rather than the hypocrisy condemned by Jesus. To join in the prevailing Hellenic culture was to deny God and to live life in praise of the pleasures of man. 

The words whispered to him by his contempories on the way to his execution are words of the ungodly which today are the great noise that is easier to choose and thus block our ears to avoid listening to the "still quiet voice" of our Saviour.

None of us can understand Father, Son and Holy Spirit for he is Evergreater. We see him in the action of individuals who are open to and obey his unseen presence. Our Father, however, knows each one of us and no matter how deeply we hide ourselves within  the "thousands that are ranged against me"  he can still find us, "for the Son of Man came to seek what was lost". 

Dear Lord, help me to live my life gladly in your presence. Let me sincerely know that my sins can be forgiven and that the moments when I feel that I am living in your will for me are the reality of my being. May Our Lady, your sinless Mother, Theotokos, help us to crush the serpents of evil that still threaten the holiness of her new-born children here on Earth and build up the hope that is the end of punishment for the Holy Souls.  

 20/11/2023

The Jews' relationship with IAMIAM was never constant. They recognised their "Hard Master" but oftentimes succumbed to the delights of pagan-living even to the extent of reverting to the idol-making that had so horrified Moses at the foot of Mt Sinai.

 In the first reading the scene is set for the drama of the Maccabees. Alexander the Great's Empire was short-lived but left a mark on the whole of the Middle-East. Historian's have called the process whereby many different cultures adopted Greek ways of living as Hellenization and Israel was not immune to this process.

I am always aware when reading the Old Testament that there were millions of other humans who were living at any of the " those days" in question but not receiving the grace of divine guidance through the prophets. Jesus too was aware of this for when condemning the Galilean cities he specifically compares them to Tyre and Sidon who would have welcomed him with open arms.

It is quite clear from the Incarnation that Father, Son and Holy Spirit knows how he wants us to live in the times we grow into from the moment of our birth. Jesus is begotten not made. He empties himself of the Kingdom, Power and Glory and chooses to become a living part of the Providence of God that we all are when living on this earth.

We know Jesus, the Resurrection, but to the Jews of his time on Earth he offered signs, his miracles. We attribute them to his divine powers but to the former blind man he says. "Go your faith has brought you recovery". The miracle happened because of perfect human faith ( the blind man's) and Jesus' perfect human (begotten not made) prayer to Our Father.

Dear Lord, I know that I am known to you and that I can ask for forgiveness and mercy. Help me to bring all others into your care and let the only other perfect human being who has not tasted the reward of sin but is with you in Eternity lead all the sinless and forgiven in prayer for the sinners here on earth with me and the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 19/11/2023

I cannot say that I felt glad when I saw the parable that is today's Gospel Reading. Parables such as the Good Samaritan, the Sowing of the Seed, The Foolish Virgins present and reinforce all that I have learnt about Jesus from his Life, Death and Resurrection.

I have always thought that God creates our souls equally able to live in the Providence that is our time on Earth. Kings are Kings and beggars are beggars but God Incarnate died and rose from death to bring God's grace equally to all human beings who humbly accept that they are sinners without pride in their own person. In another parable,"Thank God that I am not as other men" is the condemned "gratitude" of hypocrisy.

I cannot see the Hard Master as Our Father who throughout our lives stays close and brings himself to us in Sacraments and the unseen grace of the Holy Spirit. This is harder than any of the other hard sayings of Jesus who brings us to the Kingdom by his own acceptance,"pro nobis", of torment and death.

The "hardness" in this parable is not the punishment for failure but that there was no guidance from the "Master". Our God has revealed himself over centuries and so we know what we are to do with selves/souls in this world. We have to worship God and treat our neighbours as ourselves even as did the Son of the Father. We have to carry our own crosses in the footsteps of Our Lord and can ultimately be sure of a welcome by the Master, Father, Son and Holy Spirit who is the source of Joyful Love for all his "children" to share equally.

Dear Lord, You never have gone away and left us to our own devices. We have been shepherded by your prophets and your Son has guaranteed salvation for all who seek it with sincerity. There are only two Human beings who have received a soul greater than the rest of us, Jesus and Mary. The Church you founded was built around Jesus and Mary and they are still the heart of the spiritual community of believers that is still also there, but hidden, within the Institution.

 18/11/2023

The writer of Wisdom becomes lyrical as he recalls with joyful praise the deeds that God has done for the people of Israel who are pictured as lambs skipping with the delight that being alive brings to all creatures. He treats Exodus as a "new creation" but that won't happen until the End of Time when Jesus returns in Glory to Earth not as an infant but as the "powerful warrior" he is in the Resurrection; Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Kingdom, Power and Glory.

Jesus short parable of persistence winning against cruel adversity is told to emphasise how we can display great courage and perseverance when dealing with the problems of our earthly lives. 

Job is the Biblical example. The History of Man on Earth is made-up stories of real men and women, our ancestors, trekking hundreds of miles through hostile terrain to take possession of what they considered to be no man's property. The indigenous were not powerful enough to be considered as having property rights.

The Incarnate Word introduces this parable on an optimistic note; "Pray continually and do not lose Heart". Today the building of "St Peter's" is commemorated in the prayer of the Institutional Church. We cannot be seen by "The Son of Man" if we have no greater signs of "Faith on Earth" than the "built environment" which will in time crumble away. Our Faith has to be in the centre of our beings as we welcome God and pray "Our Father".

Dear Lord, let me not ignore your warnings and neglect to share my belief in your Love with my family and friends. Let my personal behaviour throughout this day be "Faith on Earth" The first Church on Earth was you and your Mother hidden away in Bethlehem and in Gaza. there were no buildings to "house" your Love. May Mary's prayers be united with all the saints and sinners created by you to look into our souls with the sharp sword of grace and use it cut away all the dross so that we can look back at you without shame. Let me become a "good and faithful servant".

 17/11/2023

I only have to drive about a mile from my house and I can see the towers of Lincoln Cathedral. The Norman conquerors of England soon left their mark on the new realm that they had taken by force of arms. Force of arms that had been approved by the Pope. The successors to St Peter had soon forgotten that Jesus had  emphasised that the material of this world and its political systems was not to be trusted for it would all pass away.

Part of Jesus' revelation to the first disciples had been "My Kingdom is not of this world". Many prelates over the centuries have challenged the immorality of earthly rulers but I have heard of none who challenged themselves to divest themselves of their place in the Kingdoms of this world that the Institution based in Rome had created for them out of the first community of witnesses to the Resurrection.

Ezekiel is appointed to ensure that Israel stays true to the Word of God. He will fail in his duty if he allows sin to prevail within his community. By all accounts, St Hugh who built my nearby Cathedral was a man of prayer but he was born into the "Feudal System". Today's owners of the magnificent building that is a landmark for miles around have even allowed it to be used as a filmset for blasphemy. 

All of us exist in this world at different times in God's Providence. God speaks to us as individual beings and has made it clear that we are not to be overcome by the wonders that we experience. 

St Hugh and his congregations were men/women of the Feudal Age. Their world was different than ours. Ezekiel lived and worshipped in the Post-Exilic Age of Israel. His world was very different than ours. Jesus lived in the first years of the Roman Empire.

The Kingdom he reveals to us all is the everlasting real world of our never changing Father, Son and Holy Spirit that was the same for Ezekiel, Hugh and now for me. God be praised.

Dear Lord, help me to atone for my sinful life. Look not to my words but to my heart and help me to purge the sins that I have welcomed in the past. May Mary, St Hugh and all the Saints by their prayers support all of us who are trying to do your Will by avoiding the sins of World, Flesh and Devil. Amen.

 16/11/2023

The personification of Wisdom continues in the first reading today. The writer cannot find enough adjectives to express his feelings about "her". I don't think that Jesus ever revealed our God to be anymore that Father Son and Holy Spirit as God is always greater than any possible thought. 

He does speak of Angels as created beings but of "emanations of God" he says nothing. Wisdom does not exist other than as a characteristic of our created souls using our freedom to seek out God's will for us and displaying our choice by our deeds.

The parables of Jesus are all taken from the daily lives of his listeners. We can all listen to the familiar stories and recognise the message that still challenges us. We all respond with our own hearts and minds for God knows us as the unique "being" that we all are. When I read the Bible it is as the "I" of my "being" responding to the ever-greater "I" that is letting me become aware of His will for mankind. 

The very first Heresies with which the Church Fathers found themselves very quickly confronted  have their foundations in the philosophy and religions that were flourishing all over the Middle-East at the time of Christ. It was to protect themselves from accusations of secretly removing the dead body of Our Lord from the tomb that the massive stone was placed in front to prevent that possibility. Many people in our world today believe that this is what happened on the Sabbath after Good Friday.

"The "Kingdom of God" is among you". Jesus was himself present when he spoke those words. "When two or three are gathered in my name there I am" is his promise to us. "This is my body" is the continuation of his Bodily presence for all time.

The reason that I pray is to be open to the Grace of the Kingdom that pours out over all creation from the five wounds opened in Love for us on Calvary.

Dear Lord, let me never separate myself from thee again. My whole being reaches out for your Grace let my prayers be united with those of Mary, All the saints and the Holy Souls in Purgatory  as we pray together for all sinners to listen to your call for us to know that forgiveness is at the heart of your Kingdom and can only be had by sincere asking for it.

 15/11/2023

Today the writer of Wisdom directs his words at the rich and powerful, those who have power in the kingdoms of this world. Today there are many more of them than he knew of in Alexandria in the last century before Jesus walked the Earth.

For him the rich and powerful were the Kings and Generals( Pompey, Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony were contempories) who controlled armies and had the power to take what they wanted from the weak and the poor. He tells them that they too have to live lives that are guided by the the revelations that God has made to the Chosen People. 

He warns them that their wealth, power and pride are as nothing in the eyes of God the Lord of All and God will judge them exactly as he will judge the weak and the poor. We are all responsible for our own actions, our deeds. Perceived subordinacy is the unacceptable excuse of Auschwitz.

In our times there is a much greater variety of "Rulers of this World". We who live in political units that claim to be "Democracies" have to pray that we will not be held responsible for the wickedness imposed on us by the agendas, guided by the Will of Satan, of our Political Classes.

 The functionaries of Mammon manipulate our need for "daily bread" and preach hedonism as the correct way to live out our lives until our "passing". I know in my heart that I have failed to stand up to the Devil, the World and the Flesh the triune enemies of the Holiness of our Triune Creator, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and of us his created image and likeness, but still have Hope, for our God is Merciful and Compassionate.

Dear Lord, you know that your Creation is now as far from your Will as it has ever been. You know that in these moments I try to be whom you created me to be. I am totally in your hands and can only pray for your mercy. May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints bring Holy Wisdom into the minds of all sinners on Earth that we might change our ways, and Mercy to the Holy Souls who now know the stupidity of misusing their chance to be God's Children in the Glory of creation and are silenced by the greatness of God's loving Mercy.

 14/11/2023

No one can know the nature of God. Many have tried over the centuries. The Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament is not only the product of man's intellect as is Greek Philosophy, but has also the inspiration of God to guide it. 

In the first books of the Old Testament God is an immediate presence to the Chosen People. He is with them in the "Tent of meeting" and journey's with them to the Promised Land. His Glory is visible in the victories over the "nations" and especially in the Temple of Solomon. God's favour is revealed by the success of his chosen ones and dismal failure is the lot of the apostates.

The return to Jerusalem from Babylonian Exile is that of a changed Israel confined not to twelve but only two tribes. The Temple Sacrifices are the focus of their faith but Synagogues are centres of learning and the Rabbis, although not gifted with "prophecy", begin to develop out of their sacred scriptures ideas about the nature of God and man's relationship with him.

The first reading confirms Genesis and tells us that mankind is the image of God. We have an eternal being that is not God's but similar to God in that we have freedom to think, create and Love and we can become eternal. The Jews of Jesus' day were divided in their opinions about Souls and also about life after death.

The Baptist is the immediate precursor to Jesus but some of his listeners and disciples would have been aware of this Wisdom text composed only 50 years before the birth of Jesus and thus more ready than others for the teaching of Jesus. Martha, for example, already believed in the General Resurrection.

Forests have been devastated to produce the paper that has been used to write about Jesus. Intellectual satisfaction can soon become the object of what starts out as my sincere effort to understand "God and me" which is the most important relationship of our time on Earth. Today Jesus assures us we free beings have to recognise that we are all slaves of God and by faithfully sub-serving our own will to Father, Son and Holy Spirit we can become the virtuous beloved and loving throughout Eternity.

Dear Lord, may I be ever aware that you keep me in your Love. May I not be envious or jealous. May I accept your Will for me and let me place all my trust in you. May Mary and all the saints continue praying in support of all living in their bodies and of the  Holy Souls in Purgatory. Let me never become satisfied in myself and remain truly aware that the only virtue that I have is the gift of the Crucified Jesus.

 13/11/2023

This week's Collect prays for peace of mind and body so that we can open our hearts and minds to the things that are God's.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit is beyond our comprehension. IAMIAM revealed himself unlimitedly vast each day recorded in the Old Testament. The Incarnation reveals him as Jesus our friend and teacher to be known just as we know each other. He is the one who forgives his brothers and sisters more than seven times a day. With his Love in his heart we are to keep ourselves from sin and to reprove others.

I know that even as I type this prayer I am being assailed by thoughts and probings that thanks to the Grace of God and the support of Our Lady and all the saints I can avoid. God protect me from all obstacles, stumbling blocks that I can continue to find and manufacture in my daily life.

Jesus accuses no one. The "roaring lion that prowls about seeking to devour" can easily find its prey in me when my being loses the simplicity of heart that is the tiny of tiniest beings seeking to live in the light of God. We all are not a vast forest of Faith but we are the little "mustard seeds" that can be nurtured by the unending love of our Father. All we have to do is ask.

Dear Lord, you know the weakness that is the reality of my being. You do everything to help me to strengthen my hourly resolve. I know that you have saved us all and for me you have have broken the drunkenness that marred all my best intentions. I have indeed everything to be thankful for and pray that with the help of Mary and the Saints I can continue this day to be a simple one in the simplicity that is only truly known in your immeasurable Love.

 12/11/2023

The Wisdom that is praised in the first reading is the "fear of the Lord" that is yearned for in the Psalm. It is to live our lives in the secure knowledge that everything, including ourselves, is known by God. We live in time which is the result of  God's creation of the Universe. Each moment we live brings us closer to the end of time for each of us. 

Wisdom is the ability to live righteously in this world without succumbing to its attractions. Wisdom is to know that all of the material being that makes up my reality, myself and the objective reality of outside of me, will pass away.

No-one can know the, Father, Son and holy Spirit, except the Son in the ever greater being that is Trinity. Human Wisdom cannot contain the ever-greater Love that is the Creator, the Saviour and the Communicator. 

We all know ourselves. Human wisdom has thought billions of hours and written reams of paper  about ourselves. Jesus has lived, is living and will continue living in Eternal Time. He has written nothing except in the wind erased sand and yet is the source of all worthwhile "wisdom". 

If we don't strive after this wisdom that is the revealed Jesus and give ourselves over to the delights of the material world we will become the silly ones who went unrecognised by the bridegroom. Everything has been made clear to us. We can all do it. We can find the Joy and Rest that is the Eternal Being, our God.

Dear Lord you are the source of all that is good and an open door for all who seek "wisdom". May I become free from sin this day and as obedient to your will as Mary the human mother of our incarnate God. May the prayers of all the faithful, wise and foolish, be answered and let us see the Glory of God in Palestine again with an end to the killing which is human foolishness and overweening pride. Amen

 11/11/2023

The first reading of today's mass commemorating St Martin de Tours reminds me that I know so little of the Scriptures and am prone to mistakes out of my ignorance. I was very quick, yesterday to pick up on St Paul for not being willing to preach to those who had been converted by other than himself. I did not realise then that this letter was to the congregation in Rome that had been already founded by Peter.

We have to try to grasp the whole meaning of all the Scriptures if we are going to live according to God's revelation. If we took only the "hard sayings" of Jesus as the basis for our lives we would become not other Christs but loveless caricatures of the mankind created by God to do his will on Earth by knowing, loving and serving.

Jesus reminds me that I have not always been "faithful in little things". I have pilfered much from the things that were not mine and discounted that dishonesty by "never mind, everybody does that". There is so much shame in a life lived not true to God.

It is knowledge of my personal shame that makes it so hard for me to accept the Church's teaching that the Priest's role in confecting the Eucharist has to be that of "doing the deed" alone. Jesus did not cast out devils by using the power of Satan. He was there on the Cross as a totally human but personally sinless body carrying for us sinners the totality of the pain created by our sinfulness. Only God could do this but became man to do so.

We, however, are the  mystical body of Christ on Earth. There can be no hope of heaven without recognising Christ the head of this body as our Saviour. Did Jesus make promises to the Apostles as functionaries of an Institution or to us through them as individual souls united in the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

Dear Lord I am ashamed of all my sins and pray for the mercy that is the only way for them to be forgiven. I hope that my devotion to you brings me into the fold that includes Mary and all the saints of heaven and sinners on Earth and in Purgatory, sheep and goats. St Martin shows that looking after our brothers and sisters is the way we can do the deeds of Love for which you are the supreme example. Forgive me my sins and let the mass killings that is war be ended . Please do it for us as we are as much failures in doing your will on Earth today as were the Jews at the time of your Incarnation.

 10/11/2023

We can soon understand that in this morning's Gospel reading, Jesus is not promoting dishonesty . He is asking why we cannot be as astute about our heavenly goal as we are about gaining profit in this world. It is not as clear cut as most of Jesus sayings and parables because on the first level of understanding the hard master is also as human as the dishonest steward and so it is possible for him to be deceived.

In trying to understand St Paul's teaching I try to remember that he was completely a Jew, maybe a bit Hellenised by the culture which surrounded him from birth in Tarsus but a fervent practising Jew until shaken into the arms of Jesus when blinded by the Resurrection on the road to Damascus.

He has an unbroken belief that God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit is working through him but he also knows that he is now an instrument of God's grace on Earth, a priest of the New Testament. Saul had never listened to Jesus. He had never eaten a meal with him. He had never walked behind him either in the Temple or through the streets of Jerusalem.

God revealed to him the Glory of the Resurrection in which we are all to share and this vision completely overwhelmed him and became the daily source of his steadfast righteousness. It is this vision of what we are all to become that inspires St Paul. He knows that "my Saviour liveth" and Our Lord speaks to us through him.

I can only interpret  "I made it an unbroken rule never to preach where Christ's name has already been heard" as the pride in self with which we are all afflicted and of which we always have to be aware. St Paul, as were all the Apostles, is as human as are we all  and thus able to sin and himself as needful of the Salvation that was at the heart of his preaching.

Dear Lord only you and your mother are conceived without sin. All of us have to overcome the flaw that is in our being. May I accept the Grace that is freely available to strengthen my weakness and keep me focused on following the way you have revealed to all mankind. May Mary and all the saints pray that we all look for your Grace and follow your Word in faithful love and service. May your mercy be showered as were rose-petals of loving Mercy in the prayers of St Therese on all living and dead sinners. Amen.

 Today's readings are concerned with buildings which have been used for worship. They became by dedication to God, holy places. The last half-century of my life in England has witnessed the closing of many churches and chapels that used to be crowded on a Sunday but are now being converted into living spaces or other secular use.

Ezekiel's vision of what the restored Temple will be is a celebration of creation as God intended it to be. All goodness flows from God's chosen place on Earth and all levels of life flourish in the Grace that flows out from the Temple.

Our Lord Jesus is faced with the reality of his day. The Temple has become a centre for commerce both a bank and animal market and in this respect is no different than the pagan temples, the ruins of which capture our wonder and imaginations today. 

Here is another example of how the self-glorification of the institutional church founded to be the "Body of Christ on Earth"; the worshipping mystical body with Christ as the head; of one being with Mary and all the Saints bringing mercy to sinners here and in Purgatory lost its way even in its first centuries.

Jesus repeats many times that his Kingdom is not of this world. Today's feast celebrates St John Lateran. This Basilica was for centuries the centre of the Pope's Kingdom on Earth and is still legally guarded by treaties between the Italian Government  and the Vatican, the Pope's remnant of a Kingdom on Earth. 

St John's Lateran is one of thousands of awe-inspiring buildings raised to honour the Glory of God. How can we deceive ourselves that Jesus "Destroy this Temple and in three days I will rebuild it" has any need for it?

The function of Jesus' Church is to worship Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to care for the souls entrusted to the Church by God. Anything other than this was driven out together with the sacrificial animals and money changers on that day in Jerusalem where weeks/months later the whole face of the Earth was to be renewed.

Dear Lord, save me from my own pride and weakness. Let my soul ever be open to your Grace. Let me kneel before you a mindless and wordless supplicant, reliant only on your mercy. Let me join with  Mary and all the saints in prayer for all the dead and dying and may  both the killer and the killed receive your mercy. Let the voice of the Worshipping Church be heard. We all still have to live by the Law of Moses in every aspect of our lives. 

 08/11/2023

The world and all that is in it is given to us by God. The Love that God knows in the  Father, Son and Holy Spirit is eternal fruitfulness and we are given the opportunity to respond with a love that is totally directed away from ourselves. The reality of human life that I have known for more than 80 years and has been known by billions of human beings living and dead is God's Providence.

St Paul tells us how we are to respond to the reality of life. Our response is a single act of will. When "I love my neighbour as myself" I am fully aligned with the will of God and can only do good in this life. All virtue, righteousness, holiness begins with my unflinching acceptance of living, as did Jesus "pro nobis", for the sake of other people.

Jesus' words, deeds, charisma was such that crowds followed him wherever he went. Jesus was perfect in his humanity. He didn't have to be God to know that attraction to him could easily, even today, be only on the surface. The rich young man went "sorrowfully away".

He tells us to stop being the crowd that has attached themselves to him and know the truth beyond words that he brings to each one of us.  This is not the "light yoke". We have to put God first before anything that has been created. There are no excuses for sin. Even Love of family, the most innocent of worldly attachments has  to become hate, if it interferes with my commitment to the first commandment.

The words that Jesus directs to each of us are how it should be for every living soul. He is asking only for the perfection that is possible for every man. He is true man and true God. His words are clear-cut and they are truth but his deeds in life and death speak only of loving Mercy. Amen

Dear Lord your "hard sayings" are indeed hard but your life speaks only of merciful love. May my prayers be united with those of Mary and all the saints and seek your mercy on all those dying in willful ignorance of your word . May this day be without sin for me and with mercy for the Holy Souls. 

 07/11/2023

Jesus' words were first spoken to the Jews, the only race to whom specific revelations by God have ever been made. There were in the world at that time many sophisticated civilisations but God chose to guide only the Jews. It was in Palestine that God became Incarnate and it was a young Jewish girl who assented and thus became "Theotokos", Our Lady.

It is hard for me to understand God's neglect of so many other people. When Jesus forecast doom for the cities of Galilee he also pointed out that if the non-Jewish, Tyre and Sidon had heard his preaching and witnessed his miracles they would have been overjoyed by the meaning he was giving to their lives.

Moses had lead the Jews out of Egypt but they did not come as the first settlers into an empty land. The "nations" were groups of humans who were improving their lives by working on the land where they had been born or had themselves taken when there had been a lull in the face-offs between the conflicting Empires of their day.

The Old Testament approves the violence of the "Chosen People" (ethnic cleansing) as God's gift to them of the land "from the river to the sea". We have to contrast this Old Testament support for the Jewish State of their day with the consistent message "My kingdom is not of this world" given by Jesus in his New Testament

Dear Lord, hear my prayer for understanding. You know that the adversaries fighting in your Holy Land are trapped by a world that has never fully comprehended or acted upon your teaching and Incarnate Life, Death and Resurrection. May Mary who probably travelled to escape Herod's violence with Joseph and the Baby Jesus through the regions where today dozens are dying unjust violent deaths, lead all our prayers that Satan may be driven out of the combatants and that they receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Dear Lord hear my prayer. Amen

 06/11/2023

I really do lack self-confidence. I know that the words of St Paul are truthful and sincere. I know that I also want to be  truthful and sincere but I know that I all too easily acte in ways that reveal me as a sinful liar.

Paul teaches the Romans that today we can live virtuous lives because we were sinners. The mercy of Jesus was given to sinners. He did not come to call the righteous but to offer the mercy of our Incarnate God to the whole of humanity. St Paul  was filled with holy joy as he fully understood the depths of meaning in his own inspired words.

"How rich are the depths of God-how deep is his wisdom and knowledge-and how impossible to penetrate his motives or understand his methods! Who could ever understand the mind of the Lord? Who could ever be his counsellor? Who could ever give or lend him anything?

All that exists comes from him; all is by him and for him. To him be Glory for ever! Amen" 

This is not prayer willed by the mind. (I have to make a conscious act of will to turn my mind  and heart to God). It is the heart and soul of the Apostle being penetrated by the Holy Spirit and responding with joyful human love to the Love that comes from God.

Jesus speaks to the Pharisee but tells us all that acts of kindness to others have to be made outside of our circle of acquaintances who will return them. This is the second root of the religion of Jesus Christ. If we want to see "the depths of God" we have to put the needs of other people before our own. 

Everything about our life is determined by the way we freely react to the inspiration of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If I am confident in God I need not fear my weakness for Jesus has poured out the mercy of the Father and sealed it with the Spirit. This is not self - confidence but the confidence that God will give to all who seek it, as did St Paul, with our whole heart and soul.

Dear Lord, help me to choose the right way  to accept your will. I can pray for nothing more for myself . Let your Mercy smother out hatred and violence throughout the world. Let my family learn through my prayers that there is a lot more to life than the material world tells us. Let me become without anything else  a soul seeking your grace. May I know the confidence in myself that must be there because I do know with my mind that your Mercy is for us all but my heart is weak in shouting out this knowledge to the whole world

05/11/2023

When I start my day I sometimes feel self-satisfied as was the Pharisee who thanked God that he was not as other men. 

If anyone else were to tell me that I was a modern Pharisee, I would deny it and get angry in my self-perceived righteousness. At an AA meeting I once heard this as a definition of humility "Once you think you've got it you've lost it".

Words are important but what is much more so is the sincerity of heart with which they are uttered. Even now as I struggle with this keyboard I can feel self-satisfaction breaking through as I tell myself that I am getting closer to doing God's will, even though my efforts could be dismissed as pious platitudes. 

I have never had the worldly talents that win the respect of men. I am disgruntled that no others have come across this record of my prayer which is my soul before God. I do remember "Prayer is the raising of the mind and the heart to God" and this is what the wholeness of my heart is able to do now.

For me, the word "I" is always to be suspect but it is the only way that I can return myself towards the Father who art in Heaven. I am a unit of the being created in His image and likeness and as this person, truly known and Loved only by God. I do search the scriptures so that I can follow His revelation that  has been preached for 2000 years but has been much more rarely acted upon.

Jesus is straight forward in his teaching but he also knows that self-categorized humility is not far from self-pride. I always think of Dickens' fictional but really true Uriah "I'm everso umble" Heap  in this context."

Dear Lord, can anything be known more about you than the return of the prodigal son and about myself than the prayer of the publican "God have mercy on me for I am a sinner". You know me and know that my soul belongs to the spiritual body that began in the sorrow of Calvary, the Glory of the Resurrection and was sealed by the Holy Spirit. Your mother was always present during your life on earth may her prayers lead the whole Earth, Heaven and Purgatory in repentance for sin and unending thanks for revealing your will to mere children.

 04/11/2023

God knows everything there is to know about me. He knows that I am a weak but penitent sinner who knows that understanding His revelations is not as easy a yolk as the gentle Jesus declared it  to be.

St Paul is totally sure that the Jews remain in the Love of God because God has chosen them before time began. St Paul also is sure that it is the Resurrection that adds meaning to our beings.

I think that St Paul has missed the point that separates the teaching of Jesus from that of Moses. "My kingdom is not of this world" tells me that there is nothing in this World to which we should cling. The Church that he preached into being very soon became a human institution that put its own place in the world before the Mission it was created to fulfill.

God  always knows us in the reality of the"I/my" moment in His Providence just as he also knows the truly countless possibilities that have not attained reality. God does not create us to be damned. As image and likeness we have total freedom and each of is created into "our self" and preserved in our "I/my" being by the love of God who knows us only as individually free beings. We may place ourselves into categories, Jews, Gentiles, Christian, Moslem, British etc but to Our Father we are always David, Julius, John, Abdullah, Smith the named individual soul.

The overpowering glory of the Incarnation is not directed at any race or human institution but at the weak and lowly who are each of us promised a place with Father, Son and Holy Spirit in His Eternity. God's Providence is the reality in which each of us can respond positively to His call to each individual soul to live righteously as he did, never swerving from the Will of the Father.

Dear Lord, save me from the disquietude that troubles my soul. I feel that terrible events, of which there are still countless, should be prevented by you. St Paul was troubled in his heart by pondering the role of his "fathers" in the Crucifixion. You are God and I have to implore your help. You have not left us alone and I pray along with Mary and all the saints that all the souls of the world and purgatory receive your mercy and join you in the eternity that cannot be contained in my head but which must be loved by my heart.

 03/11/2023

When I try to think about God I too experience "mental aguish that seems to be endless". I can understand my  failure to express what I am seeking but I cannot match my understanding to His revealed presence. 

Thank God for St Paul who is so obviously continually "pondering" and preaching the Resurrection from the standpoint of a follower of the "Law". Would he really be ready to give up his place in Heaven to bring the "Chosen People" to salvation?

There is nothing "rhetorical" about Jesus. He is the "Word" who is always with God. He is the voiced "Love" that is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. His questions are not part of a philosophical dialogue between him and the Theology of the "Temple". Jesus' interactions with Pharisees are always fraught with the tension that ultimately breaks completely with "Eloi, Eloi lamasabachtani".  

In today's Gospel Jesus has accepted an invitation to eat at the home of a Pharisee. In the Middle East, even today, these general invitations are given out in the same spirit of hospitality that saw Abraham welcoming his mysterious guests under the oak at Mamre. Jesus has accepted the invitation but is aware that he is "a person of interest" to Temple Authority and responds with what is seen as a blasphemous attack on the Law.

Even today there are those who still have the same opinion that Jesus is a blasphemer. Jesus warned us that we are not to expect "Peace on Earth" for "My Kingdom is not of this World".

Dear Lord let the prayer of my heart be the truth of me. These words are nothing although sincere in their origin. They are from the limits of my understanding. May Mary's prayers to her Son lead all the Saints in the Eternal Worship and pleas for Mercy that condemn none of us but are the eternal hope of us, the living, and of the Holy Souls . May we all accept the grace that should be the centre of our lives. Let me make these prayers in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 02/10/2023

There are two moments in life when there is no doubt at all about the equality of all human beings. 

Today's readings ask us to reflect on the second of these. What will happen to me at the moment of my death? Those of us who have been present at the death bed of a loved one know that the dead body is no longer the living person whom we knew and loved.

The surrounding people, the bed, the room are still there unchanged but the corpse has lost the  being by which we knew our parent, child, sibling or friend. "The souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God." 

The Good News that Jesus brings to us is that there is an infinity of Merciful Grace to help us to become one of the "virtuous". His staff and rod are always available to guide the helpless weak individuals we all are at birth, through to the helplessness of the corpse we shall all become. 

Jesus reminds us that during our lifetimes no matter how the World judges us by wealth or status, we are always as equally helpless in the sight of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as we were at birth and will be at death. 

We are always mere children. We all have to walk in the footsteps of our "Good Shepherd" for he has shown us the way of virtue from the helplessness of birth through the feebleness of life to the helplessness of death.

He has not abandoned us to an impersonal fate but shown us how to live, "with joyful trust in God through Our Lord, Jesus Christ through whom we have already received our reconciliation."

Thanks be to God!

Dear Lord today as always I will ask your mercy to overflow into Purgatory and sweep out the penitents into the Glory of your presence. May those who do not have the peace and comfort in which to turn their hearts and minds to you at their moment of death be strengthened at that moment, which comes to us all, by the grace  prayed for by Mary and all the saints and which was released into Creation by the sacrifice of the Cross and the Glory of the Resurrection.

 1/11/2023

On this Feast of All Saints, the two first readings have been chosen for us to try to contemplate what eternal life will mean for us. The Apocalypse is a vision of the end of time. It is the imploding of Creation witnessed by John. 

All God's spiritual beings are brought before the limitless power of God and worship him alone. The human beings are the Saints who have already been purged by believing in the "Blood of the Lamb" and the Angels are what they have always been, guardians, messengers and instruments of "The One".

The second reading is much closer to our world today in that it is a discourse that can be followed to understanding,  rather than a naked vision. John is inspired by God to interpret the meaning of all that he has witnessed during his lifetime. He is speaking directly to us. We are all God's children now. We must put aside as worthless all our worldliness. We must be as pure as Jesus and forgo the approval of any being other than Father. Son and Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel Jesus, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, looks on the multitude that we are and guides us into holiness. The way to "blessedness" is written as a list but the steps are virtues that we need to  absorb entirely into our Being and in our human deeds show through them how we have accepted  the Eternal Love thus taught.

Dear Lord, May the whole of creation sing out in praise of You and all your Saints. Mary is a constant reminder that you have accepted true humanity and thus know all the strengths and weaknesses of we thy children. None of us can add anything to your Glory but we can all become part of it. With the help of thy Grace we can act in freedom to purify our hearts so that we are not obstacles but can become co-heirs with Jesus in the New Creation that will be the end of Time. I thank God that this is my prayer for today and may the spiritual union of the saints in heaven, lead by Mary, we sinners on Earth and the Holy Souls in Purgatory become stronger that the evils of the Worldly institutionalism  be overcome by the Love of God.