31/12/2023

I am aware that I can speak only for myself. I am, as are we all, a unique being, and I have, as do we all, a unique mission to conform my will to the teaching that is finalised in the life, death and Resurrection of the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus of Nazareth. 

There are millions of us who start this day aware and share this Mission to know, love and serve for we also know that our lives can be brought to perfection, we can avoid sin because "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that that everyone who believes in him will not die but have eternal life." We are saved ultimately by the Sacrifice of Calvary.

Today's readings are chosen to illustrate the Holiness of the Holy Family. Before Calvary, only the Chosen People had clear instructions on how to live a life of holiness. First of all they had to fear God not because he is all powerful but  in thanks and in awe for the deeds with which he revealed himself. Mary and Joseph lived in accordance with the Law. 

From the Presentation in the Temple to the finding of the lost child Jesus, again in the Temple,  we have no record or remembrance of Jesus as child, teenager or young adult. We can be sure, however, that during those hidden years the completely human Son of Father Son and Holy Spirit lived, as do all Jews, within the rules revealed to the Patriarchs. 

The Providence of God has placed us in the world 2,000 years after Jesus. We know that God has completed his teaching and that there is nothing about our Mission today that has changed from that faced by all the first Christians, nameless to us as most of them are.

They had to be clothed in "sincere compassion, kindness and humility, gentleness and patience". They who had been forgiven had to forgive others for they had been called to become one body. The Mystical Body of Christ is clothed in Love. It is the undamageable source of all holiness and independent from the shameful tangle that we have made of Peter's Mission.

Much has changed in the Kingdom of this World many times since those days but the Mansions of the Kingdom of Heaven are still open to those who align themselves with the Father by following the Holy Spirit and let the Peace of Christ fill their beings.

Dear Lord, you know what there is in the depths of my being. You know that my own sincerity is a very fragile thing and that  I am more likely to be filled with jealousy and ire rather than kindness and humility. Knowing this about myself is, I hope, a step forward for me but true holiness is your gift and it is I who have to accept with thanks what you have done for all humanity. May Mary who since the Incarnation has never been separated from Jesus lead us all into an awareness of the loveliness of Father Son and Holy Spirit knowing that if we hand over our lives to Him, we can become the Image and Likeness that he created . All things are possible to God.Amen!

 30/12/2023

Each day begins for me with "raising my heart and mind to God". I am concentrating on Father, Son and Holy Spirit and letting my mind mull over what the Church has chosen as the Scriptures to be read during mass of the day. I know that most of my thoughts are fleeting and that the successful moments of prayer soon pass away. What I write here seems to me to be the truth of this moment when I am trying to use my freedom in this world to cooperate with the will of God.

St John's letter tells us that he has certainly listened to Jesus and absorbed into his own being the truth that comes from God. God's creation is something apart from himself. He created a material reality for us sons of Adam to know, understand and enjoy in the flesh but not to become so absorbed in the World that knowing, loving and serving God is pushed into the background or right out of our awareness of being and the reality of God's Providence.

Our souls, the basis for our being, are created as "image and likeness" of Our Father. God is timelessly aware of himself and of all the tiniest realities of material being. Our Spiritual selves are based on this self-knowledge of God (love) and we are created to join him in glorifying our creator.

St John has learnt through out his long life and care of Mary that we must not attach our beings by love to anything that is material for everything such will not last. We have only one unique being and that should be turned away from this world for if it isn't we will not recognise  the Will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that brings us to the moment when IAMIAMISALLINALL.

Dear Lord, you know everything that I am and have ever been. Let me this day be attuned to  your will in everything that I do.  St John knew that all generations have inherited the forgiveness he witnessed in your death on Calvary. He also knew and believed "My Kingdom is not of this world". May Mary whose body bore your "Begotten not made", Incarnate Word continue to lead all the saints in Heaven and on earth in sharing this special relationship  you have with sinners both on earth and in Purgatory that we might be free from our sins and ready for your Judgement in as much as we have put your will at the forefront of our lives.

 29/12/2023

St Thomas a Becket was part of the Hierarchical Structure that made up the Institutional Church of his day. Our Popes have always fought with the "World" on its own terms. They were equivalent to the Holy Roman Emperors and kings who ruled in Western Europe  during the disharmony that followed the mass migration into Europe of "Barbarians" and the Emperors and Patriarchs of Byzantium who took over the remains of the Roman Empire. 

In his letter to the Colossians St Paul confirms that he is guided by the Holy Spirit to bring us all into the Church that is the Mystical Body of Christ. Christ is the Mystical Event of God Incarnate. He is risen from dead in the Eternal Perfection of the Resurrection. He is our Hope of Glory and St Paul works tirelessly to teach this, the complete and final revelation. 

We cannot be compelled by "Worldly Power" to believe and worship Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are lead into this Spiritual Reality by the "weakness" in the eyes of  this world which is Jesus hanging from the cross, not by the armies of soldiers raised by bishops and popes and emperors during the "Christian Centuries" of this planet.

In today's Gospel, Jesus, "Christ among you", whom St Paul proclaims really does set his face against his disciples developing ranks amongst themselves. Our Church's Hierarchy is a direct contradiction to today's Gospel but the Church preached by St Paul and the first Apostles has also always been with us. 

Christ's Mystical Body on Earth can still be found in the Gospels and prayer. We are all spiritually united with Mary and the Saints of Heaven, with the Holy Souls and ourselves in prayer so that when Jesus returns he will find "Faith on Earth". 

He will not be looking for Popes, Patriarchs, Cardinals, Archbishops, Abbots, Bishops and all the rest of the Church that is so much "of this world" that it is a tripping stone for many of us who are trying to live today as witnesses to the forgiving grace of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, you know that I am still a very imperfect example of the humanity whose earthly being you share with us. Let my being be swayed by the intimations of your love that get through to the centre of my consciousness. Help me to cling onto the glimpses of the perfection of Eternity that sometimes touch my soul. Forgive me the sins that I have committed and let me accept the penance that can only bring me to salvation when accompanied by your grace. May my prayers be joined to those of Mary, all the Saints, Holy Souls and sinners here on Earth that you will come soon and find Faith here on earth. Maranatha Lord!

 28/12/2023

St John confirms in today's first reading that there is no evil in God, that he is pure light. The question that this raises for me, and for all of us, is "Why does God allow mankind  to continue in the perpetration of evil deeds?" 

I have always been aware of the "Problem of Evil". I can understand how I am responsible for every sin that I have ever committed. I  believe that God knows everything that has been, is being and will be done by every human being who has ever-drawn breath. 

I know that there is a great rift in creation. God sees that "it is good" but gifts Adam and Eve the freedom to create Evil. It is out of this original sin that the slaughter of The Innocents by Herod happened and by abortion continues to this day.

Nobody can contain in his brain the immensity that is  Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus, Son and final revelation, tells us to know the right path that he shows to us and to carry our cross." Our cross" has got to be not only our own sins but also awareness of the great sin that flourishes all around our globe. We are not "Christs" but we are the human beings that are so loved by Father, Son and Holy Spirit that Jesus accepted death on the cross for all us.

Dear Lord, you know that we are created capable of doing only your will on earth; you know how hard it is for all of us to know that "Innocents" are being slaughtered everywhere even as I type this. Let me accept the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and let all sincere prayers for forgiveness and peace be found in conforming to Your Will and accepting the responsibilities  our own being as the cross each one of us has to bear. We all know that Jesus has already done it for us. Thanks be to God.

 27/12/2023

I should never ignore the "hard sayings" of Jesus. He is still revealing only what is true. John leaning back on Jesus' breast is also hard for me to visualise. I am not at ease with the idea of physical contact with another male except one of my immediate family.

St. John knows himself as the disciple "Jesus loved" and this implication of favouritism is not easy for me to reconcile with "God does not have favourites". St John is one of our trusted witnesses to the three years that the incarnate Father, Son and Holy Spirit showed himself in the person of Jesus and taught us by word and deed how we are to live our lives within his Providence. 

In today's Gospel, John recalls the morning some fifty years earlier when he had been shocked by the news brought to Peter by Mary Magdala and had dashed off with St Peter behind him to see for himself.

Much has been made of his holding back to let St Peter enter first into the empty tomb. Jesus had reprimanded John's mother when she sought to influence Jesus into favouring her sons. Jesus' answer then seems to restrict our human freedom as places in the Kingdom of Heaven had been "allotted". 

In the reality of created time the interactions of all human choices have billions of possible outcomes for each human and God knows the events that become the reality of History for he knows  each one of us as we use  our self-controlled human freedom to make choices. God has never willed it that evil should flourish in this world but it does gain more power each time I choose to ignore God's Will.

Dear Lord, I am known completely by you. Help me to follow your Will in all my thoughts words and deeds and thus bring my soul to the Judgement Seat that is not of this world. The only Perfect One since Adam and Eve did not inherit their first sin and thus Mary was able to make the perfect act of faith in you. May my family come to know that there can be no lasting satisfaction with the things of this world and may the prayers of Mary and John and all the heavenly host find a way through the resistance of sin to bring your merciful holiness and forgiveness into the souls of all this world.

 26/12/2023

I did not even try to make a record of prayer yesterday for I was overcome by visitors, the  feast and exchange of material gifts. I have undoubtedly been graced by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I have misused my body over many years but not yet received the payback that I have deserved. Our visitors are my youngest child, his wife and family. They makeup a lovely family but I am the only one of all of whom I am father that knows that only God shows us the way to live our lives.

I know that my faith begins in the Providence of God. I did not choose my family but my own commitment to their teaching has been my own "Yes to God ". I have been despicable in my sins over the years but I have always come back to a love of the Church the Institution on earth founded by Jesus.

That love was shaken to the core when the enormity of the evil of child abuse was revealed and is still occurring. I was afraid that the Apostolic origin of Sacramental Grace had been broken by the priests who continued to say mass when they must have  known that they were not in a state of grace for God's forgiveness of Sin needs the sinner to make amends not to cover up. The Church teaches that the act of an anointed man is enough to confect the Sacrament and that nothing depends on the "holiness" of the celebrant and she will not be shaken in that belief.

St Stephen saw Jesus in the total Holiness of Heaven and was killed for this by having his body broken by rocks. I know that this vision was not given to fool him but to open the eyes of the witnesses including St Paul and us. 

 I can, however, find in the shameful history of the Catholic Church  an ever greater Church beyond the reach of the worldliness that has continued to corrupt the successors to St Peter. St Stephen saw the Kingdom that Jesus witnessed before Pilate " For this I came into the world"; the Spiritual Kingdom of Heaven.

Peter asked "What of this man?". Before Jesus was ripped apart in the agony of death he had placed Mary and John in reciprocal care of each other, maternal and filial Love. Another Son but the same Mother. The wickedness perpetrated by the successors to St Peter has always been atoned for by the Holiness at the heart of the Church still in the Mother of My Lord. The holiness, "Love Alone", that cannot succumb to the Power of Hell is witnessed by the  Gospel and by Mary and has sometimes broken through the shields of sin raised over our heads by self centered sinners such as I.

There is absolutely no need for sin. The prayers of Heaven, Angelic and Saintly are a continuous opening of the side of Jesus and we too can share in the same Flood of grace by raising our minds and hearts to Our Father in Heaven

Dear Lord you understand my musing and mumblings. I pray that the souls of all those who are without faith come to the understanding that everything in this world will pass away but that the Word and Love are the unseen purpose of our being. Jesus really does love us but we must open ourselves to receive that love. May Mary continue to pray for the forgiveness of all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory. Amen. St Stephen pray for us!

 24/12/2023

One of the things that I can remember as a saying of Jesus recorded in one of the Gospels is "Do as the Pharisees say not as they do". 

Even though I cannot find in recorded History any moment when the Church, the Institution that created itself in the image of the Roman Empire, has acted as the Body of Christ and practised what she preached, she has, however, maintained  an unbroken chain of Scripture that records all the Old Testament revelations and interprets them in the fullness/finality of the New.

All Pharisees were not hypocrites. All clergy are not slaves of their own bodies. Most hierarchs, however, have always been captivated by the things of Caesar rather than  the things of God that they preach. Father Son and Holy Spirit really do reveal their infinite truth in the Bible and the Church has successfully guarded this record of mankind's interactions with God within His Providence, the time and place in which we are alive in our bodies on earth.

God speaks to us all in words of the prophets and to each individual person that we are in the words of Jesus of Nazareth. The readings at today's mass are to help us to prepare for tomorrow's celebration of the Nativity and present in our court, as it were, the credentials that God used to choose Mary to become Our Lady, Theotokos, the Mother of my Lord. 

I try to imagine the infinity of our God who shared our humanity for 33 years in the Promised Land .The unlimited within the confines of time and space and know that my only reaction has to be the total silence of awe in the presence of the Almighty, and sorrow for the thousands who have been killed and who are still killing each other in the Holy Land of God.

Dear Lord, 2000 years ago, you were a fully developed child waiting to be born. Were you aware of your divinity or had you completely emptied yourself and become the "true man" of our creed. I am sure that there has never been such a moment of peace on earth as on that night in Palestine when you the Lord of all began to suckle at your mother's breast. Let the Love you shared with Mary when your  infant's eyes first met hers be poured into the hearts of all the world and let all my prideful selfishness and that of all the world become as nothing in the stream of Mercy that flowed out from your side on Calvary. Amen

 23/12/2023

We are all known to the Lord. He is always with us even in the depths of our despair, he is there ready to accept us back into his Holy Providence which we have ignored when we chose disobedience rather than accepting his will for us and thus added to the sin of the world. If we follow the teaching and example of Jesus we are doing God's Will which is the same for all mankind. 

Jesus has taught us that the Will of God is his Love for us that always calls out to be returned freely by us his children. The curse threatened in the first reading has already been taken on by Jesus who did not refuse the Cross. The sins of the World are cancelled by the infinite atonement taken on by Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the person of Jesus. Each one of us can in our hearts find the Love that is the Holy Spirit  to serve the Father and join Jesus into the commitment until death that is the right choice for all of us.

The psalmist turns to God, asking  for his total dedication of himself to Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the person of IAMIAM to be accepted and for sin to be avoided by this act of personal worship which is the perfect way for us all to return the Love that it is to be known by the Lord.

"Lord make me know your ways, Lord teach me your paths, make me walk in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour".

Dear Lord, may the lessons of scripture always guide me in my deeds. You know how I am always ready to doubt my own sincerity. Let me become secure in my being which should follow the psalmist and revere you knowing that your faithfulness and love are always with those who keep his covenant and law. May the prayers of  your Mother join with those of all  those still alive or atoning in Purgatory that all humanity reject the temptations of world, flesh and devil. Let us welcome your birth into our world with holiness. Amen.

 22/12/2023

As Advent draws to an end the Church never loses sight of the other babies who have also been announced to their Mothers by God's messenger. All of them have gone on to do great things in the Providence of God and their deeds have been become History recorded in the Scriptures. As a child I fantasised about Samuel's call from God which awakened him when he was sleeping.

The life of a Prophet was not to be for me. I have lived my life,however, aware that my sins can always be forgiven and/but have still tried and failed to avoid them. I have not always been able to resist the undoubted pleasure that can be found through sex but, I hope sincerely, have repented for the sins of my youth. Great personal misery has often resulted in my life as result of my sinful behaviour and I am ashamed that it is this avoidance of misery that is stronger than the knowing, loving and serving that should be my holiness in God's Providence.

In moments of remorse I have been annoyed that some people have been chosen to live sinless lives. If Our Lady was born without sin, why couldn't I have been? Why has God given me this misery? Did I ask to be born?. Today I know that those questions were a search for excuses in sin and that my undoubted guilt is wiped out by my choosing to follow the Will of God. That is why he chose Calvary.

I know that I am living outside of the Institutional Church founded on St Peter but also know that that Institution has always been too much in this world to be able to guide us to "My Kingdom is not of this World." I am sure that there are and have been many souls such as mine who put all our Faith in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in Jesus whose Divine Holiness was, for most of his life, known in person only to Mary and Joseph.

We are all known in person to "Our Father" and have been given this chance to seek in this world the love/holiness that is the very being of Our Creator. It is our free choosing of what is good that will bring us to life everlasting in the Kingdom of God. Thanks be to God.

Dear Lord, let my heart be open to your grace, let my soul welcome you into my being, joyfully as did Mary. Let my deeds today be pleasing to you. Let me have the "holy fear" that was Samuel's first reaction to your call. May all of my family find in me something that reflects your merciful forgiveness and not be swamped by the worldliness that rules our lives at this the time of your Nativity. May my prayers be heard and joined with those of all the faithful, with Mary's and all the Saints that all the billions of us living and dead be cleansed of our sins and accept the righteousness of your judgement. 

 21/12/2023

We are getting ever closer to the day we commemorate as the Day when Father, Son and Holy Spirit first drew breath in the Person of Son. In the Creed, the condensed summary of the foundations of the Holy Life that God has created us to live, we declare "begotten not made". The human being of Jesus is exactly the same as ours. He is body, mind and soul.

The baby that Mary feeds is not taking part in some sort of Divine Cosplay which he can abandon and go home when he feels like it. He is the creator of everything that any human being has known, can know now and will ever know for he is God at the breast of his mother Mary.

Jesus is not playing a part in an allegorical drama. Our Universe is not a vast theme-park for God, his angels and his Saints to enjoy from Heaven. Father, Son and Holy Spirit is not another humanoid god on Mt.Olympus. Jesus is a part of human history. He was born, he did live and he did die in the same material universe that we live in today. 

We are all human beings; in the body we are begotten by fathers and carried by mothers but our souls are created by Our Father. We do share the Sonship of Jesus. He taught us to pray with him "Our Father". A common father means that we are all brothers and sisters. He similarly gave us a common human mother at the foot of the cross.

We will all celebrate something at this "party season", this season of "Goodwill to all men" but most of us prefer to ignore the Great Blessing that Our Incarnate Father gave to all mankind during the Empire of Augustus and Tiberius two thousand years ago. Jesus is the most important fact of History.

Dear Lord, help me match my deeds to these my first thoughts throughout today. Help me to sincerely seek to do your will. May Mary whose "time" this season always will be remembered as plead for us unholy souls on earth and for the Holy Souls of Purgatory that we truly understand the impact our sins have so that we can begin to understand perfect Love and Beauty and Peace God has created us to  share in the timelessness of his Eternity.

 20/12/2023

Only God can forgive us our sins. We have to co-operate. We are alone responsible for our sins and have to acknowledge that guilt. God cannot look with favour on sin. He loves all his creation but sin is not part of his creation. Sin is created by us each time we do not follow the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

God has never left us ignorant of his will and has never abated his mercy which is always available to let us recover from sin and start again "a clean slate". The forgiving Act of God is the Incarnation  Life, Death and Resurrection which is a deed greater even than Creation itself for the Evergreater gave up all of his Almighty Being and accepted the exact life cycle of each of us, for himself.

How can the leader of our Church who has spent all his life within that Church built on Peter, Guardian of the Real Presence, even think about blessing sin? God never approves of sin, the very nails that pierced the flesh of Jesus. The Pope must know that he can only ask for Mercy for sinners who repent. 

I am lost and desolate in this world where for the whole of its history the Church has never been true to "My Kingdom is not of this World". I have accepted that even the most wonderful works of man have never been Ad Majoram Gloriam Dei as proclaimed by our Pope and his confreres.

Father Son and Holy Spirit knows the Psalms and today says to us through them "only the ones with clean hands and pure hearts can stand in the Holy Place of God". Anyone who teaches  otherwise is not following the Will of God and doing irreparable harm to we the children so loved by the Lord that he even suffered the torments created by our sins, death on the cross.

Dear Lord, let mercy flow through the barriers created by your all too human clergy on earth. Let us all know that Mary who was chosen to be Theotokos is leading the Saints in prayer that mankind can become holy only by your Grace of forgiveness with which we have to choose to cooperate. Let all of sinners on earth know that Adam's, "it was the woman who tempted me" is never an excuse for sins. We are all the owners of our own sins. Please forgive us.

 19/12/2023

Today's readings are both about birth and purpose in life. Both the mothers have longed in vain  for a child. Really a son, for to bear a son was the objective of all pre-Christian mothers. Both these mothers-to-be had suffered the humiliation that it was to be a childless wife in those days, not only in Israel but throughout the world, and receive God's message with joyful gratitude. 

The mother whose time we are, as the people of God, awaiting also was prepared for motherhood by the message of an angel. She however was not "over the moon" as were the "wife" of Manoah and Elizabeth. Mary knew that her pregnancy was impossible but her response to the news was perfect obedience to IAMIAM, "be it done unto me according to thy word".

The first two mothers were also given intimations of how their sons were to be cared for and what they would achieve in their lifetimes. God knows everything so he does know the beginning and ending of this Universe and everything in it. He thus reveals a specific purpose for the lives of Samson and John but they too have human freedom and the ever present   necessity of aligning to the will of God. We can all sin.

We are not all outstanding individuals but every soul shares the common purpose of conforming to the Will of God. We can be confused by the complexities of life and by the folly of those who for some reason do not reveal their wisdom by virtue or virtue by wisdom but the Penny Catechism of our fathers taught us that "to know, love and serve" is all we need to know about life in the Providence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and it is not wrong.

Human "Infallibility can and does err". Sin cannot be blessed even by God. Repentance can.

Dear Lord, forgive us our trespasses and forgive those who trespass against us. You know that I have been shaken in the depths of my being by realising that your Church has always acted as a kingdom of this world  and that millions of us have been mislead for centuries for you made it so clear at your trial that your Kingdom is not of this world. Help me to find a place in your "Church of the Spirit" and be as one with Mary and all your Saints in recognising only you as head of your Mystical Body on Earth and dedicated to accepting and doing you Will

 18/12/2023

None of us choose the time and place of our births. We all become sentient beings in the Providence of God. If we are blest we first know ourselves as children of parents from whom we receive love. 

Unfortunately it is from this moment that our innocence is afflicted by the will of other humans who are also God's creation but have been moulded by their own choices into the other beings that the newborn will face as he/she grows.

 We are brought up in the place where we are born and come to know ourselves as belonging to a specific race or nation and whose standards and norms of life we accept or refuse as our own.

I did not choose to be alive in front of this screen and keyboard today aware that I am trying to begin this day, as always, in the presence of God. The world is full of billions of beings who are all children of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and with a human freedom that has to be guided by the Love that is the Will of God.

The totally beyond human ability to understand, the complexity that is One, Father Son and Holy Spirit revealed himself first to the ancestors of those who have brought total destruction to the other human beings that have had their land stolen from them and both sides are still killing as I type this.

There is no State or Institution in our World that confines itself to searching for and implementing the Will of God. Within the Bible we can find the record of how the Chosen People acted in the Providence of IAMIAM and how often they brought misery to themselves and others.  The Church founded by Jesus very soon became an Institution that was definitely of this world and is still even more so today.

Jesus is the one man who chose for himself time and place of birth. In those days a great empire was beginning to flourish. Jesus is true man and so accepted just as we do his place in God's Providence, he the Creator of the Universe accepted the rule of Caesar and told us to do the same. Mary had already accepted God's will for her. Joseph at first distraught was able to align his will to the message from God. 

Jesus who could have been born in earthly glory chose to become like all of us the totally dependent infant "mewling and puking in his nurse's arms." but even more so than us for he chose the poverty of an animal shelter as the first place to hear the sound of his lungs, the voice of God.

Dear Lord, your message of love was lived in private by the Holy Family that lived unknown for thirty years in Nazareth. Many of us today are living in the Grace and Mercy that Jesus brought to us. We are living in the Kingdom you have revealed by the Resurrection as the only Providence unmodifiable by human will and know that Mary and Joseph are all present with us and you as head in the Mystical Body, unseen by human eye that is the true Church, your Kingdom that is not of this world. May these prayers open my being to your Mercy and may my soul and the souls of the all in this world and in Purgatory be forgiven by your Love. AMEN!

 

 17/12/2023

Today's first reading takes us  back to Isaiah again. Isaiah is one of God's prophets. He is a man who has been given and accepted the specific gift of holiness in this life and while still living in this world he has experienced God as all of us experience other people. He knows that he knows that Isaiah IS a person and also knows that there is another person infinitely greater than him, IAMIAM.

This prophetic knowledge of God fills him with Joy.

The Psalm is Mary's response to her cousin Elizabeth's greeting. There are very few of Our Lady's sayings recorded. This is a recasting of Isaiah's paen of praise for God who has touched his soul, but for her is a living presence in her womb. There is no-one who has lived in the Providence of God, or who has been given a greater knowledge of Father, Son and Holy Spirit than Mary. 

St Paul has received his mission in life directly from the Resurrection. He has had to learn about Jesus' life and sayings from the Apostles. He has been turned around from being a Rabbi by a direct Act of God and now proclaims the joy that we all should have for to know what he knows and teaches is to fulfill God's Will for each of us.

Eighty odd years before John had written his Gospel another "John" had been sent by God. The Temple had taken notice of this man for he proclaimed that God would forgive the sins of those who accepted to be baptized at his hands. The priests who came to question him did not do so because they "treated the Spirit of Prophecy with contempt" but because they knew that God intended to raise up among them a Messiah and wondered if John were he.

"I am not fit to unbuckle his shoe". I am much less than his slave.

Dear Lord, may my mind and soul be ready to do your will and let not preparation take over from the thanksgiving that should be the strongest of my emotions at this time of year. Let me be a child that knows you as a father and that it is only good that I should pray for the forgiveness that the child Jesus brings to Creation. May Mary who pondered much and said little be my role model for how to act in the presence of God. She and the Saints in heaven do not babble as the pagans do. Let me become like them and try to focus my whole being on you, My Lord and my God.

 16/12/2023

The first reading for today is taken from the Book of Ecclesiasticus. This Book is not universally accepted  as Sacred Scripture but it is undeniably  an attempt by a person of great devotion to IAMIAM to understand how the Providence of God has resulted in what he is experiencing during his lifetime. Thus it is "Theology" rather than "Prophecy" which results from a direct awareness of the reciprocated Being of God.

Jewish tradition had accepted that the coming of the Messiah would be a fiery demonstration of ultimate power; the total glory of God on earth that would be a vindication of all that was recorded in the Scriptures. Without a shadow of doubt, God would be on Earth. The Lord of the Chosen People would silence all human boasting and the People of God would be seen to be triumphant.

The Jews of Jesus' time were politically and socially dominated by Gentiles. The Hellenization of the Middle-East was also the worldly reality in which Sirach lived and prayed at the Temple. He looks back to the earlier days of the Chosen People and tells all the world that there is no-one to match the power of IAMIAM manifested in his Prophet Elijah.

The religion of Jesus' disciples was still dominated by their special relationship with IAMIAM and had no inkling of what would soon become the message that they and their followers would preach to the whole world. His answer to their question, "Elijah has already come and they treated him as they pleased; the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands", was only partially understood at that time and it may still be so, today.

Dear Lord, the Son of Father, Son and Holy Spirit has brought the beginning of your final revelation to the whole world. Jesus has yet to complete his message. The disciples did not fully understand your words about yourself until the unheralded Resurrection shocked the apostles into understanding. The Church built on St Peter has never fully understood your declaration before Pilate "My Kingdom is not of this world". Help us to live now directed towards our ends guided by the one carried by Our Lady to be born in Bethlehem. May Mary's prayers continue to lead the Saints of your Kingdom in seeking pardon for the sins we sinners continue to create, and forgiveness for the souls in Purgatory  where there are only true believers. Amen.

 15/12/2023

In trying to know the truth about themselves and God human beings have realised that the extent of God is unbounded. He is timelessly infinite. To the gifted ones recorded in the Old Testament the limits of our knowledge of him is limited to the revelations he makes to them, his people and his prophets. 

To me and to all of us living thousands of years after "IAMIAM"  expelled Adam and Eve, saved Noah tested Abraham and again saved the Chosen Ones through Moses, there are thousands of prayers and thoughts made by men, guided by either their reverence or disbelief, available to consider in my own witness to what it means to be alive in the wonder that is God's Providence, this  World, the material universe.

Today in the first reading IAMIAM is portrayed as having "regret". "If only" is a phrase often on my lips. It is a phrase that acknowledges a greater or lesser failure in my life. God's Perfection is such that "failure" is impossible for him. Annoyance is a petty human emotion. My "if only" is always about missing an opportunity. God cannot do that.

In the New Testament IAMIAM reveals more about his "Being". He is Father Son and Holy Spirit three persons but only one God. Jesus never forgets that the Father has sent Him, the Son, to finally reverse the wrong paths that humanity is always choosing. Incarnate Son is the total Being of God and with him is Love, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is God/Man on Earth. Our Lady is truly "Theotokos" both on Earth and in Heaven. "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" is the voice of human fatherhood. Jesus always called the Evergreater, the Almighty one Abba, "Daddy". He thus brings human being into the creator of all. He also told us to do the same. The Love that is  God is not an abstraction but love that we know in our own hearts. 

We can be disappointed when our efforts come to nothing, when our children let us down, when Mammon proves to be a false friend. God knows all possible results of the freedom he gives to us and we know that it is we, only we who are responsible for own sin, that we really do create out of our own being all the "if onlies" that are the only ones that are known to him.

Dear  Lord, I pray that I can become a beloved son and have done with  "if only" for ever. Let me find the way to end my life secure in your fatherly love and let the prayers of Mary who became our mother on Calvary inspire all your people to welcome Jesus on the feast of his Nativity for which we are now preparing.

 14/12/2023

The prophets of Israel were  humans who were filled with the Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They only knew IAMIAM but the Holy Spirit it was that revealed himself to them in their prayers. God has never changed but after Adam and Eve's fall he has revealed himself to us not only through the creation and providence where we are alive in this world but also through, in the case of the Old Testament, the Law that Moses had had revealed to him and which the Chosen People could follow to become Holy. They failed even though God forgave them time and time again.

God's answer is himself.

We know Jesus as the final revelation for he is "God from God, True Light from True Light Begotten not made, of one Being with the Father" but is our response to God any better than that of Israel at the time Jesus walked and preached? Has our world ever been characterised by the righteousness of the majority of created souls.?

Everything we are or know in our lives arises out of our freedom. Freedom is part of the image and likeness that Adam and Eve were given. It is out of our freedom that we can refuse God. Our bodies are subject to the Laws of created matter. This, our material being and its instincts, houses our souls. It is our souls that can know God and accept or refuse his will. Our bodily instincts have to become subject to our will guided by the Will of God.

IAMIAM cannot be captured by any brain. Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the perfection of all being. God is Holy. He looks on his creation and "it is Good". Jesus has by his life, death and resurrection brought the reality of God into Human History. By emptying himself of Divinity,  he has experienced both human time and human suffering. There is as a result of the Incarnation an overflowing abundance of Grace demanding that we take the hand that God continually proffers in Love to each of us as an individual.

 Like Hamlet we can complicate the choices we have to make in life but there is really only one choice. Am I to answer God's call to holiness with "yea or nay" "To be or not to be?"?

Dear Lord, without your care for us we are nothing. Help me to live up to the yearning for Love and sinless holiness that some of your Saints have achieved. I have always been ashamed and fearful in my many sins. May Mary our mother lead all your saints in prayers for all your sinners who can use your grace to atone here on Earth or in Purgatory. You are the Creator, the Saviour and the Judge and we are all "poor worms" or "tiny mites" dependent on the Loving Mercy that becomes the Sacrifice on Calvary repeated eternally in Heaven.  Lord save us by the total power of your grace!

 13/12/2023

God has undoubtedly revealed himself as a person. Isaiah in today's first readings speaks of God and God speaks to us through him. 

Centuries before St Anselm Isaiah declares God to be the Evergreater. "His understanding is beyond fathoming".

God asks us all to look outside ourselves and know that  we cannot ever take the place of God. Only he can create the Universe of stars and planets. Only he can know the invisible particles that make up all matter.

God knows that we can feel desolate and abandoned. If we are ruled by the World this is inevitable as worldly things are but passing satisfactions. Only he is an "Everlasting God". 

The Psalm is an outburst from the depths of the being of the psalmist. He is joyful for he has acknowledged the Lord. He knows that God loves him.

Jesus is the Incarnation and through his human person he reveals the Trinity of Persons whose one being is the only Love that will give us rest.

Dear Lord, let me  find the penitence that will clear the way for your Love. I am free as are all created Souls. Let me avoid all sinfulness and this day continue to be thankful for the Faith that governs my live. May Mary in these closing days of her literal God Bearing continue to keep in mind that Jesus' life was lived only to create the Mercy of God that she and all the saints can help to distribute throughout all the World and Purgatory.

 12/12/2023

Without my belief in God I would be nothing. I ask myself everyday if I am using Faith  as an excuse for what could be considered failure to succeed in the world as it is today. In fact there is nothing in my life that I lack. There is absolutely no need for most of the things that I have. All the trappings provided by riches are totally useless in themselves and are purchased only to enable the souls of the rich to look into their "barn" and congratulate themselves.

I  believe that what I feel in the depths of my heart is "our Father" knowing the one "me" that he has created. I am not Isaiah and have not been created to call the chosen people back to IAMIAM. I cannot sing the joy that is David's when he contemplates what the Power of God can do for his people.

I know that rich and poor we are all in the Providence that is the created reality of earth continually modified by the choices made by human beings. We all create by our sins the evil that is so obvious wherever we look. The first place that I should look is into my own soul and seek forgiveness for the sins that are still there.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are Love and want only good  for their creation. We can come to the peace that is reserved for us by our Good Shepherd only by total repentance for sin and total emptying of self to become the little ones in the comfort of the arms of the one who accepted the sacrifice of himself to become the eternal Resurrection.

Dear Lord, you know me better than I know myself and that I am afraid of "lip service". i hope that what I have just written is true to your name and that I am sincerely seeking forgiveness and salvation. May Mary who so long ago was only 12 days form her time continue to be for me and all sinners the "Godbearer" through whose prayers we, sinners on earth and in Purgatory, can all be saved. Amen

 11/12/2023

St Damasus, whose feast day it is today, is the Pope who is largely responsible for the concept of the "Institutional Roman Catholic Church" thus growing  into the hierarchical organisation that it is now. In his pontificate, Latin became the official language of the Church and St Jerome became the translator into Latin of the mixture of texts that had been used for teaching and worship. Jesus' preaching and teaching by example the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit became a new "Law"  similar to the way the mystical wonder of  Moses' vision on Mt Sinai had become the "Law"of the Scribes and Pharisees. 

Jesus had condemned in no uncertain terms the prideful following of "The Law " of his day and replaced it with his Good News. His Church founded on St Peter had to be "Holy for I am holy", live as he did only for the good of others and spread herself by preaching and prayer as he had instructed all who had known him in Palestine. It was to become his spiritual body on earth for he was now with his Father.

St Damasus' pontificate began with serious murderous fighting among Church factions and this shameful triumph of sinful violence became the norm of the "Body of Christ on Earth" for many centuries. He was the Pope when Christianity was declared to be the State Religion. 

The Holy Spirit speaks through Isaiah in the first reading of today. God has always cared for his people but even inspired by prophets such as these and controlled by the Law of Moses the Jews of the Old Testament  lost touch with IAMIAM to the extent that the hypocritical religiosity, typified by the Pharisees, of Jesus' time on earth was wholeheartedly condemned by Jhim.

Palestine/Judea at the time of Jesus was the only place on earth that had a relationship with God guaranteed by revelation but it had been influenced by the "world", manmade civilization, in this case Hellenism for the previous 400 years. Even so, there were still many righteous people living then who joyfully accepted first John and then Jesus as messengers from God.

Jesus repeatedly told his disciples that his kingdom was not of this world. Less than four hundred tears later the Institutional Church became the state religion and continued to act as a political power for another fifteen hundred years.

We are indeed in need today for the return of Our Lord for we are obviously still misusing our freedom even as did Adam and Eve in the garden.

Dear Lord, I am alive by your Providence in 2023. I know that the world as it is today is not what your Will wants it to be.  It is your will that we should each of us live in your love and act as you showed us the Way. The example given to your faithful by sinful priests and prelates show no change from the world as known by you during your time on earth. Jews today are as stiff-necked as ever even though they no longer acknowledge you as IAMIAM and choose denial over worship. May Mary and your saints implore you to break into the carapace of sinful pride that protects sinful hearts from receiving the free gift of your Loving Mercy. May my soul and the souls of the faithful departed stay in your loving care and become undamaged by the world, the flesh and the devil for you are Our Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen!

 10/12/2023

I want to begin each day in the presence of the Lord. I want acknowledge that Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the creator of all that I am aware of and that he has confirmed his Almighty Being, the Evergreater One, throughout his Providence which becomes our History and present moment as a result of the billions of individual free choices made by men and women during their lifetimes.

God's being is first made known through the prophets of the Old Testament. They were touched by God to proclaim his Glory. We expect prophets to forecast future events and expect them to interpret "fate", but we cannot know the "History" of the future for it is what has been already done and is being done now that determines tomorrow. The future is known by God but is not planned.

Isaiah is overwhelmed by God and expresses this in an exuberance of words and images. St Peter, whom we know from the Gospels is not one for deliberating before words and reactions, writes to the Church which Jesus built on him, of patience. 

The earliest Christians expected Jesus to return in their lifetimes. Peter has learned from his mistakes that words that come from God are not about today and tomorrow but are without time, as is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Mark who had learnt from the first disciples writes that Isaiah, inspired by God, is the first to know that the "Good News" is coming to the world. He and the earliest Church, being Jews, know that Jesus is the unimaginable Son of God whom they know as IAMIAM and search for hints of him in all the Scriptural texts that are familiar from Sabbaths spent in the Temple or Synagogues.

If we open our hearts and minds to God by accepting his grace and avoiding sin we can begin to pray knowing that we are being carried by the Good Shepherd like the newborn lambs and resting ewes into the being that is beyond time and space; the loving kindness that is the perfect peace of Heaven.

Dear Lord, let me continue in prayer this day; let me give thanks for all your blessings. Let my will always be aligned with yours and let the human race be lead by the perfection of your mother into the place that you have prepared for all men of good will. Amen

 09/12/2023

The Lord our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit never leaves us to suffer alone in his providence . He is always with us ready to receive our prayers and answer when we are living according to his will. This has always been the message of the prophets, the message that has been completed in the Resurrection.

Today Isaiah has been inspired to proclaim that his people who have been just surviving because God has turned away from them will no longer have to endure the  prison diet of "bread and water" but they and all creation will again become fruitful and multiply.

Isaiah's images are captivating. "Sunlight will be seven times brighter-like seven days in one-on the day the Lord dresses the wounds of his people and heals the bruises his blows have left." The one who is to come, the Teacher will show us the way and our reward will be rich harvests and fattened cattle.

As with most of the Old Testament IAMIAM is seen as the provider and punisher in this world. The everlasting life of the Spirit can be found only in diligent interpretation supported by hindsight. Jesus, however, from the beginning is focused  on our spiritual lives and today gives the first mission to the twelve he has chosen.

Matthew remembers that Jesus told and authorised them to go to the lost sheep of Israel and do for them what IAMIAM had always done for his chosen people "Cure the sick,raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out devils". In other words "Heal the bruises his blows had left".

Jesus however also wants them to proclaim the "Good News that the kingdom of heaven is at hand" a mysterious message which will only be explained by his death and Resurrection. Jesus does not teach only by word of mouth but mainly by his deeds on earth. 

To follow him with integrity,we have to do the same. Not by "pagan babbling",  "Lord, Lord"! as we were told yesterday but, by picking up our personal crosses to follow his way through the streets of Jerusalem to the ignominy of public execution in the company of two thieves.

Dear Lord, how is it possible for me to return the Love which flowed out from you on Calvary. First my heart and then my mind is open to receive your grace but Milk and honey are far easier to understand than soul and righteousness.  Mary and all the saints are the perfect reflections of your Glory. May they seek from you the grace of forgiveness for all sinners on earth and for the Holy Souls who are safe but not yet scoured enough to see you face to face.

 

 08/12/2023

Today the Church contemplates Immaculate Mary, the mother of God. She is a human born of a human woman and  conceived by a human father. That is as far as it goes for her sameness with us because the great difference between us and her is that she is the direct spiritual daughter of Adam and Eve for sin has never touched her being, body or soul.

Mary is the sinless daughter of Adam and Eve and is the one to crush the power of evil that has corrupted us all since "The Fall". She is the perfect body out of which Father, Son and Holy Spirit will, taking on the biological rules, which he created, become embryo, baby, infant, adolescent, adult and on the cross, saviour of the world.

St Paul understands that God has always known everything. He seems to say that everything is predetermined and thus controls us. God, however does does not straitjacket our lives by his programming but has given to each human being the freedom for each of us to choose how to react to our personal experience of his Providence. God is always greater than the limits of our imagination.

Adam and Eve messed up our relationship with God by making the wrong choice, but Mary's acceptance of God's word assures us that we can all align ourselves with the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit  and that she can become Theotokos. Thanks be to God.

Dear Lord, how can the tininess that is me look on the immensity that is you? I do know that you see me and know me better than myself. I do know that I don't want to bring any guilt with me to your judgement seat. My hope is Mary who has accepted her role in your Mercy and never made any wrong decision. May Mary from whose sinless body stems the humanity of you Our Saviour continue to lead the heavenly host in the plea for forgiveness which can be ours if we place all our trust in you.

 07/12/2023

St Ambrose whose feast day is celebrated today lead an extremely complicated public life as an Imperial official in  the complexity of the rapidly disintegrating Roman Empire. His achievements were certainly of this world. He was not himself personally a Christian when acclaimed Bishop of Milan and even had to be baptised before he took up his new role.

Today  when we look at many of the prelates who rule our Church today we are faced with the paradoxically opposite. They have all been, by the Providence of God, born Christians into a world which is also highly complex but now only vaguely aware of Jesus, his life death and resurrection. The Bishops have all professed belief in the teachings of Jesus but they have all inherited and  accepted the trappings and mentality of Roman Governors transformed into modern  business executives.

It seems that after his acceptance of the role of Christian Bishop, Ambrose gave up his wealth and lived an ascetic life, cared for the poor and did much to fight the heresies that were dividing the Church. The previous incumbent of his Milan seat had been an Arian.

My own impression nowadays is that Bishops have always been as they are today entwined within worldly "signs of the times" and are so concerned about not offending the sinners who rule our world built on Mammon and Hedonism that they have lost touch with the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Isaiah's hymn of praise is focussed on the Glory of God. The Psalm lifts our souls to behold the goodness of our creator. Oh that my mind could retain not only the words  "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love hath no end" but also the tranquility of being that gives rise to them.

Jesus is speaking to all of us past present and to come. He tells us that "Lord, Lord" without the foundations of  sincerity, humility and love is "zilch". There is not one "role" or duty in this life more important than knowing the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and acting accordingly. Popes, priests and prelates even saintly ones also only have one soul and as with all of us they need to be constantly aware that without firm foundations the house built on sand fell "and what a fall it had!"

Dear Lord let me continue to live in your love protected by grace which you offer freely to all men, great and small. Let me continue this day without sin and let me accept all that happens to me secure in that I am trying to live with my will aligned to yours. May Mary lead all the saints in  prayer, a reflection of your Glory, that we sinners on earth together with the Holy Souls may come to know in the depths of our beings that we can be forgiven for the evils we are letting loose in the world by our sins. Amen

 06/12/2023

Today Jesus has gone into the hills and crowds of people have followed him. He is one with us in his physical being and he himself knows that after three days our bodies are crying out for food. Water is not mentioned. Jesus has already made a huge impression on all those who have seen him and listened to his teaching and so they have not separated from him.

What is it about this preacher from Nazareth that captivates so many people who see and hear him.? As Jews they are familiar with the Scriptures. The Temple again dominates life in Jerusalem and is always crowded with believers particularly at the times of festivals. The Jews know IAMIAM. Nowhere in the world other than Palestine is there a nation devoted to knowing and serving one God who has revealed himself to them his Chosen People.

The Jews of the first century are not at all content in their political situation. They are now dominated by foreigners. Herod and Rome. Their history is one in which they are linked to God. They have a covenant and so those who agitate or are deemed to be agitating against these rulers and in support of the covenant can always find an audience.

Jesus' presence, words and deeds radiate  power and those who are following him can only relate to power that comes from God but is made visible in their great Kings. Even Jesus' closest disciples cannot get their heads round a "Kingdom of Heaven", not of this world.

The wonders that are Jesus' deeds in today's Gospel are all experienced as further proof that the one they surround in the hills of Galilee is indeed the one hinted at in their scriptures, the Messiah who will save their nation and become ruler of all the world.

Jesus is, however, the one who reveals the infinite capacity for love that is his being in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. His life, death and resurrection is not speaking to the "nations" but to  each individual person that he has created us to be in his Love and to use our share in his Love with every other being in his creation.

Killing other people is not a part of God's Providence. Each individual has to follow the way as did the first disciples and achieve for himself the place in the Kingdom that God has prepared for him. Throwing people to the beasts in the circus, beheading and burning at the stake, invading other nations have nothing that is holy about them. They are all doing the work of the devil.

We can only appreciate the horror of sin by keeping in mind that to erase its effect Father, Son and Holy Spirit had to become human and become the final and everlasting Sacrifice. These are not just words but are the Salvation of mankind.

Dear Lord, you know how I have begun this day. Let me not ignore your grace and continue to pray aware of the depths of my own needs. May Mary and all the saints plead for the grace that is needed by every individual in our world and in Purgatory to bring us into the merciful forgiveness of the outstretched arms of the crucified Jesus on Calvary.

 05/12'2023

The first reading for today's mass is a description of the world without sin. Even in the animal kingdom all survive without harming one another. Isaiah is filled with the Holy Spirit  and glorifies what living on God's Holy Mountain would be like for all creatures even the snakes.

Of  course, animals cannot sin and live soulless lives in the perfect innocence that is purely  instinct and genetic. They live in the code that is there at the moment of creation by our all powerful God.

The incarnation of God whose birth we are now awaiting has in complete humility emptied himself of the ever-greater power that is his being to assume the flesh that is the same "printed circuit" as Isaiah's lion and lamb.

Jesus is so much more than man that we cannot come close to imagining his greatness. In his perfection on Earth he is human but human in the way we all can be only when we attain the perfect "communion" with our Father. Jesus and the Father with the Holy Spirit is this "perfect communion"  beyond our grasp and yet he reaches out to us by becoming the human mammal that he creates to populate the world with beings that are in his image and likeness.

Human beings are limited by the flesh that is their body but unlimited in the freedom that is given to our souls. We all are able to understand the revealed will of the Father and follow the Resurrected Son who calls us all by name for the Holy Spirit surrounds us all.Thus we can all  give up the pride in self  that besets us and like Isaiah we can pray. We can all give praise for our world and our being and we can all respond to the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit by becoming the "mere children" to whom God chooses to reveal himself.

Dear Lord, you looked on creation and saw that it was good. May I too grow to be more than just ashamed of the the way I have not responded at all times to your will and fallen by the wayside to sin without care. May this day be lived in holiness and may your Mother with all the "good" of your humanity continue to guard us against the wickedness and snares of the devil, the overwhelming pleasures of the flesh and the stultifying cares of this world. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, come!

 04/12/2023

We have to think hard about the reading from Isaiah that is chosen for this first Monday in Advent. If we are to find predictions about the Messiah in his prayer we have to bear in mind that today's passage is more wishful thinking than it is an accurate prediction of what the Lord will provide for us, the many generations of Isaiah's future listeners.

Not one of the generations that have followed the life and death of this prophet has been able to say "Come, let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord" in the promised land. The History of Palestine has continued to be dominated by warfare as it is at this moment .

The Old Testament images of peace and holiness are always accompanied by reminders of warfare and the suffering of servants. We the slaves of God have always failed in bringing peace to the World. We all feel that it is an impossible task. 

So impossible that for more than a thousand years the leaders of our Church acted as rulers of kingdoms located here on earth only for us to be left to defend the "widows mite" being used to shore up the crumbling walls of magnificent palaces and  buildings rather than proclaim the truth of the "Resurrection".

Our Saviour did not ask for Legions of Angels to defend him on the day of battle that began in Gethsemane and was seemingly ended by "Eli, Eli Lama Sabachthani". 

In today's gospel, military power acknowledges the superiority of Jesus and explains why this is so. Has there ever been a war leader who has ever done this? St Leo the Great is credited with stopping Atilla from sacking Rome but he did so as the ruler of Rome not as a priest guarding the sacraments.

 It has taken many centuries for our Church to acknowledge the words of Jesus, uttered in public at his trial to that representative of Political/Military power, the one who held his life in his hands, but its primary purpose is still confused by the centuries of worldly power and unchristian living. We who are awaiting the birth of the Son of God are trying to prepare ourselves to celebrate in Holiness the arrival of the baby who is to grow in human time to be king of the eternal kingdom that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This Kingdom has never been found on Earth.

Dear Lord, please help me to find you in prayer. Let me remain in your Love with the integrity to believe what I say and to align myself with your will . Inspire all the fighters engaged in war to deny their commanders and refuse to continue killing. Each individual one of us among our billions can choose to do your will and you continue to give us the grace to do so. May your mother continue to support all the children you passed on to her and may we and the souls of the faithful departed find forgiveness for our sins. Come Lord, Jesus, Come!

 03/12/2023

Isaiah is certainly one of God's Chosen People. He is totally aware that it is through IAMIAM that he is, he has his being through God alone. He knows that he shares his being with all the other Israelites. He knows that in the past Israel has been justly punished for backsliding and he can see that sin is again beginning to dominate in the "Kingdom of this world". He asks God, the only Power capable of stopping this, to wrench open heaven and take sin out of the Chosen Ones.

God could have done this then and could do so now. Most people have wondered why it is that sin dominates our World. God could have prevented me from committing my habitual sins. There is no reason why our human lives should be dominated by the agendas of sinful egos linked to Satan that have the power to shape our culture and society.

St Paul thanks God for allowing the Church to grow. He thanks God for the preachers and teachers who have accepted the Holy Spirit and continue the mission of Jesus Christ. IAMIAM is not an unseen abstract idea of being and power. He is a person who knows us a Father, he is a Human being who knows us from the inside as a Son, he is the Holy Spirit bearing gifts of Faith, Hope and Charity.

Today we begin the countdown to Christmas. The readings for today offer for us to contemplate the Providence of God throughout History. 

We are as frustrated as Isaiah by the power of Sin which is still strong enough to penetrate the walls of Faith Hope and Charity even of the preachers and teachers for whom we should be able, with St Paul, to thank God. All of us  can turn our souls to God's chosen source of the Humanity of Son and know that the Mother's prayers cannot be ignored and that she leads all the Souls of Heaven in constant prayer for the forgiveness of sinners here on earth and in purgatory.

Dear Lord, help me  to know your Love and grow in fellowship of the Holy Spirit, in the Spiritual Body that shares its being with you as its head, "Begotten not Made" and with all the created souls that are in this world looking for forgiveness, with the Holy Souls certain of your Mercy and with the Saints for whom you are All-in-All. Help me to find holiness so that the souls of all, especially those known to me can see that they can believe that the helpless babe in the manger is the Incarnate Son of the creator of all that is seen and unseen. and is the Crucified Jesus on the cross and the Immensity of the Resurrection. Help me to be true to theses words. Amen, Amen, Maranatha 

 02/12/2023

Today's reading from Daniel continues the vision. The writer seems to place the vision inside Daniel's mind, it is subjective. These fearful images of "beasts and horns" have no objective reality they "pass through his head" and yet he asks a bystander for an interpretation. Daniel knows that he is dreaming and yet still aware of his dream/vision he can find on another level himself as an observer and another witness who is looking at the vision in the same way that he is.

This awareness of dreams is quite familiar to me and also common to most of us, if psychiatrists are to be believed. In the Bible, dreams can be the way God reveals his Will for us. St Joseph's reaction to Mary's pregnancy was guided by a dream as was the flight into Egypt. Joseph gained political power in Egypt as an interpreter of dreams. St Peter was able to announce the end of the Jewish dietary restrictions as the result of a dream, but there is no record of Jesus ever breaking those same laws.

Jesus warns us yet again that both personal death and the "End of Time" will happen at any moment. We have to live righteously so that we are always ready for our souls to face their creation. Our world is now fuller than ever of spectacular works of man but "the cares of life" are distractions that happen if we forget our primary purpose and are on a par with chemically interfering with the working of our brains and thus changing our perception of the reality of creation. 

We can avoid all bodily sins for God's grace is freely bestowed for us all to share. Tomorrow the Church begins her preparation for the birth of the Son of God. He who is far greater than our Universe has been gestating in the womb of Mary the Virginial Mother just as did the creatures who will end  his human life.  

The primary purpose that Father, Son and Holy Spirit offer to us is life in the never ending Love that is the Being of God. We can do this now with the help of his Grace and at our "end times", personal or universal we can be ready to enter what he has prepared for us.

Dear Lord, you know totally what It is I am striving for. I am always concerned that I may be misunderstanding the teaching of your Gospel. I am sure however that my sins are truly mine and always unnecessary. I cannot escape my personal responsibility and hope that the greatness of your Mercy will find for me the penance to bring me back to the holiness you have won for all mankind. May Mary and all the Saints who know eternal joy implore that we on Earth and in Purgatory can pay the price needed for us to join them in the Glory that surrounds your being. Amen.

 01/12/2023

St John's Apocalypse is the last book of the Bible. Today's vision of Daniel is part of the same stream of visionary writing that is inspired by God. I have always found this mystical writing difficult to understand. Jacob's wrestling with God and the visionary ladder to heaven have to be believed if they are going to inspire the awe experienced by the writer.

There have always been amongst us people who have been given moments when in a "cloud of unknowing" their souls "see through a glass darkly" the presence of God and the spiritual creation which is part of his Eternity.

God wills that they should share these dreams and visions that portray his Otherworldly Glory. They can only do so in the language of this world and so God becomes the "Ancient of Days" and everything that Daniel saw is counted and recorded in detail as in  St John's Book of Revelations.

Today's psalm is again part of the so called "Canticle of Daniel". It is a hypnotic litany of praise for the deeds of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and it keeps us firmly fixed in this world as we review the whole of creation shining with the Love of God in the material reality of this world, here and now.

In the Gospel Jesus hints at signs of the "End Times". He has also told us that "it is not for us to know the time" of his second coming. He confirms that all of creation will certainly come to an end just as we are certain to die in this world. If we can remain firm of purpose and free from sin both our deaths and the end of the world can only be happy events for us. Praise be to God!

Dear Lord, I thank you for letting me feel secure in your Love. We will soon begin the countdown to your birth. Mary and Joseph will soon be walking to Bethlehem. The son was protected for 30 years before you began to make known the Kingdom of Heaven and brought redemption to us all. Let the hearts of the killers in Palestine be opened to your Love and realise that they are still spitting into the face of Jesus. They too can be saved by their right choices. Mary pondered the ways of Heaven on Earth and in Heaven she continues her instructions to the World as to the steward of the wedding feast in Cana , "Do whatever he tells you".