21/02/2024

Jesus did not begin his public mission until he reached the age of 30. He was no longer in the first flush of youth but was of an age that his presence could command respect. He was no longer the infant prodigy that had captivated the attention of the priests and scribes when he stayed behind at the Temple. As a mature man he addressed his contemporaries; his generation.

 Of course, all generations, infants, children, adults and aged are alive at the same time but as individuals we know that there are many of us about the same age with whom we share the same life experiences and worldly knowledge. This is our generation.

St Peter Damien was born into a generation which was the culmination of the first thousand years of Christianity. There had been for centuries a Church in both east and west that was for the most part in direct disobedience to "My Kingdom is not of this world". The Papacy had become the preserve of powerful families and the Church of Byzantium was another arm of the political power of that Empire.

The worldliness of the institution had become a detriment to the Body of Christ and many of the hierarchs acted as worldly princes and indulged in the corruptions that came with the Mammon they relentlessly pursued. 

Peter Damian, as a member of the religious order, founded by St Benedict to be a nodal point for prayer on our planet, he began his mission to revive the Church by at first avoiding  the community and as a hermit devoted his whole being to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He never left the Institution but worked from within to combat the cancer of corruption that has continued to grow destroying the Holiness that is God's appointed target for us all.

Many, since his day, have attempted the same task but some, "the naive?" of my generation have learnt to our horror that since that day of "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church" there has never been an Institutional Church without the internal decay disguised by the whited sepulchre which Our Lord warned us about.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit is only Truth and Love so we know that there is a true Church founded on Peter. I am a member of that Body of Christ that is all of us who are  open to the will of God supported by the prayers of Mary and all the saints in Heaven. We are the same "corrupt generation" as the first disciples, always addressed by Jesus and which although never succeeding  still hopes with the help of God's grace to be the "Faith found on earth" at the Second Coming.. Mankind is always changing the  World but  the Word of God stands unchanging and  incorruptible to the end of Time.

Dear Lord, hear the prayer that begins in my soul, passes through my mind and comes out of my fingertips onto the screen and  so articulates the longing for the Love and Mercy you have announced to the world. I will not "babble" but ask forgiveness for the self-satisfaction which always mars my being. May Mary and all the saints turn the minds of all the clergy to focus only on you and the souls for whom they have the responsibility of care. Let this generation become like the Ninevites and repent for all the wickedness it has knowingly brought into you Creation and may the Holy Souls find the forgiveness they long for and the peace of Heaven. Amen