23/08/2024

                                                    "Hear the Word of the Lord". 

This morning there are millions of people who will awaken to begin their daily lives. Many of us will begin our morning in prayer. Some of us have the assurance that they have been born into the "chosen race" and their prayer is "Listen O Israel". Others have taken complete control of their lives and literally tried to abandon possessions and family to walk in the footsteps of the Incarnate Son of God, they begin each day in communal prayer. 

In my own case, however, I am living as part of the world aware that my being is calling out to God, that it has always done so with sincerity but also aware that I am tangled up in  "the signs of my times."

I was born on the winning side of World War 2 and see the losers, during my childhood the personification of evil, prosper far more greatly than we have done. I was brought up to understand the Catholic Church and its Clergy as God on Earth. Homosexuality was to be abhorred. People of a different racial mixture than Englishmen would be "happier in their own countries". It was only natural that men should be more important than women.

Today I am aware that throughout my life there has always been an awareness of my soul and wish for holiness. I have often disregarded this longing to become sinless and pushed it aside with a "Yes, but not now". As always I am mystified and entangled by the "signs of the times". 

How is it that promulgators of homosexuality have become leaders in Church and State? How is it that the Vicar of Christ spends more time before TV cameras than he does in prayer. How is it that most of the Methodists Chapel of my youth have become converted into other uses than worship? How is it that Jews have returned to the Holy Land to profane the soil, God's sign of the covenant, with yet more innocent blood?

I wake each morning, slowly overcome the remains of sleep and always forget to thank God that I am still in the world although it will bewilder me much more throughout the day. That comes later as I try to connect  Ezekiel's valley with with Jesuitical Pharisees. "Dem bones, dem bones, dem dried bones" was the refrain of a song popular in my youth "All you need is love" came somewhat later but both were preceded by "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good".

Dear Lord help me to avoid the sins of the world, flesh and devil. Help me to know love and serve . Let me be open to faith, hope and charity. Let me walk on the way truth and life. Let me know Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one Almighty and let my body mind and soul be tuned into the Love that is your awareness of all creation. May these prayers become united with those of all the world, Mary and all the Saints as a plea for forgiveness for sinners both on Earth, with me entwined in the "sign of the times" and those bearing patiently their punishment in the "the sign of eternity," Purgatory.