01/10/2024

Today I know that I am still alive as was Job; but I know that I have been answered by FatherSonHolySpirit and the tiny created soulless creature that is our dog will live out his natural time to warm our hearts with the selfless love that is generated by his innocence. 

"Love" is a word that we often use without thought. It is a mainstay of song writers who sometimes hit on a line that has the same "Truth" as taught by his Jesus and his Apostles.  "All you need is Love, Love is all you need" could be an intentional paraphrase of St Paul's "over all put on Love" in his letter to the Colossians. The tune, composed by a different Paul, cements the words into our minds. Yesterday Jesus told us that "Truth" is not a monopoly of his twelve Apostles.

G.K. Chesterton in the person of Father Brown once warned us  that the sentiment that is generated by our companion animals should not take the place of the reverse spelling of "dog". Of course he was right. I am aware that the weight of  the recovery of a dog is nothing in proportion to the slaughter being perpetrated by humans all over the globe. God helped me. Surely the deaths happening as I write these words are much more deserving of attention than I am but I can still have to respond to God's loving kindness to me for his Love is limitless.

We, all of us, are known to "Our Father". Jesus told us that every living thing plant and animal is known in the infinite mind of God. Throughout history there is nothing that is too small for it to have escaped the attention of God, even I am known by him. All the artificial greatness, Empires, Art, Institutions, Science to be found in this world are the work of men who in their pride have largely forgotten that they are created to do the will of Our Father.

St Therese never forgot this and by her short and painful life, which she lived out without ever uttering Job's "I curse the day that I was born" or ever blaming God for her disease, she proves that to confound the great God really does choose the poor and the weak. "Showers of roses" may seem a childishly simple and sentimental image of Divine Mercy but for her "Little way" they are far more real than all the great churches in which her memory will  be venerated today.

Dear Lord, You know that it is your Mercy that is needed more than ever by our World. I know that we cannot expect more than you have already done for us. Sins are forgiven, the sick are cured, the lame can walk again but many of us are still possessed by the pride that excludes you the Truth from our lives. Jesus has completed your Revelation; we know that each one of has to live in support of others and that all we possess and are has to be as devoted as is Jesus to our fellow human beings, our neighbours. May the prayers of all the peoples of Earth, Heaven and Purgatory be united and become the way, truth and life that brings all sinners to accept the St Therese' "shower of roses", as the fragrance of our final home with Mary, John and all the Saints in your eternal presence. Amen