30/11/2024

Today St Paul assures us that we have to believe  in the Resurrection; to believe that the one who was crucified, who gave up his life, who poured out his blood on the way from his trial to calvary until  the spear pierced his side and removed the very last drops of his life; we have to believe that he who was shut up in the tomb was the one who warned Mary Magdelena not to touch him on the third day.

Jesus was not born into complete obscurity. The Magi had travelled from their home lands to welcome a "king". They were shocked to find "the king" in an animal shelter. He was known to some of the families of Nazareth as the one who had gone missing in Jerusalem and had been found amongst the scribes who were  amazed at his knowledge. The first of his public signs amazed the steward at the wedding feast at Cana and before that he had  shocked some fishermen into literally following him.

Today we are surrounded by wonders which have been created out of physical matter by the genius of mankind. It is hard for us to be shocked by anything. We are not only being told to control our birthrate but now "they" have assured us that it is also a "good" to terminate our lives when we can bear no more of life's pain.

When we believe "the Resurrection" we have to also find out how we can witness this belief by our own lives. I am always worried that whoever reads what I write will only mock my lack of literary skill. I am who I am, image and likeness, and I can do no more than that of which I am capable. 

The Resurrection has guided human life for two thousand years and has affected millions of souls. We all have to die. Many early Christians even sought after Martrydom and thus show that they had misunderstand what it is to live in the grace of the Resurrection which completes Jesus' Way, Truth and Life, the only way for us to complete God's will for us and be with him at the final resurrection which his love has intended for All.

We all have an opportunity during our lifetimes to live following the revelations of  IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT  in the Life lived by Son. He shocked the learned and clever of his own time but gave us who can cast aside the selfish wonder at our own being the free gift of knowing that his love for creation will surpass even the end of time. Even self-chosen death is not the end for each of our souls.

Dear Lord, help the people of my generation to learn again what you taught the little ones throughout Palestine during your lifetime. The truth that is your Preaching will never fail. The Life of Mammon that is controlled by democrats or autocrats in this world will inevitably become the wonder of the basic material you have created to be the "time" the location for human souls to, by following your will, become the human love that is our ultimate response to your divine Love and being. We will all become dust but our souls will never die. May Mary and all the Spiritual Beings of heaven continue to plead for all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory and help me to know that I am able to stay in your grace by welcoming the glimpses of your Truth that I find in the Gospels, Letters of the Scriptures and in the history of the Fathers and sometimes even in my own words. Amen.

 28/11/2024

Most people who have ever lived have never had the personal experience of IAMIAM given to OT prophets during their lifetimes on Earth. We are all dependant on the words which have recorded the events, spoken words and thoughts of others to enable us to have some understanding of our awareness of the needs of the  little "iams" that we all think that we know.

The Presbyter who records his "Vision" of Eternity in the first reading was coming to the end of a long life during which he had been part of the overwhelmingly most significant events since time began. He had been a close friend of Jesus. He had expected Jesus to overcome the worldly rulers of Palestine and had also expected a "human role" in the New Order.

His expectations had been met but not as he had anticipated. His role had been to care for Mary as if she had been his own mother during his remaining time on Earth. Mary is the first human to whom it was directly revealed that the one IAMIAM is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and she and John had been entrusted to become a New Holy Family, the Church of Love.

I live 2000 years after Calvary. I cannot believe that the Body of Christ is and has been the worldly institution that still tells us that Sacramental Holiness is "doing the actions" without any need for holiness or belief on the part of the celebrant at the Liturgy.

Many others than I have also had the same doubts about "clergy" . Some "lapsed" during the first persecutions of the early days. Many others were corrupted by physical pleasure and wealth. No matter how great the offences, however, we were not left alone and even during the "Pornocracy" souls were still able to achieve salvation in spite of the sinful Church.

I have not had a direct experience of God but I have always known that I am in need of the grace created on Calvary and promised from the Cross to those who care for each other as do John and Mary. I see this as the Spiritual Body of Christ that is not of this world but the image and likeness of Our Father. The creator still has Faith in us to do His Will on Earth but has also made His Last Revelation.

"I am with you till the end of time".

Dear Lord, help me to see your truth and live accordingly. You know my faults, my sins, help me to choose the right paths to avoid them. May the human failures that are evidenced in all institutional Churches be overcome by souls who appeal directly to you and to Mary and all the Saints. As always it could be the last time that I and my generation have the opportunity to become holy in your sight. May these petitions join those of Mary and all the saints that all sinners seek out the forgiveness that you died to give us all on Earth and in Purgatory. Maranatha, Lord Jesus Come soon. Amen

 27/11/2024

I have always felt uncomfortable whenever my human attributes are used to interpret what happens in this reality that I know because I am alive. 

God, IAMIAM, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT is totally beyond any of our human capabilities except loving obedience and acceptance of what he has revealed to his image and likeness, our souls.

I am able to become comfortable in my spiritual being when I remember that Jesus thanks God for revealing the Truth not to "the learned and the clever" but to "the little ones" who can also tune our wills into absorbing the Love with which IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT still engraces those who accept his Will completely and try to abandon themselves to the path chosen, followed and taught by the Incarnate Son.

Persecution and vile punishment were not the only experience of the first Christians. There were long periods of time when the "Church" thought about itself and the meaning that could be found in the Life of the Incarnate One and the preserved teaching of "his friends".

The longed for "return" did not materialise and  there were long drawn out intellectual battles between "the learned and the clever" which were also supported by the little ones. "I am for Apollos, "I am for Paul" were the slogans used by Corinthians and  condemned by Paul.

The Apocalypse that is the first reading for today was composed after the first wave of persecution had martyred Peter and Paul, Stephen and James had already been killed in Jerusalem. It is John's mystical response to the events that were terrifying all "Christians" for the attitude of the state was that if you called yourself a "Christian" you had to die whether you had committed a crime our not.

The psalmist sings praise of Almighty God "he will come to rule the world in justice, in fairness he will rule the people". For this to happen we have to willingly become completely at the disposal of Our Father. All peoples, the Great and the Good, rich and poor, young and old truly accept the truth of every word that comes from the mouth of God.

The human Jesus did that and Our Father expects it of us too for he creates in order to have us accept his Love.

 26/11/2024

The freedom that God has given us is real. When, as a child, I disobeyed my mother or father there was nothing in that disobedience other than that I freely preferred my own will to that of theirs.

In the first centuries of "Resurrection Faith" it seems that that the first task for the Apostles was to keep themselves devoted to the revelations of IAMIAM for "With Justice he will rule the world, he will judge the peoples with his truth" and simultaneously ponder the events that they had witnessed in the physical presence of the Son of God and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The Acts and Letters of the Apostles record the results of the arguments between those who demanded that we all follow Moses as did the first "People of God" into the "promised land". The expectations of Jews and Gentiles were not too different in that they were centered on this world.

"What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his own soul?" This is a direct warning from SON of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, and is fundamental to "knowing, loving and serving."

Jesus is totally a human being as are we all except that he is sinless. It is no wonder that Mary brought him up always pondering him in her heart; caring for his bodily needs as she herself received spiritual nourishment from him.

Our Church, as she grew out of the meetings in the Upper Room and in the Portico of Solomon also pondered what she too had been taught and struggled to live on in the world which had not then or now experienced "the return" . "Where were the mansions that Jesus had promised?"

We cannot look at today's Gaza and just accept that it is the "Will of God". That Roman persecutions of Christians were God chastising his people for the institutional faults that had already arisen in the short history of the Petrine Church. It is not the "Will of God" that His Church should own so much "dust" of this world. It is not God's will that I have sinned as an innocent child and not so innocent adult too. 

It is God's will that each individual should live the wonderful life of a human being in the beauty of creation and never prefer ourselves to Him or our Neighbour. When so many of us have failed in this commandment over centuries we have created evil were there was only good and waste our time when we do not acknowledge the True End-of-Life Justice that each "I" has to face as an individual, for the Ever-greater is also a parent who knows each one of us with Love.

Dear Lord, you know that I am a weak creature but that I am not abjectly grovelling out of fear and superficiality. To try to bring my mind to face the power that is you is not an easy task although Jesus has taught us how to do so. All my being is aware that I can avail myself of the grace that you expect us to welcome into our souls so that we can prepare for the great adventure that is the identical end for each of us. Mary and the Angels and Saints all are your creatures and I hope to join with them today in the prayer that brings holy life to our beings, hope for our futures faith in your Love Almighty Father and forgiveness to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Amen 

 25/11/2024

I was expecting Advent to begin today but, of course, our weeks begin on Sunday, the Lord's day. 

Jesus humbled himself to become "as we are" and thus had personal experience of time not as a spectacle viewed from without but as we do he knew the passing of all the measurements used by us to record  intangible "time", a currency that I have often wasted.

St John's vision can only be possible for him. or us, to see and contemplate if it is outside the realities of time. 

Jesus in today's Gospel is definitely within time for he "happens to notice" the anonymous widow who gives of her all. John certainly didn't "happen to have" that vision of ..........? I cannot say "Of eternal reality" because I know that Our God is far greater than anything that can be seen. However, I cannot refuse the "Word of God" and thus think  that the cultures of the times in which Jesus taught his Apostles were different than our own so their "Visions of the All Powerful" are beyond the limits of the receivers to share in anything other than in  their own vocabulary which we can interpret, but not truly visualise.

I also think that God's completion of  revelation of himself in the Resurrection is the reality that is far greater than any visions. 

We are all human and have to think about why it is that we try to pray everyday as did the Son of God. We have to know as much as we can about God. We are able to open our being to the communion that is the Spiritual Network ( St John's readers would be unable to instantly grasp what their humble fishing tools have become in the language of today) between "Our Father" and all living souls Joyfully completed in heaven, striving on earth with the aid of  Holy Spirit, Angels, Mary and all the Saints  and with humble, gratitude, penitent in the pains of Purgatory.

Dear Lord, help me to let go of pride. You always show me the way, truth and life that I must follow in atonement for my sins which willingly blocked out your grace and chose to do what is evil. You know all my sins help me to understand the pain that they inflicted on your human body and become much more than human "sorry" for all the harm that I have caused for others, to You, and to myself and loved ones. May Mary, Angels and all the saints join my prayers with theirs to plead for Your Mercy for all souls on earth and relief for those in Purgatory. Help me to know myself with faith in the hope that is your love. Come Lord Jesus Come.

 24/11/2024

We all have in this life an opportunity to listen to the voice of Jesus, Son of the Father and proclaimer of the Truth. 

The Truth he proclaims is that if we witness by our personal deeds and believe with the whole of our persons that the reality of matter, the Universe and all it contains, is the creation of the Almighty IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT for us, His Image and Likeness, to be able to show that  we can choose to become coheirs with Christ in the Holy Spirit that is God's own delight, in his own being. 

In his final public address to the souls of the People of God, the Jews, and to us their spiritual descendants Jesus makes it clear that he is not completing the will of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT in support of any form of human race, culture or institution.

He  lives, teaches and  guides in the same this worldly reality, that we all know. In today's reading he is about to become the final and eternal sacrifice for us to be able to complete the will of God on this Earth. He accepts the role of human sacrifice as the cost of allowing us all to be able to become the sinless ones that is the role that Our Father has assigned to each of our souls.

Today we praise him as King only because we can find no human role that comes near to the Glory, Majesty, perfection of "one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven".

Dear Lord, You know me completely so the reality is that there is nothing to say except to make the effort to raise, my mind and soul to you. You are still unknowable and but I think that I have got some sort of control over my bodily and mental life and can direct my thoughts and prayers to how it is that your churches are not bursting at the seems instead of crumbling for want of use. Help me to always remember the needs of all sinners who have got to accept your gift of Mercy. May the Church of Souls that connects Mary with You, Angels and Saints never fade as do our earthly equivalents and may purgatory complete your revelation to penitent sinners who have to pay the price that is your Justice. Amen.

 22/11/2024

It is definitely the "learned and the clever" who try to trap Jesus by this morning's craftily contrived moral dilemma. The "learned and clever" of Jesus' time and place were those who had devoted their lives to studying Scripture and to serving the needs of the Temple. 

They were Sadducees, who had become the heredity priests and High priests, who differed from the Pharisees in that they did not believe in the soul's continuing life after death. Both "churches" offered different emphasis in their interpretation of the Scriptures which they preserved but were united in their enmity of the Essenes and any independent voices such as John the Baptist's who had become overwhelmed by the "wonder of being" and every word that comes to us from the mouth of God.

We know them as the enemies of Jesus but in reality they were, as are we all, a mixed bunch who were trying to live their lives following the Law as servants and chosen ones of IAMIAM. Their Scriptures were their record of the contract that they had made with IAMIAM who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. Some of them also became the "little ones" who accepted Jesus as SON of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT but not without arguing with the Apostles and especially with St Paul, one of their own.

A big question, maybe the biggest question, that I always have before me is why it was that Jesus came to us at the time he did. I feel there has to be a rational reason that a human can understand. 

God knows that I am not challenging his ways on this concluding weekend of the Liturgical Year, but cannot help wondering why he has allowed over the centuries and is still allowing sinfully hypocritical "Churches",  to damage the "Faith" of the "little ones" whom Jesus has taught to call "Our Father", even "Daddy" and placed in their care.

Dear Lord, I know that it is always myself that allows me to sin. The 33 years you spent in human time had only one goal to straighten out the people whom you had nurtured for a thousand plus years. We are today the end results and I pray that we can become humans who can successfully live as "image and likeness". May Mary, Angels and all the Saints continue in their prayers for us as we too ask for your mercy to be poured not only over us but also over the Holy Souls. May St Clement remember in his worship his namesake my father on earth and all my family and friends who also have need of forgiveness . I make this morning's offering from my heart and soul through the immaculate heart of Mary and Son, praying in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 22/11/2024

No wonder that I am loth to claim to understand John's vision. What can be the significance of an Angel that stands on land and sea? Is it  the Word of God that tastes sweet but turns sour when it is understood? 

Jesus, however, drives out the businessmen from his Temple for that is to be dedicated to prayer. Thank God for the humanity of Son. How could I have lived in the times before the Incarnation?

How did the generations which carried on the missions of the Apostles ensure that the Word of God remains a joy "good news" for all time? Those first Christians and Martyrs lived in a time of economic prosperity in the Roman Peace and the Institutional Church as she developed, gradually came to resemble the Temple that Jesus had to purge literally in today's Gospel and with final reality on his Cross.

She could have easily, been compared to that Angel standing on land and sea. Her "promised" land has to be Jesus the incarnate never changing Eternal Revelation of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and sea the ever fluctuating, never stationary ebbing and flowing of time.

The destruction of the Temple should warn us and all Church leaders that Jesus really did mean "my Kingdom is not of this world". The only people that he ever condemned individually were the equivalent of the clerical hierarchy of today. Has not the Christian Church been part of the fabric of  worldly civilisation for far too long?

The Jews who welcomed Jesus were those who had accepted the word of God and kept the Commandments in their hearts without any ostentatious piety. They accepted and passed on the word of God. They have had their reward.

Those of us who have to care for our souls in my generation can understand from the lessons of history that "The Church" has always been too much a part of this world but that when all is ended the Word that will  remain in her can still be found in Jesus' words to Mary and John from the cross.

There really is a Spiritual Church of Love which is the possession of no race, nation or religion but is made freely available to all who look for it. The unknowable vastness that is God's knows each one of his creation and feeds us with the Hope that is Faith in his Love. There is nothing sour here. Deo gratias. Amen.

 21/11/2024

I read the readings for today just a few seconds ago and I am as a little child awestruck at the first sight of a city. I am always empty headed when I first set out to find the meaning of God's revelation to me. I have made up my mind to continue my life dedicated to opening my heart, and mind, soul, my being to accepting the opportunity that all human lives are given, as was Jerusalem.

Now I can get going and know that this repeated theme of each day is as always the will of our Father for me to live up to. We are all free to choose between the mortal being of our bodily life and the eternal being of our soul which has to steer us away from sin that defies the Will of God.

No matter how rich our worldly life, in physical beauty, athletic prowess or capability of intelligence and all the other attributes that Mammon dangles over our cots and prams as goods which we can attain when "grown-up", our souls know that they have to make themselves ready for death which only they will survive into the Presence which is Our Father, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, who wants to welcome us with the tenderness of Mercy which is also Justice. 

Today is my chance to live in this body in the light of God towards becoming the human being image and likeness, body and soul that is the "last thing" of this Universe and  that we call "the end of time", the "Second Coming" the "Parousia". May Jesus not weep over me!

Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus come. Amen

Dear Lord, keep my body mind and soul free from sin that is always ready for me to accept by stifling the conscience that has never ceased to try to call me back to the Spiritual Being that is my image and likeness. I think that John's vision probably tells as much about you, the Supreme Being as do all the ideas pursued by all the theologians whom I try to read. The image is vast and confusing but so are the books that I will still try to follow in the time that I have left. You know that these words are the product of my thoughts which are my will, my soul's attempt to approach your mercy with the simplicity of a child that knows she has offended her earthly father. Today the Church remembers Mary, who was a faithful Jew, may she remember the rituals she followed on Earth but use her presence as the only  sinless one of us to plead for mercy for sinners on Earth and in Purgatory that we can become spotless as she, in body mind and soul and so ready to complete God's Loving will for us in his creation

 20/11/2024

If I were a rich man I would be able to take comfort from Jesus' words in this morning's parable as it seems to be all about the values of this world without any condemnation of them. I have written "seems to be" for the warnings about  "My kingdom is not of this world" "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his own soul?" are not at all obvious except in the execution of the "enemies".

It is a difficult beginning to the day for me today. I know that the vision of John is his attempt to "see" IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. Our Father is totally beyond either mental or visual conception but has completed his revelations to mankind in the person of Incarnate Son who for us is another human being teaching by words and proving by deeds to be, God from God, Begotten not made, the Son of the Father.

I feel no attraction to understand John's vision. But the words of Jesus are the key to eternal life so I have to struggle with their meaning. It is a terrible thing to hear the "Son of God" say "as for the man who has not, even the little he has will be taken away" as they tell me that we cannot rely solely on the Loving Mercy of Our Father to bring us though life to the happiness of Eternity. Our "talents" are the revelations made in Old and New Testaments. We must follow them.

We are not preprogrammed beings. We have to choose for ourselves and can avoid becoming the fearful one who did nothing to increase his master's wealth only by striving to follow the example of he who proved faithful in little things and live out our lives in this world "knowing, loving and serving" our way to eternal happiness.

Dear Lord, you know I really do thank you Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the understanding that came to me as I typed the above. There are other incidents in your Gospels the "hard sayings" that are stark realism without any sentimentality. The Cross is hard-edged reality. The image of the babe in the manger is softer but it too for Mary and the witnesses and all mankind is the beginning of the reality of life on earth lived in witness of you who are so much greater than St John's vision of You. May my prayers join with those led by Mary in Heaven in praise of your Glory and as humble requests on earth and in Purgatory for your Mercy.  I know that your grace is never ending help me to live secure in St Therese' image of your Grace as rose-petals covering the whole Universe. Amen.

 19/11/2024

I suppose that we all have replicated in our own lives the difficulties that St John reprimands in the Churches he has founded in Sardis and Laodicea. At first, we receive the Good News with an enthusiastic joyfulness and  devote our time and thoughts to becoming the People of God.

We, however, are living our mortal lives in time and as it passes we change and our awareness that we have been created by the love that "passeth all understanding" weakens into the wishy-washiness that John's vision is counteracting.

Those who have responded to the  calling that inspired the Apostles to drop everything and walk off behind the stranger must view in horror the backsliding from even the look-warm faith that has emptied their churches.

The meaning of "God with us", Emmanuel, is preached in St Paul's letters which encourage us to live our lives with the Faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. "Faith" is not shutting our eyes to the sin that is openly avowed and flaunted in these times, even by Bishops. 

In the past, secularly powerful warrior bishops and Crusade-Preaching Popes were obviously not following the will of God. Nothing can excuse the burnings of leaders and the slaughter of followers of those who pointed out the discrepancy between the Gross Mismatch between the wealth of the Church and the poverty of her founder.

During the first centuries  the Church founded on St. Peter was not only persecuted from without but also from within her ministers were beset by how to understand with their minds, live and preach with their words and lives the Resurrection and "every word that comes from the mouth of God" for that is the meaning of Jesus, God with us and the source of Eternal Hope, 

"Today salvation has come to this house because this man too, is a Son of Abraham, the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.

Dear Lord, help me to become fearlessly devoted to your teaching even though it is my nature to be weak and fearful. Let me benefit from reading the examples of martyrs and interpretations of your word. Give your strength to those who are able to give public voice to the devastation that has become the wreck of organized religion in this world. There are very few public figures left who are uncontaminated by "the learned and the clever" who are achieving the destruction of our Faith begun by those who nailed you to the cross 2000 years ago. May my prayers be joined with those of  Mary, all Angels and Saints that I avoid sin this day and that my sins and those of all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory receive the Mercy that is undeserved but is as always the free gift of your Love to us. Amen

 18/11/2024

Every day that I read the scriptures chosen over the centuries by the Church that has at its core the Resurrection, which brought joy to the hearts of the 11 surviving Apostles and the unnamed hundreds at that time and the billions since then, I try to adjust myself to this both worldly and heavenly reality and put all my attention on becoming truly devoted to God as I begin my day aware that I am always in the presence of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

As I type these words there is always self-judgement simultaneously present in my mind. This wants me to be "brilliant" as the world reckons "brilliance" and mocks both my words and the honesty of the intentions they are meant to reveal.

I can do nothing about my "brilliance" but I can and do strive to be honest and can thus become tied up in the complexity of my being that has struggled for more than eighty years to become what Our Father has intended us all to become "image and likeness".

When I am finding Christianity to be a difficult struggle I can also imagine St Peter "but Lord, where should we go?" There is only one answer to that question which is put by our mortality to our need for a rational answer to the wonder of being. "Heaven and earth will pass away but my word will stand". 

There is nothing greater to be found by all struggling human beings than the "Faith" that always brings recovery even when we are determined to remain blind.

Dear Lord, Help me to avoid sinning this day by being always aware of and open to  your grace. Never let me forget that "Lord, Lord" is not enough and thus be open to the needs of all your children. May your mercy guide my children away from Mammon and let them become open to the everlasting Glory that can be theirs if they only open their eyes to realise the fundamentally flawed way that is the way of the world. May my prayers join those of Mary and all Angels and Saints both in thanks and praise of you and in pleading for the forgiveness of all us sinners on Earth and those paying the just price for their sins in Purgatory. Amen

 17/11/2024

I am always ready to listen to my soul and use my will-power to search for the will of "Our Father". I have read somewhere that the kingdom of heaven cannot be stormed, it is free gift; it is given to us; and is available every moment that we are alive in our bodies on earth.

It is "free" to us but a great price has been paid and we will pay a great price if we do not listen to it

I say "we will pay a great price" for during my life-time most people whom I have met do not agree with Faith in God  and interpret their own existence according to the rules of matter, Physics, Chemistry, Biology three Sciences ruled by the unseen power of Numbers.

All of us are aware of our being. Each of us becomes more and more aware of our selves the longer that we live and today I am most aware of my being as one who has not lived in the true response to the Father in whose Presence, my soul always knows that we are.

I am sitting now trying not to think for the immensity of God is a terrible thing to contemplate. How can the power of Being greater than the Universe be found and known by the speck that is my being. The crucifixion, Jesus hanging and bleeding out on Calvary, however, assures "Woman behold your Son, Son behold your mother" that he knows us eternally. He knows each one for by the death of Son IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT proclaims the Resurrection which is God's last gift to his creation.

Dear Lord, help me to do your will today by avoiding all temptation, especially the one that becomes pleased with what I have written. Help me to pay the price for my sins, although that is impossible for you know I have never been even since my childhood the pure soul that is  the result of Baptism. Help to use the season of Advent to find the forgiveness that I should know that there is for me and for all who sincerely say "The Apostles' Creed.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.

Amen.

 16/11/2024

St John thanks the recipients of his letter for their care of the three strangers whom he had sent on to them.

We know of this seemingly trivial event of 2000 years ago because it is recorded by St John. We  know neither the people nor the timescale involved. The people of the New Testament were conscious not only of the Good News as a personal Faith but also knew of themselves as part of a New Community of the Holy Spirit that was growing out of the Jewish Diaspora.

We call that community Christianity today. Our founder Jesus makes sure that we remember that he attended the synagogue and took part in Temple festivities during his time on earth.

Today Jesus tells us all that he knows that we are human. He knows that it is easy for us to lose heart. It is by prayer that we fix our minds and hearts on heaven even as we live in the midst of the "nonsense-sphere" that is politics, entertainment, and sport which have become the most important part of  life for most of the world that is not living in an actual war-zone. They are the source and end of most economic activity that we engage in throughout our lives and are nonsense because they always come to an end even though God, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRT, has made himself known and declared his loving intentions for us, the way, truth and light to Eternal Life.

Jesus' parable of the persistent widow who is finally treated fairly by the judge has many parallels in all the centuries since then. The scandal of the disgrace and imprisonment of falsely convicted Post Masters in the UK is one that is still ongoing.

He does, however, leave us with a rhetorical question that seems to have no logical connection to the parable but invites us to review the state of our personal faith now and to consider how little a part faith in God plays in our this worldly lives ruled entirely by Mammon.

Dear Lord, help me to remain this day aware of you and ready to be judged if you were to call me or bring to an end this faithless world. I know that I have many sins that need punishment and that I have responsibility for not being able to convince my family that being true to You, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT is the source and also the eternal end of our lives in this world. May the mercy implored for us by Mary and all the Angels and Saints help me and all the world to believe and thus let there be "Faith" on Earth when you return. Let me always remember in prayer those who now come into my mind May our sins be forgiven and let us all finally share the Glory that is you. Amen

 15/11/2024

St John lived a long life. He was known by the other Apostles to have a special place in Jesus' affections. This has given rise to many calumnies about Jesus and his Apostles. Actually leaning on Jesus  at the Last Supper is a difficult act to replicate. The only thing about it to repudiate is the false interpretation of its significance.

The love for others that is preached by John can be experienced within our families. Parents for children and children for parents. Jesus' recognises that this is a natural relationship which is an integral, "printed code" part, in varying degrees, of the physical being of all created animals. "Who would hand a stone  to his child when he asks for bread?

John's lifetime witnessed a growth in deceivers who tried to impose their own learning onto the earliest of ecclesiastical communities. 

In the  Church that met in the Upper Room and in the Portico of Solomon there were many sincere Pharisees and others who couldn't deny the wonder of the Resurrection and the events of the past three years but still had to clear out the baggage of the "Law" which they loved and had worked hard to acquire. 

The Church that is the Body of Christ is not a gift in appreciation of the intelligence of mankind. She has always had to be very careful about how to handle the interpretations of Scriptures made by the clever and the wise who are  always ready to offer their own version of what is God's will revealed through the prophets and completed by Incarnate Son who has to die to bring about Salvation.

Today I have noticed the grammar of the question asked by the Disciples. They don't ask "When?" about the coming of the kingdom but "Where?" which is a response to Jesus' "The Kingdom of God is among you". We have to open our hearts and minds for "My Kingdom is not of this world" and is thus incorporeal, we have to recognise and implore the Holy Spirit for the Grace to persevere as humble believers and be without any pride in what has to be obedience to the will of the self-revealing IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. 

No-one can explain God who is always greater than  any person or thing that is within this creation that we know during our lifetimes. We all have to accept that we have to accept and share his love for us with the whole world. This is the only way we can become the beings that our God has created us to be. "Thy will be done" has to be fulfilled by faithful loving service and obedience.

Dear Lord when I open my heart to you, I know that I can do your will but also know that any sinfulness on my part comes about by my own failures to be honest. Your love is always available to hold back my cooperation with the devil that is my own disobedience to your will. Help me to, this day, remain in your love by sharing it with all sinners still on Earth or in Purgatory. and may the angels and saints led by Mary sing your praises as those souls who have availed themselves of your Grace join the eternity of Loving Glory that is part of the purpose your Creation. Amen.

 14/11/2024

All of Paul's letters are personal in that he always has either the people of the Church to whom he is writing or specific individuals in mind as he writes.  I can't forget his asking for the return of a tunic that he had left at Troy. "I can't forget" write I, but I can't remember whom he asked to do this personal service. 

He is also filled by the Holy Spirit when he admonishes, praises or corrects his Churches. He tells Philemon that when he is preaching the Word of God he can have no diffidence or concern for the reactions of reader or listeners.

Today's letter shows how the attitude of the Early Church to slavery was not one of instant aversion. Paul accepts that Philemon does have rights over the person of his escaped slave and offers compensation for any loss that he might have incurred as a result of Onesimus' desertion.

The Jesus we know from the Gospels also makes no allowances for the scruples of his listeners "Thou brood of vipers" could not have attracted any Pharisee to give a "fair-hearing" to his preaching. 

Today most of those who heard Jesus "The kingdom of God is among you" did not know that the words were literally true and that they were hearing, looking at and could even touch Son who was no allegory but the reality of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

David knows that all the "good" in human life comes from the unseen power of God and can sing with "Joy in his heart" for he knows how God cooperates and shows us the happiness that it is to obey the Word of the Lord.

Dear Lord, You know that my letters to you are heartfelt and as sincere as I am able to make them. Prayer is becoming a delight and I thank you for the inspiration that turns my heart and soul to you each morning. You also know that by the time I go to bed I am unable to recollect the words spoken by you in this morning's Gospel even though I return to these my morning's offerings to You throughout the day. I know that you know me and that I am never truly alone. May my prayers be joined with those of those who stood at the foot of the cross in horror as you breathed your last. May your mother and ours lead all possible prayer directly to your heart and may we on Earth and accepting punishment in Purgatory be forgiven for accepting temptation in deeds that have allowed us to sin and add to the torments you suffered as a real man on Calvary. Come soon, Lord Jesu Come

 13/11/2024

"Enslaved by passions and luxuries" is hard to believe of St Paul. 

He had, as a student of "Pharisees", devoted his life before Damascus to the study of the Scriptures. When he stood by at the martyrdom of St Stephen it was not as an idle bystander but as one who thoroughly believed in the righteousness of the actions of those who threw the stones.

I have often allowed myself to be enslaved by emotions. I have often lost my self control and known at the time that I did so that I was not acting within the boundaries set by Our Father.

Jesus, the Incarnation, has come into the world not because there is anything we have done to attract his love. I have great difficulty in completing this thought but I have to say that it seems to be that Our Father could be regretting his trust in Adam and Eve.

There has to be a great enough reason for the creator to empty himself of "Godness" and take on to himself the pain of my sins and the sins of all the world and die. The learned and the clever tell us that the "Ever Greaterness of God" cannot be swayed by emotion.

Jesus at no time during his life on earth ever taught the "god of the Philosophers". Human logic and rationality can and do talk itself into a corner whereas Our Lord taught us to call God "Daddy", a Dad who knows each of us and wants only the best for us for he is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT with arms outstretched on the Cross and open heart pouring out Love for each individual child known to him.

Dear Lord, I know that faith becomes hope and thus we have love that feeds our ability to live without sin. I frequently try to understand that you had to become man to be able to make a sacrifice sufficient to save us from our sins. We have always failed you, in the garden, in the Promised Land and in your Church but you still know that we can accept your Love to become sinless now. Help me to be an open heart to receive your Love and to return it to both You and my neighbour wherever he/she is to be found. May I join my prayers to those of Mary and the other Marys who stood with John aghast with despair at the foot of the cross that seemed to terminate your mission in failure. May our unified prayers bring the free gift of your mercy to us the undeserving sinners on earth and in Purgatory. May we be overpowered by the Love that is lavished like manna on the Chosen People and St Therese's rose petals on all the Universe to be accessed by those who seek out your way, truth and light. Amen

 12/11/2024

The words and deeds of St Paul are still the "the rock" on which all the "churches" of our world have developed.

In the first place we have to "know" the Resurrection by whom Paul's life was stopped on the road to Damascus.

We can read the gospels and thus learn about Jesus and his mission. Paul had to listen to the Apostles to learn the "doctrine" revealed over three years by Jesus alive and preaching to them and other disciples. He had to know that the "Law" of the scribes and pharisees into which he, "The Good Pharisee", had invested his total being, had become adulterated by those to whom God over the centuries had favoured as his "Chosen People". 

God has never revealed to us in direct words his reason for choosing to be "Son" on earth. He has revealed by his presence with us and his Resurrection that we can by our behaviour on earth reveal our acceptance of his commitment to each one of us, although we are as insignificant in this world as a mustard seed or a tuppenny sparrow.

Jesus today confirms that living in accordance with the will of the Father "Thy will be done on earth" requires from us only the obedience that is the application of the grace he creates on Calvary.

Just as being FatherSonHolySpirit is the unity of IAMIAM we too have to live in the perfect obedience that is Mary's reply to the message of an angel, "be it done unto me according to thy word". 

Dear Lord, help me to become the obedient soul that is your expectation of all of us in this world.  We are  totally free but you have created each of us to be the image and likeness with which you engraced the material Adam and Eve. I pray that my being and all those known to it can become open for your grace to take over our lives, as happened to  St Paul, so that experiencing total obedience we can only use it to thank and praise the Creator of all that is good. May our prayers join those of Mary, Angels and Saints in praise of your Glory and thanks for your mercy. Let my remaining time on earth be without sin and let my remorse be  true regret and longing for pardon. May my sins and the sins of the Holy Souls find forgiveness so that we can truly worship you with sinless hearts and minds. Amen.

 11/11/2024

There have been many occasions during her unexpectedly long life when the Church founded on St Peter has failed to act as the "elder" templated in his letter to Silas, by St Paul.

David too had known his own sin and not lived up to the image of righteousness which he praises in this morning's psalm.

I too have often sinned and been a poor example of living a life of faith.

This morning Jesus ensures that his disciples do not get taken in by their own self-regard. In our religious life, we can often get to the point when, misled by our own sincere enthusiasm, we have a strong faith but one that is becoming self-centered.

Such a one was the Pharisee who thanked God for his superiority to the sinning publican.

This morning Jesus, as always, keeps his people focused on reality. True Faith in God is always a target. We can never attain it by our own efforts for God is always beyond our comprehension. In our lives we can improve ourselves by never holding grudges, forgiving even the elders who lead us into temptation. 

We can always pray with the Apostles "Lord increase our Faith" and then contemplate the answer that is made to each of us for our Salvation comes only from God directly into our hearts.

Dear Lord, help me to pray. Let my mind and soul become ready for the bodily disintegration that is ever getting closer. I pray that I will not disgrace you on my death-bed and face the onset of Eternity with the Hope that your care of me inspires. My prayers are added to those of Mary, Angels and all the Saints as we become the Spiritual Unity that is Christ in heaven and on Earth and can thus only do the will of Our Father and  become greater than the "mustard-seed" that is my earthly target of Faith.  May the souls of the faithful rest in peace and we sinners on earth and in Purgatory receive your gift of boundless mercy with grateful thanks of joy. Amen

 10/11/2024

In the first reading God is revealing through Elijah that he is all powerful by intervening in material events. He is showing his people that worshipping inanimate objects is more than the obvious stupidity that it is but is also an affront to HIS infinite being.

Throughout the Old Testament God reveals to His people the reason he has created our world. He intervenes directly in the affairs of men to show that we are being allowed to understand in the depths of our being that we are made in his image and likeness to do in our generation His will during the era in which we are on earth.

Even though there were many direct interventions into time made by God during the period of the Old Testament the Jews although gifted so much did not match the Love of God for them by returning that Love. 

God closes the first revelation of himself, as IAMIAM, by the lives of Jesus and Mary in the land he had chosen to give to the Jews.

Grown to adulthood Jesus Son of the now revealed IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT teaches us directly and by his miracles, the signs demanded by the people of the Old Testament. He is the totality of God's will on earth. He preaches that we need to Love God and each other by always putting God and other people before the needs of our own selves 

The only people he ever condemns face to face are those who serve the Lord by study and as sacrificing priests. There has never been any need for our churches to become the worldly institutions that they became all too quickly and remain so today for the unseen spiritual body of Christ has always present in the New Holy Family of Mary John and all mankind that will be with us until the end of time.

Dear Lord, May my thoughts be a true reflection of your will for me. Help me to stifle myself and in these few moments contemplate your will with total honesty. You know that I often fail in my efforts to confine my own will to your guidance. I am a sinner totally reliant on your grace which is freely available. Your visible and invisible churches are supported to the extent that we seek your help. Mary and all the saints are totally engaged in perfect worship part of which has to be the likeness of Love for all mankind which you accepted by death for us, that has created the greatest sign revealed by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. Your Resurrection is your last and greatest promise to me and all sinners both here and in Purgatory. Help me to live up to this promise in my own being as image and likeness. Amen

 09/11/2024

I know that Jesus is true God and true man. 

I know this in the first place because I was born into a family that practised their religion. We did this as much as to retain our identity as non-Protestants as to demonstrate our belief in God. We believed in "The Church". We believed that our institution was founded by Jesus to be IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT's only way, truth and life.

Ezekiel and the other exiles in Babylon were shattered by what they saw as IAMIAM's desertion of them but were able to retain their non-pagan identity by never forgetting that their nation was intertwined with the revelations of the only true God,  "What nation has as great a god as the Lord". Ezekiel never loses hope in this Lord and what he had revealed to Moses.

Today, even atheist Israelis continue to act as if they believe that they still have the  divine-right of their ancestors and hence themselves to retain possession of the place on Earth where their ancestors completely rejected their own Lord, IAMIAM by killing his Son.

Today, I am able to read the Scriptures chosen as appropriate for today's masses and in my imagination review St John Lateran and all the Churches and secular locations in which I have been to mass. I can see the extant Western Wall of Herod's temple where Jesus chased out the profane money changers.

Everything that I am, do or think is known to Our Father. He knows that I am trying to express my believe in the freedom that he has given to each of us and that since the time that Jesus completed his mission on earth each one of us has been provided with all the facts and grace to act in obedience to the complete transparency of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and that this obedience requires minds and souls not land and buildings.

Dear Lord, Help me to complete this day sinlessly and help me to understand how it is that 2000 years after your revelations our world is still dominated by swollen human egos and deniers of your grace. I think I know that the origin of all sin is Adam and Eve's original disobedience. Generation upon generation we progress in the material world. This progress is seen in the magnificence of Basilicas, old and new and the ability to control the very nature of biological life and physical matter. I know that I am as tied to this world as any other. Help me open the links to your grace that I can become pure of heart and a being fit to welcome you in this world that I might be welcomed by You into the next. May Mary and all Saints remember that they too once lived in time. The Unblemished Grace with which You prepared Mary to become Your mother means that she never sinned but may have suffered temptation. You know the power of temptation and  with all the Saints can empathise with all sinners who seek your pardon in this world and atone for their sins in Purgatory. Help me to stay truly on the right path and freely choose to know, love and serve. Amen.

 08/11/2024

"No one can serve two masters" begins Jesus' summary of his discourse that starts with today's Gospel reading. This is perfectly clear to me but the parable of the dishonest steward has always been hard for me to grasp. It seems to tell me that we can learn from dishonest business practises how to live as Christians, honest to God.

The continuation of this preaching makes it clear that Jesus is not praising dishonesty but warning us not to get tied into the standards of the material life of the era into which we are born. He is not telling us that the excuses of the military as at the Nuremburg Trials  "I was only following orders" or the ubiquitous "everybody else does it" of the pilferer of trifles "from work" and the killers of the unborn are ever acceptable to Our Father who always means what he says. "Thou shalt not kill", "Thou shalt not steal".

We are judged by how each one of us has upheld the will of God during our lifetimes. 

We are not judged by our adherence to  the Splendour of Liturgy and depth of Theology of the descendant of the Church founded on St Peter.

We are not judged by our nationality. "In God we trust" stamped into coinage means nothing to our loving Father and just Judge.

We are always free to decide for ourselves how we, who naked at birth, have been clothed first with parental love and cultural heritage, and, as we grew to adulthood, ever more absorbed our worldly culture chose between it and the revealed will of Our Father in our daily lives.  At death our soul again naked has to be ready to face IAMFATHERSONANDHOLYSPIRIT who knows how we have cared for his gifts to us.

God is Love and he trusts us to accept The Bible as the complete revelation of His Loving intentions for creation. It brings Truth into the world. It is the Light which we keep on ignoring as Mammon continues to captivate us by ever new material power and pleasures. We are all souls and become the Children of Light, even in this world when we prepare ourselves to receive the Grace created for us by our Incarnate FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT on Calvary. 

We are always free to choose. I hope that I am doing so correctly at this moment.

Dear Lord, I always begin the day with the wish to do your will but frequently get it wrong. My hope is always for forgiveness as I am guilty of sinning far too often in this world and thus resisting the grace that you show to all the world on Calvary. May myself and all the sinners of this world become worthy of  your trust that you reveal in our freedom of will which we far too often misuse in our defiance of you. May my unspoken prayers clear my mind so that I can be ever open to your grace which is directed to your Church by Mary, Angels and Saints from their place with you. May all the Holy Souls continue in the realization of what they missed on earth and thus thank you continually in their suffering atonement. May those for whom I now pray in my heart become aware of your grace and turn away from the world of sin once more into your embrace. Amen

 7/11/2024

Our Father has always been concerned for the state of each individual soul he has created to know love and serve within our physical bodies in this material universe.

He, first of all, guided the patriarchs and the prophets, but the chosen people were unable to break free from their attachment to this world.

The incarnate Son lived as does all mankind, all mammals, from fertilized egg to death. God on earth is the event that completes with the Resurrection for everyone God's demonstration of his Supreme Being, Infinite Knowledge and Total Love. 

The Hebrews never got it completely right about IAMIAM. 

They became another current in the progress of Time. In Mary's womb FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT stops and restarts the being that failed him in the Garden and in the Promised Land but now human body and soul are doubly blessed by Incarnate Son.

This time he promises to be with us until the end of time. He promises always to keep the spiritual line between Him and each one of us open at His end. 

 God offers himself Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the Birth, Death and Resurrection of Son as Grace for us to accept with pure hearts,

In today mass readings, St Paul is ready to face all hardships to announce this Good News, Jesus teaches us that it is a source of joy in heaven when we renounce sin and listen to our inner voice that is calling us to forgiveness and David shows how and why to sing.

O sing to the Lord, sing His praise,

Tell all his wonderful works!

Be proud of his Holy Name

Let the hearts that seek, the Lord rejoice.

Dear Lord, May my soul never be blocked from listening to you. May my mind remain as a child always lost in learning the wonder of your Love. May my body know that you have shared its misfortunes in away far more serious than my petty pains and discomforts. Help me to understand how it has been possible for your foundation on St Peter to have been as atrociously sinful as it has been. Help me to be obedient to your will and secure in your words from the cross to St John and your mother. May the whole world come to realise that for "Your will to be done on earth" each one of us has to avoid sin. You still trust us with the freedom of choice that is part of the "image and likeness" that only we can become by our individual choices. May the prayers of Heaven led by Mary shower down Mercy onto all sinners here and in Purgatory and may there be a reawakening in the hearts of us all as there was in the first years announced by the Apostles. Amen

 6/11/2024

There have been many ways throughout the two millennia since Jesus challenged his disciples and us  as he did with the "hard saying" preserved in this morning's gospel, that we have tried to accommodate Jesus' use of words into our Christian Faith. "Hate" is not "Love" nor is it "Honour". "Love thy neighbour as thyself." "Honour thy father and thy mother". 

Our instant personal reaction is to try by interpretation to find a way out of the warning that living our lives according to the teaching of Our Lord requires us to hate both our families and ourselves. 

Our reactions to the Word are always personal. God is not an abstraction. He is three persons that are separate beings but are identical with each other. 

The Trinity is not some human thinking. It is a "hard fact" of reality revealed to Mary by the announcement of Gabriel. When we say "God" we acknowledge that the IAMIAM revealed to Moses and followed by Mary is FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. This is He whom we love and serve.

St Paul tells the Philippians that they must shine in this world by being virtuous in contrast to those who form a "deceitful and underhand brood". It would be easy to "hate" those thus described but to hate those we have known since childhood, our family and our literal neighbours has got to be informed and clarified by the total New Testament.

As for hating myself, that is easy for me but knowing that Jesus died to rescue me from the clutches of Satan has to tell me that there is something about me and all of us that can respond to such great Love and become persons that welcome and accept the revelations of Our Father. 

O Lord, may we all be strengthened by your loving infinite mercy. May we never be led into temptation by  those who should be leading us along the path to the personal Calvary that we can endure because you first showed us the way. Let us be secure in your teaching and totally aware that there is nothing in this world that is powerful enough to block the grace that I seek in prayer. Your grace has never forced itself upon us but is always ready to answer our supplication. May the prayers of Mary and the Holy Ones of Heaven, both human and Angelic, include my family and me in their pleas for your Mercy to be showered down as the rose-petals beloved of St Therese and may the Holy Souls receive their punishment with loving gratitude, Amen.

 5/11/2024

There is nothing that we can do during our lives that is more essential than doing the will of God. 

We, therefore, have to scrutinise all of our habitual actions that are a result of Providence and cancel all our worldly plans that do not comply with the will of God as completely revealed in the Bible.

At the time of Jesus, abandoning female babies to die was a common cultural practice. Today, preventing conception is the norm in most of our world. If there is a "mistake" the child is killed in it's mother's womb.

The Western Culture  into which I was born has completely changed in my lifetime from being vaguely trying to be Christian into one that promotes and celebrates the satisfaction of our physical appetites as the only reason  for living.

In today's parable the invited guests refused the invitation. The refusals were all within the acceptable cultural norms that were those into which they had been born. 

During Europe's equivalent of the Cultural Revolution the then rulers claimed to be doing the "Will of God" by killing opponents for their's was the only true Faith. 

The men who plotted to destroy the English Parliament this day in 1605 excused themselves for their sinful actions by claiming to be doing the will of God who was using them to protect the Catholic Church.

"Sorry Lord, I can't come to your banquet for I am busy doing your will by breaking your commandments" is still the reality of the evil paradox which is revealed throughout history and of which we must be wary during our lifetimes.

"Everybody does it" is the Catholic cultural blanket that stops us asking ourselves why we go to accept the Lord's Body but never go to confession.

Dear Lord, Today my prayer is the hymn of praise that St Paul uses in today's letter to the Philippians 

His state was divine,

Yet He did not cling

To his equality with God,

But emptied himself

To assume the condition of a slave

And became as all men are;

And being as all men are 

He became humbler yet

Even to accepting death,

Death on a cross.

But God raised him  high

And gave him the name

Which is above all other names 

So that all beings in heaven

On earth and in the underworld

Should bend the knee at the name of Jesus

And that every tongue should acclaim 

Jesus Christ as Lord,

To the Glory of God the Father.  Amen

 

 04/11/2024

In today's first reading, St Paul speaks to the Philippians  and to the whole world about how to show that being "in Christ" brings unity. He himself has had such a polar-shift of conversion, persecutor to Apostle that he is anxious that his Churches maintain the same spiritual unity with Christ that has become his own complete earthly life.

A century or so later Church Unity which is based solely on  Apostolic revelation is used to counter those who are indulging their own egos by always knowing better than the Apostles. The Gnostics were not the first or the last to preach their personal "Good News" a product of egos too big for their own good.

Today's saint, Charles Borromeo, was a hero of what Historians call the counter-reformation which was an attempt by our shamefully worldly church to defend itself against the progress of Protestantism. He is remembered for his personal righteousness and his public works of charity during the plague in Milan.

Fifteen hundred year before St Charles, and very shortly after the deaths of the Apostles those first Christians convinced by those who had witnessed the Life, Death and Resurrection had come to realise that in their lifetimes there was not going to be the "return" that they had had preached to them. 

They had not been left helpless without a shepherd but still many did create their own solutions to the same disappointment that the Apostles had been unable to endure in the garden and on Calvary. 

All of today's multiplicity of "Churches" comes about because we have never been completely satisfied with the never-changing revelation that is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT's warning/message that our whole lives have to be lived out trying to find his will for us while all the time putting the needs of others before our own.

"Woman behold thy son. Son behold thy mother." Speaking from the cross, Christ reveals how he will be with us to the end of time in this his  New Holy Family.

Dear Lord, You taught us to pray. You taught us that your oneness is a Trinity and Eternal. You placed us in the care of your own mother. Your Apostles taught us Your Truth that there is one Spiritual Community our Church but also that it is not of this world. Help me to remain faithful to You and Your Mother and become able to genuinely put others before myself. May the sins of the world and my own sins be forgiven and may the Holy Souls soon join the Saints for whom there is an endless peace in the complete Love of Our Father. Amen

 02/11/2024

"What's it all about John?" were the last words to me of a friend as he lay dying. Shortly afterwards he learns the answer. 

He "learns" and still "knows" because to be with God is to be beyond time. St Paul today confirms in writing to the Corinthians that we pass from life in a "twinkling of an eye" into the deathless eternity beyond the material universe, where we will know God as he has always known us.

Throughout his life on Earth Jesus has always taught us that our mortal lives are a gift from the Father, they are like lamps that need oil to burn, they are to be unspotted wedding "outfits", they are to be lived in the spirit of always putting the needs of others before our own.

In our only life on earth, we have to listen to the teaching of Jesus and always be aware of IamFatherSonHolySpirit by striving with all our being to be guided by everything that has been revealed in Scripture.

Job laments his lack of writing tools to record his experience of living in the hands of God without any control of anything beyond his own being. Millions of us in the three millennia since then have recorded billions of thoughts and prayers but we are still faced until our final moments, by the same question as was Mike.

My friend  died quietly into eternity. He had lived for 90 years and for most of them he, as do I, knew the teaching of the Church but in his last seconds of bodily life he knew that he was dying into the answer that we can only find in that final milli-second when we learn whether or not our death is the end or the new beginning.

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in Peace and  may the Holy Souls in Purgatory  welcome the second chance that only the infinite mercy of God can provide for them. Amen

Dear Lord let me sincerely pray that the dead be loosed from their sins for that is a "good and holy thing to do". You know my parents and all other family members whom I have forgotten. There are some good friends, priests but many others who pass through my mind as I write this. Mary is always sinless and thus fit to be your mother whom you gave to us as you came to the end of the bodily torture you endured for us. May she lead the Saints and Angels in the collection of the "rose petals" that you never cease to shower down on us and the Holy Souls to bring the overpowering defeat of the evil that delights us into sin on earth but reveals its complete uselessness at the instant we see that Your Truth banishes all who ignore both Our Father and Your teaching. Amen

 01/11/2024

On this year's feast of All Saints I have no problem in accepting the writings that have been collected and saved by the "Bishops" who unexpectedly had had to continue the mission of the Apostles.

I don't think that there are any records of how those who had expected to see the return of Jesus reacted to the realisation that they and their descendants were having to continue to live in the unchanged world that they had known since birth.. The Old Testament was already an accepted text when Jesus read from the scrolls and made his own "translation" in the synagogue of Nazareth, but the New Testament was still in the process of compilation.

The beatitudes which Jesus confers on the crowd in today's Gospel are the complement to the Ten Commandments revealed through Moses. We must obey the Law to enable us become the "Saints" who have attained the human holiness that is the target for us all set by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Each of us can become in this world someone who is "Abused, persecuted, calumniated and able to not only accept these hardships but also to be joyful in them" for  this is proof that we are following the only way, the Jesus Son of God way, to  Heaven.

We must, however, never forget that this is only possible when we believe/know  in the depths of our being that Jesus is the Son of God and it is only through his insulted and spat upon, naked and derided, scourged and pierced human body that his human blood becomes the grace that never ceases to flow over all the world.

Even though there are many who do not accept John's vision as a divine revelation (it is considered to be an example of a literary genre classified as "Jewish Apocalyptic") it is an extremely powerful attempt to express the total otherness of the Spiritual Reality that is also created by God.

There is, however, nothing that is unreal about the loving grace which flows out of the empirical reality of the Incarnation undergoing death for us on the cross, the only sign of Eternity by which we can live up to the will of he to whom with Jesus and all the Saints we pray "Our Father".

Dear Lord, Help me to be what you want for me to be in this world. You know us in complete intimacy but we have to find for ourselves what is the image and likeness that we have to become to do your will for us on earth. You bless each of us each day and when we accept your blessing we become  holy in your sight but always vulnerable to Devil, World and Flesh. Help me to treat my body with the respect due to a gift from You, let the World with all its deceits be for me the irrelevance that it is between me and You, and let the Breastplate of St Michael be my sure defence against the snares of the devil who is sure to fail in his assaults on my soul when I call out for your help. May my prayers become mingled with the stream of praise led by Mary and followed by all the saints that never ceases to be raised in the  Eternity of the Blessed who see your face. Amen.