31/12/2024

As always I begin my day with awareness of myself and of all around me. 

I am alive in this world and it is in this world that I have my own opportunity to defy the temptation that overcame Adam and Eve and began the war between devil, world and flesh and God that takes place within my human freedom every one of my conscious moments.

The most important task for every individual today and everyday of the time within which we have our beings is to accept Our Father's Love, the freely available Saving Grace created on Calvary to ensure that not one of his created souls is lost.

I know that it is impossible for any intelligence to fully understand IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT but we all can recognise him in the Word by which he reveals himself. The Word first became heard in human time through the mouths of the prophets and sacrifice in the Temple and the "Law" were the  human responses acceptable to God.

God's historical Word was fulfilled by the events in Palestine of 2000 years ago. The servants of the Temple of God conspired with the World to kill the Word who had made no secret of his identity. At his trial Jesus categorically denied he was a king in this world. In his Resurrection he categorically shows himself to be Eternal God, SON of FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Mankind failed in Adam and again in Prophets, Law and Temple. Jesus' mercy condemned no one except the servants of Law and Temple but he also confirmed that their prophetic teaching was truth inspired by God. 

Today's first and second readings are from St John. They confirm that Jesus is Alpha and Omega. John is the Apostle who had a special place in Jesus' heart. 

There has never been a time since the days of the martyrs when the institution founded on St Peter could be said to be doing a better job of channeling the Love of God than did the Temple and Law but its teaching about IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has always been as secure in its inspiration as the Prophecy of the Old Testament.

"Do what they say, do not do that they do!"

There has also never been a time since "Woman behold your son, son behold your mother" was spoken from the cross that the Mystical Body of Christ does not continue to generate for all who participate in it by sincerely opening and thus responding with their hearts, the infinite Love that was poured out as human blood on Calvary. 

The Mystical Body of Christ, the  saving grace that is Jesus, is not confined in any worldly institution but it is who we are, the spiritual souls struggling on earth, those being punished in Purgatory and the Saints who with Mary never cease to implore God's Merciful love to continue to be poured out over all creation.

Dear Lord, May my sins be forgiven and may I be able to pay their price as I come to the end of my life on earth. You know all those whom I have harmed in my lifetime. Let my prayers overcome the pain created by my transgressions and let this last day of 2024 continue for me to be as prayerful as this beginning. May Mary and all Angels and Saints bring succour to our sinful earth and may the pain of Purgatory be welcomed as Your Justice by all the Holy Souls. I make  my prayers in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 28/12/2024

There are millions of us living now and millions more who have lived and died before us. I believe that my life has a value, a meaning even though I have never amounted to much as I have lived through the various ages of man to be now into the accelerated decline that begins in our eighties.

I think that St John's letter was written before his Gospel which also shows no sign of the ageing he must have been experiencing. He is said to have lived a long life dominated by his awareness of the Love of God, both God's Love of him and his own love of God, Jesus, Son of IAMFTHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

God knows even the most insignificant of us living now and also knows us as we lose the use of our bodily beings, little by little until our bodily deaths are sealed by a last breath just as it was started by the first one.

Sometimes I think that at these moments of contemplation I am trying to find meaning in my life and sometimes I wonder why I should even bother. Why not just accept our own being and live in the material world that is known by our senses?

Even as a child, however, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that "In the beginning was the Word the Word was with God and the Word was God". My whole life is spent sometimes more and sometimes less aware that I have a being that is much more valuable than the dust of matter and that I have an Eternal Father who is the creator of all being and who will accept or reject me according to the righteousness of my own deeds when I come to the end of my life.

I also know that the "Holy Innocents" whom are commemorated at today's masses are not the only ones who die without ever hearing the words of revelation. God is truly ever-greater, ever-deeper and ever-perfect beyond my understanding.

Dear Lord accept my prayers for all who have not been guided by your revealed presence and let my own sins of which I am aware be washed clean by the blood of Jesus. May the prayers of Mary and John and the other women who did not desert Jesus on Calvary keep the floodgates of mercy open so that it can drown the evil that dominates our times and world and sometimes my own life. I make my prayer totally aware of my own lowliness but also totally aware of your Love for me and every other of your created beings. I can never understand but I can with your grace do your will during the rest of my life and join the Holy Souls for whom I now pray. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Holy Spirit have mercy. May You Blessed three in one temper justice with the mercy that is your act of Love on Calvary. Amen.

 27/12/2024

The days after Christmas can be very dark and dismal for us in the northern hemisphere. I read the designated mass readings for yesterday and admired the courage of St Stephen. I was also, yet again intrigued by the part played by Saul the young man who did not throw but guarded the garments of those who did.

Today's Gospel reading is also intriguing. St John feels that the seemingly trivial fact that he was able to run faster than St Peter is important enough to include in his memoir of the day when God completed his revelation of himself and his intention for mankind. We, too are to rise again.  Nothing could be more important than that and yet John stresses that by an act of his own will he stopped and chose to follow Peter into the empty tomb.

Churchmen interpret this  giving way to Peter as an acknowledgement of Peter's first  place in the Church. In the community of believers that grew to become the Church of Christians who had first place among them was immaterial for they all had personal knowledge of Jesus and it is certain that James, the brother of the Lord,  had leadership of the Church in Jerusalem that was composed mainly of Jews.

Jesus had previously reprimanded the mother of James and John for seeking advantage for her sons in the "kingdom" that was to be. He had certainly given "the power of the keys" to Peter but even before the time Constantine decided to stop the Imperial persecution of Christians the institutions based in Antioch, Alexandria and Rome were quarrelling both internally within themselves and externally with each other about both precedence and doctrine.

God's grace has never left us alone and each one of us can deny the world, flesh and devil but the reality, the downright evil of most of our world today cannot be denied. Historically, there have been many evil deeds done in God's name by the "Church". My generation has been shocked by personal perversions that have come to light in spite of the hierarchical coverups.

We can still be sure, however, that we can be part of the mystical body of Christ by doing the will of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT for Jesus entrusted Mary and John to each other's care and Mary is still Theotokos as she has always been since she heard the "message of an angel". God's grace is channelled through Mary and all the Saints directly into the hearts that are open to receive it. May I be one of those. Amen

 25/12/24

As is usual for me on the Great Feasts of the Lord. I am speechless and overawed by the knowledge that I cannot put adequately into words.

John has lived long after the deaths of the other eleven men who knew Jesus as a friend. He was also their Rabbi and by his miracles he also had revealed that he was something much more than an interpreter of the scrolls.

John has also been caring for Mary since the time Jesus returned to the eternity that is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. They must have talked together but John's Gospel contains no narrative of the Nativity even though it is through Mary that God becomes man.

When John finalized his Gospel he had had half a century in which to work out and understand what it was that he and Mary had been part of.

These mysterious opening words of the Gospel which concluded the liturgy I heard as a child are still as pregnant with TRUTH as they were then.

We are the focus of God's being. He Loves us into being as a miniscule part of the Universe and yet it is only from us that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT wants the completely free return of love. The "being" of all other forms of life is "good" but it is encoded. We, however, can choose how we respond to God's Love.

God's Love for us is the "babe in the manger", the revealer of reality throughout his life in Palestine and the forgiveness won in the bitter pain of Calvary.

Our Love for him can be expressed by words but we have to  remember that doing the will of "My Father" is far, far greater than obeisance and "Lord, Lord".

I should thank God for my speechlessness for it is in those moments of awe that I come closest to doing the will of "Our Father".

 24/12/2024

I am again able to respond to the morning's mass readings.

Zechariah's joy at the birth of his son is more than just the  normal human joy at the birth of a son when he had already given up all hope of the continuity of being that "off-spring" bring to all our lives. 

It is also the joy of prophecy; the Holy Spirit enkindling the flames of Love in his heart. He proclaims the fullness of Old Testament time for John is "the prophet of the Lord most high and will go before him to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people, to forgive them all their sins".

Jesus condemned only the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He completed the teaching of the Prophets. However, I have to accept the thought that tells me that "the chosen people"  must have failed to honour their part in the covenant and that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT is now Jesus in order to give the Human Race a third chance. 

At the Annunciation God reveals that he is a Trinity of persons/events that is all one being. 

We have no chance of completely understanding the Ever-greatness that is God except by responding to his eternal revelations that have been made in the "physical time" that is the result of the matter that we all know empirically for we too share that same being with all that is the Universe.

We also have to maintain "image and likeness". 

Tomorrow we commemorate the event that begins the salvation of mankind. Jesus is born "true man and true God". He is not  "image and likeness" but "the real deal"; true man and true God. Jesus participates in the first dialogue between  Adam and God. He accepts Sin, all possible sin. The Jews, the Church and  the sins of each of us individuals are all of them gathered into the being born in Bethlehem to bring forgiveness in the final acceptable blood sacrifice.

Today, Christmas Eve, 2024, I believe that we, those to whom the complete will of God has been revealed directly in our midst by Son who is the complete being, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, God from God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father, through whom all things are made, are not living up to the grace that continues to be poured out for us and have always been pretty much as corrupted by Mammon and are just as addicted to materialism as were the Jews 2000 years ago.

We too are thus failing to become "image and likeness".

Maranatha. Please Come back soon Jesus! O son of God and son of Mary. Save us again from the sins with which we block-out your Grace won by your agony on Calvary.

 21/12/2024

I cannot express with my words the childish longing that takes over my whole being in these last days before Christmas. It is the same as that incompleteness that I experience as I wait on Holy Saturday for the Resurrection.

I am not good at waiting. I used to hate the last days at home before returning to work. Nothing in my life has been worse than the knowledge that I had to get on a train, wait in a departure lounge, be imprisoned in an aircraft and then be away from home for weeks at a time.

God knows the results of my "coping" with that self-chosen ordeal and I have to marvel how it was that with his grace I have survived many sinful and reckless escapades that could have brought about my early demise and shame to my family.

Today I know that within four days we will celebrate with joy the birth of Our Saviour who is Christ the King. He has been with us, Emanuel, for nine months as a developing human child in the womb of  his Virgin Mother Mary, Theotokos and on next Wednesday. he for whom the unborn John, jumped for joy will begin to breathe the same air as we do.

In those days this supernatural joy was only known, not understood, by very few people. Since those days there have been very many of us who "understand" but do not truly become part of the crucified Jesus who is the only thing about this season that is "not just for Christmas".

It is the babe in the manger who brings for us the certainty of righteousness that is possible only when we acknowledge the truth of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and live, no matter our circumstances only as God wills. 

Jesus, the Love that comes from God, overpowers any sinful weakness arising from the world, the flesh or the devil. We have all been created with freedom but live only to join with Our Father in the revelation that is Divine Love.

Dear Lord, you know that I have failed to do your will many, many times and thus supported evil in this world. I am truly sorry and hope to continue to avoid sin. You know that I have never experienced suffering that is not of my own making. Bring comfort to those who suffer in innocence. I have to thank you for the joy that is my home and family truly aware that this is your gift to me. May all their hearts become open to receive your grace and may these prayers bring your  help to them. May my prayers be joined to those of Mary and all the saints as they exist in eternal being which is beyond all human understanding but in its completeness waits for nothing. May all we sinners on earth live on in true repentance and may the punishment that is purgatory be received by the Holy Souls with gratitude as Mercy, aware that is not the Justice that we all truly deserve. 

 

 20/12/2024

Today the readings take us back first of all to Isaiah as the voice of IAMIAM speaking in the human past about what is going to happen in the human future as the event that will finalize his revelation of himself and his total awareness of every minute item that the Love that is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT creates by his very being. 

We and all that we know are because God is.

Mary is a teenager. She is a bride to be. She knows the "facts of life". She also knows the history of her people. She knows that she is one of the chosen people of IAMIAM. She does not yet know that she is untainted by our first parents' original sin but she does know that she has always kept to the ten commandments and the "Law" that is the core of her Jewishness. 

She is totally unprepared for "Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee."

The entirely human young woman can only respond to this revelation with "How can this be for I am a virgin?". She only knows the biological fact and its social implications but this fact is the complete revelation of the Holy Trinity, IAMFATHER|SONHOLY|SPIRIT is God.

The Scriptures contain the only knowledge that is essential for our lives. We can follow the story of Mary and Joseph in its brief details to Bethlehem, to Jerusalem, to Egypt and back to Nazareth. The Son of God lives an unknown life, he is not an "anonymous Christian" but our "Anonymous God".

One Saturday in the synagogue out of the blue he announces a jubilee for the whole world with "These words are being fulfilled in your presence" and for the next three years he lives to show how each one of us can live in accordance with the will of the Father by following the Son and supported by the Holy Spirit.

We are all saved by the "Yes" of that tiny young woman in Nazareth. That is the fact of Eternal Life revealed to us by the first "Hail Mary".

Dear Lord help me to get through the tasks of this day with the "good will" that you know is often lacking as I have never lived as I know that I should. You know that I still struggle to remain sinless and am only truly honest for these few moments that I turn to you each day. Let my deeds also be pleasing to you as I pray that you comfort all the unfortunate souls who have never been able to turn to you and are at this moment being killed just because they are alive. May the prayers of Mary who has never sinned bring help to those in her homeland who are subjected to pain from the moment of their birth and may I too join the saints in their praise and petitions for your mercy to shower down, St Theres' rose petals, on us sinners on earth and Holy Souls in Purgatory. Amen

 19/12/2024

The conceptions of Samson and John the Baptist were both natural although unexpected. They both were dedicated to the Lord and had specific tasks assigned to them. They are events in the historical interventions of God into our world that are recorded in the Bible.

God revealed through his prophets that the Jews had a special place in his heart and continued this revelation in his chastisement of them when they ignored his warnings. We are told that to do this IAMIAM made use of pagans/gentiles and everything that has ever happened to the Jewish people is a deliberate policy of God.

I pray each day for I believe that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has a purpose for each one of us as an individual soul. I cannot believe in "our Father" on behalf of anyone else. We all can hope that our families and neighbours can all be saved but we can live a holy life dedicated to God only for our selves.

It is an unhappy thought for me that for centuries it is only one family, Abraham's, that received true knowledge of God's purpose in displaying his Loving Being in the Universe and in the Image and Likeness that each one of has in the unseen being that is our souls.

The conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary is for mankind a Supernatural event as is the Resurrection. 

Both these events have been challenged by the "learned and clever", but what is "supernatural" from a human point of view is the only natural being  of IAMFTHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Dear Lord, you know that I am troubled by those who have never listened to or even never heard the "Good News". I thank you that I know that I am a sinner who is responsible for his own soul. Let my prayer for all those who have never received your Word also be heard and let the Communion of Saints become a reality that can attract the missing millions of souls who are not aware that salvation is your free gift to all the peoples of the world. May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints be fruitful in this world and may your light shine through the cloud of Mammon that momentarily tastes so good but serves  only to bring about self-damnation .

 18/12/2024

I have never been able to be aware that something is going to happen with anything like serenity. I am in many ways a useless man but still a man who is known by God; not only known by God in the way that he knows every particle of his universe, but also known and loved as a person created, as are all humans, to bear witness to his Paternal Love by living righteously no matter when, where or to whom we are born.

Mary and Joseph were late-comers to the "inn", maybe "caravansary" would be closer to that public lodging place where Joseph could find "no room" for Mary and her soon-to-be born child, and had to make do with the place where animals were kept in overnight-safety.

And what a night it must have been for Joseph. He had accepted the responsibility that had been revealed to him and the upshot nine-months later was this cold night filled with the universe of stars, tingling of sheep and goat bells, munching of cattle's cud, smell of dung, scratching of straw and the immediacy that is the end of all mothers' nine-month wait to bring new life into the world.

We are not told how Mary managed to give birth with only Joseph present with her.

Yesterday Matthew's Gospel  made it clear that the boy-to-be-born has the right lineage for the Messiah and today he confirms that he is being born in the right-place, Bethlehem.  But he is born as was David, a shepherd among his sheep. His only Kingdom, however, is not as was David's of this world but of the eternal perfection that breathed his first human breath as "true man" that night so long ago in Bethlehem.

Dear Lord, You know that it is only by writing that I can have some control over what is going on in my being during each hour of the day. You know that I really do wonder about how Joseph was able to accept his role in our salvation and empathise with his initial quandary and give praise for his perfect acceptance of Your will. Help me to not dwell on my sinfulness except to know that I am truly penitent and know that the humility of your incarnation is totally impossible for anyone to understand but absolutely necessary for us to do your will on earth. May my prayers join those of Mary and all the Angels and Saints as they give Glory to IAMFATHRSONHOLYSPIRIT in the eternal perfection you brought to earth and left to be guarded by the Church of Peter and his successors together with the Church of Love you created in the New Holy Family of Mary and John.

 17/12/2024

Today the reading of the genealogy of Joseph takes us all back to the Old Testament. Matthew who records his personal recollections of Jesus either in the language that they spoke together or in the more formal Hebrew, is still a Jew who has lived with the Son of God.

 I, who am able to go back only three generations in my personal family tree am not too bothered about where I have come from for I do not see how my genes, my DNA, have any importance for my soul which is the new being that is the image and likeness God creates for each of us at the moment of physical conception.

By some of the Jews, Jesus is thought to be the Messiah whose coming is to herald a glorious age when the whole world will bow down to the perfection that is the birthright of God's chosen and gifted ones. Matthew who is writing his memoirs of his time spent with the living Jesus sometime after the twin shocks of Jesus' death and Resurrection and then the appalling destruction of the Temple.

At this moment, there are those who disagree with the above viewpoint but all agree that Matthew (or whoever) is writing for the benefit of the first Christians who are still mainly the Jews of the Old Testament and can only accept the Good News as such when it is positioned within the history of their Covenant with IAMIAM. It is the Resurrection and promised return that has captivated the minds and souls of the the first believers; some knew nothing of his life.

The first disciples had learnt by seeing, touching the resurrected Christ that he is what he has always been but other new believers wanted to know how the "blasphemer" could possibly be "the Messiah". The legal authenticity of Christ's place in the stream of Jewish humanity is thus the first thing Matthew proves before he begins his narrative.

Arguments, arguments and more arguments have beset the Church since the very beginning. Peter the foundation stone was worried about the place of John within his ministry and very soon the  question of how it could be possible for Jesus to be "True man and True God" split the infant church with divisions that are still evident in the sects who for centuries and still today share control of  the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Dear Lord, help me to be totally committed to your revelations of yourself recorded in the scriptures and let that commitment remain humble thanks in your presence in my heart. Help me learn from the recorded words of the Church Fathers how easy it is to follow pride into false belief and ,submerged in one's own being, ignore you who have created us to live in this world according to your will by doing no harm to anyone which includes sinners like me. If we are to see peace on earth each one of us is to live our lives without infringement of the Law given to Moses and confirmed by the death on the cross which leads to the 100% confirming Resurrection that Jesus true man, (Son of God and Son of Mary) and True God(IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT) still lives for us. May my prayers become part of the stream of love that began with Mary's "yes" and continues from sinners and faithful on earth, faithful in Heaven and Sinners who have accepted justice, tempered with Mercy, in Purgatory. Let all our personal shades be lifted that your Love may shine upon us also in this world as it does in heaven. Save us by your Grace.

 16/12/2024

Today's readings are three that take us back to both the earliest and the final days of God's interventions with the civilised and civilising mankind of the Middle-East.

The pagan people who surrounded Israel had "gods" but they also had a practical spirituality that probably preceded their mythologies. They sacrificed in their temples. They told and listened to stories about the gods of Mount Olympus,  sacrificed on the "High places of Baal" but also believed that there were places and people who were "wired-into" an invisible network of "Holy Truth" that revealed itself only in riddles.

Balaam, a priest of Baal, was such a one, an oracle and an interpreter of riddles. His story is told because he was sent to curse the Israelite rabble coming out of Sinai but in the event he was overcome by IAMIAM and could only pray for the good of God's chosen people.

David's prayer is that the Lord will be with him throughout his life. It is the prayer that is part of the network of being that connects us all. We silence it when it interferes with lives that are wrapped-up with Mammon but when it is within my consciousness I can become part of the Body of Christ, the Church of Love, that is the truly Divine network of humanity sought by pagan but still human oracles.

I think that sometimes I get the wrong idea about Jesus' dealings with the priests and Pharisees. He is not "seeing through" their wily dialogical tactics, he does not win "debating points" but is showing us that we have to give up on self-esteem in order to cooperate with the grace that is always seeking out and inspiring us to make the free-choice that is the purpose of all of our lives. 

It is from  "The Spiritual Body of Christ Network" that we all acquire what we need to become holy people of God for IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has completed the revelation of all that we need to know to be able to live in his Love on earth and thus become prepared for eternity; our God is AllinAll. Wow!!

David:

                       Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he shows his ways to sinners. 

He guides the humble in right judgement, to the humble he teaches his ways.

Penny Catechism:

God made me to know, love and serve him in this world and be happy with him in the next.

Dear Lord, Help me to sincerely follow your ways and instinctively choose what is the path of righteousness. Mary and all the saints are with you now and I believe that my prayers can be joined with theirs and those of all of us who although sinners here on earth open our beings to the Grace that brings your Loving Mercy to us and to the Holy Souls. Let me become a life that is lived fearlessly in your Love. Amen.

 15/12/2024

I really do have to take myself by the scuff of the neck and shake myself into the awareness of God that is the purpose for which I have been created.

Even I am a wonder. Everything about me is amazing. And when I look beyond the tip of my nose and see the other "wonders" that surround this self that I know intimately I realise, yet again, that it is very easy to live as my body in this world that has not yet exhausted its material potential.

This morning's prophet, Sirach, reminds Israel that IAMIAM sent them a message through Isaiah that was to bring them back to the seriousness that was a befitting response to the loving-kindness that had rescued them from the slavery to Mammon that was life in the pagan world that surrounded the promised land.

There has not been one change in the 10 commandments that if honoured by our obedience would have let us all live righteously in the world as it is created to be in the "being" of our God. 

He is never ending, unlimited in ability, capable of creating  innumerable universes without any diminishment in his own being and yet aware of each speck that is the basic components of matter in which mankind has lost its soul, fascinated by the process of measuring the corruptible into ignoring the eternal IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

God knows that I have meant every word that I have written above while meditating on the mass readings; he also knows that it was yesterday's readings that I was triggered by. Today is Sunday 15th; ten days before Christmas 2024.

Dear Lord, I know that time has no affect on you. We on earth, however grow to adulthood and then begin to crumble with age related bodily problems. We also often tie ourselves to the things of this world and that St Peter's  Church has never fully become that which you created it to be. The world managed to take over when the Church first challenged the Emperor and our pastors lost touch with their own souls. You know that I am still trying to fathom out  how it has happened that the world in which I am now living has lost touch with you. May I live out my life in the grace which I have often ignored and may these prayers join with those of Mary and all the Saints for Mercy without which none of us can complete your will for us. Pray for us most holy mother of God that we and the Holy Souls be loosed from our sins and help all still struggling on earth to find and complete the will of Our Father, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. Amen.

 14/12/2024

There have been many prophets since The Lord spoke to Abraham. There have been many saints since Jesus completed the total revelation of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. There have been many brilliant theologians who interpreted revelation since that time. And yet.....

Somehow the people who were led out of Egypt and given free rein in the Promised Land were unable to justify the confidence that IAMIAM had had in their ability to recognise and respond to His love for them.

In addition to his general condemnation of the faithless cities in yesterday's Gospel Jesus also specifically condemned the Jewish scribes, pharisees and priests, those who claimed to be able to know and follow God's teaching through the prophets.

It seems that their failure was in not practising what they preached and thus scandalising the little ones who were desperately in need of a Good Shepherd. 

Jesus knows what is going on in my soul at this moment. He knows the struggling in my mind that comes out through my fingers on this wonder of mankind's own making. He knows the disappointment that I feel when reading the works of the learned and the clever for their thoughts and words are magnificent but the Church they have left for me and all the other little ones has never been more successful in guiding us than the Temple Sacrifice that was replaced by the Incarnate Son, God himself.

It seems to me that the state of all Ecclesiastical Institutions is very much the same as was the Temple Religion known by Jesus and the Apostles. 

"Our Saviour liveth" but we are getting further and further away from him by getting mired down into the futility of temporal life on Earth and ignoring his loving revelation of the eternal joy that is ours by choosing to accept over anything else his Love and Will in this world.

Divine Justice is tilted in our favour by Divine Mercy so by even the slightest positive response on our part we can reap unimaginable rewards. We do, however, need to start getting our wedding garments ready and spare batteries for our lamps as we do have the word of Jesus that we need to be ready for "we do not know the hour of his coming" or even our "going".

Dear Lord, join my prayers to those of the millions of others that are being raised to thee. May the power of Holy Spirit grant pardon for all my sins and remind all of your children that although we are brilliant at manipulating thoughts and matter we are fragile and that our main responsibility is to you. The universe and all it contains is destined to pass away but my prayers will stand for they are You speaking through me. Help to remain faithful. May the spiritual family that you created on the Cross be for me more than an idea but the reality of my remaining life and may prayers for the pardon of my sins and those of the Holy Souls be joined to those of Mary and all the saints of heaven. Amen.

 13/12/2024

Today's Gospel reading carries on from yesterday. Jesus speaks to "today's" generation. His words are not only for those who had assembled around him. His "todays" are for all men and all time and not confined to that moment shared with his listeners.

These were the days and years when he spoke to real men and women and in real time. God was present in Israel 2000 years ago and completed IAMIAM's revelation to his "top of the range" creation, mankind.

Jesus is appalled by the lack of consistency in his chosen people who have always had difficulty in accepting "prophecy", God's wisdom revealed to the Jews through the prophets. 

They are like little children "mucking about in the playground". Jabbering away they contradict themselves time and time again and are blind to the way, truth and life.

In this Chapter of Matthew Jesus confirms that he is part of the continuing record of God's direct dealing with mankind. We know that the whole of his life, death and resurrection confirm the reality and revelation of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Later in the chapter he warns us how "mucking about in the playground" is a waste of our time on earth. Those who have seen or heard the word of God but then blocked it off from their deeds by filling their time with the things of this world  are choosing to live in the cities for which he only has words of condemnation.

We have been warned. There is much more to our God than the "babe in the manger".

Dear Lord, help me to avoid sin this day by never departing from your truth. Help me to pray continually and do that now. Each moment of life is the favourable time for me to access your grace and cut myself off from obsession with the things of this world. May I join my prayers with  those of Mary, angels and all the saints that the world can turn to you and recognise that we block ourselves off from the reality of eternity when we make our material lives the sole object of living. May your grace continue to pour out over the whole world and may I help to spread this by prayer for forgiveness for sinners on earth and for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Amen

 12/12/2024

I have ears and I am ready to hear and ready to listen with the ears of faith.

John the Baptist is the greatest of all human beings but he is not as great as the least of those in the kingdom of heaven.

I have to ask the Lord again what is this "kingdom of heaven"?

Jesus' first listeners do not know a lot about him. 

He is ostensibly the son of a carpenter from Nazareth. His family have been embarrassed by him as he has claimed to be the fulfillment of "Today the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has anointed me  I have been sent to set captives free". 

He has thus announced himself in the local Synagogue to be the complete re-set of life and economy (slaves were freed, debts were cancelled and leased land was returned to its owners) that had been the literal "year of liberty" or "Jubilee" for  Ancient Israel in common with other Middle-Eastern Civilizations where it was often declared at the beginning of the reign of a new king.

It is no wonder that his family thought him to be mad.

He had thus first come to the attention of the Synagogue congregation  as a "blasphemer" but had gone on to cure the sick and preach a message that had attracted a number of adherents. He had accepted "John's Baptism" and John had saluted him as "Lamb of God" and proclaimed himself to be not worthy enough to perform even the action of a slave for him.

John and Jesus are contemporaries and yet Jesus says "From the days of John the Baptist until now" as if there is a gulf of time between them. That gulf has been filled with violence against  "The kingdom of heaven and the violent take it by force." 

We with 2000 years of hind-sight can understand that there is a vast spiritual gulf between John, the last of the Old Testament Prophets and Jesus, the incarnate Son of the Trinity. Calvary is certainly violence against IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, but who are they who "force themselves into the Kingdom of God"? 

I remember yesterday's "my yolk is easy and my burden is light". I am sure that we do not have to break our way into the Love that is freely given but I have to accept Jesus' words as even his "hard sayings" come from the mouth of God

Dear Lord you know that I sincerely listen to your words with my mind tuned in to their meaning. Help me to understand what I read. Help me to remain faithful to your teaching and thus do your will on Earth which is always for us to target holiness and keep ourselves open to accept the "Grace" which you do not force upon us. It is in our freedom of will that we can find your image and likeness in our souls. May my soul be in communion with all who seek to do your will and may our aim for righteousness be supported by Mary and all Saints as we worship the Lamb of God who takes away all sins by the acceptance of the violence that mankind continues to inflict on the body of humanity as it did on yours on Calvary. Have mercy on me dear Lord, have mercy on all our world. Amen May the Holy Souls have the aid of your Mercy and may I remain this day consciously awake in the Love of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

 11/12/2024

"My yoke is easy, my burden is light". 

The Lord knows that I am finding it very difficult this morning to find his promised rest. I am so pressured by the domestic tasks that I have neglected for weeks that I cannot find a place in my consciousness for me to become aware of my soul and raise it into the presence of God, "the peace that passeth all understanding."

I imagine that most human life is like that. Domestic tasks bring Martha to mind. The economically active rich young man went sorrowfully away.

 The more I read of ecclesiastical history the more convinced I become that what I have always known as "The Church" is not "The Body of Christ on Earth" as envisaged by St Paul nor is any of the other Institutions that call themselves Christian.

Jesus never preached to "a single disciple" instructing him how to continue his teaching after his Ascension. It is of course, impossible for a man or woman to become another Son of God. Peter's subsequent descendants in office have made much of the " The Keys" but Peter did not claim for himself to be "Christ's vicar on earth". As is the case with most Church dogma this claim came to be  after much protracted and often bloody struggles amongst ecclesiastical office holders.

The Passion of Jesus was certainly not "easy" or "light". Some of us have been called to live out our own versions of that in martyrdom even inflicted on "Christian" by "Christian" and many did so at the time of Pope Damasus.

 I cannot believe that the bloody strife that was the norm in Ecclesiastical Institutions during the first three centuries after the Apostles was in any way the "easy yoke and light burden" that Jesus promises to us all. Nor have there been many Bishops or Popes who match "the lowly and humble of heart" which Jesus holds up as the target to become which we have to direct our lives.

Dear Lord, you know how easily it is for me to fall into sin. Help me to find the grace that once found unites me within the spiritual body of believers that you founded on St Peter and guided by the teaching of your Apostles. I know that your Chosen People have not yet matched your promises made through the prophets and Your Institutions too have failed to do Your will. May my Faith in your words to Mary and John keep me unreservedly focussed on the sole aim in life that is to complete your will for me and all Souls to live righteously on Earth and then learn how great thou truly art. May the prayers of heaven join ours on earth in supplication for the forgiveness of sin both on Earth and in Purgatory. Amen

 10/12/2024

Sitting at a computer in the 21st century I can lose myself in the pastoral imagery of peace and contentment preserved from more than 2000 years ago, Isaiah and the Psalm for today. to prepare for Jesus' promises of infinite care in the Gospel

The Church that has preserved these texts from the Old and New Testaments and selects them so wisely really has done in this service, your will for mankind.

Those who followed Moses into the Promised Land were never able to match their lives to the Revelations granted to them. But they have never been abandoned.

Although not affected by it IAMIAM is always aware of the passing of time and knows each of the souls that he has ever created to live righteously in his temporal creation and he judges each one of us.

The failure of his Chosen People in their true purpose somehow displeased the Lord and he began to reveal his full Truth in their midst through the mouths of prophets and holy ones.

I am another soul, one of the billions known to IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, who tries to respond to the revelations of the Scriptures by living according to the the moral code given to Moses and does this by actively seeking for the Will of God. 

I am a voice crying-out in the monstrous wilderness of man-made Mammon that we live in in the 21st century for the Grace which was rejected first of all by the Chosen People and then even from the earliest days of its founding by the Church that has always been of this world in direct opposition to the words witnessed by all who were present at the judgement of Pilate.

I am a lost sheep who has often failed to match with deeds the words of his own convictions. As I read this morning's Gospel I did so somewhat perfunctorily for I became the lamb that has so often been saved from perdition by Son who on the cross is the will of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT that not one little one will be lost. 

Let this be my prayer for the day, may we all become and remain one of the innumerable flock carried in your bosom. Let us all live in the New Holy Family that has always been able to save us from the Scribes and Pharisees who have never left Mammon behind. To bring creation to perfection each little one must also seek for you as you do for the Lost Sheep. Let not the imperfections of Priests and Prelates block our souls from receiving the Truth that is the Love showered over all in Heaven, on Earth and in Purgatory. May my prayers become one with those of Mary Angels Saints and Sinners on Earth  that our sins be forgiven and that we remain faithful to You in the time that remains for us in this world. Amen.

 09/12/2024

Why is Mary "The Immaculate Conception"?

The Resurrection is the most important event in History. In Scripture God reveals to us how he wants us to live in his creation. The Resurrection is not, however, the sole revelation about "being" made by the Father.

The Resurrection is the beginning of the completion of the Old Testament faith that Our Father revealed in order to rectify the disruption to creation caused by Adam's and Eve's misuse of human freedom.

We have always struggled to understand how it is that Ever-Greater, the all knowing, supreme being seems to be in need of human co-operation for it is this supreme being "IAMIAM" that he reveals to Abraham.

Throughout the ages and throughout my lifetime he has trusted mankind and me to become his willing partners in the "Good" that he saw in this Universe. 

The Apostles and others who saw the risen Lord were completely mystified for they knew empirically that he was who dead on Friday was walking  and talking with them on Sunday.

Since that time millions of us have tried to as it were to "reverse engineer" the "Resurrection" and explain how and why this unique event took place.

The complete sinlessness of Mary, the mother-to-be has to be assumed if we are to use our human minds to assimilate the Truth of the Incarnation; IAMIAM the ONE reveals that he is in fact FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and that it is as a normal human, SON, that he sacrifices himself to destroy death, and so open for us  the Way, Truth and Life.

Jesus is a natural human being but without any trace of sin. For him to be thus his Mother too has to be without sin as he is "begotten of the FATHER not made" and so she is entitled the Immaculate  Conception for this is her uniquely sinless "human being".

Dear Lord, you know how I am trying to prepare for  the feast of your Nativity. As a human it is easy for me to become overcome by sentimentality at this time of year. I always feel ashamed by this but I hope that a soft heart is not too sinful if it does not interfere with the sincerity with which I am always preparing for "The Last Things". In the above declaration of Faith, I now realise that I did not mention Love. It is out of Love for us that you reveal that we need to cooperate and avoid the defect that is our stubborn rejection / forgetfulness of our need to respond to Love and keep ourselves from being drowned by the oceans of  this worldliness that makes sin the dominate force in out lives. May the holiness epitomised in the Holy Families both old new become the goal for all human life and may my sins and all other sinners be forgiven by your mercy poured out on Calvary for us and the Holy Souls. Amen

 07/12/2024

Today is the Feast Day of St Ambrose.

We can, all of us, during our life-times, find the Grace of the Holy Spirit that we need to walk on the path that is conforming to the will of God. It depends on our sincerity in seeking it out.

St Ambrose and his contemporary St Augustine are pillars of the Catholic Church, an Institution which  claims itself to be the source and guardian of  Jesus in the Sacramental Form he created at the Last Supper.

Even before the lifetime of St. Ambrose there were many unhappy divisions within the communities that formed the infant Church.

 It seems to me that in many ways St Ambrose, former Imperial Governor of Milan can be seen as an example of how the Roman Church became the Triple Crowned kingdom in this World  and thus deformed itself by not living up to Jesus' "My kingdom is not of this world" uttered in the presence of another Imperial Governor, Pontius Pilate.

Our lives are lived out in this world. God created us to be able to make the right choices to fulfill the Love, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, that "In the Beginning" looked at His creation and knew that it was good. 

I am sure that the institutional church known to St Ambrose was already losing its way for even then the ability to rule in this world was esteemed as a standard for those chosen for the Ecclesiastical Ministry that was already becoming entwined with the politics of government.

St Ambrose's  subsequent life, however, proved him to be a worthy spiritual descendent of the Apostles and tells me that it is I who have to be careful of how latching on to one historical fact (Bishop Ambrose was unbaptised when he was called to Office ) feeds my pride and reveals a weakness in lack of trust that God is the support of all that is good in this world.

There have been many saintly individuals within the Churches of East and West but the claims of both Rome and the Greek Orthodox to be the sole source of salvation in this world are just not true and have been the downfall of many of us whose faith has been more than scandalised by the failure of Churchly Institutions to be any better than the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees, who were the only people condemned in public, by Our Lord.

It is the failure of individuals to follow the right path that results in the corruption of all worldly institutions even those that have God's Word to guarantee their foundation. 

Dear Lord, I hope to avoid sin this day. Help me! May I become one with all the Saints and Mary in the community of Spirit that is the unseen power of Love in which we have image and likeness to your Infinity that cannot be known but can be only worshipped by reciprocation of that Love. Let me truly know the freedom that, with the help of  your grace, can know that today it has made a right choice and holds firmly to a place in the New Holy Family that was founded by your direct command  from the Cross to Mary and John. May my sins and those of the whole world find the forgiveness that is confirmed by Justice in Purgatory and the sure hope of the Holy Souls who now know that their mortal guilt has been overwhelmed by the Infinity of Mercy that is the Eternally Glorious Resurrection of  the Son that is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. Amen.

 06/12/2024

Jesus fulfills the future that is the complete holiness of mankind proclaimed in today's first reading by Isaiah and then praised by the confident joy of the Psalmist.

Even the learned and clever, those who go away in the spirit and believe in their own version of the  present reality of their lives, will come to the realisation that what they are aware of now, their own being existing in time, what they can understand from the past, mankind's record of our place in creation and the unknowable future can also with the favoured "little ones" become the children of God.

For when he sees his children, 

the work of my hands in his midst, 

they will sanctify my name; 

they will  sanctify the Holy One of Jacob 

they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

Two thousand years ago "Emanuel", Son of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the faith of David.

I believe I shall see the Lord's goodness 

in the land of the living.

Jesus walked the earth proving himself to the then-living by many signs and wonders and completed all that we the now-living, need to know on earth so that we can open our Souls, eyes and ears our very being to His Justice and thus 

We can be strong; wait for the Lord

be stout hearted and wait for the Lord.

For his Mercy is the never-ending stream of life poured out by him, for us on Calvary.

Dear Lord, you know everything and so I could sit back now and do nothing more and passively wait for my life to end. I know very little except that I am a living soul, a mortal body that is living in creation and that I have to actively fight against the tendency to sin that has always marred my life. I would like to become a serene presence in my own being, confident in You, untroubled by the Devil, World or Flesh but freedom is an essential if we are to become what it is you know us to have the potential to be. Let me know your will and help me access the Mercy that never ceases to fill up the Communion of Saints with the Struggling and Forgiven Sinners that enables mankind to become the "Image and Likeness" of You our Creator. Amen

 05/12/2024

Today I am very much having to control my thoughts to be able to recollect what I have just read this Thursday morning in the first week of Advent. The "Lord, Lord " discourse has frequently impressed itself on my mind and I have also frequently fallen away from the sincerity that Jesus thereby warns us all cannot be disguised from IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.  

I can choose to reinforce the shield of sin that I use to block out my soul from receiving Grace, very much as I use sun screen to protect my skin, and this, deliberately ignoring God, can lead to the frenzy of sin leading to more sin and my soul thus, encased as a tortoise is by its carapace, my sin completes the work of devil, world and flesh.

I cannot be the judge of anything else but my own conduct. However,  it seems to me that the human community to which the prophet and psalmist of the first readings belong  has very successfully survived aware of sin, but very rarely avoided it, lost as it is in a total fixation on itself.

Jesus the perfect Jew is totally the opposite to the "Chosen People" in that everything he does and teaches is for all sinners, Jew, "Listen Israel IAM the Lord" and Greek "In the beginning was the Word" who now and then are seen in the laser light, which pierces our shield of sin, of God's Love for each individual soul, sinful or righteous. and calls us all to do his Will during our lifetimes. 

Isaiah and the Psalmist really do praise the Lord with words and poetic images but Jesus warns us with love for each individual that sincerity is not optional for  "the rains fell, the floods came, the wind blew and beat against that house and it fell, and  great was the fall of it." Sand cannot be disguised as rock . "Our Father who is in heaven" cannot be deceived and guides us all with revelations of Eternal Truth.

Dear Lord help me to overcome temptation as I live out this day. Help me be true to you in all that I endeavour and help me to show your love to my family that they too become able to return to you in prayer and thanksgiving. May Mary the greatest of created beings continue to lead Angels and Saints in praise of your Glory and may my "Lord Lord" become the reality of my being that you have created to know, love and serve. May the humble petitions of the Communion of Saints bring forgiveness to all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory. Let me break free of all that keeps me from total acceptance of your  will for me and let my "Lord, Lord" become a direct-line to your infinite Grace and totally sincere. Amen

 04/12/2024

Today's readings are dominated by the "Loving Kindness" or "Parental Care" that all humans have received throughout our historical past and our present lives, first from IAMIAM as revealed through the Old Testament prophets. 

The psalmist exults in the guidance of the "Good Shepherd" who reveals his perfect love in the kindness of his deeds, done for the sake of his being and not because of any merit on our part.

Isaiah has a vision of the end of time when the whole world shall be saved on the Mountain of the Lord where there will be perfect peace for all creation. The creation that has been marred by man will become the perfection of bodily and spiritual life that has always been  God's target for our freedom to aim for and achieve by recognising and accepting his will.

In the New Testament Jesus reveals the completeness of God. 

IAMIAM is IAMFATHERSONOLYSPIRIT. 

The pride of mankind has always resisted the Truth that we have to subdue our own being to be able to recognise and live by in this world. Many of the Chosen People did revolt against God and his Prophets.

The Acts and Pastoral Letters reveal the same revolt as a fight for unity in the very early days of Apostolic Resurrection Faith. Many of our Church Fathers struggled to maintain unity as expressed by the words  of belief, our Creed. 

Whenever the early Church was free from Jewish and Pagan persecution the resultant peace was always shattered by prideful Bishops who not only disagreed with each other but also used mob and state violence as had done the High Priests and Pharisees against Our Lord, to establish their version of Truth and control their "Kingdom" which was a Church of East and West very much of this world.

The Institutional Church has always been part of this world but in fulfilment of the words of Christ it has never been abandoned by the grace and every word that comes from the mouth of God for from the cross he left us all in the care of his sinless mother and beloved disciple John. 

"Heaven and Earth may pass away but My Word will stand" is the guarantee that no matter how sinful our own, and the lives of our worldly pastors, the Grace of God still reaches out for us to access from the  Communion of Saints that is the Living Reality of all souls, the  Forgiven, the Still Vulnerable and the Thankfully Penitent, Triumphant, Militant and Suffering. We have all been and still are trusted by Our Father to make the right choice by denying the world, flesh and Devil. 

We only have today to do so, now is always the favourable time.

Dear Lord, help me continue to raise my heart and mind to you by being in control of my body and my mind. Let me know that aligning myself to your revelations is the only way to become what you have planned for me to be in the future. Help me to be less focussed on my self and let me learn how to beseech your grace to be shared by all my family and all living souls. May Mary and all the Saints continue in their support for all of us who seek to do your will on Earth by avoiding sin and acknowledging failure by seeking your forgiveness. Let us all hope to rejoice with the forgiven Holy Souls in Heaven after the atonement that is a share in your pains on Calvary. Amen

 3/12/2024

As I begin to pray today I read the first reading for today's mass, it is from the prophet Isaiah. As with most of the Old Testament prophets I know the name but very little about how he lived out  his life in Israel.

I also know very little about the psalmist.

I know much more about the life of Jesus and his teaching to his friends and have have tried throughout my life to recognise his truth and conform my life to it.

Isaiah is used by IAMIAM to help prepare his chosen people for the great joy that he has prepared eternally for them to accept when he is Emanuel in Time and Human form. David too unknowingly sings of the "Incarnate Lord" and that "All nations will call him blessed".

Of all the Jews so favoured by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and so dedicated to the study of the Scriptures, the ones who have wisdom and understanding are bypassed by the final revelation.

The first knowledge of the Incarnation is given to a young girl and a humble carpenter. It is their eyes "That are first blessed to see what you see."

 The wise and understanding have still to work hard to become the Unequivocal Marian YES. Less than three hundred years after the Resurrection they were already arguing about Son and Father and Spirit and also even killing each other in support of their "wisdom and understanding".

Filled with the Joy of the Holy Spirit Jesus proclaims to his disciples of all generations the Trinity, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and this what we need to believe to support our search for righteousness, conformity to the will of God.

"All things have been handed over to me, by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

Dear Lord, may you be known thus to me as it was to Mary, according to thy word. Dissension came into the Churches founded by the Apostles much too soon and was exasperated by the worldliness that first arose about property and human pride of intellect and person. There have always however been those who were enabled to resist error and innovation. God is with us to the end of time, but we have to make the effort to lose all our worldliness knowing that he is the Eternal "All in All" into which we have been created to be welcomed . May Mary and all Angels and Saints who rejoice with FatherSonHolySpirit implore that the never ending mercy of heaven flow down onto all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory. May these the words of my prayer be a sincere worship and petition uttered in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 02/12/2024

Each morning I have to confirm my believe in God by these my personal prayers of the Faith that I support by reflections on the Scriptures. The Scriptures that I read are those chosen for the mass of the day by the Catholic Church.

The Jews who became the first Christians had already belief in the supreme being whom they did not name except by what I  express as IAMIAM. They also had a belief in what they termed the Law. It was by their devotion to this Law that they were able to aim for Righteousness.

As a modern Catholic Christian I am aware that there must have been something intolerable in creation, the world of 2000 years ago, for FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT  as he emptied himself of his divine immensity and chose to follow that same life route  as all his created mammals to become as human as we all are. He thus still trusted humanity to make his final revelation but in order to do so it is he who becomes true man from conception to the grave.

Jesus praises the Centurion  for his "faith" which the Centurion explains by a simple analogy between his own power derived from military discipline and the power he recognises in Jesus' own person. 

As we prepare for Christmas we will find many such incidents in the Scriptures in which the power of God is displayed by the man Jesus. The Angels sing, the shepherds worship, the Sages bring gifts and Herod, the non-Jew King appointed by the Romans will make the first attempt to kill the Son of God.

Dear Lord you know how I am perturbed that you yourself become man to ensure for me and for all of us salvation by following your way, truth and life. You know that we are still not really following your will on earth in these modern times. Is your Church any better than were the scribes, priests and pharisees of your day? Are we anymore righteous than the crowds who chanted "Crucify him, Crucify him"? Help me to access your grace so that I can do your will on Earth and join my prayers with those of Mary and all the heavenly chorus that my life will become all that you will me to be. Help me to know, love and serve by following you to my own personal death and thus be ready for the Loving Mercy that is your eternal being. Amen.

 01/12/2024

We should be ready every moment of our lives to be judged by God. I hope that it will happen for me in a less stark way than that sentence implies. I have lived for many years tied up in the affairs of this world. I have struggled against my personal sins and being tied up with the business of living in this beautiful world.

The Lord looked on what he had created and saw that it was good. Even human beings have a part in that unequivocal "good" and are still trusted by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT to join him in maintaining that good which is to be found specifically in the "image and likeness" that is the human soul.

I have rarely fulfilled the obligations that are the will of the Father for all mankind. In this I am not alone and even, very shortly after the "Resurrection" there was dissent about how to complete God's will in this world among the very Apostles and disciples who had seen  the Risen Lord and received his final command.

What we now know as the Church has grown in this world over the last 2000 years and has maintained her teaching, preaching the word of God, in the face of great internal and external opposition but has always been contaminated by the sins of those who have fought against the teaching of Jesus to pridefully  present their own version of the Truth. 

Jesus is present in the Institutional Church ."This is my body". And where is Jesus there is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. "Woman behold your son, Son behold your mother" is the Spiritual Church of Love, the New Holy Family which has always saved our Faith from the damage which ignoring "My Kingdom is not of this world" has inflicted upon us and the "Church."

The very best thing that the Eastern and Western Catholic and Orthodox institutions have achieved is the preservation of the Scriptures and with them Liturgical Prayer and Seasons. Today She begins Advent and we all can follow Jesus' advice about Pharisees given to his friends "Listen to their words but do not do as they do" and thus prepare with Mary and Joseph to welcome God into the world.

Dear Lord, help me to become that being whom you have created me to be. Help me to keep on trying to understand how I can prepare  to leave this life and become a soul in your presence together with Mary and all the Saints. May the communion of Saints become a reality for me and let the prayers of your Holy Ones bring your Mercy to us sinners on Earth and to those saved and happily accepting the penitential regime of Purgatory. May those who mistake their personal pride for love of You be shaken up so that they do not continue with their self-centered perversions of truth to lead the little ones that they have forgotten that they too are into the Temptation that is the flash-in the-pan headline only religion that insults both You and us, God and man. Amen