31/01/2025

Those who had first met in the Portico of Solomon had become spread out through their world by the time the "Letter to the Hebrews had been written".

The Palestinian Jews and "Gentile God Fearers" had suffered greatly. Firstly at the hands of the Temple and then during the war that had destroyed the Temple and greatly added to the "Dispersion", the Jews scattered throughout the Empire.

I know that it is easy to lose the focus that trying to keep IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT to the forefront of my mind entails.

It was no easier then for those, some of whom had even seen Jesus, the crucifixion and Resurrection and listened to the Galilean Apostles and St Paul.

In those years of disappointment at the still unfulfilled promise of the "Second Coming", Faith Hope and Love could only be maintained by human endurance supported by each person's sincere commitment to keeping each heart open to the Holy Spirit, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT to become one of those who "have faith and preserve their souls".

It is exactly the same for us today. And so is the alternative!

 30/01/2025

I have not been to mass for several years. I had always thought that nothing could keep me from the Church but here am I a lone soul trying to do God's will.

Since the day of my public humiliation by priest and by myself I have not lost touch with IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. I always try to begin each day with prayerful reflection on the mass readings for the day and I always try to understand; become clear in my own mind about them so as to align myself  with the intentions of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

God knows that I do not try to bolster my own ego or excuse my own sin in these reflections that are my witness to the revelation that is Old and New Testament. I am saddened by my personal sin but know that this time remaining to me is the gift that enables me to seek forgiveness and mercy. 

I have also been saddened by the realization that the Church founded on St Peter through which I believed  I was being shown the "way, truth and light" has always been more focused on its place in the kingdom of this world than on the kingdom of heaven.

The disagreements we read of in the Acts of the Apostles and the Apostolic Letters were the intellectual ferment out of which our "Creeds and Dogmas" were formed.

The Church Fathers who developed those "Creeds and Dogmas" were as sophisticated and well educated as any subsequent Theologians, living or dead. So were their opponents. Thus "disagreements" became well-argued "Heresies" and in the East the Empire took on the Ecclesiastical role of purging the state of heretics. To do the same in Rome the Pope took on the role of Emperor even to the extent of using his titles. 

I know that Jesus has never lied to us and he has promised to be with us until the end of time. He definitely founded a "Church" on St Peter but I have to ask where this can be found in the worldly institutions descended from those of Byzantium and of the Papal States.

I believe that, on Calvary speaking directly to Mary and John, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, Jesus,  created the New Holy Family which is our sure hope of salvation sealed by his death and witnessed by his Resurrection. This is the Mystical Body of Christ preached by St Paul but never exclusively inherent in any human institution.

Today the Letter to the Hebrews tells me that I should not keep myself to myself but I should meet with others to encourage and be encouraged; to share in the Faith of the community of believers.

I can do no more than this.

 29/01/2025

The mass-readings for today contain the complete guidance that we need to live out our lives in the holiness that God intends for us all to use our freedom to attain.

The Letter to the Hebrews confirms  that the Temple sacrifices are now useless.  Jesus' sacrifice of himself has surpassed the religion of the Scribes and Temple. He is in his death the "saving victim" who has in a truly human freedom created the means for us to access the eternal loving mercy that is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. By our sins we block off ourselves from God.

We have been living for the last 2000 years in the new covenant made on the cross that has been extended beyond the previous racial limitations to encompass the whole of humanity past, present and to come.

The Gospel, however, although it presents a straightforward image of how the one "word" can be received differently by the free beings who hear it, in Jesus' own interpretation we are faced with "to you has been given the secret of the power of God. But for those outside everything is in parables, they may indeed see and not perceive, they may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven."

We are advised that we should always receive "the hard sayings" of Jesus within the complete testimony that is scripture. Jesus is here quoting from Isaiah. It is a phrase that may have become proverbial but its plain sense cannot be ignored as it can be read as putting into question  our greatest gift from God "life in freedom to choose".

Dear Lord, you know that my prayers are always the same in that I know you in your Love for "sinful man" and strive to serve you by obedience. You know that I often have fallen short of these intentions in my past behaviours but hope that the state of my present being has become far closer to your image of what I could have been had I not succumbed to the temptations harboured in the stupidity of myself listening and acting out these sins that surround all of us during our lives on this earth. May my prayers become one with those of Mary and all the faithful souls who in their freedom have accessed the Grace that opens the gates of Infinity to those who look for, find and obey the Truth that is always available as the benefits of the bounty created for us in real human suffering and death on the cross by Jesus Son of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and son of Mary, the loving mother who has always been the perfection of humanity for which each of us should strive. May my soul become as are the Holy Souls confirmed in opposition to sin and aware that my punishment only comes close to what it deserves because of that final High-Priestly Sacrifice on Calvary that can also be the bloodless sacrifice of the altar.

 28/01/2025

My prayer for this day begins with the mass-readings for today, The Feast of St Thomas Aquinas. 

All of the Old Testament is a revelation made exclusively to the Jews. The Letter to the Hebrews is the summation of how scripture, New and Old, can guide all of us as we continue to live in this world.

It seems that it could have been written before the destruction of the Temple had stopped the animal sacrifices that sealed the covenants between IAMIAM and his Chosen People. It is  possible that this dating of the letter could be wrong but it is certain that it was written in the  "real-time" of the generation whose Institutions had crucified Our Lord. 

In their own sincerity those who brought about Jesus' death thought that they were doing the will of IAMIAM, "God's will" by protecting the "Law" from blasphemers.

In the reality of creation, the Incarnation, Jesus, was doing God's will by becoming the Human Sacrifice to complete the revelations of IAMIAM by revealing IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and his total love for Creation.

By becoming truly the brother of all mankind and revealing his Love that has forgiven all our sins IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT does not reject any of the mothers, brothers sisters who are doing the will of Our Father by trying to find a place for our being in the reality of His.

Today I am able to access the intellectual work of St Thomas. He and all the other dead great brains who have left a record of themselves, are, we must all pray, in the presence of God who is so much more than even they could conceive.

Nobody can think his/her way into heaven but it is there for the asking. 

The arms Jesus stretched out on the cross are still open to receive us into his New Holy Family of sincere believers who genuinely live only to do the will of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and reject the human self-will of the ones that crucified Our Saviour, made a Burnt-Offering of their descendants and continue to slaughter in the stiff-necked arrogance that only their father can forgive.

 27/01/2024

"The devil, the strong man, Beelzebub makes work for idle hands. There are so many ways in this world that we can feel that our hands are not idle. 

Yesterday I suffered from a broken keyboard and spent hours trying to find a solution. I did not think that I was "idle" during that time. Everyday we are all busy with the things of this world and as a result forget to bind the "strongman" who still attacks wherever and whenever he sees an opportunity.

We all live in our bodies and consequently have necessary tasks to maintain them.

Yesterday St Paul reminded us that our important life is in the being we have as members of the "Body of Christ". Today the readings help us to understand why this is so. Those who first formed the " Mystical Body" had either known, seen or heard about Christ as Jesus of Nazareth. I know that we  belong to the then future believers who receive Christ's blessing for "those who do not see ".

The Scribes and Pharisees knew themselves to have been appointed by IAMIAM as guardians of the Law of Moses to which the majority of the first century believers owed their allegiance. They were so captivated by their own unique relationship with God, so filled with their own self-importance that they had to vilify Jesus' miracles as the work of the devil.

Our Father who is also our Brother, Son of God, Son of Mary, and our resurrected evidence of the Mercy of FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT reveals in today's readings that we can all be at peace in the certainty of the Loving Kindness that is Mercy.

We do have to cooperate, however, by turning our focus away from the things of this world and recognising that we can do nothing of greater importance in this life than proclaiming that the unspeakable humiliation of a man on the cross is the humility of the source of the eternal Redeeming Covenant of FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT with the mankind who continue to reject him.

It is the Holy Spirit that is always ready to enter into our hearts and minds that know the material world and our place in it will pass away but still cannot take the first step to follow Jesus into eternal Joy.

We are all closer to the "unforgiveable sin" than I fear to think about.

Dear Lord, help us to avoid all sin and to renounce the "strong-man" who even in his defeated-state is determined to take us with him into the total pain that is his self-created-self. Help me to continue to seek out your Grace to be shared with the whole world and the Holy Souls as we are all supported by the prayer that is the verry being of Mary and the forgiven saints who are now truly part of your creation, i.e. Love and Mercy. Amen

 24/01/2025

There are always two parties to any legal agreement.

The "Letter to the Hebrews" today reminds us that the Love which our ever-faithful Father gives to the whole world is the original enlightenment that took the form of "contracts" between himself and his people, Israel.

Our God knows what he has created. In his Divinity he is beyond human understanding. There are no degrees of knowledge in the eternity that is Our Father. Everything that exists, has existed or will exist is known in its totality by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. 

God has revealed in Creation that our human being is the manifestation of his Love. He first revealed this to Israel who had to learn how to use the freedom that is essential for the  being created to become his image and likeness.

Israel, the Jews, have always become so overpowered by their wonder at their own beings that they have become for themselves IAMIAM even though some of them they still utter "Lord, Lord" from their mouths as they perpetrate on others the same evil that has so often victimized them. 

Gaza now shares the evil of Auschwitz.

The first ministers of the Church that is God's completion of his revelation are appointed in today's Gospel. It was after the Resurrection that they became truly aware of the significance of the events of which they had been a part even though only the three Marys and John remained to witness the bitter end.

They were completely human and without the physical presence of the Lord to guide them they were soon able to become victims of their own ego-dominated intelligent freedom of will and began the quarrels and divisions that are still part of the Church founded on St Peter.

There is also the never to be forgotten Church of Love, the New Holy Family created by  Jesus' words from the cross to his mother and dearest friend, John. This is the unseen Mystical Body of Christ aimed for but never attained by any of the human institutions we know as church.

Dear Lord, help me to avoid all temptations and respond to your call with sincerity of heart. Let my thoughts be guided to your Truth. I hope that I am still growing in understanding of you and not swelling my own ego as I write these prayerful thoughts. May I become obedient as was Mary but with an unuttered "How can this be?" recognise your will for me and follow it faithfully until I breathe my last breath. May my family, my world and all other sinners be open-hearted to receive your Mercy and may our souls and the Holy Souls come to the knowledge of our own faults that we have to have before we can be forgiven by your suffering human being you freely offered up for the the righting of the my sins and all the sin of the world which has so malformed the Good of creation.

 23/01/2025

I can understand why there are many scholars who are unwilling to attribute the "Letter to the Hebrews" to the Galilean fisherman John. It seems that the interpretation of Jesus he presents to the Jewish Christians is the result of educated deep reflection on the "being" and deeds of his friend Jesus.

The Gospel of St John is similarly as much theological reflection as it is a "memoir" of the days he spent with Jesus, the miracles he witnessed and the Glory that overcame him on Mount Tabor. All these events are sealed and overshadowed by the Resurrection. If this letter, the Gospel and the Apocalypse are the Spirit inspired work of one man then we have to be in awe at the depth of thought and recollection of which one human is capable.

David sings his delight in the beauty of the Lord. He knows that IAMIAM is truly worshiped by the lives of his people who do his will. The animal sacrifices of his priests are unnecessary for although the Temple is magnificent it is by listening for the Word and being obedient to it that we are able to sing with the joy that comes from knowing IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

In today's gospel, the crowds that pressed about Jesus on the beach at Capernaum have become the billions of believers who have followed them over the last 2000 years and many of those have added by thought, word and deed to what is the recorded collective response of humanity to FATHERSON HOLYSPIRIT by the awareness of being that is the soul of each of us.

In a very small way that is what these few lines are doing. My being is responding to what I have learnt, said and done in my own life always in the living presence of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT who knows every hair on my head, my response to the temptations of devil, world and flesh and the sincerity of my acceptance of the guidance he reveals to the whole world in the Scriptures.

Dear Lord,  you know the puniness of my mind and body. There is so much knowledge in the world and so many intellects that are far greater than mine. I thank you that we are all known equally by you and that you did suffer and die to create the grace that is your free gift to us all. May my prayers be united with those of the whole world, sinners and righteous, with Mary and the Saints of Heaven and with the Holy Souls who although suffering now have complete understanding that your Mercy is far greater than any of us can deserve. Grant that I may live out my life in peace and that I never forget the evil violence that is being perpetrated throughout the world on my brothers and sisters by my brothers and sisters who regardless of their deeds can also become your forgiven. They like us have only to ask and they will be saved. We really do need for you to return Dear Lord. Come Lord, Jesus come back to us. Amen.

 22/01/2022

The reading from the "Hebrews" in today's mass presents us with an event in Jerusalem about which there can only be speculation.

Melchizedek is presented as an ever-living being about whom nothing is known except his name and his entry into Jewish/Christian consciousness as an "eternal high-priest" who was known to IAMIAM and thus become a legitimate receiver of the tithe which Abraham wanted to make as a thanks-giving offering for the benefits he continued to receive from his Father in Heaven.

For us the Holiness of the Holy Land primarily rests in the life, death, resurrection there of Jesus but for the Jews of Jesus' day the very soil of the Holy Land was holy and had always been so even before Abraham had first taken possession.

In the Synagogue this morning Jesus, who is becoming well-known, is aware that all eyes are upon him; that priests and scribes are looking for ammunition to fire accusations at him; that he is in the process of becoming the final Revelation of human relationship with IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT that will be recorded for posterity in the Gospels; that he will be challenged by those adversaries who will become the politicoreligious clique that will organise his death.

As true man Jesus was both angered and saddened by their trickery. As SON of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT he knew that what was happening to and through him would bring forgiveness to all generations of mankind. 

He also knew that many of us would lose sight of his divine revelation just had his fellow country men for whom he was going to become the first fruits of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT'S final revelation, the Resurrection.

 

 21/01/2024

The psalmist is able to sing out his praise to IAMIAM in words that come directly from his heart and is thus able to inspire us who not only hear but also listen and cherish them.

We have only to open our eyes and we can see the wonders of our material world in the light that is because God ordered it "to be".

We are the bodies of which we are aware because our total beings are the work of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

We can become "Saints" when we  order our lives to justify God's trust in us to be able to become his "image and likeness".

In the Letter to the Hebrews today the first believers are encouraged to continue to serve "the Saints". The first saints were not canonised souls as is today's St. Agnes and the many other names that fill out the Ecclesiastical Calendar.

Those Saints then and today are the living, breathing and eating human beings the neighbours whom by loving as our selves we begin to follow in the footsteps of the Resurrection, the way of life that leads to the personal holiness that is the intended image and likeness of our creator.

Thou shalt love the Lord our God with all thy might and all thy strength and your neighbour as your self.

Dear Lord, help me to continue to find in your scriptures for each daily mass the confirmation of faith, the trust in hope for forgiveness and the love for you and all humanity that becomes the individual holiness that defeats the evil that is disfiguring the world. Let me be so aligned with your saints that my prayers can be united with Mary, Angels and all the saints and my soul thus become, although useless on its own, somewhat an of "image and likeness" so that I can ask for your Mercy for me my family, and all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory. Help me to truly know that without your trust in me I can do nothing on my own.  I make this prayer in the name of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT your revelation of your being preserved in the scriptures. Amen

 20/01/2025

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews knows Jesus to be the supreme perfection of the High Priesthood. The Temple priests of his day were responsible for the Temple Rites. They act as intermediaries between the people and IAMIAM.

They slaughter the animal sacrifices and use the blood and burnt flesh to sanctify themselves and the people.

All around them in the Nations, the heathen were doing the same thing to appease the life-less objects of their own creation that they called gods.

Jesus knew that his people Jew, Greek and we their descendants could not live our lives dependent on our own freedom alone. He knew that we would get ourselves lost in the material wonderland of his creation and that we needed to understand more of his being than had his chosen people who had lost sight of him in their absorption into the joys of their own intelligence and beings in this world.

In the Annunciation to Mary he reveals himself to be IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and it is to confirm this that Jesus lives his life of loving example completely for us by becoming the completion of all blood sacrifices and teaches us that we can become holy as he is by focussing on our inner-beings, our souls and their worship of him.

The Church he founded on Peter soon became as wrapped up in its own self as its predecessors the Jews had ever been and also became just as tangled up in this world as Israel had also always been.

Although we have to doubt the legalistic priesthood of  all the Christian Churches (by their deeds you shall know them) we can rest in the arms of our Saviour outstretched to embrace the whole world as he utters his last words to Mary and John. This is the kingdom that is not of this world, the completely spiritual "New Holy Family", Jesus' Church of Love which will be with us till the end of time.

19.01/2025

God's revelation to Isaiah becomes beautiful literature as he tries to deliver it in his own words to God's people, Israel.

St Paul has been blasted by God into an unquestioning Faith that after getting approval from the other Apostles he walked and sailed around the Empire bringing the Good News to the whole world.

Jesus begins his public life by responding to his mother's unspoken request at a wedding feast in an obscure location in Palestine.

What about us? 

Do we in 2025 also fail to become the image and likeness, that was God's revealed intention for the Children of Abraham finalised by the Resurrection, as did his original chosen ones.

God's answer to that failure by his first chosen-ones is the Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Has our Institutional Church ever truly lived up to the preaching that it first heard from the Apostles and was codified in the Scriptures for that is all we late-comers have that we can implicitly trust with our souls.

We all as individuals have to live by the Scriptures because IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has in the Resurrection completed his revelation of how we can, each one of us, do his will and become ever closer to his image and likeness thus becoming a new song to be sung to the Lord as we  bless his Holy Name in chorus with David

Jesus sealed his promise to be with us always by his words from the cross to Mary and John on Calvary.

We all can become his creative intention for each of us only by completely aligning our wills with His.

 18/01/2024

I really do not need the work of any philosopher to be sure of my own existence. I am sure of the reality of my own "being". I am sure therefore I am. 

A theologian of our times teaches that the new born baby knows that it's "being" is not in the loneliness of solitude by experiencing the certainty of its mother's love that is her smile. We become more and more sure of our being as we grow nurtured by love.

Every child deserves to have that human/mammalian first experience of life but the unacceptable truth is that there are many who do not. Man's selfish inhumanity to man has scoffed at the Love of  IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT by ensuring that unwanted babies were killed by the ancient crime of  of "exposing" them to the elements or the modern evil that is the misuse of our freedom manifest in the slogan "My Body My Choice".

As we grow older we can come to the understanding that our human being is reality because each of us is in the care of the Divine Love that has been incarnated in Jesus "Son of God, the High Priest who has passed through the heavens and has been tempted in every way as we are but remained without sin".

His Love is for all of us sinners and just alike, but we can refuse to accept it and make our choice for our finite selves, and the material world and  thus bolstering up the power of evil. Each generation  follows on to become as evil or more so than its predecessor. A process that can only be stopped when each one of us truly renounces, devil, world and flesh by becoming what Our Father intended us to be.

This is completely revealed by the prophets and finalised by the Son in his incarnation. He only ever condemned the self-centered religious attitudes of Scribes and Pharisees and basically told us all, when answering to all worldly power personified by Pilate and the Chief Priests to focus on our personal faith as the Kingdom of God is not of this World.

 Jerusalem cannot be "buildeth" here no matter how green and pleasant the land.

Dear Lord, you know that this is the 84th anniversary of my birth and that through this long life of mine there are many times that I have rejected you in my sinfulness. I know my own sin and seek the forgiveness of which I have only ever momentarily despaired. At the start of my life bombs were falling all around and the greatest of all inhumanities to man was treating your "chosen people" as a product to industrialistly  harvest there from anything that was valuable in this world and then destroy what was left. On your cross you atoned for all sin but we have failed in the use of that Grace just as did those to whom you made the first revelations through the prophets of the chosen ones. I know that for me too it is true that there are none of the sins of this world that I could not have avoided without your grace. May my future life become a thanksgiving for your grace and plea that we all can avail ourselves of the abundance of your mercy and avoid our sins for which we have no excuse and are more than guilty in refusing your grace and choosing in our freedom to give up the Eternal Joy that is the end of this life when we return to Our Father the Love that he has lavished on us.

 

 17/01/2025

In the Gospel for today, there may have been some non-Jews who crowded out the house where Jesus had stayed the night but the presence of the Scribes makes this very unlikely. 

Scribes, Pharisees and Priests claimed to be the only ones who could interpret the Scriptures and ensure that the "Law", the Jewish way of life, was not infringed by any of the Jews who as Israel were the representatives of the Glory and Holiness of IAMIAM on Earth. In fact they were the reason for creation. They remained a dedicated opposition to the Good News and are still the Rabbis of the Synagogues where the Scriptures are read and prayed upto this very day.

We can be sure in that familiar scene at Capernaum, the four friends lowering the paralytic through the roof to get near to Jesus, that there was a great commotion caused by this very deed. We cannot, however, imagine the shocked horror that was the response of the Scribes to the "Son, your sins are forgiven you". That response could only come out of the totally closed circuit minds of those secure in both promise and practice.

The vast majority of the first Christians were Jews. 

It was, however, very difficult for them to adjust their closed mindsets to the Resurrection, the event that had caused them to have to accept the evidence of his divinity that the Son of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT had created in their lifetimes by his life, death and Resurrection.

The believer, who was the writer of the "Letter to the Hebrews", was desperate that all Jews who had been guided by the Scriptures, who knew "the deeds of the Lord" should share in the Good News that God's creation can now be known in its completeness  "from the foundation of the Earth".  

The "today" that is the "now", the ever-changing moment known by each of us throughout history still offers the "promise" of entering "his rest". We are all free to  interpret this promise found in the Old and New Testaments as we will, but I am sure that it is not to be found in the "Law" of the Scribes and Pharisees, which even in Jesus' day was a vast conglomeration of the Scribes' own making and occupied their attention to the extent that Scripture had become secondary to Scribal interpretation thereof.

The reaction of the crowd to the events that they had witnessed in the commonplace surroundings of that house in Capernaum, "We have never seen anything like it!" and they Glorified God, can be our reaction to every word that comes from the mouth of God. 

For them it was an instantaneous, a  spontaneous recognition of "God" in their midst. We, as with everything about Life, have to work at it and maybe we regret that we have not joined St Anthony in recognition that our souls, paradoxically, have to know IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT one to one if we are to enter the Spiritual Community, the Body of Christ that increases as we decrease.

Dear Lord, on this day that completes my 84th year I have to pray that I am ready to welcome the Mercy that is needed to complete my conversion to You. I know that each of us has to avail himself of the pardon which is your free gift to all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory but your mother and disciples are forever present in the New Holy Family created out of Love for us at the time of your "true death" as true man on Calvary. May my prayers become one with theirs as I strive to thank and glorify you Our Father by doing only your will on Earth as it is done by the spiritual community  of Saints and Angels in the Mystical Body of Christ, Son of FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. Amen.

 16/01/2025

Both first and second readings for today are still taken from the New Testament. The Psalm is King David doing then pretty much as I am today.

We both are (in his case were) souls embodied in the material reality that is the creation into which we have been born. Neither of us asked for life but both of us were born with the free will that is part of human being in order to fulfill the Love that is intrinsic to the supreme being of Our Father. 

We both are/were guided by the experiences of those who have preceded us in life on Earth.

Our bodies are the result of the creative process that we can recognise as evolution and have the same physical boundaries and instincts as do all mammals. For David the Universe of stars was visible in the days of zero light-pollution as the incredibly magnificent canopy of heaven which captivated the minds of many of David's neighbours. Astrology, which for us is a joke, was a serious enough error to be forbidden to the Chosen People.

I have often wondered why it is that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has had to go to the extent of the "Incarnation" with its pain and indescribable suffering to direct mankind out of the Jewish way of responding to his care of his Chosen People.

David's lifetime was particularly spectacular and he was also a devoted servant of God with "faults". I am much less spectacular but I too am aware of "faults" and with David I too can seek pardon. During his life-time Jesus knew the psalms and sang them in the Temple and Synagogue. His presence on Earth was in response to the "hardening" of Jewish hearts that taken place first of all in the wanderings through Sinai and were still manifest in the Chosen People"

The disasters that befell the descendants of Abraham were always interpreted by them as deserved punishment for "backsliding". The revelation of IAMIAM, the Old Testament, however contains only a small percentage of the rules that the Scribes and Priests,(not Our Father) demanded should be followed. The Jewish people were never condemned by Jesus but the self-absorbed righteous scribes and priests, who after the destruction of the Temple became the Rabbis, certainly were and with obvious reason.

Jesus at his execution forgave those who hammered the nails through his hands and feet on the basis of their unknowing that the man Jesus is the Son of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. The slaughterers of Palestinians in Gaza as I write these words know exactly what they are doing and they are also ready to tell IAMIAM that he is mistaken in that he has always expected them to do His will on Earth. 

This is the "fault"  away from which, Jesus is the only way, truth and light. My Saviour liveth! Alleluia! Come Lord Jesus Come.

Dear Lord, help me to live always in your presence aware of my sinfulness and never forget how puny I am without your care. I ask for one thing only that I may live within my own being aware of your love and never forgetting the price you paid with your very self to break all humanity free from the pride in being that leads all of us into the disobedience that became the Original Sin of our first parents. May I also be aware in prayer that there are millions of us who are hopeless without your grace to break our carapace of sin. May my prayers be joined with the prayers of Mary, David and all the saints that your chosen people reverse their centuries of "stiff-necked pride" and realise that the wisdom of the Nazarene Carpenter is immeasurably greater than the total output of all the Rabbis who have already or will ever live. Amen

 

 15/01/2025

The Apostles knew Jesus for only three years of their lifetimes. 

Each day that I read the readings for the morning mass I am a man striving to be aware that I am a tiny speck of created being but at the same time secure in my place in the Love that is the timeless being of  IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Today the disciples looked for Jesus and found him in a deserted place in prayer. If they could help it, they were not going to let this new friend out of their sight. The cure of Simon's mother-in-law had been followed by the cure of many others sick in body and mind.

They were Jews who knew that IAMIAM had often spoken to their ancestors through inspired prophets and had rewarded and punished their nation as he had done no other. They could only interpret the cures that they had seen Jesus make as a sign that this man was especially favoured by God.

The preaching in the Letter to the Hebrews is the interpretation of the events that had been witnessed by Apostles and converts to the reformed Old Testament religion, of which the Resurrection was much more than a confirmation, within the previous three decades.

No other of the Prophets had ever had to stress either their own or any other person's humanity in the way that this morning's reading from the Letter to the Hebrews does for Jesus.

The 3 years of public life that Jesus is known by his Apostles is only ten percent of the time he " dwelt among us"  and yet it completes the Covenants and guidance that God had made over thousands of years, with Noah, Abraham and Moses so that we can all now hope and have faith in the Love that is God. 

IAMFATHERSONHLYSPIRIT never abandons us even though we can as easily lose sight of him and stifle the "inner voice" that is the Holy Spirit speaking to our souls as did his "chosen people" long ago.

Dear Lord, help me to remain open to your word and remain aware that I can only fulfill your will by remaining faithful  as revealed throughout the ages and and also to my own inner self which is never unaware of my lifetime of sins for which I need the grace to atone in complete sincerity. May my prayers join  the prayers of Mary and all the saints as with one voice we proclaim your Glory and seek pardon for my sins, the sins of all the world and for those of the Holy Souls. Amen

 14/01/2025

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews had for some years after his personal conversion into following the Lord been contemplating the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord in the light of what he knew of IAMIAM revealed in the only scriptures that then existed.

He knows of angels as the messengers of God who entrusted them to carry his Word to the prophets of his favoured nation. He has come to understand that within his own lifetime Son of God, Jesus had for "a little while" in humility reduced his own being to be a "little less" than the angelic being which is with God beyond our created universe.

The "Word" is not only human words but much more in that he is the complete communication of the being of IAMFATHERHOLYSPIRIT to the souls who are embodied to live as the highest order of material being in Creation, that is known to all of us empirically by our bodily senses and spiritually by the souls of those who open their beings to receive the Love that is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRT.

We can all choose to try to know what it means to live "Holy" lives. Jesus is the perfected human being and our example of virtue. There are billions of us yet "Our Father" knows us each in our personal uniqueness which he has created us to become by fulfilling his Will for us.

We are not all Jesuses. We are not all Marys.  We are not all St Thomases. We are not all St Francises or St Maximillian Kolbes. 

After the Apostolic Age, however we  are all those blessed ones who have not seen empirically but see by the eyes of faith which we live to  keep focussed on IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Dear Lord, please accept these thoughts and words as my imperfect praise of you. I know that you did not create me to become the the sinful being that has marred much of my life. You know that I have always regretted my sinfulness. Help me to really know how the suffering on Calvary was increased by my personal sin. May I join with Mary and all the Saints in seeking forgiveness for us sinners on Earth and for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Let me know how I can avoid the self-satisfaction that is ever a stumbling-block when I begin to pray. It is so easy for me to become a 21st Century Pharisee. Help me to overcome this grievous fault. Amen

 13/01/2025

"The Lord is King let Earth rejoice." 

The "last days" for humanity on Earth began two thousand years ago in Palestine.

We have been living in the "last days" for 2000 years for IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has made his final revelation of himself. He has told us all we need to know about how we are to conduct ourselves in the material reality of this world.

Jesus was not born into a "priestly family". The bloodline of both his mother and guardian, Joseph, could be traced back through "David's line" to Abraham and ultimately Adam and Eve. The conception of Jesus was by the Holy Spirit of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT the unseen presence of eternity in time. It is to this spiritual presence that our souls can also proclaim with wonder.

"The Lord is King let Earth rejoice."

God had been present in time as human embryo, child, adult for about thirty years when he walked along the beach near Capernaum and chose his first disciples. A carpenter spoke to some fishermen. We have to wonder what those 4 working-men experienced as they, without qualm, instantly did what they were told.

"The Lord is King let Earth rejoice."

"Long time ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets" . The Old Testament is the record of those days. Jesus is the key that unlocks our souls from the captivating wonder of the material universe and enables us to understand what is meant by :

"The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the Gospel".

It seems to me that we have never lived up to this simple but not at all simplistic message from God as our world is still bursting at the seams with unholy worship of devil, world and flesh . 

The institutional descendants of St Peter can unravel the words of both New and Old Testaments and sincerely follow the threads back to their source in HOLYSPIRIT of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT but they have never been able to let go of the Mammon that cannot take the decisive step that would prove that they truly believe. 

"My kingdom is not of this world."

Dear Lord,  You know that there are many souls who really do want to respond with joy and awe to your never-ending glory. I know that all of us are amazing things in body, mind and soul. The world becomes more and more of a wonder as science probes and reveals more and more of the material universe which is your creation. We know that we have to live out our lives righteously and that you go way way beyond Love to ensure that we can fulfill your purpose in our lives. May my prayers be guided by Mary and all the Saints as I too strive to become as devoted to you as were Peter, Andrew, James and John who were preceded in obedience by Mary and did not prevaricate but accepted your call in the instant it was made. May all we sinners seek pardon for our sins and  our souls and the Holy Souls welcome, by our willful preparation,  the mercy without which there can be no righteousness either in my life  or in that of  the whole world. Amen

 12/01/2025

I have often wondered how it can be that the people who were present at the Baptism of Our Lord could ever have gone back to their worldly lives after "hearing the voice of the Lord". 

"This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased".

The miracle at Cana had been more of a private or even domestic event between Son and his Mother. This was an Epiphany that was witnessed not only by the twelve but also by "the Baptist's" disciples and the "Voice of the Lord" should have been heard by all those who were present.

The later part of Jesus' life on earth was lived entirely in public. We have a record of the preaching and miracle working of only about 10% of his lifetime as witnessed by 50% of the Evangelists the other two are, as are we, "the Blessed who have not seen but yet believe".

Luke and Mark probably did not witness the Crucifixion but came to believe the Good News in the chaos that followed the death and Resurrection and listened, as St Paul also did, to the words of Peter and the other disciples.

We are reading today of God's openly declared presence as "true man" in the Nation that he had guided as he had guided no other then or since then.

His final interaction with the political power of that era was to deny and thus warn us that he "IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT" had any intentions for the political development of humanity. 

In this morning's Gospel,  IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT's final revelation to mankind is beginning to be made by the Baptism and acknowledgement of the person of Jesus by, Father and Holy Spirit. 

Speaking directly to all leaders and rulers for ever more at his trial presided over by the "Great Power" of his day he declares "My Kingdom is not of this world".

If we believe and each individual one of us concern ourselves with obeying the Truth that is God's revelations we would be able to conform to His will on earth, but as things stand today we are still as far away from image and likeness as were the Sanhedrin and Pilate who conducted the trial of God who has completed the revelation to the whole world publicly begun as true man in his Baptism in the Jordan by SON and thus by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Dear Lord let me continue in my prayer throughout this day. You know as "true man" that there are always temptations that surround us in this world. You know us all as your creation and also know each individual soul as the unique person that we are. Let me learn how to love all my brothers and sisters without envy for we are all equal in your sight. Each life is as valuable to you as the next and the cries of those lost in the cess-pits of materialism never go unheard as" This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased" must have done. We may ignore the "Voice of the Lord" but You search out all who go missing from the fold of Love. May Mary, whose maternal love cherished every moment of your childhood and youth as do all human mothers and accepted the role you gave her on Calvary, pray that we all become aware that we live by every word that comes from the mouth of God and show by our actions that we truly believe so.

 11/01/2025

In the eyes of God there are no "bit-parts" to be played in creation by anonymous bit-players. I am sure that my life is known by "Our Father" as completely as he knows those of everyone who has ever existed.

The vastness of FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT cannot be comprehended but can be known by anyone who lets his soul be guided by grace into the faith shown by "He must increase but I must diminish".

John the Baptist is the "Faithful Chosen People" who not only listens to the "Word" but follows the "Law" in his heart and gives his whole being to IAMIAM even to his martyrdom at the hands of the then "rich and famous" and now the "great" of written history.

There are very many others who were in the crowd that had followed Jesus and his disciples to "Aenon near Salim" a place with more than one source of water, a spring after which it is named, where Jesus and John were both baptizing.

None of the Evangelists record Jesus personally baptizing any individual.

The outward signs of God's mercy are all preserved in this world by the Institutions that have grown out of "Thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my Church." There are many "great figures of history" who are the Saints whose example we try to follow. 

There are many more of us who are "the little children", the "beloved" to whom St John is writing who also can rest in the mercy of the Lord for we are all invited to be baptized in the Grace that is the blood poured out for all of us on Calvary.

Dear Lord, Help me to stay true to the faith that sometimes seems to fill my being but also gets lost in the things of this world which can push your Love to the back of my mind. Help us all who are trying to respond to your call as Institutional Church founded on St Peter or New Holy Family as founded by your words from the cross spoken to Mary and St John to "declutter" ourselves of the dross of materialism and become the being that is the fulfilment of your Love for each of us. Let me too decrease  as he increases, let myself become "anonymous" lost in the flood of your Love. Amen

10/01/2025

I always try to start my day in this way because I want to live out my time in this world in a better way than I have done in the past. I want to respond with my mind and soul to God's saving grace. I want to be what God showed to his people as when Son walked and talked. I want to be accepted now into the sheepfold of the Good Shepherd.

I cannot, however, avoid becoming entangled in the net of materialism for I am also a degenerating body and surrounded as are we all now and have always ever been by the paraphernalia of our time and place. 

I depend on this keyboard to enable me to check my own thoughts and state of mind by recording them in black and white.  

This all "I, I, I" but that's who "I am".

Yesterday I struggled to restrict all the thoughts that were provoked by Jesus in his home-town synagogue. 

There he had announced himself to be as it were the "Jubilee" of mankind, the complete reset of  our spiritual reality, and by his death and resurrection the blood of John's "Spirit, water and blood" thus become the spiritual new discs for us to format in the ways that are acceptable to FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Then I addressed the "Jubilee" as it has been announced by Pope Francis. The name Francis invoked an image of the Poverello becoming holy poverty naked before the church in Assisi. 

St Francis reminds us of the radical message that is the Incarnation; our Pope reminds us that our Church has become a worldly Institution that can only become Jesus' foundation on St Peter by truly becoming the Jubilee year of God's favour when debts are cancelled, the land rested, property restored to original owners. and captives freed.

Then I lost the whole of my text!!!

Jesus really did proclaim a "Jubilee" in Nazareth he sounded a "ram's horn" to remind  us all that each one of us is a "clean clay tablet" into which we have to  inscribe our record of living. 

Today I noticed that there seemed to be something missing from the First Reading. I had to Google for 1 John 5: 7 and found that here there is a whole can of worms about this "missing verse".  There is nothing, however,  missing from "My kingdom is not of this world" except its implementation.

Let the Ram's horn sound and there be a true Jubilee starting in Rome!

 08/01/2025

It seems that the Apostles' first days with Jesus were not without self-questioning doubt. They had each been inspired enough to follow him. They had witnessed miracles but "their hearts had hardened" whenever they were away from the actual presence of Jesus.

We have to guard our Faith. It is a gift from God. We do not create it but we do have to tend it. 

Mankind has created the "techno-sphere" by "reverse-engineering" the empirical being of the material that is our environment. This "techno-sphere" within which I am recording myself is the most powerful enemy that keeps us from achieving the perfect love that has created us to know, love and serve.

Every one of my waking moments can be spent engrossed in things of this world. My mind can be filled to capacity with the wonders of culture which can vary from dross to sublime giving each one of us the opportunity to revel in the superiority of our own taste.

Our God, however, loves us all not because we are worth it. 

All our prayers are heard and acknowledged equally for when we pray from the depths of our beings we turn ourselves from all the wonders of material life, we give up on our fixation with our bodily pleasures and well-being and can increase the Faith that regardless of devilish temptation can recognise IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT in Jesus.

We do not need Jesus to give us any signs to break into hardening hearts for we know that he is the Resurrection Grace that seeks out all us sinners throughout the world no matter how many "fire walls"  we use to try to hide our guilty souls from the laser-light that connects each one of us directly to "Our Father" and allows us all to make the right choice that brings us into the unseen Love that is the Mystical Body of Christ.

"Woman behold your Son. Man behold your mother."

Dear Lord, help us all to read and understand the scriptures that we might walk in the light that illuminated the lives of your first disciples. Help us all to avoid sin and forgive all our previous sins that we are solely responsible for. May Mary and all the Saints continue to support our faith as together we await  for the Love of God, his will, to become the reality here as it is for the Righteous, heaven, and for the Holy Souls, Purgatory. I make my prayer in the name of . Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 07/01/2025

John tells us that we should love one another because by consciously doing so we become the image and likeness that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT created us to be. 

Our bodies have been created out of nothing in a process of creative evolution that can be understand by studying the evidence that has accumulated in organic remains that over millions of years have become as stone.

The bodies that we know as ours are totally limited by the laws of matter and have a limited "shelf-life".

Our non physical awareness of self has an empirical knowledge of all that is not "me" centred in the "I" which is "iam" and is revealed to be the "image and likeness" of our Creator, IAMIAM.

My being, my "iam" lives in consciousness of self and aware that my body has physical needs exactly as do all animals. 

Towards the end of his long life St John still knows that Jesus is not only his beloved friend but also knows that he is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT who is the very being of Love.

He passes down his certainty that if each one of us strives to live in the Love that is the Being of God we will truly be able to become the "image  and likeness" and thus cooperate with "Our Father, who art in heaven" until the moment when we see "God as he really is".

Dear Lord, You know that I am still trying to live according to your will as revealed in the Scriptures. Let me not get impressed by my own words for You and I both know how my being fails dismally to become "image and likeness". I, a sinner, am aware how much of your grace I have spurned and pray that I will be able make amends for my cooperation with "devil, world and flesh" which were denounced at my baptism. May Mary and all the Saints help me in these days remaining to me that I truly repent and live according to your will and striving to make amends for all my sins. Amen

 06/01/2025

I always try to put myself into the same  mind-set as those who first became the "Church" in the "real-time" that is recorded in the scriptures. 

The groups of people to whom St John wrote were only different from us in their lack of technology.

Those first century Greeks and Jews were the first products of human civilization that had for even then centuries faced the same questioning that was confronted by pure free human intellect in the case of the Greeks and by the same human intellect guided by God's revelation in the case of the Jews.

Each individual then as today can only understand the "why?" of his/her own being by confronting the fact of their own deaths. 

For the Greeks the philosophising of Socrates became intolerable and those for whom the celebration of the beauty of a purely human life was the totality of being ordered him to end his own life. He did so.

"I am the bread of life" "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood" were concepts that were totally intolerable to the Jews and they had the Romans, followers and admirers of Hellenic culture,  torture Jesus to death.

The resurrection and all the historical events recorded in the Bible are the complete "playbook" for human life. We are all ensouled bodies who need to live in this world guided by FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. We have this one chance to prepare ourselves for the judgement that  comes with our inevitable death.

When we open our beings to grace, the spiritual help that comes from God we have to be aware that it is very easy for us to become misguided by the seeming virtue promulgated by the unholiness of that enemy of the human race we call the Devil and all his works that are to be found in the world and in the flesh. 

Revelation is complete. Jesus is the Resurrection and he has completed the revelation of God's purpose in creating the Image and Likeness that is himself, the template for our humanity.

By this you know the Spirit of God. 

                Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is from God,

                                 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God

Dear Lord, help me to resist all temptations which even when they seem to be of benefit to me are in reality the work of the Devil. You know that I am not aware of the "spirits" which surround my physical being but recognise that my true life is in my soul which is confined in a material body in a material  world. We all can only know the Holy Spirit by raising our hearts and minds, our souls, to You and refusing the clutter of materialism that is powerful enough to keep our attention to the detriment of the soul that you have entrusted to the control of each one of us. You have never left any of us to search for you without help for on Calvary you entrusted John and Mary to the maternal and filial love of each other that forms the Heart of your Mystical Body that will be with us on Earth to the End of Time. You my God can understand the confusion that this prayer seems to be . I pray for your help that I may be able to understand more and thus become enveloped in your grace that pours out to forgive us sinners here on Earth and the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Amen, 

 05/01/2025

I, along with all mankind, live my life in a body that is the product of millions of years of evolution. Our Creator is not constricted by the time that is the outcome of the Love, "let there be light" with which the IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT chooses to reveal in the "Good" that is his creation. 

The sole purpose of  our awareness of being is to learn how to return that Love. There has always been only one human being who knows the Father, only one being who has the message of eternal truth, only one who knows each created being better than we know ourselves.

Today the Church chooses to remember and give thanks for the moment in time when the Glory of Eternal Love chose to be totally present to the whole world within time in the form of a new-born whose crib was the feeding trough of an animal shelter.

Only Jesus can know why the freedom that was integral to our first parents was so easily misguided and how it did such an inordinate amount of damage to Divine Love that it was he who chose to become the perfect human sacrifice to take away the sins of the world. 

Only Jesus can know why it was that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, the Word, came into the time of our material universe at the time he did. The disobedience of Adam/Eve is obvious but, there does not seem to be anything unique about the failings of Temple Religion at that moment in historical time. 

The human choices made by the "Early Church" soon corrupted the visions, "the Epiphanies" of the converts and the human jockeying for positions that had marred the Apostles even in the lifetime of Jesus, became evermore obvious and viscous.

We have to love God for he never gives up on us and even though so much harm has been brought into the world by the Church founded on Peter as a result of the human failings of her members, clergy and lay, we are, each one of us, still able, by using our freedom, to make the right choices that are acceptable to Our Father for the merciful love of God is not confined in any person or institution. 

The only door that has to be opened for it to enter our being is operated by our own will.

Dear Lord let all the souls that form your mystical presence by the right choices we make continue to return the Love that you never cease to pour out over all your creation, seen and unseen. Let us become aware of the prayers of Mary and all the saints and consciously join our own to theirs that with the human hope that you return soon as mankind is still no better than were the priests, scribes and Pharisees who conspired with the Empire, the kingdom of this world, to kill you by torture and hanging you on a cross by means of iron nails driven through the flesh of your hands and feet. Help us to overturn  our own sins that were the cause of so much pain. Come back soon Dear Lord you know that we have corrupted your Church and continue to misuse our corporal lives by devotion to devil, world and flesh. Maranatha, please save us from ourselves. Amen

 04/01/3025

I know that I am not a biblical scholar. I sometimes regret this in the same way I regret not having put my mind to Science during my schooldays. 

I am reminded of this today as I am taking note for the first time in my life of the historical discrepancy between John and the other Gospels in this account of the first meeting between Jesus and those who were to become the core of his "Church".

I have always liked to picture "Our Lord" walking on the beach at Capernaum and out of the blue summoning the fishermen to follow him. That they did so has always filled me with awe at the charisma of Jesus. Jesus did not have the same effect on his own family who were so ashamed by his  claim to be the "Jubiliee" in person at their local Synagogue that they declared that he was mad.

John's account of how the two pairs of brothers became the first disciples does not have the drama  of the fishermen instantly leaving their boats, nets and families. It is, however, more in keeping with the continuity of the narrative that begins with the Annunciation in that the brothers were disciples of "The Baptist" and thus were aware that their "voice crying in the wilderness" was preparing the way for one much greater than he. They had found the Messiah who is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Dear Lord, help me to consolidate my faith. Help me to understand the message that is your life and works. Faith comes before understanding because we are all enabled to live righteously by making a personal choice. No-one can understand you who are the "Ever-greater" but you know each one of us and always respond when we totally commit ourselves to your offer of salvation that began publicly in Capernaum so many years ago. It was to forgive the sins of the devil, world and flesh that you walked among us so we can all turn to you and say "forgive us our trespasses" and we can also love our neighbour by making sure that we completely forgive those "who trespass against us". Let my prayers join the chorus of praise led by Mary and all the Saints that channels your forgiveness to all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory.

 03/01/2025

All that we know about God and his purpose in creating our beings is imparted to us by the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. St John tells us that when Jesus returns we shall see him as he really is because we shall all be like him. St Paul gives us the same message when tells us that at the end of time God will be "all in all ".

The Apostles and their first followers were all separate individual persons who recognised that the longing for permanence in the depths of their beings could only be satisfied by the reality of IAMIAM who during their times was revealing himself to be IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT the source of loving perfection that could be recognised and worshipped by our human intellect. 

They all preached the New Life of the Resurrection. 

Thus the bedrock of my life today is the belief that I am alive as a thinking human being because God loves me. I know that the things about me, and I too, are real but will all pass away. The words that are now appearing on the screen come from my being that tells me it needs to conform itself to the revelations of its creator.

Not only can I know, love and serve but also have the obligation to do so. I can become holy because the Son of God is "The lamb that takes away the sins of the world" and by the sacrifice of Son on Calvary, Our Father creates the grace that Holy Spirit brings as spiritual food to maintain the loving freedom that we create as the "Mystical Body of Christ" in spite of the Devil, World and the Flesh always biting at our heels to bring us into the pain of the Nothing that is separation from the Joy of life with the All-in-All.

Dear Lord, may I continue to open myself to your grace which never ceases to seek out the souls that have been closed off to you. It is human will that chooses to ignore your revelations and continue living in defiance of your Commandments. Let me practise sincere repentance for all past sins and share in the pains that you endured to enable me to become again the being created to know, love and serve not because I seek any future reward  but because I truly know that serving you in sincerity is itself a grace far greater than anything of which I can be worthy. May my prayers join those of Mary and all the saints in seeking grace for us sinners here on earth and for the Holy Souls who can suffer happily for they now know the justice of their punishment that will have an end.

 02/01/2025

Yesterday I got into a bit of a mess as I tried to reflect on Mary's part in God's Loving Kindness. So did the Early Church.

Today's Saints, Basil and Gregory lived in a time after Constantine's acceptance of Christianity that was the battleground where the dogmas and structures that have become Theology were first tackled by human reason.

Our Faith is based on the interventions and revelations made by God that are recorded in the Scriptures. Our acceptance and understanding of them is a matter for the human rationality which is part of our "image and likeness".

Neither of today's saints were ambitious for personal renown. Both wanted to live a life of prayer as monks and grow in the Love of God. 

They could not, however, ignore the way in which so many Bishops of their day had "lost the plot" and wanted to deny that Jesus was "True man and True God" as defined by the Council at Nicaea called by Constantine largely to counter the Arian controversy that broke the unity of Eastern Orthodoxy many years before the Protestant Reformation did the same for the Roman Church.

Jesus' foundation on St Peter has always faced conflict from without and within. St Paul argued fiercely with St Peter and with Judaizers. Jesus himself was the first victim of persecution resulting from religion instigating the state to take action against its opponents.

One of the strange facts of history is that Constantine's nephew Julian who is remembered by  the soubriquet, "the Apostate" given to him by St Basil's brother, another St Gregory but this time of Nyasa, studied at the same time in the same Athenian "schools"  as did today's saints. 

The trio Basil, Gregory and Julian were personally acquainted . The Saints received the same education and conditioning as did the "paganizer" and persecutor of Christianity but with diametrically opposed results.

Dear Lord, you know that I am interested in Church History as a human who wants to understand his heritage. I hope that I am sincere in the beliefs as formulated at Nicaea. I also pray that my heart is sincerely seeking for the meaning of the many words that have survived from the past and that "true God from true God, true man from true man, begotten not made, of One Being with the Father" are not only words to be remembered but are the Truth that has been revealed through the Scriptures from the time of Abraham until your Ascension into the timeless eternal Beginning which you are with the Father and Holy Spirit in the Glory that we can only adore in silent wonder and pray that we can become acceptable to you as we seek pardon for our trespasses and show by our deeds that we have only loving forgiveness for those who trespass against us. Maranatha, Lord. May Our Lord Jesus soon return. Amen.

01/01/2025

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

I could be jealous of Mary's immaculate conception but how can any one of us know the pains that it must have brought to her? She is the Church Triumphant in person but that triumph is also the result of the pains she shared with her son.  Her pains are not visible but the "sword  thrust" predicted by Simeon is part of the mystery of the atonement made for us on Calvary. 

The apostles and disciples who first knew Mary as the mother of their friend Jesus and with whom they met the  Resurrected Lord and experienced the Spiritual Conversion of  Pentecost do not have a lot to say about her but they knew  that her "Yes" to her role in God's plan was essential for the Spiritual Revolution that can bring all souls to Salvation.

Forgive me Lord for not appreciating the devotion of your mother and her place in the events of salvation that she witnessed and shared. It is not only joy that The Mother of Our God treasures in her heart. She must be the only human who comes close to feeling in her very being the pain and  affront to holiness that is the sin of the world; the sin that I have so often embraced during the course of my life.

May my soul and the souls of all mankind be open to receive the grace that Mary's "yes" on behalf of us all  continues to pour out over all the world. We too have to agree "Let it  be done to me according to thy word" as did she if we are to use our freedom in the way that you have revealed is the holiness for which you have created us to strive.