12/05/2025

Sometimes I start the day in a dried out condition that has to have a stimulus to get it going. The deer of the Psalm knows exactly what it needs and is immediately active in its search for the water needed to reactivate its heart. "Heart" reminds me of the old translation of today's Psalm in which the "deer" was "hart".

The website that I am using to find the Mass Readings for the day tells me that it is using a "new translation" of the liturgical texts. "Hart" was replaced by "deer" long ago but when I read in this morning's gospel 

"All who came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not listen to them", 

I was alerted with my ears pricked and tensed as would be the hart/deer on hearing an unfamiliar noise while it was drinking.

The machine I am using enables me to instantly explore doubts/discrepancies as I become aware of them so I pull-up the Douay-Rheims translation of the same text. 

"All others, as many as have come, are thieves and robbers: and the sheep heard them not".

It seems to me that both English sentences carry the same meaning which could be interpreted as a condemnation of all the prophets who had fulfilled the word of God as revealed in the Old Testament.

To live by "every word that comes from the  mouth of God" we have to be consistent and pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit who is both the source and meaning of the "hard sayings" of Jesus and the reality of my body and soul the creation of the Father, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

St John reports that Jesus' listeners did not fully understand the analogy so he had to repeat himself. I have to say that I don't think verses 1-5 are difficult to grasp, but I need a lot more help than even St Thomas Aquinas can give to grasp v. 8. which really does sound like a condemnation of Old Testament religion even though it was revealed by IAMIAM.