30/04/2026

The places mentioned in today's mass readings are still there although much changed in appearance. I have lived through much of the acceleration that characterizes most  of those changes in modern times

When I first visited Cyprus more than fifty years ago the site of St Paul's scourging was pretty dominant in Lower Paphos, but now it is lost within the "developments" of Jet-age" tourism.

Perga too is an Archaeological attraction site in the tourist destination that is Antalya in modern Turkiye. Psidian Antioch can still be found in the Isparta Province also in Turkiye. Jerusalem is not named but is the place where all the events of the Gospel took place. It too is much changed.

All the things of this "world" are subject to "time" which we "know" but never see. St Paul speaks to the Synagogue of Perga about the history he and all God's "Chosen People" share and all is well until he begins to proclaim the Resurrection as the visible sign of the Reset of Salvation that Jesus, God Incarnate had recently completed in Jerusalem.

I am writing this 2000 years after the events and know that I am a sinful man, certainly an executioner of Christ but also "a lost sheep" that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, the GOOD SHEPHERD, never gives up on and it is always from Scripture that I will receive "rod and staff" to guide me.

On the night before he was betrayed Jesus took bread and broke it to become a new way of being, the Sacrament of HIMSELF that would be entrusted to his friends in this world to be the guardians thereof. He founded his Church on Peter but before so doing he told us all that we should never put our own self before any other person, He lived selflessly and so must we. 

St Paul could remind his listeners that IAMIAM had directly supported his people Israel many times over many centuries. At his trial before Pilate Jesus declared "My kingdom is not of this world". 

This tells us that after the Resurrection it is only in our souls, our being that is not of this world, that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT reveals his purpose for mankind and that there is no longer a "\This Worldly Chosen People". 

The "Things of this world," are not part of the Kingdom of God revealed by INCARNATE SON in the Roman Province of Palestine 2000 years ago.

To live according to the Will of the Father, it is each individual that has to cherish  the WORD, Jesus, who teaches us how to live a life of service and prayer by humbly "washing the feet of others" and being  open to the SPIRIT, the Love that is revealed as the New Holy Family, the Church of Love, in the mission of mutual care entrusted to Mary and John on Calvary.

                                            "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 

 

 29/04/2026

The physical Light that we do not see but is essential for us to see is not the LIGHT that we can acknowledge as coming from God  to empower our response to the Loving Mercy within which we have our beings.

We are not compelled by any inbuilt restraint to react to the the presence of God. Our being, "our very souls" are not encoded as are our bodies but the Love that is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has shared with us some of the freedom that is part of his limitless Loving Being in the Paternal Joy that becomes the Wonder to which each one of us ,"image and likeness", can respond  but not replicate during our time in  "this world".

The bodily animal, Mankind, has never  been able to overcome the Sin with which he first contaminated creation by the misuse of the Divine Gift of freedom but there have always been individuals who thanks to the willingness with which they have accepted in their Souls the loving embrace Our Father proffers to us all, have managed to live in the LIGHT throughout their lives in this world.

Today we honour the memory of such a one. Those who lived in her generation were subject to a scandalously divided Institutional Church that had for generations been ignoring "My kingdom is not of this world" but  the ever undivided Church of Love, New Holy Family ensures that  the LIGHT and LOVE of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT is always available to those who pray  to join St Catherine to be forever at home in the never-ending peace of HE who is "lowly and gentle of heart".

                                            "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 28/04/2026

In today's reading from St John's Gospel, Jesus is teaching/disputing with "the Jews". 

In the Gospel of St John "the Jews" does not mean the same as "multitude", ordinary people of Palestine, but is used by St John to denote the learned and the clever, priests, lawyers and pharisees.

He is writing about an event that took place at least 20 years before the dispersal/growth of the Apostolic Church recorded in the first of today's mass readings.

I am reading about them more than 2000 years after both events. I am not reading a newspaper, novel or history book because with the Scriptures "there something more that  is here" and I am trying to respond to the "more" that is  WORD as did St Peter, "Where should I go, you Lord have the words of eternal life?"

There is nothing more important that any human being can do today and any day than raise his mind and heart to God.

Jesus is not capable of telling us anything but TRUTH. Today he is not an ethicist teaching in the Athenian Stoa or Rabbi in a synagogue but the Son of God  answering direct question posed by Hebrew Professors. He is the pure unrefractable "Light of the World" infusing with grace all who seek him with their whole mind, heart and soul.

‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.’

God knows who I am and forgives all of his children but we have to do more than just "listen" to his words. Our true being is witnessed only by our deeds and I know that I often fail "to know, love and serve in this world". I can never lose hope for "eternal life", however, for the Mercy of Our Father is boundless and I know even in my sinfulness that I am the receiver of unfathomable grace in the Church of Love, the Mystical Body of Christ, the New Holy Family,  a final promise of Our Lord sealed in the horror of his death on Calvary.

                                            "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 

 27/04/2026

Monday Easter Week 4

We are still in the process that began in the Portico of Solomon and the Upper Room. 

Two thousand years later, each one of is having to come to terms of how to live in this world and simultaneously be true to our belief in our mystical awareness of Jesus as Son of God.

Today's version of the Church founded on St Peter and the New Holy Family consists only of we who are the blessed "who have not seen" whereas the Church of Peter John and Mary had known Jesus as friend and human son and their testimony was that of the blessed who had believed what their interpretation of their personal experiences had revealed to them.

We have also accrued generation after generation much that keeps us from the Living Fire that "brought a sword from heaven". 

In today's first reading Peter has to defeat "anti-gentilism" which is the attitude to non-Jews that Jews acquired at birth and reinforced on a daily basis by their use of Scripture. He was not completely successful.

God knows that the Jewish people have often suffered as many Christians have blamed them for the way IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has brought about in the life, death and resurrection of the Jesus, the Incarnation, the reset of salvation that is  repentance that leads to life. 

Our Father has only ever forgiven his executioners and makes it quite clear in today's Gospel that it is only by HE, HIMSELF fulfilling the will of his own BEING, FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT that our human sinfulness can be brought back to the purity created in the garden.

It is through the grace of God that Peter was able to obtain the acceptance by the Jews for his Gentile converts. At that time that seemed like an impossibility, 

Today, (2026) in another completely impossible this worldly situation we have to pray that the original "Chosen People" can come to the self awareness that enables them to understand that they who slaughter are not the victims even in this world and that the purported quote from one of the first defenders of Zionist Israel, "We can never forgive the Palestinians for making us kill their children" spits into the face of He who is truly God.

 

 26/04/2026

I have to face up to my own weaknesses this morning. For some days, I have missed recording my morning reflections on the daily Mass Readings that have become the "personal signs" by which I choose to reveal what is always present even though clouded over in my heart and soul.

In the first reading Peter and the other ten Apostles are praying in the temple with a favourable congregation who are inspired to both listen to and seek guidance from these Proclaimers of the Resurrection. 

God knows that I too sometimes cooperate faithfully with HIS WORD but at others I am entirely taken up by the things of this world and allow my being to lose touch with Our Father whom I know to be "The Good Shepherd" and who is, indeed, much greater than that image of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT'S tender love for us his aimlessly wandering sheep.

In fact all of us are totally hopeless without our Shepherd for we are all in much more danger than we would be if we were simply "aimlessly" wandering. 

Even though Jesus by his life death and resurrection has created for us access to the Free Gift from IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT that enables us to live righteously in this world and created a spiritual home, the Church of Love, the New Holy Family many of us however, often choose to follow the ways to self glorification created by generations of mankind and thus filled "this world" with the false Glory that is the work of Mammon and is as corruptible as our own flesh. 

We must never lose sight of the reset of Creation that God enabled 2000 years ago in Palestine, Incarnation who is Christ the Lord, son of God and Son of Mary who is eternally

 The bread of Life.

 The light of the World

The gate of the sheepfold

The good shepherd.

The resurrection and the life

The way, the truth and the life.

The true vine

 22/04/2026

In the northern temperate latitudes of this world, Spring is bringing the usual promises of the good things that are to come. Everywhere trees and shrubs are blossoming and spring flowers are dying back to give way to the more luxuriant growth of summer.

In the Liturgy of the Church it is still Eastertide and in the Mass Readings we share the experiences of the Apostolic Church. St Luke records the first deeds of his friend St Paul who had made his first appearance in the story of our faith, the history of our Church, as the approver of the execution of St Stephen, "the blasphemer". In today's first reading. he has become much more than a bystander at a stoning but is actively harassing the followers of the the "Way".

All the worshippers in the Portico of Solomon and Upper Room are still Jews although divided linguistically and it is as apostate Jews, "blasphemers" they undergo the first persecution by the Orthodox Pharisees and Sadducees.

I have always been aware that the Church of Christ has often been unfaithful to his example and teaching when entangled within the things of this world. It seems that the "Christians" in Palestine did not participate in the Jewish Revolt that resulted in the destruction of the Temple. As a persecuted "blaspheming" minority they had fled to Pella across the Jordan before or during the original disturbances.

Christianity was so named first of all in Antioch and it was in Asia Minor and in Egyptian Alexandria that the Faith first grew and was codified and as the Church grew in temporal power so did she often depart as had  "Jewish Tempalism" before her, from the shared foundational Ten Commandments,  and the radical quintessential "turn the other cheek", "love your neighbour as yourself" "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" that characterises the revolutionary reset of Salvation completed by the final blood sacrifice made by the Son of God on Calvary.

Jesus taught us that we are all brothers/sisters and that claiming for ourselves moral virtues or privileges from our temporal parentage is as great a sin as the racism that condemns others for not being as we are.

Anti-Semitism and any form of Racism is a great sin and adds to the power of evil in this world but it is no greater a sin than the refusal to believe the words of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and know that it is each one of us  who by sinning adds to the pain of the atonement won for us on Calvary.

For this is the will of my Father,

that everyone who looks on the Son

and believes in him

should have eternal life,

and I will raise him up on the last day.’

 

 21/04/2025

Today Jesus tells us that HEISBREADFROMHEAVEN. His interlocuters had asked for the bread from heaven that had fed their forefathers in the desert, the "manna" on which they had survived during their learning period under the guidance of Moses.

Some of those who "in those times" demanded signs could become the first believers who worshipped with and learnt from the Apostles and some could be those who actually stoned Stephen.

We are their descendants in faith and can acknowledge how within our own beings we too can demand signs. We look for signs of Eternity in the events of this world. There have been many reports of "Eucharistic Miracles" throughout the centuries. 

Years ago I was impressed by Pascal's thought that the continued existence of the Jews could be considered as sign for the existence of God. It may be false but it is not a stupid idea. 

It is sure that Jesus taught that God does not have favourites and each of us has the ability to accept the gifts that we are given as proportionate to our needs and more importantly we have the freedom to choose to live in our own beings with the good of others as our first principal. 

This is how Jesus lived and died and in today's Gospel the first Martyr Stephen emphasises this Christlike living and dying for  others "Lord do not hold this sin against them". Jesus definitely taught us that believers are his own family but before us Israelites who had been guided by God's prophets  became the instruments through whom the perfect sacrifice was made.

I know that on Calvary there were two sinless truly human beings but one freely offered himself in atonement for all Sin. Even the accusers and executioners of Christ can be forgiven. 

We must not condemn anyone for the circumstances of their birth. God does not have favourites. "Go out and teach all nations" means that believers have the obligation to spread  the Good News by their way of life, becoming living Gospels and by their words. Our race and nation is totally of this world and has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God.

We are all known by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT as his frequently wayward children but who can all return to him when we ask:

‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’

 Jesus answered them,

‘This is the work of God,

that you believe in him whom he has sent.

for it was on Calvary that he created his Spiritual Church of Love the New Holy Family in which as brothers and sisters, we can all follow the Way, Truth and Life.

                                            "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 20/04/2026

Alleluia, alleluia.

One does not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

Alleluia.

I didn't realise then, that the sentence with which I finished my "reflections" yesterday was to become the "Gospel acclamation" for today.

We rightly revere Stephen as the first martyr but there is not much that we know about his life other than his way of leaving it.

He was one of the Deacons appointed by the Apostles and was learned enough to dispute, probably in Greek, with members of Foreign Synagogues. By the Grace of God Saul the Pharisee did not join in the actual stoning.

The accusation made against him

‘This man never ceases to speak words against this Holy Place and the Law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us."

is certainly accurate for by his teaching and Resurrection Jesus completes the "reset" of the Law that is the Incarnation.

In today's Psalm we pray for enlightenment:

teach me your statutes.

 Make me grasp the way of your precepts, and I will ponder your wonders

and in the Gospel we can find the response of  HOLY SPIRIT being thus shown that God is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Do not work for the food that perishes,

but for the food that endures to eternal life,

which the Son of Man will give to you.

For on him God the Father has set his seal.’

 Then they said to him,

‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’

 Jesus answered them,

‘This is the work of God,

that you believe in him whom he has sent.’

 

 19/04/2026

Third Sunday of Easter

The Mass Readings for today present to us the experiences of those who had first known Jesus as "true man". 

Peter had been his companion for three years listened to his words, witnessed the miracles but knew that he had failed to be with him as he went through the agony that culminated in his death on the cross.

Luke had known Mary, the Mother of the Lord and the other Apostles and was able to confirm that his Gospel was as factual as the Acts in which he himself had played a part.

All that I strive to be and understand about my life depends on the Resurrection. Paul writes "If Jesus had not been risen from the dead then our faith is in vain" and it is this faith that enables Peter to proclaim:

 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God,

and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,

he has poured out this which you yourselves are seeing and hearing.’

having accepted the forgiveness won for him by the "Precious Blood".

By the time that the first letter of St Peter was written, 30 or so years after the Resurrection, the man Jesus had become to be recognised as the "Son of God", the Eternal Word who was always with God in the beginning WITH  Holy Spirit which confirmed that IAMIAM is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and the Last Supper had become the liturgical celebration that recreated the Sacramental Real Presence of True Man and True God that had shaken the disciples into recognition of the Lord at the "Breaking of the Bread" in Emmaus. 

All the billions of words that have been written about Jesus and his Church can tell us no more about him than that which is the record of the eye-witnesses we call the New Testament and that to be able to respond to the Holy Spirit we have to open our hearts to WORD who reveals himself in every word that comes from the mouth of God.

                                                "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 

 18/04/2026

Today I am, as usual, trying to come to grips with my awareness that I am living in "this world" and simultaneously understanding that true life is to be found only in  the non-physical world of the "Kingdom" proclaimed by Jesus.

Two thousand years of historical events are culminating today and the being that I am is somehow connected and a product of those events. Everything that has ever happened is a connection to the past and an opening, a foundation for the future.

The first followers of Jesus who met in the temple were all Jews who had been overcome by the Resurrection and although they thought of Jesus as the Christ, the long prophesised Messiah, they did not really understand that he did not intend to lead their nation into world domination.

They did not really understand that each individual one of us has to respond personally to the reset of Salvation that had occurred during the life, death and Resurrection and that the "Church" which they were growing was not founded to be part of this world.

It is very easy to look back over history and find examples of Non-Christian behaviour on the part of the Church, but even in the Upper Room and Portico of Solomon we can see hints of how the foundation made on St Peter could and did become corrupted by the things of this world. 

In today's first reading racial prejudices were already beginning to cause dissension. Even though on the night before he died Jesus had emphasised that we all have to act as servants and perform  real service to our brothers

"Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him"

and he had also previously warned his disciples that "he who would be greater must become as this little child" the Apostles themselves suggested that their position required relief from purely menial tasks

"It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables".

I don't think that this attitude would be approved by the one who preached the parable of the Good Samaritan and I know from personal experience how easily it is for sin to grow from tiny seeds and become an unholy norm.

The Institution that began in the Upper Room and met in the Portico of Solomon has grown over the centuries to become the Church that we know today. There is much within her history that is shameful then and now. 

Jesus knew that he was giving responsibility to weak men and thus teaches us that Our Father's Love  is not imprinted on us  but is given for us to freely accept and cherish to become individually responsible for our own souls that we will return to him.

The unseen heart of the Church has always remained untouched by sin even by the worst excesses of the Papal/Imperial Courts, Crusades, Inquisitions and the unpalatable truths of modern scandals. Jesus not only promised to be with us until the end of time, but also gave concrete proof of this when he created the New Holy Family, the Church of Love in which we can all find rest for our souls in the peace that comes directly and only from God.

                             "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 17/04/2026

"With Jesus there is always something greater here". 

In St John's Gospel Jesus has the self-awareness that in his humanity he is the "Son of God". His body has been begotten by the Will of God in the human, mammalian womb of the Virgin Mary by the same process that we and all animals have our being and he too has a human soul that completes the fertilization that is the beginning of all human life.

During his active life on Earth Jesus performed many miracles, that drew the attention of the disciples and many others. The message of an angel had revealed God's intention to Mary and Joseph but Jesus himself burst into the consciousness of only a very few men and women after recognition by "The Baptist".

The human reality that is Jesus is also his message. In truth, there is nothing greater than his being for he is always the Son of God. He is WORDFATHERSPIRIT whose internal Love creates external Being of which we are only aware of that for which we were created. Many other Universes are possible.

We, however, are not marionets whose strings are controlled by and for the amusement of a  divine puppet-master. With each one of us there is also "something greater here" for we are not only intelligent mammals but have also been gifted with a soul, "the image and likeness" that can choose to forever know and be welcomed into the Joy that Jesus won for us on Calvary and confirmed by his Resurrection as an everlasting, timeless moment.

Today I raise my mind and heart to Our Father as I begin to realise the truly hideous power of sin for it can only be  conquered by Omnipotence choosing to become mortal in order to know by experience the  weakness of the  human reality that so often rejects the Love with which we were created. 

We are all prideful creature but it  could be that we too, if not damaged by the sin of Adam and Eve could become holy  enough to perform miracles just as did Jesus who emptied himself to become as we are except for sin and was so able to ask, as would any human being, and receive anything from Our Father in Heaven.

John had been blessed to be present when Jesus revealed his Divine Glory and he also met the RESURRECTION. It is no wonder that he never seems to forget that Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Mary, is also WORD, SON of GOD. He also cared for the only other sinless human being until she was taken into heaven as he became part of the New Holy Family our Church of Love.

                                    "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 16/04/2026

Each day that I do so it is by a deliberate act of will that I read/acknowledge the liturgical readings for the day and each day in so doing I confirm that  I am a unique being, there is only one "I", whose reality is not tied to this present "time and place".

Today the Church continues to present  what St Luke received and witnessed about the Apostolic Church and the problems that the first believers had had to face because of their proclamation of the Resurrection and of the Way, Truth and Life that had led up to it. They declared that Jesus is the Son of God and thus became hated by the Temple authorities and their supporters.

Each of the individuals who were the actors in that "time and place" were all as free as I am today and made their own choice to accept or reject the Resurrection proclaimed by Peter and the other "friends" in the Portico of Solomon. The Temple chose to say "No" and continues to do so.

Nicodemus, who was a leader of the Temple, consulted Jesus privately,  precisely because he did not wish to compromise himself with the Sanhedrin, did not learn a "great secret" for IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT broadcasts his WORD to the whole world and HOLYSPIRIT speaks directly into hearts that are opened by our own individual acts of freewill.

I know that my daily act of free-will can bring me into the fellowship of the Church of Love, the New Holy Family but will only do so if my deeds match my words and it thus  I become enabled by grace to reject "!time and place" and seek to become part of the timeless and placeless  eternity which God has prepared for all of his children..

St Nicodemus, pray for me especially that I may avoid the sin of which Jesus warned so many of your brethren. Amen.

 

 15/01/2026

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light

and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed

There is no "hidden message " in the Gospel of St John. Jesus does not condemn anyone of us but is the "Light of the World".

In the events that are recorded in the New Testament IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT offers to all mankind in the Holy Light, Jesus, Incarnate Creative Love for us to choose the Way and Truth that becomes Eternal Life.

We are all of us totally free to live only as defined by our physical reality, one of God's creatures, a wonder that has evolved to be capable of self-understanding and god-like in our abilities, or to overcome the thunder cloud of self-created pride that blocks the Light of FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT from awakening our spiritual beings to awareness of the Spiritual Reality which is our true home.

We call the Spiritual Reality that is "Being with God", "Heaven" and have foolishly ignored the words of Our Saviour "My kingdom is not of this world" by striving to make a  heaven here in this Material Universe.

Two thousand years ago IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT reset his covenants with mankind in the shadowless LIGHT of the Resurrection. That LIGHT can shine into our beings only when we truly renew our Baptismal Promises and live each moment aware that we are never alone but always in the care of Our Father in the Church of Love, the New Holy Family that is the final message of Jesus.

                        "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 14/04/2026

The perfect heavenly and temporal unity of the Apostolic Church that St Luke recalls in today's first reading has seemingly never been maintained.

The individuals who formed the original community were sure that they would welcome the return of Jesus in their lifetimes. Many of them had seen the Risen Lord and that experience had been enough to enable them to overcome the things of this world to the extent that they shared all their worldly goods.

They believed because they had seen and were united by  mutual support and the Holy Spirit.

The life of Jesus, Our Lord, however, had been a constant missionary struggle. His family, except for his mother, thought that he was mad. His best friends frequently missed the point of his teaching. The religious authorities of his day treated him as an ungodly opponent. He had "nowhere to lay his head".

Eight hundred generations after the resurrection, we are still able to share in the spiritual Christian unity that began in the Upper Room and continued in the Portico of Solomon and are especially blessed  for our faith in the written testimony that has been preserved for more than 2000 years.

We thank God that because the expected Parousia did not come about,  the Evangelists took on the responsibility of preserving their own and others' real-time experience of knowing, actually knowing, the Incarnate Lord, in the writings that are the New Testament.

Today I am writing this responses to the mass readings but in an unignorable worldly context that is dominated by a public battle of words between Pope and President. 

The Pope knows that he is not a politician and that Jesus declared before Pilate, the representative of the President of his day, "My kingdom is not of this world". Both he and all of us have been taught to "Turn the other cheek", "Pray for those who hate us" and "Love our neighbour as ourselves". He does not need to win a war of words with a blasphemer except by bearing witness to these fundamental tenets that make us what we should be but have very rarely exhibited by our behaviour in this world.

 13/04/2026

Nicodemus was born into a God-fearing family and although he didn't belong to a priestly clan he had become devoted to living the "Law" by studying Scriptures and pondering them in his heart. He had chosen to become a Pharisee. We know that Pharisees were condemned by Jesus for hypocrisy, but there were many of them who lived honest lives guided by the Scriptures and praying the Psalms.

He had lived his life always open to the spiritual promptings of the Holy Spirit. It was in response to these promptings that he came to speak to Jesus in private. He knew of Jesus' miracles and had probably heard him preach. The raising of Lazarus from his tomb had been a huge talking point in Jerusalem as had the claim to be able to "to destroy and rebuild the temple in three days". He came in secret for the controversy about the Nazarene was growing into antagonism against "the blasphemer".

Each day of my adult life, I too have been stirred  to seek out a personal interview with IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, but the bodily life of this world has too often prevailed and the lessons recognised in prayer have too soon been blown away by the cares and sins of this world.

In his reply to Nicodemus, however, Jesus assures him and all of us who sincerely seek to do the will of Our Father by living spiritual lives, to abandon ourself-will and completely offer ourselves to the unseen Holy Spirit to "do with us as he wilt".

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

 12/04/2026

Low Sunday

Each day that I open the "Universalis" website to view the Liturgical readings chosen to be read at mass I am aware that there are millions of us who are actually attending mass and are part of a worshipping community. 

Today we are taken back to our origins. We congregate in awe to listen to the men who were the friends of Jesus, the teacher and wonder worker whose death on a cross was witnessed by many of us but who has since been seen to be alive and he has promised to soon return. The promises made to Abraham, to Moses and to all the prophets are being fulfilled in our lifetimes.

St Luke records the events and expectations that flooded the very first community that celebrated the Resurrection. Biblical scholars hardly ever agree about exact dates but they are sure that it was written at least 30 years after the Resurrection but before the political disturbances and war that caused the relocation to Pella and culminated in the destruction of the Temple/

I know that I am not the only one to wonder how the original Church began as a "commune" in the Portico of Solomon and ultimately becoming two empires, Rome and Constantinople is despite all of  its failings  still custodian of the WORD.

The end of the first millennium and the beginning of the second were centuries of grotesque Ecclesiastical Corruption. The Hierarchies, both East and West, were much more of "this world" and openly competed for secular power rather devoting themselves to doing the will Our Father and caring for the souls placed in their charge.

 We can be sure that Sts Luke, Peter and John know and share with us Truth that comes from God. The Psalmist is also directly inspired by GOD to proclaim his heartfelt need to sing in praise

Give praise to the Lord, for he is good, his mercy endures for ever.

I actually know nothing about the life of the cleric who wrote today's sequence but each year that it has become part of the Easter Liturgy I have become more sure that it is the authentic voice of the Holy Spirit teaching us how to pray and I thank Our Father that even though his Church visibly rebels against the WORD his Love still stands as it has  always done in the Church of Love, our New Holy Family the heart of the community which met for 20+ years in the Portico of Solomon.

                                    "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

"Give praise to the Lord, for he is good, his mercy endures for ever."

 11/04/2026

Alone but Known

It is good for me to know that I am always "alone".

We are, all of us, unique beings who live out our lives by either accepting everything we encounter as we "grow-up" as an unchangeable reality in which we are powerless or by questioning everything face to face as the reality of my self in the reality of the whole world. 

 ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.’

 My mouse, as always, reveals at a click a "world", a "passing reality" far greater than that known by the actors in the drama, recorded by St Luke, being played out in the Temple in Jerusalem 2000 years ago.

I have to say, however, that even though billions of us are still living and many millions have died, though great changes have happened, and huge numbers have proclaimed the Gospel by their lives and words the World is still incompatible with the "reset of creation" completed in this world by the INCARNATION.

It is better for me to know that I am always "known".

We are all of us unique beings who are known and loved not because of anything wonderful or even praiseworthy about ourselves but because IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT freely allowed His JOY OF BEING to create a Universe in which another created but free being, ourselves, could know love and serve by giving back of our own free will the Love that bursts out from Him.

The fundamental lesson to mankind that was Liturgically completed on Good Friday has never been learned . 

"My kingdom is not of this world."

Jesus did not die to bring Christian Kingdoms and Empires into being. The Church fails because men entangled her as and in temporal human institutions. Jesus did die to save each one of us from the effects of the sins committed by each one of the unique beings that he knows, loves and forgives.

It is best for me to find my place in his Church of Love and know that I too am included in his dying words from the cross on Calvary and thus be no longer "alone" for I too am in the New Holy Family.

"Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 10/04/2026

Jesus had predicted that his disciples, when they had to face a public scrutiny  would be filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and become able to articulate the truth that he had revealed to them.

This is what happens in today's first reading and as Peter responds to the same High Priests who had asked Pilate to order the crucifixion of Jesus his words become part of the wisdom  of Scriptures which are our only guide to the Eternal Life that has been prepared for us by Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, the Eternal WORD. 

And there is salvation in no one else,

for there is no other name under heaven given among men and women by which we must be saved

In the Gospel John recalls the events that occurred in Galilee after the women reported the message of the angels recorded by Matthew and Mark. 

It is impossible for me to attain to the same level of  awareness of the presence of IAMFTHERSONHOLYSPIRIT that was experienced in real-time by the fishermen who saw the Resurrection cooking fish over a fire on the shore of Lake Tiberias.

It is fundamental to my Faith that the scene I can recreate in my imagination was as real 2000 years ago as I am now sitting  using my fingers to transfer to this machine my efforts to raise my mind and heart to God who in his love for me and the whole world, revealed during his lifetime, TRUTH that brings us to the Eternal Life that has always been his vision for us.

This morning Jesus, the Resurrection is tending a fire and barbecuing fish for his friends. A few days ago the same Jesus was breathing out his soul at the completion of his Mission and assuring for us that there is a Church of Love, a New Holy Family where he can be found until the end of time.

"Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 09/04/2026

Over the last few days, I have been much troubled by the things of this world and troubled by the  absence of the "burning within my heart" experienced by the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

When I question myself about this dimming of fervour, however, I answer myself with the words of St Peter, "Lord where could I go for you have the words of Eternal Life". 

I know that I have an absolute need to continuously renew my baptismal promises in order to travel with the despondent yet open heart of the disciples who were brought back to the joy of "hearts burning with faith"  when they knew that it was the  Resurrection breaking the bread of salvation for them.

St Luke's reminiscences of the first Church in the Portico of Solomon record for us the continuity with the Old Testament that was an essential part of their Faith. Resurrection Faith was a completion not a replacement  of the revelations that had assured them that they were always supported by God.

You are the sons of the prophets

and of the covenant that God made with your fathers,

saying to Abraham,

“And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness

Dear Lord, In these  days 2026,  you know that it is the deeds of your Chosen People who are still too self-centred to accept the revelations made to the prophets and whose stiff-necked pride is emulated by many who claim to be Christians, which absorb my thoughts. Help all rulers to know that "My kingdom is not of this world" is an unequivocal simple statement of truth as is "Thou shalt not kill" and help us all to avoid the personal sins from the consequences of which you saved all mankind. Help us all to avail ourselves of the sure source of the grace needed to avoid sin that you created during your agony on the cross by your words to Mary and John,

"Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

You are the sons of the prophets

and of the covenant that God made with your fathers,

saying to Abraham,

“And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness

 

 05/04/2026

Easter Sunday

Today is the anniversary of the true enlightening event that happened in the real-time of 2000 years ago.

It is an event that had been foreshadow by similar events that had been performed by Jesus during his  time of revealing that he was the Incarnation, the completion of IAMFTHERSONHOLYSPIRIT's loving purpose for mankind.

The latest of these had been the raising of Lazarus.

When Jesus was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb there was not one person, even among his disciples who had anticipated anything like the happening recorded in this morning's Gospel. Both the son of the widow of Nain and Lazarus had been brought back to life by Jesus. 

The Apostles and disciples knew that they did not have the power of the Living Lord. Jesus was no more. They who had experienced the warmth and security  of the loving community, taught and guided by the  wonder that was Jesus became individual consciousnesses alone in the emptiness of temporal reality. There was then nowhere for them to go.

We can spend our whole lifetimes trying to understand the historical events that culminate today. 

What we have to do, however, is to gasp in wonder with Mary, "Rabunni!" and learn to articulate with Thomas "My Lord and my God" for Faith first fills our hearts and we then must seek the grace of Our Father to bear witness to it.

Dear Lord help me to be true to what you reveal to each one of us that we do your will on earth as it is done in heaven. Amen

 03/05/2026

Holy Saturday

As I have grown older I have become aware how events that were exceptional in the past in our reminisces become "I remember how we used to" when in fact they only happened once or twice.

I do, however, remember with some clarity the impression that the Holy Saturday Liturgy made upon me as a young altar-boy.

It began at six in the morning with the priest and I being the only ones there. A small congregation began to trickle in. First the nuns from their convent and nursing-home then an Irishman, an insurance agent who became a very successful bookmaker then my own dad and never grew to be bigger than a dozen or so even with the other altar boys who had also arrived in dribs and drabs.

I still have the Missal with which I used to follow the events that were celebrated and even fascinated me. The words and tones of the Exsultet really did lift my soul out of the things of this world and I loved the rhythm of the prophecies punctuated by "Flectamus genua, Levate.

That was then but this is now and I know that even during those three or four paschal seasons that stick in my memory like melted incense on my cassock,  the boy that then I was was always capable of all the sins that have since then far too often marred my dutiful relationship with Our Father.

Today I am hoping to remain aware that I am in the presence of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSSPIRIT who knows me in the deepest part of my being where there is His Image and Likeness . He does not need me to confess my sins but I have to for it is only when my heart is purged of the things of this world that block out his forgiveness that I can make an acceptable offering and raise my eyes in true prayer to Our Father who art in heaven. 

 03/04/2026

Good Friday

It is finished!

Two thousand years ago, IAMFATHERSONHLYSPIRIT, the Creator, completed in Jerusalem the reset of his relationship with his highest creation that would enable his beloved children to return to the holiness that was the image and likeness he had created in Adam and Eve.

He did this by experiencing for himself, within time, once and for all, the same full lifespan from conception to death that is the bodily life of the immortal soul, image and likeness, of each person, the billions of us, who are still living or have ever lived.

The immeasurable greatness that is Our Father, in respect for our freedom, allows us to choose for ourselves to do his will on Earth. 

All the prophets were inspired by WORD, recognised the wonder of creation, sang of the mystery of their own being and bowed down to worship the Glory of the Lord but seldom were able to completely avoid the distractions of this world to fulfill the first Commandment.

On Calvary the corpse hanging on the wood of a tree tells that us there is nothing in this world  that we can cling onto that is greater than  this  perfect love that has suffered so that  all mankind can be saved.

Now, we are not Jew or Gentile but "All nations" who have been informed by Word speaking through eyewitnesses that IAMFTHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has himself become the way, truth and life that we can follow to truly Love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and our neighbour as ourself. 

This is why Jesus was born and came into the world.

 02/04/2026

Maundy Thursday

The readings that are prepared for this evening's mass draw us into remembrance of the whole history of the salvation of humanity prepared from the very beginning in the eternal omnipotence of our creator IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT whose being is the Love that has created all that can be known which is also the reason that each one of us has an immortal awareness of being, our soul.

In the first reading, we join the children of Abraham as they are saved from their slavery in Egypt. The lamb is slain and its blood used to warn the destroying angel to spare these people who are protected by the Grace, free gift, of God.  Even though we don't understand, we do know that the will of God is always Righteous and as such has to be obeyed.

St Paul, a Pharisee of sincere and strict observance, who has overcome his total distaste, even hatred, for the Gentiles to fulfill the mission to preach to the Gentiles given to him by the Resurrection is thus more than a teacher but in his own being a witness to the finalization of revelation that was completed by the new "Passover" that we begin to celebrate today. In the second reading for tonight he teaches us the basic facts that all our liturgies have been built upon and recalls the creation of the Mystery that is Sacramental Life, the New Reality that is the Body and Blood of Christ.

The wisdom of the Church has chosen to show in tonight's Gospel reading from St John how deep is the intention of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT to totally empty himself of his own all encompassing divinity to experience human life and death. The word "humility" is totally inadequate to express what has happened in the Incarnation. 

In the passage from St John, Jesus tells all of us that we all can be saved into Eternal Life by recognising the immensity, accepting in belief and imitating during our lives what he the Incarnation himself is then in the process of revealing.

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.

 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet,

you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

 For I have given you an example,

that you also should do just as I have done to you.

 

 01/04/2026

Wednesday Holy Week

Every day of my life and especially during Holy Week I need to remember and thank IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT for the completion of His revelation that were the real-time events which occurred in Jerusalem two thousand years ago.

Nearly one hundred generations of us have lived since Our Father completed his revelation to us of how we are to live during our lifetimes in the impermanent bodies and temporal reality that is this world by emptying himself to live and die just as does each one of us.

The first lesson that we can learn from the Incarnation is that matter which we know by our senses is not inherently sinful and that it is something which is necessary for us to be "True Man as is Jesus. We have been begotten not made just as was Jesus, but we are not gods.

In the "Beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God" and thus out of nothing, the FATHER'S JOYFUL LOVE for the WORD, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT creates the wonder that is the physical universe with its rules for being that mankind has discovered and is the empirical knowledge that we call science.

With Jesus there is always "something greater here" and also within the whole of material being the "image and likeness" that is human being is greater than the whole of the Universe for each one of has been born not only of the flesh but with the immortal spiritual being, our unseen soul that is known loved and created by Our Father to accept and return His LOVE by doing his will that he has revealed through the Prophets and in these latter days by the life, death and resurrection of his Only Son Our Lord Jesus Christ.

At his trial on Friday Jesus will declare in the face of all our worldly rulers personified in Pilate "My kingdom is not of this world" today I pray that the Risen Lord blasts his way into their consciences as he did into Saul's but I do know that all sin is our own fault as each one of us responsible for how we use God's gift of freedom and life.

"God forgive them for they know not what they do"