31/12/2023

I am aware that I can speak only for myself. I am, as are we all, a unique being, and I have, as do we all, a unique mission to conform my will to the teaching that is finalised in the life, death and Resurrection of the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus of Nazareth. 

There are millions of us who start this day aware and share this Mission to know, love and serve for we also know that our lives can be brought to perfection, we can avoid sin because "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that that everyone who believes in him will not die but have eternal life." We are saved ultimately by the Sacrifice of Calvary.

Today's readings are chosen to illustrate the Holiness of the Holy Family. Before Calvary, only the Chosen People had clear instructions on how to live a life of holiness. First of all they had to fear God not because he is all powerful but  in thanks and in awe for the deeds with which he revealed himself. Mary and Joseph lived in accordance with the Law. 

From the Presentation in the Temple to the finding of the lost child Jesus, again in the Temple,  we have no record or remembrance of Jesus as child, teenager or young adult. We can be sure, however, that during those hidden years the completely human Son of Father Son and Holy Spirit lived, as do all Jews, within the rules revealed to the Patriarchs. 

The Providence of God has placed us in the world 2,000 years after Jesus. We know that God has completed his teaching and that there is nothing about our Mission today that has changed from that faced by all the first Christians, nameless to us as most of them are.

They had to be clothed in "sincere compassion, kindness and humility, gentleness and patience". They who had been forgiven had to forgive others for they had been called to become one body. The Mystical Body of Christ is clothed in Love. It is the undamageable source of all holiness and independent from the shameful tangle that we have made of Peter's Mission.

Much has changed in the Kingdom of this World many times since those days but the Mansions of the Kingdom of Heaven are still open to those who align themselves with the Father by following the Holy Spirit and let the Peace of Christ fill their beings.

Dear Lord, you know what there is in the depths of my being. You know that my own sincerity is a very fragile thing and that  I am more likely to be filled with jealousy and ire rather than kindness and humility. Knowing this about myself is, I hope, a step forward for me but true holiness is your gift and it is I who have to accept with thanks what you have done for all humanity. May Mary who since the Incarnation has never been separated from Jesus lead us all into an awareness of the loveliness of Father Son and Holy Spirit knowing that if we hand over our lives to Him, we can become the Image and Likeness that he created . All things are possible to God.Amen!

 30/12/2023

Each day begins for me with "raising my heart and mind to God". I am concentrating on Father, Son and Holy Spirit and letting my mind mull over what the Church has chosen as the Scriptures to be read during mass of the day. I know that most of my thoughts are fleeting and that the successful moments of prayer soon pass away. What I write here seems to me to be the truth of this moment when I am trying to use my freedom in this world to cooperate with the will of God.

St John's letter tells us that he has certainly listened to Jesus and absorbed into his own being the truth that comes from God. God's creation is something apart from himself. He created a material reality for us sons of Adam to know, understand and enjoy in the flesh but not to become so absorbed in the World that knowing, loving and serving God is pushed into the background or right out of our awareness of being and the reality of God's Providence.

Our souls, the basis for our being, are created as "image and likeness" of Our Father. God is timelessly aware of himself and of all the tiniest realities of material being. Our Spiritual selves are based on this self-knowledge of God (love) and we are created to join him in glorifying our creator.

St John has learnt through out his long life and care of Mary that we must not attach our beings by love to anything that is material for everything such will not last. We have only one unique being and that should be turned away from this world for if it isn't we will not recognise  the Will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that brings us to the moment when IAMIAMISALLINALL.

Dear Lord, you know everything that I am and have ever been. Let me this day be attuned to  your will in everything that I do.  St John knew that all generations have inherited the forgiveness he witnessed in your death on Calvary. He also knew and believed "My Kingdom is not of this world". May Mary whose body bore your "Begotten not made", Incarnate Word continue to lead all the saints in Heaven and on earth in sharing this special relationship  you have with sinners both on earth and in Purgatory that we might be free from our sins and ready for your Judgement in as much as we have put your will at the forefront of our lives.

 29/12/2023

St Thomas a Becket was part of the Hierarchical Structure that made up the Institutional Church of his day. Our Popes have always fought with the "World" on its own terms. They were equivalent to the Holy Roman Emperors and kings who ruled in Western Europe  during the disharmony that followed the mass migration into Europe of "Barbarians" and the Emperors and Patriarchs of Byzantium who took over the remains of the Roman Empire. 

In his letter to the Colossians St Paul confirms that he is guided by the Holy Spirit to bring us all into the Church that is the Mystical Body of Christ. Christ is the Mystical Event of God Incarnate. He is risen from dead in the Eternal Perfection of the Resurrection. He is our Hope of Glory and St Paul works tirelessly to teach this, the complete and final revelation. 

We cannot be compelled by "Worldly Power" to believe and worship Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are lead into this Spiritual Reality by the "weakness" in the eyes of  this world which is Jesus hanging from the cross, not by the armies of soldiers raised by bishops and popes and emperors during the "Christian Centuries" of this planet.

In today's Gospel, Jesus, "Christ among you", whom St Paul proclaims really does set his face against his disciples developing ranks amongst themselves. Our Church's Hierarchy is a direct contradiction to today's Gospel but the Church preached by St Paul and the first Apostles has also always been with us. 

Christ's Mystical Body on Earth can still be found in the Gospels and prayer. We are all spiritually united with Mary and the Saints of Heaven, with the Holy Souls and ourselves in prayer so that when Jesus returns he will find "Faith on Earth". 

He will not be looking for Popes, Patriarchs, Cardinals, Archbishops, Abbots, Bishops and all the rest of the Church that is so much "of this world" that it is a tripping stone for many of us who are trying to live today as witnesses to the forgiving grace of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, you know that I am still a very imperfect example of the humanity whose earthly being you share with us. Let my being be swayed by the intimations of your love that get through to the centre of my consciousness. Help me to cling onto the glimpses of the perfection of Eternity that sometimes touch my soul. Forgive me the sins that I have committed and let me accept the penance that can only bring me to salvation when accompanied by your grace. May my prayers be joined to those of Mary, all the Saints, Holy Souls and sinners here on Earth that you will come soon and find Faith here on earth. Maranatha Lord!

 28/12/2023

St John confirms in today's first reading that there is no evil in God, that he is pure light. The question that this raises for me, and for all of us, is "Why does God allow mankind  to continue in the perpetration of evil deeds?" 

I have always been aware of the "Problem of Evil". I can understand how I am responsible for every sin that I have ever committed. I  believe that God knows everything that has been, is being and will be done by every human being who has ever-drawn breath. 

I know that there is a great rift in creation. God sees that "it is good" but gifts Adam and Eve the freedom to create Evil. It is out of this original sin that the slaughter of The Innocents by Herod happened and by abortion continues to this day.

Nobody can contain in his brain the immensity that is  Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus, Son and final revelation, tells us to know the right path that he shows to us and to carry our cross." Our cross" has got to be not only our own sins but also awareness of the great sin that flourishes all around our globe. We are not "Christs" but we are the human beings that are so loved by Father, Son and Holy Spirit that Jesus accepted death on the cross for all us.

Dear Lord, you know that we are created capable of doing only your will on earth; you know how hard it is for all of us to know that "Innocents" are being slaughtered everywhere even as I type this. Let me accept the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and let all sincere prayers for forgiveness and peace be found in conforming to Your Will and accepting the responsibilities  our own being as the cross each one of us has to bear. We all know that Jesus has already done it for us. Thanks be to God.

 27/12/2023

I should never ignore the "hard sayings" of Jesus. He is still revealing only what is true. John leaning back on Jesus' breast is also hard for me to visualise. I am not at ease with the idea of physical contact with another male except one of my immediate family.

St. John knows himself as the disciple "Jesus loved" and this implication of favouritism is not easy for me to reconcile with "God does not have favourites". St John is one of our trusted witnesses to the three years that the incarnate Father, Son and Holy Spirit showed himself in the person of Jesus and taught us by word and deed how we are to live our lives within his Providence. 

In today's Gospel, John recalls the morning some fifty years earlier when he had been shocked by the news brought to Peter by Mary Magdala and had dashed off with St Peter behind him to see for himself.

Much has been made of his holding back to let St Peter enter first into the empty tomb. Jesus had reprimanded John's mother when she sought to influence Jesus into favouring her sons. Jesus' answer then seems to restrict our human freedom as places in the Kingdom of Heaven had been "allotted". 

In the reality of created time the interactions of all human choices have billions of possible outcomes for each human and God knows the events that become the reality of History for he knows  each one of us as we use  our self-controlled human freedom to make choices. God has never willed it that evil should flourish in this world but it does gain more power each time I choose to ignore God's Will.

Dear Lord, I am known completely by you. Help me to follow your Will in all my thoughts words and deeds and thus bring my soul to the Judgement Seat that is not of this world. The only Perfect One since Adam and Eve did not inherit their first sin and thus Mary was able to make the perfect act of faith in you. May my family come to know that there can be no lasting satisfaction with the things of this world and may the prayers of Mary and John and all the heavenly host find a way through the resistance of sin to bring your merciful holiness and forgiveness into the souls of all this world.

 26/12/2023

I did not even try to make a record of prayer yesterday for I was overcome by visitors, the  feast and exchange of material gifts. I have undoubtedly been graced by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I have misused my body over many years but not yet received the payback that I have deserved. Our visitors are my youngest child, his wife and family. They makeup a lovely family but I am the only one of all of whom I am father that knows that only God shows us the way to live our lives.

I know that my faith begins in the Providence of God. I did not choose my family but my own commitment to their teaching has been my own "Yes to God ". I have been despicable in my sins over the years but I have always come back to a love of the Church the Institution on earth founded by Jesus.

That love was shaken to the core when the enormity of the evil of child abuse was revealed and is still occurring. I was afraid that the Apostolic origin of Sacramental Grace had been broken by the priests who continued to say mass when they must have  known that they were not in a state of grace for God's forgiveness of Sin needs the sinner to make amends not to cover up. The Church teaches that the act of an anointed man is enough to confect the Sacrament and that nothing depends on the "holiness" of the celebrant and she will not be shaken in that belief.

St Stephen saw Jesus in the total Holiness of Heaven and was killed for this by having his body broken by rocks. I know that this vision was not given to fool him but to open the eyes of the witnesses including St Paul and us. 

 I can, however, find in the shameful history of the Catholic Church  an ever greater Church beyond the reach of the worldliness that has continued to corrupt the successors to St Peter. St Stephen saw the Kingdom that Jesus witnessed before Pilate " For this I came into the world"; the Spiritual Kingdom of Heaven.

Peter asked "What of this man?". Before Jesus was ripped apart in the agony of death he had placed Mary and John in reciprocal care of each other, maternal and filial Love. Another Son but the same Mother. The wickedness perpetrated by the successors to St Peter has always been atoned for by the Holiness at the heart of the Church still in the Mother of My Lord. The holiness, "Love Alone", that cannot succumb to the Power of Hell is witnessed by the  Gospel and by Mary and has sometimes broken through the shields of sin raised over our heads by self centered sinners such as I.

There is absolutely no need for sin. The prayers of Heaven, Angelic and Saintly are a continuous opening of the side of Jesus and we too can share in the same Flood of grace by raising our minds and hearts to Our Father in Heaven

Dear Lord you understand my musing and mumblings. I pray that the souls of all those who are without faith come to the understanding that everything in this world will pass away but that the Word and Love are the unseen purpose of our being. Jesus really does love us but we must open ourselves to receive that love. May Mary continue to pray for the forgiveness of all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory. Amen. St Stephen pray for us!

 24/12/2023

One of the things that I can remember as a saying of Jesus recorded in one of the Gospels is "Do as the Pharisees say not as they do". 

Even though I cannot find in recorded History any moment when the Church, the Institution that created itself in the image of the Roman Empire, has acted as the Body of Christ and practised what she preached, she has, however, maintained  an unbroken chain of Scripture that records all the Old Testament revelations and interprets them in the fullness/finality of the New.

All Pharisees were not hypocrites. All clergy are not slaves of their own bodies. Most hierarchs, however, have always been captivated by the things of Caesar rather than  the things of God that they preach. Father Son and Holy Spirit really do reveal their infinite truth in the Bible and the Church has successfully guarded this record of mankind's interactions with God within His Providence, the time and place in which we are alive in our bodies on earth.

God speaks to us all in words of the prophets and to each individual person that we are in the words of Jesus of Nazareth. The readings at today's mass are to help us to prepare for tomorrow's celebration of the Nativity and present in our court, as it were, the credentials that God used to choose Mary to become Our Lady, Theotokos, the Mother of my Lord. 

I try to imagine the infinity of our God who shared our humanity for 33 years in the Promised Land .The unlimited within the confines of time and space and know that my only reaction has to be the total silence of awe in the presence of the Almighty, and sorrow for the thousands who have been killed and who are still killing each other in the Holy Land of God.

Dear Lord, 2000 years ago, you were a fully developed child waiting to be born. Were you aware of your divinity or had you completely emptied yourself and become the "true man" of our creed. I am sure that there has never been such a moment of peace on earth as on that night in Palestine when you the Lord of all began to suckle at your mother's breast. Let the Love you shared with Mary when your  infant's eyes first met hers be poured into the hearts of all the world and let all my prideful selfishness and that of all the world become as nothing in the stream of Mercy that flowed out from your side on Calvary. Amen