31/08/2024

FatherSonHolySpirit the HolyTrinity that is IAMIAM has by his nature, Love, created out of nothing the Universe in which we live. The revelations of himself and his will for mankind that are made through the Scriptures are not all of them as straightforward as "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased".

Writing to the first converts in Corinth, St Paul tells them that from a worldly point of view none of them are anything special. They are nothing more than people for whom the revelation that is the Good News has been made by the Providence of God in that they were in "right place at the right time". They listened to Paul whose words had already been rejected by the wisdom of Athens and were still rejected by some of his listeners who had been brought up in the Law of Moses.

None of us has anything to boast about in worldly terms for we are all human beings born into circumstances over which we have had no control. Jesus speaks to us in words but his complete revelation is in the final three days which become the event even greater than our own awareness of being.

We cannot know the mind of God and Jesus speaks to us in parables. The Gospel in today's mass is as solid as the "Western Wall" of the temple that Jesus knew and in which he worshipped, solid in that its meaning is not at all obvious.

Over the centuries, an awful lot of time has been spent trying to assess with our personal "wisdoms" the meaning of this rock-hard parable. Sometimes I feel that I have got it, but that success soon slips away. We know that we have to do what we can with our minds. They are the tools that we receive in the providence of our births. We have to use them with integrity to search out God's will for us and we must never ignore Truth for we all live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God, especially the unpalatable.

Dear Lord, you know that I sometimes have joy in my heart when devoting my time to raising "my heart and mind to You". I hope this is not a falling away from your Truth. My sins are never forgotten by me and I hope that it is with sincerity that my fingers skip across this keyboard in recognition of your Truth and Glory. May Mary, all the angels and saints and we sinners on Earth and in Purgatory become united in prayer that unites praise of your Glory with seeking forgiveness for all the sinful failures made on Earth by our puny egos which block out your self revelations found in scripture and sometimes in our hearts. Maranatha, Come Lord, Jesus Come!

 30/08/2024

The Martyrs, whose faith is remembered by the Church today, were not the only ones killed by a State which was to claim for itself a "divine right" and whose previous ruler had committed similar atrocities against the other side only only twenty years previously, were not the only victims of the religious wars of the 17th Century. We remember too that Jesus also was killed by an alliance between Sate and Religion.

St Paul is unlike most of the other Apostles in that he was well-educated. Jesus brought about his complete conversion when he was on the first of his missionary journeys. Having taken part in the Martyrdom of Stephen, he was going to Damascus  to nip in the bud the start of belief in the Resurrection that was beginning there. 

To have been chosen for this task by the Chief Priests of the Temple tells us that Saul was known to be a learned and devout young man well able to justify the defence of the Law which was still challenged by the followers of Jesus who, although they thought had been silenced by the show of  combined priestly and secular power on Calvary, was in fact beginning to assemble  his mystical body, the Church, to continue his work of revelation, the  Love of God.

Millions of us since that moment owe the coherence of our thinking and understanding of the Good News of Scripture, Old and New to the preaching and writing of this Jew, born in Tarsus but educated in the school of Gamliel in Jerusalem.

Today he tells us that all legalism, even Baptism, is secondary in the light of the Crucifixion, the event that changes the world for ever. The notions of Ancient Greek philosophers are still prized, studied and wondered at by today's human and artificial intelligences but it is the sound of hammers on nails going through living human flesh that still reverberates throughout the Universe.

The material world in which all human life takes place has convinced many to believe that this life on earth is the limit of our beings. "What you see is what you get". All philosophy boils down to this. 

"But I say to you". The Life of Christ on Earth is the eternal real-time revelation of the true wonder of our being. The heroic deaths of Margaret Clitherow, Ann Line and Margaret Ward show us the limits to which we can go in witness to our Faith, as do those of Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley thirty years previously.

Dear Lord, I thank you that I am still living with the hope you have given to all mankind. We are able to live out our lives in obedience to your will. We can all know that "life" is keeping our souls focused on FatherSonHolySpirit and that the philosophies and religions of solely material lives, although wonderfully constructed by praiseworthy men, if not founded on Your self revelation contained in Your Old and New Testaments are as much time-fillers and time-wasters as the tripe I semi-watch on TV. May I live throughout this day in the laser beam of Love that you focus on each individual. Let my Faith be strengthened by the prayers of the Martyrs whose Faith was tested by their place in your providence as is that of us all and may Mary lead the Angels and Saints in praise of and pleas for your Mercy to shower down as was the hope for rose petals of Little St Therese.

 29/08/2024

I have come to believe that the Church of the Apostles very soon lost its way on Earth and forgot that each soul needs to be open to the Holy Spirit for that is the way to be part of the Body of Christ. I have come to the age of 83 without ever reading the letters of St Paul as they appear in the New Testament. 

I have now started and am impressed by St Paul who was able to interpret the revelations of the Old Testament in the light of what he received from the original friends of Jesus and his own experience on the road to Damascus, with such faith and coherency.

Today's Gospel is straightforward history. The absolute power wielded by ancient kings and emperors tells a lot about how it could come about that in the course of history Popes and Patriarchs became worldly rulers. Herod was a real man who was able to order the instant beheading of John simply because he wanted to show that he could keep his word.

The world has always been ruled by those whose egos were their total being. Those who despise the "Golden Rule" are still, even in our "Democracies", presenting their own self-pride as the best way to govern the human societies of which they are part only because of the Providence of God. 

Millions of us have made idols of Alexander, Julius Caesar, Alaric and the like throughout the centuries. We have copied their single-minded devotion to themselves and thus, ultimately, have created a world where FatherSonHoly Spirit is mocked by the legislation of Mammon.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit at the moment of the Incarnation reveals that for mankind to live according to the will of God he has begotten a human body for himself to know what it means to be man from the inside. This is a revelation that is for all humanity to understand. 

God is saying that he loves his creation and that we can all live there without sin. Our God, as Jesus of Nazareth, shows how serious is this business of holiness in living. Mankind can live to become holy only because Son, the Word, became totally as we are to create for us a natural way to attain the new life that is supernatural for us but only natural for the wonder that is our Creator God.

Jesus emptied himself of his divine nature so that he could teach us by his completely human life that death  leads to the Resurrection of which he is the first fruits. I pray that I can fully empty myself of prideful, selfish ego to become a soul that is known and loved by FatherSonHolySpirit for Love is the very essence of God and it can ours only if we cooperate.

Dear Lord, With your Psalmist I would praise your deeds, your works for ever. My sins are still with me in this world, I can never forget them. Why is it hard for me to become sure in my being that my sins have been blotted out? The full results of my sins are known only to you. Forgive me for the harm I have done inadvertently to others. Help me to live sinlessly today. May I progress in my understanding of St Paul and be truly thankful for your guidance which you made through him. Our souls are part of our human nature and so the Mystical Body of Christ is as real as my body but not seen as it is; help me to build up the Communion of Saints and be open for all Your Mercy that is channeled by the prayers of Mary and all the Angels and Saints. May my sins and the sins of all other sinners living and dead be forgiven and may we all  witness your Final Revelation. Amen

28/08/2024

I know that Jesus is speaking to all of us as he chastises the "clergy" of his day. It must be very difficult for priests to maintain the level of awareness of their special place in God's providence as when they confect with Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Blessed Sacrament. The acceptance of death on the cross by the Creator is the event that surpasses anything that happens within the creation and it is  that that is repeated on our altars.

No-one can know the mind of God but we all try to understand what it is we believe when we say "Our Father". We try to understand the meaning of the words that come into our minds from "I know not where". What happens in the mind of God to prompt him to confront in person the wilful misdirection of his "image and likeness"?

Sometimes I catch a glimpse of Jesus. I seem to understand that our world although made by God is not God it is a material universe that not only has physical laws that can be known and manipulated by science but is the setting for the Incarnation. 

Jesus is God within creation because the human freedom of our souls even though enhanced firstly by the care of God as IAMIAM and now FatherSonHolySpirit never makes the right choices and stupidly is overcome by the wonders of the material world.

It is hard to match the perfection that is "God" pursued by Augustine, preached by St Paul and proved by Jesus, with the deeds perpetrated by the descendants of Adam. I have always had a God who is Good without flaw as my image of FatherSonHolySpirit. But the Church has always been as flawed as were the Chosen People. 

God knows that I am loth to do so but my freedom wants me to cry out "Why, o why were Adam and Eve allowed to bring sin into creation.

Dear Lord, you know why I am again troubled in my being. Are you not all-powerful? It took centuries for you to become human in order to be able to suffer and thus create forgiveness for our sins . Twenty centuries have passed since you walked in Palestine and Mammon once again prevails on Earth. I am sickened by my own sins that I know I am weak enough to commit again given the opportunity . Let the prayers of Mary and all the saints bring grace to all sinners on earth and in purgatory and let me walk confidently following your footsteps knowing that the eternal love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is greater than any evil no matter its source.

 27/08/2024

Even in the lifetimes of the Apostles people were wondering what was delaying the return of Jesus. The Apostles had taught them that Jesus had on the third day shown himself as new life in the same damaged body that had been taken down from the cross.

The key events of the preaching that brings salvation are still death, resurrection, ascension and descent of the Holy Spirit. The New Testament is recorded history. People such as we are with the same human hopes and fears were visited by the Apostles and other missionaries who taught them about their personal encounters with the Son of God.

It is very unlikely that were some stranger to arrive at our meeting place and tell us the strange story of events that had taken place in a two months' period of time, a few years ago, in Jerusalem that we would react with anything else but the laughter of disbelief. But the Holy Spirit was with the Apostles and the Good News was accepted with confidence.

As the Church grew the constant expectation of the final appearance of "God on Earth" was disappointed. I too am one with the Thessalonians and all other believers who become disheartened when we realise that the final events of the Incarnation on earth took place within a couple of months. We have been waiting in this world for 2000 years to witness its conclusion.

I truly only know my own sins but rest in the promise of mercy. God knows that Jesus' condemnation of Scribes and Pharisees ( The worldly institutions of belief in God) can at all times have been applied to his own foundation on St Peter.

The unbodied Holy Spirit, however, is always present in the last words of Jesus to his mother, and John. We all can be part of the Church of Love, the Holy Spirit, who supported the maternal love of St Monica for her reprobate son, is still with us to guide us how to clean our beings on the inside for each of us is responsible for the one soul that we know as our own.

Dear Lord, help me to be truly sorry for my sins and to pray with sincerity the words I read in the scriptures and write at this desk. I cannot ever know You for what You are but I can strain to the depths of my being how to be in your presence to the utmost of my capabilities. To love and serve, I have to obey by avoiding sin but for this I always have the support of Mary and all the Saints. As did Augustine, I have brought unhappiness to my own mother and pray that she and all my sinful relatives alive or dead can share the grace that brings forgiveness in the Glory of God to all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory.

 26/08/2024

Paul, Silvanus and Timothy were living in the same world has had Jesus. Very much has happened since those days when Rome ruled the Mediterranean basin and all of the adjacent countries. 

The Church in Thessalonica fills  Paul, who never lost sight of "the Holy One of God" who had stopped him in his tracks when he had been hell-bent on his mission of persecution of the "deviants", who were misinterpreting "Moses and the Prophet" and denying the authority of the "Chief Priests, scribes and Pharisees",  full of thanks to God for it continues to flourish as if he had never left it.

Those who claimed the authority to know the will of God and be able to offer the sacrifices that were the duty demanded of his people were the only ones condemned to their faces by Jesus. They are a "brood of vipers"; "blind guides who shut up the gates to heaven". Not only do they not enter through those gates themselves but they also prevent others from entering.

Jesus demands that we are ruled by "Truth". "Yes" means "yes"  and that no amount of solemn protestation can change "no" to "yes". He has absolutely no time at all for the casuistry that so delighted the Pharisees of his day and which has enabled many who should know better to lead us into temptation "who am I to judge?" in this modern world.

We have never been left alone in the world by God. Each individual human being is known personally by "Our Father". Everyone of us is a person known as a potential friend by the Son of FatherSonHolySpirit. We are always living in the sight of God. Jesus offered only love and mercy to all the personal sinners he encountered. 

All of us know our own hypocrisy and we can only hope that "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" applies to all sinners, even Pharisees for it is mankind that refuses the friendship offered time and time again to the chosen people and to you and me each moment that we are living. 

It is for my sake that Jesus offered up his life on the cross as the perfect sacrifice. He created once and for all within material creation the only means of its Salvation.

Dear Lord, I have learnt much as I ponder your word and the sins of my lifetime. I am sure that "Lord, Lord" that does not reveal itself in deeds is the "unforgiveable sin". May the remaining steps of my life stay upon your revealed, Way Truth and the Life and to always get the "plank out of my own eye" before witnessing the great hypocrisies of the past and in others living today. I am hoping that although I still have far to go my steps are focused on the Vision of your Glory that is your Resurrection. I have the faith to believe that Mary, John, and all the Saints, Father Dominic Barberi are united in prayer for me and all sinners offered to FatherSonHolySpirit in the Safety from Sin that it is the eternal joy of Heaven Amen.

 25/08/2024

Our first commitment to know, love and serve was made on our behalf by our God-Parents at our Baptisms. 

This morning Joshua has gathered the tribes of the chosen people to decide whether or not to place their trust in the Lord. Each of us knows in our heart whether or not we are truly committed to the faith we profess. It is very easy for me to say "Yes Lord" but do I show by my life any faith except these words with which I begin each day, but what difference does belief in God make to my way of life?

Today's advice to the married men who have become believers has brought, in recent times, further tribulation to the memory of St Paul. Sex is the most difficult of bodily functions for us to control. It is also one of the most beautiful, so beautiful that in the purity of true love it can be considered sacramental. In marriage the man and woman confer this sacrament upon each other. It is so beautiful that it becomes the image that St Paul uses to preach the unity of the Church with Jesus its head.

I have always found the nuptial imagery that is sometimes used to emphasise the unity of Jesus, Mary and the Church very hard to handle. I have always had a vivid imagination and so prefer to know the significance rather than the actual images of e.g. the Song of Songs.

I suppose that St Paul's attitude to women is a sign of his times, but it must also be noted that he presents men with the stark reminder that they are to use Christ as the model of how to use their authority in their families. This is true for all ages and cultures.

Christ has to be the model for all human behaviour. He is sinless. We too can live sinlessly for the Word has become true man. He has experienced  living in the same material universe, on our planet, begotten not made so that he can become the fount of all Sacraments. "Intolerable, Lord, let me not listen to this, what complete nonsense" thought many of his own disciples when he promised his own flesh as the new Bread from heaven.

During my life-time I have often been reminded of St Peter's response to Jesus' question. I thank Father, Son and Holy Spirit that it is this response that has shaped my life and enabled me to live with hope that the mercy of our Ever-greater God can purge me of the sins that have disgraced my life and added to the pains of Calvary.

Dear Lord help me to be more productive today than yesterday. Let me not waste the time that I still have to receive your grace to prepare myself for your eternity. May the prayers of Mary and all the saints be united with those of all sinners on earth and in purgatory. May hardened sinners stop and take stock of where they are in their lives and find the grace that you offer to us all. Help me to be a sincere sign of your Love and thus attract my family into acknowledging that salvation, eternal life, was won for us all on the hill outside the city walls. Forgiveness is waiting for each one of us. We only have to ask. Amen