The Church at Ephesus bade farewell to Paul well warned of the troubles that would be theirs. Problems that would come to pass because of the preaching of false doctrine by false prophets. Paul had expended three years in preparing them to be on their own. The church of the early centuries believes in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but has to work out what is the huge Truth that small sentence contains . The apostles are still living and the Evangelists are in the process of completing their remembrances of  being with the Lord, witnessing his acts and listening to his words. St Paul's warnings however, do come to pass and they are only too evident today. One of the amazing things about our Catholic Church is that in spite of all the wranglings, disputes, persecutions internal wars etc St. Paul would still be able to recognise in her the teaching he fought so hard to instil into the Ephesians.

Dear Lord your Holy Spirit fortified your Apostles, Evangelists and the first congregations, let us too be guarded against divisions and let the teaching of Your Church withstand the blasting that is turned on her from every angle by today's world.

There are no two ways about it, the World is not a good thing, God-given human freedom can understand and  control matter even to the centre of the atom and this machine I am using can communicate in a fraction of a second with anywhere in the world. Our World is much more attractive than the World of the first century but it too must pass away. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life; the Word  that will stand. We must use our human freedom be in the World but reject its values, The kingdom of the Lord is not of this world but is the eternal joy promised us by the Resurrections. This is the good thing that we must choose..

Dear Lord, let me not be seduced by the Modern World which has progressed so much since your days on earth. Let me grow in devotion to you so that I can avoid sin and live outside of the World which surrounds me. Send us holy priests as was St Paul  to guide us on our way to you.

 St Paul is confident that his conscience is clear. He is sure that he has known the Lord. He has completed his mission and the Churches are witness to that. He does not claim that he has never sinned but in regards to his mission from the Lord he has done all that the Lord required even in the face of all hardships and opposition. It does seem close to boasting but Paul is aware of this and speaks in all humility. He is not wasting words but proclaiming that God's purpose for us is to live holy lives as taught by Jesus with a conscience and supported by the Holy Spirit .

Dear Lord may my conscience become clear and let me avoid my daily sinfulness so that I too can become a temple for the Holy Spirit with all the love that comes from you and the Father,

St John's Gospel makes it clear that the primary purpose of the incarnation is not social justice but recognition that the Father is God . He does not want us to form "Friendly Societies" but to become a people united by our worship of the glory of God. The first Commandment is "Love God". When we do this all the rest become the light yoke that Jesus promised to us. Our neighbour is to be loved as ourselves so support of the poor of this world should be based on what we want for ourselves ; to know God and to love and  serve him in this world and to be happy with him in the nest. This is our daily mission It  never changes so we have The  Holy Spirit our support in living the Life of the Father directly taught by the Son.

Dear Lord, let what I have received this morning stay with me throughout this day so that my conscience may  not be stifled but speak in a clear and forthright way that I can follow.

 Is it because I don't believe properly that I don't see the manifestations of the Holy Spirit which must have been one of the reasons for the rapid rate of conversions experienced by the early church. When I hear of groups undergoing a Charismatic Revival I am sceptical  and prefer not to think about the gifts that I have not experienced in my life. I think that this turning off is probably wrong as I do believe that the Charisms described in the Acts were there then and that they thrust the Church forward like a ram-jet. I have criticized many for their "pick and  mix" attitude to religion but I must accept that here I am guilty of the same fault.

Dear Lord you know everything about me let not my preference for an interior witness of the Holy Spirit knowing that He is the Love that proceeds from You and Jesus, keep me from experiencing the Charisms of Your Holy Spirit. Thy will be done as it is in heaven.

It is certain that Jesus' mission was to the individuals that are collectively humanity. It is sure that he didn't preach just to  the rulers, to the celebrities, to the rich and powerful. He didn't want to organise a perfect human society but wanted to tell us that the most important thing for our lives is to devote ourselves to doing the will of God as he does with his own life. Jesus has conquered the World he tells us that each soul is more important than all the attractions and works of Man and his ally the Devil.

Dear Lord let your Holy Spirit strengthen our devotion to the Way, the Truth and the Life. Let us not be seduced in our Faith by clever quibbles, in our Hope by sinful leaders, and in our Love by self centered arrogance.

 Today is celebrated by many as the Ascension, the day that the  human form of the Son of God left this world and placed all in the hands of his Apostles. From this day on we have to rely on ourselves to  recognise the Truth and love one another in what we call the Church, Christ's Mystical Body where we have the guaranteed presence of Jesus to the end of time

Why do I read the mass readings for the day and write here what I think about them. It is not because I think that I have something worth saying but that if I don't write I am not sure how I am bearing witness to the truth of the Scriptures as transmitted by the Church.. I mean the Catholic Church which, even with all its faults and failings, is the result of those events and teachings recorded in the New Testament.

I know that Jesus is the Son of God born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is also human and was made thus in the womb of Mary where he was an unborn child for nine months exactly in the same way that I was carried by my mother. So Mary is truly Theotokos, the Mother of God. This is the teaching I have received from the Church and confirmed by reading and prayer throughout my lifetime. I am certainly closer to death than I was yesterday and so I record myself.

At the moment I am dissatisfied with the Church both local and universal. There is only one fault with her but many abuses, much backsliding, false teaching, sacrilege and rejection of God are the result.

                                            The Church does not follow her own rules. 

Dear Lord, let your clergy, your bishops and your Vicar on Earth lose their egos in the wonder of your Glory so that they teach what you reveal and do what they teach. As for me, You know I am a weak sinner desperately clinging to the promise revealed by your presence in the Holy Land 2000 years ago.

 He had only received the baptism of John. His name was Apollos and he came from Alexandria. he was important enough to be named in the Acts and mentioned in Paul's letters. Martin Luther attributed the letter to the Hebrews to him. There is little we know about him other than he had acquired John's baptism. There are many of these earliest Christians whose names have not come down to us who were active in the early church. Just as today there are many worthy pastors who are holy and dedicated to their missions. Their names are known to their flocks and to the Lord. The modern media know the corrupt abusers.

Dear Lord let not the signs of corruption blind me to the holiness that is still to be found in your church. let us all pray that "The Holy Spirit will fill our hearts with the Love that comes from you and the Father.

Even though Jesus speaks to us in plain words we still find it difficult to apply them to our lives in this modern age. And not just in m this modern age for I know that I am not the first one who has asked but not received. The whole Church throughout the ages has prayed for holiness and we are still doing so. Peace for Jerusalem is an  appeal that has rung out continuously since the First Century. 

Dear Lord let your Love bring peace to your beloved city and its lands. Let your Holy Spirit return to the land where Jesus paid the supreme sacrifice to bring us Your forgiveness and love.

 The Apostles faced up to the problem of Judas/ They seem to have been convinced that their number should be twelve and so selected Matthias by lot. He had been one of the many who had literally followed Jesus when he tramped around teaching in Synagogues and curing the sick in body and in mind. It was from these people that the initial conversions were made. Being one of the Twelve was also seen to be an office holder and recipient of a special grace from Jesus. This grace specifically given to the original twelve, even to Judas, became in  time the priesthood as specifically witnessed in the  Apostolic Foundations of the Middle-East and Rome. 

Dear Lord may your Grace again fill the hearts of your faithful and their ministers so that we may be guarded against all temptations and be secure in the knowledge that our Apostolic Foundation is indeed  directly from you.

Jesus passes  on to us the Love that fills the Trinity of God ; he is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, This teaching is certainly no human thinking but a Truth that Jesus has been willed by the Father to reveal. His witness of this Truth takes place in Jerusalem and  where today the fighting continues is the place that the  words of God " What I command you is to love one another" were spoken by Our Lord who was there Crucified and Risen to Glory. 

Dear Lord you assure us that what we ask for in your name will be given by the Father, let the people who today are preparing to kill one another just stop and remember the holiness of their native land. 

 Jesus after his resurrection had appeared to the Apostles. His body was now still human but Glorified by his life , his works and most of all by his Crucifixion/Resurrection . Maybe it was not for " forty " days but he  had been with them and teaching for some time However,  it was not long enough for the Apostles to fully understand "My kingdom is not of this world" as they still looked for a political outcome of all the momentous events  that they had witnessed,

We are still struggling to understand the Father's revelation coming through you and the Holy Spirit  Let us have true hope for our futures and let not our Christian Hope become a wishful thinking. Thy will be done!

Jesus lived his whole life subverting his human will to that of the Father. His life is one of service to the Poor in Spirit, to the broken in body and mind, to those possessed and obsessed with the devilish delights of this world. When Jesus walked the  paths of tortured Palestine and taught in today's war-torn Temple. His mission and his message was "Love another as I and the  Father love one another ." . Not only the Apostles but we too have been entrusted with the same message/mission. Jesus is with us we must not be afraid.

Dear Lord let me this day accept your mission joyfully and let the mess that is your own homeland come to be solved even though your name is singularly missing from the diatribes of either party. Help all your people.