14/08/2021

Yesterday's reflection has disappeared both from my memory and from the the blog site. This is one of the reasons that I started trying to keep a record of the prayers that I start each day with. I know that they are always with God. 

The daily readings and my response are the only contact that I have with the Church now. I miss going to mass but our pastor is one of the many who are devoted to a quiet life rather than to the teaching of the Church. I am always aware of the "plank" in  my own eye but I would be a lot more of a hypocrite if I were to return to his fold; a fold that is supported by other clergy who at the time of the reformation would have became the Church of England immediately on the whim of the then monarch.

Today Joshua provides us with more reasons to doubt the familial homogeneity of the Sons of Israel . There were obviously a variety of peoples with a variety of gods. In this book the people agree that the Lord is to be served and only He. It is an acceptance of  all that had been revealed to them under the leadership of Moses and it is the foundation of my believe today. 

Mary, God's chosen one to bear the Incarnation, is from this Mosaic hegemony and she, as did St Paul, really believed that she was of the chosen people because it was the Lord who had shown himself to them throughout the ages

The hatred aimed against the descendants of these people has created many totally unchristian behaviours throughout our History. The Nazi attempt at racial eradication  cannot be forgotten and it is sad that more saints from among the Millions who died in the camps are not remembered.  God knows more about it than we do and I am sure than he still welcomes millions those of whom we are ignorant. into his Glory.

 A touching thing about the St Maximillian Kolbe story  is that the man whose place he took in the Gas Chamber was present, together with his family, in St Peter's at the canonisation..

Dear Lord let me empty myself of ego when I approach  you each day and let me find a way back into your church on earth.

 13/08/2021

The passage from Joshua emphasises  the role God plays in our life on earth. The Israelites are told that there is nothing in the land given to them by God that is not the work of people other than themselves. It is the same for all of us.We enter life with absolutely nothing. God's Providence places some of us in dire poverty and closeness to death whereas others never experience material want. We are not instantly aware of this but as our consciousness grows so does our awareness of ourselves and others. Envy is part of my being. It has grown along with me throughout my life and even though I am more than content with my life every now and then I experience a twinge of envy when I hear of good that happens to others.

Jesus is talking about the sexual relationships that is God's chosen way of continuing the human race. We are animals created with all that that entails. We need food and water and clothing and shelter. We are beyond animals in that we have souls that know their need to understand what it means to have existence. God has revealed himself to our souls and part of the revelation is about sexual relations. Male Female that's your lot. Anything else is just "impure" wishful thinking.

There are also people born without sexual drive. Jesus characterizes these as eunuchs from birth, eunuchs by castration, eunuchs by choice. There is nothing about same sex relations. We cannot take it upon ourselves to create a new order of being where all that has been condemned by God is legitimized, even if by the Mother of Parliaments.

Dear Lord let me sincerely follow your teaching in all things hold not my complaints about the confusion caused by sexuality against me  and let the lust of my body be always subject to the urgings of my soul.

 12/08/2021

The law of total love demands that we do not continue to blame those who have  acted  against us. We must forgive any one his offences. Forgiveness is not the same as ignoring. Priests have broken the trust and responsibility that they have willingly accepted; they have broken their promises to God. We must forgive them in our hearts and no matter how hard it is to concur we must know that forgiveness from God is complete. Forgiveness does not blot out the guilt of our sins. It is for all sin that Jesus suffered at the crucifixion. The sin of the world is still with us and Jesus' forgiveness is with each of us too. Forgiveness is as hard to understand as love. I know that I do not want to harm anyone but without willful intention I have harmed many who no doubt remember me with resentment..

Bishops in England have failed their congregations by moving forgiven abusers to  different parishes. They have thus contributed to the whimpering collapse of our Church. No matter how bad an offender "there but for the Grace of God go I" is always in my mind to help me not condemn but even though it is not for me to judge I can try to forgive but ignoring is way beyond me . Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek; to forgive our enemies; he does not tel us to pretend that we don't have any.

Dear Lord you know how I find your teaching much harder, much heavier than your description of your yoke. Let the Holy Spirit which is You and the Father come into my soul inspiring it with the Love you bear for all sinful souls. I want to be completely forgiven let me do likewise. 

 11/08/2021

Moses had finished his long and productive life but he was treated with Justice and not with forgiveness and Mercy. Maybe he had used up all his merit with God in the problems he had extricated his brethren from during their escape and sojourn in the desert or maybe it was Justice that allowed him to see the Promised Land for God's Justice is merciful. Many are the ways of God that if we think we can understand them it is then that we don't..

The" Jesus name"  passage needs to be understood as it is seems quite evident  that that promise has not been realised on earth.  How much trouble has been prayed against by Christians in Jesus' name since His time on earth and has still come to pass?

 It is quite usual to extract from this teaching rules for dealing with problems of discipline in the Church. Jesus does say "where two or three are gathered in my name " he does also say "to ask for anything at all". God knows if I am just  being childishly "clever" and speaking only my own words because they have come into my head but the comprehensive nature of both the above quotes is hard to accept at face value.

I will keep on trying to feel comfortable with this passage. I do know that " my name" is not the word "Jesus" used as some magical formula. and that to call on Jesus one must have some understanding of the Father Son and Holy Spirit; one must acknowledge the facts of his life; that his Incarnation was a direct intervention into our world by God who thus revealed the Trinity; and that salvation from our sins was won by the Passion Death and Resurrection of this Jesus. This one word contains for us  a lifetime of thought prayer and action.

Dear Lord, Let me truthfully be with you in mind and deed this day. Let me call on the abundance of your  mercy and let me avoid the simple sins that all contribute to the sufferings of Son our Lord Jesus.

 10/08/2021

I over-sow brassicas deliberately to ensure there is initial germination and then I thin them out to enable the  remainder to grow large. Paul is talking about sowing cereals here in a climate much different than ours. In those days and now too we have to sow handfuls of the seed of God's Love to be able to harvest the world as he wants it to be. The fruits of the sowing by this and the previous generation must have been too thin or else the tares of a similar parable have been too strong. 

I have lost all four of  my children to the World. God knows that they are always in my mind. I know this as guilt and I need to seek God's mercy for this and other sins but in the Confessional I hear only the excuses that I am not making for myself. Grand children regular attending mass are as rare as hen's teeth. People who should know better refer to Confirmation Classes as the departure lounge.

I wonder how the honest priests of this generation feel about the collapse in religious belief. St Laurence had not proceeded to the order of Presbyter . He was still  a deacon when he became a victim of one of the most severe Roman persecutions. He was responsible for managing the "purse" of the Church and distributed alms to the poor. Our modern "treasurers"need to use  St Laurence as their guide and not follow in the footsteps of that other treasurer, traitor and thief. 

Dear Lord, let me not forget the lives being lived in Your Heaven by Saints known and unknown who rejected the good things of this world and lived lives directed only by your words and example.

 09/08/2021

I have read that there is a "nuptial" relationship between Christ and his Church. I find this very hard to understand. It is based, as is all Church teaching, on Scripture and it is in these readings that are chosen to commemorate  St Benedicta of the Cross. She is a Saint of our times and a permanent reminder to politicians to avoid believing their own rhetoric. How many others were slaughtered by  the descendants of Goethe and Beethoven who abandoned their faith in Christ and in Humanity to follow straight forward evil without any mitigating circumstances. How could so many be so stupid as to give up their souls to the Devil personified in Hitler and his Cohorts.?

Edith Stein was an intellect far beyond my understanding. I have started but never finished several of her works. She was a Christian convert recreating in her life and death the Jewishness of the first Church and first martyrs. It is 74 years since her death and in that relatively short time. Europe has given up on Christianity. The German Church is in virtual schism. The Faith in Britain is still tottering undermined by  the effects of the Bishops conniving at  the sins of clergy. 

In heaven our Saint is completely happy in God's Glory for she has completed her course in holiness;or does she know that her happiness can only be complete when we on earth abandon sin and place all our trust in the Father Son and Holy Spirit.?

We must all never forget that we do not know when we will be called. There are no words worse than 

                                    "I tell you solemnly that I do not know you".

Dear Lord, you know all my sins and the number of them that I can commit even in a day. Let me be free of envy and anger this day and be inspired by the tragic life of our Sister Benedicta of the Cross.

 08/08/2021

Those who have protested against the teaching of the Church have to realise that that teaching is all based on Scripture . Elijah is chosen by God to stir up the faith of the chosen people "to rekindle the fire of Love" he is fed by bread from heaven, St Paul's message of "Love" is direct and untinged by sentimentality. Always be loving without any unkindness. Jesus is both the bread from heaven and the Loving Kindness in human form. We are to come to God by his way. We are to eat his flesh. 

There is nothing ambiguous about "I am the the Living Bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever and the bread I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world". There is no ambiguity but the Church guided by the Holy Spirit has tried to  interpret this fathomless mystery. Millions of words have been written in commentary and the arguments have provoked much of the reaction St Paul warns us against.

Jesus also says "This is my body which shall  be given up for your" What was the reaction of the Apostles to this.at the Last Supper? We do know that it was soon part of the worship that replaced the Temple.  This worship was begun by those who had seen the Lord both before and after the Resurrection. This was the early worshipping community taught by the Apostles. It is still now the Church. So much has happened in the world since those times but the Truth in St John's Gospel is still the same. 

Jesus is the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. It is his flesh that is accepted by all  communicants today and everyday. 

Dear Lord, let me hear your word with an open and loving heart; cleanse my soul of the effects of sin and let me recognise and do your will.