21/08/2021

The words of Jesus about the Pharisees must be filling the minds of the clergy who are reading them today.What must it be like for our pastors who know that they have lost contact with the Good Shepherd? I cannot understand why so many of our priests are ignoring the teaching of Christ. All of their secrets are known to God. The Love that is the Trinity has brought salvation to humanity through the Incarnation who has then humbled himself even more .......... The words of St Paul are well known and they are still true.

What must it be like for our good shepherds who know more than we do about the filth and duplicity which fills God's Church on earth and are trapped between their calling to devote their whole lives to growing and caring for the people of their parishes and the falseness of the structure that has grown out of the Petrine foundation. All human organisations have as their first task the maintenance of their own structures and so lose sight of their original purpose and begin to crumble. I have to accept that is happening now at this moment and have to ask if this could be the Will of God. 

It can't be true that God would want his Church to be corrupted in such a pathetic manner. We could make an analogy, however,  between now and the the times of the Old Testament . Jesus came to complete the Law not abolish it and I am sure that the mankind saved by by the Crucifixion is very little different than the motley crew led out of Egypt by Moses. We are capable of polluting anything; even the whole world.

Dear Lord let me learn how to follow only you and to avoid sinful thoughts. You have saved us for all times let us know that there is always a solution for men of goodwill

 20/08/2021

Loving God is the most important work of our existence. My brain and fingers are halted at those words. How can I love what is greater than anything I can imagine? Neither the brain nor the senses can take in  such an immensity. Even Martha sat at the foot of the living Jesus. We have to find Jesus in the records of his words and deeds. He tells us that the second commandment is to love our neighbour as our self  I can do that by keeping God's commandments 

"Love" is itself a problem. We all experience it as the first of our emotions that we recognise. We have all been children and most of us have experience of a mother's love. As we grow in mind and body we can become aware of the beauty of the world and begin to ask ourselves what's  it all about. The answers come to us faster and faster and pretty soon the original questioning awe disappears swamped by the choices we have to make of the great goods living offers to us.

God knows us better than we know ourselves and has revealed to us that "life" is not just the living and dying that he has created for all animals. That is why I start each day with an attempt at prayer. It is my soul that longs for the Lord and each day is a little life that is rounded by the little death, sleep. Each day I have to commit anew to knowing, loving and serving and to do this in complete sincerity avoiding all sin.

I find it very hard. God help me!

Dear Lord let not the wonders of your creation fill my mind to the extent of excluding you.

 19/08/2021

The Old Testament, particularly in its character as the history of the Sons of Israel, is difficult for me to grasp as it is truly of its place and times, without the Grace brought to the World by the Incarnation. I have heard it preached that  Abraham' s acceptance of the Lord's command to sacrifice Isaac should be read as an allegory forbidding human sacrifices. "Do not teach your children that God ordered a human sacrifice". Today's story from Judges records an event many centuries later that brings that interpretation into doubt as the Lord does accept the killing of Jepthah's daughter, at least the if killing went ahead as promised.

The moral superiority of the Jews in the Old Testament is largely in their recognition of  One God  and following the Law as revealed to Moses.. Most of their time is spent in living the same life as their neighbours and enemies but periodically this equanimity is interrupted by the revelations of the prophets directly inspired by God.

Jesus too reveals a similar continuity with the culture of the Middle East. In this parable the King has no compunction in wiping out those who have offended him. The unwilling guests did not make excuses they slaughtered the messengers, this is the reality of the history of Israel.

 My fear is that the one who sneaked into Wedding Feast could be me.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection know me and are my salvation.

Dear Lord you know my sincerity as it is undermined by temptation. Let my prayers be answered in all my deeds.

 20/08/2021

Today the readings present me with difficulties. The Parable  of the Trees reads like an Aesop Fable and is I suppose typical of time and place. As a story it has a nice flow to it and the first chosen all provide the same answer that they do not want to lose what they have for the doubtful pleasure of ruling others who are all taller than they are . The Israelites are a stiff necked  necked nation and the thorn who knows this is so, warns them that if they chose him they will have no protection for a fire that starts so easily in a thorn swiftly grows to an inferno consuming them all. 

Jesus is again in his "this is how it is "mode. We cannot understand the injustice perpetrated on those who had toiled throughout the heat of the day; but the gifts of the Lord are his to give. We have to accept them not as injustices but as the the reality of God's Mercy.. 

I think that from a human standpoint this parable does describe an injustice. In fact, as Jesus says no harm has been done to the first comers, they have still received their just compensation as it was offered to them in the morning.

This how it is. God's Mercy and rewards are his to give. None of us can achieve the perfection God offers to us without his aid. That is what the Incarnation is all about.

Dear Lord you know how easily I succumb to well known temptations please let me sincerely abandon this attachment to the pleasures of the flesh and let me empty my soul of all falseness thinking that you will always forgive me. Let me become your servant in all that I do. 

 17/08/2021

Gideon is the least of all in his family, in his clan, in his tribe and in his nation. he is the one called by God to do great things for Israel. Jesus is from Galilee of the nations where even pigs were farmed. Has any good ever come out of Nazareth? The depth of God's humility in his Loving Choice of the Incarnation as the way to redeem his favoured but unworthy creation cannot be approached in our minds. It is as far away from us as the Eternity that is Father Son and Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus speaks to us in parables . 

"The eye of the needle"  could be the name of the narrowest gate into Jerusalem but for the purpose of this analogy it might as well be a reference to a real needle. A totally impossible task for man 

Gideon quite naturally knows that what he is asked to do is completely beyond him  and seeks a sign to confirm what he has heard. Peter and the others are also confounded,. Look how much they have already done  in abandoning families to walk with the Lord.  Peter is not seeking a "status" he really wants to see the Kingdom and is sure that is where Our Lord is leading him. He knows nothing of the horror he must experience.

Jesus as usual understands their disappointed confusion and reassures them  At the end of time the twelve will be judges for their own nation. In our living faith we have to accept that it is always God's Grace. his Sacramental gift  that will show us the way. We have to completely cooperate in the way of  the  "handmaid of the Lord" knowing that nothing  is impossible to God, "be it done unto me according to thy Word,

Dear Lord my only prayer is to be at peace in my soul knowing that the immensity of the Father Son and Holy Spirit is always here to support us all. 

 16/08/2021

The story of the Sons of Israel is also my story; for a time listening to the Lord and obeying his commands and then reverting back to the standards of the world. Always there is the wish to live a guilt free life; always aware of my faults but unable to resists the pleasures of the flesh. There is a realism about the rich young man; he was sad because he knew that he couldn't give up his riches. 

Material wealth is a futility to follow for all things decay including we the possessors. How many millions of us are there alive today who do not count as rich in this age but who have all the advantages, and more, in life that riches gave in his times to the young man.

We sincerely follow the Lord and keep his commandments but at home we enjoy riches beyond the dreams of avarice; we don't carry water, we don't hunt for our food; we don't fear for lives from marauding outlaws; the soldiers of the occupying power do not molest us; most illness can be cured and empty time can be filled by the miracle of mass media.

We have to be poor in spirit but this knowledge is not only an attitude it has to be a reality. It is farcical that members of religious orders take vows of poverty and have cars "for the use of". They are sincere in attitude but ignore the discrepancy between the words of their vows and the amount of wealth under their control. This discrepancy is open for all to view on the UK Charity Commissioners website. The Pope's own order in Britain is in control of millions as are  the various Benedictine Orders.

                                                                All is known to God.

Dear Lord let not the discrepancies so apparent in your Church on Earth blind me to the fact that it is Christ's Mystical Body in heaven and on earth that I aspire to. May Mary support the prayers of all dedicated Religious and encourage them  to be true to their vows.

 15/08/2021

The Feast of the Assumption celebrates the continuing bodily presence of Our Lady in heaven. Without experiencing death, she is now permanently with God and from there is able to act as our mother imploring graces for us who are still struggling here in our earthly lives.

John's cosmic vision does not add much to what I understand and believe, as stated above. Paul's writing is also mystical as the powers sovereignties and authorities are certainly not human political systems. Jesus has quite clearly told us that his Kingdom is not of this world.

Elizabeth's greeting to Mary is very much of our world. The baby in her womb leaps for joy at the nearness of  God who is now a human being ,Mary is truly the "God Bearer". Her hymn of praise reveals the extent to which the ancient prayers of her fathers were for her a living faith,. Child she nay have been but her soul was directed to The Father, The Holy Spirit and the Son who has humbled himself to be what we all were when utterly dependant on our mothers.

Dear Lord let me be totally receptive to thy will for me and let  the words of your Mother "be it done unto me according to thy word."become mine.