24/09/2021

How is it that even though I really want to pray and turn myself to the Lord, I wake up each morning to face a struggle to avoid falling into a reverie dominated by thoughts of sex enjoyed and sex missed. I am not on this earth to be a creature without a future. I am here to do the will of God. I know that now but half-an- hour ago I had to force myself to remember that I am not alone for God is always with me to guide me into what it is he has willed for me. 

Reading the passage about God's will for Jerusalem and putting it vaguely into the context of the care for Israel shown by God in the Old Testament I felt the need for the same care for myself and for all those sheep seemingly abandoned by our pastors. My first concern is for myself and ever since my childhood I have ever wanted to have the responsibility for myself be taken away from me so that I could avoid the guilt that comes from sin.

The disciples didn't know instantly the Jesus that we read about in the New Testament but they must have had the support of the Holy Spirit to abandon everything and follow him. As Jews they could place him in an Old Testament context but couldn't consider him to be the Second Person for God was One Indivisible. All knowledge of God comes via the death and resurrection of this same Jesus they listened to and walked behind.

Did they too have to renew themselves each morning as do I?

Dear Lord help me to be strengthened by sincere reflection and desire to avoid being pleased by words that come from me; all that is good in me is from trust in the  Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 24/09/2021

God is ever greater. "G" "o""d". In English these three letters make up the word which represents the source of all being of all that "is". I cannot try to go further than gasp and become wordless before the vastness of that. I cannot develop the  "idea" but I can "love" the persons. I don't need to pursue my or anyone else's concept of God but I can try to return the love of God who has revealed himself as three persons.

In the desert wanderings and in the Holy Land God speaks to his favoured people in the person of the Father. His glory is in the form of Gold and Silver shining within the grandeur of his Temple. At the same time his Spirit is preparing a hidden prayerful narrative to welcome the Incarnation. The testament takes place in time but for God there is no time. I can recognise God's Word but I live in time which is why he creates a story that I follow from glimpses of  the Word and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Mary is the culmination of the Covenant; she bears the "Humanity" that will be used to beget the Son. From before the Creation of the World she was known to God and through no merit of her own she carried and gave birth to Jesus. 

Mary is not God but she is the perfection of Humanity and the true source of the righteousness that is still Jesus' Church here on earth. Hail Mary.

Dear Lord let me continue to feel your peace throughout this day and let my thoughts and words avoid the sin that ever insinuates itself into my heart.

 23/09/2021

The psalm proclaims that God tales delight in his people. The first reading chides the same people for not completing the task that God had revealed was their duty, their purpose in being brought back to Judah. And Herod, he who liked to listen the words of John the Baptist although he was perplexed by them, cancels the possibility of Jesus being the same John the Baptist having been brought back to life with a  blunt "I chopped off his head".

"You are the Christ the Son of the Living God" has been the answer preserved by our Church for the last two millennia . Can I honestly looking at my life see anything for the Lord to delight in? There are so many of us in this world and our Loving Father knows us infinitely more than we know ourselves.

I have to know God ,love him and serve him and thus build up his new Temple, the living body that is his Church and thus as a sinner striving on the way to the truth and the life I can do my bit to be part of the people in whom the Father, Son and Holy Spirit take delight .

Dear Lord, let me be truly part of your body which is the Saints in heaven and Sinners on earth. Let my hidden prayer be supported by your Holy Mother and all your Saints so that all of us may know your glory and be a delight to you.

 

22/09/2021

If I ask myself what is the "Good News" I know that it is the salvation that has been given to all the humanity of the world by the historical events that are recoded in the books of Good News started by the followers of Jesus. Some of these same followers were sent to spread the "Good News" to their countrymen and yet the central event had not yet taken place.  Did they know Jesus as the Son ? The narrative of the synoptic Gospels reveals that they did not. They preached only to their countrymen in the frame work known to all Jews.

They were Jews and they followed Jesus for they saw him as another prophet sent by God to stir up the faith of their nation which was submerged by the Roman Empire and its continuation of the Hellenization which had begun with the glorification of Alexander Some of them had political hopes which were totally destroyed by the real "Good News".

God has continued to guide the special relationship he had with the Jewish Nation from the days of the patriarchs and with the Incarnation of the Living God into that nation he completed the covenants but was again rejected. Jesus is  the "Good News" for although "God  punishes he also has mercy",. The Superabundant Mercy that is God is brought to all the world by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. But this power is not compulsion we have to have to make the choice to accept and live by it.

Dear Lord, I pray that I may avoid sin and partake of that Mercy which surpasses all understanding. 

 21/09/21

St Paul who was a Jew and had been a Pharisee is an inspired teacher. He must have  been a charismatic preacher; but, we are told that he was not of striking physical appearance. he tells us today that we must be unified by our faith and accept that within our community there are by its very nature different roles for different believers and that we must accept this division of labour as a vocation, a calling to each of us by God.

Paul's former colleagues are shown to be focussed on the letter of the law that they practised so meticulously and Jesus reassures me that it is the sinners that he came to call to God's table. We must practise mercy ourselves. What about those, however, who reject God's mercy. Those who persist in grave sin. There are many such and by pretending not to judge and advise we do a grave disservice to those.

We all have the duty to build up the Body of Christ our Church but we cannot do that without facing up to the problem posed by the relationship of public sinners to our community,

Pope Francis "Who am I to judge" is remembered by all.  Last week, however he made it clear that those outside of our community cannot receive the Eucharist. Will that be remembered and acted upon?

Dear Lord let not the sight of public sin blind me to the sin which is in my own being. May your mother and all the Saints help me to truly receive the Grace which you pour unceasingly over all our world.

 20/09/2021

The return of Israel from the Babylonian captivity is repeated in our present age. The working of God's providence in favour of this particular nation continues to this day. God is true to his original covenants and the descendants of Abraham are indeed a great nation. But where is the Temple of the Lord that was Cyrus' reason for letting Jews return to their Holy land?

Jesus tells us not to hide our light once we have lit it. Is our light something to be hidden for if it is it will be revealed. What is it that we have that will be increased by God's gift? What is it that we have to do for even our little to remain with us. This unexplained parable leaves me gasping for I do not understand it. I am sure that Jesus is not talking about physical possessions. If I think of the "having" as being about spiritual gifts I am still not better off in my understanding. If "listen" had been the verb rather "hear" I could have understood that as a warning about false doctrine. 

The Korean martyrs must have been filled with the Holy Spirit to defy the strictires of their Confucian/Buddhist culture where even today all ranks of society are aware of their places and to disobey an elder is the greatest sin imaginable. God is surely the "Evergreater".

Dear Lord open my understanding to receive your Word so that following the example of your martyrs I may never deny the Truth of the Father, Son and holy Spirit.

 19/09/2021

Everyday I know the Love that is God for I continue with my life even though I am a sinful man. My own love is but a poor reflection of God's Love because I am a sinful man. St James warns us that we are to avoid the basic sin that is putting our self before everything. Wisdom offers an insight into evil's reaction to the presence of the good man. He has to be tested to breaking point and this is what happened to Jesus.

We have to believe that Jesus did know the disturbances through which his Church, founded out of his Love, would have to go. Not only in these later days, but even as he walked in front of  the weak humanity he had chosen to trust and to build up. The chosen disciples were so close that they could touch the physical presence of the Kingdom of God on earth and yet they started to argue about rank within the nascent Church.

So much strife in the Church results from self-centered ambition; child abuse is a result of self-centered bodily desires; "cover ups" are self-centered efforts to avoid the shame that should rightfully be accepted.

Dear Lord, enable me to overcome the strife that is inside myself so that putting You and all others before myself I may come to that peace that is yours, beyond understanding; the Father. Son and Holy Spirit.