08/01/2022

Jesus told them to sit on the green grass and the disciples would feed them. It must be late winter or early spring as the grass is green and not parched as is the usual condition on the shores of Lake Galilee. Jesus is recorded as pitying the people for they were without a shepherd and his first thought is to teach them with the spiritual food they need.

He teaches us to pray in the same way; first we must honour the Father and know that he is in heaven. Jesus' teaching is solely concerned with the Kingdom of Heaven, the reality of God must be first in our minds and then we ask for food to sustain our bodies.

John's letter is concerned with God and we are to know that God is Love. A reality that is seen in the nature of Jesus the Son who is The Father in the Love of the Holy Spirit. The Love that is poured out on Calvary sustains our souls as the bread and fishes fed the five thousand. We are God's children and have to live as such in this world until we see God as he really is and his Eternity becomes our all in all.

Dear Lord keep me from the desire to sin and let my family come to know you as you really are to be found only in the Scriptures and in the "True" teaching of the Church. Let me avoid the evil of false prophets and pastors. May your Mother and all the saints support all of us in this world so that we may always acknowledge your love for us.

 07/01/2022

The Collect of today prays that we keep our faith in our minds. I have always been confused between mind and soul. I vaguely remember being taught that my soul contained my memory and understanding. We all know how these two abilities vary from person to person as do our physical bodies. In our brains doctors have been able to demonstrate the location of the memory, colour perception and other mental processes.

Damage to the physical brain results in the impairment of our mental abilities. How can we care for our souls if our minds are not working properly. Jesus cast out devils. St John tells us that we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us but that we are assailed by other spirits who are fighting against God.

God's work for us is recorded in the Scriptures and today's Gospel tells us how Jesus walked and taught all over Galilee even in the Decapolis where the populations were non-semitic and had Greek for their first language. Here it was that Jesus drove out the spirits that ultimately caused the herd of pigs to suicide.

So many events occur in the Gospels and are recorded with very few words that we do have to use our imaginations. As we use the power of our minds and imaginations about the Gospels, we must let the Spirit of God guard our minds against the spirits that would mislead us ; chief of which is the spirit of pride.

Dear Lord during your time on earth you met so many people in so many places. What would I have done if alive then and greeted by you? May Our Lady and all your sainted disciples share their graces with me and all your people here on earth and still suffering in Purgatory.

 06/01/2022

Today is recorded  the revelation of God to us the gentiles, the pagans to all humanity. Isaiah shows us how to praise the Lord who brings the whole world to worship in Jerusalem the beloved city of his beloved people

Their King by the grace of the power of Rome is afraid, for in subjecting himself to the rule of the pagans he has taken on their superstitions and forgotten the God of Abraham. He tries to reverse what he sees as a danger to himself and his house by seeking out the boy to destroy him.

We know that this was a forelorn attempt as Jesus' kingdom is not of this world. Paul addresses the first converts of Ephesus making it clear that salvation is not limited to Jews but is now shared by all humanity. We all belong to the Church, Christ's Body on Earth. We can all guarantee each others holiness by the secure grace of the sacraments.

Dear Lord, let the words read today by all the Church enter into the hearts of all the faithful and especially the hearts of your priests that they become what Father, Son and Holy Spirit intended them to be. May your Mother and all the Church in Heaven continue their loving support for me and my family. Save me from sin.

 05/01/2022

John's letter contains all that we need to live holy lives as God has created us to do. We must always wish the best of everything for all peoples. This is Love. Not a word. Not a thought. Not an emotion that comes and goes according to our perception of our brother's behaviour but a permanent state of our being which treats all humans as we treat ourselves. Who would hand a stone to his son when he asked for bread?

John is "The Theologian" for everything he witnessed during his time with Jesus has been pondered for more than 20 years after the Resurrection and not just pondered in the same way as Mary pondered in her  heart the message of the angel, the growth the birth, the life of her Son, the horror of his death and Wonder of his Resurrection

John writes for all to read and ponder and warns to take care of our consciences to make sure that we are true judges of ouselves not according to ourselves but guided by the revelations of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and witnessed by Mary, Joseph and all the Apostles; witnessed too by all the unknown who followed then and susequently to become God's saints in the eternal joy of heaven.

Dear Lord I can be sure that you know these seconds that I try to devote to you; may my prayers be truly sincere worship of you and not of my own ego. I ask that your care be lavished on all who are desperately in need of Love and whose consciences have been subsumed into their pride and  love of self.

 03/01/2021

I always find it difficult when I am told that Jesus came to abolish sin. I know that the world in which I live and the Church in which I want to believe is full of sinful men and has been ever since Adam and the Church's foundation  by Jesus.

I know that I too am full of sin and the rememberance of sin.

We must purify ourselves to be the adopted children; purify ourselves from sin. What can it mean when John says that Jesus came to abolish sin and at the same time wants us to purify ourselves from sin?

It seems to me that it must mean that Jesus came to destroy the power of sin and that we now have a world and Church in which to be without sin is not only possible but incumbent upon us. We have the abundance that is God's Mercy to turn to when we are attacked by the Evil which is now powerless before God but still tries to draw our freedom into his emptiness.

Dear Lord may I be without sin this day. May I know true thankfulness for your great mercies and may your Mother and all your saints support me, my family and all mankind.

 02/01/2020

The Church makes much use of the Gospel of St John during this Christmas season for although we do not know the exact dates of his writings,  St John is totally concerned with the meaning, the spiritual significance,  of the events that he experienced during his lifetime. His Gospel as we know it was fixed in its now canonical form in the fourth century after Christ's resurrection and men had had a long time to ponder the words of the evangelist.

John tells us of God who is the Creator of everything and who is eternal so he is not subject to the rules of time. God knows everything that has and will come to be in his created time and yet he gives us freedom to seek him during our lives.

St Paul too knows God as outside of our time but all-knowing of what we are and how we use the freedom that he has given us. The freedom that is inherent in our beings and the Freedom brough to us by the Birth, Death and Resurrection.

Our Church knows this more than I do and teaches it well. Jesus told his disciples to listen to the Pharisees but not do as they did.

Dear Lord may I continue to avoid sin and to offer up my prayers to you each day. May your wisdom guide my thoughts in the freedom you have given to me and to all mankind.

 01/01/2022

We all live in this natural world. We all know that we live in this natural world. We all know that we are certain to die. After my death the natural world will still continue but I hope that I too will still live in a different mode of existence.

God's revelation of himself to the Israelites concluded with the Incarnation and today we hear his words to Moses and see the shepherds rushing to find the Angels' Message, God's Word incarnate in an animal shelter.

God had now a natural presence in our world as he had done from the moment of Mary's acceptance of her Mission. He shared in our flesh was subject to our needs and could be tempted in the  same way that we are. Mary fed him until weaning and the child loved his mother in the same way that we all loved our own mothers.

All of his human life reflects our own. He experienced the total disaster of human death and then brought the Supernatural to our world for he resurrected from the dead with a new form of being bestowed on all mankind.

How can it be that with such a glorious beginning and support in heaven the Church of God on this earth can be crumbling into sin and insignificance?

Dear Lord today your Church formally remembers and praises your Mother given to us by you on the cross; grant that we may be shaken up into true Faith and fulfill Hope with Love for all worshiping Father, Son and Holy Spirit in true sincerity.