14/12/2022

St Paul and all the Apostles are Jews and so become for us the link between Old and New. The message that was rejected is Jesus. And specifically the resurrected Jesus. Born of Mary and so completely human, begotten by God and so completely God.

I need to remember that I worship God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, who is also man. The 72 are sent out to preach to all the places where Jesus himself will be seen. We have the specific instructions of how they are to behave but what they are to teach is that the "Kingdom of God is very near to you".

The 72 had become followers of Jesus but they were still Jews and their teaching about God could only have been Old Testament based. For them the Kingdom of God was the kingdom of David and Solomon. It was not their, at that time, political situation where they were ruled by appointees from Rome. It is entirely possible that they understood their message as political; their understanding of Jesus was that he was the Messiah sent to free God's people.

They were right, of course, for wrong reasons. Jesus in his ongoing teaching constantly stresses  that His Kingdom is not of this world but even up to the time of the Resurrection those closest were expecting rewards in this world.

Each day the readings at mass present us with the revelations of the Scriptures. We can find in them all that God is saying to us and use them to direct our prayers.

Dear Lord let me be near to you this day and let my response to your care for me and all humanity be truly a sincere emptying of self so that you will be my all in all.

 13/02/2022

The perfectability of human behaviour is praised by Jesus in the Sermon. The Old Testament reading is much the same. We follow the Lord "even through the shadow of death" and have done our duty with the  reward of living water. St Paul is facing a heresy that has arisen out of the "Resurrection".By some it has been denied that we will  be risen from our deaths,  but Paul's preaching and that of the other Apostles is a proclamation of the Living Body of Jesus, our Lord and God. Jesus is the witness that at the end of time our bodies will become a new form of life just as Jesus was the 1st fruits.

Without the Resurrection we are indeed the most unfortunate of beings for we have the Risen Lord who was seen and touched by the first witnesses as our guarantee that with our cooperation we live in a cloud of Unknowing Love that protects us now and prepares us for the rewards of heaven.

Blessed are we who know, love and serve the Lord no matter the hardships that come upon us because of our service. Our flesh/the matter of the universe has no life in it and will be destroyed into a nothingness but we by the reality of the  Resurrection can live the perfect life now to reach the Eternal worship of Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord may your words and their repetition by prophet and Apostle remain in my heart this day so that I will be without sin as I grow closer to you. May Mary and all the Saints add their prayers to mine that your Clergy here on earth come to their senses and truly believe what they hear and say today during the Eucharist.

 12/02/2022

Jeroboam soon is aware of the power of the Temple which draws his subjects away from him. The Levite priesthood still has the religious authority so the king follows the way of all Old Testament apostates and revives the gods of the "high places". 

Today I and others are reading this passage and trying to understand the ways of God. The freedom we have in his creation soons captivates us and we continue to push out the boundaries of our knowledge and power.

We humans' are strong with the abilities given to us by our Creator. Success in our society is marked by wealth and the respect of others and it could be said to me that I am beavering away at this keyboard because of my failure in society. My lack of wealth and power  is being compensated for by my creation of an idea of rewards afer death.

I look at that point of view objectively and know that the material of our universe is not out of a random mixture of atoms and molecules but all of it is a creation by You our God. The purpose of Creation is to show us in our human freedom that it is your Love that must be accepted and adhered to.

Man's golden calves and ideas are not to be worshipped but to be known as the nothing that they are for it is only You who are , Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord who kept us as survivors during the dark days of our births, keep us in your care as we walk towards the end and let us come to know the perfection of your Love and leave this world knowing that you will care for those who live with the same genes as ours  after us. My prayers are known to you without words my Lord and my God.

 11/02/2022

 The Old Testament makes it clear that God's first revelation was to the Jews. He supports and punishes them throughout their history. They are still God's Chosen People even though they have made it quite clear that they are more concerned with themselves than with following God's revelation to them and later to us. Jesus humanity is ultimately from Adam, as are we all, but Jesus is from the line of David that in the first reading of today is torn off from the descendants of Israel. Mary, the chosen womb for the incarnation, is from this line as is made clear in the genealogies. So the Jews are always with God in a very special way.

Jesus' Mother is the Perfect Woman. Created to bear the Incarnate Son, she is without sin and the first witness to the Glory of God present in our world. She requests the first miracle out of concerns for the social embarassment of her acquaintances. Jesus reveals himself to friends and neighbours to prevent not his crucifixion, but social embarassment. Wow!!! He is completely a Good Neighbour.

Our Lady knows Jesus as no other of us can. She bears his torture and death with the horror of a mother. Her sufferings can still be seen in the faces of images from war. She with the other Maries and John weep at the foot of the cross and together inspire the Love that is the reason for the Church, to be carried out of Jerusalem into their  world and our time.

Dear Lord, I pray today as always, that I might grow better with age and not worse. That I can recognise neighbourliness as next to Godliness and that I not stupidly take pleasure in my own words but always know that Father Son and Holy Spirit can bring me to my true self and open room for me in the Eternity that is Now. Our Lady of Lourdes pray for the poor in spirit who reach out for healing and forgivenss and for me..

 10/02/2022

Everyday when I try to start the day with the mass readings, I have to avoid the numerous headlines that the computer throws at me. I have this wish to put God before everything that I do but it is not as easy as it seems. My body has needs, my eyes are captivated by the sunshine of this morning and my mind can be anywhere throwing up trains of thought that are distractions from my puirpose. My true purpose to love and worship the Lord our God.

Poor Solomon; after his brilliant begining he deteriorates into the old man being led hither and thither through the pantheon of false deities by his wife of the moment. I, on the other hand, have had a mixed beginning mostly sinful but veering towards the Church and now in old age still aware of sinfulness, I ask for grace to follow the revelations of the Bible and the teaching of the Church.

Jesus has been accused by the seeming lack of Love in his words to the Sidonian woman. Does he really call her a "house dog"? Is this another of Jesus "hard sayings" or is it reality. Jews must be first for they received the first revelatons of God. We don't have many records of how non-Jews reacted to this. This Sidonian woman was not content with Jesus' retort for she knew that he could cure the sick and and she needed even the scraps of this power. Jesus did as  she had demanded.

Can we "demand" grace from God to strengthen us in this life. "I will be with you even to the end of time". persistence won justice for the woman in her law-suit. We don't need to "demand" for your grace is overflowing. We need to recognise our need for it and then you reply without being asked let alone confronted.

Dear Lord let me continue  this day in prayerful awarenes of your Love always knowing that Father Son and Holy Spirit know who I am and will guard me and mine and all the world from the evil that arises within us.

 09/02/2022

The wealth and wisdom of Solomon are acknowledged by the Queen of Sheba to be marks of God's favour. She consults Solomon about questions that have arisen out of her heart, her very being, and his answers truly amaze her. What those questions are we can only guess and each of us will supply an answer that is a question about our own selves. We sort of know ourselves but what we really are in relation to life and the sparkling Universe that is and was so obvious to desert dwellers is our life's mission to face up to and find the right answer.

But we are not alone in the desert night that seems to grow out of the visible horizon into the vastness of the  heavens. We know God's creation and we have received his revelation of his being and his will. The creator of the vastness that Solomon saw each night unpolluted by man speaks to us and Jesus states clearly that dietary laws do not bring sinlessness. Sin is the evil corruption in the heart that exhibits itself in unrighteous behaviour. 

We cannot justify sinfulness by talking about "this day and age". Any who try justify themselves by talking about the "greater good" to condone birth-control and abortion are lying to God and to themselves. The stupidity of man to man sexual relations cannot be purified by human legistlation, by calling another  man your husband. It is all nonsense and ultimately evil for they say that God created them to be like this. They directly accuse God of creating them to be challenges to his word. "Man and woman he created them" is the revelation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord all of us face the challenge of the sins of the flesh. Those sins are usually pleasurable for the moment. Our world is captivating in its variety and challenge to our understanding. Scientific study fasxinates our attention and even Theology can distract us from the true worship we need to offer to you. Let me this day be true to you and sincerely pray turning my whole life over to you our God. let me and mine know without doubt that you are the author of life and of Love.

 08/02/2022

Jesus is a man talking to men when he condemns those who are scrupulous over minor observances of their religion but without the inner conviction that brings truth to these same observances. Is "Latin" a necessity to reach salvation?

In these days many are grasping onto the surface of our Faith. Am I one of these? The hypocrite is brilliant at fooling even himself. Am I one of these? I woudn't ask myself this question if I didn't think that I was sincere. But am I even near to "giving up everything to follow the Lord?. 

I am closing out my life and coming nearer and nearer to my last day. I am beset with doubts about the Church founded by the Lord. I know that there are many priests who fail in their simple duty of following the facts of Holy Communion. They preach that the Sacrament confected by them must be received with a pure intention to be effective. They offer the Host with "Body of Christ" even to those who are openly living sinful lives. Are they not thus confirming the sinner in his sin ? After that first act it is repeated and repeated again.  The first sin is renacted time after time. Does not this sin have some effect on all of us? Should we just ignore the daily scandal performed by Clergy?  If he ignores the cooperation with Grace that is required of the sinner, does not the priest fail in his duty to help the sinner to repent?

Dear Lord allow me to put everything into your hands and let Holy Priests in heaven with you and Mary grab the clergy by the scruff of the neck and shake them into the reality of your loving presence in your Sacraments. Let me not forget you this day and let my will to be sinless come to fruition in the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.