28/03/2022

The promises revealed by Isaiah are made real by the Incarnation and the presence of the Son in  Palestine 2000 years ago. Jesus was doubtful of the faith to be found in Galilee but returned to continue the proclamation of the Kingdom of God as prophesised by Isaiah.

The miracles performed by Jesus are certainly witnesses to his personal power. They are not signs of his divinity as God could work similarly through anybody. The sign of his divinity was to come later for the Jews. It was the sign of Jonah.

The Historical event, the Resurrection, was witnessed by no man but was proclaimed by the chosen ones; the ones who had deserted Jesus when most needed. God's plans are unfathomable. The Word, Son, Jesus is crucified and resurrected in God's freedom, Eternity. Our God is one in three, a mystery we can worship but not understand. For this we are created by the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit; we are created to use our human freedom to know, love serve. Jesus is the supreme example of this way of being human.

Dear Lord, the second miracle at Cana brought healing to one family and they believed. Your resurrection brings healing to the whole world but we do not believe. Let me this day offer true sincerity from my heart; true worship of your greatness and complete trust in your providence. Thy will be done.

 27/03/2022

I have always felt closer to the son who stayed at home and worked than to the prodigal who couldn't accept the results of his own sinful folly. My sense of justice is offended in the same way by the payment to the labourers who worked only 1 hour being the same as to those who had slogged it out through the heat of the day.

Both parables teach us that Our Father in Heaven is ready to forgive all of us no matter when in our lives we turn to him. In fact I see that God treats me in the way that he chooses and I  have to disregard the way he treats others for we have to know God as only we ( billions of individuals) can know him.

The Church is Christ's body on earth and in heaven. It is "the new creation"  that is the "News" proclaimed by St Paul. We all have the possibility of complete reconciliation with Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the Son has taken on our sins, he is completely faultless, and during the "The Three Days" of passion and death he makes physical and spiritual atonement for the whole world; the power of God is directed on the world, in human time, totally in the mercy of Love.

In knowing this I become human and in serving I do my little bit to attain the loving that can be returned to our Dad in heaven.

Dear Lord help all of us to know holiness for it is you who are holy. Nothing can be except through you so there is nothing to my credit. My prayers are the start of this day but will they be with me at the end?. Help those who are known to me and stop the lunacy of man which is the work of Satan whom you defeated on your cross of loving agony.

 26/03/2022

Jesus makes it clear to us that we need to be completely honest with ourselves. How many of us who read and hear the Gospel of today, will picture himself as the Pharisee. When I compare myself, the self that is to be found in the "hidden room"to the Son,  Jesus, and to Jesus' words I know that I can beat the most cynical of Pharisees. I know that I have been full of sins condemned by the Word and yet hypocritically acknowledged the Sacrament and  received the Body and Blood of Christ sacrilegiously. I can condemn the pride that I see in others but am in my hidden room snarling with jealousy.

I read the mass readings everyday and write about them but can spend more time thinking about the style and checking the spelling than absorbing the teachings. Men are slaughtering their own humanity in numerous conflicts. I can condemn, but the hateful thoughts in my mind  and words on my lips, even in the "hidden room" are also a cause of pain and suffering to Jesus Our Saviour on the cross.

The only reqirement to avoid sin is to be honest with love and avoid  taking on the appearance of humility with the pride in self that self destructs. It is not the "beating of the breast" in public that Jesus praises but the  condition of that Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit within our hearts; in our hidden rooms.

Dear Lord today let thy will be done in the world that you have created; let your Love come into the individual souls of all of us that we may cooperate in your will for all the peoples of the world. Show your mercy to those whose suffering is known to me and to all the world.

 25/03/2023

Exactly 9 months before Christmas the Church celebrates the Annunciation of the conception of Jesus who from this day is in the world experiencing the same bodily development that has been undergone by all of us but not remembered as our embryonic brains were not fuly grown during those first months of life. This experience is also known by all mammals. Jesus is truly a human being with the important exception, sinlessness; his developing body is part of Mary's who has also not known sin. 

This mystery of the Incarnation is a humility on the part of God, whom we are shown to be Father Son and Holy Spirit, that is totally out of love for his creation and particularly for his own image and likeness which we all are. I cannot fully grasp the significance of what I write for I am but a sinful man, less than dust of God's Universe.

Scripture records some of God's dealings with humanity. All of these dealings are guidance and then forgiveness. Guidance to show us the way to live and then forgiveness for our failings. Gabriel greets Mary and also reveals that Elizabeth is also pregnant and the two together enable us to say:

Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

Dear Lord let my words not be a presumption but a sincere belief that will rule my being and behaviour. Guide my prayers and thought let me have a modicum of your infinite humility saying : Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen

 24/03/2022

"Here is a generation that will not listen to the voice of the Lord its God nor take correction. Sincerity is no more it has vanished from their mouths".

The words of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah are as applicable today as when they were spoken to the Jews of old.I am living in a generation that is so secure in its self-esteem that it cannot entertain the view that there is anything wrong about it. Every day I see many users of the internet who despise the Church and all that she preaches.

The Church has faults but it is still Christ's foundation on St Peter. The attacks on the Church are in fact directed aginst God. We have to build up a wall of prayer that will protect us from the "Stronger man". Jesus is not saying that might is right but that we have to be vigilent to remain in the Kingdom. 

I cannot undestand how it has come to pass that most of my family do not serve God. I too have lived through the great social changes that have happened as technology has created the "Global Village".

My awarenes of life tells me that my consciousness is one of billions in the world and that we will all die. Only God  can tell me what happens then and God has revealed himself first through Jews and then through Jesus, the Son and man. I feel that we have at least  as great a need of God physically present with us as in the first Century. Come Lord Jesus come and save us from the devil's work that is proliferating throughout your creation.

Dear Father, Son and Holy Spirit receive my prayers and let humanity know that human freedom must not be misused. Mary and the Saints support my prayers and let every one of us know that if we choose Jesus then the evils of the world will pass away for our sins will be forgiven. 

 23/03/2022

The wild bunch that Moses had lead out of Egypt needed to be contained and given direction in their lives. Even when Moses in the presence of God was having the basic law for all humanity explained to him they were messing about making a "god " for themselves. No branch of humanity has been created that has not sought to work out how or what can be the source of the consciousness of being every individual experiences. I know myself and then I know my mother before growing in awareness of the world and the others in it.

Jesus the Son of God was begotten not made. He was begotten of the flesh of the humanity that Moses had with great difficulty saved and schooled in the ways of God. Jesus is a man as we are. He is a Jew from Palestine and has a body soul and mind. He knows the weaknesses of the flesh and of the mind as we know them but his soul he keeps free from sin even though he accepted the Baptism from his cousin.

The readings of today's mass show us how we are to behave in the security of the Law of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are to be no changes to the Law. Jesus is our Saviour and model of what we have to be to serve, to love and to obey.

Dear Lord there is no God but you. Forgive us who  even though the Son is incarnated to suffer and save us still thrust your love back into your face. Forgive me for my sins and let the suffering in my family and in the whole world know the peace of your love.

 22/03/22022

Jesus' parable of the Kingdom of God is a story that would have been familiar to the ears of his listeners, those people of lang ago who saw and heard God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, speaking to them directly. He told them straightforwardly that he wanted us to live without any disputes as forgiveness for others must be first in our hearts. Although our world, society, politics have changed so much since those days human nature has not and we still would put ourselves first in everything. The tragic events in Ukraine, in the Congo, in Mali are not the inevitable result of People against each other but of leaders throttling those weaker than themselves to fulfill their own wishes.

Azariah's prayer is the cry of the poor to Our Father. Jesus had not yet walked the earth but God reveals that his teaching was always the wish of God for all his peoples. Perhaps this story is no more than that , a story, as it was first recorded long after the Babylon captivity but Jesus too revealed his truth through parables. The inn of the Good Samaritan never existed but the story centred there tells us exactly what love of my neighbour is.

Dear Lord let me this day live in your Love and avoid the self-love that puts me before everything. Let your Holy Spirit come in to the hearts of war-lords whose self-love is beyond comprehension. May Mary and all the saints support the victims of war and of illness who are known individually to you.