08/06/2022

The Old Testament is Holy Scripture; it is part of God's revelation which culminates in the Resurrection. We have not experienced the events when it is recorded that Father, Son amd Holy Spirit presented their Oneness to mankind but we have the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar.

The Jews of Palestine had been under the special care of God from the time of Abraham in Mesopotamia through the wanderings and captivity in Egypt upto the Son walking with humanity in Palestine. All these historical events had taken place in the human time created by God and witnessed by all humans.

God's answer to the prayer of Elijah is a real historical event. God revealed the Father and Holy Spirit  when the fire consumed the prepared offering. Of Baal there is no sign as his priests were mistaken and confused by Satan into  belief in something that did not exist.

Jesus confirms that the Old Testament is a true witnessing of  God's dealings with humanity and and with his expectations for the free being that we all are. His is the completing act of our God who has given hmself for our salvation; unlimited grace over flows from the Altar where the Sacrifice of the Son is repeated  endlessly as did the fire on Mt Carmel.

Dear Lord strengthen my faith in you that my hoped for future existence in your eternal presence will be filled by your love of all sinful man. Let my hopes be fulfilled and let the prayers of Mary and all the saints reach into your sacred heart and bring forth your gift of love for me and all your peoples on Earth.

 07/06/2022

Long faces are not to be for us; even when we are fasting the Lord brings to our hearts joy which is visible on our countenances. Worship of God, knowing, loving and serving bring greater happiness that an abundance of material things. There were many widows in Israel at the time of drought recorded in the first book of Kings. 

We must shine as did our Jubilee beacons. We must be a sign for all men that God is with us and by his free gift to us enables all to choose to turn to him asking for his support All comes from God. The Universe, the World, the smallest of particles making up our atoms and my being are all created and depend on God. 

At Sidon today there are many suffering from the want created by the pride of those who put the collecting of millions of dollars before the the teaching their Ancestors received directly from Jesus. All wealth is left behind at death. Nothing of the world will remain and it is the light of this truth that Father, Son and Holy Spirit want to radiate from us. 

Dear Lord bless the work of my hands and let me truly experience the joy of your love. Keep me from deadly sin this day and let my prayers bring the lonely, the haters and the hungry back to the joy you want us all to bathe in and radiate the Love that cleanses the soul, to all mankind. I believe that for Mary and all the saints in heaven there is no time and so they must be free in a Now without beginning or end. Let them now give praise to God and seek his help for us all who are pained by sinful thoughts and the boredom generated by the slow passing of human, wordly time.

 06/05/2022

All the prayers chosen for the Liturgy are not only appropriate but some are more strikingly beautiful than others. Today's collect is a case in point. It contains much of our faith in one carefully constructed sentence and points out to us the role of Our Lady in God's plan for the salvation of mankind. I cannot help but ask how it is possible for any priest to read this beginning to today's prayer without being moved as I am. Of course, today is now and tomorrow is another day.

Our Lady, the only human born without sin (Adam was created without sin and Eve sinlessly formed from Adam), is also the only human other than Jesus who is present in the eternal heaven in body and soul. As a human she must be appalled by the behaviour of the Church that she has been given by her son. How can we still fall into the mire of sin with the "Fiat" of Salvation as our maternal guardian?

We all have the freedom to avoid the world, the flesh and the devil. We can say "no" to temptation but my own life tells me that it is very easy to put off to tomorrow what should be our first commitment today; know love and serve is what is required of all of us and we only have to ask and the grace to do God's will together with the support of Our Lady is ours.

Dear Lord help me to be sincere in my thoughts and in my prayers. Let me avoid the self-satisfaction that so easily comes from pious moments. Without your grace I am nothing. Mary you know the pains of motherhood and the horror of witnessing the torture undergone by Jesus, your son, keep all suffering mothers in your heart and pray that all thy children will thankfully use the grace so painfully won for us.

 05/05/2022

The disciples who had formed the first congregation devoted to the Father, to the Son they had all known in his life death and resurrection, have now the third part of the Trinity that is one God revealed to them.

The wind, the shaking, the flames the talking in tongues was a physical manifestation that God granted to those there in the place where his final revelation was made. We have to face the fact that this happened. It happened once and none of us have been confronted with this vision of God face-to face on Earth since that time.

A spiritual mission is also given to those present. The Baptist had brought baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus had in his humanity and divinity shown us the way, the truth and the life and by accepting death in all its torments and rising to a new life, with the Father from the beginning, had generated a source of God, the Holy Spirit to be with us until the end of time; "this is my body". A grace that they can pass on to the believers that have not seen. "Receive the Holy Spirit for those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven and those whose sins you retain thay are retained".

At the Last Supper and today in the same room, Jesus, without doubt, confers what we now call priesthood on those whose names we remember as Apostles. This mission has been passed on and through the ages has been obscurred and tarnished but it is still the same laying on of hands by God to consecrate those he has chosen.

Dear Lord should not every one of your priests search for the Holy Spirit to fill their hearts with the grace of the Father won by the Son? I know that I am complaining about others when I should be asking for forgiveness of my own sins. I am only human and cannot see as you see. I know that this spirit of devotion will soon be replaced by today's  cares of this life but sincerely ask to be absolved and free of sin. The Saints in Heaven led by your Mother; did she too receive the priestly ordination to forgive sins? continue in their worship and  may their prayers bring succour to me, my family and to the whole world.

 04/06/2022

The account of Paul's appearance before the leading Jews in Rome has all the hallmarks of Pilate washing his hands and "letting them get on with it" for it was not only too complicated but also too bothersome to deal with these strange people from Palestine. As always, Paul emphasizes that he does not preach for money but because God wants the whole world to hear the "Good News".

Today, Elizabeth 2's jubilee, we see the results of that mission that are so different to its beginnings The successors to the Apostles are overburdend  with riches and the cares that accompany them; cares that distract them from the mission to know, love and serve.

I too can be lead away from God by cares for myself and family and evidence of corruption in the Church. St Peter asks; "What of this man?" St John is very careful to explain that Jesus had not promised that John would not die but that "If I want him to stay alive till I come, what is that to you?" God's ways are not man's and again Peter and his faults are reprimanded for an all too human response to his place in the Kingdom, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord may I be always aware of my place in your Love and with true sincerity thank you for my life and my family. Let us all be true to your teaching and confirm here on Earth what we believe about your heavenly Kingdom. May your Mother and all the saints continue their prayer for us here on the earth of which they are aware and, with  God's grace, have overcome temptations.

 03/05/2022

I am trying to type this morning without my glasses. I have read of Paul's definance in the face of the Sanhedrin. Peter voices a full commitment to Jesus' choice of him to lead the mission given to him and all the disciples

I then read of a Bishop in America whose delight is to be surrounded by  BodyBuilders. The Institutional Church has come a long way from the thrice repeated instruction to care for the "sheep". I want to be able to accept the leadership of the hierarchy as being in a direct line from Jesus; a line of Holy Men devoted to their mission. Such a hope is not childish naievity but what Jesus promised us. "To the end of time".

Lord Jesus; where can I go now that the salt has lost iits savour?

 02/06/2022

My prayers always get pushed out by the busyness  brought about by visitors. I love these girls and their mother and father. I  pray for them everyday but when I see them I am sadened by the cancer that is going to cut short the life of their much loving and much loved mother.

Are you praying today for a spiritual rather than an institutional unity.?

Dear Lord, I am telling you nothing about my family and our lives. I know that you are All Good and will the best for all your creation. Let this family be safe in your Love as was the family with whom you shared your incarnate life on earth. I pray that you listen to the prayers of your mother and to all mothers who also wish only the best for their children. Thy will be done!