22/07/2022

Mary of Magdala is the first witness. Jesus revealed himself to her. She had stood at the foot of the cross with the Mother and the other Mary. She had held onto the lifeless corpse. She had helped in the preparation for burial. She had been in despair for Jesus the great hope of his disciples had gone from this world. At that moment she was truly calling out as  the dying Jesus had done.

She did not recognise  the "gardener" but in the same second Jesus announced to the world that there is life after death albeit in a different form than our present experience. Don't touch me! Go and announce my return. Tell it to all the disciples and spread the Good News.

Bewilderment was the first reaction. We knew that his life's blood had dripped out on Calvary. He had shouted out a familiar prayer. He had breathed his last breath. His being was now pure dross. The dust, the created matter which Father, Son and Holy Spirit had used to form our human bodies to house our souls, was his only existence.

The whole of the world has been presented with the truth. The reality of my being is guaranteed by the Creator who has given us life out of his own being for he is Love. In his greatness he has no need of anything but out of Love he has shared His joy of being with the Universe in which we pass our material lives. Our first experience of life is in this world which is wonderful  but what we are to become cannot be imagined for our God is the Evergreater and we will see him as he really is.

Dear Lord support me in my more than clouded experience of what it is to be like you in being. I need to be aware of you in all my moments of life. "Thanks,"gratitude" "belief" "worship" "obedience" need to be more than words but must fill my life with Truth. May Mary and the other Marys join my prayers with those of the other saints to strengthen the Church which is not living up to the Life Death and Resurrection of the Incarnate Jesus , our Lord and our God.

 21/02/2022

Jeremiah sees and interprets. The Chosen People have forgotten the Lord. The inspiraton of God tells him that the  Temple is full of priests who do not pray. The Law is practised without thought. The leaders of Israel follow the ways of Baal. The living water flowing from God is replaced by stagnant cisterns constructed by themselves.

Why does Jesus teach in parables? His listeners have  unseeing eyes and deaf ears; they are deliberately avoiding conversion back to the way of God. Jesus is trying to wake us all up so that we do not get our lives entagled in the snares of the devil and his plaything the world and all the souls that are living therein.

In these days as at the time of Jeremiah God is not thought about or given any consideration or credit. The knowledge that fills the world is a source of pride to mankind, pride that excludes God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not acknowledged as the Creator and Mankind is a random event operating  willy nilly in an equally random universe.

Most of us are self-blinded and with ears stopped up to the revelations of the Evergreater we live out our lives in deliberate ignorance of the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus is the last Revelation for he is God. How do we keep our selves open to the Word that is God amidst the pride, greed and fornication that are the main preoccupations that Human Life has become.?

Dear Lord, reach out again to your peolpe and let the poor and starving millions take first place in the line that is human time. Let our shepherds wake up to their duties and comdemn the evil nonsense that prideful men wish to foist on us. May Mary who knows the need of sick children continue to pray for all her children that we may find the joy and peace that is the free gift of her Son and yours to all the peoples of our world.

 19/07/2022

Jesus sounds peeved by the disciple who feeling that he is doing a service announces the arrival of Mother and brothers. His answer seems to be snapped back as if Jesus were annoyed with the interuption which showed that the announcer were not paying attention. The  possibility of the  subjection of the Evergreater God to petty human emotions has not figured largely in commentaries on this scriptural event.

The Church has understood from the earliest days that Jesus is the Son born of the Father in all Eternity. He is God and the Church has tried to understand Jesus' own words and formalise them into an unequivocal formula. "God from God, Light from Light true God from true God , begotten not made of one being with the Father."The true humanity of Jesus is from Mary who conceived in the normal human way but by the power of the Holy Spirit bore and gave birth to True Man."

Although James is the "brother of the Lord" he is not a sibling but part of Mary and Joseph's, and hence Jesus', extended family; these are the ones who caused the interuption. The whole of Humanity is known to Father, Son and Holy Spirit and it  we who are called to be mother brothers and sisters by doing the will of Our Father.

Dear Lord let my  being sing with joy as did Mary's when the incarnation was announced to her and let my will not question why but humbly accept the willing obedience you ask of me and my mother, brothers and sisters. Forgive us our sins. May your return to this world find Faith in your Life, Death and Resurrection still living in the hearts of mankind if not in the Church you founded.

 18/07/2022

Both Old and New Testaments speak directly to us today. It is completely clear how God wants to make the choice that will bring us to salvation. Micah confirms that there is nothing wrong in the sacrifices of the Temple but we are told to choose the path of obedience. We have to be just and caring and to always know that we live in the sight of God.

The psalm continues this theme. Inspired by the Holy Spirit the psalmist confirms that we need to be pure in heart if our words are to offer sincere worship to the Father.

Jesus is very clear that we who belong to the same evil and unfaithful generation as the one he lived among have to become upright in our prayers and honest in our devotions if we are to be confident before the Lord on Judgement Day.

Although the thought of Hell seems to be a contradiction to our concept of a loving Father, Son and Holy Spirit Jesus own words tell us that we should take this seriously as we have been offered the way to the perfection in this life that will result in the blessedness of eternal joy in heaven.

Dear Lord, help me to live in your loving presence this day and support and inspire those near and dear to me.May Mary and all the saints continue their prayers in support of all mankind in our need for Faith Hope and Charity.

 17/07/2022

Anyone who has lived in a family is familiar with the quarrels that break out among the children. Arguments about who did what to whom and about not doing what he should do are as familiar as breathing and usually end with an appeal to familial authority. " Oh mam, tell him/her!". Mary ,today, is seriously annoyed with her sister as so many guests have descended on them to witness the revivifed Lazarus and  "she" is just sitting and looking.

Jesus accepts her complaint but chides her, for sitting with God is always the "better part". Since the time of St Paul the institution that is still Church has tried to implement the words of Christ in a world that has grown too busy for its own good. Working and studying, doing good are all necessary and legitimate human concerns but even in the Church they have taken up an increasing amount of human time with a consequent forgetting of the "better part". The other great consumer of human time and effort is the attempt to contradict God's message and justify sinful behaviour.

We can be sure that Abraham was under the shade of the Oak because the heat of the day was pretty hot. (Today begins our "heatwave"). The three visitors are treated as a sign of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit a mystery which "was hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to the saints". Christ is Father, Son and Holy Spirit with us now. He is here for all  seekers after truth and holiness. Each one of us has only  to open our hearts and the Almighty Love of our Creator, Teacher and Guardian will come flooding in and the "Mystery" of life will become known to us.

Dear Lord help me to be pleasing to you this day and let the sins of my youth and the present time be forgiven. The punishment is yours to judge. This morning's revelations are the foundations of my conscious being. Let me never forget them. May Mary who cared for the child Jesus growing up with his relations know that our family quarrels are soothed only with love, lead the prayers of all the saints to plead for the Love of God to consume our time on earth and thus avoid the sins that resulted in the torture of Calvary.

 16/08/2022

Sins are never committed by accident. At the moment of sin my will can always stop the actions or the thought. God is always ready to forgive but I must try to learn from the mistake I knew that I was making in the floodlights of God's being. We cannot hide from God. Father Son and Holy Spirit is never slumbering or over- powered by the vastness of Creation or Time. The infinite possibilities that is the number of individual souls are known to him as an indivudual is known to himself; God knows me better than I know myself. 

As the psalmist, I and most of mankind ask why the Lord is here but does no act to stop the wicked acts that are happning now and at all  times there has been mankind in this Universe. I know the sin but my will to good fails and at the same moment my wish for forgiveness comes upon me and I know that I must humbly ask forgiveness to be given.

God knows that I have not led a blameless life and that I have striven but up until this time the period of my goodness always comes to an end in an instant. I continually pray to be kept out of temptation and for deliverence to be given to me. Lord stengthen my will with the grace brought into our world by Incarnation Life Death and Resurrection and let the truth of those words strengthen my being to overcome the evil that I allow into my life.

Dear Lord there is no need for any of these my words for you know the innermost of all being. I pray that I may be strengthened into holiness. May your Mother and all the Saints in heaven continue to pray for all the human souls that sinful or sinless,  in sickeness or in health, suffering or in comfort, on earth or in Purgatory are created to know, love and serve You, coming at last into face to face reality ready for eternity.

 15/07/202

Hezekhia is desperate at the thought that his death is near. He has no idea of an afterlife let alone an afterlife that wil be be filled with the Love of God. His destiny is now over and he will be with shadows of the dead in the pit, in Hades, in Sheol. In his lament he sees that the only good to be enjoyed is in worship of God in the Land of the Living. His life is extended. It is as if God condones this attitude and has nothing in store for the dead except the lack of everything that is good about life.

Isaiah was compiled about 2,000 years ago and the images he uses are to be found in all the ancient literature that I have a faint idea about. Technology is a familiar part of life then and the first of man's  machines the loom is used as an image of life throughout the surving literature of the Middle-East. The making of cloth from the spinning to the cut off, the finished article is an easily understood image of life and gives rise to questions about who the weaver is and can we do anything other than just live our lives. Are we just a product?

Jesus brings a message to first the Jews of the Temple and then to the whole world. Our Father is in Heaven. There is a Holiness that is always Good. The Kingdom of God is with us. We can inherit that Kingom not on earth but in heaven. We are free to choose holiness and live lives without sin. Jesus is God in a way beyond our intellects to understand. He is the Evergreater Father Son and Holy Spirit. God does not need our worship but he wills us to be human filled with Love that is merciful and turns the other cheek. He wants us to be as he is in his perfect humanity.

Dear Lord save me from the Death that is the result of sin, a consciousness of total futility. Let my deeds reflect my Faith that your will is for my benefit and for the good of the whole world. May Mary's example of loving devotion be for me an inspiration and hope that I will be able to centre my will on you and know that today as always I am living in your merciful Love.