22/10/2022

St Paul does not only preach the "Good News", passing on to us the Grace of God's time on earth, he also lays out a skeleton on which to build the Church, Jesus' lasting sacrificial and sacramental presence in human time. Our Church today has still the same basic functions to bear witness to the infinity of God's Paternal Love, to preach and teach the obedience of the Word and to be open to the Spirit who guards our conscience from the pride of self-love that can overcome our best intentions. 

When I look at the behaviour of our Church condemned by God and man, I know that I cannot share in the joy that Jerusalem, that City of God, inspires in the heart of the psalmist. I do not know how the clergy of England and Wales can read the Word of God and lead the Liturgy without first making a public act of confession for it is all of the "office-holders" described by Paul who are co-guilty in "cover-up" and lies.

 Where is there a crying out for reform that would first divest the Church of its possessions, "that tainted thing" and then completely avoid pandering to sinful societal trends? These are the end times. The sign of these "end times" is Jesus who has come to the vineyard with the last message from his Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Mary, our mother, pondered in her heart the events, to which she was co-central and knew the truth of God. We know that we must have lost the essence of our Faith when denial of sinfulness and self-preservation in office are the hallmark of the inheritors of the Apostolic Mission.

I think neither Westminster nor Birmingham have yet responded to the published report. If they think that their leadership roles put them above UK Law let them come out and say so rather than continue with the umming/aahing that characterised their non-response to cross examination.

Dear Lord you know what is good in your Church in England and Wales. I know that I have no room to shout either in my belief or practice, but I am literally bowing in shame and embarrassment at the lack of courage shown by your priests when brought before the tribunal for questioning. They should not have tried to excuse the inexcusable and delivered all the guilty ones including themselves up to "Pilate" for punishment. You our guiltless one suffered for us, but they the guilty ones went home for a "nice cup of tea". May Mary implore your forgiveness for my lack of respect for those who having chosen a public life of service to you have not been able to bear witness to that commitment when needed. 

 

 21/10/2022

St Paul is totally possessed by the Lord, the One that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit revealed by the Incarnation. The One who is ever-greater than our human perception; the one who calls us all to be open to the Holy Spirit and become a Church which too is one and undivided in the Love God has lavished on us.

Jesus words in yesterday's Gospel, "I come to bring division", are in stark contrast to the joy in unity expressed by St Paul. Today Jesus bemoans the crowds lack of awareness of what they are witnessing. The people who have gathered to hear his words and hopefully witness a miracle do not know that he is God's final word to and within his creation. He is the "Son" sent by the owner and he knows that he will have to be face to face with sin and endure the agony that awaits him as man without God for he has completely emptied himself of the Divine and will have to endure the "three-days" torture and death "abandoned by God".

People have complained that the British only know how to talk about the weather. Jesus words about rain and temperature cannot be cited as a scriptural reference to justify that characteristic of an island race but it is a metaphor for how the trivial can be understood but the truly important "signs of the times" are missed. I believe that "the signs of the times" are still "Christ yesterday, today and for ever". 

Every one of us lives out of the lives of our forebearers and they too are children of our Father the Eternal One whose will it is that we should know love and serve to prepare ourselves for the death that is always a sign of our human times.

Dear Lord help me to live out the rest of my days in the "peace that passeth all understanding" and may my resolution not falter so that the strength of sin, which could be considered a "sign of today's times", is expelled by your grace freely shared with all sinners. May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints who are with you in the Church, one with us in the Holy Spirit be heard and may the grace that they receive be  with all mankind struggling to be with you who are truly "the sign of all times".

 20/10/2022

The readings at mass are all from the Holy Spirit inspired scripture. On some days, however, they seem to be more powerful than on others. St Paul's recommendation/exhortation to the Ephesians is Father, Son and Holy Spirit speaking through the chosen apostle to all mankind. If we keep our hearts and minds free from malice and open to grace, this is the spirit of prayer that will be given to us.

All the psalms, which were Jesus Mary and Joseph's own prayer book, although composed well before the Incarnation are filled by the beauty that is not only the result of diligence and poetical talent, but also of the Glory of the Divine Truth that shines through them directly into our hearts.

Jesus' own words however are a sometimes hard reality of the Truth that is Son, Father and Spirit; today it is a "baptism of fire". He doesn't say that human sinfulness will cause division by the misunderstanding of his words. Nor does the inter-generational strife he describes resemble the Glory that is the object of Paul's prayer of praise.

Dear Lord let me not seek to be clever by answering all the questions raised by your life and words. Your words in today's Gospel are a challenge but not as great a challenge as "This is My Body". Let not the prayer of St Paul, another realist, become pious escapism and let the unity of your Holy Family be the model for all families on earth. May Mary and all the saints pray that their mystical unity with Christ as head and with us co-parts of the body become not an ideal but a blazing reality here on earth. Maranatha!

 19/10/2022

Burglary in the first century sems to have been not a matter of breaking locks etc. Jesus is telling us to be always on guard for "the burglar" will even break down the walls of his targeted building to get at the wealth concealed inside. 

The disciples often have reactions to parables that reveal their human failings. "Is this message just for us?", asks Peter. Jesus is the fullness of God's revelation of himself. This fullness is completely available to all of us who have heard the Word and obeyed in belief and deed.

Jesus did give a foretaste of Resurrection when he revealed the Glory of Father, Son and Holy Spirit to only three of the Apostles on Mt. Tabor. St John does acknowledge that Jesus' teaching was much greater than his contemporaries could record, but the "mysteries" referred to by St Paul are firstly the events of Jesus' life recorded in the New Testament and then the Liturgical celebration of these events "do this in memory of me". They are both an "open book".

The first centuries of the Church were plagued by the mindsets derived from the Pharisaical teaching that had preceded and had been contemporaneous with but condemned by Jesus' life on earth. The term "chosen people" still means more to some than it does to God. "The Mass of the Catechumens" also preserves the "institutionalised" nature of "the Church" with its rite of entry, that we see in the vast wealth of buildings, palaces and of art that is called the "patrimony of St. Peter" by some but "that tainted thing" by Jesus.

St Paul's journeys were beset by the danger of traveling even in the Pax Romana, but he succeeded and and never lost touch with the Holy Spirit, Father and Son the glory of whose being had been revealed to him on the road to Damascus. If we, the present-day Church, have the same Faith as preached by Paul the same Sacraments perpetuating the Passion, Death and Resurrection in human time and freedom, the support of Mary and the Saints and the message of the Gospels all contained in the persons of the priesthood first ordained by Jesus in the Apostles, why are so many of us leaving the practice of our Religion and casting out God from our lives?

Dear Lord you know that I am but one sinner turning to you. A sinner who can doubt my own sincerity which is always questioned by my deeds. Help me to return to a Church in which I can be sure that you are really present; a Church which is not disgraced / "degraced" by its ministers. May Mary and all the saints continue to fight against sin on our behalf and let planks be removed from my eyes so I can see clearly that your Mercy is for all of us.

 18/10/2022

We do not know the exact number of the "72" as we do of the "12" and of the "4". The episode in today's Gospel is recorded by St Luke whose Feast is celebrated today and we can be sure that this mission was entrusted to a group of followers known personally by Jesus. The instructions given to each pair are exact but enigmatical for us. What is the "peace" that can be given and taken back? What is the Kingdom of  God before the Resurrection? 

The good done by the Samaritan was to take care of the wounded traveller and Jesus' miracles too are all done in the body. The blind see, the lame walk, the possessed have their personal devils driven out of them, even the hungry are fed. The Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is for His creation and he knows that "it is good" as are our bodies in themselves.

 His creation is the "ever-expanding" Universe which is the analogy of the Evergreater being of our Creator of whom we are created to be the "image and likeness". The sin/damage done in created time by this "image" to this "Kingdom" is only possible for us to glimpse in the knowledge that God so loved the world that Son/Jesus was begotten in the body of Mary and lived among us to become the perfect atonement and thus open for us the place for our perfection in the eternity that is God's Glory.

Dear Lord you know what I am. I think that my being is body mind and soul but only you know me as I really am. May my prayers become acceptable to you and let me truly see in all of us the cross on which Jesus who in agony suffered as I cannot imagine the abyss which preceded our resurrected salvation. May the prayers of Mary and "Ikonist" Luke together with all the Saints be with all who are close to death and may the Mercy of Father Son and Holy Spirit overwhelm the guilt created by my sins.

 17/10/2022

St Paul's faith and total acceptance of his mission shines out from all of his preaching by letter to the Churches he has founded. Sometimes he emphasises that he is a Jew, one of the chosen ones who have been brought up to believe in only one God and in whose Scripture can be seen a record of God's dealings with his own people, favouring them or punishing according to their deeds. 

Today Paul includes himself in the same mass of humanity that had been living by nature under God's anger and makes no claims on his status as a devout Jew. He too had been living sinfully "dead" in this world until all is changed by the overwhelming tidal wave of infinite love that is poured out over all the peoples of the world and he has been chosen to be a Rabi of this new covenant which is available in this redeemed world for us all to accept or refuse. We need to respect our God-given freedom.

In his human nature Jesus is also a devout Jew and his first preaching is to the "chosen ones". God is always true to himself. Jesus clarifies what it is God has created in our Universe. His being is love and out of love he has created this world and we are to recognise, accept and share in this Divine love by directing our human love first to Father, Son and Holy Spirit and then to our "neighbour" for Jesus has tasted the pains and total suffering of death to save me, him, us from our sin-choosing selves.

Treasure on earth is an ever-fading mirage that is always "that tainted thing". Is today's gospel the source of Pope Francis', "Who am I to judge?"? I hope so!

Dear Lord, you make yourself known in the world by your deeds. We can only be your servants by our deeds. Let me avoid temptation this day and let me chip away at the mountain of sin I leave wherever I go. You know that "willing" is not enough and showed this in the "impossible sacrifice" you made on our behalf. May Mary's and all the Saints' and Martyrs' prayers support my family and all the peoples of the world and let there be Glory to you Father Son and Holy Spirit now and for ever more.

 16/10/2022

The readings today start with the history of the Holy Land and end with the enigmatical reference by Jesus to his Second Coming. God supports his people through thick and thin. Moses becomes tired in his arms and legs but is supported by his acolytes and the Will of God is seen to be completed in the defeat inflicted on the aggressors at Rephidim. 

The Bible is not only the revelation of the Infinite Being of God it is also a historical record of God's dealings with the human race first with the physical descendants of Abraham and then with the "Whole World". It is sometimes hard for us to cope with what are, in human eyes, the injustices perpetrated on behalf of the "Chosen People", but Jesus never condemns the bloodshed in the Scriptures he knew so well. He does, however, condemn apostacy and hypocrisy and all sin.

Paul instructs Timothy in the teaching role of a pastor. It is as, Henry V outside of Harfleur, a rallying cry to boost the morale not only of Timothy but of all those with authority in the Church, then and now. We too cannot avoid being stirred and becoming increasingly aware that the Truth of Scripture is inspired by Father Son and Holy Spirit and cannot be denied; it is the total Truth of God in words for us to know, understand and live by.

Jesus the Incarnate Word, the Love of God on earth speaks in parables the images of which have become part of the Whole World, the humanity he came to bring back from its misuse of the freedom created for us all. We must direct our souls to abide in the Infinite Love which may be hidden in Church corruption. 

We the people of God must mount a prayer assault on the parts of that institution that seemingly neither fear God nor, as Peter promised to do, feed the sheep. Jesus has promised to be with us until the "end of time" and it is the acceptance of that promise that needs to be found in us on earth at the end. Jesus wants to find the Faith that only we can offer for we are the only creatures made in the "image and likeness" of the Evergreater. We can choose.

Dear Lord, I know you are not the unjust Judge but I also know that your Church on earth is not as it should be. May our prayers be heard and let the Holy Spirit guard us against our own sinful natures and those of the clergy who should be our guides on earth. May Mary's heart be guarded against the further sorrows brought about by the of failings of us, her children accepted at the foot of the Cross. The divine sacrifice cannot be in vain.