28/01/2023

 As I read the first of this morning readings I could not but help to have in mind St Paul's warning that no matter what our good deeds, our wisdom, our understanding it is by love that we will be measured . In my day there have been in our Church very many theologians, men gifted with great intelligence. There have also been episodes that have totally disgraced our Church by their lack of anything but self-love.

This has also been true throughout history, where the leaders of our Church have become powerful rulers of territory challenging kingdoms and empires. It should never have been that there was such an entity as a Papal State. No wonder the Vatican today is a mess of vanities where there are struggles over wealth and power."My kingdom is not of this world" is as easy to understand as "Thou shalt not kill" or any other of God's ten gifts to Moses on Mount Sinai but seems to have been impossible to obey

Jesus, our Lord our God did not lie to us. His is another "world", another "kingdom" of the Spirit which is the reality that has been revealed by the prophets and in our final revelation by Father Son and Holy Spirit in the Incarnation, Life, Death and Glorious Resurrection.

Jesus knows what it is to be man, he knows that prideful very centre of my being that is the cause of any difficulties I might experience and he warns his closest friends, the first believers, to have no human ranks among themselves. What is it about "Call no man Father" that our Church has not understood. Wisdom  is not the ability to twist words and grow our ideas. It is the gift that enables us to live in Love, as did the Word of God. Jesus owned only his bare necessities for living and died even without those. How can an Archbishop clothe himself in enough cloth to dress the "five-thousand"when he is supposed to be the guardian of Christ's teaching and Sacraments here on earth.

Dear Lord help me keep myself from sin and know that our Father is in heaven and that those with the greatest spiritual gifts are still only feeble men if they do not with open hearts turn each day to the Wonder and Glory of God. He will be with his Church even in the travesty, the mummery symbolised by one of those whose gifts should have overcome his pride. May Mary who is Theotokos not only because she carried the Life of the World in her womb but you also held the bloodied, lifeless corpse after the crucifixion pray that the worldly riches of the Church be liquidated and just given directly to the poor. Let us pray for the Church that she  become the place where prideful prelates can understand Jesus who had nowhere to rest his head and not just soulessly repeat his words.

 27/01/2023

The persecution of the early Christians was first experienced in Jerusalem where Jesus had been the first victim, the High Priest and the Sacrifice, once and for all. Jesus was crucified and the way the truth and the life was opened for all and for ever. The Mass is the reflection of that once and for all, eternal event. 

Jesus the co-equal Son empties himself of the power of his divine being and freely accepts the abandonment by the Father. Even though Jesus knows what the outcome will be, the pain of this abandonment becomes real in his acceptance of human time and in the garden he pleads that it might pass and  the cry of the Son on the Cross is ultimate pain that we his creation have brought to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God cannot be understood. My words are confused lost in the mystery that I can worship but never understand. Mark tells us that the Apostles who lived and worked with Jesus had to have some of his sayings explained to them but he does not claim to have had secrets told to him and the other disciples that were not shared with all humanity.

God wants us all to turn to him of our own free will. In our humanity we share the instincts of the animals but we are much more than our pre-coded bodies which flinch from pain and can pursue pleasure. Each one of us at the moment of conception has our soul breathed into us by the Holy Spirit. 

The Incarnation has changed the nature of humanity both body and soul . Our Souls are a precious image of God's own nature and have to be protected from the rampaging evil that still fills the world. That is what the old penny catechism means by "know love and serve".

Jesus by emptying himself to become the seed smaller than the mustard seed and accepted by Mary has become the Resurrection, our protection from all evil but we have to make the choice for ourselves. God has created us to be free beings and it is in our free choice of Truth in which he delights and fills us with his love.

Dear Lord let my being be filled with your love and the wish to serve you during my life-time. You know what I am to become. May your Mother the source of your body help me and all her children to become the holy ones that you have created us all to be and may her prayers and those of the saints protect us from the devil and may your mercy continue to inspire the penitence of the Holy Souls.

 26/01/2023

The Apostolic Succession is not just a phrase to be trotted out in discussions about the True Faith and the validity of Sacraments but is the Holy Spirit, the Truth of Father Son and Holy Spirit present in all generations after the Resurrection. There is nothing in the tradition recorded in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches that is different from that preached by the Apostles.

The Worlds where that preaching is proclaimed are different only in their abilities to understand matter and to manipulate it. We are still dust and to dust we will all return. This is true of first century Jerusalem and also true for today. Jesus is the great light seen by the wise men and when we see the same light we have to share it for it is to all men that Father, Son and Holy Spirit made the last of his revelations with the founding on Peter of the Church that will be supported to the end of time by the Body broken and by the Blood shed for us on Calvary.

I have great love for my family but show my Faith to them with timidity which is not what has been given to us. I am now trying to justify this timidity in my head even as I type these words. It is basically that I am too weak to challenge their lack of faith and justify myself by these prayers and meditations recorded as this Blog which is known only to God as it has been read by nobody. My timidity is a fear compounded of seeming to be stupid and pride in what I write.With God's help I will this day try to find ways of opening this blog so that it can be accessed by anyone but especially by those whom I hold dear.

Dear Lord, I know that you are with me and that it is myself who does not take the step of proclaiming the Joy of Faith with the power of your love. Let the Prayers of Mary and all the Saints strengthen me to accept your grace and fulfill your will for me in sincere obedience.

 25/01/2023

St Paul's conversion on his way to Damascus is probably the third most staggering event in the history of mankind. It is also a result of God's direct intervention in the affairs of his creation, our world. There has never been anything greater than the Incarnation and the Resurrection, but the results of Paul's conversion have shaped both the Church, Christ's Body on Earth and the way of life that is followed by most of the world's population even if they profess to be non-Christians and even Atheists.

The first Christians who were convinced that Jesus would be returning on the "clouds of Heaven" in their lifetimes must have been disappointed that this did not happen but this disappointment is not recorded anywhere that I have read about. Modern Christians have tried to access the Holy Spirit by speaking in tongues. Snake handling has been part of some renewal movements. I have never heard of "poison drinking"being tried by any sect. The curing of the sick is what we still practise and their sacramental anointing  is still one of the functions of the Priesthood.

Reading these words of Jesus recorded by Mark, I feel the sort of pressure felt by our Bishops when forced by secular authorities to account for their cover ups  made to protect their abusing priests. The scandal of their coverups is as great a sin as the abuse inflicted on their victims but they felt forced to deny knowledge of wrong doing. We should all openly face up to our sins and trust to the mercy of our Father, "the Dad"of Jesus..

Denying the truth of part of the Gospel is truly gut-wrenching for me but I feel forced to say that Jesus is not recorded in the Gospels as ever having drunk poison or picked up snakes and the Incarnation is the proof that Father, Son and Holy Spirit never expect us to do anything beyond human capabilities. Jesus stretched his human body to the absolute limits on the cross before accepting death as the completion of his Father's will for him. It is death that leads to a new beginning before that Last Coming when God will be all in all and our present bodies will become like the body of the Resurrection.

Dear Lord, you know that I am sincerely trying to live as you have wanted us all to do from the days of Adam and Eve until now. Jesus is the template of perfection and he assures us that we can move mountains if our Faith is strong enough and similarly the snakes and poison of Mark are figures of speech rather than literal proofs of holiness. May the prayers of Mary our heavenly Mother be fruitful in the grace that pours forth from the blessed wounds of Jesus our Lord and our Saviour who is both truly man and with you and the Holy Spirit one God, Creator and Inspiration.

 24/01/2023

The Law that Jesus and most of the people that are recorded in the Gospels practised was the Law of Moses. They were the people that had recognised the revelation by God of his will for mankind. They were the chosen people. 

The Hebrews is a deeply thoughtful encounter between the Old and the New. Jesus in his three years of human life was the perfect example of the life God wills for us to live. It is the faultless "playbook", faultless "code" that each of has to chose for himself and attempt to programme into our beings. 

We are the natural intelligence that has nothing artificial about it. Animals are perfect in what they are for they are pre-programmed to be. They are what they are by the will of God but we have to choose for ourselves from the many roads and "codes" open to us the ones that will lead us to the perfection of being that has been revealed.

Jesus had started his mission in Nazareth but left the household of his extended family and come to Capernaum. Although they had been displeased by the crowds that had immediately flocked around the "healer"that Jesus was instantly perceived to be, they still knew him as their brother and Mary knew a lot more. So, having heard about what was happening in Capernaum, they went there to see him.

There is one criterion for being in the Jesus' family. We know that we should always choose to do the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to enable us to do this Jesus the Resurrection, the High Priest and Perfect Sacrifice is with us till the end of time to take away the sins of the world.

Dear Lord help me not to be pleased with myself and know that actions are always more than words.All that I am and do are known to you and I pray that the sincerity that I feel in my heart is not phony and that I can avoid the sins that once committed stay within my skull even though they are forgiven. I know that your Mother was not rejected by you in Capernaum and that she stayed close to you even to the end and she is still with you and all your saints in the bliss of eternal worship. May her prayers be heard and your mercy overflow the Holy Souls and sinners here on earth.

 23/01/2023

The Holy Spirit inspired depth of thought that we read in the "Hebrews" is truly staggering. I always relate time in the Gospels to my own experience of life. 

This encouragement to Jewish believers in the Resurrection was written and read within 40 years of Jesus' time on earth. During that time some of those who had been eye-witnesses had died but the Good News from Jerusalem had been proclaimed from India to Spain and the basic structure of our Church established, although still a work in progress.

The interpretation of the meaning of the witnessed events that we now know as "Dogma"or "Theology" had already started and disputes had also begun, for as in "Chinese Whispers", each of our remembrances of the same words and events are processed by each of our individual brains and each of us believe in our own memories and arguments.

Forty years is not so short a length of time, much can happen in that time. Within the first forty years of my lifetime Hitler had been defeated, India and other Asian and African nations have been freed from Colonialism, Israel returned to Palestine, men had walked on the moon and the second Vatican Council had concluded.

All of these great events which happened are still discussed and argued about not only by Historians but also by all who have an opinion, although none of us can claim the infallible authority that is God's Word for our beliefs in these facts of history.

The challenge hurled in the face of God by the changes I have witnessed in accepted moral behaviours, however, is something much more diabolical. It is Beelzebub sneering at the bloodied body of Christ dead on Calvary. Children born today are being encouraged to deny the nature of their being and the sinful stupidity of Homosexuality is encouraged in our classrooms.

God does not lie. We are created "man and woman" and a millstone is the promised reward for those who scandalise our "little ones" both children and adults. God does not lie.We are promised that the Word in Father, Son and Holy Spirit will still be with us even when we have destroyed the whole of creation. God does not lie. He is the way, the truth and the life.

Dear Lord,you know the sinfulness of my life. You know that it is hard to find true Faith on earth and that I am weak in the face of the mortal dangers which fill our time. You know the evil that has corrupted our Church. The  sacrificial blood that you poured out on Calvary defeated sin "once and for all". May Mary and all the Saints pray that hearts on earth be opened to the Holy Spirit and thus find their true Father in heaven one in Being with Jesus Christ and know him as do the Holy Souls making atonement for their sins in Purgatory.

 22/01/2023

God is everywhere is not just a theological concept but the Truth. The presence of God is something that I must become aware of in my innermost self. My being is totally my person; I am the only one created thus. God is Creator Father, Saviour Son and Love pouring out Holy Spirit. 

Trying to understand and describe God is not a fruitless task even though it cannot be ended for it is sure that we are only able to catch hold of a bit of an idea of God but nothing of his reality. Trying to make human sense of this living and dying that is common to us all has to depend on God's revelations of himself.

St Paul was blasted into belief on the road to Damascus and he never lost hold of the living Christ revealed so dramatically. It was not so for his disciples. Squabbles, backbiting, new ideas/doctrine soon disrupted the churches that he founded. The Jewish of his congregations could find support for his teaching in their Scriptures but what about the pagans whose religious faith was in household gods and specific temple idols and whose minds were attuned by human philosophy.

St Paul tells us all that Faith has to be in the Crucifixion.The lifeless body, held by nails, covered in blood is there for God's own sacrifice of himself is the only way that sin can be destroyed. Jesus prepared our world for this by leaving his family home and gathering a motley crew of disciples who, gifted as no other humans, were to join him in his mission of salvation.

Dear Lord you are  our light and our help and not only is it your being that is everywhere but your awareness is always of everything. May Mary whose home you left to begin your public ministry continue to support the forlorn here on earth and the Holy Souls whose penitence is crying out for mercy. Show me the way to love and worship as a human should.