07/02/2023

St John's Gospel begins with the first fact about ourselves that I heard, as a boy and youth at the end of mass, sometimes thought about as a man and today am face to face again in this morning's first reading. What is it in me that I can know as God's Image and Likeness?

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God". God is Father Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Incarnation of the "Word" and was thus with God in the beginning and it is "his image and likeness" in which mankind was created. How can I understand the ways of the Evergreater creator of our Universe? And yet he has created me a little less than a God.

Jesus was with God before the creation of the Universe and "I am created ", have the being of which I am always aware as a fragile image of my Creator who poured out his love in the immensity of this Universe and maybe in eternal repeats of his Being of which we have no knowledge.

Jesus is still with us as real in the Sacrament as he was to the senses of the Apostles after the Resurrection. His own honouring of his Father and mother became the total sacrifice of himself on Calvary. We can use his grace to follow the example of his way of perfection but, we do not do that by wrangling our way out of doing his will in all things.. 

Man is man. Woman is woman. "Male and Female"he created them". Parents are to be loved and cared for especially in their dotage. There is nothing that can be thought, said or done by "Image and Likeness" that breaks the demarcation lines set in stone for Moses and by the life, death and Resurrection of he who is creator of all.

Dear Lord, you know that the pharisees were also in need of a shepherd and I know that you condemn them for their pettifogging "holier than thou" but when challenged "to cast the first stone" they shamefacedly sidled off-stage. My soul is mine for the saving and for you there is nothing that is impossible, let me make my soul curban an offering to you that this time I will complete. May Mary's prayers be heard for those suffering in the region that was a first centre of "thy will on Earth" and may she and all the saints continue to implore thy grace for all sinners both here and in purgatory.

 06/02/2023

There has to have been the first of everything we know. God revealed himself to the Jews and let them explain the world that they knew and we know today in terms of the Father, Creator of all things. There is no way that the people of Genesis could have made sense of Evolution over periods of millions of years. The timescales are God's but they are translated into human time. The first week of creation asserts that what was created was good. It was out of Love that it grew and could be only Good. 

There is nothing in the created "Big Bang" that is the ever expanding Universe that can come close to the infinite Being of our never changing and always ever greater than anything we can know God. We must thank Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the beauty of creation and  for the freedom to study and grow in the understanding that we have of our world and of our place within it. We must try to accept that each one of us is a new Adam or Eve who arrives in the Natural World to be welcomed by the instinctive "Mother's Love" which is the gift of our Loving Creator to all animals, including us, that Our Father bestows on all the world.

Mankind has been filled with an ever greater pride in itself by its free use of intelligence to understand the material of our World. God has largely been cast aside, Man is the Greatest of all beings and Humanism rules.The Truth, however is that  we are still all the Adams and Eves of the first creation and we like them are still damaging the "Good"that was the "Garden" both physically and spiritually by the same misuse of our Godlike freedom that we inherit as Original Sin.

Dear Lord may the peoples of the Far East come to the realisation that the teachings of Jesus accepted by the  Christians of Nagasaki whom they slaughtered are still the truth for all as they are the sure way to new life everlasting. May Mary with all the martyrs of Asia continue in their prayers for all mankind and for the souls waiting for God's Mercy.

 05/02/2023

God never changes. Jesus was born to reaffirm the Love which is Father Son and Holy Spirit . The time we measure and which shows itself in our growth and decay begins with the moment of creation, the Big Bang, out of the created material of the Universe which stretches unimaginably out of the night sky.

God never changes and he filled the mind of Isaiah to preach the  Love that grows out of Christ crucified way before Jesus walked on this Earth. St Paul, a devout and learned Jew, emphasises to the sophisticates of Corinth that he brought to them not God known as an intellectual concept. He preached Jesus  a naked bloody corpse a criminal hanging dead with other criminals on a cross outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Jesus tells us, his disciples, that we are in the world to use our lives to reveal highlights of God's Glory. We have to keep active those missing heart beats, flashes of loving faith, when first we recognised our beings as souls created to know love and serve. Even though it seems that we have blanketed out the taste of Faith with innumerable time filling pleasures and Godless pursuits, we must take Jesus seriously when he tells us to wear our hearts on our sleeves and brightly shine out our witness to our Resurrection Faith. It is for timeless being that we have been created.

Dear Lord you know that my personal failings and recovery have been many and that these moments  I try to spend with you are a pathetic attempt to "shine" a bit among the billions of words that fill the new space created by man's manipulation of your created material. May Mary and all the Saints continue to support and comfort faithful and sinners on Earth and the atoning souls in Purgatory that form the "internet" of your Mystical body.

 04/02/2023

St Paul advises that we never lose sight of God. We must always acknowledge his "name". We must never forget that it is the reality of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that is the source and mainstay of our lives and of the world around us.. We must not sin for it is by staying holy that we can avoid the "Lord, Lord" of empty words and do the will of our Father who is in Heaven.

Jesus knows that the Apostles were exhausted by their first missionary journey and sought to give them the opportunity to rest. There was to be no opportunity, however, and the crowds guessed their destination and got there before them. In our times, the overwhelming response of the people to the presence of Jesus in the early days of his mission is  matched only by the enthusiasm of the religious revivals of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Today the many church buildings that filled the villages, towns and cities in England are empty or put to other uses. The collapse of once thriving church communities is one of the great "signs of our times". Do we have to accept this as the Will of "Our Father who art in heaven"? It is easy to pose the question  but as for an answer, it has to come to each of us in our hearts that are open to the Resurrection Truth revealed by word and deed in Palestine so long ago. 

Dear Lord, I know that there is nothing that is not known to you. Please let me make my being a witness to your Love and let my good intentions become good deeds, May your mother Mary and the communion of Saints which has you as its being, bring to the minds of all on earth that you have a purpose for each one of us and provide the grace for us to perfect that will and become the person you want us to become.

 03/02/2023

The words of St. Paul have been read millions of times but they never change. Christ is God so he never changes. The teaching of the Apostles reveal the way of living that the Father has created us to follow. The basis is Love. The Golden Rule encapsulates all of the commandments except the first which  reveals the Evergreater that loves us into being. That Love has to be reciprocated during our time on Earth.  "Do not do to another what you would not want done to yourself" is the only way to return God's love to him. "Human Rights" were given to Moses long, long ago, they are not some human thinking and did not promote the "right to sin".

The first century Roman Empire was a place where the rich got richer by growth of military conquest. Many lived in a state of physical comfort similar to what we live today where slaves did the work  that technology does for us now.

Medical progress has made it possible to overcome the material downside of breaking the "Golden Rule". The Joy of Sex can be easily satisfied without fear of immediate consequences. Today, even sexual perversities are considered to be essential to humanity  and promoted by "Human Rights" agitation. But 2000 years ago, John the Baptist fearlessly faced the political powers of his day and preached that Herod's relationship with Herodias broke God's law.

Jesus is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow. He is our example and our goal. His human person is still with us in the spiritual body given to us by the Sacrament. The three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their timeless certitude of being know love and care for us today, yesterday and tomorrow but we in the confines of human time have to use our freedom of spirit to atone for the sins of yesterday, and avoid those of today and tomorrow.

Dear Lord let me welcome your infinite Mercy into my heart and let my soul become what it should be. I know my sins and you know them with the pain they caused by their ingratitude. Let me strive for holiness aware that all is possible for you and that the prayers of your Mother and all the saints are ceaselessly raised to implore your Mercy on all the Earth and Purgatory.

 02/02/2023

All the events of Jesus' life on  Earth confirm that  the Father, Son and Holy Spirit first chose to make the revelation of God to the people of Israel. The Jews are still the chosen people although today they show less belief in their covenant than do we Christians in ours. This Feast of the Presentation is a remembrance that continues to emphasise that Jesus true God is also true man. Joseph and Mary follow the Law exactly and dedicate him to God as the circumcised first born of their family. 

Our Faith emphasises that our bodies have to be controlled by our souls and that there is no need to undergo the pettifogging scrupulosity to avoid "defilement of our body" practised by the Pharisees. Our defilement of soul, sin always begins with our choice of disobedience to God's will. One can understand why the messy business of birth could have been seen as a source of ritual impurity in a society that wore phylacteries and had rules about hand washing. 

The ceremony of "Churching" of mothers forty days after birth seems to have been  forgotten by our Western Church and there is no "defilement" in the monthly "period" dreaded by so many women. Our bodies are unmarked by original sin but, under the influence of pre-Christian philosophers the Spirit has been considered to be by nature, a higher order than the physical body. Lots of heresies and arguments were faced in the Church because of this opinion The Incarnation cancels that argument.

We still know that our souls live on after our bodies die. We also know that the Incarnation of God took place in Bethlehem. The ever begotten Son had grown in the womb of the Virgin Mary and thus dignified the whole of human nature body and soul. The corpse of Jesus was not revived but reborn/resurrected into the new way of life/being that God has prepared for us all at the end of time, of course, our freedom can still refuse the free gift of God, but totally mindless to do so. 

Dear Lord may I be always open to receive your word and believe it with sincerity. I am always the same "I"and can easily fall into prideful self-love. May Mary's example of selflessness always be present in my thoughts and let my being totally surrender to your Will, for you are the Mercy that has saved  sinners here on Earth and will pardon the Holy Souls who are atoning in Purgatory.

 01/02/2023

I feel closer to St Paul than I do to the Bishops here in England. 

Reading this morning's Gospel  I was struck with Jesus', although he was amazed by the lack of Faith, acceptance of his situation vis a vis his neighbours and family. He accepts that their familiarity with him as a child who had been seen on the streets and fields of Nazareth, growing up as children do, coloured their thoughts about him. They must have known about the only event of his childhood recorded in Scripture and he could have been known as "that clever boy of Joseph whom the Scribes listened to" but on them this "Nazrani"  had nothing, as a grown man, like the impact he had had on the beaches of the Sea of Galilee.

"Judge not lest you be judged" is a dire warning and so is Paul's "take care that no root of bitterness take hold and begin to grow". Whole Christian communities have been destroyed over the centuries by this bitterness that arises when we listen to ourselves and invest our whole being in ourselves and not in the only Christ who brought Father, Son and Holy Spirit to his people living on earth.

There have been many decades in History when the institution that Jesus founded to confirm the holiness that is the will of his Father, the reason for his suffering and the Glory of the Resurrection did not act according to the Gospel. Is knowing that whole dynasties of Popes and Bishops and Clergy have been corrupted by the Devil World and Flesh which we condemn with the confirmation of Baptismal Promises by our way of Life, not making a judgement in favour of Truth.

Is it not sinful to passively accept the de facto holiness of the "Church" when we can see the hypocritical waywardness of those who have been given both the seal of the Priesthood and the Keys by the Good Shepherd. 

Of course, I feel closer to St Paul than to the Bishops for he is closer to Jesus, my Lord and my Saviour God.

Dear Lord, you know that much of your Church is not doing your will on Earth. I also know this, but also know that repentance for my sinfulness is the only goal that I am capable of reaching and that only with the Grace that you have poured out for us all. I think that Mary was not happy with the reception you received "at home" but know that there was no bitterness in her. May her prayers and those of all the saints continue to support us here on Earth and let the "Holy Souls in Purgatory Time" have their sins washed away so that their Souls can be filled with your merciful  Love.