01/03/2023

St Paul knows without doubt that Jesus has brought to the world the only thing that is necessary for us all to share, the grace of Faith. Paul's Faith is total belief in his oneness with Jesus. His Hope is that he will receive from God the perfection that Jesus has brought into the world. It is his Love that enables him to proclaim the Resurrection and to follow the Cross to his personal Good Friday.

Jesus has warned us that our Faith has not to be only skin-deep. Many of the Pharisees and priests were meticulous about their outward observance of the Law. This is the same hypocrisy that is so easy for me and all of us to hide from ourselves but not from God. Each day I try to open my mind and heart to Father, Son and Holy Spirit but after these minutes I am again the person that is uniquely the one created by God, the I that is the "hidden room" where Jesus tells to be at home with the Evergreater who is his Dad, our father who loves us to the extent of the Cross and all that leads up to it.

St Paul also had a hidden room but he lived in our world and was uniquely chosen to preach Christ. He shouted out his Faith and accepted his personal Cross. He could without any trace of hypocrisy proclaim the message that had been given to him. The message was for us to put Jesus foremost in our lives and to bear witness to him by living our lives  in the light of his Love.

We cannot do this by hiding in our "hard-drives". We have to become a reflection of the light of perfect Faith, Hope and Love that shines out over the whole Universe from Calvary.

Dear Lord, you know how difficult it can be for us to maintain awareness of our primary purpose. Satan knows that your grace is our only defence against sin and is in these high-tech days finding billions of ways to distract mankind into disobedience. You know my weakness; let my freedom make only right choices and thus come to be on Earth as it is in Heaven. May Mary and all the Saints continue to bring unity to the whole Church; joyful in Heaven, struggling on Earth and penitential in Purgatory.

 28/02/2023

Do not babble as the pagans do. God knows everything.

God cares for us as our parents care for us. He is the head of our human family. We do what the Father wants because he only wants what is good from each and everyone of his beloved making us as heaven, where there is only the holiness of Love willed by Father, Son and Holy Spirit, on Earth. Help us to care for our bodies without depriving others. We need to recognise that we do sin, which is very hard for those who take pride in their sin, and to ask for forgiveness. God forgives us by the measure of how we forgive others who do harm to us. Let your Love  redirect my will as soon as I am tempted to deny you by deeds or words that are against your revelation. There is Evil that tries to negate the Revealed Truth that Jesus completed. Let my willful being be saved from the jaws of the lion that seeks to devour our souls.

My brain does "babble". Random thoughts continually fill my mind. Memories of good and evil. Huge embarrassments of long ago cause me to cringe anew.  The theme music  of daily life plays on  a loop; the background music to my being. But each day there is also prayerful activity even for only a few moments. 

Those few micro seconds of me straight to God happen and are then lost but they are the moments that give me the confidence to say in trust; "Our Father who art in heaven".

Dear Lord, let me not be overcome by the "King Baby" that, as you know,  is still the centre of my being. Let the sincerity of my words be seen in my actions and help me to avoid all sin. May Mary continue to be the heart of your Church and let her prayers and those of all the Saints inspire all clergy to show to us the "sheep" that they really know that you are the "Good Shepherd".

 27/02/2023

We are living our lives to be holy.There is nothing more important for us to do this day than to serve our God.  We have to know God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, We have to serve by worshipping what we know. We have to love what we know and serve for the God we know and serve is Love.

The Law revealed to Moses explains to us how we can live in holiness. We are individuals and known as such by God. As we grow through childhood we become aware that we are living with others and although at first we can get anything we fancy by screaming blue murder, we soon learn, especially if we have siblings, that we are not the centre of the Universe. Many of us do not learn this lesson well and throughout our lives know, love and serve only ourselves. These are the "goats.

We are loved by God and he teaches us that we have been created to use our human freedom to chose during our lifetimes words and deeds that reflect the Love that he is. God's will is that I should grow up from infancy when my every wish is my command and taking charge of my being put others before myself.

All sinfulness happens because we allow our own beings to become our God who must be obeyed by all. As we prepare to celebrate the Liturgy that commemorates the most important event in History we must in adult but childlike Christian humility remember that Jesus teaches us that his "Abba" is "Our Father" and that by the grace of God, we can live in holiness. "For this cause I came into the world that I might bear witness to the Truth".

Dear Lord, I pray that my thoughts and deeds today are all guided by your Love and that I avoid sin and the occasions of sin . May Mary's and all the Saint's prayers for all sinners bear fruit in repentance and acceptance of penance. May all victims of sin avoid blaming You as each sinner has the freedom to choose to sin or not to. 

 26/02/2023

We are asked by the Church this first Sunday of Lent to reflect on what we are. It is certain that we are, that we exist. There has been a long period of time before us. Genesis reveals that our first parents chose to listen to Satan and turn away from God. There is a huge question that has faced all mankind since the Fall. Our God is Evergreater. Why did he not crush Satan when he first rebelled?

God respects his Creation. His spiritual beings the Angels were created to be free and out of their choice came Satan and all of mankind's spiritual enemies. This still leaves the question unanswered. We believe that there is nothing greater than God. We have to accept that what we face today is what God wants even though it is beyond our understanding.

Jesus the Son is inspired by the Spirit to leave his friends behind and go to a lonely place to be with his Father and pray in his humanity. He fasts and even though he is one with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit his earthly being, man, is attacked by Satan who loses in this Cosmic Struggle. Jesus' body has many more trials and tribulations to undergo before "it is finished".

St Paul, who although a tent maker had spent his life as a fervent Jew in studying the Scriptures before he had been blinded by the Resurrected Christ and perceived the light of God's revelation,  knows that the doom of death brought about by our first parents' wrong choice has been eradicated by God's self chosen humiliation as a man and horrific suffering and death.

The witness for this is the Glory of the Resurrection. This is reality. We can only bow our heads and worship in wonder.

Dear Lord help me to accept my life in your creation for what it is. Help me to close out sin and open my being to your grace which you pour out over all the world. Send your Holy Spirit into the the Structure that is your Body on earth that it may bravely face Satan and help to bring "the sheep" to the sheepfold of the "Good Shepherd. May the constant prayerful help of Mary and all the Saints with you in Heaven, be with us on Earth and with the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 25/02/2023

God has a "Chosen People", the Nation Israel" but the holiness that is like God's is achieved by the holiness of the individuals who make up that Nation. The Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah is preaching to Jews with words that are meant for all humanity. A Jew is not blessed by God because he is a Jew but because he knows his place in the Nation, Israel. He is not blessed because he begins and ends his day with "Shema y' Israel" but because he breathes and lives by the Law and especially observes the Sabbath. His prayer has to lead to personal holiness supported by good deeds.

A Christian is not blessed by God because he is in the Church. A Christian is not blessed because he affirms that Jesus is the Son of  Father Son and Holy Spirit. He is not blessed because he knows that he is in the Church founded by Christ on Peter..He is not blessed because he acclaims Jesus as Lord but because he lives and breathes by the will of the Father and witnesses this by his good deeds.

This morning Jesus again provokes thought about the man, Jesus. He too would have begun his day with "Shema y'Israel" and done everything to follow the Law. The Pharisees catch him out for he is again not scrupulous about the company with whom he shares food. Jesus rebukes them. "I have not come to call the virtuous but sinners to repentance." It is the sick who need the doctor.

The Pharisees get, yet again, an awfully bad press but today is Jesus recognising them as "the virtuous"who do not need to be cured?

Dear Lord let me remain open to your grace and with full penitence seek forgiveness for all my sins.May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints who know the perfection of your Love continue to support me and all sinners here on Earth and in Purgatory.

 24/02/2023

The ways of God cannot be known by any man. We know of God because he calls us. He first revealed himself to the chosen people. Isaiah is inspired by God to call that nation back to integrity. But at that time there were many other people in the world who had not been given the benefit of a covenant and lived in ignorance of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Were their lives lived without the benefits God promises to us?

 Was might right for them and was the fickleness and the bloodlust of their pantheons the only inkling that they had of the Eternal God of Love revealed to the Jews?

I trust in my personal Faith which has happened by the accident of birth. My family were Catholics and I grew up going to a packed church on Sundays. I have always known of God and been aware in guilt of many sins that  kept me back from the holiness that I wished to have then and I still long for; to truly know God, to worship as  the pure human soul that he has created to be my eternal being and at the end of life I want to be in the Glory of my Lord.

The readings from Scripture are again, in the Isaiah, God calling to his people to turn back to the single-minded services that is his due. David is again my confession calling for Mercy. Jesus is sharp and to the point. The disciples who are already friends with God as they walk with Jesus, and literally follow him have no reason to fast. 

It will be a much different matter for them after the horror of Good Friday.

Dear Lord I know that I must answer to you for the way I have lived my life; you are a strong master and expect me to use my life to return a soul that has accepted the grace you have poured out and increased its human holiness. Your Mercy is my hope for my own efforts to be true to your Love have always foundered. May Mary and all the Saints in Heaven continue in their supplications for living sinners and for the Holy Souls which with your Mercy will accept me one day.

 23/02/2023

Jesus quietly tells the disciples that he will have to suffer ignominiously before he completes his mission. Then he speaks to all of us. We all know what "take up the cross" means. We all have experience of some sort of suffering that must be borne. We all know Jesus as the ultimate example of undeserved suffering. Did the people who were listening to him before the Crucifixion have any idea what he could mean?

Moses speaks to the wanderers who are about to enter the promised land. God has prepared for each of us a "promised land" which is located nowhere in this world. Each day we have to keep the words of Moses in mind for they are the words of God to each and every one of us. As we continue to live our daily lives there are always terribly important choices that we have the freedom and the responsibility to make.

Nothing is more important for us than living according to the word of God for there we can enjoy the Grace that is the never ending Love, our free gift from Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are all known as we know ourselves. God has prepared a dwelling place for all his children and from the depths of his being he pours out his Mercy onto each of us in our individuality.

God wills only what is good. Our choice is stark. Life or Death. World or Heaven. Good or evil.

God knows by experience all about how it is to be human and so does not offer instant rewards or punishment. Our lives are our opportunity to make the right choices by making use of the redemption won on the cross, hanging from nails, scoffed at by his chosen people, crowned with hateful thorns, deserted by most of his friends, by a man who gave up his own life so that the whole world could be saved.

Dear Lord let me not be overcome by pride. let my prayer be humble knowing that it is you who pull the words out of my heart. May I be supported by Mary and all the saints in heaven to make this Lent a holy one so that I can begin to atone for all the sins of my life that I have now forgotten or pushed to the back of my mind.