29/03/2023

We are drawing closer to Holy Week. I know that my penance has not been anything like enough. I know that my consciousness of the enormity of sin is still lacking. In my mind I am still happy to read sacred texts and commentaries but I still fill too much time with the mindlessness that is my TV screen. My spirit is willing but my total being here on Earth is still weak. 

We know that "Daniel" is not a "historical  person" in the way that Jesus is but his "book " was written at a time when "wisdom" was flourishing throughout the civilized world. All over the world the success of agriculture and the use of slaves was permitting the growth of wealth and subsequent leisure time which could be used for intellectual activities. Everywhere in the world humanity aspired to understand by its own efforts the meaning of life/being but God gave the true answer to that  question  first to his chosen people and when they failed to realise the value of his gift he completed his revelation Himself Incarnate to be known by all the world.

Our Scriptures tell us all we need to know. They tell us that we and our world are created out of God's Love and that as such we need to return that love by confirming our knowledge of God. We do this by conforming our way of life to his will as revealed in Scriptures. He is "our Father" and he is in Heaven and we have to live righteously in the sure knowledge that everything we know with our senses, the Material Universe, will pass away as will our bodies but his Word will stand and he wants us to choose to stand with him in the timeless Love that is Perfection of Being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, may I really know how loving you are. May your grace come into my heart. Not words but the feeling that I can have for created beings. May that wordless love be also for you. May Mary continue to lead in prayer the Saints in heaven and may your angels carry your mercy to us sinners on Earth and to those in Purgatory. Maranatha!

 28/03/2023

The followers of Moses must have come out of Egypt quite well equipped with all the necessities for life in the desert. They had been able to manufacture for themselves the "golden calf" and in today's first reading, Moses made from bronze a serpent which brought healing to those bitten by one of the poisonous snakes that afflicted them. I am always loth to deny anything that has been recorded in Scriptures and hate to strive to find a hidden meaning, an allegory beyond the stated facts.

The New Testament has no secrets. Jesus did speak in parables. His miracles really did happen. The Gospels are not "newspapers" but they do bring Good News. They are the collective remembrances of the most important times in the history of the world.made by the chosen ones of God. The first to be chosen is Mary and then the Apostles and finally St Paul.

The evangelists recorded their "memoirs" in later life but the essentials that they contain have been inspired by the Holy Spirit and St Paul is the first to receive that teaching as a "mission" and preach to the "whole world". 

The Jews that made the first congregation were in contact with the Apostles who knew everything that Jesus had made known to them. The Ascension had focussed the minds of the Galilean fishermen and their souls had been fortified by the Holy Spirit. The Church was founded in the Upper Room and by the shores of Lake Galilee but  they continued to pray in the Temple. 

It was openly in the Temple that Jesus' spoke these final words as a free man directly to the people beloved of the Father. When he began to write, St John had for many years cared for Mary as he did for his own family. Nobody has known Jesus better than his own mother.The presence of the Mother of God in his own house for so long must have had some influence on John's Faith in Father, Son and Holy Spirit and so we can accept him as the Theologian, the unveiler of "Christ our High Priest".

Dear Lord so many years have passed since you taught throughout Palestine and some of us feel alone. I pray that I can keep myself open to your grace and avoid falling into sin again. May your mother Mary continue to continue to lead the Saints in pleas for the grace to drive Satan out of the "whited sepulchre that much of your Body on Earth has become and may the Holy Souls in Purgatory soon receive the Grace that you made for us all by your suffering on Calvary.

"

 27/03/2023

Scribes, Priests, Elders, Sadducees  and Pharisees do not get a very good press in the New Testament. We tend to see them as a "brood of vipers", "whited sepulchres" whose sole purpose is to frustrate the Son in his teaching and to ultimately put him to death. Their reality is that just as all the disciples of Jesus they believed in the teaching of the Old Testament and tried to put God first in their lives by pondering the Word recorded in the books of the Old Testament.

Today our religious leaders Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, Abbots and Priests do not get a good press in this age. They do not deserve one. The words of Jesus that tell us that we should listen to the words of the Pharisees but not follow their example are especially true of the Institution that the Catholic Church very quickly became once it started to take a role in the things of this world. 

"My kingdom is not of this world". "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's". These sayings are direct commands of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In yesterday's reading from St Paul he tells the Roman Church. "People who are only interested in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God".

The disgrace that was the Church warring for centuries about control of territory is still with us in Dioceses that struggle to optimize the return on capital and in so doing employ the "publicans" of today; lawyers and accountants, servants of Mammon which is totally "Caesar's.

God has always been in the covenants of the Old Testament. He is still truly present in the Sacraments of the Church. He is the Word that we read in the whole Bible. We have to look hard to find him but he is still our Good Shepherd in the Church he founded on Earth. 

Susannah's accusers paid the ultimate price for their evil hypocrisy. Jesus challenged the Pharisees who demanded the death penalty and still challenges us to check out our own souls before condemning others. The Pharisees had to accept the undeniable truth about themselves and walked away. Good for them! 

Lord, where can I go? You have the message of eternal Life.

Dear Lord you know that I can be nothing without your grace. Let me be sincere in my preparations for your Great Week. Let me be guided only by your Holy Spirit to abandon the things of this world and put all my trust in you. May your Mother lead all the Saints in prayer that the integrity of the Church return to that of the days of the Apostles without the jealous squabbling for rank in the eyes of the world  that marred her then and still today. Let us all put God first in our lives.

 26/03/2023

The psalmist is calling out to God for all of the living and the dead. We the living are feeling the loneliness, which knowing that we are miniscule and helpless in the vastness of our Universe, sometimes paralyses our consciousness of being. The dead know that they have no more chances to serve our Father in righteousness  and those who are accepted into Eternal Life know that all thanks and praise are due to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Paul teaches that in our lives we should be devoted to spiritual matters. We should always be focused on God; Father who creates new life in Son; Jesus who obeys until death; Holy Spirit who is the living God in our lives at this moment of life. 

Today's Gospel makes it clear that the mystery of three persons in one God is part of the New Testament revelations. St John's drama is played out like a film script complete with voiceovers and flashbacks so that the audience is not left alone to try to make sense of the narrative.

Jesus has an, at first, enigmatical reaction to the news of Lazarus illness but after delaying for two days he confirms that Lazarus is dead and his death will become an irrefutable confirmation of Jesus' Sonship. One disciple encourages the others to go with him to Bethany and is ready to face death together with Jesus.

Before the final scene outside the tomb Jesus tells his friends,and us, exactly who he is in relation to God and to us. There is no room for quibbles "IAMIAM the resurrection and the life!  " I thank you Father". That is all we need to know on earth but out of the host of witnesses there, only Martha and Mary stayed with John and Our Lady to the bitter end on Calvary.

Dear Lord, may all the prayers that are part of our lives today be heard with the grace that will enable us to overcome the snares of temptation found in the smothering of consciousness that is the empty  plausibility of the material world . May Mary's prayers to seek out the lonely, bereaved and damaged of this world that they become aware of the Loving Mercy that is freely available to those who use the freedom that is part of our human nature created by you our Father in heaven be heard and bring comfort to all thy people.

 25/03/2023

I am amazed and strengthened in my Faith when the readings chosen for the mass of the day show how the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus. The hearts of the disciples on the road to Eumaeus burned within them as the unrecognised Jesus explained to them the meaning of the Scriptures. 

The Father has begun his revelation in the Old Testament, the Son completes it in the New and it continues in the Church which is in the hearts of believers that are kept open and seek the Holy Spirit.

The disciples and Apostles who were devastated by the Crucifixion, were at first uncomprehending of the Resurrection, again lost by the Ascension and then so filled with the Holy Spirit that within fifty years of Jesus' life on Earth they could come to the understanding of God's purpose that is still the only guide we need to living holy lives.

Mary's acceptance of her role was never going to be otherwise as she is the Immaculate Conception. Her soul was untouched by Original Sin. Her freedom was self curtailing as she was able to see no alternative to the will of God except with horror. 

A very popular hymn sings to God "How Great thou art". God is always Greater and no more so than when his Love for  his created beings becomes the humility that deliberately chooses to be an embryo in the womb of Mary for nine months. She is indeed Theotokos.

Dear Lord let my heart stay open today. Let me not be distracted. Let love for you become integral to my being and let me truly hate all sin no matter how trivial the tempter makes it seem for it is my sin that adds to your human pain on Calvary. May Mary who leads all your Saints in Heaven, who knew your growing presence within her and the desolation of your death continue to plead for all her children on Earth and in Purgatory.

 24/03/2023

One of the things about our lives taught by Jesus is that there is a a clear division of souls after our deaths. We hear of "sheep and goats", "paradise" and a place or state of "weeping and gnashing of teeth". The Old Testament is more concerned with reward and punishment in the here and now, in our present lives.

In the reading from "Wisdom" this morning the word "Hades" is used to reflect on our beings after death. "Sheol" the "landfill" rubbish-dump for Jerusalem is also  used to indicate a state of shadowy being after death. In the parable of poor man rich man, Lazarus is compensated for his lifetime suffering while Dives is in torment unable even to communicate with the "Bosom of Abraham". He has had his reward.

The Psalm tells us that the "Lord is close to the brokenhearted". Our spirits are not crushed by God. It is we ourselves who have to know that we have done nothing for ourselves. There is no such thing as the  "self-made man". We have to crush our own egos and pride. Many of us in this twenty-first century live lives as comfortable as did the richest of Jesus' time on earth. This is a great burden for us as our mental and physical comfort continually reassure us to the extent that we never give a thought to the creator  of everything which we cling to, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus joins the Feast of Tabernacles separately from his family. He is recognised in his Father's House on the day that his people celebrate God who was with them when they wandered in Sinai. The Temple wants to kill him there and then but that had to happen at a later Feast.

Dear Lord, I need to thank you always for my life. Teach me to pray from my heart. I keep on thinking that I have not done any penance for my sins. Let me accept everything that you will for me.May Mary with all the Saints continue in their support of the Holy Souls and we sinners here on Earth. Let me always avoid self-satisfaction knowing that without the sacrifice made on Calvary nothing would be possible for me.

 23/03/2023

At the foot of Mount Sion God listens to prayers that come straight to him from the heart of his chosen one who is himself aghast at the behaviour of his messed-up people who are children that have to be guarded on every step of the way to the promised land. They are not the "little children" whom Jesus told us to be, praying to "Our Father". They are spoiled brats stamping their feet at God in the "temper-tantrum" that is remembered by our mothers but forgotten by the adults we two-year-old toddlers,have become. The toddler has a chance of winning the clash of wills between mother and child but the human will that is pitted against the Evergreater; against Father, Son and Holy Spirit has no chance at all.

Moses is the "Chosen one of God"and by his integrity never closes his heart to receive the special grace that comes from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is something more than this. He is the Eternal Word who is identical to the Father and makes it clear in these last days of his incarnate self on earth what his purpose has been, is and will be.

We all have to recognise that each of us is known with love by the Father. We must recognise that God has no need of us and that his Love is never earned by any one of us. Even Mary was created to be what she is now in Heaven. The created people addressed by Jesus. "The Jews" is each and everyone of us who are created to have the freedom to know, love and serve. 

"Knowing" is sitting as Martha did; it is not the "book-religion" of the scribes and Pharisees which had become man's pride in his own knowledge and intellect. "Loving" is to be like Jesus reflecting the perfect human version of God's Love back to him by keeping the mirror of each of our individual souls as polished as it became after Baptism. Serving is the result of our God-given Faith Hope and Charity which in our freedom we have to use to choose; Life or Death;self plus Jesus versus self plus Satan; resurrected life versus an eternal death of which our immortal souls will have some pain-filled knowledge even though God is full of Mercy and Compassion.

Dear Lord, you know my failures this morning. Thanks to your Mercy I have not lost complete control of my will as happened in the past. Is it possible for me to be part of your Church without being present in any liturgies? You know my morning reflections and inspire them sometimes bringing a joy to my heart that I am always afraid could be pride. May Mary who bore the perfection of humanity with joy in the stable at Bethlehem and mourned her dead son on the emptiness of Golgotha, together with the  Saints pray that we on Earth and  penitents in Purgatory may come to be close to the holy reality you have created us to be and thus do thy will on Earth as it is in Heaven.