19/07/2023

Today's Psalm becomes words to match the awe which we all feel but cannot quite express when we sincerely follow the first commandment; when we grasp in our inmost selves that everything we know and is is a reality that is created for us by Our Father. It is the only physical reality that we will know until the end of time. We know that our earthly lives will come to end and that this worldly reality will also end.

The "Word" came out of a bush to Moses the one chosen to reveal by deeds the greatness of God. From the time of Adam, mankind has continually become absorbed by ourselves and by our own deeds and those of our ancestors. We fill our beings with pride at the depths of our understanding and our time with acquiring earthly goods which we know will rot into the atoms etc that are the components of all matter .

God is a non consuming flame in a shrub.  He is IAMIAM. He fills the being of Moses and drags him back to the covenants he has made with his ancestors' ancestors. God is never changing. God revealed in the flame is God of the prophets. God is compassion and love in the psalm. He is Jesus on the Cross and he is the real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar.

Although the providence of Father, Son and Holy Sprit had enabled human development  by the time of Moses the chosen people needed to be reminded of who they were. They had to know that they were children who would be blessed by humbly accepting that God is their Father. Since the time of Moses the whole of God's care and our response has been recorded by the witness of Prophets, Evangelists, in both Old and New Testaments.  

Jesus tells us today that we do not need to be "learned" to know him and love him. Moses stood in bare feet on the "Holy Ground". Mary of Bethany sat at his feet. Jesus washed the feet of the Apostles. We can all fulfill the First Commandment by the simple act of putting it first in our lives. "Do I accept or reject God's will for me"? Am I the child that Our Father has created me to be? 

Dear Lord on the cross you gave Mary to be our Mother in the person of St John. This is another unending truth given to us by Our Father. May we all become children of heaven and may our lives become a mirror of your compassion and love until we leave them to accept the judgement of heaven, praying always for the Mercy and forgiveness that is your free gift to all who seek it.

 18/07/2023

I am responsible for myself. I am the only one created being that knows myself from the inside. God reveals himself to the countless number of souls that fill our world and we all have to answer to his scrutiny when the time comes. 

In today's Gospel, Jesus' "hard sayings" continue  by identifying specific locations which had not given the correct affirmative response to his proclamation of the "Kingdom of God"; they will face severe judgement on the "last day". Hanging on the cross, however, he prays for his executioners "Father forgive them for they know not what they do".

Living today in the world that continues to grow but where Capernaum and the rest have become the objects of Archaeology, I know that the "Word still stands". I know that "in the beginning was the Word". I also know that the Father knows "every hair on your head" and we are created out of Love that is Father Son and Holy Spirit.

The events of this day that are happening now throughout the world, that have ever happened and will happen are the result of the free/undetermined / unprogrammed  interactions of billion of souls to themselves, to each other, the situations they have found themselves in and to God's revelation of himself. 

There is no intelligence, born or artificial, that can understand the vastness of  God's Providence but we can all know something far greater than all our world and its history, namely that it will not go hard with any one of us if we listen to God's Love as revealed to Moses and accept the forgiveness that is Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

Dear Lord, help me to continue this life never forgetting that to be in the vastness of your Glory is the sole aim of my being and that you lead me and all the souls of the world there for you are the way the truth and the life. We are not alone for you are still present with us to the end of time and Mary and all the Saints continue to help us and the Holy Souls with endless their endless prayers and petitions.

 17/07/2023

Our God is a loving father who by his care for us has enabled humanity to swell in numbers and knowledge to the extent that mere children can at a click of a mouse button access the whole record of time. The fruits of life-times of scholarly work can be accessed by speaking to our machines.

The Exodus of the descendants of Israel and his people from Egypt happened about three and half thousand years ago. The world is such a different place now but the problems faced by God's chosen people are still the same today and the solutions are also the same.

We all want to be secure to live our lives fulfilling our own needs and those of our families. In short we all want to live in peace. God takes special care of the descendants of Abraham in the Old Testament. He still does and in so doing presents us with the ever deepening problem of understanding his providence.

Jesus  in the "hard sayings" recorded in this morning's Gospel is not the loving teacher of the Sermon on the Mount, he is rather the stern task master feared in the parable of the talents. He presents us with harsh realities that have to be faced by all of us who commit ourselves to him. 

Jesus was totally crucified for us. We cannot be his followers without being totally focused on the will of  Father Son and Holy Spirit to the  extent that we are ready to abandon our own lives and what they entail in an acceptance of our crosses modelled on that of Christ's obedient Love in the Trinity. 

Dear Lord let my today be spent without sin. Let my study be fruitful. Let my prayers be united to those of Mary and the saints of heaven. Let these few words be the true prayer of my heart You who know everything know how confused I become when acting as a witness to your Providence. Help me to understand.

 16/07/2023

Today the Church asks us to think about our response to God's reaching out to us in his creation. The Old Testament contains the history of God's care for the Chosen People. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit nurture the devotion of the Jews and accept the worship they return; the worship of a whole people. Isaiah is gifted by God to speak his "Word" and the message which is the Kingdom of God is heard by all the people. Today that same manifestation of Love is revealed with the same force to all our individual souls. 

St. Paul knows that Creation is still continuing  He is inspired by an intuitive glimpse of what will become "The Big Bang Theory" of our astronomy. He teaches that God's Act of creation is not complete.We too are not complete and our freedom of mind and will is restricted by our bodies. The first step to freedom is to complete our human lives and follow the Word back to its source.

"In the beginning was the Word". Today the Incarnate Word, Jesus, sits and tells us the story of his interaction with us his people on Earth. We have heard it many times. We think that we understand its significance. All the listeners at that time would know the Truth first revealed to  Isaiah and here quoted by Jesus.

Sitting in the boat, he proclaims himself to be the object of all revelation. God does not have secrets that he does not reveal to us in Love. The Word has always been present in creation. We have not been programmed for failure. The "rich soil" is not material potential or deed but the the essential being, the Soul, of everyman controlled by his personal freedom to chose love or death as revealed in the reality of our world, the Providence of God.

Dear Lord, help me to stay true to your word and cultivate the garden that is my being. You know that trying to understanding your material universe has used up the time of many souls and that they have become so enamoured of themselves that their pride has become a rock-like carapace which has to be blasted open if they are to listen. For many of us the edge of the path has become covered in wonderful primroses which we follow wholeheartedly in the quest for bodily pleasure; for others our childhood learned  piety has been choked as we have become adults devoted to these "adult" pleasures. May Mary and all the saints pray for the inspiration of your Love to inspire our shepherds and gardeners that we the sheep and the soil become fruitful in their service to you and care for us. But most of all "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive all others" so that we can become again the " beloved little children" in the dust at your feet.

 15/07/2023

Always I have to face the fact that within myself, my selfish ego is what I really am. Without warning it  bursts out of my awareness of self control and literally screams for recognition. This is an affront to God who has already forgiven me for the sins by which I have added to the Sin which crucified Jesus and continues to overcome all my best intentions.

God speaks to each of as an individual. First of all, all of the "egos" interacting within creation have to bow down before God the Creator of us all. Joseph accepts his brothers and praises God for the good that has come out of their sin. The "good" that Joseph recognises is the fruitfulness of his family in the world in which God has brought him to power and wealth. Within this success, however, the brothers are continuing the deception that brought the "blessing" to Jacob/Israel and they repeat another false testimony.

Jesus tells each of us in our sinful egos that God is aware of everything that we have ever done. All of the seconds of our lives up to now live on in the Evergreater from whom nothing is hidden as was the hairlessness of Jacob's arms hidden from Isaac. 

He is the only one that we should "fear" in our lives for the "Good" he brings, he is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is not confined to "generations" or any other manifestation of worldly success. We have to proclaim our faith from the rooftops to be sure of the only Eternal Good, the Love to be found in Heaven.

Dear Lord, let me not waste the time that I have before me. Help me to do your will and let me have no resentments against any other soul so that the way of your forgiveness to me is not blocked by my sinful self. May Mary who has only ever known you before anything and whose will has always been in perfect alignment with you lead the souls of heaven in the prayer that will convert all the souls living on earth away from sinful materialism and bring into the light and life of your loving revelation to us.

 14/07/2023

The people to whom Our Lord preached during his time on earth were mostly familiar with the events we read about/listen to in the the First Readings at mass and with the lyrical praise of God that is the Psalm. Their minds were prepared to receive a new message from God who had been worshipped and pondered upon for more than a thousand years previously by their ancestors.

This was a help and a hindrance to our Lord. The wishy washy among his people could be easily swayed by Jesus' person and his miracles. The fully devoted were another story. They had been meticulous followers of the Law of Moses and had devoted their whole beings to the yearly round of feasts and the worship in the Temple. 

They, who had spent years studying the Scriptures, could not possibly accept the "blasphemies" uttered by this uneducated carpenter's son from Galilee, where "Jews" dwelt among Samaritans and idolatrous pagans. Pigs were even herded there; "what good could come out of Galilee?"

Jesus knows that it will be an impossible task to reveal the Single Being IAMIAM as Father, Son and Holy Spirit to the rock solid monotheists that He, the Father and Holy Spirit had loved and guided with such providential care. The human pride at their chosen place had long since captured their beings and they are indeed still a "stiff-necked" race.

Jesus in today's Gospel prepares the Apostles for the hatred that will be stirred up by their message of Truth. It is not Jesus who brings the horror of bloody strife into families and nations. The evil is created within the individuals who do not accept the peace that Jesus offers to the whole world. Each of our souls by not saying "yes" to Father Son and Holy Spirit" has refused "peace", has brought evil into our being and it is this evil that reacts  to create the horrors of sinful life that we blame on anybody but ourselves.

Dear Lord, I know that I am responsible for my own sinfulness and humbly seek pardon. I know that your merciful forgiveness is a free gift won for us on Calvary but we have to accept punishment in this world or the next. May my soul always be open to the mercy that is won for us by the prayers of Mary and all the saints and may my opportunities to study your ways as interpreted by men on earth not be lost to sloth.

 13/07/2023

We all have to live in the world at the time we are born. We all have to accept our lives as they are provided by God. Jacob's sons had feared the late arrival, Joseph, and that his place in his father's heart would result in their loss of birthright. Rueben and the rest were not filled with delight the moment they were born at the prospects of the wealth they would inherit, but as they grew to manhood they learned to accept what they had the use of as their own and grew fearful at the potential loss.

All that we see, hear, touch, taste and smell in our World is the result of God's Providence. There is nothing that surrounds us that is intrinsically evil. The only place where there is sin is within us for our first ancestors Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. Our Father has continued in his care for us and although displeased with the sin we compound with excuses and self delusion has always been able bring good out of even the worst moments created by us his creatures.

Before Christ the record of God's dealings with his people is full of such events that illustrate that we should never believe that God has abandoned us. The evils that befell Joseph were directly caused by the jealousy of his brothers. The same evils were to be compensated for by his rise to eminence in the Court of Pharaoh and the ultimate rescuing of his family from famine.

I don't think that there are any miracles or named converts recorded from the first mission ordered by Jesus. Some of those who had been sent were undoubtedly still alive when the Gospels were written. The Gospels only name very few others than the Apostles. The blind man Bar Timaeus comes to mind and of course Lazarus Martha and Mary.

Jesus is the final totality of what God has done for us to convert our sinfulness to the perfection that God saw when he knew that "It was good". His message is clear but we are still far from the perfection that he gave to us. We have to pray for the grace to break the ties of the all encompassing material world which begins to stifle our souls very soon after Baptism.

Dear God, we follow your lead and pray" lead us not into temptation" but you know how easily evil snowballs from my petty selfishness and pride. All things are nothing, all men are no greater than the Souls which we smother in our thoughtless vanity and pride. May Mary continue to lead all the heavenly throng to save us from the human failings that they know not by deed but by their experience of life in the world which grows more and more sinful as times passes.