28/07/2023

The truth of Scriptures is the Holy Word of God spoken first to Adam in the Garden and confirmed to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, We are all created  in the earthly reality of our being to recognize and praise God. God is portrayed as "jealous". 

He knows and is the only Being that exists of itself . The laws of the Cosmos are the never changing "code"that is integral to and inseparable from all material being. The greatest to smallest distances of time and space can never change. Mankind can observe them and understand how their being is organised but he can never control them.

God shares his being with mankind but limits our freedom within the vastness of the Universe to his will which wants only holiness for his children. He knows that human freedom is capable of great deeds within the Physical Universe but wants us to maintain our souls within the Holiness of Love.

We can do this only by accepting that our bodily and mental acts have to always remain within the limits of Love revealed on Sinai. Within the millions of seconds of earthly life that is our opportunity to know, love and serve, our souls have to know only Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and confirm this Faith by the deeds of our freedom that conform willingly to the will of God as revealed to Moses and fully realised by Jesus of Nazareth, Son of the Father, True God from True God, Begotten not Made, of one being with the Father through whom all things were made.

Jealous? Only that within the Glory of his being not one of us should destroy the rich soil that has been fertilized by the humility of so Glorious and Loving a Creator. God wants us to cling fast to him not because he is "Jealous" of any created being but because of his Love for us he cannot let us destroy our souls that are "Image and Likeness of himself, a Glorious Creation. God is total Mercy.

Dear Lord help me this day to be without sin and let my sorrow for all the sinful waste of your gift of life be sincere and never fading. May Mary whose faultless care of the baby that you were must have filled her soul with a unique Love pray with all Saints that your Loving Mercy break open the crusted top soil that keeps the seeds that you sow from entering so many hearts in this world.

 27/07/2023

"Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from God." The history of the Israelites wanderings is filled with fantastic events that are hard to believe really happened. The whole of the Revelation of the Old Testament consists of events that challenge belief. During his preparation in the desert Jesus answered the temptation to change stones into bread using the quotation from the Old Testament that immediately came into my mind when I was confronted with the First Reading of today's mass.

How can it be that the "People of God" could ever backslide after witnessing the Revelation on Mt Sinai?How could they ever lose sight of God who has never completely withdrawn his care, his "targeted providence" from them? 

The New Testament is the commentary on the completion by the Word of the events known in the Beginning. It is too short to be a "live broadcast" Jesus, the Word of God is with us and is welcomed first by Mary who accepted the message of an Angel. God is something greater than Spirit but has his Providence enacted by Angels and Humans and gives each individual Human the freedom to accept or deny his revealed will for us.

So, why do I struggle to believe the Thunder, Clouds and Lightening of Mount Sinai? I have no trouble in accepting and believing without quibble the record of  conception, the miracles of his life, death in torment and Resurrection of the Son that is the New Testament, the record of events much more beyond human understanding than those of the Old. Could it be that Jesus' message is directed to each little one of us and need not be filtered by a Worldly human institution be it Nation or Church?

Dear Lord you know that I am troubled in my heart by the fear of arriving at the end of this life consumed with fear, the result of guilt. May I be accepted into your mercy and allowed to suffer here or in Purgatory as penance for all the sins that I have committed during my life. May Mary lead all of Heaven in prayer for your Mercy to be shown to and accepted by all the struggling souls on earth and may all sinners and Holy Souls be truly penitent and know that you are our God.

 26/07/2023

The Israelites had become dissatisfied with their wanderings which seemed to be going nowhere. It is probably not true that they were totally without food. They had left Egypt with their livestock and were living like the Bedouin of the desert so they were loth to use their capital, their flocks, to meet their daily needs. 

We are living in a world that is crammed full of people but lacking the Israelites communal sense of the nearness of God. In the empty desert  they became aware of the Glory of God but they lacked consistency. God kept his side of the Covenant with descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but only the heart of Moses and Aaron were fully open to receive his grace. Thus the people soon slipped away from the dedication that following the ways of IAMIAM always demands.

Jesus' sower is looking to grow individual ears of corn. We are born to be persons who know God, who know that we are created as a soul which is a being, an "IS" that only I am, and known as such by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are in a new relationship with God. Jesus did not come to renew a covenant with a people. He is with us to save the souls of individuals who are the "rich soil" of his parable.

There is only one "truly" rich soil among all the created souls that have ever lived or will ever live on this Earth. The Daughter of Joachim and Anna is a perfect human being, the "rich soil" out of which the seed that is God will fill the Earth with grace for the souls that in their individual worship become united into the unseen "Mystical Church"of Christ's sacrificed and resurrected body.

Dear Lord, forgive me my trespasses and guard me in the shadow of your wings. It is too hard for me to look at the institutional Church and know that it is You on Earth. My prayers and meditations may be wrong headed but they are my sought for sincerity. May Mary whose parents are remembered by Peter's Church today pray that that Institution separates itself from her worldliness and return to the desert where Jesus, Moses and  the Baptist prepared to do your will on Earth.

 25/07/2023

Today's Psalm communicates the joy that we have all felt especially in our youth when with a clear conscience  we go about our daily tasks. It is not too hot or too cold, the sun is shinning brightly and we cycle off to school, or to work just happy to be alive..

St Paul speaks of a more lasting joy that he has and that we too can share by accepting that our lives are the gift of God , that we are weak vessels but that our prayers are all heard and that we build up a community of faithful souls that will be with the Risen Lord.

Only Jesus has been the perfect man and only his mother the perfect woman. It is only too easy to see the earnestness of the mother of James and John as she approaches Jesus with her two sons. Those two must have been embarrassed by the forwardness of their mother who was treating them as they would always be in her eyes, her children. For her part, she was not letting, "that Peter" or his brother get in front of her sons in the race for power in that new Kingdom that Jesus was to establish.

For us today that incident from 2,000 years ago is easily understood as a wrong expectation on the part of all the disciples. Just as the mother of James and John did, they anticipated that the "Kingdom" of  his teaching was to be a worldly one, as the "Messiah" was to an earthly ruler. 

We hear everything that Jesus says and does in the Gospels in the light of the Resurrection. The Gospels themselves were also finalised in this same light. But at the time the mother of James and John sought an advantage for her sons no-one except Jesus himself knew where the wandering Rabbi was to take them.

Dear Lord, only you are and were on earth the perfect man. Apostles soon became bishops and had to administrate an earthly organisation rather than continue to lead us on the spiritual path that leads to the Eternal Life of Heaven. The only historical time we can look back to as an example of a Perfect Church is when you walked with us. I pray that with the help of your Mother praying through the Holy Spirit I can become closer to you and fulfill my place in this creation of  "Our Father". Amen

 24/07/2023

The Exodus of the whole people, Israel, from Egypt is not the only mass movement of tribes recorded in human history. Something like it is still happening with terrible results for many of the would be migrants.The Old Testament interprets the Providence of God mainly in human terms and attributes to God human emotions. Today an irritated IAMIAM prepares to answer the murmurings of his people by creating a path through the sea for them to follow to safety and to teach the Egyptians a lesson. 

The justified anger displayed by Jesus in the Temple when he confronted the money changers and animal sellers was as part of his "true man" as were his bodily needs, but Father, Son and Holy Spirit are only Love; not the human sentimental love of the fluttering heart or the desire of the fluttering eyelids but the steady flow of goodwill and encouragement we have for our children. God wants the best for his children.

Jesus is not a "sign" that comes from God. He is the "best" that God wills for us. We must know him  from the scriptures and follow his example of the "Golden Rule". We have to consider others' needs before our own we have to do this in our lifetimes for this is the "best" and only chance we can ever be given. Jesus is our salvation.

In the Gospel, the devout among the Scribes and Pharisees have cornered Jesus as a mass of modern  journalists might corner a politician or celebrity and hope to distract him into a misjudged comment. Jesus does not debate with them or with us. 

It is when we are without belief in our own faith; it is when we do not trust the message that is in our own created being, it  is when a "but"begins to answer a "hard saying" that we ask for a sign from God and join the ranks of scribes and pharisees whose pride and self-love leads them to challenge God to his face. Their rejoinder to God's self manifestation is " You say you are God. OK? Prove it!!"There is a very simple "best" that God requires from us all and that is an unconditional "yes"to his revelation of his Being revealed in Jesus' life, death and Resurrection.

Dear Lord let my being be always ready to accept your will for me. Let my acceptance be unclouded by selfishness. I truly atone for my sins but have been driven out of the Church you founded on Peter. Is it possible that I can still be in a Church that is founded on your Love and Mercy. A Church which is truly your Mystical Body on Earth and thus uncontaminated  by any sin?

 23/07/2023

St Paul assures us that even though we sometimes feel that we are an empty shell, alone in an empty but echoing void and have no ways of either understanding our loneliness that is also longing, nor communicating the beings, our emptiness still is, to  God, who is always present. Father Son and Holy Spirit never lose sight of us and in the person of the Holy Spirit will always bring us the words to pray for and accept the merciful Love that is the Trinity of Persons and oneness of being, one God.

Today Jesus speaks of the devil. I do not think that I am alone in being bothered by this personification of my disobedience to the Will of God during my lifetime. Jesus defeated the power of Satan during the space of time he was in the tomb. We can see the corpse on the cross but we cannot see into the tomb until the Mary of yesterday's mass-reading accosts the gardener "Sir, if you have taken him away where have you put him".

As a baptised child, I was always aware of my sins. I lied and stole. I disobeyed my parents. This was always explained to me in my tearful contrition as "giving in" to the temptation of the Devil. But I knew then and still know now that the petty sins of childhood and the more serious sins of teenage and adulthood were all of them my own doing. 

We have all been created to freely co-operate in the Holiness of the Creator who was left in the temporary tomb on Good Friday. There is no doubt that he was dead, spices were left to disguise the decay of the flesh of the true man, begotten not made.  On Sunday morning that body was the new life of the Resurrection. The devil's power was broken but why is it that we are still sinful humanity. The Evergreater God has no evil in him we are all created to live in his holiness on this Earth and to "shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father". May Our Lady and all the Saints help us in our weakness!!

Dear Lord let my ears hear the words that are life. I want to be with you for I know that there is nothing without you and more than nothing if I refuse the grace that you pour out on me and all sinners. The devil has no power to force me into sin and the freedom I do have is in your image and likeness. Strengthen Lord my weaknesses and let your Mother Mary and all the Saints pray with me that I may refuse the multitude of Sin that fills our world to the extent of controlling every second of time that should be devoted to you.

 22/07/2023

Today's mass readings commemorate St Mary Magdalen. We know her name as she is one of the three Maries who stayed with St John at the foot of the cross where hung the lifeless corpse of Jesus. She was overcome by her grief and only aware of the vast emptiness that had filled her being in the presence of the bloody and disfigured  body of her dead Master.

All the disciples had suffered along with their Rabbi. We too suffer like a "dry and weary land without water" when we become separated from our Saviour who was tortured throughout the horror of  Good Friday until the unimaginable pain that called out "Eli, Eli lama sabachthani", a greater desolation than any human being could ever experience.

For the people who saw, spoke and ate with the Risen Lord there is always mystery in this unique experience. They see him, do not recognise him and then really do recognise all in the same moment. The disciples remembrances of the Resurrection are in no way redacted to present the spectacular Apocalyptic Visions of an Ezekiel or a Daniel. They are authentic in the minimalism of  the awe they portray.

The witnesses see a reality that is beyond human belief. Their brains at first refuse the data presented by their eyes but this data is simultaneously converted by the eyes of Faith to be the supreme event of human history. They can only worship. Today's witness, Mary Magdalen calls out "Rabbuni" as her being is responds to the Glory that is the Lord.

This "Glory" is still with us today. God's resurrected reality is the Blessed Sacrament. 

This is why Peter's Church has got never to ignore its own failings and pray to be filled with holy priests who really do join Jesus in the confecting of the Blessed Sacrament. We all have to fill our beings with Love and drive out Devil, World and Flesh but without Sacraments that are doubtlessly authentic we are hindered rather than helped by descendants of those who not only witnessed the Risen Lord but were also commissioned by him and entrusted with the confecting and care of the Sacrament.of His Love.

Dear Lord, I know that at this moment I am sincerely "lifting my mind and heart to you". I also know that, in a moment of temptation, this faithful love can disappear from my being as it has done in the past. It is up to me to curb whatever human pride I have as I re-read my prayers and to trust the "eyes of Faith"to keep me focused on knowing, loving and serving. May Mary your Mother who stood with today's Mary suffering along with you as you "bled-out" on the cross continue to pray with her and all the saints that as the lance pierces your heart, the blood and water of forgiveness and Mercy pour out over the dry and weary land that is today the greater part of your Church. Save us dear Lord!