24/08/2023

I really do not have a good knowledge of the Scriptures. I have learnt most by listening to Mass readings and references by authors to their sources. I once took the trouble to check and write out the references made by one writer on one page. His page turned into more than ten when the cited references were written out in full. Writers such as Pope Benedict repeat and interpret the whole of scripture.

Visions have always been difficult for me. How can the vastness described by John be contained in the sight of man? The modern camera lens can  capture vast distances and scenes like the parting of the Red Sea, for example, which I know that, if I had been present, I would only have seen what was in front of my nose and not the front, back and top of the destruction of the pursuing Egyptians that I saw in the cinema.

The world always deceives us. It will pass away. We are all to some extent captives of the media. Most of us spend too much time in front of the TV. It has become a substitute for life and is the opposite of Jesus' description of St Bartholomew for it is only deceit. A video of the Blessed Sacrament Exposed is not the Real Presence in my mobile or living room and trivializes the passion and death of Our Lord.

God never deceives us. His New Covenant promises us a home with him after our time on earth. His Resurrection is the first fruits of the New Being. It is the  true body of the true man and true God that died on the cross. Incarnate Son was present body and soul with the fulness of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, in Palestine for those days after the Resurrection. This was not a "vision" of the Lord but his supernatural reality.We all have the opportunity won for us by our Saviour to share this New Life that is not a "vision" but the reality of God's Infinite Love.

Dear Lord help me to avoid all sin today; Let me be truly thankful for all the gifts that I have received. Keep all my children and grand children safe during their time on earth and let them come to the awareness of your Love that is the only lasting good that we can find on earth. May Mary and all the saints' infinite prayer bring your Mercy to the Holy Souls in Purgatory and to the repentant sinners confined to time on earth.

 23/08/2023

The  trees of the first reading are all reluctant to accept the responsibility that is part of the authority of kingship. Their basic argument is that as trees they are much too useful in their produce to give up their "treeness" to become king. The thorn bush of the desert does not have any valuable properties except its ability to burst quickly into flames. It is an almost dead plant with very little sap and very little nourishment except for the goats which thrive on the edges of deserts.

Are we to take from this the idea that our rulers are the least productive of our societies? Or is it that they are to be feared as the fire that can easily catch hold of them will destroy even the ancient forests of the Lebanese mountains.

Jesus leaves us with no difficulty. He is Lord of All. His Mercy cannot be dribbled out. On Calvary he poured out his blood. He did not die a little bit but gave up the total life of God incarnate, a sacrifice far greater than the guilt of our sins.

Our God of Mercy and Compassion freely gives all his Mercy to each one of us. A "yes" to his offer even with our dying breath will be rewarded with the same sight of God as that known by the the greatest of the saints. There is no greater joy than the presence of the Lord and no greater joy on earth to work for the Lord especially when known only to God.

Dear Lord, you know how difficult I have found it today to understand  your OT Word. You know also of how I have rebelled as did the first comers to the vineyard. Let me truly know that I only AM because of your grace. Let my being sing with Mary's whose complete "yes" to your will brings about a Church that returns your love in fullness of spirit. 

 22/08/2023

Yesterday's Gospel prompted me to consider how I had spent my life comparing it with the heroic faith  shown by Fr Schwartz. I am still the young man who crumbled at the thought of embracing poverty by rejecting all my worldly goods. He is with Father, Son and Holy Ghost, with Our Lady and All the Saints completely out of human time.

A lot of my human time is spent watching Korean TV. During Fr Schwartz time there, Korea began the turn around which has resulted in it becoming one of the  world's greatest producers of wealth. The sanctity of poverty, which Fr Schwartz saw and grasped in the manner of the "Poverello" of Assisi, has now become  maybe even more hidden than the poverty that was present in his own world at the same time his eyes were opened in Pusan. The world of "Korean Drama"has little in it of the holiness with which Fr Schwartz and his first converts lived. It does however follow aimlessly every "social trend" ( sins of the flesh ) of the West.

I may be the "young man" of yesterday's Gospel. But I have not wandered away. I cling to my mornings' devotions and try to fit the Mass readings into my own Act of Faith. The opportunity to follow Fr Schwartz has long gone. The naked poverty, the Jesus, he found in Korea, however, is still with us on the migrant trails that criss-cross our world and in the countries which cannot provide a home for their people.

Let us pray that the Migrant Jesus will inspire the "least important" among us and through them achieve what  Fr. Schwartz was instrumental in doing in Korea. "For God everything is possible".

Dear Lord may this day be filled with only love for you and kindness to those around me. Help me to remain true to my Baptism and at all times be ready for your final call. "For God nothing is impossible" please save me Lord Jesus. May Mary and all the saints of heaven join in praying that the work of Fr Schwartz is not corrupted by Mammon as much of the Church founded by Jesus has been.

 21/08/2023

I have always considered the Church to be what she claims to be; what she describes herself as, "The Mystical Body of Christ", God on Earth. There was no "fudging"; her teaching was "what had been heard from the lips of Jesus" and repeated by the Apostles and preserved in the hierarchical structure that has lasted up to today. The whole purpose of the Church is to pass on the forgiveness won by Our Lord and to help all people to become holy on earth to reach the perfection of heaven.

I went to work as a teacher overseas in 1964. At about that time a candidate for Canonization Fr. Aloysius Schwartz  went alone to Korea. 

In Istanbul we were shocked by the vast crowds of people and the poverty of some. The "poor are always with you" has cushioned us against the injustices that give rise to poverty; it seems to tell us that we cannot do much about poverty but it is a Christian duty to alleviate its results. Jesus loves the poor.

In Busan Fr Schwartz was met with the abysmal poverty that modern warfare had inflicted on what had been a highly cultivated society for hundreds of years before the Normans had conquered England or America had been colonised. He saw ragged bundles of children and beggars dying on the streets and immediately started to do something about it.

He did not have the wealth of the Vatican behind him but became incardinated in the Korean Diocese of Busan and shared the poverty that surrounded him. He saw the suffering of Christ repeated in the broken bodies and the helplessness of "Eli, Eli lama sabachtani" in the eyes of the inhabitants of those shanty towns.

The young man went sorrowfully away. The widow gave her all as did Father Schwartz and all the unknown saints who even today don't just see Jesus on the altar or in the Tabernacle but, as he told us, in the person to whom they give food and drink. 

I am still "going sorrowfully away"as is our Church which if she were to be true to Christ would be trying to divest herself of riches not to protect the patrimony of St Peter but to do the will of Our Father.

Dear Lord, forgive me my sins and help me to become poor so that I can be with you. May Mary pray with Aloysius and all the saints that even at this age I and all sinners on earth and in Purgatory may be open to receive the forgiveness won by your suffering on Calvary and by your daily repeated suffering with the poor on earth.

 20/08/2023

Today is another beautiful day. Walking with my dog, I tried to conceive an idea of the vastness of the Universe created and of the ever greater Creator. God is beyond all thought and we would have no way of imagining his greatness if he had not revealed himself to us. We have to thank God for the words of the Old Testament which we have to follow with the integrity that we accepted them when first we believed..

Science examines the physical universe and sees it as a never ending "Big Bang", a non destructive; a creative explosion but that is not God. God is greater than all imaginable Universes but he knows every speck of matter that he has ever created and he knows me.

St Paul is pretty difficult to follow but he tells us that we are saved, reconciled to God because the first Chosen People could not cope with their part of the agreements made, forgotten, renewed, and renewed again which are documented in the Old Testament. Trying to express in language that could be understood by themselves, the totally greatness of God's Mercy becomes the "Happy Fault"of Adam, all mankind and particularly Judas in the Holy Saturday Liturgy.

Dogs are not usually seen in Middle -Eastern homes so the reference to "house-dags" by Jesus comes as a great shock. Does he really insult the Syrian woman so badly as to call her a dog.?There is absolutely no trace of sin in our "True Man and True God so we are to understand this metaphor as applying to his Mission and not to the persons he was directly addressing?

Dear Lord help me to become true to you and let my striving become a witness to your Love. Your Love is for all your created worlds and it is as intensive as it is unchanging. May Mary's prayers help me and all sinners to understand the life she shared with you in Palestine and let our hearts be open to receive the Mercy you have created for each and every soul in our world and time.

 19/08/2023

I have been without my regular morning routine for 3 days. I still tried to pray but I was in such a wonderful place that although I did try to thank God for the surroundings, both natural and manmade, I knew that if I had been born into the wealth of centuries which had created the Hall and its Park, it is  probable that I too would have had too much to do on earth to pay sufficient attention to the Kingdom of God.

The young man went away saddened for he believed the words of Jesus and knew that he could not pauperize himself neither for the sake of the poor nor the Kingdom of Heaven. I wonder whether he changed his mind later in the days after the Resurrection when the fire of the Holy Spirit burned into the souls of so many.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, however, are not a "Convenience Store" to which we pop when we are out of "holiness". God knows us in all places and times which are all components of his creation and would all cease to exist if he did not choose to maintain us in his Providence. 

From Joshua we again hear that we are not to put anything before our God. The Israelites were tempted by false Gods. There are not many people today, however. who would choose to be a devotee of Zeus or Venus. ( |What on earth was the Pope doing with that bit of black wood which somebody rightfully dumped in the Tiber?).

Our false Gods are also, however, all of our own making as were the statues of the Amorites etc. Disney and other studios create countless counterfeit beings which are in reality "the Gods" which block Jesus from the view of the little children which we are, whom he called to be with him in the Kingdom.

Our world and all that is in it is so huge and beautiful that we need another intervention by God to save us from it for its beauty is in no way evil. Please, Jesus, please return to save all of us who cannot overcome the attractions of this world without you. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus. Come!

Dear Lord, I know that you have redeemed us all and left us with the means to ensure that we do your will on Earth. There are too many allies of the "Prince of this World", however, even in the institution to which you gave the "Keys" whom by their wealth, beauty captivate the souls of young and old alike and thus become Idols, false Gods, sinful blasphemies.  May Mary and all the Saints pray for us to be open to your grace to receive the Mercy that was created by the unimaginable suffering of Calvary.

 15/08/2023

John's vision has always puzzled me. It seems an awful lot of imagination. An awful lot of symbolism in contrast to the direct words of Paul. John hears a great shout from his vision of heaven. The Old Testament is concluded. 

Paul teaches "Just as all men sinned in Adam so will all men be brought to life in Christ; but all in their proper order ". Christ is the first fruit of the new harvest. At the Ascension Jesus began the new creation in which "there are many mansions". He is completely God but he is also the New Man who dazzled St Paul into blindness. 

He is the first human to be with the Father body and soul. Mary who is much more glorious than the tongue of man can say, was born without sin;. her body sheltered the natural growth of the true man and true God; it is as "Theotokos" that she is taken to her rightful place, body and soul, in the heaven that is the "still quiet place"full of love.

Mary's song of praise raised in the hill country of Judea echoes throughout the Universe of time and space. There is, has been and will be nothing greater than Father Son and Holy Spirit; Holy is his name!

Dear Lord my heart can sing with Mary in the joy of my "being". In the purity of her being there was no need for forgiveness but she carried your Son to be born "Saviour of the World" and saviour of me. May the hearts and minds of all  sinners be open to receive the free gift of your mercy, which is greater than any thought that can be thought by man. Help me to keep my thoughts centered on you during the next three days that I will be away.