26/02/2023

As I think and type these words I know that I am alive not through my own will but by the will of God, the creator of everything. 

Ruth became used to living in a foreign land as the dependent of her mother-in-law but knew that to be accepted completely she needed to find a man and give birth to sons. If she had stayed at home this would have been impossible so she asked permission to follow the harvesters, gleaning the barley that had been missed by the reapers.

Boaz did notice her as she had planned but claimed that it was because of her character that he had chosen her. As with all human relationship it was a "bit of both"; looks and moral worth. Ruth's son was welcomed into Naomi's life and he became the grandfather of David.

The great temple being completed in Jerusalem during Jesus' lifetime was served by devout scribes and priests, the "Fathers" of their day. They performed the sacrificial rituals and studied the scrolls. They searched for signs of God's providence and were themselves obedient to claims of ritual purity that they passed on to each other.

Jesus was always at odds with these "Fathers" but never condemns their teaching. For us the "Church of Peter" is still the guardian of the "Law" that rules our lives in "God's Providence" and the only source of God's "Eucharist". The immorality of "Fathers" damages the "Good News" but Jesus tells us that God is with us in His Providence, that the Love of  Father, Son and Holy Spirit has only to be acknowledged for us to become the human being that God created us to be and thus we can sincerely "approach the Altar of God; of God who gives joy to my soul".

Dear Lord, you know more about me than I know myself. Please share that knowledge with me and let the inspiration of the Holy Spirit not be blocked by my weakness. Let me this day avoid sin and with the help of Your Mother and Saints let this prayer have a fruitful fulfilment.

 25/08/2023

Each one of us is responsible for our own life. My life has to be an acceptance of God's will. God knows the billions of us who have ever lived. He teaches that each soul is equal in his eyes. In our eyes however there are vast differences amongst us in all that makes us human.

"The chosen people" are "chosen" not to be better than other people but to be the first recipients of God's revelation of his own being. For all the prophets God became visible. There were three "strangers" at the oak at Mamre, Jacob wrestled with an Angel, Moses was marked for ever by what began as a crackling fire in a thorn. 

In the Gospel Reading for today Jesus is confronted by human knowledge and piety accumulated over the centuries. Wilful mankind, in the person of the Old Testament, challenges  Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the person of Jesus, true man and true God. The pharisees had devoted every day of their lives to the study of the scriptures and knew that an attempt by anyone to answer "Which is the most important of the Commandments?" was likely to result in confusion for Jesus for whatever his answer it would be open to further challenges.

God does not leave us alone to search out and do his will. His revelations are all recorded in the Bible. We each have to use our freedom to live our lives within the bounds of his Love. This has to be a daily resolution as it is so easy to let the results of God's Providence occlude the Glory of his Being. 

The Universe which is created out of nothing for us by God, the wonderful scientific achievements of mankind within that creation, the great minds that have lived throughout the ages are all "good" but they are not God. God is the broken body on the cross which promises each one of us a personal Resurrection  in the  glorious eternity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, let my thoughts and prayers be a reflection of your Love for me. Let me not be overcome by Devil, world and flesh. Let me stay within the bounds of  of the freedom that is part of my being. May my prayers together with the prayers of Mary and all the Saints become united in a Church unrestricted by modern Scribes and Pharisees. May the Holy Souls in Purgatory and our sinful souls on earth receive the Mercy that you pour out from your bodily wounds inflicted by sin on Calvary and may all the world hear "Come beloved of my Father"when God becomes "All in All".

 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.