07/09/2023

St Paul is writing to the recently converted at Colossae. We all today have the same need to pray and to try to understand God's will for us. The needs of all generations since the Resurrection are still the same. The circumstances, our place in God's Providence, are very different. Jesus and all the others we read about in the New Testament lived in the Roman Empire.

The "Pax Roma" is a great misnomer as there was never complete peace within the borders of the Empire. Some of  the first disciples expected Jesus to lead a rebellion against the the puppets of the Emperor. Jesus tells us time and time again "My Kingdom is not of this world". God's will for us is to live lives without sin. We are to live always in his presence and although aware of "Caesar" we are to obey only God. It is better to be killed rather than deny the supreme power of God and directly worship Mammon. 

The huge Temple complexes seen by St Paul were always used as treasuries by the the pre-Christian Civilizations of the Middle East. ( Egypt was somewhat different). The gold that covered the Statues in the Parthenon was stripped away and melted down whenever needed, usually to pay  the Wagner Groups of their day. Another huge Temple was also seen by St Paul in Ephesus and it too was Mammon's. 

The Pope St Leo is praised for deterring barbarian tribes from pillaging Rome. This was not the first time that the Church founded on St Peter had became entangled with the kingdoms and Empires of this world. It was not the last either. 

I know that Jesus did not say to St.Peter "thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my Church to rule the world". Our Church's long history of trying to compete with Mammon for political ownership of men's souls has failed because the attempt is intrinsically flawed; it goes against God's Word. That attempt in direct opposition to the sayings of our Lord has resulted in the mess that is  the Western Church today. 

Today (07/09/2023) it is announced that science has created an "human embryo-like-being" is there any Bishop in our Church who has the moral authority to deny this act as an affront to God? They always fudge on sexuality. Will any one of them disturb his own Episcopal comfort to condemn sin for what it is?

Dear Lord, please stop us now. You are our God. There is too much denial in our world. Help us to overcome the evil that dominates your providence. The tiny ones such as I am are useless to fight the mountains of money that disfigure your creation and the egos that completely deny you to your face. May Mary and all the Saints join me in pleading for mankind to know that the crucifixion of Jesus was not a bloodless myth and was needed to provide mankind with all the grace needed to self regulate ourselves into holiness. We need to do your will. Help us all poor and rich alike.

 06/09/2023

All of us live in God's Providence. There is nothing that is or ever has been independent of God. It is when we forget this  and attribute our success or our failure to our own selves that we grow in pride and our faith is reduced. St Peter's is the only mother-in-law that is mentioned in the Gospels. There must have been others but what place they played in the lives of the Apostles we have not been told.

 Some of us from birth are assigned roles in the drama of life that is God's providence that are not possible for all of us. The sons of kings expect to be kings. Some of us are born more intelligent than others and can think their way into greatness. What about the Apostles? They were chosen by God from among the people He has always favoured to be the direct receivers of the Final Revelation. They abandoned everything including family to follow Jesus.

We are told very little about what effect this free choice by all the Apostles had on their families. At first the wives and families must have been shocked to their cores. Mary and St Joseph had to be reassured by the message of an angel but the families of the Apostles had to wait as Jesus' message unfolded. The mother of James and John in anticipation of earthly glory sought to influence Jesus. Did she stand with Mary at the foot of the cross, did she see the resurrected Lord? How did the family of Judas  react to the part their son played the night before the Crucifixion?

Each soul that has ever been created is known to Our Father. Some are carried and born as they flee from evil. Some are instantly pampered by the good things of life. Some are not so welcomed by the love that is due to each child as are others. Some are seen as a threat and are killed in the wombs of their mothers as were the infants slaughtered by Herod.

God says to each one of us individually "Receive your being given to you in Love, you are my child and I am your God; the only thing I ask of you is to love and thus avoid all evil. Fear not, for my Mercy is with you always even to the end of time."

Dear Lord help me in my pondering. Help me to stay true to you each day. Help me to do deeds of goodness and let the prayers of all the mothers, mothers-in -law, wives sisters and daughters who were abandoned by their menfolk for thy sake bring to those still sinful on Earth the spirit of repentance and the Mercy that we all need to do thy will. 

 05/09/2023

In his prayers, St Paul remembers all those who have accepted the Word preached by him. In his letters he encourages them to remember the moment that they first believed. In his time with the Thessalonians he must have covered the whole of what we know as the "Apostles Creed", the summary of God's revelation to the whole world, preached in the first century by Paul and all the Apostles, but not formalised until the fifth . 

He would have spoken to the Jews about the Messiah known from the Scriptures. The pagans would have had to have their idols broken. I do not know whether or not there was a deep belief, similar to that of the Jews' belief in IAMIAM, by the pagans in the spiritual reality of their gods. Julian tried to create one but failed.

 Paul did have some physical confrontations with "the synagogue" but with pagan devotees the most noteworthy one that I have noticed took place in Ephesus. There the Temple of Diana was the central bank of Asia Minor and its priests were concerned that international confidence in the strength of its deposits should not be undermined by these "nutters" from Jerusalem who were teaching that the things of this world are valueless.

The Resurrection is the "sun" of our faith. Everything we know of God's revelation begins with the impossibility of a man rising from the dead. The "Son of man must rise from the dead" was meaningless, even to those who had been Jesus' longtime disciples, until it happened. Jesus performed many miracles in his time on Earth but it was the Resurrection that became the core of the Faith that was reinforced by the Holy Spirit into the Apostles to be the irresistible message, the fire of faith that still burns on Earth although many of us forget and even deny it.

Dear Lord the devil left the man in the synagogue by the lake in fear of you. Would that the devil Mammon which we on Earth have allowed to take over your providence and your Church be destroyed. Fill the hearts of your priests with the spirit of Truth which will resist the "Fornication" and empty time-filling which was the "Sign of the Times" defeated by you and your Apostles in Ancient Rome and still with us. May Mary who is always the Immaculate one and all the Saints, who are now in the changeless state of grace of Heaven, bring your mercy to all sinners on Earth who are ready to become penitent and to those sure of salvation but suffering just punishment in Purgatory for their waste of your grace and Love when living on this world.

 04/09/2023

In the first years of St Paul's preaching he emphasised the Parousia. The Apostles originally taught that Jesus would return in their lifetimes. They had suffered the unbearable sorrow of Good Friday and the intolerable emptiness of Holy Saturday. Jesus' Resurrection on the third day had brought with it a joyful understanding of what they had been witnessing over the previous three years of discipleship. 

There could be no doubts now that Jesus' Kingdom was not of this world and and in their first prayers after the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit they taught themselves and their converts to pray that the Lord would soon return from His Father in Heaven. Maranatha.

In today's letter to the Thessalonians Paul assures them that their dead loved ones will also be present at the Parousia. There will be no advantage for the living over the dead for the end of time will bring all of us to Eternity, Life Everlasting where we will be truly happy in fulfillment of God's will for his creation. Paul is preaching to real people and he knows that all of us have souls which still live on after the death of our bodies.

In the Synagogue of Nazareth Jesus' the Carpenter's son is asked to read from the scrolls. I don't think that this would have been the first time that this had occurred for he grew up there in a devout family. He was previously known to the congregation but now had a reputation, which had quickly spread from Capernaum, as a "wonder worker".

At first, the words of Jesus are received with awe. The Quorum knew who he was and are amazed that he has changed so much since last they saw him. Jesus challenges them to understand God's Providence. What we know and do with our lives in the human reality in which we are living. Why are some cured but not all ? Why does God permit evil to happen? Why are Jews the chosen ones?

The rest of Jesus' teaching on earth still makes these direct challenges to us all. My life has been spent trying to face these same questions with the help of the grace of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This grace is won for us by the same Jesus whom his neighbours wanted to throw off the cliff into the waste heap outside Nazareth. Jesus it is who, three years later completed God's revelation of himself with the Descent of the Holy Spirit onto those gathered in his name in Jerusalem and who promises to be with us until the end of time. Maranatha!

Dear Lord, I pray that you will look with favour on my efforts to bring my life into the holiness that you have made possible for all mankind. All of as are created equal and can choose  to be for you or against you. Help me to be true to my Baptism and resist the Devil, the World and the Flesh. May Mary the sinless being from whom you begot your humanity continue in her loving support for the sinners on earth and for the repentant in Purgatory.

 03/09/2023

Jeremiah is totally the creature of  the Lord. He is not happy to be a figure of scorn, the butt of jokes. Testifying to the Word of God has not brought anything but struggle to him. Struggle with his listeners and struggle within himself. IAMIAM always wins. Jeremiah proclaims the "EverGreater" and is still derided.

The soul that has lost touch with God, that seems to be abandoned, screams out in the empty space that is any man who has lost touch with God. God's Love is better than life itself. St Paul tells that we have to use our minds to consider the meaning of "God" and the meaning of "Life". 

The Gospel translation that is being read today does nothing by changing the words with which we have been familiar for centuries. The world of clever clerics calls our for recognition of its "cleverness" and can only make itself known by the changes it makes to Liturgy and Bible Texts.

"What does it profit a man if he wins the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul?". This is not a "hard saying" but the direct truth from God to us. Those who prepared the new translation are claiming that the Jews knew nothing about "soul" which is a Hellenistic concept. There may be human truth in this but it is insignificant as Jesus is the entire revelation of God for all human time.

The OT Jews also had no concept of a "Trinity of Persons and a oneness of being", of Jesus "true man and true God", "of begotten not made". God has revealed of his Evergreatness that which we can understand and make use of. He is sufficient to the day the Goodness thereof. The Bible is the pattern to which all Theology must conform.

 The New Testament is God's final revelation of his being. It is not some human thinking. There has never been any reason to change the Translation to suit the findings of modern scholarship The clerics thus employed should have been filling their time on earth by walking amongst the poor in God's footsteps, within the stench of the sheep rather than sitting in beautiful libraries surrounded by the peaceful quiet and fragrance of the ivory towers of Academia.

Dear Lord do you not burn in the bones of anyone alive today? You know that the successors to your Apostles show all of their weaknesses but little of their strengths. You know that my conscience being lives on after my body has been burnt. You too have this "being" that is created by the Father God to receive the Love that is Father Son and Holy Spirit. May Mary who wept and cared for your dead body on Calvary lead all the Souls that are the Mystical Body of her Son in loving obedience to Christ/Jesus that we on Earth can avoid all sin and by penance open our souls to receive thy mercy of which there is no end.

 02/09/2023

There are some beautiful images in all the psalms. Today the rivers clap their hands, the hills ring out their joy for in creation we can know something of the Majestic Glory of God. People rejoice and give thanks for the salvation from sin that comes to us from accepting God as our "ruler"on Earth. 

The psalmist sings of the the Covenants of the Old Testament. The prophets of the Old Testament had to continually remind the Chosen People of the need to always remember that they had to praise God by obeying his commands with joyful thanks. 

St Paul knows that the Thessalonians have learnt to live in peace with each other directly from Father, Son and Holy Spirit for he is teaching and writing in the first years of the world that has been redeemed by the Incarnation. God has chosen to become man, to share our life and death and to reveal the Glory to come by his Resurrection. He has walked with and taught his disciples.

First of all, Jesus taught by example. He is the perfect man and we should strive to imitate him. It seems to be an impossible task but our Saints both men, women and children have stretched their humanity to the limits, as did he, in devotion to God. Jesus also taught directly. Sometimes, he would capture their imaginations with a story and his listeners would interpret the message for themselves or sometimes the Apostles would ask him for an explanation.

For me, today's parable falls into the category of "hard sayings of Jesus" i.e. a category that seems to be contradictory to the Gospel and thus not easy to understand. I have, for example, been able to be at ease  with "I come to bring a sword"which does seem to contradict "peace I bring to you", but today it seems that the third servant is condemned  for feeling and being powerless before God. That is indeed a "hard saying".

Dear Lord, you know I keep on trying. I bumble along but sometimes trip over a boulder that I should try to move around. Please give me the grace to understand your teaching and the sincerity to imitate your life. May Mary and all the Saints, who must have sometimes misunderstood your word's, pray that all sinners on Earth accept your mercy with the gratitude and never to be doubted sincerity of repentance of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 01/09/2023

Jesus left us many parables. They all have the same basic message that we should live our earthly lives in holiness to be ready for their end. The foolish virgins locked themselves out of heaven because they were not prudent. Prudence is being wise before the event. God's incarnate life, teaching, passion death and Resurrection was to give us the grace that is the fuel of faith needed to keep our souls alight ready to welcome the "bridegroom".

St Paul accepted that straight forward message in the revelation of  the Resurrection made to him on the road to Damascus. St Paul makes it clear that holiness cannot come from "fornication". Many Western anti-God formerly Christians condemn the teaching of St Paul and there are some "foolish fornicators"who claim that our God commends their vices because they are doing them with what they call love. They mock all who do not join them in their sexual practices and also they mock the consciences that try to break free of habitual sin.

Science has broken the link between procreation and sexual pleasure. The human fruitfulness that is God's gift to us is denied. Conception is prevented but if this measure is unsuccessful the unwanted child is killed. We claim that life in the modern world is different than it was in the Palestine of Jesus. Saying this is no more meaningful than saying that today is not yesterday for the nature of mankind has not changed.

In my life time, I have sometimes actively pandered to my own lust and at others I have been ambushed into fornication. I do know though, that I could have avoided each sin and that without the mercy of God I have not won a place for myself even in Purgatory.

Dear Lord, guide with your grace the true repentance that is the only essential for your Mercy to overcome the sins that have ruined my soul. May Mary and the Saints in Heaven cherish your grace and plead for us sinners on Earth and in Purgatory. May my sins be forgiven but not forgotten as I continue my way through this life. Amen