08/10/2023

Is it the will of God that today men are indiscriminately killing each other? I often think about the Providence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and ask myself whether or not the events in real time that we all experience in our daily lives all happen because God wills it so.

The fathers and grandfathers of the today's Israeli fighters suffered one of the greatest injustices of History. Was Auschwitz the will of God? Is the modern state of Israel doing the will of God? Is there anywhere in the world where true Righteousness can be found?

Yesterday I was at war within myself as a result of not being able to understand Ebay charges. (pathetic!) I was really messed up in my soul and mind by petty sums of money.(pathetic!) My pride hated to be the "loser". (pathetic!)I knew that it wasn't right for me to pay for services I had not intended to purchase. (pathetic!) I was angry.(fatal and sinful!)

God's will is for each individual soul who dwells on earth to live by the rules of his love. The Palestinian attacks which triggered yesterday's killings in Israel were neither motivated nor allowed by God. They were the result of angry men deciding that they would do something to alleviate the injustice that has been the norm of their lives since 1947.

The Kingdom of Heaven begins in the hearts, minds, the souls of each individual. Jesus teaches the true "way" is non-violence. War begins as anger in the hearts of men and it is this anger that adds to the suffering of this world and to the pains endured for us on the Cross.

Dear Lord, let me live this day in peace and hear my prayers and all the prayers for peace being offered throughout the world. May Mary and the first disciples who have seen their homeland ravaged throughout history plead with our Father to be seen to intervene in the present conflict and let the Church founded on St Peter with you as the corner stone purge itself of all that is not pleasing to you.

 07/10/2023

This morning I have read the mass readings but I am still full of the cares of this world and cannot overcome the mental disturbances that have been caused by not being able to solve problems with ebay charges.

In the world of Mammon the charges are very little but I am hit in my pride that I have made mistakes. This is not a hypothetical situation for me. I am not able to find the peace that I usually do when trying to understand the message of the scriptures.

I often wonder how it is that the cares of this world so captivate  people that they can live without giving God a thought. These last two days have pretty much answered that. Even though my will is trying to overcome the thoughts of invoices, overcharges and labels. They keep on coming back.

There is no pleasure in this turmoil of stupidity. I am not acting a role. I have been trying hard but have easily fallen away from the peace that comes from Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Today's mass to celebrate the Rosary began with the message of an angel. I will repeat that now with a plea for help in overcoming this miniscule problem which for me is a mountain that my faith is not big enough to move. 

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen

Dear Lord you know. Please help me this day. Amen

 05/10/2023

In the first reading Nehemiah conveys to us the great joy felt by all who were present in the  Square before the Water Gate. He names scribes and priests but the image of the "people" calling for the scrolls to be read and then rejoicing, eating, drinking and having fun because they had heard the Law read to them captures the imagination in the same way as does Breughel's' paintings of Mediaeval life. 

This happiness in the Law makes me wonder how it was that these " Holy People", joyful in thanksgiving for the freedom to be enjoyed while living  life in obedience to the will of God, sinned to the extent that the only way to atone was for the Word to become man and offer himself as the Perfect Sacrifice.

In the Gospel, St Luke writes of seventy-two disciples who were sent out to prepare the way of the Lord. These are not named but would have been known to Jesus. If 72 is a real number and not akin to "a couple of dozen" i.e. an vague indication of more than single figures the "multitudes" of all the Gospel narratives were indeed approaching the "five thousand" who were fed on the mountain.

The only text that they could have preached was their own belief in Jesus the man. "We have found the Messiah". St Francis repeated the missionary poverty of "no purse, no haversack, no sandals" but his message was of God incarnate, babe, cross and  Resurrection.

Dear Lord, how can it be that it is so easy for me to sin when you have revealed all that there is to know about how to live as your children. Your life is the only way that we need to follow. Help me to put myself into your shoes and subjugate my ego to the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thy will be done. Amen.

 04/10/2023

Today's readings are about cooperating with the will of God. 

We are all called to live a life that is a fitting recognition of the Love that the Lord lavishes on all his creation. "He saw that it was good".

We are all to respond to God's creation of each one of us "body and soul" with joyful thanks even on a dismal, British downcast autumnal day.

The main characters in the Old Testament were called to be seen to act for God in his Providence. But there were millions of unnamed who were known to God just as much as were Noah, Abraham and  Nehemiah of today's first reading.

I feel sorry for St Francis as his vocation was soon hijacked by the Institution which constructed a Basilica over the poverty of his abandoned chapel. He did nothing for fame but tried to live his life not as an anonymous Christian which meant accepting visible poverty as the indispensable companion for love of Christ.

Jesus told the man that he and his disciples met on the road that to follow him meant to have and expect nothing along the way. Our social obligations have to take second place. The way has to be as straight as a well-plowed furrow.

Dear Lord, help me to shake off my attachments to the world as does a dog shake off the rain from its fur. St Francis teaches us to love all Nature. Animal life is your creation as are the mountains and the ocean. It was in a desert that you faced the devil as a mortal man and refused to release yourself from what was to come. May Mary's prayers together with those of St. Francis and all the saints aid us in human time to continue forward in your Love with the hope that we will not deprive ourselves of your Mercy and will be able to accept the punishment of Purgatory for the sins for which we cannot atone in this life.

 03/10/2023

A Moslem colleague once said to me that the most outstanding thing about Jesus is "Turn the other cheek".

There are some sects that have tried to turn these words into the reality of their lives on Earth. Nobody can say that these people are wrong but, the Church founded on Peter has condemned them as heretics.

Jesus completely denied a place for Mammon in the Temple. The driving out of the money changers from the Temple is the only violent act recorded of Jesus. Our Crusader popes even had promised a plenary indulgence for those joining the rabble that, inspired by greed for Mammon, sacked Constantinople.

In the morning of the Crucifixion Jesus told Peter to put his sword back into its scabbard. "He who lives by the sword will die by the sword". Since then Popes and Bishops have blessed armies and the weapons of war.

St Augustine was gifted with an amazing intelligence and was able to develop the concept of a "just war". "He was too clever for his own good ". Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the person of the Incarnation accepted the unimaginable agony in the Garden and death on the cross.

In today's Gospel, Jesus rebuked James and John for their request to destroy the Samaritan village. He himself knew that the rejection of himself by some of the Galilean villages would not be beneficial for those villagers. He is not seeking revenge when he knows that the Temple of Jerusalem will be destroyed. 

God has always known everything possible that can happen in his creation. He has given us all free will which means that there are billions of possible outcomes for each second of human life. The events of world history are known by God in his timelessness but have never been an inevitably predetermined fate. 

Dear Lord, In your love for us there is no room for anyone to become an inevitable victim. But there are innocents harmed and killed everyday. May the hearts of us all be opened to receive your grace that ensures we make holy our time on earth and refuse to be guided by sinful men slaves of their own egos and supported by Satan. Your mother Mary witnessed your suffering may her call for us to care for all her children be answered today. May my sins and those of all sinners be forgiven and receive your mercy in the fullness of your justice.

 02/10/2023

We are all living on this Earth in the time allotted to us. We are thus given the gift of life and in our infancy become aware that we are not here alone. The creation of each one of us in time and space is the beginning of our knowledge of God's Providence and of our part in it. 

Our History Books record events of the past and Biographies tell of great men but the true History of our world which is the interaction of each one of us with his "neighbour" is known only to Our Father.

The disobedience of Adam and Eve was entirely their own doing. None of us are created to be damned. Each of us can chose to do the will of God. God makes himself known through the choices made by the Jews through whom he first revealed himself to mankind. 

What I am really trying to do as I think about the first and second returns to Jerusalem is to believe that Our God did not predetermine historical events that are behind us. I have no problem in believing that I am responsible for my own sins, but...........?

How could "Our Father" let his children unleash the horror that was the "Killing Fields" of Cambodia ? "Why were the "Gas Chambers" of Auschwitz even thought of? Military Strategist in London actually sat around a table in Whitehall and cynically took the decision to bomb the houses of the workers in German factories as that would be a more effective way to disturb wartime production than aiming at the factories themselves.

The land of the "Nations" was first cleared by the return of the exiles from Egypt and then by the return from Babylon. Today it is still being cleared by bullets and bulldozers but this time most of the settlers do not claim to be cooperating in the will of God.

All of the evil that has ever been in the world is the misuse by mankind of his freedom in God's Providence which allows us to be souls in complete freedom but with bodies only restrained by the laws of the physical universe. 

Mankind can only be true to God in the the individual beings of men. I am one of the same mankind as of all the saints. The sinners that are also within our midst can only be saved by their own choice. I am one of them too.

Dear Lord, May the final petitions of the the guide to prayer Jesus gave us be heard and understood by all the peoples of the World. Let not  the wonderous success of man in our world "lead us into temptation" and let each each one of us "be delivered from Evil" that we ourselves create by ignoring your Love. May Mary,Theotokos, lead all Saints and Angels in  prayer for the sinners on Earth to become as mindful of their iniquity and the vastness of your Mercy as are the Holy Souls in Purgatory. 

 01/10/2023

Yesterday I had to take longer than usual to complete each moment of my morning's preparation for the day ahead. I have to know that it is the "pagans" who babble and that even if my thoughts as typed  are confused and unintelligent that is not an issue, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit know the integrity with which I try to raise my mind and heart to Our Father.

Today the words of Ezekiel, the Psalm,  Paul and Christ are the complete history of faith and are eternally the Truth of God revealed on earth. 

Our personal sin damages the perfection of creation and God's Providence. 

The psalmist prays that God unfrees our will and takes from us the freedom that is the perfection of our being.

St Paul sings the most perfect hymn to the Incarnation.

Jesus tells us that the perfect human being does the Will of the Father.

I know that have typed enough for, although, I am intrigued to know happened to John's congregation, the clarity of today's readings needs to be pondered and acted upon throughout the rest of my life.

Dear Lord I understand the humanity of the plea made by the Psalmist. But You do not want us to be only the highest of your order of animals. We are  to be your image and likeness alive in Creation, living in worldly time. The words of the prophets were heard for a time. You know that I am fearful for the future of your Church on Earth as it seems unable to resist sinfulness. May my prayers be joined to the Heavenly Chorus in praise of you and in pleas for your forgiveness and Mercy for all repentant sinners living on Earth and in Purgatory.