23/10/2023

St Paul teaches that we have to believe. We have to have Faith. It is Faith that breaks down the walls of our foolish pride and lets us rejoice that we are known by God. It is through the action of our Faith that we become "considered" by God, known and blessed by the right choice for God that we have made.

St Paul is a perfected Pharisee. The Resurrection forced him to recognise that he and the other scribes and Pharisees had turned God's Temple into a sham  and how to find Father, Son and Holy Spirit within the temple that his being had become. Body and soul he was filled with Christ. St Paul was a living temple and it is to become as he was that we all have to live in the time God gives to us.

Prideful Mammon is our greatest enemy on Earth. Jesus consistently teaches that our treasure is to have Faith only in himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit. The way to become "rich in the sight of God" has been cleared out for us by the incredible humility of the Incarnation. 

Jesus has broken the power of sin and with Faith alone we too can have the life of Christ living within us. Our Church was founded by Jesus. He is the Eternal Word who by his life on earth has shown to us that living by Faith in God is not a "treasure" beyond our reach but that even I can reach that perfection of Love.

God wants in timeless eternity for his children yesterday, today and tomorrow to join him, His Son, Mary and all the Saints in the Glory that is the Holy Spirit. It is a glimpse of heaven on earth to have been given this Faith.

Dear Lord, hear the prayer that is the silent sorrow, regret and longing to atone for all my sins. I thank you that I can overcome the baby voice inside me that congratulates, loves and thinks myself a treasure, but I wish it would go away completely. May Mary who is the perfect example of Faith Hope and Love lead all her heavenly children in their pleas for the forgiveness won by her Son to be accepted by all sinners great and small living and waiting here with me and in Purgatory. Amen.

 22/10/2023

We are all born into freedom. Cyrus was doing the will of God even though he did not know it; we all always have the opportunity to do or not do any of our actions, good or bad. At that time God had revealed only to the Jews that we are to live within the Law of Love, but Cyrus had for himself decided that it was better to placate the different peoples who formed his Empire by letting them worship their own Gods, within their own cultures.

Paul knew that the Resurrection which confronted him on the road to Damascus was the Jesus the proclaimers of whom he had been authorised by the Temple to seek out and destroy. He had been part of this persecution in Jerusalem. 

Paul preaches the power and the glory of God, but most of all Love. Although he never uses the word "Trinity", he believes in three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit which are always together as one God of Love.

Humanity damages itself today as always by not thanking God for the wonder of "being". This has lead us into the self satisfaction that is "pride". There is nothing that we have done with created matter that can match the first creation out of nothing of which we are a part.

Despite everything that God had shown over the centuries to the Jews of two thousand years ago they still did not live by his Word. They had turned the Law of Moses into a sham of hypocrisy and ritual excesses.

God has never given up on us. The manifest Glory and Power of the man Jesus threatened the self love of the Priests. His words troubled them even though they read many of them every day in the scrolls of the Law. The Incarnate Son cannot be trapped by casuistry from any source.

Even though, Jesus always speaks without guile, "a spade is always a spade" for him, Bishops, Patriarchs and Popes very soon began to mingle their responsibility for maintaining the newly created Sacramental Being of the Altar with the political affairs of "Caesar". 

We should all be aware by now that "The Kingdom is not of this World". Jesus taught  that in it there is a place for all of us. The things of this world will all corrode into dust as will our own bodies. The Father creates and knows the eternal soul of each of us, the Sacramental presence of Jesus feeds us throughout our lives and the Holy Spirit is the fire of Love which is God and to be shared with and by all of us. Amen

Dear Lord, let me truly thank you for life which is a gift without measure. Your power and glory are for ever and it is your wish for all to conform to your will and become a part of your Eternity. May Mary and all the Saints support your clergy that their hearts become devoted only to you with true care for the souls entrusted to them.

 21/10/2023

We must not disguise our faith in God. We are to live in this world but not give any value to its Godless standards. How do we declare our devotion to Jesus in the presence of men? I am trying to do it now but nobody reads this record of my morning prayer. 

God knows that many have tried to put Jesus' words into practice. Many who did so in the past were persecuted by the institution that the worshipping community founded by Jesus on St Peter and all those who had known him face-to-face in this world, has become.

The followers of heresy were not all wiped out by persecution. Some continue to display contempt for the standards of this world and live by the teaching of Jesus in the privacy of their own homes or in communities in isolated locations throughout the world. God save them!

"The Holy Spirit will teach you what you must say". What we all were able to see at the public enquiry into institutional cover-up of crimes by clergy against children was the humiliation of prideful prelates. One half-second of thought is enough to tell us that using anybody child or adult for sexual satisfaction is against the will of God and if not instantly acknowledged as such cannot be forgiven. 

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are total Love beyond our comprehension. The Incarnation is the confirmation that that Love is mercy. Jesus, the Son of Man, is One with Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the forgiveness that accompanies sincere repentance for sin, even for his executioners, but today he also tells us that the sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven.

Dear Lord, today I can witness the power of nature throughout our land. God save those who are suffering from events much worse in other parts of the world. Jesus, Son of Man, You have fulfilled the Father's will, and given us all hope of heaven. We cannot sin against the Holy Spirit if we remain true to You. All salvation comes from You but we must seek it out with sincerity. Mary, your mother is the perfect example of created humanity and it is her prayers for our protection against all sorts of sin that can bring forgiveness and the fullness of redemption for all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory.

20/10/2023

Today's readings give the support that I know that I need in my life. 

"Good deeds" is a bit  overpowering. For me it becomes avoiding my obvious, even to myself, sins. For St Paul it was certainly much more. He was helped up from his encounter on his way to persecute the incipient Church in Damascus and, never-looking back, he preached the Gospel until the day he was beheaded. His life became a "good deed".

Our Lord cured the sick, fed the hungry taught us how and why  to pray. Those are good deeds that we all can repeat but his ultimate "good deed" is that he is God incarnate in the same physical body as we are; he is begotten, lives and dies to become the Resurrection. 

Our all-powerful, ever-greater God knows us all. The "tuppenny sparrow" and hairs on our heads are always present to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He knows exactly what a human being is capable of and teaches us by his example.

I may doubt my own integrity and capabilities;  I have sufficient memories to so do.  Jesus, however, knows me in greater depth than I know myself. He tells me that he is my refuge and that we all can know the Joy of Salvation. I have to believe him for the man who preached throughout Palestine and suffered the agonies on Calvary is God.

Dear Lord, you know that I am a weak and fragile follower of your way. Let me know and be consistently thankful for the joy that your words bring to me. I have never been justly dealt with for my sins. Let me accept whatever punishment they deserve that I might look on the heavenly joy that is known to your mother and all the saints. May they pray for me as together we unite in prayers for all sinners here on Earth and in Purgatory.

 19/10/1923

One of the questions that trying to live our lives as God wants us to brings up the question which St Paul tackles in this morning's first reading. How can God deal justly with the souls born before the final revelation, which has been with us for the last two thousand years, for they include not only the chosen and guided ones but pagans too.?

I could say that we just have to accept it as the will of God for the ways of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not man's. At one of the Diocesan Assemblies that were fashionable in the UK around the turn of the century. I heard one Bishop, now an Archbishop, issue the opinion that even though we were not happy within the Church as she is today, we have to accept her for what she is as what we have is the will of God.

St Paul asks the question "Is God, the God of Jews alone and not of pagans too?" The Church that grew out of the peaching of St Paul and the other Apostles was quite soon compromised by administrative needs. Jesus had rebuffed the mother of James and John when she asked for favoured places to be reserved in his Kingdom for her sons. All the Apostles had quarreled about their status.

The Church had to guard the Sacramental new way of being created on Earth by the Son's Life Death and Resurrection. It was to do this by holiness. Each individual has the responsibility to live by obedience to justice and mercy, to thus bear witness to the Love of God through  human love for each other.

There is only one God. Is it his will that human society worship Mammon and Venus before him? Is it his will that his Church fail in her duty to confect and guard the Sacramental holiness that is the only reason for her being. Can I live the life of Faith outside of the Human Institution that Christ's foundation become very quickly after he ascended into  Eternity , Father Son and Holy Spirit?

Dear Lord, I cannot do any better than this. I try to ponder your ways and live without sin. Help me to remain secure in the knowledge of your Loving Mercy. Help your Church to read and preach your Scriptures and defend all Clerics from the attachment to worldly power that has always been the downfall of the hierarchy. May Mary, who asked for herself nothing other than to be doer of your word, became the bearer of your body both in birth and in death,  lead us all today in praise and in humble supplication for peace on Earth and forgiveness for all sinners both us the living and those waiting in Purgatory.

 18/10/2023

Dissent and division have accompanied the Church since the very earliest days. The fact that Paul mentions the trouble making copper-smith by his name indicates that his dissent had to be taken seriously. Some of us leave the Church for the same reasons as Demas. The complete collapse of public worship in Europe is certainly another "going to Thessalonica" for former followers of the way prepared by St Paul.

St Luke stayed with Paul and was a "friend of God who made known the glorious splendour of his reign". There is no complete scholarly agreement about the men who actually composed the books of the New Testament. The books that we now consider to be the authentic message of Father, Son and holy Spirit to support us in this world were codified in the fourth century as a measure to combat heresies which had grown along with the Church.

None of the evangelists name any of these 72 who went ahead of the Lord to prepare the way through Palestine that Jesus intended to take. The message that they had to proclaim was that the Kingdom of God was near to them. They would undoubtedly talk about the miracles that they had witnessed and about the "aura" of the Lord which attracted "multitudes" as a magnet draws in iron-filings to itself. The Resurrection was to prove the truth of their proclamation "The Kingdom of God is near".

Dear Lord help me to sincerely live according to your will for me. May my penitence grow greater as my sins get farther and farther behind me. Let me accept your Word in humility and ponder it throughout this day. May Mary and all the saints of heaven pray that the violence that always stains your homeland with blood come to a halt and that you accept the unjustly slain into your peace. Let that "peace" carried by the 72 finally come to rest to make your chosen ones live in a truly Holy Land.

 17/10/2023

This morning I am determined not to repeat the mistakes of yesterday so I have got up early enough to use the peace and quiet of morning to calm my mind and heart, to begin the day by the knowing, loving and serving which were missing from my life yesterday.

St Paul is more of an Old Testament prophet today, although he knows that it is Christ of the Resurrection that fills him with new life. He condemns the idolatry of the pagans. If I were there I would remind him that God did choose the Jews to be the first to receive the revelations that make our lives on Earth meaningful. The Jews definitely had an advantage over the rest of us. 

He condemns the intellectuals, the philosophers of his day but they too had denied the "Gods". It was only Julian in the fourth century who was able to make  paganism into Religion. He had received a very well founded Christian education along with Basil the Great. God works in mysterious ways.

Jesus, as he does throughout his life, condemns the scrupulosity of the Pharisees who, true to form, blame Jesus for not washing before eating. If it were the custom of the Jews to eat from the same plate as each other washing before eating seems to be an understandable norm. But Jesus continues to condemn the "religious" who know all the rules but have lost the spirit.

St Paul blame the pagans for their response to the wonder of the creation. Seeing the wonder of creation all mankind should cry out in praise of such a great work and realise that there is one God who name it all. The psalmist got it right. The heavens do indeed proclaim the the Glory of Lord but God called only the Jews until the Incarnation of the Son proclaimed the ever greater glory that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord I am always in need of ever greater forgiveness.  Thank you, cannot be enough for your great mercy but it is all that I can say. May the  prayerful communion of Mary and all the saints of heaven unite with ours on earth to defeat sin on Earth and your Mercy to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Dear Lord save the pagans who are also known to you and who cannot be blamed for ignorance.