14/12/2023

The prophets of Israel were  humans who were filled with the Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They only knew IAMIAM but the Holy Spirit it was that revealed himself to them in their prayers. God has never changed but after Adam and Eve's fall he has revealed himself to us not only through the creation and providence where we are alive in this world but also through, in the case of the Old Testament, the Law that Moses had had revealed to him and which the Chosen People could follow to become Holy. They failed even though God forgave them time and time again.

God's answer is himself.

We know Jesus as the final revelation for he is "God from God, True Light from True Light Begotten not made, of one Being with the Father" but is our response to God any better than that of Israel at the time Jesus walked and preached? Has our world ever been characterised by the righteousness of the majority of created souls.?

Everything we are or know in our lives arises out of our freedom. Freedom is part of the image and likeness that Adam and Eve were given. It is out of our freedom that we can refuse God. Our bodies are subject to the Laws of created matter. This, our material being and its instincts, houses our souls. It is our souls that can know God and accept or refuse his will. Our bodily instincts have to become subject to our will guided by the Will of God.

IAMIAM cannot be captured by any brain. Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the perfection of all being. God is Holy. He looks on his creation and "it is Good". Jesus has by his life, death and resurrection brought the reality of God into Human History. By emptying himself of Divinity,  he has experienced both human time and human suffering. There is as a result of the Incarnation an overflowing abundance of Grace demanding that we take the hand that God continually proffers in Love to each of us as an individual.

 Like Hamlet we can complicate the choices we have to make in life but there is really only one choice. Am I to answer God's call to holiness with "yea or nay" "To be or not to be?"?

Dear Lord, without your care for us we are nothing. Help me to live up to the yearning for Love and sinless holiness that some of your Saints have achieved. I have always been ashamed and fearful in my many sins. May Mary our mother lead all your saints in prayers for all your sinners who can use your grace to atone here on Earth or in Purgatory. You are the Creator, the Saviour and the Judge and we are all "poor worms" or "tiny mites" dependent on the Loving Mercy that becomes the Sacrifice on Calvary repeated eternally in Heaven.  Lord save us by the total power of your grace!

 13/12/2023

God has undoubtedly revealed himself as a person. Isaiah in today's first readings speaks of God and God speaks to us through him. 

Centuries before St Anselm Isaiah declares God to be the Evergreater. "His understanding is beyond fathoming".

God asks us all to look outside ourselves and know that  we cannot ever take the place of God. Only he can create the Universe of stars and planets. Only he can know the invisible particles that make up all matter.

God knows that we can feel desolate and abandoned. If we are ruled by the World this is inevitable as worldly things are but passing satisfactions. Only he is an "Everlasting God". 

The Psalm is an outburst from the depths of the being of the psalmist. He is joyful for he has acknowledged the Lord. He knows that God loves him.

Jesus is the Incarnation and through his human person he reveals the Trinity of Persons whose one being is the only Love that will give us rest.

Dear Lord, let me  find the penitence that will clear the way for your Love. I am free as are all created Souls. Let me avoid all sinfulness and this day continue to be thankful for the Faith that governs my live. May Mary in these closing days of her literal God Bearing continue to keep in mind that Jesus' life was lived only to create the Mercy of God that she and all the saints can help to distribute throughout all the World and Purgatory.

 12/12/2023

Without my belief in God I would be nothing. I ask myself everyday if I am using Faith  as an excuse for what could be considered failure to succeed in the world as it is today. In fact there is nothing in my life that I lack. There is absolutely no need for most of the things that I have. All the trappings provided by riches are totally useless in themselves and are purchased only to enable the souls of the rich to look into their "barn" and congratulate themselves.

I  believe that what I feel in the depths of my heart is "our Father" knowing the one "me" that he has created. I am not Isaiah and have not been created to call the chosen people back to IAMIAM. I cannot sing the joy that is David's when he contemplates what the Power of God can do for his people.

I know that rich and poor we are all in the Providence that is the created reality of earth continually modified by the choices made by human beings. We all create by our sins the evil that is so obvious wherever we look. The first place that I should look is into my own soul and seek forgiveness for the sins that are still there.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are Love and want only good  for their creation. We can come to the peace that is reserved for us by our Good Shepherd only by total repentance for sin and total emptying of self to become the little ones in the comfort of the arms of the one who accepted the sacrifice of himself to become the eternal Resurrection.

Dear Lord, you know me better than I know myself and that I am afraid of "lip service". i hope that what I have just written is true to your name and that I am sincerely seeking forgiveness and salvation. May Mary who so long ago was only 12 days form her time continue to be for me and all sinners the "Godbearer" through whose prayers we, sinners on earth and in Purgatory, can all be saved. Amen

 11/12/2023

St Damasus, whose feast day it is today, is the Pope who is largely responsible for the concept of the "Institutional Roman Catholic Church" thus growing  into the hierarchical organisation that it is now. In his pontificate, Latin became the official language of the Church and St Jerome became the translator into Latin of the mixture of texts that had been used for teaching and worship. Jesus' preaching and teaching by example the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit became a new "Law"  similar to the way the mystical wonder of  Moses' vision on Mt Sinai had become the "Law"of the Scribes and Pharisees. 

Jesus had condemned in no uncertain terms the prideful following of "The Law " of his day and replaced it with his Good News. His Church founded on St Peter had to be "Holy for I am holy", live as he did only for the good of others and spread herself by preaching and prayer as he had instructed all who had known him in Palestine. It was to become his spiritual body on earth for he was now with his Father.

St Damasus' pontificate began with serious murderous fighting among Church factions and this shameful triumph of sinful violence became the norm of the "Body of Christ on Earth" for many centuries. He was the Pope when Christianity was declared to be the State Religion. 

The Holy Spirit speaks through Isaiah in the first reading of today. God has always cared for his people but even inspired by prophets such as these and controlled by the Law of Moses the Jews of the Old Testament  lost touch with IAMIAM to the extent that the hypocritical religiosity, typified by the Pharisees, of Jesus' time on earth was wholeheartedly condemned by Jhim.

Palestine/Judea at the time of Jesus was the only place on earth that had a relationship with God guaranteed by revelation but it had been influenced by the "world", manmade civilization, in this case Hellenism for the previous 400 years. Even so, there were still many righteous people living then who joyfully accepted first John and then Jesus as messengers from God.

Jesus repeatedly told his disciples that his kingdom was not of this world. Less than four hundred tears later the Institutional Church became the state religion and continued to act as a political power for another fifteen hundred years.

We are indeed in need today for the return of Our Lord for we are obviously still misusing our freedom even as did Adam and Eve in the garden.

Dear Lord, I am alive by your Providence in 2023. I know that the world as it is today is not what your Will wants it to be.  It is your will that we should each of us live in your love and act as you showed us the Way. The example given to your faithful by sinful priests and prelates show no change from the world as known by you during your time on earth. Jews today are as stiff-necked as ever even though they no longer acknowledge you as IAMIAM and choose denial over worship. May Mary and your saints implore you to break into the carapace of sinful pride that protects sinful hearts from receiving the free gift of your Loving Mercy. May my soul and the souls of the faithful departed stay in your loving care and become undamaged by the world, the flesh and the devil for you are Our Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen!

 10/12/2023

I want to begin each day in the presence of the Lord. I want acknowledge that Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the creator of all that I am aware of and that he has confirmed his Almighty Being, the Evergreater One, throughout his Providence which becomes our History and present moment as a result of the billions of individual free choices made by men and women during their lifetimes.

God's being is first made known through the prophets of the Old Testament. They were touched by God to proclaim his Glory. We expect prophets to forecast future events and expect them to interpret "fate", but we cannot know the "History" of the future for it is what has been already done and is being done now that determines tomorrow. The future is known by God but is not planned.

Isaiah is overwhelmed by God and expresses this in an exuberance of words and images. St Peter, whom we know from the Gospels is not one for deliberating before words and reactions, writes to the Church which Jesus built on him, of patience. 

The earliest Christians expected Jesus to return in their lifetimes. Peter has learned from his mistakes that words that come from God are not about today and tomorrow but are without time, as is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Mark who had learnt from the first disciples writes that Isaiah, inspired by God, is the first to know that the "Good News" is coming to the world. He and the earliest Church, being Jews, know that Jesus is the unimaginable Son of God whom they know as IAMIAM and search for hints of him in all the Scriptural texts that are familiar from Sabbaths spent in the Temple or Synagogues.

If we open our hearts and minds to God by accepting his grace and avoiding sin we can begin to pray knowing that we are being carried by the Good Shepherd like the newborn lambs and resting ewes into the being that is beyond time and space; the loving kindness that is the perfect peace of Heaven.

Dear Lord, let me continue in prayer this day; let me give thanks for all your blessings. Let my will always be aligned with yours and let the human race be lead by the perfection of your mother into the place that you have prepared for all men of good will. Amen

 09/12/2023

The Lord our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit never leaves us to suffer alone in his providence . He is always with us ready to receive our prayers and answer when we are living according to his will. This has always been the message of the prophets, the message that has been completed in the Resurrection.

Today Isaiah has been inspired to proclaim that his people who have been just surviving because God has turned away from them will no longer have to endure the  prison diet of "bread and water" but they and all creation will again become fruitful and multiply.

Isaiah's images are captivating. "Sunlight will be seven times brighter-like seven days in one-on the day the Lord dresses the wounds of his people and heals the bruises his blows have left." The one who is to come, the Teacher will show us the way and our reward will be rich harvests and fattened cattle.

As with most of the Old Testament IAMIAM is seen as the provider and punisher in this world. The everlasting life of the Spirit can be found only in diligent interpretation supported by hindsight. Jesus, however, from the beginning is focused  on our spiritual lives and today gives the first mission to the twelve he has chosen.

Matthew remembers that Jesus told and authorised them to go to the lost sheep of Israel and do for them what IAMIAM had always done for his chosen people "Cure the sick,raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out devils". In other words "Heal the bruises his blows had left".

Jesus however also wants them to proclaim the "Good News that the kingdom of heaven is at hand" a mysterious message which will only be explained by his death and Resurrection. Jesus does not teach only by word of mouth but mainly by his deeds on earth. 

To follow him with integrity,we have to do the same. Not by "pagan babbling",  "Lord, Lord"! as we were told yesterday but, by picking up our personal crosses to follow his way through the streets of Jerusalem to the ignominy of public execution in the company of two thieves.

Dear Lord, how is it possible for me to return the Love which flowed out from you on Calvary. First my heart and then my mind is open to receive your grace but Milk and honey are far easier to understand than soul and righteousness.  Mary and all the saints are the perfect reflections of your Glory. May they seek from you the grace of forgiveness for all sinners on earth and for the Holy Souls who are safe but not yet scoured enough to see you face to face.

 

 08/12/2023

Today the Church contemplates Immaculate Mary, the mother of God. She is a human born of a human woman and  conceived by a human father. That is as far as it goes for her sameness with us because the great difference between us and her is that she is the direct spiritual daughter of Adam and Eve for sin has never touched her being, body or soul.

Mary is the sinless daughter of Adam and Eve and is the one to crush the power of evil that has corrupted us all since "The Fall". She is the perfect body out of which Father, Son and Holy Spirit will, taking on the biological rules, which he created, become embryo, baby, infant, adolescent, adult and on the cross, saviour of the world.

St Paul understands that God has always known everything. He seems to say that everything is predetermined and thus controls us. God, however does does not straitjacket our lives by his programming but has given to each human being the freedom for each of us to choose how to react to our personal experience of his Providence. God is always greater than the limits of our imagination.

Adam and Eve messed up our relationship with God by making the wrong choice, but Mary's acceptance of God's word assures us that we can all align ourselves with the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit  and that she can become Theotokos. Thanks be to God.

Dear Lord, how can the tininess that is me look on the immensity that is you? I do know that you see me and know me better than myself. I do know that I don't want to bring any guilt with me to your judgement seat. My hope is Mary who has accepted her role in your Mercy and never made any wrong decision. May Mary from whose sinless body stems the humanity of you Our Saviour continue to lead the heavenly host in the plea for forgiveness which can be ours if we place all our trust in you.