24/12/2023

One of the things that I can remember as a saying of Jesus recorded in one of the Gospels is "Do as the Pharisees say not as they do". 

Even though I cannot find in recorded History any moment when the Church, the Institution that created itself in the image of the Roman Empire, has acted as the Body of Christ and practised what she preached, she has, however, maintained  an unbroken chain of Scripture that records all the Old Testament revelations and interprets them in the fullness/finality of the New.

All Pharisees were not hypocrites. All clergy are not slaves of their own bodies. Most hierarchs, however, have always been captivated by the things of Caesar rather than  the things of God that they preach. Father Son and Holy Spirit really do reveal their infinite truth in the Bible and the Church has successfully guarded this record of mankind's interactions with God within His Providence, the time and place in which we are alive in our bodies on earth.

God speaks to us all in words of the prophets and to each individual person that we are in the words of Jesus of Nazareth. The readings at today's mass are to help us to prepare for tomorrow's celebration of the Nativity and present in our court, as it were, the credentials that God used to choose Mary to become Our Lady, Theotokos, the Mother of my Lord. 

I try to imagine the infinity of our God who shared our humanity for 33 years in the Promised Land .The unlimited within the confines of time and space and know that my only reaction has to be the total silence of awe in the presence of the Almighty, and sorrow for the thousands who have been killed and who are still killing each other in the Holy Land of God.

Dear Lord, 2000 years ago, you were a fully developed child waiting to be born. Were you aware of your divinity or had you completely emptied yourself and become the "true man" of our creed. I am sure that there has never been such a moment of peace on earth as on that night in Palestine when you the Lord of all began to suckle at your mother's breast. Let the Love you shared with Mary when your  infant's eyes first met hers be poured into the hearts of all the world and let all my prideful selfishness and that of all the world become as nothing in the stream of Mercy that flowed out from your side on Calvary. Amen

 23/12/2023

We are all known to the Lord. He is always with us even in the depths of our despair, he is there ready to accept us back into his Holy Providence which we have ignored when we chose disobedience rather than accepting his will for us and thus added to the sin of the world. If we follow the teaching and example of Jesus we are doing God's Will which is the same for all mankind. 

Jesus has taught us that the Will of God is his Love for us that always calls out to be returned freely by us his children. The curse threatened in the first reading has already been taken on by Jesus who did not refuse the Cross. The sins of the World are cancelled by the infinite atonement taken on by Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the person of Jesus. Each one of us can in our hearts find the Love that is the Holy Spirit  to serve the Father and join Jesus into the commitment until death that is the right choice for all of us.

The psalmist turns to God, asking  for his total dedication of himself to Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the person of IAMIAM to be accepted and for sin to be avoided by this act of personal worship which is the perfect way for us all to return the Love that it is to be known by the Lord.

"Lord make me know your ways, Lord teach me your paths, make me walk in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour".

Dear Lord, may the lessons of scripture always guide me in my deeds. You know how I am always ready to doubt my own sincerity. Let me become secure in my being which should follow the psalmist and revere you knowing that your faithfulness and love are always with those who keep his covenant and law. May the prayers of  your Mother join with those of all  those still alive or atoning in Purgatory that all humanity reject the temptations of world, flesh and devil. Let us welcome your birth into our world with holiness. Amen.

 22/12/2023

As Advent draws to an end the Church never loses sight of the other babies who have also been announced to their Mothers by God's messenger. All of them have gone on to do great things in the Providence of God and their deeds have been become History recorded in the Scriptures. As a child I fantasised about Samuel's call from God which awakened him when he was sleeping.

The life of a Prophet was not to be for me. I have lived my life,however, aware that my sins can always be forgiven and/but have still tried and failed to avoid them. I have not always been able to resist the undoubted pleasure that can be found through sex but, I hope sincerely, have repented for the sins of my youth. Great personal misery has often resulted in my life as result of my sinful behaviour and I am ashamed that it is this avoidance of misery that is stronger than the knowing, loving and serving that should be my holiness in God's Providence.

In moments of remorse I have been annoyed that some people have been chosen to live sinless lives. If Our Lady was born without sin, why couldn't I have been? Why has God given me this misery? Did I ask to be born?. Today I know that those questions were a search for excuses in sin and that my undoubted guilt is wiped out by my choosing to follow the Will of God. That is why he chose Calvary.

I know that I am living outside of the Institutional Church founded on St Peter but also know that that Institution has always been too much in this world to be able to guide us to "My Kingdom is not of this World." I am sure that there are and have been many souls such as mine who put all our Faith in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in Jesus whose Divine Holiness was, for most of his life, known in person only to Mary and Joseph.

We are all known in person to "Our Father" and have been given this chance to seek in this world the love/holiness that is the very being of Our Creator. It is our free choosing of what is good that will bring us to life everlasting in the Kingdom of God. Thanks be to God.

Dear Lord, let my heart be open to your grace, let my soul welcome you into my being, joyfully as did Mary. Let my deeds today be pleasing to you. Let me have the "holy fear" that was Samuel's first reaction to your call. May all of my family find in me something that reflects your merciful forgiveness and not be swamped by the worldliness that rules our lives at this the time of your Nativity. May my prayers be heard and joined with those of all the faithful, with Mary's and all the Saints that all the billions of us living and dead be cleansed of our sins and accept the righteousness of your judgement. 

 21/12/2023

We are getting ever closer to the day we commemorate as the Day when Father, Son and Holy Spirit first drew breath in the Person of Son. In the Creed, the condensed summary of the foundations of the Holy Life that God has created us to live, we declare "begotten not made". The human being of Jesus is exactly the same as ours. He is body, mind and soul.

The baby that Mary feeds is not taking part in some sort of Divine Cosplay which he can abandon and go home when he feels like it. He is the creator of everything that any human being has known, can know now and will ever know for he is God at the breast of his mother Mary.

Jesus is not playing a part in an allegorical drama. Our Universe is not a vast theme-park for God, his angels and his Saints to enjoy from Heaven. Father, Son and Holy Spirit is not another humanoid god on Mt.Olympus. Jesus is a part of human history. He was born, he did live and he did die in the same material universe that we live in today. 

We are all human beings; in the body we are begotten by fathers and carried by mothers but our souls are created by Our Father. We do share the Sonship of Jesus. He taught us to pray with him "Our Father". A common father means that we are all brothers and sisters. He similarly gave us a common human mother at the foot of the cross.

We will all celebrate something at this "party season", this season of "Goodwill to all men" but most of us prefer to ignore the Great Blessing that Our Incarnate Father gave to all mankind during the Empire of Augustus and Tiberius two thousand years ago. Jesus is the most important fact of History.

Dear Lord, help me match my deeds to these my first thoughts throughout today. Help me to sincerely seek to do your will. May Mary whose "time" this season always will be remembered as plead for us unholy souls on earth and for the Holy Souls of Purgatory that we truly understand the impact our sins have so that we can begin to understand perfect Love and Beauty and Peace God has created us to  share in the timelessness of his Eternity.

 20/12/2023

Only God can forgive us our sins. We have to co-operate. We are alone responsible for our sins and have to acknowledge that guilt. God cannot look with favour on sin. He loves all his creation but sin is not part of his creation. Sin is created by us each time we do not follow the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

God has never left us ignorant of his will and has never abated his mercy which is always available to let us recover from sin and start again "a clean slate". The forgiving Act of God is the Incarnation  Life, Death and Resurrection which is a deed greater even than Creation itself for the Evergreater gave up all of his Almighty Being and accepted the exact life cycle of each of us, for himself.

How can the leader of our Church who has spent all his life within that Church built on Peter, Guardian of the Real Presence, even think about blessing sin? God never approves of sin, the very nails that pierced the flesh of Jesus. The Pope must know that he can only ask for Mercy for sinners who repent. 

I am lost and desolate in this world where for the whole of its history the Church has never been true to "My Kingdom is not of this World". I have accepted that even the most wonderful works of man have never been Ad Majoram Gloriam Dei as proclaimed by our Pope and his confreres.

Father Son and Holy Spirit knows the Psalms and today says to us through them "only the ones with clean hands and pure hearts can stand in the Holy Place of God". Anyone who teaches  otherwise is not following the Will of God and doing irreparable harm to we the children so loved by the Lord that he even suffered the torments created by our sins, death on the cross.

Dear Lord, let mercy flow through the barriers created by your all too human clergy on earth. Let us all know that Mary who was chosen to be Theotokos is leading the Saints in prayer that mankind can become holy only by your Grace of forgiveness with which we have to choose to cooperate. Let all of sinners on earth know that Adam's, "it was the woman who tempted me" is never an excuse for sins. We are all the owners of our own sins. Please forgive us.

 19/12/2023

Today's readings are both about birth and purpose in life. Both the mothers have longed in vain  for a child. Really a son, for to bear a son was the objective of all pre-Christian mothers. Both these mothers-to-be had suffered the humiliation that it was to be a childless wife in those days, not only in Israel but throughout the world, and receive God's message with joyful gratitude. 

The mother whose time we are, as the people of God, awaiting also was prepared for motherhood by the message of an angel. She however was not "over the moon" as were the "wife" of Manoah and Elizabeth. Mary knew that her pregnancy was impossible but her response to the news was perfect obedience to IAMIAM, "be it done unto me according to thy word".

The first two mothers were also given intimations of how their sons were to be cared for and what they would achieve in their lifetimes. God knows everything so he does know the beginning and ending of this Universe and everything in it. He thus reveals a specific purpose for the lives of Samson and John but they too have human freedom and the ever present   necessity of aligning to the will of God. We can all sin.

We are not all outstanding individuals but every soul shares the common purpose of conforming to the Will of God. We can be confused by the complexities of life and by the folly of those who for some reason do not reveal their wisdom by virtue or virtue by wisdom but the Penny Catechism of our fathers taught us that "to know, love and serve" is all we need to know about life in the Providence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and it is not wrong.

Human "Infallibility can and does err". Sin cannot be blessed even by God. Repentance can.

Dear Lord, forgive us our trespasses and forgive those who trespass against us. You know that I have been shaken in the depths of my being by realising that your Church has always acted as a kingdom of this world  and that millions of us have been mislead for centuries for you made it so clear at your trial that your Kingdom is not of this world. Help me to find a place in your "Church of the Spirit" and be as one with Mary and all your Saints in recognising only you as head of your Mystical Body on Earth and dedicated to accepting and doing you Will

 18/12/2023

None of us choose the time and place of our births. We all become sentient beings in the Providence of God. If we are blest we first know ourselves as children of parents from whom we receive love. 

Unfortunately it is from this moment that our innocence is afflicted by the will of other humans who are also God's creation but have been moulded by their own choices into the other beings that the newborn will face as he/she grows.

 We are brought up in the place where we are born and come to know ourselves as belonging to a specific race or nation and whose standards and norms of life we accept or refuse as our own.

I did not choose to be alive in front of this screen and keyboard today aware that I am trying to begin this day, as always, in the presence of God. The world is full of billions of beings who are all children of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and with a human freedom that has to be guided by the Love that is the Will of God.

The totally beyond human ability to understand, the complexity that is One, Father Son and Holy Spirit revealed himself first to the ancestors of those who have brought total destruction to the other human beings that have had their land stolen from them and both sides are still killing as I type this.

There is no State or Institution in our World that confines itself to searching for and implementing the Will of God. Within the Bible we can find the record of how the Chosen People acted in the Providence of IAMIAM and how often they brought misery to themselves and others.  The Church founded by Jesus very soon became an Institution that was definitely of this world and is still even more so today.

Jesus is the one man who chose for himself time and place of birth. In those days a great empire was beginning to flourish. Jesus is true man and so accepted just as we do his place in God's Providence, he the Creator of the Universe accepted the rule of Caesar and told us to do the same. Mary had already accepted God's will for her. Joseph at first distraught was able to align his will to the message from God. 

Jesus who could have been born in earthly glory chose to become like all of us the totally dependent infant "mewling and puking in his nurse's arms." but even more so than us for he chose the poverty of an animal shelter as the first place to hear the sound of his lungs, the voice of God.

Dear Lord, your message of love was lived in private by the Holy Family that lived unknown for thirty years in Nazareth. Many of us today are living in the Grace and Mercy that Jesus brought to us. We are living in the Kingdom you have revealed by the Resurrection as the only Providence unmodifiable by human will and know that Mary and Joseph are all present with us and you as head in the Mystical Body, unseen by human eye that is the true Church, your Kingdom that is not of this world. May these prayers open my being to your Mercy and may my soul and the souls of the all in this world and in Purgatory be forgiven by your Love. AMEN!