05/01/2024

I always try to avoid distractions when, each day, I begin to raise my heart and mind to God. As I read the first reading for this morning's mass I realised that I have never until now really read this letter of St John. 

I have not been able throughout my life to avoid the distractions of world, flesh and devil. I have never prayed as I am now able and have often sinned in that I am, as was Cain, always ready to ally myself with the Evil one in matters both large and small and deny the whole point of human life. 

My talk and thoughts and often my prayers have been empty words "Lord, Lord" and not the  "knowing loving and serving" the Love that gave up his life for us. I have cushioned my conscience from the Holy Spirit and often been able to justify attachment to the things of this world. 

In this I am like millions of other human beings who have been able to justify to themselves their own pride and greed by forming for themselves a human conscience which agrees with their own egos.

St John preaches the direct message of the Incarnation. We can clear our  God-given ( not personally created) consciences and stand without fear in the full presence of our Maker, Saviour and Love only when "Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven" becomes much more than a formula for prayer," not just talk and empty words", but is realised in our daily lives and taken with us at the end as our own personal offering to be accepted or rejected by Our Father. God have Mercy on me.

Dear Lord, I too have to thank you for the "wonder of my being" and join the whole world in crying out with joy for you make it possible for me to be able to rely on you. Your Love surrounds the world and we can join it by turning our whole beings to you our creator. May Mary who must have shared on Earth her prayers with those of St John, and now leads all the saints in praise of your Glory, never cease to plead that we sinners on Earth, and in Purgatory can atone for our sins and finally come into your presence. Amen

04/01/2024

Today the first reading helps us to hold in our minds that Jesus is begotten by God. The Babe of Bethlehem is not created out of nothing but is the Eternal Word of God emptying himself of his Divine Being to become the human Son of Mary begotten in the Overshadowing of the Holy Spirit in human time. 

Thus IAMIAM reveals that he is a Trinity that remains a oneness. This revelation of the Mystery of God's being captivated the minds of many of the first converts and many unknown, or forgotten humans for whom the Resurrection, Descent of the Holy Spirit and Ascension began a hope of Eternity based on their prayer to know more about God.

Adam and Eve, Jesus and Mary are the only humans who have been born free of sin. Jesus and Mary are the only ones to have remained sinless throughout their lifetimes. Jesus can only be born as a true human because within the Mystery of the Trinity God knows that for creation to become the mirror of Holiness that has been loved into being the true freedom of mankind must choose to return that Love. We can do that only by free choice. It is sin that prevents me from always choosing God. It is sin that keeps body mind and soul in slavery.

Our Father is greater than anything that can be thought so we can never come near him in equality of knowing. Jesus teaches us that we can fulfill his will for us and come to holiness in this Life because that is Jesus' Mission from the Father. We are not saved by our understanding of God but only by abandoning sinful pride and putting all our trust in the revelations that are finalized by the life, death and Resurrection of the true God on Earth, Begotten not Made, of one Being with the Father; the revelations that should be steadfastly guarded by the Church of Peter, the Rock, and revealed by her actions in this world.

Dear Lord, let me live this day always knowing that you are Eternal Glory, Holiness, Thought, Power, Knowledge and Humility. Out of your greatness you Love each one of us as a human father loves his children. Help me to not sleep and keep my soul ready for the coming end of my life on Earth, which may prove painful but is the only way to see you as you really are. May Mary your Mother and ours plead for all her sinful children on Earth that we make the choices that will lead us to become witnesses of Eternal Glory and may the souls of the faithful departed rest in the peace that becomes ours when, by the Mercy of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are cleansed of our sins.

 03/01/2023

Dear Lord, I know that you already know how I feel today. My body is weak and I know that my sins are great but your Mercy is far greater than my transgressions of your Law. Forgive not only my own sins but also those I caused in others. May Mary and all the saints pray for me to receive the grace that is the forgiveness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit brought into the world through Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

 02/01/2024

The third and fourth centuries after the Birth of Christ were filled with the Holy Spirit who manifested Father, Son and Holy Spirit through the Holy Lives and the writings of many Saints.

 God was no more present to inhabitants of the Roman Empire than he is to us today. For no man is created to choose damnation for himself. We are all created as equal souls but in bodies that are determined by God's Providence.

When there were still people alive who had witnessed the Living Resurrected Lord the wonder of the God from Palestine was communicated to the Pagans by the devotion and sincerity of the first Christians who were filled with the Holy Spirit.

But even then there were those who wished to put themselves first and taught different versions of the events that became our standard Gospels. St John knew that even among the twelve there were those for whom it was difficult to believe that the Jesus whom they had left to die on the cross had resurrected not as a wraith or phantom but in the same living body that they had known and walked with in Palestine. "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe".

Jesus words are still alive in the heart of the Mystical Body of Christ recognised by St Paul. There has never been a moment in History when the meaning of God's words and deeds have not been contemplated and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. St John warns us of those who mislead, but does not dwell on them.

We are  believers or otherwise not because of "Theoloogy" but because of the witnesses of the real-time events in Palestine 2000 years ago and the recorded teaching of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Son is begotten of the Father working through the Spirit of them both "thrice blessed three in one ".

Dear Lord let me always remain open to the Holy Spirit. Save me from the horror of selfishness and unbelief. I can be no more than I am so let my poor self be taken into the care of Mary along with all the human beings that you adopted with John in your final agony. Let holiness become the characteristic of all Christians who accept Jesus for what he is and may our souls live lives of quiet hopefulness as we prepare for the call to Glory that is closer than I think. Amen

 01/01/2024

This morning's readings repeat for us the facts on which we are to build holy lives. 

We have to accept that we are alive and that we are one of millions of other human lives that have begun in exactly the same way as ours and are still living. We know that there are other people born before us, but now dead, whom we can remember and that there are millions more whom we can know about from the remains of their work and history of their lives.

Human  lives are limited. Death comes to all of us. Our bodies really are dust. No matter how full we fill our barns somebody other than us will reap the material reward of our labours. This is the first fact that we have to accept.

In the History of human life that is the Bible another Life that is not confined by the limits of  the time and space within which we live out our three score and ten, is revealed to us. IAMIAM is the never ending  pure being, the creator and lover who made all and loves all. He it is who creates us as  image and likeness of his own being by adding our souls to our physical bodies. We cannot retain the Evergreater within our minds but we need to know that He has perfect eternal knowledge of all of his creatures. In our case he knows both our physical bodies and our souls. 

In the Old Testament God spoke through his Prophets but 2000 years ago Our God the Eternal had emptied himself of his Divinity/Godness  to reduce and confine himself to the development cycle of all human animals and nine months after his Incarnation ( begotten not made) was delivered of his chosen Mother into the poverty of the stable at Bethlehem. Mary is "The Mother of God" and all of humanity has been adopted by "Our Father who art in Heaven". 

This is the second fact that we need to build the foundations of the righteousness that will bring peace to our souls in this world and to the eternal, Love, Glory and Happiness that is the instant when we shall see Father, Son and Holy Spirit as he really is. That moment can never change for we see God as he really is ALL IN ALL and this Perfection can never be bettered nor lost.

Dear Lord, help me to avoid all temptations that take away my awareness of your love for all mankind. Help me to not confine my prayers to my own benefit but let me share all your gifts with my family and other men, women and children, the starving, the dying and all victims of war and  shameful clergy. May your Mother's prayers be shared and bring sinners back to the awareness of your eternal being and thus not refuse the gift that is the wonder of our lives. Amen.

 31/12/2023

I am aware that I can speak only for myself. I am, as are we all, a unique being, and I have, as do we all, a unique mission to conform my will to the teaching that is finalised in the life, death and Resurrection of the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus of Nazareth. 

There are millions of us who start this day aware and share this Mission to know, love and serve for we also know that our lives can be brought to perfection, we can avoid sin because "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that that everyone who believes in him will not die but have eternal life." We are saved ultimately by the Sacrifice of Calvary.

Today's readings are chosen to illustrate the Holiness of the Holy Family. Before Calvary, only the Chosen People had clear instructions on how to live a life of holiness. First of all they had to fear God not because he is all powerful but  in thanks and in awe for the deeds with which he revealed himself. Mary and Joseph lived in accordance with the Law. 

From the Presentation in the Temple to the finding of the lost child Jesus, again in the Temple,  we have no record or remembrance of Jesus as child, teenager or young adult. We can be sure, however, that during those hidden years the completely human Son of Father Son and Holy Spirit lived, as do all Jews, within the rules revealed to the Patriarchs. 

The Providence of God has placed us in the world 2,000 years after Jesus. We know that God has completed his teaching and that there is nothing about our Mission today that has changed from that faced by all the first Christians, nameless to us as most of them are.

They had to be clothed in "sincere compassion, kindness and humility, gentleness and patience". They who had been forgiven had to forgive others for they had been called to become one body. The Mystical Body of Christ is clothed in Love. It is the undamageable source of all holiness and independent from the shameful tangle that we have made of Peter's Mission.

Much has changed in the Kingdom of this World many times since those days but the Mansions of the Kingdom of Heaven are still open to those who align themselves with the Father by following the Holy Spirit and let the Peace of Christ fill their beings.

Dear Lord, you know what there is in the depths of my being. You know that my own sincerity is a very fragile thing and that  I am more likely to be filled with jealousy and ire rather than kindness and humility. Knowing this about myself is, I hope, a step forward for me but true holiness is your gift and it is I who have to accept with thanks what you have done for all humanity. May Mary who since the Incarnation has never been separated from Jesus lead us all into an awareness of the loveliness of Father Son and Holy Spirit knowing that if we hand over our lives to Him, we can become the Image and Likeness that he created . All things are possible to God.Amen!

 30/12/2023

Each day begins for me with "raising my heart and mind to God". I am concentrating on Father, Son and Holy Spirit and letting my mind mull over what the Church has chosen as the Scriptures to be read during mass of the day. I know that most of my thoughts are fleeting and that the successful moments of prayer soon pass away. What I write here seems to me to be the truth of this moment when I am trying to use my freedom in this world to cooperate with the will of God.

St John's letter tells us that he has certainly listened to Jesus and absorbed into his own being the truth that comes from God. God's creation is something apart from himself. He created a material reality for us sons of Adam to know, understand and enjoy in the flesh but not to become so absorbed in the World that knowing, loving and serving God is pushed into the background or right out of our awareness of being and the reality of God's Providence.

Our souls, the basis for our being, are created as "image and likeness" of Our Father. God is timelessly aware of himself and of all the tiniest realities of material being. Our Spiritual selves are based on this self-knowledge of God (love) and we are created to join him in glorifying our creator.

St John has learnt through out his long life and care of Mary that we must not attach our beings by love to anything that is material for everything such will not last. We have only one unique being and that should be turned away from this world for if it isn't we will not recognise  the Will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that brings us to the moment when IAMIAMISALLINALL.

Dear Lord, you know everything that I am and have ever been. Let me this day be attuned to  your will in everything that I do.  St John knew that all generations have inherited the forgiveness he witnessed in your death on Calvary. He also knew and believed "My Kingdom is not of this world". May Mary whose body bore your "Begotten not made", Incarnate Word continue to lead all the saints in Heaven and on earth in sharing this special relationship  you have with sinners both on earth and in Purgatory that we might be free from our sins and ready for your Judgement in as much as we have put your will at the forefront of our lives.