14/01/2024

I have never experienced the call of God as a voice that is definitely outside of myself. 

In today's first reading Samuel responds to the voice of the Lord by going to the person nearest to him, Eli. Eli has to assure him a second time before realising that it is the Voice of God that is calling. IAMIAM is not a result of speculation or of imagination; he is not an abstract concept of the All Perfect, the All Knowing, the All Good, the All Free; he is a person,  Our Father whom Jesus called "Dad". 

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit reveal that God is a Trinity. This fact about God is revealed first of all to Mary at the Annunciation. She, born without sin, is to bear the "Begotten not Made". The conception of the Son is the Eternal, before time began or ends, will of the Father Son and Holy Spirit.

A human being is the  height of God's creation. He has given us the ability to say "yes" or "no" to his call. Samuel and Mary answered "Yes" but most of us do not hear the Lord calling in the night, nor receive a messenger from God. Most of us do not have the Baptist to point out to us the "Lamb of God". 

We are those blessed believers who have never seen and yet listen for and search out the authentic voice of the Lord. St Paul saw the Risen Lord not as a vision but the Risen Body, begotten not made, one in being with the Father and knew that he belonged body and Soul to "Our Father in Heaven".

From that moment he knew that, although he was a freeman he was a "slave" to God and shared with us that message which to ignore is to bring death. "You are not your own property, you have been bought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the Glory of God".

Dear Lord, help us to avoid the meaningless fleeting pleasures that are the sins of the flesh. Human science has controlled the consequences of bodily delight and thus billions of us have ignored the seventh commandment. Help me to be truly penitent for all my sins and acknowledge that all my sinful behaviour was done knowing that I was deliberately disobeying my inner voice that is you calling to my soul. May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints bring to us the grace to resist the power of our bodies and the forgiveness that saves our souls from the ravages of sin.

 13/01/2024

Everything is not all about me but I do have to begin my meditations with myself for I am a real man, living in a real world and trying to respond with thankful Grace to IamIam, Father, Son and Holy Spirit who spoke through the Jewish Prophets and speaks to me through the Jesus of the  Scriptures, doctrines of the Church, the Mystical Body of Son one in being with all the struggling on Earth, the Penitent in Purgatory and the Triumphant in Heaven.

Saul is described as being tall, good looking and charismatic. He sounds like a film-star. He is still living today in a being known only to God. Last night I was captivated by dramas on T.V. I knew that I was wasting my time but one was trying to portray the plight known only to the Jewish people after their refusal to accept Jesus and the fall of the Temple. The other was an incredibly bloody story of  life in today's Korea. 

Forget the unreal but look to the reality that is the Gospel reading for today!

I can recreate in my mind's eye the peaceful lake, the house and Jesus surrounded by admirers, the baffled and the hungry. All classes of humanity are present but when the Pharisees who are true to the code for life prescribed by the Law complain about the presence of the ritually unclean, it is not that they are "snobbish" but rather that they totally believe the scriptures as they have interpreted them.

We can all err even when we pursue what we see as the path of righteousness. Jesus calls to all of us to be Holy as is God. He is completely open with us. We have to refuse the beauty of this world and the millions of distractions produced by the ingenuity of man. He is the completed Law of Moses but still stands as the "golden rule" of both Testaments.  We have to know, love and serve the Lord our God and share our all, as did the widow, with the brothers and sisters for whom Jesus lives, dies and is resurrected. 

Dear Lord, may this day that has now begun for me not be wasted by trivialities that capture my mind. Let my prayers remain in my heart and mind and let me not be mistaken in my belief that Jesus knows all us sinners person to person, and directs the Grace of Father, Son and holy Spirit to my soul. Let my response be based on that of Mary, an eternal "yes" to your Love. Amen.

 12/01/2024

In the Old Testament IAMIAM spoke to His People, to Israel, through his prophets. Their seemingly random utterances were usually made when the Chosen People were in great need of help or chastisement. 

Moses lead them out of slavery into the freedom of the Promised Land and today Samuel has to seek God's help for the People are not at ease in the freedom and responsibility that they have to live their own lives governed directly by God's Law and adherence to the Temple. God makes it perfectly clear to the People that what they are requesting will not bring the benefits that they are anticipating.

"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar". There is also nothing ambiguous  about Jesus' separation of Church and State. Jesus makes it quite clear that his Father does not have favoured races or nations and our human freedom has the sole purpose of allowing us  to choose Holiness as our aim in life. Politics is not intrinsically evil but God's warning through Samuel has even more facets today when political man seeks to deny both the moral and physical laws of God.

"You cannot serve God and Mammon". Thus he teaches us to turn our backs on the material temporal things of our lives. Towards the conclusion of his Mission in his tortured bloodstained human body he emphasises very publicly before Caesar's representative that he is a King but not of this world and becomes the mocked and spat upon perfect Sacrifice of Calvary.

Similarly at the beginning of his mission in Capernaum he horrifies some of the witnesses by "My child your sins are forgiven you" . Ironically the silent protests of the scribes who  witnessed this miracle are the absolute truth about Jesus for he is indeed Father, Son and Holy Spirit, "God who can forgive sins" and to prove it he, three years later, poured out his life's blood to create the Mercy that is always available for us to choose and be cleansed by.

Dear Lord send us holy priests who can show by their lives on earth that it is possible for mankind to live in a state of holiness. I feel that I am in need of a penance as a punishment for all my sins but also know that forgiveness can only come by your gift, "Your only Son" crucified for my sins. Let my soul become fed by your grace and let me share in your Spiritual Body which is the only one true Church. May Mary's and all the Saints' prayers help to save all of us who are held firmly in the sinful grip of this World that we might resist the Flesh and secure in the care of Jesus, face the archenemy without fear.

 11/01/2023

I wonder why it is that Jesus is apparently seeking anonymity when he tells the leper to keep quiet about his cure. It also involves the priests of the Temple for Jesus is adhering to the Law when he instructs the cured man to show himself to the priests. In one of the parables Jesus instructs us not to hide our "light under a bushel". 

Christianity is not like the mystery religions of the first centuries and our modern Masons. There is no inner secret that is revealed only to initiates. Many, however, have tried to make it so. In the first centuries non-baptised catechumen were not allowed to be present during the consecration. In many of the Orthodox rites of today, a curtain is drawn to separate clergy and  sanctuary from the congregation during the most holy parts of the Liturgy.

The conclusion of the final revelation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit began with a very public execution on a hill outside the city walls of Jerusalem. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit experience the suffering of the Incarnate Son, proclaim the Glory in the Resurrection and breathe the Holy Spirit  into those present in the Upper Room. 

All through the Gospels Jesus gives hints of "his time", the events that  reveal God's love for the world. Jesus' "time" is Eternity revealed in human time to human witnesses, Mary, Joseph the Apostles and all the peoples of the Holy Land saw him in those days and continue to worship seeking grace to be shared with God's children, all of us, for we are never anonymous to God.

Dear Lord I know that I need only to avoid sin to be doing your will on Earth. I am beginning to realise the dangers from which I have been rescued, the greatest of them being the eternal pains of Hell. Teach me how to  reflect the light of your grace and become one with all those who know that YouAre the head of your Church whose body is still nurtured  by Mary and the prayers of all the Saints to bring holiness into this World. 

 10/01/2023

As I waited for this computer to come to life I had to ask myself what my motives are in setting about this meditation on the Word of God each morning. Am I really answering the call each individual receives from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit or am I still stuck in my own ego and "showing off" to myself, "secretly" hoping that somebody will come upon this blog by chance and appreciate me as much as I do myself?

I really do believe that the only important thing that anybody can do with their life is to know, love and serve the Lord. I have rarely shown to the world that I try to govern all of my actions by this belief. I remember that as a child when I first heard today's first reading that I experienced real fear that I would hear the "that voice calling me in the dark".

I always have to smile when I hear how Peter's mother got off her sick bed and began "to wait on them". I am sure that the acceptance of a woman's role in the Palestine of his day by Jesus meets with derision by Feminism. 

"Feminism" is another of the "isms" of this world that fills the time that could be spent following Jesus to a lonely place in prayer. Jesus did not preach any social roles for men or for women. Our souls are all equal no matter the coding of our bodies. Being different does not teach inequality nor do the standards of this world matter at all for Jesus leads "the joyous throng" into the life of the Resurrection where there will be "no giving in marriage" for God will be "all in all". That state of being is the "Kingdom not of this world".

Dear Lord, help me to live out this day without bringing more evil into this world. Let me truly become like Jesus without sin and united to you in prayer. There is nothing more awe inspiring than to know that this miniscule of being, typing these words, is known to the ever greater immensity of our God always filling his creation with his Love. May Mary the created human source of the Begotten Incarnation continue to lead the Saints in Heaven in never ceasing prayers for Mercy to be poured onto the sinners on Earth and the atoning Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 09/01/2024

More than two and a half thousand years have passed since Hannah's prayers were answered. Millions of us have lived and died since then. It could be possible that today there are more of us still living than have already lived and died. Whatever the truth of those numbers, we can be sure that God knows everything about each one of us. He knows and His Holy Spirit unifies us as his beloved children and He still teaches us His ways.

Many of us try to respond to the Glory of God. We try to see his face. I am sometimes captivated by the books of Theologians who have been gifted with intellects capable of holding their prayerful thoughts  about God and expressing them clearly in words that can be understood by anybody. At other times I contrast the words that they are writing about God with the actions of the Church of their life-times.

There is certainly a mismatch between the prayers and teaching of the Church Fathers of  Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria and the structures and deeds that developed to become the Orthodox Church led from Constantinople. At the time St Thomas Aquinas was praying, teaching and writing, the Catholic Church was instigating the mass slaughter of "heretics" in France and in Italy.

There is a huge contrast between the sincerity of modern theologians and the Church of our times. It is impossible to read Ratzinger or Balthasar without being touched by their love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the Church. My own life has overlapped theirs. 

I grew up in a religious family for whom nothing was more important than going to mass. I retained that love for the faith throughout even the most sinful periods of my life. By the grace of God I was called back to the Church but soon found that the institution was crumbling away. 

Since the time that the Authority, heard in the voice and presence of Jesus of Nazareth in the Synagogue at Capernaum, was institutionalised into a Kingdom of this World, the faith of believers has been undermined by those who have been called to be "Good Shepherds".

 Herod's slaughter of the Innocents has been continued throughout the ages by Christians who have been misled into the World that is, with the Devil and the Flesh the sworn enemy of humanity and thus turned its back on Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our Father is not at all responsible for the misuse of freedom that is the sinful human pride that has brought this about. It is only mankind that brings sin into our lives. Jesus has won the battle for us, but we have to say "Yes"  to his Victory by Loving, Honouring and Obeying the Word that Is Life and Love.

Dear Lord, Let me be one with  Hannah and the slaughtered "poor ones" who suffered unjustly during their lives on Earth. The sinless authority of Jesus has been clouded by the many failures of the men who were tasked by you with building up your body on earth. Let the Holy Spirit overcome the egotistical bullying that characterizes many clergy. Let me become part of the unseen body that is your presence on earth and is in communion with and supported by Mary and the Saints in Heaven where can be found only holy joy, unclouded by regrets.

 08/01/2024

Our world is now a unimaginable tangle of words. When I first open my computer there are numerous threads demanding my attention. It takes a real act of will to keep my mind focussed on my intention to begin this day with prayer in which God takes first place for only he is real and all the other words are mere distractions.

There is nothing greater than our Father, Son and Holy Spirit and there is only one "my soul" with which I can can know, love and serve the Eternal Wisdom, Glory and Love that is the Lord.

Within the words of this world, communication threads, that are so tangled that they appear to be as solid as lead, the truth that is the Word of God is to be found in the gift of Grace that is the Holy Spirit, the unseen promptings to Holiness that we refuse at our peril. This faith in God is  confirmed by Scripture which is the infallible record of God's revelations to the Creation which he knows to be Good.

Faith in God has to set its face against anything that is not of God. Isaiah sings "People of Zion sing and shout for joy, for great in your midst is the Holy one of Israel". His linear descendants in denial of God continue to slaughter all who will not accept their selfish pride. 

"The truth I have now come to realise is that God does not have favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him." are the words of St Peter to the household of Cornelius. His linear descendants soon lost the thread that leads to the "Kingdom not of this world" and became overcome by Mammon which still feeds their selfish pride.

"Who can overcome the world? Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God".

Dear Lord you are the only one whose judgement of my being has any importance. you know that I am always aware of being in this world and looking at myself as others would see me. Vanity is the great destroyer of integrity and of your Truth. Help me to know that nothing is more important for any life on Earth than to live in obedience to your will and to always accept your Golden Rule. May Mary  pray that your Institutional Church put aside the worldly wealth that she has accrued over the centuries and return to being the the Guardian of the Sacraments of the Resurrected Lord. May your Mercy be sought out by all sinners on Earth and accepted in humility by those in Purgatory.Amen