21/01/2024

If we try to atone for sinful behaviour God is always ready to help us. The Ninevites listened and accepted the warning given through Jonah. Our God sustains all that we are and know. Not only does he know us as the "Evergreater" creator but also he has accepted and shared our lives as a human son. Jesus lives and dies on Earth just as we do but sinlessly although subject to the same temptations as we are.

St Paul lives to preach and teach by word and example. Today he warns that life is short. For all of us rich and poor, ignorant or learned the most insistent of bodily urges comes from sex. We have to curb the pleasure principal of our bodies. We should try to be detached from the sorrows and equally the joys of everyday life. The urge to own things should be curbed. St Paul teaches that "retail therapy"is not a harmless pastime. Those of us who have good jobs or inherited leadership roles in our world should not become so engrossed in the things that belong to this world that they become oblivious to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We have all been chosen by God to live holy lives. Some have had a special calling to be guardians of the truth preached and shown by Jesus to be the "way". We are the Body of Christ on Earth, the Church. The Church as an Institution in the World has always had to avoid becoming engrossed in the World. We have not always succeeded but God is merciful and listens equally to the pleadings of sinners and the just alike, Nineveh and Jonah.

Dear Lord, I pray that you let me heed the warnings of Jonah, and St Paul and remember that the Spirit of Truth is the private possession of no man or institution. May the Holy Spirit open up the hearts and minds of all sinners so that the "sheep" can have confidence in their "pastors" and their "pastors" complete their holy missions without losing any of the souls that you have entrusted to them. May the prayers of Mary and all the saints continue to bring your Mercy to us sinners on earth and to the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 20/01/2024

The readings designated for today's mass do not have the continuity that they seem to have on some days. The news of Saul's defeat does not bring any joy to David who is a reluctant rebel to begin with.

He is deeply affected by the death of Saul but that of Jonathan shakes him in the very core of his being. He loved Saul but Jonathan was more to him than life itself. This love of David for Jonathan has been manipulated by many to justify their own homosexuality as has the love Jesus had for John, the beloved disciple and for Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead.

We all can with very little effort deny the sinfulness of our own behaviour but in my lifetime I have seen rise up organised "communities" whose sole aim is to deny God and to deny him by pride in sinning and denial of his rights "my body my choice". Jesus welcomed sinners but had them confront their own sin. Jesus is black and white and outside the wedding feast there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The one line gospel sheds no light on who were Jesus' relatives. James "the brother of the Lord" is any male relative brought up in the same household and he had already become a disciple. In that extended family where Jesus spent his childhood both Mary and Joseph were aware that in Jesus God was acting in the world so they would not have been part of the group of "relatives".

In another Gospel Jesus tells us that his family is those who listen to him and believe. He thus  confirms that we  all  have the potential to become his adopted brothers and sisters but we have to choose for ourselves.

Dear Lord, you are the Father of all mankind . Only you can totally know each one of us. In the Incarnation you took a place within the brotherhood of man and became "Our Father" and share with us "Love" that is the Holy Spirit. We are all  in truth relatives of Jesus and share in the Knowledge of Mary and Joseph that you are the perfection of God incarnated into Jesus our brother in this life, the Glory of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the eternal moment that we have been created to share. Let us all become aware that sin is any decision to ignore God's call to holiness and that he has enabled us all to avoid sin. Forgiveness and Mercy flow unceasingly but will not overwhelm us if we don't ask and cooperate as did Mary and all the Saints.

 19/01/2024

There is always a doubt in my mind whether or not I am really conforming to God's will for me as I go about the business of living consciously in this life. How can I know that I am using my freedom of choice to walk in the way of salvation?

David and Saul were also afflicted with such doubts but sometimes they were sure that they were with God and that God was with them. David did not kill Saul as he slept and Saul accepted the proof of his righteousness that David showed him.

God knows and cares for billions of us who are living today. I know very few of them. Father Son and Holy Spirit  knows each of us as intimately as he knows each of the kings and prophets of the Old Testament. The Apostles are named as the immediate friends of Jesus but there were thousands of unnamed but known disciples.

We all live because we are known to "Our Father". We live in the hard but transitory reality of this world. Everything that is real to me including myself will pass away. I and all humans have the ability to choose between "Yes and No" for God. The Apostles are chosen by name to continue Jesus' mission of Love. Judas is chosen to be an Apostle but is not destined to be the sole betrayer of  Our Lord for it is my sins and the sins of all the world that nail Jesus to his cross.

Dear Lord, let me become secure in my faith, let me never lose hope and let me be as concerned for the lives of others as I am for my own life. May Mary who knows how you lived for the salvation of each of us especially when she held your lifeless corpse after the crucifixion ask you her son to fill all our hearts with the grace that we can truly become part of your body that is the Communion of saints in heaven, sinners on Earth and penitent in Purgatory. 

 18/01/2024

I have now been entrusted with my own life for 83 years. My earliest memories are of searchlights and bombs and of being comforted by my mother inside what I now know to have been an indoor air-raid shelter.

I have been known to God from the first moment of my conception even though I knew nothing at that moment but now I can repeat the words of David composed centuries before my birth and ponder them. "In God I trust; I shall not fear; what can mortal man do against me?"

David put himself into the hands of Saul who had been seething in jealous anger as result of the victory inaugurated by David's defeat of Goliath. David could take this risk because he knew that God was on his side.

I am not prominent in the world as were David and Saul but am one of the billions known only to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (None of us are anonymous to God).There are no enemies seeking my death but still I have to fear "the mortal man" that I am for it is only in this body that I can keep my soul free from sin and thus know, as did David "that I may walk in the presence of God and enjoy the light of the living."

Dear Lord, you know that I have not always loved and respected my parents as I should have done. My hope is that even if  not cleansed of their sins they are awaiting your Mercy in Purgatory and that we all, on Earth and in Purgatory can receive from the grace that is the Bliss of Mary and all the Saints. Amen.

 17/01/2024

 David killed Goliath.

Jesus totally condemned the use of violence even to defend ourselves, but the wars and slaughter of the Old Testament were continued by the Church founded by the same Jesus.

The Church of the first centuries began in the Pax Romana when the ambitions and egos of local rulers throughout the Middle-East and Western-Europe had been made subservient to the Roman Legions and their master, the Emperor. The egos of successive Emperors were so swollen that they decided that they must be Gods and they founded temples to promote this idea.

The Commandments of the only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, forbid killing and all the behaviour that results in the blind anger that can only be assuaged by inflicting violence on the perceived source. All violence is self-destruction for our love of God is to be shown by the way we treat the other people for whom Jesus gave up his life. I am other people.

Many who realised the depth of Jesus' teaching paradoxically removed themselves from other people by opting for a solitary life alone in the desert. There have been many of us who since those times have remained in the World and been corrupted by its delights. There have also been many saints known only to God who have remained in the world and with God's Grace have beaten its temptations.

The institution that Jesus founded on St Peter has become evermore tangled in the things of this world and has evermore displayed the  main characteristic of any human institution, self preservation. The burning of heretics, Holy Wars and now the coverup of the crimes of sinful clergy mock not only the teaching of Jesus but also his body broken on the cross.

Jesus told the Apostles to go out and teach all nations, he told us to respect the world of other people. He  told us "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's" he did not found an alternative empire but a way through life leading to his Kingdom not of this world.

This is what St Antony sought in the desert and to which we can all open our hearts and souls. 

Dear Lord, You do not need me to tell you my thoughts and longings but doing so means that I can remember these few moments when I have the desire to pray by raising my heart and soul to you the Evergreater and the Ever-present. May all the world and purgatory benefit from the prayers of Mary and all the Saints. May my deceased parents know on this eve of the anniversary of my birth that I am still striving towards you and that their first child is not a total disaster.

 16/01/2024

The readings for today begin with the story of how David was chosen to be King of Judah. The Old and the New Testaments are still the source on which we base our belief in God. 

Samuel chooses a new King who sings the psalms in praise of of the wonder of his life and IAMIAM but is as sinful and repentant as we are. Jesus is preparing his disciples for his New Covenant which will complete the Law of Moses and enable the hearts of all people to receive his free gift of support for holiness and salvation in this life and future bliss in the Eternal Glory of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Today we are living in a material world that is a tribute to the intelligence and ingenuity of mankind. Science and Technology have enabled the basic principles of life to be manipulated and I have no doubt that secret laboratories are already attempting to or even cloning human bodies. 

How different are we from our Ancestors? In Gaza the human descendants of King David are still slaughtering the Amalekites. The Church which is the visible descendant of the Apostles is confusing more believers than it is shepherding. For myself, I still have remembrances, which come unbidden into my consciousness, of past sins which embarrass but do not horrify me as they should.

It is not easy to be aware of Our Father knowing that for his will to be done on earth each one of us has to cooperate and strive to bear the "yoke that is easy" and "the burden that is light". 

Dear Lord, your words are truth for the burden of sinful man has been carried to Calvary and there been sacrificed so that we need fear sin no more and can come face to face with all the sins of the world in confidence that you will guide us into your Love. My sins and the sins of all the world can be forgiven; we only have to choose. May the prayers of Mary and all the saints be heard and let the guns and weapons of all killers stilled so that we can truly do Your Will on Earth.

 15/01/2024

I usually have to wait after reading the texts that are to be used at mass. Today's slaughter in Gaza is too close to  King Saul 's slaughter of the Amalekites, who were another race claiming descent from Abraham, for me not to be silenced into incomprehension by the disgrace of the denial of God by those who have been the first recipients of his Self Revelation. 

I can view no violence against my brothers and sisters as "justified". The wars of the world since Christ have never been just. The theologians, Popes, Bishops and priests who have said other wise have failed their Lord and lead many of us into temptation. 

But the Old Testament is full of what is purported to be the Word of God commending violence and today's first reading goes so far as to have God punishing the first "King of the Jews" for not being violent enough. He has won a war against his enemies but has not completed the genocide as instructed having been distracted by loot. The prophet Samuel upbraids Saul for not completing the total destruction approved by IAMIAM.

Saul's place in the history of Israel is a result of how he reacted to the providence of God. We all are the same in that none of us choose to be born. We are all the same in that no matter the circumstances of our birth, we can all choose to live guided by the will of God revealed to us in the scriptures and in the history of the world.

Samuel is inspired by the Holy Spirit to declare in the face of Saul but for all humanity to hear 

    " Submissiveness is better than the fat of rams".

but he goes on to actually complete Saul's task by personally dispatching King Agag.

"Submissiveness" for an Old Testament prophet is not the same as for we who have knowledge of the one whose "Kingdom is not of this Word". 

The true "King of the Jews" and of all humanity is our exemplar of true submissiveness and the righteousness that we should all aim for if we are to walk upright conforming to the will of the Lord.

Is any of the slaughter taking place all over our world as I type, is any of this slaughter doing the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit?The covenanted people Israel soon became more in love with themselves than with God. The Church founded on Peter soon did the opposite of what Our King declared before Pilate and created a Kingdom/Institution definitely of this world.

I am a sinful man living in a sinful world but within me there is a spark of longing for all this to be different. A world where all mankind accepts the Love which has created us and God is All in All.

Dear Lord, let me become by my own choice the man whose image and likeness is known only by you. Let me avoid sin and throughout this day know that there is a Spiritual Church, the Mystical Body of Christ and let me share in this with Mary and all the Saints praying for forgiveness for the sins of all the world and the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Amen