14/02/2024

Joel, blessed by God, is calling the people of God to remember that they have been chosen by IAMIAM as his way of revealing himself to all the World. It is only by their repentance for sin that God's favour can be shown to be in them.

Be they alive or dead, all souls who have not chosen obliteration/eternal pain are known as individuals in the Eternal Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is through God's Providence that Joel and the Chosen People were alive more than 2000 years ago. It is the same providence that supports my life today. There was a cruel war in progress when I was born and the descendants of the people called by Joel to repent were being systematically slaughtered in Gas Chambers.

None of has ever been responsible for the time and place of our birth but we are all responsible for how we use our lives, a pure gift of the awareness of self, others and most importantly of God our Creator, in the living environment that  God provides.

St Paul, blessed by God used his life to spread the Good News that is the Resurrection. Death is not the end of life. God's love for each of us is eternal. Our days pass away in time so Paul reminds that we must seize each moment making it the "favourable time" to seek Salvation.

Jesus, the source of all blessings and salvation, tells us that there is nothing about us that he does not know. Prayer never has to be a show  in front of other people. Our worship has to be sincere and in the heart that is known only to us and by God. 

With the help of God, I can avoid hypocrisy during this season of preparation for Holy Week.

Dear Lord, help me to continue this day with your words and St Paul's constantly in my mind. May Mary and all the Saints share their holiness with me and all sinners. Let us all come to the holiness that can make us part of the Spiritual Church the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the only gate that leads from Earth to Heaven.

 13/02/2024

I am always making mistakes.Yesterday I was completely wrong about when and where James wrote his letter. It was not after the destruction of the Temple but before and was written in Jerusalem. 

I know that I am always tempted to feel pride at my outputs on this computer but also know that I am trying to avoid exactly that and pray that my heart and mind is open to God and can receive the loving guidance that I have ignored for most of my life.

The Pharisees are infamous for their pride. Herod is infamous for the arrogance with which he ignored God and the cruelty which slaughtered the innocents and executed John The Baptist.

Jesus is more than famous for the example he is of the total meaning of being human in this World. He is gentle and lowly of heart and is the one source of the peace that is the true happiness we can find in this world only by knowing that Our Father and His is the one source of all that is good .

Jesus is also completely human even to the extent of being short with his mother and immediate family when they seek to interrupt his preaching, and today he is bothered by the way his closest disciples don't seem to have "got it". He chides them with  Isaiah "Have you eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear?" for their lack of understanding of the words they have heard and the miracles they have seen.

Jesus worldly mission was completed many years ago but the loving truth of his acceptance of the sacrifice he was to make is still with us. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and is always ready to accept the souls who return his love and avoid the self-congratulatory piety of Pharisees and the self-centred arrogance of power of Herod.

Dear Lord, let me live today with peace in my being. Let me be always ready for your call. May Mary and all the Saints be, with the angels the prayer, that knows you and wordlessly becomes the part of you that is the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit but does this as one person to another. Let us all do your will now.

 12/02/2024

James' letter was probably written shortly after the destruction of the Temple and is to encourage the Jewish Christians who then felt doubly afflicted and confused not only by the failure of their "Messiah" to act as they had anticipated but also by the destruction of the only place in the world where sacrifice could be made to IAMIAM. 

The main community of Jewish Christians had been warned about the coming horror of blood and hate and had re-established themselves in comparative safety in Perea across the Jordan. The whole of Palestine was in turmoil and the faith of all believers, traditional Jews and followers of the "Way" must have been "tested to destruction".

If I make a few clicks of my mouse I will be able to see the modern version of this ancient slaughter being wrecked out on Gaza. A few more clicks will bring up Auschwitz. We wring our hands at the horror of it all and return to our task in hand.

In my case the task in hand is to raise my mind and heart to Father, Son and Holy Spirit in prayer. Some in Gaza are still praying and doing God's will in saving and caring for the sick and the wounded but others are priding themselves on the success of their force of arms (the deaths for which they are responsible).The belligerents of both sides show equally their contempt for God.

When confronted with the arrogant disbelief of the Pharisees, Jesus sighed a sigh of deep disappointment. Many of us, too, are deeply disappointed that The Institutional Church founded by Jesus on St Peter has throughout History been no better than the now largely atheistic Chosen People and the forces of Islam fighting it out today. 

Our Church has from the very beginning been so involved in the things of this world that it has failed to teach each one of us that we have been created to live by invoking the loving care of Our Father and sharing in that Love with all people. 

The wickedness in this world is not the Will of God but is created by each soul that refuses to do that Will. We have to govern our lives in the knowledge that we are each of equal importance to the Father who so loved the world that he gave up his only begotten son that we might be saved. There is nothing that is as great as God and nothing better for us to do than conforming ourselves to his will.

Dear Lord, let my heart remain open to receive your Love throughout this day. I know that Mary who sat at your feet chose the better part but I know that I should be doing more to bring my family to salvation. Help all, over whom you have continuously sighed, to understand that words can only mean anything when produced by a sincere heart. May Mary your mother plead for your intervention in Gaza although you want us to make choices for you in freedom as you did for us. I am praying for a "sign" as do all Pharisees. May we begin to do your will on Earth as do the Saints of Heaven and protect me from my own hypocrisy and that of others. Amen

 11/02/2024

In the Old Testament all the books are written within the context of the "Law" which governed the communal life of the human community we know as "The Chosen People", the Jews. The "Law" had become much more than the "Ten Commandments".

Mankind has always been the same in that self-centredness rules our very beings; try as we may to be "objective" we can only see the world from our own standpoint; we are not multiple beings. There is only one of us and we are amazed and enthralled by the wonder of the "I" we all know ourselves to be. We see the achievements of our ancestors and glorify their intelligence and mastery of the material of this world and forget God. It is only God who knows us all and He "so loved the world that he sent his only Son that we all might be saved".

The Chosen People also continually lost sight of "IAMIAM" and became one with all the nations in that they forgot the First Commandment and sought only the things of this world. They turned their worship away from its focus on God into another of those things. The Pharisees' piety became a "good" the possession of which filled them with pride that overtook  "Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all Soul and with all your mind" as the mainstay of their lives.

Similarly, The Institutional Church founded on Peter soon became so wrapped up in the things of this world, power, prestige, wealth, wars  that for centuries she seems to have been in the same state as were the Chosen People at the time Jesus' announced the "Kingdom of God"; not really confident that they believed in their own God

At the most public moment of his entire life on Earth, his trial before Pilate, Jesus assured all mankind  then and for all time "My Kingdom is not of this World". We have to know that the Kingdom of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is far greater than our Universe and that God is always ready to welcome repentant sinners at our bodily deaths and to fill our open hearts with the  Love that never dies. Maranatha, Lord Jesus. Return to us soon to fill the world with righteous joy.

Dear Lord let us all know that there is nothing in life better than knowing your Word and seeking out to do good. Inspire all Church leaders to become sincere in their preaching and to believe in the Sacraments that preserve your Incarnate Grace on Earth. May Mary and all the saints of heaven welcome those who have finished with time and been freed from their bodies to the  boundless love that is the Glory of the Lord. Amen

 10/02/2023

Our Lord God let's us live in a strange world that is  our own adaptation of his creation. He himself walked around Palestine with the intention of making us all aware that we are all known to God and that we can live holy lives."The KIngdom of God is at hand". He did take away the sins of the world and to ensure that we did listen and live according to his preaching showed us many signs that he had divine authority. 

We, the Father's finest creation have from the first become so entwined within ourselves that we have never ceased to create for ourselves finite powerless alternatives to Eternity. Adam and Eve chose "No"and ever since we have disregarded our call to be with God. 

Jeroboam got it right. If the Devil, the World and the Flesh are to succeed, all three enemies of our God and the souls he has created for us to share his  wonder of Being with him, have got to make themselves so desirable that mankind can completely forget Eternity and the way, the truth and the life. Golden calves have got to be our "all in all".

The Jews have continually messed up their special place in this world but the inexhaustible Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit shows us again and again that it is we ourselves in our God-like freedom who have to call out for the Grace that is created by the Final Eternal Sacrifice on Calvary and is to be shared with all the world. God's freedom is mirrored in our own, "Yes or No?"

First the Jews and now the Church fail in their calling to let us all know that "My Kingdom is not of this World" and that the pride in humanity, wealth of Mammon, Joyful delights of our bodies are totally valueless when we take our last breath on Earth but continue to be the   souls for which we have been created to care.

Dear Lord, You have told us many times that there is a correct way for all of us to live in your creation. Your Wisdom honours us by freeing our souls from the laws of matter the scientific understanding of which has fueled our pride. We can choose to live in righteousness and thus be part of your Mystical Body that supported by the Holy Spirit and Mary and all the Saints is part of the Eternal Kingdom that is not of this world. Dear Lord save us from the nonsense of Popes and Prelates and let my days be guided only by your love.  Amen

 09/02/2024

Throughout the time that we have inhabited the Earth there are only a few of us who have tried to orientate our lives towards God. "Few" that is, in comparison to the millions who are alive today. I am always trying to face God as a free soul created by Him to do his will during my life.

To the extent that I am able, I bow before Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the Evergreater Creator and accept the revelations made to the prophets and completed by the Resurrection. I have known for years that my sins are forgiven and that God is Love,Truth and Mercy but I have to face the fact that for myself sin/evil is still as easy as is breathing.

It is obvious that I cannot contain the mind of God in my brain but this is what I have understood about my "being", aware of self and of others and of the Eternal Other that is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are all created as individual free souls who are born by Providence into bodies that are the highest form of Life on this planet. We are all born for the purpose of knowing, loving and serving Our Father. God has not created any of us to be Evil. Each one of us creates our own sin by ignoring God.

I am a weak and sentimental man. God is my Evergreater Creator. It is impossible for me to challenge him, but I have to ask for the grace to be able to understand why so many of us throughout History have been born according to His Providence into cultures that achieve high moral and ethical ways of life but do not know Him. Does Jesus also welcome those who do not formally acknowledge You?

Dear Lord, you know that I am only ever ready to accept your grace. You have saved me from the bodily sins that could have resulted in my death years ago. Let me not waste the time that I have left to pray and worship you. My prayer for there to be a way for my misguided yet sinless brothers and sisters to come to you is that of a weak and sentimental man but it is sincere.  May Mary and all the Saints pray that all sinners can become reconciled and join the total eternal worship that is the Mystical Body of Christ.

 08/02/2024

One thing that is sure about today's readings is that Jesus did not insult the Lebanese woman by calling her a dog. The woman of Tyre is one of the few whose words in reply to Jesus are recorded in the Gospels. She is shown to be her own person and not overawed by this stranger whose reputation as a healer has gone before him.

Jesus is aware of the depths of her misery at the condition of her daughter and of her sincerity of belief that he could cure her. She does not seem to have had any faith in IamIam but is a pagan. Jesus praises her for speaking the truth even from her weak status as a gentile petitioner for a favour and thus blesses the unbeliever.

Jesus responds to this woman because she is desperate for her daughter to recover. There were thousands of other souls living in sick and deformed bodies in those times. The ones cured by Jesus either presented themselves or had a petition made on their behalf directly to him. Why were others left then and now to live miserable lives while Solomon (e.g.) who lived in comfort and splendour proved to unworthy of the blessings that he had been given?

There is no way for us to fathom the ways of Providence. Most people in the world think that we are all born into a predetermined fate. The talents of others so captivate themselves that they know that the world is "their oyster" and accept all the benefits  that come their way as their just desserts.

God's message first to the Jews and then to all peoples is that we should know that each one of us is a loving gift of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each individual is a completely free spirit who can choose to live reflecting the love of God. We can correct the mistakes of our fathers but we can achieve nothing unless we bow our heads and pray  "Our Father" as taught by Son whose cross we have to choose to share and whose Spirit we have to welcome into our beings to guide our lives to the "many mansions" of Eternity.

Dear Lord I know that I am responsible for all my thoughts and actions. My emotions always seem to be beyond my control. It is emotions that insult hate and kill. Help me to control these aspects of my being that are an affront to you. May Mary pray with all the Saints of Heaven that we on earth can have the patience to accept your love and truly love our neighbours as ourselves in the loving mercy that we all need to access to become your people.