18/02/2024

We are not the equals of God. We must not take guidance in how to live our lives from those who are so engrossed with their own beings that they have lost sight of God whom they treat as if he were as far away from us as is Noah.

Noah's Rainbow has been stolen to become the symbol of those who say that they know better than the Creator. They believe that their own obsession with the sins of the flesh is the normality by which all of us should live.

God's Rainbow assures us that the creation fashioned by God is good. Their Rainbow insists that God got it wrong. The pleasures of procreation are the fizz-bang of a modern firework and no matter the number of times we lose ourselves in that pleasure, it never lasts and without fruitfulness it adds nothing to creation for which we can be proud.

God didn't get it wrong. Our bodies are controlled by DNA but we are all more than the ape who was the last link between "Let their be light" and "Go forth and multiply". We all have a central spiritual life that is touched by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As our bodies age our eternal souls never change. 

Octogenarians know that they are still the same being, the baby who was loved by its mother is still the "I"who creakingly gets out of bed and hopes to live another day in the righteousness that being open to Jesus' proclamation "The time has come and the Kingdom of God is close at hand; repent and believe the Good News." will bring us to the never ending "peace that is beyond understanding".

Dear Lord, you know everything about me. I can tell you nothing except that I can't match with my thankful submission the greatness of the Love that I have often disregarded throughout my life. May my prayers join with those of Mary and all the Saints to become part of that moment when we all know you for what you really are and become truly repentant for all our sins.

 17/02/2024

The Prophets of the Old Testament were gifted by God to lead His people Israel in the way of  truth. Each and every one of his created people was to have God's Law preached to him as an open book and that Nation was to become an example of righteousness to the rest of the World.

The prayerful parts of the Old Testament give glory to the Greatness of God but the history therein reveals the weakness of mankind which is soon lured away from the guidance revealed through the Prophets. 

The Pharisees at the time of Jesus have become for us a byword of hypocrisy and their "Sabbath" anything but a delight that is dedicated only to worship and contemplation. God sees his people and although he has continually warned that mankind living on this Earth, although free to fashion creation as it will, has always to respond positively to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God incarnate, Jesus is born into the world and knows the potential greatness of us all. He knows at first-hand the damage that we do to ourselves and to creation by sin. The "Scribes and Pharisees" have received great gifts but in pondering themselves "Thank you Lord that I am not as other men" they have lost themselves.

Jesus did not leave us alone after the Resurrection. His life, death and resurrection were to remain living in our memory and guarded by the Apostles and their Spiritual descendants. "This my Body" of the Last Supper is still real in the Liturgy of "true believers."

At the time of the Pharisees, there were some of them who listened to the Living Word and followed Jesus. Not all the clergy of our Church are corrupt today. Our Institutional Church has however never been true to Jesus' words at his trial as she has never left this world and soon became entangled in the politics of Rome as the secular power began to move eastwards. 

The weakness of our Institution today has long roots that go at least as far back as the success of St Leo the Great in protecting  Rome against Atilla. Leo himself was one of the Roman aristocrats who grasped control of the Papacy and thus polluted the memory of Peter and Paul who had seen the other world of the Resurrection. That worldly Church has become ever richer and richer and consequently poorer poorer at guarding and distributing the Grace won on Calvary.

We are not left orphaned and alone, however, for the Holy Spirit has never left the Mystical Body of Christ which calls us all to the repentance that leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven from where we on Earth can receive the support of Our Lady and all the Saints. It is still possible for us to chooseto become "holy, even as I am Holy."

Dear Lord, we have made as much a mess of your foundation as when you confronted the  hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees. We have chosen to lose ourselves in the wonders of our human success in controlling matter. I have spent years giving in to temptation but I am now worried that my family is too much a part of this world to be able to extricate themselves. I hear your voice telling me that nothing is impossible to you for you are our Loving Father. I would love for you to wake us all up to the reality that life is not to be "celebrated" for itself but that we should all live in preparation for the Kingdom that is the Eternal Joy of Heaven beyond the decaying matter of the Universe.

 remain

 16/02/2024

Father, Son and Holy Spirit speaking through Isaiah and the Psalmist warns us today that "Fasting" i.e. any religious observance has to be sincere and total. If we are genuinely coming face to face with the Father it is useless to have any reservations for God knows everything.

Even though we put on "sackcloth and ashes"  it is our deeds that are the reality of our beings known to God. We may wear the trappings of ritual but God is not influenced by anything except the truth of our response to his Love of the World. It is the sincerity of our deeds that reveal our belief in the life, death and Resurrection of his only begotten son and not public observances.

The question that Jesus answers today is not another example of the casuistry of the Pharisees. The disciples of John have been trying to find holiness in this life. They have had Jesus pointed out to them as "the Lamb of God", the person whose sandal their Rabbi was not fit to fasten and with sincerity of heart they pose a question that could have been asked by the double dealers who usually tried to outsmart Jesus.

Jesus' answer is seemingly straightforward for us who have been born 2000 years after the events of his life but that is the benefit of hindsight. I wonder what the disciples made of it.

Dear Lord help me to know that hypocrisy is not only a sin but also total stupidity. You are vast beyond my imagining but loving enough to look at each one of us. Let my being be open and my soul purged of pride and self. May I repeat the "yes" with which Mary accepted your will for her and may she continue to lead the heavenly chorus in their cry for your Mercy to overcome all resistance to your Love.

 15/02/2024

In St Luke's Gospel this morning, Jesus warns his disciples how the life of their incarnate Lord is going to end. I have never in my lifetime completely forgotten the teaching of my penny catechism. "Why did God make me"?. "To know love and serve him in this world and be happy with him in the next".

At the first hearing of this teaching I was aware that I had to live for God for it was through his providence that I was born and lived with my family. It was never straightforward for me and even as a child I was aware that I was often doing wrong and putting myself before Our Father.

I have become increasingly aware throughout my life that I am responsible for everything that I do. I am not constrained in my being by any code or algorithm. My body obeys the laws of nature but my soul has to choose for herself to follow Jesus even when the road to Heaven is full of pitfalls, stumbling blocks and the cul-de-sacs of worldly delights and satisfactions.

I don't think that it is possible that the Apostles and disciples would have understood that the "cross" was  a literal reference to the coming passion and death of Jesus. Jesus as God is totally free he is even free to change the laws of nature revealed by the intelligence of men. 

As true man he shared our freedom to do the will of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and it is as the perfect man that he completes the role of Isaac when taken to see God. He is our Lamb of God provided to take away the sins of the world and in him Father, Son and Holy Spirit is well pleased.

Dear Lord, let me continue throughout this day to be constantly aware that this life is a gift for me to use to do only your will as I continue to breath in your creation, our Universe. My life really has been easy and all the disappointments have passed away due to your care for me. May Mary who from the time of your presentation in the Temple knew that a sword was to pierce her own heart and even in the complete wonder of heaven is aware of our needs on earth continue to lead the Saints in prayers for their mislead brothers and sisters on earth and for the souls awaiting mercy in Purgatory.

 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