07/05/2024

I have to examine my conscience many times a day. I have to ask what I think that I am doing in this world. When first I see the Mass readings for the today that is my present reality I know that I am making an act of will to become aware of God, for whom there is only an eternal reality, and his will for me and  for the world at this ever-changing worldly moment.

Paul and Silas are indirectly credited with having an earthquake release them from gaol. It is something more than a natural earthquake as the shackles which confined all the prisoners also fell from their limbs. It is easy to allegorise this story and see in it Jesus freeing us all from sin, thus enabling us to enter freely into the eternal life that has always been God's  objective for us, in his creation.

I have only experienced one truly "Life or death dramatic event" in my adult life. I was scuba diving and had wandered away from my "buddies". For some reason I got myself tangled up in an abandoned fishing net. I soon found out that my knife was not up to the job of cutting me free. I was quite calm when I accepted that this was the end. I do remember that I pictured myself as hanging helplessly in the water between the "glass-roof" of the surface  and the sand of the bottom,  an underwater copy of Jesus on the cross and I was quite calm, Deo gratias, as I escaped by getting out of my buoyance device and attached empty air bottle.

That event during which I experienced real fear could be developed into a "Bible-story" . It is solidly in my memory of what happened even to the image of the Crucifixion. It has come into my mind today because the story of the release from gaol of Paul and Silas is an event that happened in the reality they shared with the gaoler and other prisoners and can be doubted as can my story but which I know to be true.

Dear Lord, I thank you for that escape from an untimely death and for that image of you hanging in human time until dead. I pray that I can atone for all my sins and thus come to the New Life that will be your return on the clouds of Heaven to judge the  living and those who died before us. To understand your plan for me and all mankind is a task which has got to be an act of will that seeks for you in the revelation that is my conscience guided by the Holy Spirit through Scripture. Help me to come to true repentance and the ability to answer your call at all times of my life. May Mary and all the saints show us how to become your True Body on earth by the purity of living lives free from sin.

 06/05/2024

We all still learn as did the first Christians when instructed by St Paul. I cannot ever grow out of my need for the grace to hold on to the message of salvation preached today in Macedonia. I need to be there witnessing the open hearted hospitality of Lydia to Paul and Luke. I need to know the fear when expelled from the synagogues and the becoming an object of cruel disbelief. I need to be overcome by the Good News, the Resurrection proclaimed by the preaching of these nondescript visitors from Antioch and Jerusalem.

John recalls today Jesus' preparation of his "Friends" for the arrival of the Advocate. God has never left us completely alone. Even in my self-absorbed sinfulness God has trusted me to live on and learn that there is nothing more trusting than the loving redemption that has engraced our world,  than Father, Son and Holy Spirit. My person is a soul known and directly addressed by the three persons that are one God.

There is never a moment in earthly time when each one of us is not known by God. We are in awe of the unimaginable greatness that is the Father. Jesus calls us "friends" and is the perfection of man and person of God. The Holy Spirit is the Eternal Love that is Father, Son and Himself each a unique person but Eternally one God.

We have to grow in this faith preached along the roads of the Roman Empire by those who had heard "Go out and teach all nations"; and by the ones who had accepted the Word of God as did the first Christians for they too are the blessed by Jesus, as are we, because they too had not seen and yet they believed. 

Dear Lord, you know how the little things of this world can bring a tumult of emotion that destroys the calm and peace that I can gain by attending to your Word and agreeing to live by it. You know how my mind is not listening and my soul cannot find its rest. So much more important things are happening than my garden dispute. Help me to avoid anger and to accept whatever materialises. If  I lived in Gaza I would really know despair and the horror of mankind's uncontrolled pride.  Help all those suffering all over the World and help me to avoid anger which can soon take over my whole being and shield my heart from your love.

 05/05/2024

I have never seen the objective signs of the Holy Spirit. I have never experienced  subjectively the love that comes from God. As a child I know that I loved my mother and father and later my siblings. As a teenager I know that I loved many girls. Even today my heart can skip when I see a pretty face.

Of all these "loves" there is one that has never changed and that is love for a dog. I really do experience an unconditional love for a dog. I tell myself that this love of a creature just because he is what he is, is God's way of showing to me how he loves me, of letting me glimpse the Evergreater Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are loved not because we exist but exist because we are loved.

St Peter brings our attention to the Holy Spirit. He and the others present witnessed something that was as real to them as their selves. The gentiles present were unbaptised, but the signs of the Holy Spirit became manifest. They spoke in "tongues".

St John, as always, writes of Love. He and Mary had been told by Jesus that in the complete revelation that would be his Resurrection they were to care for each other with maternal and reciprocal filial love. We, the disciples of the crucified Lord, are told to manifest our love for him by our love for each other. "Friend" is Jesus' name for us who show that we live not as a "favourite" but by obeying the unchangeable directions to Eternity; the way, the truth and the life, his commandments.

Dear Lord, let me learn to love you not just because "you are" but because "I am"  only because loved by you. You even accepted a shameful death in total weakness on the cross so that I might have my sins forgiven and my soul rescued from the mire of human sinfulness. Jesus is with us to the end of time. He is the Sacrament who has been shamefully mocked by the many such as I who have received the host in a state of Sin. May Mary and all the saints help me to share in your mystical body and help me to love you in a love that ignores my self but reflects back to you as much of your Love for me as I am able. Let my prayer be heard and let me live this "today" without sin. Look with mercy on all sinners both living and in Purgatory and let us be scraped clean of sin and again become as pure as the Love with which you created Adam & Eve. 

 04/05/2024

Within the lifetimes of the English Martyrs whose faithfulness to Rome led them to heroic deaths many others had been killed in England at the behest of the Church for refusing to accept the authority of the Pope.

The Jews had had to clear out the "nations" from the "Promised Land" before they could occupy it to be able to claim it as their birthright. Jesus' Foundation on Peter has never offered the path of non-resistance as part of the "Way" even though he taught us to turn the other cheek to the violence of the aggressor.

Jesus, our Saviour, always emphasized the dichotomy between preaching and practise that characterized the degenerate Temple Worship that was typified by the Pharisees of his day.

It was to save us from this human failure that God corrected the errors in his chosen ones by showing his power over matter in the miracles of Jesus and the Apostles. In his parables and discourse Jesus taught us rationally as an authoritative rabbi so that we could "ponder" and grow in wisdom from his words.

The Church has had two thousand years to become the Body of Christ on Earth. There has never been any evidence that the Institution has  ever been even close to this. I know that Jesus is with us to the end of time. The Resurrection is the heart of the mystical body that became the New Holy Family at the foot of the cross and thus we can be part of the Kingdom that is not of this world. 

Jesus taught us to beware of the hypocrisy of pharisees whose practise does not match the teaching that their Institution has preserved, but often mocked in practise and to seek the grace of God to avoid falling into this ,very human fault ourselves. We must always remember that Jesus did not found an institution to be powerful in this world but one  to be our spiritual home and guide living to Eternity.

Dear Lord your Mother is the Immaculate source of your human being and she is with Joseph and you the Holy Family which guided your youth on earth. On Calvary You presented Her and John to each other to form a New Holy Family which is your Mystical Body on earth. Help your institution to realise that your words really are the Truth and that the words "My Kingdom is not of this world " mean exactly what they say. 

 03/05/2024

All that we know about our place in God's Creation has been revealed to us by God. This revelation has taken place here on Earth in historical time.  It is The Way, The Truth and the Life. It is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It was first given to individuals who then passed it on to their communities.

St Paul, although an active persecutor of the first Church, was chosen by Jesus in no uncertain manner and, after his blindness physical and spiritual was removed, listened to the teaching of the Apostles and knew that their words were the Truth that would bring all mankind to its place in the Eternity that is the final end of all creation.

In this morning's first reading Paul reminds us  that his teaching is the Word that is divine. It is the Alpha and Omega, it is the Resurrection and can never be changed. We have to believe exactly what he taught his first congregations and the Apostles from whom he learned.

It is true that mankind's understanding of the material of which we and the whole Universe is made has grown to what is the wonder of scientific knowledge today. This does not have any affect at all on the reality that is Jesus in the Father, in the Holy Spirit. "Thrice Blessed Three in One".

In the second reading, John has recalled in his old age another example of how the Apostles questioned the Lord when he was still with them. They were not hard disks imprinted by God but truly free human intelligences who talked with God on earth and we are still with them in the same New Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, John and all the Saints together with us sinners on Earth and awaiting mercy in Purgatory, members of Christ's Mystical Body..

Dear Lord, let my moments of prayer lead me to you who are calling  the whole world to join the salvation you have intended for us. May I never refuse the Holy Spirit who guides us all. Saying "no" to the promptings which my conscience declares to be from you can only bring more sin into Creation. You have never lost contact with me even in my most sinfulness you have found me with your grace. May I begin to live always aware of your Being and may this awareness become a prayer of thanksgiving and praise to you my God, Our Father who art in heaven. Amen

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 02/05/2024

I have only a general understanding of the relationships between the Apostles who organised the disciples in Jerusalem. The Acts do not record the details of all their discussions which led to the teaching inherited by the second generation of Christians. 

It was at discussions, the earliest Church Councils,  such as reported in this morning's first reading that they came to understand the meaning of what they had witnessed and been ordered to announce to the whole world.

Peter is full of confidence as he reminds them that it is he to whom it was revealed that the "pagans" were to have the Good News revealed to them exactly as it had been revealed to the Jews of Jerusalem and that they too had received the "Holy Spirit".

My mind is taken back to the "peace" that Jesus had ordered to be given by the disciples who had been sent  on the first missionary journeys in Palestine.They were to take it back if they were not welcomed by the household to whom it had been given. 

St. Luke does not record any opposition  to St Peter's statement that these "pagans" have been given the Holy Spirit just as they have but there is no record of how they could all be so sure. Then St James too speaks as leader and it is he who rules that the outward signs of Jewishness need not be forced onto pagan converts. 

His reference to "Peter" by his given Jewish name rather than the "Peter", stone of the foundation of Jesus' Church, could indicate how difficult it was for the Jews to accept anything that deprived them of their position as the  "Chosen Ones" or it could be just a sign of the  minor human disgruntlement that arises even amongst  saints while they are on earth.

Dear Lord, You have given me Faith. Help me to be true to it. I can never know you fully for you are the Evergreater. Only you can see my soul but I know that it is the being which knows you and through which I am known. No-one has seen the Father except the Son. The Holy Spirit is God's Gift to all of us who seek him out. "If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love."

 01/05/2024

I always try to begin my day by reading the texts that have been chosen to be read at mass. I have to do this as if I don't, my mind is captured by the kaleidoscope of images that appear on the screen. My mind picks up on a headline and can, soon be galloping all over the world.

We in the 21st century are faced with more demands on our human intelligence than in any other era. We have been taught that the Garden of Eden is not a historical record of God's creation of mankind in the Universe of matter. Disbelieve in the first books of revelation then undermines belief in God and it is thus "proven" to us that there is nothing lasting about our consciousness of our world and our place in it. We are only physical atoms that dissolve into "dust" when our bodies can no longer function.

Science understands the Laws of Matter but it does not teach us anything about existence/ being itself. It answers the questions asked about what our bodies are made of,  but ignores the who and why I know that "I am". These questions are only answerable by someone who has lived, died and returned from Eternity

The Feast of St Joseph the worker was instituted in response to inroads into the Institutional Catholicism of the 19th Century made by atheistic socialism.

The great feasts of the Roman Calendar had all been celebrated to proclaim the Resurrection and those who had based their lives on living devoted only to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The souls whose earthly lives had borne witness to the truth of the Gospel. 

Although done with the best of intentions the establishment of this "political" Feast of the "Worker" detracts from the place St Joseph has in God's Revelation as the Guardian of the Holy Family. He is a saint not because he was a manual worker but because he answered the call by God to accept that Mary's child was indeed the only begotten Son of God. His "yes" to God was truly a "Giant step for mankind".

Dear Lord, you must still know St Joseph with great human affection. Today I am trying to respond in my heart to the truth that is recorded in the Scriptures. May Mary who knows the sincere care with which her husband did not refuse his secondary role in your Holy Family lead him and all the saints in the heavenly chorus that gives praise to you and brings your mercy to all sinners on earth and in Purgatory.