14/05/2024

Jesus teaches us how to become what we were in the eternal mind of the Father at the moment we were created. Everything that we are and experience throughout our lives has grown out of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit's joy in Being which they share with us. This joy is also called Love. Love is the source of the limited created time in which we live and also the timeless Eternal Joy that awaits after our progression through life.

The incarnate Son, Jesus, emptied himself of his Devine Being and entered time as the son of Mary. He lived in Palestine as a complete man in the daily round that we all know . The important difference between Jesus and his mother and us is that they were without the sin created by Adam and handed down to us throughout the ages.

In our lives we can be aware of God but never contain him within our understanding. Mankind has come to an empirical knowledge of so much of created matter that anything beyond our knowledge is ignored or dismissed as non-existent. We have to live our lives in this man-made world of great cities, wonderful machines and beautiful people and it is possible for us to be so enthralled that we forget "this too will pass".

Peter in the first reading is the man who had denied Jesus three times and also been reprimanded at many others. The 120 people mentioned had all seen the Resurrected Lord and knew that they had a duty to teach to the whole world and subsequent generations that nothing about the material world was ever to be as important as the teaching of the master. They were thus creating an "Office of Apostleship" to make sure that they were following his commands exactly.

Ever since that day "The Institution" has tried to be true to the words of the founder but in fighting against the material world has itself become part of that world  which Jesus teaches us to avoid. In the Institutional Church of today Christ is not in the hierarchies of office but in the love which we all should have for each other inside or outside the Institutional Church. On Calvary Jesus was abandoned by all except the Marys and John. This is the example of love that we need to follow in our lives to become the beloved human, body, mind and soul, being we were at the moment of our creation and for eternity.

Dear Lord, help me to live this day as would have Jesus in his Holy Family. Let me too be free from sin and let me grow in understanding of how it is that your will for us all to live  sinless and at peace in your Love. Let me always be aware of that I can never truly know the ever growing infinity that is your being that is ever aware of even the  minutest cell of your creation. Let your Love smother the hatred that is the source of wars and all violence today and may all sinners such as I become aware that even as you forgave St Peter we too can hope for Mercy in this world and accept with thanks the opportunity to do penance now or after our death with the Holy Souls in purgatory. May the prayers of Mary and all the saints be always with us and may the grace of Father, Son and Holy Spirit overcome the evil that we create in our thoughtlessness, forgetful of your Love.

 13/05/2024

There is no teaching of the Church which does not include the Mother of Jesus, Our Lady, Immaculate Mary, but most of all Theotokos, the bearer of the Incarnate, Word, Son of the Father and her son Jesus of Nazareth.

Over the centuries while pondering, as did she, the mystical event of the reproductive awakening of her body being announced by an Angel many have been inspired to use "nuptial" imagery to celebrate the "integrity and praise" that we can all honour but never explain in the terms of biological science.

We have to live our lives in this material world, but we must never forget that this  will pass and each one of us will be judged on how well we have believed and been true to God's revelation of the Way, Truth and Life.

Since the founding of the Church on St Peter, God has not sent us prophets as he did to the Jews. The Institutional Church of this World based in Rome has for centuries claimed a monopoly on Truth and Revelation so the "Prophetical Office" has been vested in Popes, bearers of the "Keys".

Jesus spent 30 years with his mother. We know very little of their life together with St Joseph but we do know that it was at his mother's behest he performed his first miracle. At first he appears to "answer back" a sort of "Oh,mum! Do I have to?" but he does help out his mother's friends to save them from the embarrassment of not having enough wine to serve to their guests at the wedding feast.

In this humble mother/son domestic conversation the Evergreater reveals his incarnate presence on Earth! His mother is also one of the few who remained until his death on Calvary where she is appointed  mother of St John and our Mother in the New Holy Family that is the Spiritual Church of Love.

Dear Lord, you know that there have been many false claims of spiritual experiences. Our world is full of deceivers who try to exploit believers. Pilgrimage to Lourdes seems to be the modern version of the Canterbury Tales and so of doubtful spiritual worth. My own mental pilgrimage to your presence could also be full of self-deceit. Help me to the self-trust that comes from a genuinely clear conscience. You know that I can never be over-scrupulous for I have always been too close to sin. May Mary who encouraged the children at Fatima continue to spread the love that comes from God over us all as we try to live true to the example of her Son, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 12/05/2024

It is God who through his revelations teaches us the "meaning" that we can find in our lives. He teaches us that we are, that we truly exist and we have as the essence of our "being" an awareness, an amazement at the wonder of his creation and of ourselves. 

We also have the gift of freedom which means that we are not prisoners of our humanity or our God, but that we can choose to obey his commandments or to live only to consume the corrupting and corruptible material things and values of this world..

All the first followers of "The Way "were drawn to it by the teaching of Jesus and its effect on those who knew him in the flesh but most were Jews who still trusted in the Scriptures. St Peter is able by referring to Scripture to justify what is seen to be a lack amongst them resulting from Judas' treachery and death. Matthias becomes an Apostle chosen by lot.

We are the first generation since the destruction of the Temple by the pagan Roman Empire to have to face up to all the historical characteristics of his chosen people that God chastised by word and deed before the coming of a new era was announced by the Forerunner.

Stiff-necked, arrogance and petty impoliteness are the the Pharisaical fruits by which we know our modern Israelis who have yet again abandoned God and and elevated themselves to be in their own opinions the only individuals and political entities that have a right to life.

God has only once been physically present amongst mortal men. He chose to be Jewish and by his life death and Resurrection he proved to become the antithesis to all the rulers of this world and especially to those of  modern Israel.

 All the prophets of the Old Testament and Apostles and disciples of the New, have been inspired by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Human society is made up of men and our individual decisions create what we become during our lives. The great evils of my time on earth "denial of God, total war, genocide, abortion, universal fornication are all the result of human decisions  made by individual men.

Jesus has consecrated each one of us in truth. He has loved us to the extent that humbled himself to the agony of torture and death on the cross. Evil crucified him and my sins create evil just as much did the many collaborators who "only obeyed orders" at Auschwitz and other places under the jackboot of Hitler's Germany.

Baptism and faith take us out of the world; we are able to lead lives that are devoted to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We can be a holy people as long as we always put God first and our neighbour before ourselves. We can do it. Jesus has shown us the way.

What would these words mean to those being killed by other men in any of the world's battlefields at this moment?

Dear Lord, you know that I am one man among millions and that I soon lose my spiritual focus. You know what is happening in the deepest part of my being, physical, mental and spiritual. It is true that all evil that is in the world today is the result of men not choosing to live by the Golden Rule we must be stretching your trust in us to breaking point. I guess that in fact we have to become truly your servants on earth and repair the damage that we are doing to ourselves before the longed for day will call us all to the promised New Creation. Help me to pray Lord. Help me to become Holy as you are holy.Amen.

 11/05/2024

One of the theological projects of St. John Henry Cardinal Newman was to try to understand how church doctrine could be an eternal truth and yet also "develop". The case of the Alexandrian, Apollos  amply illustrates how this was also faced in the early church. The Apostles had preached all that they heard from Jesus but mostly proclaimed the Resurrection.

They were still "The Way" and thought of themselves no more than a new generation of the Chosen People until Peter had argued successfully for the abandonment of enforced circumcision and for dietary laws to be legitimately ignored by "Gentile" converts.

The acceptance of Apollos by Priscilla and Aquila presents another doctrinal issue which I do not completely understand. "John's baptism" must be a baptism that does not invoke the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and so the leaders in Ephesus are surprised by the accuracy of Apollos' words and deeds so much so that he becomes an authorised missionary and departs for Greece.

I am always puzzled to understand the exact significance of Jesus' use of "in my name"  but have always blessed myself "In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit". I have to pray that by trying to keep this in mind throughout today understanding will come to me.

"When that day comes you will ask in my name;

and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you

because the Father himself loves you for loving me

and believe that I come from God."

Dear Lord, help me to live this today as a sincere Christian follower of your Way. I hope that my understanding of your Way is not faulty and that I am learning how to pray and avoid sin. Let me be forgiven for all my past sins and become as the publican aware that it is only by your grace and not my conformity to Law that I will be saved and see the Glory that is yours in Eternity.

 10/05/2024

Everything that the Apostles preached was taken from the public life of Jesus that they had shared. They were not instantly imprinted by the Word but had had time for reflection and there were minor details that differed in their memories.

St John's Gospel contains the authentic teaching of Jesus reflected upon for some 50 years and dictated by John in his old age. He had witnessed by experience both the times of joy and of weeping and wailing.

During the first three centuries the preaching to the world that was the Roman Empire had been completed and what had become as "The Way" was becoming the Church and the Church was already in the process of becoming a "worldly" organisation.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit know all of creation. To the Jews IAMIAM revealed the Law. The Land of Israel was his vineyard. The tenants became prideful and rejected first the prophets and even killed his Son who came to rescue all mankind from the sin which is always the progeny of pride.

I know that there have been many times in history when the "signs of the times" point to the nearness of the End Times. The 90% defection of Europe from institutional Churches is a mass apostasy that has before never been witnessed.

Throughout history Christianity has been persecuted and has persecuted. There have been schisms both great and small. Islam has wiped out the the Church of Byzantium. The reformation reduced the authority of Rome in Europe. 

Jesus told his Apostles "When that day comes you will not ask me any questions". Today, Jesus has not yet returned so we can still ask humbly and sincerely "Is this the way the Church and the World go out, 'not with a bang but a whimper"?

Dear Lord, help those who have more authority than do I to look deep within their hearts and ask themselves whether or not they have fulfilled their vocations, their missions to which they have been called to proclaim the Gospel and live exemplary lives bearing witness to the commandments first given to Moses. We are very much in the same position as your people in Palestine when you came to save us all from sin and ignorance of sin. May Mary and all the Saints remember the days on earth when living was difficult plead that the Holy Spirit come and distribute your grace so that the broken power of sin cannot find any more allies than it has already done. 

 09/05/2024

St Paul's lists of "vocations" has always made me feel that I have missed out on something during my lifetime for I have never felt or resisted any of the callings listed.

I have in fact witnessed the failure of many of the "callings" as the "Church" has always been too interested first in the restoration of the worldly kingdom to Israel and then the political power that fell to it by default.

God knows that I have been driven from my local Institutional Church for a very unjust and childish reason. God knows that I am a gross sinner but he also knows that there was nothing sinful about my opinion at that time.

St Pauls' view that Jesus must have "descended" before he "ascended" is problematical for me in that it adds nothing to my understanding of the event witnessed by St Luke. All the Scriptures of the New Testament are historically accurate although this is denied by descendants of the Jews and by Moslems.

The Institutional Church founded on Peter by Jesus was to provide a framework for the Mystical Body of Christ to indwell and guide all of us through our worldly lives to the inheritance the Son had recreated by his Incarnation, life Death and Resurrection.

I have lost faith in that Church in this world and guess that all denominations of Christianity have the same faults that were typified by the Pharisees who resisted Jesus to his face. I have to know that Jesus did promise to be with us unto the end of time. This presence can be sacramental but it is always spiritual and that Spiritual Body of Christ can be in the Institution but is always in the New Holy Family instituted from the cross.

Dear Lord let my prayers be heard and my conscience cleared. I am not judging by my own opinion. I am not seeking a "holier than thou" excuse for apostacy. I am at your feet humbly asking that the prayers of Mary, Joseph and John can unite us all in a love that is powerful against sin and is true to your  teaching on earth, faithful unto death. Please return soon, Dear Lord.

 08/05/2024

The image of St Paul preaching in the birthplace of Western Philosophy presents  a lonely figure addressing probably the Western World's most intellectually developed audience. The men to whom he is addressing the word of God have all studied Rhetoric  and Mathematics, they belong to Schools founded by Plato, Aristotle or were Stoics. The size of our physical world had been measured 200 years previously by a Greek scientist.

They had achieved a level of human development that had huge faults and injustices but which for those elite at the top of Society there was complete intellectual and  moral satisfaction; and they had no worries about the meaning of life. They broke out in guffaws when Paul proclaimed the Resurrection. Would they have treated Jesus any differently?

We do not have any other mention of Paul or the other Apostles engaging in intellectual debate as a way of preaching the gospel. Before this incident the word of God had been preached only in cities where there were sizeable communities of Jews and was thus sowed where there was some readiness to talk about our common present realities of  life and after life, and practical morality.

Saint John's Gospel however records that Jesus promised to send us the "Spirit of Truth". "Jesting Pilate" had washed himself of all responsibility for Jesus' death when hearing this word "Truth" . Our God however promises that what he reveals is the truth of life. I cannot prove that to even myself because I am still living the gift of belief that is our opportunity to prepare for the adventure that is to be our eternal new life. This is what Jesus lived and taught as did St Paul and the other Apostles.

We all live each moment in the Grace of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We can choose to believe or not to believe what Jesus teaches but we will all know, without a shadow of doubt the Truth that death has already revealed to Pilate, to those who laughed at St Paul and to those who condemned Galileo and will reveal to all of us.

Dear Lord, help all your people on earth to know your truth, to know you as Truth and to conform our will to the teaching of Christ and his Apostles. Help me to be sinless this today and let me be aware that my previous sins have been washed clean in the flood of Mercy released from the side of the Perfect Man who died in agony at that moment on Calvary when he cried out to you the pain of our humanity. Help me to be true to your Truth and come to your fold when called, ready for my final examination for which there is no re-sit.