04/06/2024

In the first reading, St Peter teaches that we all have to have patience throughout our lives and avoid the false teachings that abound on Earth. In his day, it was by word of mouth that the Resurrection was announced and interpreted. The Jews were prepared by the Old Testament and Temple Worship but the Gentiles had only their own unsatisfactory mythologies to compare with the Good News.

There are many of us who, having lived during the two thousand years that have passed since the Apostles preached, have fretted to have the "new heavens and the new earth" revealed to us in our own lifetimes. I know that I am weak and have wasted in many ways "the opportunity to be saved" that is the only basic reason for my existence.

At the end of my life I know that Father, Son and Holy Spirit knows and loves each one of us. God is not like an internet that recognises only the rich and famous by their followers. He is the perfection of all fathers and knows each individual as a human father knows his own children. That is why human life and procreation is sacred and not to be discarded as a hinderance to our own selfishness. God sees everyone of our sins but is ready to forgive even those who are locked into deliberate enmity with his revelation of being.

Looking at the world today, however, it seems that there has been no improvement in human behaviour even though we have been able to live as did Jews in the Covenant,  within Eternal Forgiveness here on earth since that Last Sacrifice made on Calvary.

God does not make mistakes. It was the Jews of the Old Testament that broke their Covenant. Jesus came to correct our ways. "My Kingdom is not of this world!" The Institutional Church has misled us over the centuries. Jesus condemnation of his avowed enemies the chief priests, scribes, elders and Herodians, pharisees can be applied equally to all of today's Popes, Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Monks, Priests and their hierarchies, councils and synods.

We have to look at our place in the world. Let us give up our worldly goods, including great art and wonderful buildings and acknowledge that wealth follows this morning's "Caesar's head" into the dust.  We have to give our spiritual beings back to the welcoming arms of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are his children and he wants us to share the wonders of eternity with us. He has no need of the Patrimony of St Peter.

Dear Lord, I can live only in your sight of me and my cloudy awareness of you. I can only learn to obey you and thus know and serve.You are aware of my every moment of life and guide me with the grace that I must open my soul to receive. Help me to understand what is your true revelation and avoid  the thoughts that are the product of human pride. Our Lady and all the Saints in heaven know, love and serve in human perfection help me to share their grace and along with the Holy Souls become cleansed from my sins and ready to come to your promise of Joy.

 03/06/2024

There is an obvious difference between the circumstances of all the martyrs of the era of European Colonialism and those of the early Church. 

St Paul and all the Apostles fearlessly proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the market-places of an Empire and opposed the world-view to which they themselves had adhered until the Resurrection had challenged and changed all their beliefs.

St Charles and his companions were being converted to Christianity by missionaries from powerful Christian nation states which were seeking to exploit the non-European parts of the world and their people in the interest of Mammon.

I grew up in an era when the evils of what had been "Christian Imperialism" were recognised and exposed for what was its devotion to Mammon. For nearly four centuries the gospel had been preached while  people and lands had been ravaged by Christians who were under the Power of Satan/Mammon.

I know that I am not alone in believing that the Incarnation teaches us that the reality of our world today is not in the unsatisfactory state it is because of the will of God. God knows that I am a sinner. He suffered the torment of crucifixion to enable us all to choose to be rid of our sins. But, God forgive me, I can still sin.

He founded the Church to be the guardian of our holiness and to spread that holiness throughout the world. Two thousand years ago in Jerusalem God was put on trial before Pilate, the representative of all worldly power, but who was nervous in the presence of the man Jesus, and declared for all time "My Kingdom is not of this world!". The Pope still rules "The Vatican".

We can only save the world from sin by each one of us renouncing as we did in baptism, the devil, the world and the flesh and choosing to do God's will. The will of God was not completed by  the Jews of the Old Testament so to make our place and being in creation clear to us the incarnate Word, Jesus fulfilled the will of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

There can never be as great a Saviour as Jesus, the founder of  our Church, but has the Church of the New Testament  ever fulfilled its purpose any better than did the Jews of the Old? 

We are today in greater need of the second coming than ever before. Marantha Lord, Jesus, come!

Dear Lord, help me to follow your will in all that I do. Help me to be holy and to love only that which is holy. Help me to think straight and search for Truth unfiltered by my ego. May Mary and all the Saints join their prayers with those of St Charles  and those who were his friends on earth and may all we sinners on earth and in Purgatory search out for the grace you shower like cherry blossom and collect it by the armful so that our beings can become the image that you created us to be. I make my prayer through Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

 02/06/2024

Today the Church celebrates, as does she every day, the Sacrament that is the Body of Christ. Jesus at his far from peaceful death, poured out his remaining blood from the wound in his side made by the lance of the soldier and crying out in agony the words of Psalm 22 breathed out the death of his human body for the benefit of all manknind.

The night before this devastating event the Apostles had eaten their last meal with the Messiah, their Rabbi. Their unity had been broken and his words of consecration were as unmeaningful to them as "I will rise again on the third day". They had scattered and were as lost in human time as was the human body of Jesus in the tomb.

The women who had witnessed the death must also have been present with John at the  entombment but we do not know what the Apostles other than John, the ever-faithful and Judas, the renegade, were doing in the real-time that was their abandonment of Jesus and in his perceived abandonment of them.

The Resurrection breaks through the inexplicable misery of their despair. Mary Magdalen cannot believe her eyes. In Emmaus Jesus is recognised at the breaking of bread. John holds back to allow Peter to enter the tomb before him. St Thomas, the empiricist, actually touches the wounds in the original body contained in the New Life and the command uttered at the " The Last Supper" soon becomes the heart of the Church which should be the Guardian of the new way of Spiritual being that Father, Son and Holy have created by the death and resurrection of the Son in the Sacrament.

This is the teaching of the New Testament, the events and the believe of those whose time on earth was shared in by the Incarnation that we their spiritual descendants might live in the righteousness that will open for us the never ending Love of the Kingdom that is not of this world.

Dear Lord, You know that I have always tried to come to an understanding of my place and purpose on earth. I have not always matched my actions to my efforts .You know that hints of prideful ego haunt me as I try to turn my whole being to doing your will on earth as it is done by your saints in Heaven who exemplified your teaching on earth. May Mary, Queen of Peace, who was able, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to nurture the Son of the Father and thus become Theototox, the Mother of the Church and all the Sacraments, lead all saints in prayer for the forgiveness of all sinners and the renewal of our disgraced Church on earth. Help us all to rip our beings out the grip of Mammon and offer our all in thanks for your sharing of Infinite Being with the tiny specks that even the greatest of us are in your real world.

 01/06/2024

Our God who knows everything knows that yesterday I made myself totally useless in worldly terms. 

Those who are successful in their lives always accuse such as I who seek for reconciliation with God and his  promise of eternal life in the New Creation as being too weak to accept that this world  is "as good as it gets" and so clutch at an empty concept to protect ourselves from the reality that snuffs out the candle of our lives at death.

I have always been able to see the point of this opinion, but never been able to forget that Jesus is as historically a true person as were Pilate and Caiaphas who condemned him to the cross. Jesus is much more than a victim of the abuse of power, he is the incarnate "Word" the only begotten Son in whom we see the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Today's psalm sings out from the depths of the human soul a longing to know God. St Jude preaches for us to be unified by the love of God we have inherited from the Apostles. In the Gospel, Jesus himself will not respond to the challenges of those who are the self-satisfied strong of this world.

I should never be ashamed at being "poor in spirit" for it is for the "useless", "weak and powerless" that Father, Son and Holy Spirit revealed 2000 years ago in Palestine, the "Love" that gives us life, not only as the weak on earth but also the chance to become part of the never-ending chorus of praise, the Mystical Body of the Church of Love here and in heaven. "When I am weak, I am strong."

Dear Lord, I thank you that I survived the mishap of yesterday. It happened totally because of my stupidity. I also thank you that I truly know that I do not need anything but to live out my years in prayer. You are the only one who can save me when I am falling, for you are  God who saves us  through Jesus Christ our Lord. May my prayers be united with those of Mary and all the saints with whom I can unite myself in the Church of Love and in my human weakness be open to the almighty power which is your ever living grace.

 31/05/2024 

You know what I am trying to do each morning when I start up this computer and read the mass readings for the day. You know that my soul wants to be free of the sin which has marred my being. You know this already but all of us also have to declare this with our humanity, living body and mind and soul. 

I am an event in your creation as are all the created souls who have ever lived and so there is nothing that is possible for me to be that is ever unknown by you but unfolds for me in time according to my choices.

The meeting of Mary with Elizabeth is a huge event that is a direct result of your Love for mankind. The Old Testament came to an end there in the hill-country of Judea and the Final Revelation, The New Testament, was recognised by the completion of the Old even though both were unborn.

There have been since that meeting billions of events that should have given Glory to You, The meeting of the cousins took place because the people on whom you lavished your Love had failed to achieve the holiness for which they were created.

There have in your Church been millions of brilliant human minds that have honestly tried to expound on the Holiness of your Being. As those "great ones" approached their deaths their faculties faded away and they became as helplessly dependant on their carers as were You and John in the wombs of your mothers. 

Humility is a virtue because it is the reality of our human weakness which we share with all mammals and with which you shared your Glory with us in your incarnation as the perfect homo sapiens.

Dear Lord, I am getting able to hold a thought but there is always something lacking. I am not Balthasar or St Thomas but do my best to show to myself how being a Christian is the sole purpose of my life. I do know that I can be sustained by the love of Mary and all the Saints who are the heavenly channels for your grace in the mystical body that is your Church of Love. May I become totally open to your grace and avoid all that separates me from holiness. Let your grace be acknowledged by all my careless family and let your clergy really become "alter Christus". I make this prayer to and through Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May my soul and the souls of the faithful departed rest in the Peace that  is so desperately needed in our world.  Amen 

 30/05/2024

I do not have an intimate knowledge of either New or Old Testaments. I am always aware of the main points of the story of salvation that are pointed out by the Church and the theology that I have read. If  somebody were, before today, to have asked me the source of "You are new born and like babies you should be hungry for nothing  but milk" I am sure I would not have answered, "St Peter". Of course, St Peter was the head of a family before he has appointed to be the foundation of the Church and must have known something about babies.

It is easy to see the "lack of spiritual honesty" in others. There have always been clergy among us who denounce the sin that secretly rules their own lives. I know that I have rarely been consistent in my own search for holiness. 

St Peter also tells us that we are a "royal priesthood" a "a consecrated nation set apart". Whoever the author of the letter attributed to St Peter might be, it is certain that he is a Jew aware of IAMIAM's covenant with the first "People of God".

In his incarnate life God teaches us that his first Chosen People have lost their unique relationship with him and although he is bringing forgiveness to them as a free gift, they hand him over to Pagans so that they can feel free of guilt for his death. Today their descendants are slaughtering as they themselves have also been slaughtered in times since then.

The same Mammon that crushed Temple Worship has never ceased to be preferred by many descendants of first century Jews and Christians who lived when God "visited his people". I feel that we have to ask ourselves in all seriousness whether or not our "Church" has became as blind as was Bartimaeus. We all certainly need to return to the "Faith" in "The Kingdom of God" that gave him sight. The day of reckoning is surely coming and we all need to purge ourselves of selfish passions. We can only do that if we choose to live spiritual lives in the light of Christ.

Dear Lord, these days in which I am living are very much like the days you walked in Palestine. Selfishness by individuals and groups has reached the point where it has so filled our beings with material goods, pleasures, that there is no room for you the way, the truth and the light. May Mary and all the Saints give hope to us sinners that your grace will bring about the change that we need to make in our beings so that Jesus can know that we truly understand the wonders of your Love. Help us by your Grace to keep our hearts open to receive whatever you choose to reveal to us. Amen

 29/05/2024

In the Gospel reading for today we are accompanying Jesus on his final visit to Jerusalem. Jesus is in front of the group of us. We are not sure of what is going to happen. Jesus now speaks to the Apostles, the group of 12 whom he has already chosen for some special task. We are not happy to become the unchosen ones but we are still mesmerized by the teaching and person of Jesus and wait for their private meeting to conclude.

In the meeting Jesus announces the reason that he is choosing to go to Jerusalem at this time. The Apostles do not really take in the cruel reality of Jesus' words to the extent that James and John try to gain an advantage over their colleagues and ask Jesus for a special favour. The other ten are as indignant about this as we are that we have not been chosen to attend the private meeting.

In the Epistle, Peter is preaching some years after the Resurrection. The events of which he has been a part are still fresh in his mind. Where there was a daze there is now clarity. The words which none of them had completely understood had become the reality which it was his joy to proclaim to the whole world. 

His friend Jesus whom he had deserted had proved himself to be the Resurrected Christ who brings the total forgiveness of God to all the world, even to those who deny him in some way. In that forgiveness we can find the purity that allows us to live in Love as the true brothers we are created to be. We are all freed from the shackles we create for our selves by selfish jealousy for we are all equally able to accept the unifying Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

"For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many."

Dear Lord, as I typed the above I was sure that I was open to your guidance and to the Truth that you brought to Earth in your Incarnate Word. I can be saved from my sins because I can open my heart to receive the strength that is your grace. Even your foundation on St Peter may wither like the beauty of the flowers but the prayers of the Love that stayed with you to the end of your human life in Mary and her friends and in John her new son will remain with the Word until the end of time. Help me to also remain in your love till death the inevitable end of my life brings me to judgement. May your Mercy be upon me and all other sinners living and dead. Amen