03/07/2024

I feel quite nervous as I try to take in what is revealed in today's mass readings. I can feel an idea growing within me but, as usual, I cannot grasp it before I have composed it into words. Our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is ever-greater than the total knowledge of mankind.

 St Paul, who did not meet the Incarnation in human time, is the first of us who are those blessed by the resurrected Lord in today's Gospel. St Paul who was "ambushed" by the Resurrection, received his personal revelation and was accepted into the heart of the Church. Today he teaches that we believers are used by God to form that same Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ, a new Spiritual Temple in human time, on earth.

St Thomas, however, who had been with the Lord during his lifetime refuses to accept the eye-witness accounts of the Resurrection. Jesus does not condemn this empiricism that expects the reality of life to be manifest through our senses. Jesus is "true man and true God".

It is no wonder that I feel nervous in this morning's settings for my life on earth. Father, Son and Holy Spirit really do answer my prayers. The Spiritual Body of God has been present in this Physical reality that I see, hear, touch, taste and smell every second of my life. I am a "thinking animal" but there is also another reality outside of  myself and yet deep within me that causes me to shout out with thankful joy.

Happy indeed are we who know that his love for us is strong and that it will last for ever!

Dear Lord, you know each one of us for the reality that we are in our being both as body and soul. Help me to be truly with you in Spirit during the rest of my life so that when this body decays into dust, my soul will be able to truly atone for all my sins. You know that there are millions of us who have become the willing but unwitting slaves of Mammon help us all to remove the lure of materialism from our eyes and know that it is only you who will be with us until the end of time. May my selfish prayers be joined with those of the sinless ones, Mary and all the saints and may we all be encompassed within the cloud of your loving reality. Amen.

 02/07/2024

Amos continues to denounce the sins of the "Chosen People". There are many "Hard Sayings" recorded of Jesus by the Evangelists of the New Testament but not as many as there are "Hard Deeds" predicted or complemented by the  "Hard Sayings" of IAMIAM recorded in the "Old".

I am but a tiny spark of consciousness within the knowable vastness of the Universe which is itself tiny in relation to its unknowable Creator. I feel a real sadness when I read "You alone, of all the families on Earth, have I acknowledged. Therefore it is for your sins that I mean to punish you." 

Did God leave the Non-Jewish majority of mankind to go its own way through life as only an intelligent animal and not know that it was a spiritual being loved by him?

Jesus changes everything that was known about IAMIAM. For the Jews he is the Completion of their historical relationship with The Lord and for the Gentiles he gives the answer to all the questions raised solely by the intelligence of mankind applied to the wonder of "Being", existence itself.

Our New Testament reveals that the one God is still IAMIAM but shows himself as three persons. Everything about the three years Christ walks visibly on earth is Supernatural his Miracles are "signs" to all generations that he is beyond the confines of matter. The simple fishermen of Galilee are astounded. 

"Whatever kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him"

 The sophisticates of Athens laugh St Paul out of court when he begins to preach "The Resurrection".

Today the psalmist prays "Lead me in your Justice". We can echo him with a plea for our Faith, Hope and Charity to be strengthened to guide us on a sinless path through life that we may bear witness to the  Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, as a soul created by you I can come to you by my faith and my non-understanding does not detract from that faith. I can only use my will within the freedom you have created for me. I can pray for your mercy to relieve especially those who have not previously benefitted by your grace and for those such as myself who have senselessly chosen sin rather than your holiness. May this prayer be joined with those of Mary, John and all the Saints and  with those of Peter, Paul and all who knew you as the Incarnate God living the life of any man, but without sin, in the wonder that is your creation. Save us Lord Jesus and please come soon. Amen. 

 01/07/2024

I have missed responding by keyboard to the daily mass readings for the last 8 days. I did not ignore them but I have no remembrance of their contents except for the one from "Lamentations".

The first reading from today's mass is a listing of the sins committed by individuals within the community chosen by God to have the revelation of himself made known to them. These are the sins for which atonement could only be made by the direct intervention of the Incarnation, the physical presence of God experiencing all that it means to be human by living and dying in the "time" that continually slips away from us.

The psalm is the " the Word speaking through the prophets" and calls out to us who are living in the wilderness that, without awareness of the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is life on earth 

God's first and last answer to the sin that is brought into being, first by Adam and then by all of us is Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus bled out the whole of his human life's blood to create his Spiritual Body on earth, his Church. 

Even though we have never been true to the Kingdom that is not of this World, God is always true to the Spiritual Church that he founded speaking his last words to mankind, Himself, John and Mary, are to be as a new Holy Family to receive the infinite grace being literally poured out at that moment as he spoke, onto the soil of our world.

God can be found in Institutions but he is not solely located in their Hierarchies. The Liturgical/Sacramental Presence of God cannot be assured by sinful celebrants just as a papal declaration could not change the shape of our world. We can all feel sure that God is with us as long as we conform our lives to his revelations of his will for us.

The Prophets warned the Israelites that the patience of IAMIAM could come to an end. I cannot look at the world this morning without thinking  how much more distasteful this reality must be to God our Creator than it is to me. Jesus was rejected by many of his own people and we today are no better. Are we the generation to witness, at last, the Parousia? Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus Come!

Dear Lord, you know how for the last week I have missed my mornings reflections which help me to raise my mind and love to your loving mercy. As I wrote the above I realised that I do believe what I write from my thoughts. They are not words of wisdom but I am not ashamed to utter them in sincerity as my own awareness of the greatness of your Love and  Merciful Forgiveness for me and for your own world. Help me to be free from sin this day and save my family from their entrapment by the world of Mammon. Let these prayers be united with those of Mary and all the saints and may they bring relief to the Holy Souls and forgiveness to us sinners still living this finite life in hope for the infinity of your Kingdom to come.

 24/06/2024

I have not added to this my "prayerlog" for the last two days. I have prayed on those days. I have read from scripture and I have raised my mind and heart to God. I have asked for forgiveness for my sins and wondered whether or not my life in this world is going to end sooner or later.

I have been happy to thank God for the "wonder of my being" and for the many other "wonders" that compose God's creation. I have filled these days of my life by being responsible for a little dog. His being is also a wonder and I respond to it with unconditional love. I just know that I love him today and I am simultaneously aware that this love for a "souless" creature must end in great sorrow.

I have often thought that I do not "really" love God. When I think about God, when I pray, I do not have the joy in my heart that I comes to me when I see my children and their children. God is far too great for me to respond to as the dog does to me.

Here is a strange thing now. As I wrote the above. I really did begin to glow at the thought of the wonder, the majesty of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I am never "as nothing" in the sight of God. He cares for me with a trust that never weakens or has two days off absorbed in the care of another being.

To prepare for a human response to the immensity of the Love that culminates after the horror of Calvary with the Resurrection is John's mission in life, as it is  for each soul that has ever lived in the reality of creation.

Dear Lord, "I thank you for the wonder of my being". Thank you for the confidence to face you with love in my heart. Help me to avoid the sin that separates me from your grace. Your Love is always ever-greater as is your being. Any of us regardless of the depth of our sins can turn to you in sincere repentance and know that your Love cannot refuse us entry into your everlasting Joy of the Resurrection.

 21/06/2024

It is not an easy task to find the support that God offers to us in the only revelations of himself that he has made during the 3,000 years or so since he had Moses lead his people to the Promised Land. Today there is nothing in the first reading that sings to my ears or confirms the  goodness of God. It is a story of palace intrigues and unholy "shenanigans" that could have come from the pen of Homer or the Scandinavian Sagas until we hear the word "Covenant". 

God himself made a promise to the descendants of Abraham that he the only True God, the source and support of the whole cosmos, the creator of the first life-forms that would develop following his infinite coding of the possibilities of time and space, into man. He who is infinitely beyond all understanding, promises to each person a share in his infinitude if we make correct use of our lives. He  three persons in one being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit knows each one of us.

The way to heaven revealed by the life of the Incarnate Son on earth is the final revelation. Death is not the end of life. Death is the gate to the new life that Jesus shows us in his Resurrection. Millions of us have received confirmation of that truth since God himself was the "first fruits". Millions have realised at the moment of death, that their wealth, power and beauty are without any value whatsoever.

I know that I have often failed to let in the light of God. The material world that mankind has constructed by its own intelligence is captivating. So captivating that it can stifle our consciences into forgetting or straightforwardly denying that "In the beginning was the Word  and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him". 

Our greatest gift from the Father is the revelation that we can be forgiven for our failings by the Love that binds Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Forgiveness is ours as soon as we ask for it. God knows how true is our penitence. Nobody can deceive Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, it is easy for me to deceive myself but why would I want to do that? Jesus has brought your light into the world. We really do need nothing more but have to continue each moment of our lives to be aware that we need to follow in our thoughts word and deeds your will for all mankind. Help me act as I should do but ever aware that you want all of us to choose in freedom to be the human perfection revealed in Jesus and his mother Mary, 2000 years ago in your much defiled Holy Land.

 

 20/06/2024

The Old Testament is the record of Man's reactions to the revelations of himself made by God. The story of Elijah and Elisha is a spectacular vision of the Glory and Otherworldly power of God. It is nowhere near to an eye-witness account of what had happened in the days of Elijah as it was composed about 500 years after the "events" it describes.

The psalm acknowledges the power of God to whom Elijah returned in such a spectacular fashion and calls us all to worship the Wonder of IAMIAM.

The New Testament records Jesus' "formation" of his band of followers who are witnessing the events leading up to the completion and results of God's revelation. The Resurrection.

To be able to comply with IAMIAM's (Father, Son and Holy Spirit's)  love that is revealed in  creation, mankind has to know its place. During the Old Testament there were repeated backslidings from the Covenants by which God chose to show himself not as an all powerful "code writer" but as an ultimate "being" loving and trusting the apex of his creation to be able to use "human freedom" to be in our bodily life souls that know that they are known.

We have been formed to live lives of prayer in communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We reply in freedom to our Creator. 

All prayer has to acknowledge our place in God's family of humanity, to comply with his will  so as to be as is the spiritual heaven here on earth, to ask for his support for our material bodies, our love of others is to become God's measure for his love of us, we ask to be shielded from the  power of the false ways of the material world and to be saved from the ultimate "evil" which is loss of faith in God.

Dear Lord, Forgive me for "blabbering". I have to use words to enable me to see what it is that I believe. I have to make this record as I am one being praying alone. I hope that my prayers can become part of the Church that is your mystical body on earth supported by the prayers of Mary and all the saints. Let me live out this day free from serious sin and let my sins and the sins of all the world be blotted out by the mercy flooding out from your side on Calvary.

 19/06/2024

The world is filled with billions of us. Many of us are trying to pray. Some are sure of their own place in the sight of God. Many of those live out lives that they devote only to God and are guided by the virtues of poverty, chastity and obedience. 

We have the revelation of the  New Testament because God was displeased at the failure of his chosen people to live up to their side of the Covenant. I do not  judge but I cannot help but be aware that Jesus  did not preach in the streets of Rome or in the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. He did not cure the sick of China or in the tents of the Bedouin.

All the great historical events that chronicle the actions of Father, Son and Holy Spirit acting in human time are related to one place and  people on earth. Israel and the Jews are the prism from which God's Light is refracted into the World. The Incarnate Son of God is also a Jew in his humanity. 

We are told to interpret  the Signs of the Times, the events within which we can see God's providence at work in creation. The Lord our God the Creator knows the sinful history of his foundation on St Peter. God knows that his chosen ones have for centuries been badly treated by his Church and are now repaying  those massacres in kind by the slaughter in Gaza.

All that the success of mankind in understanding and controlling physical matter has done is to again repeat the failure of  Israel in its only reason for being. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your might and all your strength and your neighbour as your self".

God sent his only begotten Son that we might have life and live it to the full. For me the signs of the times is the majority of human beings who have given themselves over to Mammon without a thought for the consequences and the triumphalism of God's own people in their slaughter of their fellow humans.

Dear Lord, Only you know when "The second coming" will be the forerunner of your New Creation. Living in the world is becoming more difficult as the material world drowns out our inner-voice that guides us into doing your will. Our Church is not of this world although the Institution has refuted this over the last 1800 years. The mercy of your being poured out  in real human blood on Calvary is still the free gift of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, regardless of the state of the world or Institutional Church, to be accessed by us all so that we do your will on earth as it is done in heaven by Mary, our mother and all the saints and angels. Amen.