07/07/2024

Today's Gospel reading has become part of the "extraordinary" revelations made to and through St Paul mentioned in today's letter to the Corinthians. In the first reading Ezekiel is in no doubt about the mission he has to complete during his life in this world. 

IAMIAM has not given up on his people and is sending Ezekiel to call them back to Jerusalem to build a new Temple and make sincere worship of God the centre of their being and their life  here on earth.

Who can know the mind of God? I am under no illusion that my attempts to bring my course through life into line with the revelations made first through men, the prophets, and then through Jesus, are the whole story of life on earth. There is much that I cannot understand especially the reasons for God making so many overtures and new beginnings for Israel.

It seems that our freedom to choose Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the most important part of the human being created by God. My personal being is in God's Image and likeness but infinitely smaller so it is not surprising that I cannot understand how the spiritual message revealed through the prophets was not accepted by the people who had received such care from God.

Jesus' three years of public life spells out for us our Creator God's purpose "in the beginning", the Creative Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

The Annunciation reveals to us the Trinity through Mary's personal freedom which accepts her role in God's plan. Today's Gospel emphasises our "freedom". Is it possible that we can act in a way that surprises God? Jesus is "amazed" by the reactions to his preaching. He announces himself as the herald of the "jubilee" and that appals his towns folk and most of all dumbfounds those among whom he has grown from infancy to manhood.

Dear Lord, each day my prayer is the cry from the heart of a sinner. I am happy to live this life but continually afraid that daily temptations will lead me to sin again. My reflections on the mass readings are the rock, the Church that keeps in my mind, the communion of souls, the New Holy Family that does not reject you in body mind or soul. Mary and John stood in for us all at the foot of your cross in real-time 2000 years ago and as the family that does not reject you today but freely prays for the Mercy with which you flood our world only for many of us to dam it out from our souls by choosing to favour our corruptible bodies and Mammon over the Word of God. Jesus lived, suffered died and was resurrected  to open our world to the the forgiveness to be welcome as it outpours from the centre of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 06/07/2024

I am sure that God knows every individual who is living, has lived or will ever live in his creation. He first revealed himself to the Jews a tiny nation at the heart of the battleground between the great powers that ruled the cities of the area we know as the Middle-East. It is to this people that  God has made his first and his final revelations of himself and of what he expects our image and likeness of himself to become.

The greatest gift that we all have from God is freedom. We must use this freedom in the bodily lifetime that within which it is ours to know, love and serve. We are not machines that come into the world programmed by our DNA. Our bodies do follow the laws of created nature and in this they are "good". 

To retain our place in and maintain the "good" that is creation we have to choose to follow the revelations made by IAMIAM through his prophets in the Old and completed by the Incarnate Word, Jesus in the New Testament and supported throughout history by the Holy Spirit. Three persons, one God.

Today's Gospel is the meeting of the Old and New Testaments. The servants of IAMIAM  present us with the question about the identity of this then "unknown quantity" from Nazareth. We know the answer but we live in a material world powerful enough even to corrupt and destroy God's creation, nature. A material world which smothers the Kingdom of God and brings human failure into our Churchly Institutions.

Jesus did not attempt to prop-up the failing Temple and its "Law". He sacrificed himself to bring mercy into the world. He allowed the partnership between state and religion to kill him. The Resurrection  becomes the true being of the Sacramental Life of the Church and its Liturgy.

But, how many others since then have been slaughtered by that same unholy alliance? 

Dear Lord, you know that today I have much on my mind.  Let my prayers be heard as I try to get on with the domestic tasks that I should share but often neglect. May Mary and all the Saints help me by their prayers as I begin the clear-out that is so long overdue. As I pray I hear myself and realise that it is not only my room that needs clearing out but also the room that Jesus' tells us to enter as we say "Our Father" Help me Lord.

 05/07/2024

Even though I am sure that the Institutional Church founded on St Peter has never been completely true to the intention of Jesus, to the purpose of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I am also sure that there is within it great flashes of human wisdom inspired by the revelations of the Old and New Testaments.

Today the reading from Amos presents the hopelessness of living outside of God's Law, of not following the Golden Rule. The Gospel presents the emptiness of  the words of the "Law" corrupted by Man and the Merciful Forgiveness that is the Word of God. Pharisees vs Jesus.

We can all be sure that the "Chosen People" failed in their God-Given task of showing to the world the delight of knowing that they were in God's favour and were the magnet to draw all of us into knowledge of the Love that gives "being" to all of creation. 

We are sure of this because the Incarnation to remedy the failure of his people lived among us for 33 years suffered, died and rose again. The Resurrection is the final seal of final revelation. The Word of God is authenticated and remains with us to the end of time to be delighted in by all who have listened to the Good News.

The economic crimes of materialism listed by Amos have never left us and the man-made wonders of this world still hold most of us in the grip of Mammon. Today's psalm emphasises that our true life is not to be found in this material world but in our souls protected by every word that comes from the mouth of God. 

Have the Christian Institutions and their hierarchs ever lived up to this essential message, the "core policy statement" that Jesus emphasised at his public trial before the Roman World of his day, and the still Mammon ruled world of today,  "My Kingdom is not of this world"?

Dear Lord,  you are our all knowing and all powerful God. Let me kneel before you in my weakness and failures knowing that although you are unseen by me, you see me and all my brothers and sisters living now with eyes of mercy ready to forgive us our sins as much as we can forgive any who sin against us. Help me to maintain the sincerity of these moments I spend thinking about your word and help me to live today without adding to my sins. May my soul be accepted into the Love that is the prayer of Mary and all the Saints of Heaven and may this communion prayer bring your Mercy to this World and to the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 04/07/2024

We are all born into the worldly time that we know. The world as created by God and modified by man. In the Old Testament the Chosen People live out their time on earth within the ancient civilizations of the Middle East. The wonders of Egypt which still stand today were the "built environment" within which the sons of Jacob sought refuge from the drought which was threatening their lives.

The Pyramids still bear witness to the genius of mankind. Darwin's theory of evolution does not explain how the human brain became the intelligence that has not developed any further than that which was able to create the mathematics that are the rules of pure abstract thought.

The "prophets" of the Old Testament were inspired not to predict the unknown, the future, but to assure God's People that they were not alone in the world of matter, alone in the vastness of the night-sky pierced by innumerable pinpoints of light, the stars. This assurance is still with us and will be until the end of time.

Amos is not part of the institutional Brotherhood of Prophets, he is not a priest of Bethel, the then focus of God's presence on earth. He knows that he is a servant of God inspired to warn that sin is never acceptable to God and warns the King that sinful behaviour will bring calamity to himself and to the people.

Our God knows all individuals who are living or have ever lived. He knows with love each new soul that is the true life of every human; the image and likeness of God. He knows the wonders that human brains have created to master the secrets of his created material universe. He has always intended for us to be free. We are no artificial intelligence that has been coded into existence.

Amos warned the priest and the king what would happen if they and their people continued to forget God. The Old Testament has been completed and the good news is that Father, Son and Holy Spirit has completed and  sealed the revelation of the Glory of God. 

The Incarnation, Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus the only begotten Son and final prophet has shown us all that it is not only possible for each one of us to reciprocate the Love that has become creation but that it is only by being willing to have our sins forgiven that the wonder that is our souls will be able to share in the never-ending freedom of the Sons of God.

Dear Lord, help me to live out this day in accordance with your will by refusing temptations and sin. Let thy will be done in my heart and please accept this my morning prayer as it is only you who can understand the confusion that has been my life. You know that I am still afraid in the bottom layer of my being that I am still not cleared of my sins even though I stand before you in the all-revealing light that is the Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Be not afraid for I am with you always says the Lord. This is my comfort together with my faith that Mary and all the saints pray for us unceasingly that we on earth and in Purgatory are always in the glorious light of Mercy earned for us in the horror of the Cross on Calvary.

 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.