27/07/2024

We have not been wound up like autmaton and left to run on in the time that is the result of God's Creation of the Universe. We have a much more important role than constructing temples and utilizing our intelligences. First of all we have to recognise that we do have a role in this world.

Jeremiah proclaims the truth from the mouth of God that we need to live as image and likeness by never preferring our own good to that of our fellow humans. We are not gods but we have the ability to know that within the Love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit there is nothing else but Good. Our role is to complete the will of God in our bodily lives as if we are already in heaven and thus proclaim that the we are using our mortal lives to prepare for the Eternal Joy that we call heaven.

We have been created able to hear the "Word of the Lord" and have learnt that we first of all need to never stray from his guidance. The deeds of my fellow creatures are indeed beautiful and wondrous but the structures are all destined to crumble, the power is always used against itself and the men/women who built our cities thus revealing the wonder of mankind will themselves become dust.

The great evils that are being done today and have been done in the past are all done by the cumulative disowning of the Spiritual Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus, by millions of souls.The enemy still polluting the wheat  that is this world is inside each one of us who continue to refuse the Word that was with God in the Beginning. "Let there be Light".

Millions of us are living and have lived since the Beginning and before the End. We the living are the ones who can chose between God and Mammon, eternal spirit and bodily corruption. We are the ones who are still failing God and building vast New Temples and proclaiming man's defiance at the one who has only loved us even to becoming "True Man" so as to be able to create a perfection of mercy and justice in this world that none of us deserve. 

How can we forget what happened 2000 years ago in Palestine!

Dear Lord, 

We are always in need of an awakening from the slumber that bodily delights bring into our beings. Our souls welcome the sloth that sin encourages at all times of the day and night. Help me to hear your word more clearly and let the egoism that drives my useless pride refrain from containing a denunciation of the sin that the bodily delights of sex create for all humans. They are the  most common sins we commit and which drive the pride that has always challenged you are those of the body, that seek only pleasure without the commitment to the reproduction that is doing your will.

Help us to defeat the evil that is growing as I write these words. Help the Church which I know quickly lost its way and the sects who sincerely tried to right the issues in her, become a voice listened to in this world so that more may come to you "Our Father" and seek the Eternity that can be praised on earth even before the judgement that will know us as wheat or darnel.  

I make this prayer to and through Father, Son and Holy Spirit knowing that it can join those of Mary and all the saints pleading for forgiveness of those on earth and in Purgatory. Amen

 26/07/2024

I have lived most of my life in awareness of my own sin. I know that I have sinned by the misuse of my freedom. For many years I believed in the teachings of the Catholic Church and accepted her interpretation of God's will for mankind. I still do. 

Jesus told us to listen to the Pharisees but not to do as they do.

I was thus able to justify to myself the obvious sins committed by our shepherds over the centuries. The words "I will be with you always even to the end of time" were enough to silence the doubts I had. The most important link in the chain, however, was the Sacrament of Penance. I could never live in peace with the guilt I felt for my sins and the fear of dying in a state of mortal sin.

I thus had to believe that sacramental holiness could be found only in the Catholic Church and that "Thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my Church" was the foundation stone for the only objective holiness to be met in this world.  

I wanted for myself the peace of mind that comes from being faithful to God and obeying his will each day of my life. Over the centuries the Church founded on Saint Peter has been challenged internally and externally by this mission/duty.

It is not for the first time in the history of humanity that we have turned ourselves away from God. Jesus who is His declaration of Mercy for the whole world is also God's restatement and expansion of his revelation to Moses for those could not keep their side of the Covenants. The Godless descendants of those backsliders are, as I write this, again denying God as they slaughter without remorse their enemies, men, women and children in Gaza.

Our Christianity too, has never lived up to the teaching of its Rabbi. Jesus' explanation of the meaning of the "Parable of the Sower" could be interpreted as if our fate is predetermined in the soul which has been given to us by God. The truth is, however, that Jesus  throughout the Gospels teaches us by word and example that we have been created by the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and that we can follow his example and choose to become a one who is the rich soil within which God's Word can flourish.

Mercy and Holiness are a gift to those souls who seek it. They are not confined to any institution for all institutions are man-made and belong to this world. Peter too was aware that the John to whom Jesus had entrusted his mother was somehow "not of this world"; hence the "What of this man ?"

The Church, however, in both East and West soon lost the Spirituality of its Founder and for some centuries became indistinguishable from the institutions ruled by the  descendants of the Caesar, before whose representative Our Lord had declared "My Kingdom is not of this world".

The Institution founded by Jesus is now aware that its shortcomings cannot be concealed any longer and it really has no idea how to rectify the glaring failure it has become as was the Temple and its clerics 2000 years ago.

Dear Lord, Help me to grow in Faith, be secure in Hope and fulfilled by Love which I can share with all others. I do not wish to judge others but am never free from the awareness of  my own guilt. These years at the beginning of our century display humanity which is so part of this world that we are trying "to conquer" the Universe even though we cannot live by your commandments as individual souls. Let me be guided by Holy Spirit throughout this day and not be overcome by the tasks of this world which take over my being and have me forget the constant prayer which should fill my soul. May Mary, her parents and Joseph and John unite the prayers of all the saints in pleas for your forgiveness of all sinners, both here and in Purgatory, Amen.

 25/07/2024

My computer is quite old. Each day it seems slower than the day before. 

Why have I begun a reflection on the Scriptural mass-readings for today by talking about my computer? I have read, on my computer, the passages but although for the few seconds I was reading my mind was in 1st Century Palestine, it was soon brought back to the present day by "news stories" flashing across the screen as I waited for this "app" to open.

St Paul, unlike me, is a man who having been called to his mission never lost touch with the Lord. The Grace with which he was filled was never lessened. No matter how much he spread the Good News it was never diminished for him, Paul the Pharisee. It was the same Good News by which he was blinded on the road to Damascus. All of the problems of this life were overcome for Paul by his focus on the Resurrection.

Today's Gospel reading is a bit of "gossip" about the "machinations" of "The Mother of Zebedee's Sons". The mother was determined that her sons should not lose out when Jesus' kingdom became a reality. The "sons" both fully-grown men accept this intervention by their mother and accompanied her.(I bet they both felt mortified whenever this event came to mind in later life.)

But there is never anything that is trivial about Jesus and this embarrassing seeking after worldly success for her sons by a mother, is an opportunity for Jesus to emphasise that he is not the Jewish long-awaited Messiah, King of this World. He is the "Suffering Servant"; he does not wish to be seen as anything in life other than the Incarnate Son, who serves; his total being is  Father, Son and Holy Spirit, incarnate for our sakes. 

When he is raised up on Calvary; a naked near corpse nailed to a cross; we all know that this is  "the cup" that Jesus had to drink and the blood-stained reality of  "The Son of man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many."

Dear Lord, accept my humble worship. The thoughts that become prayer. Help me be as you would have me be. Let my words come from the Holy Spirit in communion with Mary, John, James,  the other James and with all the Saints and be a plea for forgiveness and enlightenment for all sinners still breathing in this world or suffering the pains of Purgatory until your final return. Maranatha Lord. Come Lord Jesus Come.

 24/07/24

I have to renew my faith each day. As I wake up and stagger to my feet I have always uttered at least one "Lord have mercy" and also questioned what that means before I am ready to start walking. 

The time of leaping out of bed to face the hope of a new day has long gone as has the self inflicted horror, thanks be to God, of trying to recall what stupidities or harm I had done "under the influence" the night before.

Isaiah had had his lips touched by a "burning coal", today Jeremiah is touched by God himself. It  should be that God himself will also touch the lips of those who attend this morning's liturgy. He will provide the words for those who are tangled in their thoughts but need to proclaim the good news and the food and drink to sustain them during the day. 

God's covenant with Israel was to promote righteous living. The incarnation is to  save us from that failure by man. 

I have always been captivated by the idea of being known by God. I have not always lived up to that image hence the recalling and renewing that happens each morning that I wake up. I have not received the Sacrament in a very long time.

God's sacrifice of himself on the cross was to defeat sin by bringing Sacramental Grace into our world.

God knows that I am not blind to my own sin. He knows the shock and horror that the coming to realise that the Church, founded on St Peter, has never been free from the sinful corruptions of this world, was to me. I cannot sustain belief in her claims to there being "Holiness" in her Institutional Structure which is definitely of this world,  but with which she claims to confect the Sacraments without any necessity for  personal holiness on the part of her priests and ministers.

God has not left me ( or anyone else ) alone in this world to struggle to righteousness on my own as a lost sheep. The pain of the cross is God's enabling of individuals to come to him each moment of our lives. 

We can all become part of his new spiritual Holy Family instituted from the cross by standing with John and Mary and accepting his final mission "Woman behold your son; son behold your Mother". 

We too can join that New Holy family and be sure that Jesus will never be absent from our midst for this Church/Family is truly "Not of this world"and he will be with us the Head of the Family until the end of time.

Dear Lord, you know that I have been driven from the Church you founded on St Peter by its unwholesome corruptions and lack of faithfulness to your categorical requirements. You have no need of sacrifices, temples or churches. The blood of animals is just that and valueless to you The wonders human's have made out of the material of your Universe are just that, corruptible materials What you do want from us is pure hearts that reach out to return the Love you poured out on Calvary. May Mary, John and all the Saints support the hidden community of the New Holy Family that is known only by Father, Son and Holy Spirit and all the souls whose worship is always "not of this world". Forgive us our trespasses and help us all to continue to avoid sin. Amen!

 23/072024

Today's short reading from St Paul is very,very short but has to become a life-time of reflection. The Galatian Church to whom he writes must be of mainly Jewish origin for how could pagans have understood what he meant by "Law".

I am at fault for treating this letter as an isolated communication. There is a context. He had previously taught this community and had left behind a framework of inspired teaching on which his converts could ponder. St Paul's letters are all "preaching to the converted" and in the process developing Theological doctrine by which Christians could judge themselves.

I am wondering how these descendants of, Hellenized by two or three centuries of living among Greeks, Gauls could have understood " Through the Law I am dead to the Law so that now I can live with God."

The Paul whom they had met as a physically unprepossessing though charismatic Jew was definitely a living man. Why does he now claim to have been crucified and yet be still alive? They knew that his preaching was not about this world. He had lived with them and only spoken about God and the events that had happened twenty or so years before in Jerusalem. It was somebody else not he who had been crucified and become the "Resurrection".

We too today two thousand years later have to ask the same questions, doubt the same doubts and come to the same conclusions as did those men and women long ago in Anatolia. Paul is inspired by God to present the only Truth that can bring us to perfect peace of mind in this world and to the welcoming arms of the Angels and Saints in the Presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit at the end of our bodily lives. 

Our Faith and theirs is in "The Son of God who loved me and sacrificed himself for my sake." In his short public life-time Jesus reinforced everything that the Law had revealed and the Resurrection has confirmed.

Dear Lord, our lives on earth have to be lived out strengthened by Faith in your word, Hope for Eternity and Love for you and our fellow men. Help me to be true to these thoughts for today which have not got beyond the "first reading". Perhaps they can get no further for if I can live with you as my being is there anything else that I might need? I am nowhere near  perfection with much accumulated dross that prevents my soul from being near to the holiness with which you lived those first years on earth in your Holy Family. I am a hermit amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life. If it be your will let me be alone no longer but knowing that I am sincere in these efforts is, in reality, enough for me. Come Lord. Jesus come.

 22/07/2024

We hear of many people in the Gospels but we know very little about most of them. Mary of Magdala has had many legends repeated as fact about her. The one fact that we can be sure about is that it was she to whom the Resurrected Christ first appeared on the "third day" in the same form as the Crucified Christ but in a new form of being, nobody to whom he appeared recognised him immediately, "the first fruits of the New Creation, the Resurrection".

Father, Son and Holy Spirit has completed the revelation of the meaning of "life". "The meaning" that each one of us has to accept for himself. This vast and beautiful self-expression of matter, the Universe is the ongoing result of the Father,Son,Holy Spirit's joy in the Love that is Being God.

 Mankind is the ultimate end of created matter for our being is the only one with the freedom to accept or deny God and the intellect to understand the structure of our material universe. God lacks nothing so we could have been his "Artificial Intelligences" pre-programmed to live as do all his animals with certain instincts and limited awareness. The Infinitely  Free-Being knows the supreme value of "freedom" and that is why human freedom is part of our being. 

The vastness of God's Being is the Creative Love that has created us as "Image and Likeness". The limitless Universe is not the limitless Love that knows the hairs on our head and the deepest thoughts of our minds.The only blight in creation is Sin which Adam/Eve chose to accept thus marring its Perfection.

God has never abandoned the people of the Covenant or of his Church. The Old Testament is the record of the breaking of the Covenant. The New Testament reveals the standards by which each individual should live in the new creation that is today. The blight of mammon fueled hedonism is still the sin of the world. 

Our Lord is still with us, even in the institution that claims to be the Church founded on Peter. That structure has never withdrawn and condemned the worldliness that has never been absent from its Roman beginnings but has become more and more the antithesis to the public declaration made at his trial before Pilate, by our Incarnate God. "My kingdom is not of this world."

Dear Lord, help me to become able to live without sin. Help me to overcome all the temptations that surround us in this material world. Let me live with my focus firmly on the last things. May Mary and all the saints of heaven pray for me and mine that we can live in accordance with your will in this world and that somebody else can benefit from these my words which I hope do no harm to anyone. Open up the hearts of all sinners here and in purgatory to understand the abhorrence that sin is to you and thus realise how much Jesus suffered undergoing atonement that we all might join thee in the New Creation that is life after death. Amen!

 21/07/2024

Those who have felt that God has called them to be shepherds of his people have been called to display in all their doings the integrity of the Trinity. There is only one Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Holy Orders of Sacramental Life are still with us and are a huge responsibility for mere men to carry. The Church that I have met, or been met with, as I grew in life has never ceased to change as many generations of us have been born and the role of "The Good Shepherd" has been continued in an ever-changing world.

In the second reading, St. Paul, is writing to the Church in Ephesus. He is still totally aware of "them and us". "Us" are Jews and "you" are Gentiles. He himself has become God's "New Man". We are all to be united as the same "New Man". This is the meaning of the Cross. One God and one people. Vertically God to man and man to God, horizontally man to man .

In the Gospel, the missionaries have returned to Jesus. There is much "to-ing and fro-ing", lots of "busyness", lots of human nature. John the Baptist has been beheaded and Jesus knows that there is need of time for reflection as too much is happening all at once. 

So they get into the boat only to be preempted  by the crowd and thus is completed the preparation for one of the "feeding miracles" that precede the "Last Supper",  the source of the first ordination of New  Shepherds, all Jews, for the New Humanity, in the Kingdom which is not of this world.

Dear Lord, You know that I am struggling this morning to find the words that will make me feel to be truly satisfied that I am truly aligned with your will for me. I do listen to my own words and question whether they are truthful. I have to place all my trust in you and the saints who have faithfully served in this world. Let me be helped by joining my prayers with those of Mary and all the saints and let me live in the hope that my words do have a meaning that you will reveal to me. I do really want to know love and serve in this world for that is when I am happy in this world, the only world I know. Help me to the grace of holiness that you poured out on all this world at Calvary. You know that I am weak and sinful and helpless without your aid. Let the prayers of all of us bring  grace to the clergy that they may remain true to the calling by which they were first inspired.