27/08/2024

Even in the lifetimes of the Apostles people were wondering what was delaying the return of Jesus. The Apostles had taught them that Jesus had on the third day shown himself as new life in the same damaged body that had been taken down from the cross.

The key events of the preaching that brings salvation are still death, resurrection, ascension and descent of the Holy Spirit. The New Testament is recorded history. People such as we are with the same human hopes and fears were visited by the Apostles and other missionaries who taught them about their personal encounters with the Son of God.

It is very unlikely that were some stranger to arrive at our meeting place and tell us the strange story of events that had taken place in a two months' period of time, a few years ago, in Jerusalem that we would react with anything else but the laughter of disbelief. But the Holy Spirit was with the Apostles and the Good News was accepted with confidence.

As the Church grew the constant expectation of the final appearance of "God on Earth" was disappointed. I too am one with the Thessalonians and all other believers who become disheartened when we realise that the final events of the Incarnation on earth took place within a couple of months. We have been waiting in this world for 2000 years to witness its conclusion.

I truly only know my own sins but rest in the promise of mercy. God knows that Jesus' condemnation of Scribes and Pharisees ( The worldly institutions of belief in God) can at all times have been applied to his own foundation on St Peter.

The unbodied Holy Spirit, however, is always present in the last words of Jesus to his mother, and John. We all can be part of the Church of Love, the Holy Spirit, who supported the maternal love of St Monica for her reprobate son, is still with us to guide us how to clean our beings on the inside for each of us is responsible for the one soul that we know as our own.

Dear Lord, help me to be truly sorry for my sins and to pray with sincerity the words I read in the scriptures and write at this desk. I cannot ever know You for what You are but I can strain to the depths of my being how to be in your presence to the utmost of my capabilities. To love and serve, I have to obey by avoiding sin but for this I always have the support of Mary and all the Saints. As did Augustine, I have brought unhappiness to my own mother and pray that she and all my sinful relatives alive or dead can share the grace that brings forgiveness in the Glory of God to all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory.

 26/08/2024

Paul, Silvanus and Timothy were living in the same world has had Jesus. Very much has happened since those days when Rome ruled the Mediterranean basin and all of the adjacent countries. 

The Church in Thessalonica fills  Paul, who never lost sight of "the Holy One of God" who had stopped him in his tracks when he had been hell-bent on his mission of persecution of the "deviants", who were misinterpreting "Moses and the Prophet" and denying the authority of the "Chief Priests, scribes and Pharisees",  full of thanks to God for it continues to flourish as if he had never left it.

Those who claimed the authority to know the will of God and be able to offer the sacrifices that were the duty demanded of his people were the only ones condemned to their faces by Jesus. They are a "brood of vipers"; "blind guides who shut up the gates to heaven". Not only do they not enter through those gates themselves but they also prevent others from entering.

Jesus demands that we are ruled by "Truth". "Yes" means "yes"  and that no amount of solemn protestation can change "no" to "yes". He has absolutely no time at all for the casuistry that so delighted the Pharisees of his day and which has enabled many who should know better to lead us into temptation "who am I to judge?" in this modern world.

We have never been left alone in the world by God. Each individual human being is known personally by "Our Father". Everyone of us is a person known as a potential friend by the Son of FatherSonHolySpirit. We are always living in the sight of God. Jesus offered only love and mercy to all the personal sinners he encountered. 

All of us know our own hypocrisy and we can only hope that "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" applies to all sinners, even Pharisees for it is mankind that refuses the friendship offered time and time again to the chosen people and to you and me each moment that we are living. 

It is for my sake that Jesus offered up his life on the cross as the perfect sacrifice. He created once and for all within material creation the only means of its Salvation.

Dear Lord, I have learnt much as I ponder your word and the sins of my lifetime. I am sure that "Lord, Lord" that does not reveal itself in deeds is the "unforgiveable sin". May the remaining steps of my life stay upon your revealed, Way Truth and the Life and to always get the "plank out of my own eye" before witnessing the great hypocrisies of the past and in others living today. I am hoping that although I still have far to go my steps are focused on the Vision of your Glory that is your Resurrection. I have the faith to believe that Mary, John, and all the Saints, Father Dominic Barberi are united in prayer for me and all sinners offered to FatherSonHolySpirit in the Safety from Sin that it is the eternal joy of Heaven Amen.

 25/08/2024

Our first commitment to know, love and serve was made on our behalf by our God-Parents at our Baptisms. 

This morning Joshua has gathered the tribes of the chosen people to decide whether or not to place their trust in the Lord. Each of us knows in our heart whether or not we are truly committed to the faith we profess. It is very easy for me to say "Yes Lord" but do I show by my life any faith except these words with which I begin each day, but what difference does belief in God make to my way of life?

Today's advice to the married men who have become believers has brought, in recent times, further tribulation to the memory of St Paul. Sex is the most difficult of bodily functions for us to control. It is also one of the most beautiful, so beautiful that in the purity of true love it can be considered sacramental. In marriage the man and woman confer this sacrament upon each other. It is so beautiful that it becomes the image that St Paul uses to preach the unity of the Church with Jesus its head.

I have always found the nuptial imagery that is sometimes used to emphasise the unity of Jesus, Mary and the Church very hard to handle. I have always had a vivid imagination and so prefer to know the significance rather than the actual images of e.g. the Song of Songs.

I suppose that St Paul's attitude to women is a sign of his times, but it must also be noted that he presents men with the stark reminder that they are to use Christ as the model of how to use their authority in their families. This is true for all ages and cultures.

Christ has to be the model for all human behaviour. He is sinless. We too can live sinlessly for the Word has become true man. He has experienced  living in the same material universe, on our planet, begotten not made so that he can become the fount of all Sacraments. "Intolerable, Lord, let me not listen to this, what complete nonsense" thought many of his own disciples when he promised his own flesh as the new Bread from heaven.

During my life-time I have often been reminded of St Peter's response to Jesus' question. I thank Father, Son and Holy Spirit that it is this response that has shaped my life and enabled me to live with hope that the mercy of our Ever-greater God can purge me of the sins that have disgraced my life and added to the pains of Calvary.

Dear Lord help me to be more productive today than yesterday. Let me not waste the time that I still have to receive your grace to prepare myself for your eternity. May the prayers of Mary and all the saints be united with those of all sinners on earth and in purgatory. May hardened sinners stop and take stock of where they are in their lives and find the grace that you offer to us all. Help me to be a sincere sign of your Love and thus attract my family into acknowledging that salvation, eternal life, was won for us all on the hill outside the city walls. Forgiveness is waiting for each one of us. We only have to ask. Amen

 24/08/2024

The main characteristic of my life at the moment is that I am alive in my body. It is deteriorating but I am still  a complete human whose mind is as aware as it ever was. I can follow the different items of John's vision but have to force myself to really believe that the vision is as true as the real world experience of Nathaniel.

Bartholomew is known from all eternity as the man in the fig-tree, seen before the historic event of his being welcomed by Jesus. Jesus is not a spiritual entity. He is "begotten not made". He is a real body, mind and soul. It is a real human body that bleeding real blood hangs on the cross and breathes his last breath. 

His human life has been more joyful than any of us in that he lived as completely sinless man in the midst of a sinful world. The pain of his death is beyond all our possible imaginings just as God's eternity as revealed in "visions" is not the reality that in its fullness can be known only by Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

My "I" is aware of all bodily sensation and is conscious that something more than the underused computer, my brain, is within my skull. John and Nathanial have both been called to be Apostles. They have been chosen to bear witness to the Truth that is the Eternal Life of our souls within  the Kingdom of God.

I thank Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the wonder of my being but humbly kneel before him devastated by the sinfulness with which both I and God know I have lived my life on earth. 

Dear Lord help me to live today without sin. Help me believe your Word without any filtration by false scepticism. I must have been saved on hundreds of occasions by the intervention of your messengers, angels who are our unseen allies in the battle of human life. Help me to not babble and to know that the "Our Father" is the spiritual road map for the way, the truth and the life and that the Hail Mary is all the additional support we need for your side is ever open to allow your mercy to engulf  the whole world. Let me sincerely beseech that mercy for all sinners here and also those in Purgatory. Amen

 23/08/2024

                                                    "Hear the Word of the Lord". 

This morning there are millions of people who will awaken to begin their daily lives. Many of us will begin our morning in prayer. Some of us have the assurance that they have been born into the "chosen race" and their prayer is "Listen O Israel". Others have taken complete control of their lives and literally tried to abandon possessions and family to walk in the footsteps of the Incarnate Son of God, they begin each day in communal prayer. 

In my own case, however, I am living as part of the world aware that my being is calling out to God, that it has always done so with sincerity but also aware that I am tangled up in  "the signs of my times."

I was born on the winning side of World War 2 and see the losers, during my childhood the personification of evil, prosper far more greatly than we have done. I was brought up to understand the Catholic Church and its Clergy as God on Earth. Homosexuality was to be abhorred. People of a different racial mixture than Englishmen would be "happier in their own countries". It was only natural that men should be more important than women.

Today I am aware that throughout my life there has always been an awareness of my soul and wish for holiness. I have often disregarded this longing to become sinless and pushed it aside with a "Yes, but not now". As always I am mystified and entangled by the "signs of the times". 

How is it that promulgators of homosexuality have become leaders in Church and State? How is it that the Vicar of Christ spends more time before TV cameras than he does in prayer. How is it that most of the Methodists Chapel of my youth have become converted into other uses than worship? How is it that Jews have returned to the Holy Land to profane the soil, God's sign of the covenant, with yet more innocent blood?

I wake each morning, slowly overcome the remains of sleep and always forget to thank God that I am still in the world although it will bewilder me much more throughout the day. That comes later as I try to connect  Ezekiel's valley with with Jesuitical Pharisees. "Dem bones, dem bones, dem dried bones" was the refrain of a song popular in my youth "All you need is love" came somewhat later but both were preceded by "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good".

Dear Lord help me to avoid the sins of the world, flesh and devil. Help me to know love and serve . Let me be open to faith, hope and charity. Let me walk on the way truth and life. Let me know Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one Almighty and let my body mind and soul be tuned into the Love that is your awareness of all creation. May these prayers become united with those of all the world, Mary and all the Saints as a plea for forgiveness for sinners both on Earth, with me entwined in the "sign of the times" and those bearing patiently their punishment in the "the sign of eternity," Purgatory.

 22/08/2024

The formal Liturgy of the Church, its celebration of salvation, is the bones around which I try to find the living body of Christ. It is only Jesus who can become the living heart of flesh that replaces my sinful heart of stone. The peace that can be found in our beings comes only from God but we have to prepare for it. 

We have freedom of choice. That is why the human world although created by FatherSonHolySpirit is not the  "holy place" that God intends it to be. Every human soul that has ever lived, is living or will be born into living, has as its birthright the choice to know, love and serve or to decline the invitation.

Jesus, true man, lived just as we do in an era whose "background noise" civilization, human history, philosophy, was blocking out the awareness of their reason for living from the "chosen people". To reawaken the faith of his listeners he often spoke in parables, a style of communication recognised by the culture of his time and place, which we too can understand.

The Fathers of the Church after the Apostles studied the words of the Old Testament and searched for the symbolic meaning of the stories told by Jesus. Sometimes they find a difficulty. Today's is that only one person is cast out of the "Church" that is their interpretation of the "Wedding Feast" of the parable. 

The lack of wedding garment has been interpreted variously as "lack of Holy Spirit", "disobedience of the "Commandments", even failure "to put on Jesus Christ". We  all learn from the wisdom of the past but live in the present and Jesus today speaks to each one of us, telling that we are each responsible for the state of our own souls and that we cannot "hope away" the alternative reality to eternal happiness.

Dear Lord You know that your Apostles, Evangelists, Church Fathers, Schoolmen and Theologians have left us with billions of words that sometime confuse but can always help each one of us who applies himself to them. Study can become a substitute for prayer and a source of pride. Mary, Queen of Heaven lived only in the gratitude that she had been chosen and seems not to have added anything personal to the remembrances of you in our Gospels. Her life, without sin, is what you offer to us all and it is through her perfection that the Incarnate You chose to become the Sacramental Grace you continue to pour out onto a largely ungrateful world. May her prayers and those of all the Saints continue to bring forgiveness to us their sinful brethren here on Earth and those who are gratefully undergoing punishment in Purgatory.

 21/08/2024

I have in this last half of my life tried, to put my soul directly into the care of God. 

He knows that I am not claiming for myself a special relationship, a direct line to Father, Son and Holy Spirit but that I have become more and more aware that the Church, Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant has been playing a less and less noticeable role in the era in which I live and that we believers have to seek how to to do the will of the Father by reversing this trend.

As this realisation grew in my mind, I searched throughout the history of the Church for a "golden-age" which could be an exemplar of what the Church of today must become to be the living "body of Christ" here on Earth in the twenty-first century.

The Orthodox and Roman Churches are the very first human organisations and are even today used as models by Management Gurus of how to grow successful human institutions. The first believers were those who filled the empty spaces of their beings with the words of Love promulgated first of all by those who had known Christ personally during his time on Earth, those who had hidden during the horror of Calvary.

The Apostles had always understood that they were following a prophet and after the Resurrection they came to know Jesus as Son of FatherSonHolySpirit but, they had also always been aware that his "Kingdom" would require servants, court officials, stewards in this world. We know that, human as they are, they became annoyed with each other by seeking, on the quiet, privileged positions for themselves in this predominately worldly anticipated "kingdom".

IAMIAM has sought over centuries to din into us, his people, that his creation is wonderful but that he is infinitely evergreater. He is one being mystically three persons. We his image and likeness have to bow before him to receive the "Love" that we can share among each other. Jesus is the servant who demonstrates the greatest Love possible on earth.

Ezekiel is commissioned to chastise the priests of his generation. I know that there have been millions of holy clergy within the Church over the centuries but that their holiness has been rather in spite of the institution than as the result of it for the Truth of Christ is also in the Church in spite of the worldliness of the institution. With his last words from the cross Jesus put John and Mary into a filial relationship that is the Church of Love, a New Holy Family that will be with us to the end of time. It is to be found in the Institution but is not confined to it.

Dear Lord, Help me know your truth and never evade it. Let me not be "clever" but let me be open to your grace so that I can understand all the discrepancies that your Church has presented throughout her life as the "signs of the times". I hope that Mary and all the Saints  seek for me the grace  that I know that I have to rely on to achieve for me a place on earth in the New Holy Family which will help me receive the rewards of your merciful Love. May St Pius X pray for me and all the souls of sinners here on Earth and in Purgatory