21/05/2022

Reading the readings for mass each morning opens my soul to the Word of God and is also "interesting"for its own sake. The difficulties for early Christians are mentioned here in "passing" as it were. Timothy an adult? has undergone circmuscision probably at the hands of St Paul. St Paul grows in Faith and later agrees that the Law of Moses, which he knew so well and loved, is no longer necessary for believers. After Lystra did St Paul preach on his journey to Troy? All the places mentioned were in the Roman Province of Asia but he turned back at Bythnia which was a separate province on its own.

Jesus brings salvation to the World; our sins are forgiven by the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The suffering on the three days before resurrecton are the horror undergone by God to eliminate the sin brought into the Good Creation by Adam. The Creation and Jesus' 33 years are in our time but God is not affected by this for him everything is the Eternal Now. Jesus tells us that the "world" hates him and us who are his believers. We have to accept and strive to understand his teaching. We are opposed to war, fornication, thievery, blasphemy and sin of any kind. We must accept that the "world" rejects the Word and for this reason we must not be deterred by the hatred shown to us for striving to belong to God.

 06/10/2024

There have been and still are many of us who become satisfied with our own version of scriptural revelation and can always seek and "find" ways there to forgive and justify our personal sins. Sin is always personal for it confronts and denies FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT the supreme being who in his infinitude knows each of his creation as the individual persons that are we all.

Jesus has no need to "explain" his authority for he is SON, the Word, and teaches us "the indisputable way" that we can follow to become the human being that is in the mind of God and to which we can aspire in our lifetimes in creation.

 But, in the Gospel reading for today,  Jesus suggests that God's Law can be adjusted to suit the capabilities of the persons receiving it, that is why Moses allowed for "divorce" in the "Law" that was to rule the People of God. 

God can be thus said to be responding to the "signs of the times". I have no doubt that this will become for some participants in the "Synod" a way to present their own solutions to life's problems as being approved by God, as it always has been for we sinners when we strive to escape the light of God's Truth.

An undoubted "sign of these times, 2024," is the ability to control or assist the natural fecundity which we share with all mammals. The "Joy" of sex is not the purpose for which we are all "Male or Female".

There are many for whom the "Sin of Adam" has not only damaged souls but also their material bodies. After the water into wine "the signs of Emmanuel" are  "the blind receive sight, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised to life and the poor have the Gospel preached to them".

Jesus, the best news ever, tells us that to do the will of "Our Father" we first of all have to put aside all prideful entrapments in self and acknowledge that way, way beyond us and yet as close to us as our own souls are to our bodies is "Father". Then we have to ask for his care in our present material world to enable us to recognise and seek forgiveness for sin which will itself enable us to put others before ourselves.

May the Church dignitaries engaged today, in discussion about themselves and their institution never forget that the "Chosen People" are still today disputing with God in their deadly acts perpetrated on their neighbours and that the Son of God, in his humanity himself a Jew, saves first of all, those broken in body and in mind and that it is only as "simpletons in the eyes of the wise" that we can find the humility that paves  each person's road back to IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT who is still bleeding Mercy onto an unthankful world.

Dear Lord, May your Mercy shower down as do the rose petals imagined by St Therese. May the words taught us by Jesus become engraved into our being. May the family unity of Mary and John continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that even the RC institution can be inspired by the children of the "New Holy Family" within her and avoid the way of Mammon that she has so often pursued in her place in the worldly entanglements which have meant more to Popes, Patriarchs, Prelates and Priests than your public declaration before Pilate, "My Kingdom is not of this world" and private counsel to the rich young man  "Sell all that you own and give to the poor". May our sins be forgiven as you look with mercy on the souls in Purgatory and may Holy Spirit sort out your enemies even as their "wisdom" is being displayed in Rome as I write this. I believe that the total mess that is sinful mankind can only fulfill your will when each one of us listens for the quiet voice that is the Holy Spirit touching us with your Grace. Help us to recognise that Palestine where you walked and taught is for each human being the "forever sign of the times", the sign of the cross. Amen, come Lord Jesus, come.

 05/10/2024

Yesterday I did try to read the Book of Job. I knew what I was trying to do as I struggled to maintain interest. 

Today Jesus thanks God that his revelation does not require the wisdom of the "learned and the clever", "the Scribes and the Pharisees" to be accepted. St Paul did not manage to inspire the elite Athenian scholars of his day but he did convert the humble textile workers and dye makers. St Francis did not talk or write about the "Word of God", he searched for it, obeyed and followed it to the end of life.

Jesus, Paul and Francis. Three servants of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Jesus is man by choice. A choice that it is impossible for us to comprehend. The creator puts himself at the mercy of his creation. He accepts life on Earth and faces the sinful inhumanity of man.

Saul is one of "the learned and the clever". His learning tells him that the rabble in the Portico of Solomon are "blasphemers" The blinded persecutor is chosen to open the eyes of the world to the Light of Christ

Francis is born into a world of privilege. Standing naked he declared his intention to abandon his birthright, his patrimony and become a child of God.

Each one of us has also shared the naked poverty of Jesus' birth, the straitjacket of culture that God ripped off St Paul and the effects of wealth that oppressed St Francis and still oppresses us and the Church.

During the lifetimes of our last 5/6 popes great evil, both public and private, has flourished in our world and simultaneously there has been a flourishing of  "the learned and the clever" in Monasteries and Universities.

Where do we find God in this modern world?

There is no "Christian" since the 4th century who has not heard "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church". We have also all heard the similitude about the camel and the eye of a needle and the words of this morning's Gospel "I bless you Father for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children" many, many times.

Our Churches are losing "children" both literally and figuratively and the buildings are as near empty as are the hearts of many pastors.

There can be no Synodal, "journeying together on the way, truth and life" for the Institution which has been enslaved for centuries by the "Patrimony of St Peter" until all the wealth that has been acquired is completely abandoned. 

"Mere children" are "simplistic" as are all the friends of Jesus.

Dear Lord, Help us all to "put on love" to be the armour to guard us from Mammon which has never been vanquished in the centuries since you lived among us. The materialism of "patrimony" is still choking the Holy Spirit at the seat of your foundation on St Peter. The Church of the Spirit to be shared by John and your mother can still exist in the hearts of all who are open to receive the never ending grace which you poured out with your blood on Calvary. You shocked Saul into Apostleship. I ask that you do the same to those convening to talk about "Church" and let there be a new light unmixed with egoism that shines out from the Synod. Wow!! Please shock us all. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus come!!

 04/10/2024

I am always made aware when I read the mass readings each morning that I do not know the scriptures as fully as I need to. I really do not know much at all about the Book of Job except that it is a later composition than the era in which its protagonist "lived". Today's passage proclaims the ever-greatness of God that we see in the material of our Universe. 

Since the days of Job, mankind's knowledge of and ability to manipulate "body" has grown to the extent that the invisible particles of matter and the composition of living bodies is not only known but can be reproduced to the extent that living plants and animals can be cloned as exact living replicas. We believers will certainly very soon have to face the fact of human cloning which I am sure is happening already but under watertight conditions of security.

Today's Saint, Francis was able to do what many of us would have liked to do; he accepted Jesus' command and naked as the day he was born, in complete human freedom he announced his intention to follow wherever the Providence of God led, which in his case, was to the extent of proclaiming Jesus to the Fatimid Calif of all Moslems before his court in Cairo.

There have been very few of us who have lived in the same sanctity as St. Francis. 

For the Early Church Jewish devotion to the "law" was the source of much quarrelling which continued even after the first century and the martyrdoms of James, Peter and Paul. In the world of St Francis the Church founded on St Peter both in Rome and Constantinople was a "kingdom of this world" and those who managed to follow Christ did so in spite of rather than with the support of the Institutional Hierarchy. "Holy Poverty " and Jesus' words in private to the rich young man, and public declaration before Pilate was a source of dissension and anathema to the Bishops who ruled as did all Feudal Lords.

Our Bishops of today are engaged in discussions regard "Synodality".  They are in other words rearranging the deckchairs after hitting the iceberg. They will only be able to lead us on the path that leads to Jesus when they sit down to seriously discuss how they are to divest their Church of all its wealth so that it can stand in naked honesty, as did St Francis" before all its family and friends and truly become complete as was he with the five Holy Wounds, the "Body of Christ on Earth". 

Dear Lord, Let me continue to be open to your grace that forgives sins and supports my search for truth. Our Lady and all the Saints welcomed the Sanctity of St Francis and supported his delight in God's creation even of the inanimate celestial bodies which dominate night and day and of all plants and animals. Forgive the pride of the humanity that is always seeking to contradict or outdo your creation and let more of us speak out in condemnation of the attitude which denies you by shouting "My body; I will do what I like with it". That is the attitude of those pressing buttons and pulling triggers at this moment. I am responsible for my own sins and humbly seek your pardon in the hope that one day I will be able to join Francis, our mother, Mary and all the Angels and Saints in Eternity which is the heavenly now. Amen. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, come.

 03/10/2024

 The seventy-two are commissioned to continue the preparatory work started by John. They are to announce "The Kingdom of God". They are to do this by curing the sick as the sign that they are human messengers of God's will and what they are learning from Jesus. They tell this to their own countrymen. They are Jews preaching to Jews.

We do not know any details of the outcomes of their missions except that we  have  interpretated this action as Jesus' acceptance and call to some of us to spread knowledge of  the Truth that is revealed by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. We see the Apostles and these seventy-two as the nucleus of and justification for the hierarchical structure of the Church we know to have existed for the two thousand years since then.

We have to ask what was the "Kingdom" they were to announce. Their arrival with a  total lack of possessions showed that they had a complete faith in the providence of God. They only knew that Jesus could cure the longtime sick, restore sight to the blind and enable cripples to walk again and that they hoped he was the one "to restore the kingdom to Israel". They knew nothing of Calvary and the Resurrection which are the source of the faith that remains in this world and without which Jesus would be just another prophet of Israel.

We cannot know God except by his revelation of himself. Moses knew that IAMIAM is not an imaginary being. Prophets have been inspired, but Jesus, son of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, is the "rich harvest" that is the living free-gift of God and we are all obliged to become harvesters for ourselves of this Loving Mercy by choosing to make "thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven" our one Law that is never broken.

Dear Lord, You know that I am struggling this morning. I do not want to make my morning prayer an occasion of sin by being pleased with myself.  I know that I am sincere in my thoughts and do not want to think badly of the Church you founded in poverty to keep ourselves out of the clutches of Mammon. You had to finally correct your chosen people whom you favoured for centuries. The crucified Christ is not proclaimed by the wealth of the Church that has been accumulated while millions starved. Help us all to accept your free-gift of Love and join our prayers on earth with those of Mary and all the Angels and Saints in praise of your Glory and plead for an ending to all the pain and suffering caused by the total sum of our personal failures to do your will. May our sins and those of the Holy Souls be forgiven as we open our sinful hearts to receive your Love. Amen

 02/10/2024

Yesterday I was rather overcome by the continuing improvement in the health of our dog. God knows that I am truly grateful that my prayers were answered.

Today the Church is celebrating the total opposite of the "soulless" creatures that can fill our hearts with love. Angels are bodiless totally spirit beings that sometimes bring God's Word to us. Their bodiless pure spiritual being can be imagined by our minds but they do not inspire the warmth of human love as do other creatures.

They are beyond our ability to know except when FatherSonHolySpirit sends them to confirm his will to chosen ones. We can be sure that such unseen beings exist for in today's Gospel Jesus assures us that each "child" has a "Guardian Angel" who is always near to both FatherSonHolySpirit and the human soul that they try to guide along the right paths of life.

Job is still confounded by "being" he knows that he is alive and that there is an unseen power, far greater than he is, who can bring all his endeavours to find peace in life to nothingness. The Psalmist sings to the Lord. He knows that God is not his enemy but the Almighty Power that knows him and that can answer prayers in the land of the living.

Jesus is very much in the land of the living. In fact he is the perfect man who is the also the Almighty IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. His is the same humanity as Job and David, his DNA reveals the same evolutionary track as does our own. But he is sinless and can thus become the perfect sacrifice to take away the sin of the world. He is totally free mankind as God envisaged us all to be.

Dear Lord, you know that I am loth to look at the "news" on this machine this morning as I expect that the same stories of evil being perpetrated throughout the world will still be there. The "land of the living" becomes the land of death for thousands of us still engaged in the slaughter that your Old Testament records was first begun in your Name. Yours is the world and all that is in it, but our freedom continues to "lead us into temptation" and subsequent evil. I am not Job nor gifted with his honest perseverance. I cannot sing as did David. I can follow the path first walked by Jesus because I have been open to your Loving Mercy and his Sacrifice is more than sufficient to save an infinite number of worlds. Please send the countless legions of Angels that Jesus told Pilate were at his disposal and fill the heart of world, Jerusalem and the land you walked with a spiritual boundary that can stop killing and reveal, yet again, your power to sinless men. Caring for your creation is a task that is beyond our capabilities. May Mary and all the Angels and Saints plead for us that we resist Mammon and Satan and use the boundless Love that you poured out for us to live no more in the acceptance of personal sin that builds up to become the hate that so many have accepted into our hearts. May all those dying at this moment together with the Holy Souls receive the boundless Mercy and Love that is your being. God forgive us all. Maranatha, please return soon. Amen 

 01/10/2024

Today I know that I am still alive as was Job; but I know that I have been answered by FatherSonHolySpirit and the tiny created soulless creature that is our dog will live out his natural time to warm our hearts with the selfless love that is generated by his innocence. 

"Love" is a word that we often use without thought. It is a mainstay of song writers who sometimes hit on a line that has the same "Truth" as taught by his Jesus and his Apostles.  "All you need is Love, Love is all you need" could be an intentional paraphrase of St Paul's "over all put on Love" in his letter to the Colossians. The tune, composed by a different Paul, cements the words into our minds. Yesterday Jesus told us that "Truth" is not a monopoly of his twelve Apostles.

G.K. Chesterton in the person of Father Brown once warned us  that the sentiment that is generated by our companion animals should not take the place of the reverse spelling of "dog". Of course he was right. I am aware that the weight of  the recovery of a dog is nothing in proportion to the slaughter being perpetrated by humans all over the globe. God helped me. Surely the deaths happening as I write these words are much more deserving of attention than I am but I can still have to respond to God's loving kindness to me for his Love is limitless.

We, all of us, are known to "Our Father". Jesus told us that every living thing plant and animal is known in the infinite mind of God. Throughout history there is nothing that is too small for it to have escaped the attention of God, even I am known by him. All the artificial greatness, Empires, Art, Institutions, Science to be found in this world are the work of men who in their pride have largely forgotten that they are created to do the will of Our Father.

St Therese never forgot this and by her short and painful life, which she lived out without ever uttering Job's "I curse the day that I was born" or ever blaming God for her disease, she proves that to confound the great God really does choose the poor and the weak. "Showers of roses" may seem a childishly simple and sentimental image of Divine Mercy but for her "Little way" they are far more real than all the great churches in which her memory will  be venerated today.

Dear Lord, You know that it is your Mercy that is needed more than ever by our World. I know that we cannot expect more than you have already done for us. Sins are forgiven, the sick are cured, the lame can walk again but many of us are still possessed by the pride that excludes you the Truth from our lives. Jesus has completed your Revelation; we know that each one of has to live in support of others and that all we possess and are has to be as devoted as is Jesus to our fellow human beings, our neighbours. May the prayers of all the peoples of Earth, Heaven and Purgatory be united and become the way, truth and life that brings all sinners to accept the St Therese' "shower of roses", as the fragrance of our final home with Mary, John and all the Saints in your eternal presence. Amen