15/10/2024

Those who heard Jesus speak had to retain his message in their memories and at the same time go about the daily tasks that were the norm for 1st Century Palestine. In my case I feel that would be impossible for I cannot hold in my head even these short readings from Scripture until the end of each "today " that I live.

I can remedy that personal defect by accepting these personal prayers and reflections that I record here, as a Truth that comes from God, but I always have to quibble and fuss about them to achieve even a little of the confidence in God displayed by St Paul. "In those day" it was only in our natural intelligences that words and ideas were retained before they were written down with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

The Gospels provide us with eye-witness accounts of the "headlines" of the three years when the Incarnate Son of  IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT revealed himself to the "Chosen People" who had somehow, not withstanding he direct help they received from the Prophets, not been able to become the examples of righteous living that would reveal God to this world.

St Paul had been well on the road to becoming a Pharisee perfecting himself in the Righteousness of the Law that was his birthright when he was stopped in his tracks and blinded by the light of the Resurrection into becoming a traitor in the eyes of his own sect and an, at first, "untrustworthy" convert to the infant church.

These two sources of my personal faith have had billions of words written about them, within which our primary purpose can founder in an ocean of claims of  knowledge and counter claims about FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT that block out the light of pure faith. Incarnate God, however speaking as Jesus, warns us that it is only in purity of heart that we can choose the spotless perfection of grace to keep us on the way, truth and life that is always guided by faith according to the Will of God, Father of Jesus and Creator of all material and spiritual being. We are because God is.

Dear Lord, Help me to identify your true voice amongst the myriad of ideas and experiences in which I can lose the thread that leads me out of the labyrinth that is my own of the human minds that are for you as alive and known as I am to myself. Only you can know me in the depths of my being; you know all of my sins and have revealed that all of us can be forgiven if we make true amendment by using the Grace that was purchased in the horror of Calvary, the only way for this creation to become what you had intended it to be. May Mary lead all the Saints of heaven in supplication for us sinners on earth to cooperate with you and to know that each one of us can do your will and that even if our total plea for mercy comes late in our lives, Purgatory can provide for each of us the punishment that we have avoided on Earth. May my sins and the sins of the whole world be forgiven and may the Holy Souls find the forgiveness that is in your promise as Good Shepherd to seek out and bring all lost sheep back into the fold of YOUR LOVE. Amen

 14/10/2024

In this morning's first reading, St Paul is not only proclaiming the Good News but preaching to correct errors. The error is being made by those who have not completely committed themselves to the way, truth and life that the Resurrection has confirmed for all time as God's will for his image and likeness.

The letters and known events of Paul's life confirm that Faith is not based not on "human thinking" but on real historical events that reveal "through a glass darkly" how we can prepare ourselves to become the person that is known by "Our Father".

There was no mass media in the "times" lived by the generation out of which grew the Truth, Christianity. The New Testament is the record of those times as is the Old of the times before Christ. Most of the literal followers and first believers had been totally enmeshed in the Love that is the Incarnation, Jesus Son of God and Son of Man, the first "fisher of men" that they or their family members had encountered on each individual's personal Road to Damascus.

Dissent is normal for humanity. The Original Sin is disobedience followed as night follows day by Jealousy. Far away from the discord in Ankara, Paul feels desperate that the words of eternal life have again been refused and the the slavery of the "Law" has occluded the clarity of his personal epiphany.  FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT had captured his being with the grace that grew greater the more he gave away.

Dear Lord, I don't need to babble on but help me to hold onto you throughout this day even though both the allegory of St Paul and the "Sign of Jonah" are both less than clear to me. As Jesus was growing up into the adult who saves all mankind from permanent death. Mary and the other relatives in the Nazarene Holy Family known and Loved by the Saviour certainly knew you at the various stages of human growth and "pondered" all that you did. To know you we, however, have to interpret words written long ago and we also have to fight the distractions of devil, world and flesh that combine to misdirect our intelligences and wills. May your Holy Mother continue to lead all Angels, Saints in the community of praise with prayers for all sinners on Earth and in the sincere atonement of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

13/10/2024

The mass readings for today are, as usual, all about how we need the grace of God to live according to his will in his creation where we have our being. We are all individual body, mind and soul alive at this moment and known and loved by "Our Father". 

The themes of the readings for today are wisdom and wealth. Wisdom is praised as a goal worthy of being sought by each one of us. Wealth, however, is a hindrance to following the path to God revealed in the historical events and words of Scripture.

Wisdom tells us that the body and mind which are my material being can be guided by our souls to access in this world before anything else the Love that comes from God. Jesus, the incarnate Son is the Love of FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT in a human body just as is ours and subject to the laws of nature.

This eternal event of complete revelation occurred in created time and was with us for 33 years teaching by word and example before being finally rejected by those for whom he had only shown Love and Mercy.

God's knowledge of all things includes all the billions of results that can come from the innumerable free-wills that are at work creating our human reality now and in every other second past present or future and  known to us as God's Providence.

 He has not created any one of us to follow his programming of our "Algorithm" we are always a "work in progress" and able to make the choice between wisdom or wealth, spirit or material, God or Mammon that becomes the Eternal Life prepared for us by the Love that proceeds from the HOLYSPIRITFATHERSON, the Trinity that we adore.

Dear Lord, help me live out this day with only love in my heart although saddened by the killing perpetrated by my contemporaries. It is your will to forgive all sinners, You know that this is not an opinion but a fact of life that it has taken me a lifetime to realise. May all of those, family and friends, whom I know also come to the same realisation and that the damage in this world caused by mankind can only be realised by a conversion to YOU that can only happen in each individual's heart. May my prayers be joined with all who are now raising their minds and hearts in worship and with those who have completed their earthly journeys and who pray with Angels and Saints, with Mary and John in the eternal never changing Love that is heaven. May the Holy Souls who are experiencing Holy Justice in Purgatory know that they are for ever known in your love as they come to closer understanding of what was their sin.

 12/10/2024

Each one of us has to be responsible for our own conduct throughout our lives on Earth. The scriptures have been recorded for each one of us to experience for himself how God has dealt and is still dealing with his creation. We pray to be "safe from sin just for today".

St Paul tells the Galatians, as he tries to correct their acceptance that the "Law of the Scribes and Pharisees" can ensure their eternal life and that their souls will be guided into the presence of IAMIAM only by being scrupulous in observance of that Law, that, in fact, it is only belief and dedication to Jesus, the culmination of IAMIAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT's revelation, open to the free choice of all of us, which is "Faith" that is the only spiritual compass to the same perfect life on Earth, as was Jesus', Our Lord and complete exemplar of living out God's will on Earth.

The living presence of Jesus in Palestine two thousand years ago is the most important intervention of God into the lives of his people. Peter and the twelve were not the only ones who were captivated by the Son of God. Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, John, Lazarus, Martha are  names that come instantly to mind. There are many others mentioned but not named.

I know that it is possible for all human beings to be in the ranks of the nameless, in this world, receivers of the Word. I can strive for "Faith" and shout out with the anonymous voice in today's Gospel praise because I know that we can all be blessed by "hearing the word of God and keeping it". 

Dear Lord, Let me have the blessing of faith enough to know that you have created me to be able to respond to Your Faith in your created image and likeness. Faith can be seen in action in the words of the Apostles and in your words and deeds recorded by the evangelists. The lives of the first Christians were filled with distractions and squabbles with fellow believers, This is still the state of the world and the Church, the sign of all human times. The world, the flesh and the devil can all be overcome not by the LAW of institutions but by the Spiritual New Holy Family, Mary John and we who can overcome our sins by the help of your grace and can live not spectacularly, but with lives of faith, which is our own, and Your Love which passeth all understanding. May my sins and the sins of the whole world be forgiven  as are those of the Holy Souls suffering in certainty the redeeming pain of Purgatory. Amen.

 11/10/2024

Jesus' warning about the ability of devils to survive even the condemnation of God has been somewhere in my mind since first I heard it. I have never been able, however, to visualise the spiritual creation that is also the work of God. Hence, I have never felt comfortable in recorded visions of Heaven, Ezekiel, Daniel, Book of Revelations.

Jesus did tell us that he used parables to help us to understand his words and so I have only thought this story of how dangerous are the devils against whom we have to fight as, for me, a well-known cycle of piety, temptation, sin, confession, piety temptation and yet again a far more guilt-laden sin.

Psychiatrists have built reputations and fortunes by helping patients come to terms with their personal acceptance of the strangeness that is the mind of human life. St Paul had always in addition to his problems with fellow Jews, the Apostles, the knowledge of his own part in the death of Stephen, to face up to a "sting" which was present with him but unseen.

Today I know that Jesus is not a psychiatrist. He does not analyse and seek to cure mankind of guilt. He takes away the sins of the world by revealing FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT'S intentions for his material creation and for the image and likeness, mankind, that has been given the capacity to continue the work  of creation with our ability to choose to live according to the will of Our Father.

All our souls are real, an unseen presence within us, God is real, an unseen all powerful Love, devils are real, unseen enemies of God and Creation.

I can believe God, the Mystical Body of Christ, heavenly Love none of which I can see. It seems that it would be a much more rational of me to face-up to the Enemy of God and his creation with the Grace that I have never used to the fullest for St Peter's "roaring Lion"  does indeed continue to hunt for souls in the wilderness created by Godless Man.

Dear Lord, help me to do my duty in this life. Let me bear witness to you in my deeds, let my devotion to you be completely sincere, and let my life become prayer that will never lead me into temptation. I ask for your grace to be aware that the World of the Spirit has within it dangers that must be fought by Angels but can become evils when implemented in this world by sinful men of whom I am one. I know that Our Lady and Jesus are present in Heaven in enhanced material bodies which we can all share when God becomes for us "All in all". But now I am a body, mind and soul with soul being my way, truth and life to the gates that are always open not matter how hard the enemies block them by distracting us by the wonders of our abilities to understand and adapt the material of creation. May all sinners dying by shared violence today be cleansed of their sins by the abundance of your Mercy in Purgatory and may my sins and those of all the world be acknowledged with atonement even as I conclude this prayer for today. Amen

 10/10/2024

Today, St Paul, probably in Rome, is writing to the Galatians, a people of Celtic origin who had over centuries become Greek speaking Anatolians and at the time Paul was writing to them were part of the Roman Empire. St Paul is greatly disappointed that the Church, he has founded as part of his FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT given mission, has been corrupted by Judaizers who insist that to worship in truth "the Law" must be followed.

 IAMIAM has cared for and known the Jewish people for centuries and they have known him in the "Law" that governs their lives. The Chief Priests, Scribes, Pharisees and many ordinary Jews were people who had lived with pride in the "Divine Shield" that was revealed by their prophets and professed in their Temple Worship and by following the Law. 

Jesus of Nazareth is much more than a prophet. He was killed in Jerusalem, as were many of the prophets, by the people to whom he was showing in "real time" the completed meaning of the relationship IAMIAM has not only with Jews but with all mankind. 

The Resurrection of Jesus is the event that is for ever the revealed being of God, IAMIAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT with us to the end of time and nothing can be added or taken away from the eternal truth.

St Paul challenged the Galatians; "You must be mad!" and I too cannot understand but not ignore the events during my life-time in the Middle-East beginning with the terrorist attacks that were the prologue to the State of Israel to the nonsense  of a former Prime-Minister claiming that his foolhardy attacks on "nuclear facilities" in Syria were made to protect the World. 

They must be mad! It does seem that the devilish irrationality of the Nazis lives on in the hearts of the recipients of their hatred that is certainly not love, and nothing like the words of today's psalm.

"Blessed be the God of Israel he has visited his people and redeemed them, he has raised up for us a mighty saviour in the House of David, his prophet as he promised through the lips of holy men, those who were his prophets from of old."

There are millions of us throughout the world who will have completely different reactions to the news seen on their TVs as each one of has to learn for himself that "Thou shalt not kill" cannot be viewed as a sliding scale and that our Saviour experienced the finality of death and yet liveth to bring the grace of God even into the hearts of those killers who view their own violence as righteous anger and those whose pride in self-hood resists the Grace of God as successfully as did their forbears totally deny Christ and their modern Iron Shield resists the missiles of the their enemies,

Dear Lord, You know whether or not, I am being able to to view "the signs of these times" without condemning anyone who lives in your Love. Violence is not according to thy will on Earth. The parents of my generation resisted Hitler but not without cynically choosing to wipe out hundreds of lives by blanket bombing residential areas of German cities. All sins can be forgiven even during our lifetimes  if  we turn to you in repentance with a sincere desire for atonement.  May all the Saints in heaven, especially today Denis, John and Paulinus pray together with the Queen of Heaven and all Angels and Saints that the leaders and servants of death on earth accept the forgiveness that is always being offered by Your Eternal Love that creates but never destroys. May we sinners on Earth, together with the Holy Souls who can sin no more, always accept your will and never stupidly choose to follow princes of this world into the pain of  nothingness that so many are facing at this moment as our bodies are broken by the enemy of life who is always on the sidelines, sniggering at how easy it is for him to mock God by captivating the will of mankind.

 09/10/2024

Today's Saint is John Henry Cardinal Newman. A long name  that has to be now prefixed with St. It is a name that was a "kindly light to lead thou me on" for most adherents of the Catholic Faith in my parents' generation. He is a person of whom I have shallow knowledge but in his lifetime he was known to millions in both his own country and the Empire which was confident then in its unassailable power and in its own version of living according to the will of God.

It does not seem possible now that an Anglican becoming Catholic was of any interest to anybody other than his own family and congregation, it seems impossible that a true scholar could have published so many, at their time, best-selling books. Today his works for the most part can be found neglected in Presbyteries and Vicarages mainly in the  English Speaking ex-colonies of the British Empire.

Before I knew that ST.JHCN was the human focus for today's mass, as I was opening my computer a headline caught my eye. "How the Catholic Church built Western Europe". It is undoubtedly true that after the decline of the Roman Empire the dedicated monks largely following the Rule of St Benedict were the ones who promoted the non-military, reading, writing and thinking on which is based all of our knowledge. Books were produced out of long hours of standing to copy manuscripts and to prepare the vellum on which they were copied.

The Synod that is meeting today is an outcome of the millions of hours of physical labour that produced the continuity of human knowledge which all the "learned and the clever" of this world have acquired and access at the click of a mouse. On this screen where my words are now appearing, I can  now read the thought and beliefs of men living in the Middle-East even before Abraham, the Sophistication of India and the Wisdom of China. 

This is probably why our Lord warned about the "learned and the clever" and told us unequivocally that he reveals everything  that is the creative purpose of IAMFATHERSONhOLYSPIRIT for us. This purpose has never included killing the defenceless at either the beginning or end of life, killing in the name of God, killing to take possession of land. 

"Killing" is the total antithesis to "Love" and cannot be tolerated either in the first Chosen People of the revealed IAM or the Friends of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT who have somehow lost sight of their reason for being in the Worldly Institution that has helped to build Civilization but not lived true to the reverential awe that is the only response to the Love poured out by Five Holy Wounds and true human death on Calvary.

Dear Lord help me be open to your Grace and know that with it to support me nothing that is  contrary to your will can take over my life as it has done in the past. Help me to think clearly and avoid all self-concern that occludes my vision of what awaits my soul when my body dies and that this consciousness of self has to face you in the reality of mind and soul which could be the same being. May Mary, who is with you as the only other glorified body in heaven, implore you to help us still on earth to know and respond to your will for us. May she and all angels, all saints and today's St John continue to plead for us sinners on earth and for the Holy Souls that are confident in that their punishment, together with your Grace will secure the forgiveness for the guilt that they truly repent for having accrued in their lifetimes. Help the "learned and the clever" to accept that your love is child-like simplicity but never childish self centredness. May you FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT hear and accept this prayer of my heart. Amen.