14/11/2024

All of Paul's letters are personal in that he always has either the people of the Church to whom he is writing or specific individuals in mind as he writes.  I can't forget his asking for the return of a tunic that he had left at Troy. "I can't forget" write I, but I can't remember whom he asked to do this personal service. 

He is also filled by the Holy Spirit when he admonishes, praises or corrects his Churches. He tells Philemon that when he is preaching the Word of God he can have no diffidence or concern for the reactions of reader or listeners.

Today's letter shows how the attitude of the Early Church to slavery was not one of instant aversion. Paul accepts that Philemon does have rights over the person of his escaped slave and offers compensation for any loss that he might have incurred as a result of Onesimus' desertion.

The Jesus we know from the Gospels also makes no allowances for the scruples of his listeners "Thou brood of vipers" could not have attracted any Pharisee to give a "fair-hearing" to his preaching. 

Today most of those who heard Jesus "The kingdom of God is among you" did not know that the words were literally true and that they were hearing, looking at and could even touch Son who was no allegory but the reality of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

David knows that all the "good" in human life comes from the unseen power of God and can sing with "Joy in his heart" for he knows how God cooperates and shows us the happiness that it is to obey the Word of the Lord.

Dear Lord, You know that my letters to you are heartfelt and as sincere as I am able to make them. Prayer is becoming a delight and I thank you for the inspiration that turns my heart and soul to you each morning. You also know that by the time I go to bed I am unable to recollect the words spoken by you in this morning's Gospel even though I return to these my morning's offerings to You throughout the day. I know that you know me and that I am never truly alone. May my prayers be joined with those of those who stood at the foot of the cross in horror as you breathed your last. May your mother and ours lead all possible prayer directly to your heart and may we on Earth and accepting punishment in Purgatory be forgiven for accepting temptation in deeds that have allowed us to sin and add to the torments you suffered as a real man on Calvary. Come soon, Lord Jesu Come

 13/11/2024

"Enslaved by passions and luxuries" is hard to believe of St Paul. 

He had, as a student of "Pharisees", devoted his life before Damascus to the study of the Scriptures. When he stood by at the martyrdom of St Stephen it was not as an idle bystander but as one who thoroughly believed in the righteousness of the actions of those who threw the stones.

I have often allowed myself to be enslaved by emotions. I have often lost my self control and known at the time that I did so that I was not acting within the boundaries set by Our Father.

Jesus, the Incarnation, has come into the world not because there is anything we have done to attract his love. I have great difficulty in completing this thought but I have to say that it seems to be that Our Father could be regretting his trust in Adam and Eve.

There has to be a great enough reason for the creator to empty himself of "Godness" and take on to himself the pain of my sins and the sins of all the world and die. The learned and the clever tell us that the "Ever Greaterness of God" cannot be swayed by emotion.

Jesus at no time during his life on earth ever taught the "god of the Philosophers". Human logic and rationality can and do talk itself into a corner whereas Our Lord taught us to call God "Daddy", a Dad who knows each of us and wants only the best for us for he is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT with arms outstretched on the Cross and open heart pouring out Love for each individual child known to him.

Dear Lord, I know that faith becomes hope and thus we have love that feeds our ability to live without sin. I frequently try to understand that you had to become man to be able to make a sacrifice sufficient to save us from our sins. We have always failed you, in the garden, in the Promised Land and in your Church but you still know that we can accept your Love to become sinless now. Help me to be an open heart to receive your Love and to return it to both You and my neighbour wherever he/she is to be found. May I join my prayers to those of Mary and the other Marys who stood with John aghast with despair at the foot of the cross that seemed to terminate your mission in failure. May our unified prayers bring the free gift of your mercy to us the undeserving sinners on earth and in Purgatory. May we be overpowered by the Love that is lavished like manna on the Chosen People and St Therese's rose petals on all the Universe to be accessed by those who seek out your way, truth and light. Amen

 12/11/2024

The words and deeds of St Paul are still the "the rock" on which all the "churches" of our world have developed.

In the first place we have to "know" the Resurrection by whom Paul's life was stopped on the road to Damascus.

We can read the gospels and thus learn about Jesus and his mission. Paul had to listen to the Apostles to learn the "doctrine" revealed over three years by Jesus alive and preaching to them and other disciples. He had to know that the "Law" of the scribes and pharisees into which he, "The Good Pharisee", had invested his total being, had become adulterated by those to whom God over the centuries had favoured as his "Chosen People". 

God has never revealed to us in direct words his reason for choosing to be "Son" on earth. He has revealed by his presence with us and his Resurrection that we can by our behaviour on earth reveal our acceptance of his commitment to each one of us, although we are as insignificant in this world as a mustard seed or a tuppenny sparrow.

Jesus today confirms that living in accordance with the will of the Father "Thy will be done on earth" requires from us only the obedience that is the application of the grace he creates on Calvary.

Just as being FatherSonHolySpirit is the unity of IAMIAM we too have to live in the perfect obedience that is Mary's reply to the message of an angel, "be it done unto me according to thy word". 

Dear Lord, help me to become the obedient soul that is your expectation of all of us in this world.  We are  totally free but you have created each of us to be the image and likeness with which you engraced the material Adam and Eve. I pray that my being and all those known to it can become open for your grace to take over our lives, as happened to  St Paul, so that experiencing total obedience we can only use it to thank and praise the Creator of all that is good. May our prayers join those of Mary, Angels and Saints in praise of your Glory and thanks for your mercy. Let my remaining time on earth be without sin and let my remorse be  true regret and longing for pardon. May my sins and the sins of the Holy Souls find forgiveness so that we can truly worship you with sinless hearts and minds. Amen.

 11/11/2024

There have been many occasions during her unexpectedly long life when the Church founded on St Peter has failed to act as the "elder" templated in his letter to Silas, by St Paul.

David too had known his own sin and not lived up to the image of righteousness which he praises in this morning's psalm.

I too have often sinned and been a poor example of living a life of faith.

This morning Jesus ensures that his disciples do not get taken in by their own self-regard. In our religious life, we can often get to the point when, misled by our own sincere enthusiasm, we have a strong faith but one that is becoming self-centered.

Such a one was the Pharisee who thanked God for his superiority to the sinning publican.

This morning Jesus, as always, keeps his people focused on reality. True Faith in God is always a target. We can never attain it by our own efforts for God is always beyond our comprehension. In our lives we can improve ourselves by never holding grudges, forgiving even the elders who lead us into temptation. 

We can always pray with the Apostles "Lord increase our Faith" and then contemplate the answer that is made to each of us for our Salvation comes only from God directly into our hearts.

Dear Lord, help me to pray. Let my mind and soul become ready for the bodily disintegration that is ever getting closer. I pray that I will not disgrace you on my death-bed and face the onset of Eternity with the Hope that your care of me inspires. My prayers are added to those of Mary, Angels and all the Saints as we become the Spiritual Unity that is Christ in heaven and on Earth and can thus only do the will of Our Father and  become greater than the "mustard-seed" that is my earthly target of Faith.  May the souls of the faithful rest in peace and we sinners on earth and in Purgatory receive your gift of boundless mercy with grateful thanks of joy. Amen

 10/11/2024

In the first reading God is revealing through Elijah that he is all powerful by intervening in material events. He is showing his people that worshipping inanimate objects is more than the obvious stupidity that it is but is also an affront to HIS infinite being.

Throughout the Old Testament God reveals to His people the reason he has created our world. He intervenes directly in the affairs of men to show that we are being allowed to understand in the depths of our being that we are made in his image and likeness to do in our generation His will during the era in which we are on earth.

Even though there were many direct interventions into time made by God during the period of the Old Testament the Jews although gifted so much did not match the Love of God for them by returning that Love. 

God closes the first revelation of himself, as IAMIAM, by the lives of Jesus and Mary in the land he had chosen to give to the Jews.

Grown to adulthood Jesus Son of the now revealed IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT teaches us directly and by his miracles, the signs demanded by the people of the Old Testament. He is the totality of God's will on earth. He preaches that we need to Love God and each other by always putting God and other people before the needs of our own selves 

The only people he ever condemns face to face are those who serve the Lord by study and as sacrificing priests. There has never been any need for our churches to become the worldly institutions that they became all too quickly and remain so today for the unseen spiritual body of Christ has always present in the New Holy Family of Mary John and all mankind that will be with us until the end of time.

Dear Lord, May my thoughts be a true reflection of your will for me. Help me to stifle myself and in these few moments contemplate your will with total honesty. You know that I often fail in my efforts to confine my own will to your guidance. I am a sinner totally reliant on your grace which is freely available. Your visible and invisible churches are supported to the extent that we seek your help. Mary and all the saints are totally engaged in perfect worship part of which has to be the likeness of Love for all mankind which you accepted by death for us, that has created the greatest sign revealed by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. Your Resurrection is your last and greatest promise to me and all sinners both here and in Purgatory. Help me to live up to this promise in my own being as image and likeness. Amen

 09/11/2024

I know that Jesus is true God and true man. 

I know this in the first place because I was born into a family that practised their religion. We did this as much as to retain our identity as non-Protestants as to demonstrate our belief in God. We believed in "The Church". We believed that our institution was founded by Jesus to be IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT's only way, truth and life.

Ezekiel and the other exiles in Babylon were shattered by what they saw as IAMIAM's desertion of them but were able to retain their non-pagan identity by never forgetting that their nation was intertwined with the revelations of the only true God,  "What nation has as great a god as the Lord". Ezekiel never loses hope in this Lord and what he had revealed to Moses.

Today, even atheist Israelis continue to act as if they believe that they still have the  divine-right of their ancestors and hence themselves to retain possession of the place on Earth where their ancestors completely rejected their own Lord, IAMIAM by killing his Son.

Today, I am able to read the Scriptures chosen as appropriate for today's masses and in my imagination review St John Lateran and all the Churches and secular locations in which I have been to mass. I can see the extant Western Wall of Herod's temple where Jesus chased out the profane money changers.

Everything that I am, do or think is known to Our Father. He knows that I am trying to express my believe in the freedom that he has given to each of us and that since the time that Jesus completed his mission on earth each one of us has been provided with all the facts and grace to act in obedience to the complete transparency of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and that this obedience requires minds and souls not land and buildings.

Dear Lord, Help me to complete this day sinlessly and help me to understand how it is that 2000 years after your revelations our world is still dominated by swollen human egos and deniers of your grace. I think I know that the origin of all sin is Adam and Eve's original disobedience. Generation upon generation we progress in the material world. This progress is seen in the magnificence of Basilicas, old and new and the ability to control the very nature of biological life and physical matter. I know that I am as tied to this world as any other. Help me open the links to your grace that I can become pure of heart and a being fit to welcome you in this world that I might be welcomed by You into the next. May Mary and all Saints remember that they too once lived in time. The Unblemished Grace with which You prepared Mary to become Your mother means that she never sinned but may have suffered temptation. You know the power of temptation and  with all the Saints can empathise with all sinners who seek your pardon in this world and atone for their sins in Purgatory. Help me to stay truly on the right path and freely choose to know, love and serve. Amen.

 08/11/2024

"No one can serve two masters" begins Jesus' summary of his discourse that starts with today's Gospel reading. This is perfectly clear to me but the parable of the dishonest steward has always been hard for me to grasp. It seems to tell me that we can learn from dishonest business practises how to live as Christians, honest to God.

The continuation of this preaching makes it clear that Jesus is not praising dishonesty but warning us not to get tied into the standards of the material life of the era into which we are born. He is not telling us that the excuses of the military as at the Nuremburg Trials  "I was only following orders" or the ubiquitous "everybody else does it" of the pilferer of trifles "from work" and the killers of the unborn are ever acceptable to Our Father who always means what he says. "Thou shalt not kill", "Thou shalt not steal".

We are judged by how each one of us has upheld the will of God during our lifetimes. 

We are not judged by our adherence to  the Splendour of Liturgy and depth of Theology of the descendant of the Church founded on St Peter.

We are not judged by our nationality. "In God we trust" stamped into coinage means nothing to our loving Father and just Judge.

We are always free to decide for ourselves how we, who naked at birth, have been clothed first with parental love and cultural heritage, and, as we grew to adulthood, ever more absorbed our worldly culture chose between it and the revealed will of Our Father in our daily lives.  At death our soul again naked has to be ready to face IAMFATHERSONANDHOLYSPIRIT who knows how we have cared for his gifts to us.

God is Love and he trusts us to accept The Bible as the complete revelation of His Loving intentions for creation. It brings Truth into the world. It is the Light which we keep on ignoring as Mammon continues to captivate us by ever new material power and pleasures. We are all souls and become the Children of Light, even in this world when we prepare ourselves to receive the Grace created for us by our Incarnate FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT on Calvary. 

We are always free to choose. I hope that I am doing so correctly at this moment.

Dear Lord, I always begin the day with the wish to do your will but frequently get it wrong. My hope is always for forgiveness as I am guilty of sinning far too often in this world and thus resisting the grace that you show to all the world on Calvary. May myself and all the sinners of this world become worthy of  your trust that you reveal in our freedom of will which we far too often misuse in our defiance of you. May my unspoken prayers clear my mind so that I can be ever open to your grace which is directed to your Church by Mary, Angels and Saints from their place with you. May all the Holy Souls continue in the realization of what they missed on earth and thus thank you continually in their suffering atonement. May those for whom I now pray in my heart become aware of your grace and turn away from the world of sin once more into your embrace. Amen