02/01/2025

Yesterday I got into a bit of a mess as I tried to reflect on Mary's part in God's Loving Kindness. So did the Early Church.

Today's Saints, Basil and Gregory lived in a time after Constantine's acceptance of Christianity that was the battleground where the dogmas and structures that have become Theology were first tackled by human reason.

Our Faith is based on the interventions and revelations made by God that are recorded in the Scriptures. Our acceptance and understanding of them is a matter for the human rationality which is part of our "image and likeness".

Neither of today's saints were ambitious for personal renown. Both wanted to live a life of prayer as monks and grow in the Love of God. 

They could not, however, ignore the way in which so many Bishops of their day had "lost the plot" and wanted to deny that Jesus was "True man and True God" as defined by the Council at Nicaea called by Constantine largely to counter the Arian controversy that broke the unity of Eastern Orthodoxy many years before the Protestant Reformation did the same for the Roman Church.

Jesus' foundation on St Peter has always faced conflict from without and within. St Paul argued fiercely with St Peter and with Judaizers. Jesus himself was the first victim of persecution resulting from religion instigating the state to take action against its opponents.

One of the strange facts of history is that Constantine's nephew Julian who is remembered by  the soubriquet, "the Apostate" given to him by St Basil's brother, another St Gregory but this time of Nyasa, studied at the same time in the same Athenian "schools"  as did today's saints. 

The trio Basil, Gregory and Julian were personally acquainted . The Saints received the same education and conditioning as did the "paganizer" and persecutor of Christianity but with diametrically opposed results.

Dear Lord, you know that I am interested in Church History as a human who wants to understand his heritage. I hope that I am sincere in the beliefs as formulated at Nicaea. I also pray that my heart is sincerely seeking for the meaning of the many words that have survived from the past and that "true God from true God, true man from true man, begotten not made, of One Being with the Father" are not only words to be remembered but are the Truth that has been revealed through the Scriptures from the time of Abraham until your Ascension into the timeless eternal Beginning which you are with the Father and Holy Spirit in the Glory that we can only adore in silent wonder and pray that we can become acceptable to you as we seek pardon for our trespasses and show by our deeds that we have only loving forgiveness for those who trespass against us. Maranatha, Lord. May Our Lord Jesus soon return. Amen.

01/01/2025

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

I could be jealous of Mary's immaculate conception but how can any one of us know the pains that it must have brought to her? She is the Church Triumphant in person but that triumph is also the result of the pains she shared with her son.  Her pains are not visible but the "sword  thrust" predicted by Simeon is part of the mystery of the atonement made for us on Calvary. 

The apostles and disciples who first knew Mary as the mother of their friend Jesus and with whom they met the  Resurrected Lord and experienced the Spiritual Conversion of  Pentecost do not have a lot to say about her but they knew  that her "Yes" to her role in God's plan was essential for the Spiritual Revolution that can bring all souls to Salvation.

Forgive me Lord for not appreciating the devotion of your mother and her place in the events of salvation that she witnessed and shared. It is not only joy that The Mother of Our God treasures in her heart. She must be the only human who comes close to feeling in her very being the pain and  affront to holiness that is the sin of the world; the sin that I have so often embraced during the course of my life.

May my soul and the souls of all mankind be open to receive the grace that Mary's "yes" on behalf of us all  continues to pour out over all the world. We too have to agree "Let it  be done to me according to thy word" as did she if we are to use our freedom in the way that you have revealed is the holiness for which you have created us to strive. 

 31/12/2024

As always I begin my day with awareness of myself and of all around me. 

I am alive in this world and it is in this world that I have my own opportunity to defy the temptation that overcame Adam and Eve and began the war between devil, world and flesh and God that takes place within my human freedom every one of my conscious moments.

The most important task for every individual today and everyday of the time within which we have our beings is to accept Our Father's Love, the freely available Saving Grace created on Calvary to ensure that not one of his created souls is lost.

I know that it is impossible for any intelligence to fully understand IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT but we all can recognise him in the Word by which he reveals himself. The Word first became heard in human time through the mouths of the prophets and sacrifice in the Temple and the "Law" were the  human responses acceptable to God.

God's historical Word was fulfilled by the events in Palestine of 2000 years ago. The servants of the Temple of God conspired with the World to kill the Word who had made no secret of his identity. At his trial Jesus categorically denied he was a king in this world. In his Resurrection he categorically shows himself to be Eternal God, SON of FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Mankind failed in Adam and again in Prophets, Law and Temple. Jesus' mercy condemned no one except the servants of Law and Temple but he also confirmed that their prophetic teaching was truth inspired by God. 

Today's first and second readings are from St John. They confirm that Jesus is Alpha and Omega. John is the Apostle who had a special place in Jesus' heart. 

There has never been a time since the days of the martyrs when the institution founded on St Peter could be said to be doing a better job of channeling the Love of God than did the Temple and Law but its teaching about IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has always been as secure in its inspiration as the Prophecy of the Old Testament.

"Do what they say, do not do that they do!"

There has also never been a time since "Woman behold your son, son behold your mother" was spoken from the cross that the Mystical Body of Christ does not continue to generate for all who participate in it by sincerely opening and thus responding with their hearts, the infinite Love that was poured out as human blood on Calvary. 

The Mystical Body of Christ, the  saving grace that is Jesus, is not confined in any worldly institution but it is who we are, the spiritual souls struggling on earth, those being punished in Purgatory and the Saints who with Mary never cease to implore God's Merciful love to continue to be poured out over all creation.

Dear Lord, May my sins be forgiven and may I be able to pay their price as I come to the end of my life on earth. You know all those whom I have harmed in my lifetime. Let my prayers overcome the pain created by my transgressions and let this last day of 2024 continue for me to be as prayerful as this beginning. May Mary and all Angels and Saints bring succour to our sinful earth and may the pain of Purgatory be welcomed as Your Justice by all the Holy Souls. I make  my prayers in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 28/12/2024

There are millions of us living now and millions more who have lived and died before us. I believe that my life has a value, a meaning even though I have never amounted to much as I have lived through the various ages of man to be now into the accelerated decline that begins in our eighties.

I think that St John's letter was written before his Gospel which also shows no sign of the ageing he must have been experiencing. He is said to have lived a long life dominated by his awareness of the Love of God, both God's Love of him and his own love of God, Jesus, Son of IAMFTHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

God knows even the most insignificant of us living now and also knows us as we lose the use of our bodily beings, little by little until our bodily deaths are sealed by a last breath just as it was started by the first one.

Sometimes I think that at these moments of contemplation I am trying to find meaning in my life and sometimes I wonder why I should even bother. Why not just accept our own being and live in the material world that is known by our senses?

Even as a child, however, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that "In the beginning was the Word the Word was with God and the Word was God". My whole life is spent sometimes more and sometimes less aware that I have a being that is much more valuable than the dust of matter and that I have an Eternal Father who is the creator of all being and who will accept or reject me according to the righteousness of my own deeds when I come to the end of my life.

I also know that the "Holy Innocents" whom are commemorated at today's masses are not the only ones who die without ever hearing the words of revelation. God is truly ever-greater, ever-deeper and ever-perfect beyond my understanding.

Dear Lord accept my prayers for all who have not been guided by your revealed presence and let my own sins of which I am aware be washed clean by the blood of Jesus. May the prayers of Mary and John and the other women who did not desert Jesus on Calvary keep the floodgates of mercy open so that it can drown the evil that dominates our times and world and sometimes my own life. I make my prayer totally aware of my own lowliness but also totally aware of your Love for me and every other of your created beings. I can never understand but I can with your grace do your will during the rest of my life and join the Holy Souls for whom I now pray. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Holy Spirit have mercy. May You Blessed three in one temper justice with the mercy that is your act of Love on Calvary. Amen.

 27/12/2024

The days after Christmas can be very dark and dismal for us in the northern hemisphere. I read the designated mass readings for yesterday and admired the courage of St Stephen. I was also, yet again intrigued by the part played by Saul the young man who did not throw but guarded the garments of those who did.

Today's Gospel reading is also intriguing. St John feels that the seemingly trivial fact that he was able to run faster than St Peter is important enough to include in his memoir of the day when God completed his revelation of himself and his intention for mankind. We, too are to rise again.  Nothing could be more important than that and yet John stresses that by an act of his own will he stopped and chose to follow Peter into the empty tomb.

Churchmen interpret this  giving way to Peter as an acknowledgement of Peter's first  place in the Church. In the community of believers that grew to become the Church of Christians who had first place among them was immaterial for they all had personal knowledge of Jesus and it is certain that James, the brother of the Lord,  had leadership of the Church in Jerusalem that was composed mainly of Jews.

Jesus had previously reprimanded the mother of James and John for seeking advantage for her sons in the "kingdom" that was to be. He had certainly given "the power of the keys" to Peter but even before the time Constantine decided to stop the Imperial persecution of Christians the institutions based in Antioch, Alexandria and Rome were quarrelling both internally within themselves and externally with each other about both precedence and doctrine.

God's grace has never left us alone and each one of us can deny the world, flesh and devil but the reality, the downright evil of most of our world today cannot be denied. Historically, there have been many evil deeds done in God's name by the "Church". My generation has been shocked by personal perversions that have come to light in spite of the hierarchical coverups.

We can still be sure, however, that we can be part of the mystical body of Christ by doing the will of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT for Jesus entrusted Mary and John to each other's care and Mary is still Theotokos as she has always been since she heard the "message of an angel". God's grace is channelled through Mary and all the Saints directly into the hearts that are open to receive it. May I be one of those. Amen

 25/12/24

As is usual for me on the Great Feasts of the Lord. I am speechless and overawed by the knowledge that I cannot put adequately into words.

John has lived long after the deaths of the other eleven men who knew Jesus as a friend. He was also their Rabbi and by his miracles he also had revealed that he was something much more than an interpreter of the scrolls.

John has also been caring for Mary since the time Jesus returned to the eternity that is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. They must have talked together but John's Gospel contains no narrative of the Nativity even though it is through Mary that God becomes man.

When John finalized his Gospel he had had half a century in which to work out and understand what it was that he and Mary had been part of.

These mysterious opening words of the Gospel which concluded the liturgy I heard as a child are still as pregnant with TRUTH as they were then.

We are the focus of God's being. He Loves us into being as a miniscule part of the Universe and yet it is only from us that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT wants the completely free return of love. The "being" of all other forms of life is "good" but it is encoded. We, however, can choose how we respond to God's Love.

God's Love for us is the "babe in the manger", the revealer of reality throughout his life in Palestine and the forgiveness won in the bitter pain of Calvary.

Our Love for him can be expressed by words but we have to  remember that doing the will of "My Father" is far, far greater than obeisance and "Lord, Lord".

I should thank God for my speechlessness for it is in those moments of awe that I come closest to doing the will of "Our Father".

 24/12/2024

I am again able to respond to the morning's mass readings.

Zechariah's joy at the birth of his son is more than just the  normal human joy at the birth of a son when he had already given up all hope of the continuity of being that "off-spring" bring to all our lives. 

It is also the joy of prophecy; the Holy Spirit enkindling the flames of Love in his heart. He proclaims the fullness of Old Testament time for John is "the prophet of the Lord most high and will go before him to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people, to forgive them all their sins".

Jesus condemned only the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He completed the teaching of the Prophets. However, I have to accept the thought that tells me that "the chosen people"  must have failed to honour their part in the covenant and that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT is now Jesus in order to give the Human Race a third chance. 

At the Annunciation God reveals that he is a Trinity of persons/events that is all one being. 

We have no chance of completely understanding the Ever-greatness that is God except by responding to his eternal revelations that have been made in the "physical time" that is the result of the matter that we all know empirically for we too share that same being with all that is the Universe.

We also have to maintain "image and likeness". 

Tomorrow we commemorate the event that begins the salvation of mankind. Jesus is born "true man and true God". He is not  "image and likeness" but "the real deal"; true man and true God. Jesus participates in the first dialogue between  Adam and God. He accepts Sin, all possible sin. The Jews, the Church and  the sins of each of us individuals are all of them gathered into the being born in Bethlehem to bring forgiveness in the final acceptable blood sacrifice.

Today, Christmas Eve, 2024, I believe that we, those to whom the complete will of God has been revealed directly in our midst by Son who is the complete being, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT, God from God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father, through whom all things are made, are not living up to the grace that continues to be poured out for us and have always been pretty much as corrupted by Mammon and are just as addicted to materialism as were the Jews 2000 years ago.

We too are thus failing to become "image and likeness".

Maranatha. Please Come back soon Jesus! O son of God and son of Mary. Save us again from the sins with which we block-out your Grace won by your agony on Calvary.