18/01/2024

I really do not need the work of any philosopher to be sure of my own existence. I am sure of the reality of my own "being". I am sure therefore I am. 

A theologian of our times teaches that the new born baby knows that it's "being" is not in the loneliness of solitude by experiencing the certainty of its mother's love that is her smile. We become more and more sure of our being as we grow nurtured by love.

Every child deserves to have that human/mammalian first experience of life but the unacceptable truth is that there are many who do not. Man's selfish inhumanity to man has scoffed at the Love of  IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT by ensuring that unwanted babies were killed by the ancient crime of  of "exposing" them to the elements or the modern evil that is the misuse of our freedom manifest in the slogan "My Body My Choice".

As we grow older we can come to the understanding that our human being is reality because each of us is in the care of the Divine Love that has been incarnated in Jesus "Son of God, the High Priest who has passed through the heavens and has been tempted in every way as we are but remained without sin".

His Love is for all of us sinners and just alike, but we can refuse to accept it and make our choice for our finite selves, and the material world and  thus bolstering up the power of evil. Each generation  follows on to become as evil or more so than its predecessor. A process that can only be stopped when each one of us truly renounces, devil, world and flesh by becoming what Our Father intended us to be.

This is completely revealed by the prophets and finalised by the Son in his incarnation. He only ever condemned the self-centered religious attitudes of Scribes and Pharisees and basically told us all, when answering to all worldly power personified by Pilate and the Chief Priests to focus on our personal faith as the Kingdom of God is not of this World.

 Jerusalem cannot be "buildeth" here no matter how green and pleasant the land.

Dear Lord, you know that this is the 84th anniversary of my birth and that through this long life of mine there are many times that I have rejected you in my sinfulness. I know my own sin and seek the forgiveness of which I have only ever momentarily despaired. At the start of my life bombs were falling all around and the greatest of all inhumanities to man was treating your "chosen people" as a product to industrialistly  harvest there from anything that was valuable in this world and then destroy what was left. On your cross you atoned for all sin but we have failed in the use of that Grace just as did those to whom you made the first revelations through the prophets of the chosen ones. I know that for me too it is true that there are none of the sins of this world that I could not have avoided without your grace. May my future life become a thanksgiving for your grace and plea that we all can avail ourselves of the abundance of your mercy and avoid our sins for which we have no excuse and are more than guilty in refusing your grace and choosing in our freedom to give up the Eternal Joy that is the end of this life when we return to Our Father the Love that he has lavished on us.

 

 17/01/2025

In the Gospel for today, there may have been some non-Jews who crowded out the house where Jesus had stayed the night but the presence of the Scribes makes this very unlikely. 

Scribes, Pharisees and Priests claimed to be the only ones who could interpret the Scriptures and ensure that the "Law", the Jewish way of life, was not infringed by any of the Jews who as Israel were the representatives of the Glory and Holiness of IAMIAM on Earth. In fact they were the reason for creation. They remained a dedicated opposition to the Good News and are still the Rabbis of the Synagogues where the Scriptures are read and prayed upto this very day.

We can be sure in that familiar scene at Capernaum, the four friends lowering the paralytic through the roof to get near to Jesus, that there was a great commotion caused by this very deed. We cannot, however, imagine the shocked horror that was the response of the Scribes to the "Son, your sins are forgiven you". That response could only come out of the totally closed circuit minds of those secure in both promise and practice.

The vast majority of the first Christians were Jews. 

It was, however, very difficult for them to adjust their closed mindsets to the Resurrection, the event that had caused them to have to accept the evidence of his divinity that the Son of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT had created in their lifetimes by his life, death and Resurrection.

The believer, who was the writer of the "Letter to the Hebrews", was desperate that all Jews who had been guided by the Scriptures, who knew "the deeds of the Lord" should share in the Good News that God's creation can now be known in its completeness  "from the foundation of the Earth".  

The "today" that is the "now", the ever-changing moment known by each of us throughout history still offers the "promise" of entering "his rest". We are all free to  interpret this promise found in the Old and New Testaments as we will, but I am sure that it is not to be found in the "Law" of the Scribes and Pharisees, which even in Jesus' day was a vast conglomeration of the Scribes' own making and occupied their attention to the extent that Scripture had become secondary to Scribal interpretation thereof.

The reaction of the crowd to the events that they had witnessed in the commonplace surroundings of that house in Capernaum, "We have never seen anything like it!" and they Glorified God, can be our reaction to every word that comes from the mouth of God. 

For them it was an instantaneous, a  spontaneous recognition of "God" in their midst. We, as with everything about Life, have to work at it and maybe we regret that we have not joined St Anthony in recognition that our souls, paradoxically, have to know IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT one to one if we are to enter the Spiritual Community, the Body of Christ that increases as we decrease.

Dear Lord, on this day that completes my 84th year I have to pray that I am ready to welcome the Mercy that is needed to complete my conversion to You. I know that each of us has to avail himself of the pardon which is your free gift to all sinners on Earth and in Purgatory but your mother and disciples are forever present in the New Holy Family created out of Love for us at the time of your "true death" as true man on Calvary. May my prayers become one with theirs as I strive to thank and glorify you Our Father by doing only your will on Earth as it is done by the spiritual community  of Saints and Angels in the Mystical Body of Christ, Son of FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. Amen.

 16/01/2025

Both first and second readings for today are still taken from the New Testament. The Psalm is King David doing then pretty much as I am today.

We both are (in his case were) souls embodied in the material reality that is the creation into which we have been born. Neither of us asked for life but both of us were born with the free will that is part of human being in order to fulfill the Love that is intrinsic to the supreme being of Our Father. 

We both are/were guided by the experiences of those who have preceded us in life on Earth.

Our bodies are the result of the creative process that we can recognise as evolution and have the same physical boundaries and instincts as do all mammals. For David the Universe of stars was visible in the days of zero light-pollution as the incredibly magnificent canopy of heaven which captivated the minds of many of David's neighbours. Astrology, which for us is a joke, was a serious enough error to be forbidden to the Chosen People.

I have often wondered why it is that IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has had to go to the extent of the "Incarnation" with its pain and indescribable suffering to direct mankind out of the Jewish way of responding to his care of his Chosen People.

David's lifetime was particularly spectacular and he was also a devoted servant of God with "faults". I am much less spectacular but I too am aware of "faults" and with David I too can seek pardon. During his life-time Jesus knew the psalms and sang them in the Temple and Synagogue. His presence on Earth was in response to the "hardening" of Jewish hearts that taken place first of all in the wanderings through Sinai and were still manifest in the Chosen People"

The disasters that befell the descendants of Abraham were always interpreted by them as deserved punishment for "backsliding". The revelation of IAMIAM, the Old Testament, however contains only a small percentage of the rules that the Scribes and Priests,(not Our Father) demanded should be followed. The Jewish people were never condemned by Jesus but the self-absorbed righteous scribes and priests, who after the destruction of the Temple became the Rabbis, certainly were and with obvious reason.

Jesus at his execution forgave those who hammered the nails through his hands and feet on the basis of their unknowing that the man Jesus is the Son of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. The slaughterers of Palestinians in Gaza as I write these words know exactly what they are doing and they are also ready to tell IAMIAM that he is mistaken in that he has always expected them to do His will on Earth. 

This is the "fault"  away from which, Jesus is the only way, truth and light. My Saviour liveth! Alleluia! Come Lord Jesus Come.

Dear Lord, help me to live always in your presence aware of my sinfulness and never forget how puny I am without your care. I ask for one thing only that I may live within my own being aware of your love and never forgetting the price you paid with your very self to break all humanity free from the pride in being that leads all of us into the disobedience that became the Original Sin of our first parents. May I also be aware in prayer that there are millions of us who are hopeless without your grace to break our carapace of sin. May my prayers be joined with the prayers of Mary, David and all the saints that your chosen people reverse their centuries of "stiff-necked pride" and realise that the wisdom of the Nazarene Carpenter is immeasurably greater than the total output of all the Rabbis who have already or will ever live. Amen

 

 15/01/2025

The Apostles knew Jesus for only three years of their lifetimes. 

Each day that I read the readings for the morning mass I am a man striving to be aware that I am a tiny speck of created being but at the same time secure in my place in the Love that is the timeless being of  IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Today the disciples looked for Jesus and found him in a deserted place in prayer. If they could help it, they were not going to let this new friend out of their sight. The cure of Simon's mother-in-law had been followed by the cure of many others sick in body and mind.

They were Jews who knew that IAMIAM had often spoken to their ancestors through inspired prophets and had rewarded and punished their nation as he had done no other. They could only interpret the cures that they had seen Jesus make as a sign that this man was especially favoured by God.

The preaching in the Letter to the Hebrews is the interpretation of the events that had been witnessed by Apostles and converts to the reformed Old Testament religion, of which the Resurrection was much more than a confirmation, within the previous three decades.

No other of the Prophets had ever had to stress either their own or any other person's humanity in the way that this morning's reading from the Letter to the Hebrews does for Jesus.

The 3 years of public life that Jesus is known by his Apostles is only ten percent of the time he " dwelt among us"  and yet it completes the Covenants and guidance that God had made over thousands of years, with Noah, Abraham and Moses so that we can all now hope and have faith in the Love that is God. 

IAMFATHERSONHLYSPIRIT never abandons us even though we can as easily lose sight of him and stifle the "inner voice" that is the Holy Spirit speaking to our souls as did his "chosen people" long ago.

Dear Lord, help me to remain open to your word and remain aware that I can only fulfill your will by remaining faithful  as revealed throughout the ages and and also to my own inner self which is never unaware of my lifetime of sins for which I need the grace to atone in complete sincerity. May my prayers join  the prayers of Mary and all the saints as with one voice we proclaim your Glory and seek pardon for my sins, the sins of all the world and for those of the Holy Souls. Amen

 14/01/2025

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews had for some years after his personal conversion into following the Lord been contemplating the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord in the light of what he knew of IAMIAM revealed in the only scriptures that then existed.

He knows of angels as the messengers of God who entrusted them to carry his Word to the prophets of his favoured nation. He has come to understand that within his own lifetime Son of God, Jesus had for "a little while" in humility reduced his own being to be a "little less" than the angelic being which is with God beyond our created universe.

The "Word" is not only human words but much more in that he is the complete communication of the being of IAMFATHERHOLYSPIRIT to the souls who are embodied to live as the highest order of material being in Creation, that is known to all of us empirically by our bodily senses and spiritually by the souls of those who open their beings to receive the Love that is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRT.

We can all choose to try to know what it means to live "Holy" lives. Jesus is the perfected human being and our example of virtue. There are billions of us yet "Our Father" knows us each in our personal uniqueness which he has created us to become by fulfilling his Will for us.

We are not all Jesuses. We are not all Marys.  We are not all St Thomases. We are not all St Francises or St Maximillian Kolbes. 

After the Apostolic Age, however we  are all those blessed ones who have not seen empirically but see by the eyes of faith which we live to  keep focussed on IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Dear Lord, please accept these thoughts and words as my imperfect praise of you. I know that you did not create me to become the the sinful being that has marred much of my life. You know that I have always regretted my sinfulness. Help me to really know how the suffering on Calvary was increased by my personal sin. May I join with Mary and all the Saints in seeking forgiveness for us sinners on Earth and for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Let me know how I can avoid the self-satisfaction that is ever a stumbling-block when I begin to pray. It is so easy for me to become a 21st Century Pharisee. Help me to overcome this grievous fault. Amen

 13/01/2025

"The Lord is King let Earth rejoice." 

The "last days" for humanity on Earth began two thousand years ago in Palestine.

We have been living in the "last days" for 2000 years for IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has made his final revelation of himself. He has told us all we need to know about how we are to conduct ourselves in the material reality of this world.

Jesus was not born into a "priestly family". The bloodline of both his mother and guardian, Joseph, could be traced back through "David's line" to Abraham and ultimately Adam and Eve. The conception of Jesus was by the Holy Spirit of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT the unseen presence of eternity in time. It is to this spiritual presence that our souls can also proclaim with wonder.

"The Lord is King let Earth rejoice."

God had been present in time as human embryo, child, adult for about thirty years when he walked along the beach near Capernaum and chose his first disciples. A carpenter spoke to some fishermen. We have to wonder what those 4 working-men experienced as they, without qualm, instantly did what they were told.

"The Lord is King let Earth rejoice."

"Long time ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets" . The Old Testament is the record of those days. Jesus is the key that unlocks our souls from the captivating wonder of the material universe and enables us to understand what is meant by :

"The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the Gospel".

It seems to me that we have never lived up to this simple but not at all simplistic message from God as our world is still bursting at the seams with unholy worship of devil, world and flesh . 

The institutional descendants of St Peter can unravel the words of both New and Old Testaments and sincerely follow the threads back to their source in HOLYSPIRIT of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT but they have never been able to let go of the Mammon that cannot take the decisive step that would prove that they truly believe. 

"My kingdom is not of this world."

Dear Lord,  You know that there are many souls who really do want to respond with joy and awe to your never-ending glory. I know that all of us are amazing things in body, mind and soul. The world becomes more and more of a wonder as science probes and reveals more and more of the material universe which is your creation. We know that we have to live out our lives righteously and that you go way way beyond Love to ensure that we can fulfill your purpose in our lives. May my prayers be guided by Mary and all the Saints as I too strive to become as devoted to you as were Peter, Andrew, James and John who were preceded in obedience by Mary and did not prevaricate but accepted your call in the instant it was made. May all we sinners seek pardon for our sins and  our souls and the Holy Souls welcome, by our willful preparation,  the mercy without which there can be no righteousness either in my life  or in that of  the whole world. Amen

 12/01/2025

I have often wondered how it can be that the people who were present at the Baptism of Our Lord could ever have gone back to their worldly lives after "hearing the voice of the Lord". 

"This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased".

The miracle at Cana had been more of a private or even domestic event between Son and his Mother. This was an Epiphany that was witnessed not only by the twelve but also by "the Baptist's" disciples and the "Voice of the Lord" should have been heard by all those who were present.

The later part of Jesus' life on earth was lived entirely in public. We have a record of the preaching and miracle working of only about 10% of his lifetime as witnessed by 50% of the Evangelists the other two are, as are we, "the Blessed who have not seen but yet believe".

Luke and Mark probably did not witness the Crucifixion but came to believe the Good News in the chaos that followed the death and Resurrection and listened, as St Paul also did, to the words of Peter and the other disciples.

We are reading today of God's openly declared presence as "true man" in the Nation that he had guided as he had guided no other then or since then.

His final interaction with the political power of that era was to deny and thus warn us that he "IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT" had any intentions for the political development of humanity. 

In this morning's Gospel,  IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT's final revelation to mankind is beginning to be made by the Baptism and acknowledgement of the person of Jesus by, Father and Holy Spirit. 

Speaking directly to all leaders and rulers for ever more at his trial presided over by the "Great Power" of his day he declares "My Kingdom is not of this world".

If we believe and each individual one of us concern ourselves with obeying the Truth that is God's revelations we would be able to conform to His will on earth, but as things stand today we are still as far away from image and likeness as were the Sanhedrin and Pilate who conducted the trial of God who has completed the revelation to the whole world publicly begun as true man in his Baptism in the Jordan by SON and thus by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Dear Lord let me continue in my prayer throughout this day. You know as "true man" that there are always temptations that surround us in this world. You know us all as your creation and also know each individual soul as the unique person that we are. Let me learn how to love all my brothers and sisters without envy for we are all equal in your sight. Each life is as valuable to you as the next and the cries of those lost in the cess-pits of materialism never go unheard as" This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased" must have done. We may ignore the "Voice of the Lord" but You search out all who go missing from the fold of Love. May Mary, whose maternal love cherished every moment of your childhood and youth as do all human mothers and accepted the role you gave her on Calvary, pray that we all become aware that we live by every word that comes from the mouth of God and show by our actions that we truly believe so.