27/04/2026

Monday Easter Week 4

We are still in the process that began in the Portico of Solomon and the Upper Room. 

Two thousand years later, each one of is having to come to terms of how to live in this world and simultaneously be true to our belief in our mystical awareness of Jesus as Son of God.

Today's version of the Church founded on St Peter and the New Holy Family consists only of we who are the blessed "who have not seen" whereas the Church of Peter John and Mary had known Jesus as friend and human son and their testimony was that of the blessed who had believed what their interpretation of their personal experiences had revealed to them.

We have also accrued generation after generation much that keeps us from the Living Fire that "brought a sword from heaven". 

In today's first reading Peter has to defeat "anti-gentilism" which is the attitude to non-Jews that Jews acquired at birth and reinforced on a daily basis by their use of Scripture. He was not completely successful.

God knows that the Jewish people have often suffered as many Christians have blamed them for the way IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT has brought about in the life, death and resurrection of the Jesus, the Incarnation, the reset of salvation that is  repentance that leads to life. 

Our Father has only ever forgiven his executioners and makes it quite clear in today's Gospel that it is only by HE, HIMSELF fulfilling the will of his own BEING, FATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT that our human sinfulness can be brought back to the purity created in the garden.

It is through the grace of God that Peter was able to obtain the acceptance by the Jews for his Gentile converts. At that time that seemed like an impossibility, 

Today, (2026) in another completely impossible this worldly situation we have to pray that the original "Chosen People" can come to the self awareness that enables them to understand that they who slaughter are not the victims even in this world and that the purported quote from one of the first defenders of Zionist Israel, "We can never forgive the Palestinians for making us kill their children" spits into the face of He who is truly God.

 

 26/04/2026

I have to face up to my own weaknesses this morning. For some days, I have missed recording my morning reflections on the daily Mass Readings that have become the "personal signs" by which I choose to reveal what is always present even though clouded over in my heart and soul.

In the first reading Peter and the other ten Apostles are praying in the temple with a favourable congregation who are inspired to both listen to and seek guidance from these Proclaimers of the Resurrection. 

God knows that I too sometimes cooperate faithfully with HIS WORD but at others I am entirely taken up by the things of this world and allow my being to lose touch with Our Father whom I know to be "The Good Shepherd" and who is, indeed, much greater than that image of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT'S tender love for us his aimlessly wandering sheep.

In fact all of us are totally hopeless without our Shepherd for we are all in much more danger than we would be if we were simply "aimlessly" wandering. 

Even though Jesus by his life death and resurrection has created for us access to the Free Gift from IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT that enables us to live righteously in this world and created a spiritual home, the Church of Love, the New Holy Family many of us however, often choose to follow the ways to self glorification created by generations of mankind and thus filled "this world" with the false Glory that is the work of Mammon and is as corruptible as our own flesh. 

We must never lose sight of the reset of Creation that God enabled 2000 years ago in Palestine, Incarnation who is Christ the Lord, son of God and Son of Mary who is eternally

 The bread of Life.

 The light of the World

The gate of the sheepfold

The good shepherd.

The resurrection and the life

The way, the truth and the life.

The true vine

 22/04/2026

In the northern temperate latitudes of this world, Spring is bringing the usual promises of the good things that are to come. Everywhere trees and shrubs are blossoming and spring flowers are dying back to give way to the more luxuriant growth of summer.

In the Liturgy of the Church it is still Eastertide and in the Mass Readings we share the experiences of the Apostolic Church. St Luke records the first deeds of his friend St Paul who had made his first appearance in the story of our faith, the history of our Church, as the approver of the execution of St Stephen, "the blasphemer". In today's first reading. he has become much more than a bystander at a stoning but is actively harassing the followers of the the "Way".

All the worshippers in the Portico of Solomon and Upper Room are still Jews although divided linguistically and it is as apostate Jews, "blasphemers" they undergo the first persecution by the Orthodox Pharisees and Sadducees.

I have always been aware that the Church of Christ has often been unfaithful to his example and teaching when entangled within the things of this world. It seems that the "Christians" in Palestine did not participate in the Jewish Revolt that resulted in the destruction of the Temple. As a persecuted "blaspheming" minority they had fled to Pella across the Jordan before or during the original disturbances.

Christianity was so named first of all in Antioch and it was in Asia Minor and in Egyptian Alexandria that the Faith first grew and was codified and as the Church grew in temporal power so did she often depart as had  "Jewish Tempalism" before her, from the shared foundational Ten Commandments,  and the radical quintessential "turn the other cheek", "love your neighbour as yourself" "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" that characterises the revolutionary reset of Salvation completed by the final blood sacrifice made by the Son of God on Calvary.

Jesus taught us that we are all brothers/sisters and that claiming for ourselves moral virtues or privileges from our temporal parentage is as great a sin as the racism that condemns others for not being as we are.

Anti-Semitism and any form of Racism is a great sin and adds to the power of evil in this world but it is no greater a sin than the refusal to believe the words of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and know that it is each one of us  who by sinning adds to the pain of the atonement won for us on Calvary.

For this is the will of my Father,

that everyone who looks on the Son

and believes in him

should have eternal life,

and I will raise him up on the last day.’

 

 21/04/2025

Today Jesus tells us that HEISBREADFROMHEAVEN. His interlocuters had asked for the bread from heaven that had fed their forefathers in the desert, the "manna" on which they had survived during their learning period under the guidance of Moses.

Some of those who "in those times" demanded signs could become the first believers who worshipped with and learnt from the Apostles and some could be those who actually stoned Stephen.

We are their descendants in faith and can acknowledge how within our own beings we too can demand signs. We look for signs of Eternity in the events of this world. There have been many reports of "Eucharistic Miracles" throughout the centuries. 

Years ago I was impressed by Pascal's thought that the continued existence of the Jews could be considered as sign for the existence of God. It may be false but it is not a stupid idea. 

It is sure that Jesus taught that God does not have favourites and each of us has the ability to accept the gifts that we are given as proportionate to our needs and more importantly we have the freedom to choose to live in our own beings with the good of others as our first principal. 

This is how Jesus lived and died and in today's Gospel the first Martyr Stephen emphasises this Christlike living and dying for  others "Lord do not hold this sin against them". Jesus definitely taught us that believers are his own family but before us Israelites who had been guided by God's prophets  became the instruments through whom the perfect sacrifice was made.

I know that on Calvary there were two sinless truly human beings but one freely offered himself in atonement for all Sin. Even the accusers and executioners of Christ can be forgiven. 

We must not condemn anyone for the circumstances of their birth. God does not have favourites. "Go out and teach all nations" means that believers have the obligation to spread  the Good News by their way of life, becoming living Gospels and by their words. Our race and nation is totally of this world and has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God.

We are all known by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT as his frequently wayward children but who can all return to him when we ask:

‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’

 Jesus answered them,

‘This is the work of God,

that you believe in him whom he has sent.

for it was on Calvary that he created his Spiritual Church of Love the New Holy Family in which as brothers and sisters, we can all follow the Way, Truth and Life.

                                            "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 20/04/2026

Alleluia, alleluia.

One does not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

Alleluia.

I didn't realise then, that the sentence with which I finished my "reflections" yesterday was to become the "Gospel acclamation" for today.

We rightly revere Stephen as the first martyr but there is not much that we know about his life other than his way of leaving it.

He was one of the Deacons appointed by the Apostles and was learned enough to dispute, probably in Greek, with members of Foreign Synagogues. By the Grace of God Saul the Pharisee did not join in the actual stoning.

The accusation made against him

‘This man never ceases to speak words against this Holy Place and the Law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us."

is certainly accurate for by his teaching and Resurrection Jesus completes the "reset" of the Law that is the Incarnation.

In today's Psalm we pray for enlightenment:

teach me your statutes.

 Make me grasp the way of your precepts, and I will ponder your wonders

and in the Gospel we can find the response of  HOLY SPIRIT being thus shown that God is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT.

Do not work for the food that perishes,

but for the food that endures to eternal life,

which the Son of Man will give to you.

For on him God the Father has set his seal.’

 Then they said to him,

‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’

 Jesus answered them,

‘This is the work of God,

that you believe in him whom he has sent.’

 

 19/04/2026

Third Sunday of Easter

The Mass Readings for today present to us the experiences of those who had first known Jesus as "true man". 

Peter had been his companion for three years listened to his words, witnessed the miracles but knew that he had failed to be with him as he went through the agony that culminated in his death on the cross.

Luke had known Mary, the Mother of the Lord and the other Apostles and was able to confirm that his Gospel was as factual as the Acts in which he himself had played a part.

All that I strive to be and understand about my life depends on the Resurrection. Paul writes "If Jesus had not been risen from the dead then our faith is in vain" and it is this faith that enables Peter to proclaim:

 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God,

and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,

he has poured out this which you yourselves are seeing and hearing.’

having accepted the forgiveness won for him by the "Precious Blood".

By the time that the first letter of St Peter was written, 30 or so years after the Resurrection, the man Jesus had become to be recognised as the "Son of God", the Eternal Word who was always with God in the beginning WITH  Holy Spirit which confirmed that IAMIAM is IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and the Last Supper had become the liturgical celebration that recreated the Sacramental Real Presence of True Man and True God that had shaken the disciples into recognition of the Lord at the "Breaking of the Bread" in Emmaus. 

All the billions of words that have been written about Jesus and his Church can tell us no more about him than that which is the record of the eye-witnesses we call the New Testament and that to be able to respond to the Holy Spirit we have to open our hearts to WORD who reveals himself in every word that comes from the mouth of God.

                                                "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."

 

 18/04/2026

Today I am, as usual, trying to come to grips with my awareness that I am living in "this world" and simultaneously understanding that true life is to be found only in  the non-physical world of the "Kingdom" proclaimed by Jesus.

Two thousand years of historical events are culminating today and the being that I am is somehow connected and a product of those events. Everything that has ever happened is a connection to the past and an opening, a foundation for the future.

The first followers of Jesus who met in the temple were all Jews who had been overcome by the Resurrection and although they thought of Jesus as the Christ, the long prophesised Messiah, they did not really understand that he did not intend to lead their nation into world domination.

They did not really understand that each individual one of us has to respond personally to the reset of Salvation that had occurred during the life, death and Resurrection and that the "Church" which they were growing was not founded to be part of this world.

It is very easy to look back over history and find examples of Non-Christian behaviour on the part of the Church, but even in the Upper Room and Portico of Solomon we can see hints of how the foundation made on St Peter could and did become corrupted by the things of this world. 

In today's first reading racial prejudices were already beginning to cause dissension. Even though on the night before he died Jesus had emphasised that we all have to act as servants and perform  real service to our brothers

"Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him"

and he had also previously warned his disciples that "he who would be greater must become as this little child" the Apostles themselves suggested that their position required relief from purely menial tasks

"It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables".

I don't think that this attitude would be approved by the one who preached the parable of the Good Samaritan and I know from personal experience how easily it is for sin to grow from tiny seeds and become an unholy norm.

The Institution that began in the Upper Room and met in the Portico of Solomon has grown over the centuries to become the Church that we know today. There is much within her history that is shameful then and now. 

Jesus knew that he was giving responsibility to weak men and thus teaches us that Our Father's Love  is not imprinted on us  but is given for us to freely accept and cherish to become individually responsible for our own souls that we will return to him.

The unseen heart of the Church has always remained untouched by sin even by the worst excesses of the Papal/Imperial Courts, Crusades, Inquisitions and the unpalatable truths of modern scandals. Jesus not only promised to be with us until the end of time, but also gave concrete proof of this when he created the New Holy Family, the Church of Love in which we can all find rest for our souls in the peace that comes directly and only from God.

                             "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."