28/05/2026

Jesus always treats our human weaknesses with compassion. 

During the three days which concluded his life on Earth he confirms for all ages that our own love for each other is a reflection of the LOVE that is generated by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. I am because God loves me. My life has to aim for the righteousness, the holiness that knows that I must not contaminate the purity of my own ability to love by being absorbed into the things of this world, 

That is the significance of the three renunciations made at our Baptism into the Christian Faith

In today's Gospel he awakens the sleeping Apostles with  an affectionate yet sorrowful  " Could you not watch one hour with me", knowing that they cannot be aware of what is about to transpire. He later offers compassion to the women whose tears would have also pulled at my heartstrings. To pray for the forgiveness of those hammering iron nails into his flesh however is totally beyond my capabilities as is the reward for the explicitly human honesty of "the Good Thief". The Total Human and Divine Love of the entire Crucifixion is possible only for "The True Man and True God".

The Incarnation concludes the History of Salvation which begins in today's first reading.

I have heard the Abraham/Isaac event referred to as if it were a parable to preach against the concept of human sacrifice. A command from God to destroy the life of our own child is an unthinkable denial of the "Infinite Good" that calls us to worship "Our Father".

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believe in him will have eternal life."

It is very not often that "the things of this world" align in real time specifically with the liturgical readings of the day. In the media today, however, there is much talk of the "Abraham Accords", which only God knows the sincerity or otherwise thereof, the name given to a political initiative to solve the latest stage of the tragic conflicts that permanently deface the Holy Land.

God knows how it has always been difficult for me to understand how His favour was for so long focused on one nation and how I have always wondered about the "emptiness" of the lives of  people civilised and primitive who were scattered about the world other than in the Middle-East even in the days of Abraham.

Dear Lord, You know that there is not one human who can reproach you and that I do accept responsibility and seek forgiveness for my own sins. You also know that I am sincerely troubled by my non-comprehension of why it is that You created  a "chosen people" from out of all the human souls you love into being. Why is it that their descendants still refuse the "grace" you created on Calvary? Help me also to understand  why so many of the inhabitants of this world have not yet learnt that YOUARETHEWAYTRUTHLIFE that welcomes all the World into your Church of Love, the New Holy Family. Amen

                                    "Woman behold thy son. Son behold thy mother."

 27/05/2026

St Augustine of Canterbury

There is no such thing as an empty word coming from the mouth of God. That is why I often struggle as I did yesterday trying to understand how Jesus could reply to Peter's question by stating that the things of this world i.e. family and wealth which he and the Apostles had "given up" would be returned "one hundredfold" in "this time".

"My kingdom is not of this world" has presented to each generation of Christian what is basically the same problem for we all grow to maturity in societies in which there are human norms that are contrary to the will of God and our Institutional Churches have from long ago fudged their adherence to "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God's".

St Gregory the Great, who despatched St Augustine to convert the Pagan Angles, is credited by St Bede with the pun not "Angels not Angles". He had seen the blond Angles exhibited as merchandise in a "Slave Market". For the people of his generation a "Slave Market" in the Roman Empire was a normal commercial enterprise in which prisoners of war were sold into slavery. 

We are able to live just and holy lives only when we remain alert to the dangers that the human norms of the societies in which we live infiltrate our consciences even to the extent that in the "these days" of now we make no effort to deflect our children away from the excesses that are portrayed as norms by the media that can bedazzle us all into captivation that really does waste the time that we should use only to bring ourselves closer to God.

Dear Lord, help me to continue the struggle against all that is displeasing to you and with true sincerity of heart endeavour to accept the grace which never-endingly flows into the Church of Love, your New Holy Family in which we on Earth can anticipate the peace that it is to be know and be known after the self-inflicted turmoils of this life. Amen

"Woman behold thy son. Son behold thy mother."

 

 26/05/2026

We do not have a lot of words or sayings that have been attributed to St Peter and yet he is a focal point of  Christianity. 

He is the one who confirmed the break with Temple religion and Law on the basis that he had witnessed the Holy Spirit blessing Gentile converts. He baptised the uncircumcised Cornelius and also denied the necessity for dietary laws, but in his preaching today he is aware that the Hebrew Prophets were guided by the Holy Spirit to prepare the way for us to become able to accept the Incarnation as the completed manifestation of way to holiness in this world.

In the Gospel reading Peter is reacting to the  "rich young man" whose wealth held him back from  following the Lord. He is appealing for an indication from Jesus what is going to be the outcome for the Apostles having abandoned everything to literally walk with him around the villages of Galilee and Judea.

Jesus' reply seems to say that the earthly ("in this time") rewards of perfect discipleship will be huge.

At that time: Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘See, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers or sisters, or mother or father, or children, or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brothers and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’

We really do have to interpret anything that we read in scripture in the light of the whole. Jesus has made it clear "that his kingdom is not of this world". To become the owner of the whole world is a profitless exercise if our soul is lost. He has thus told us not to become overcome by the things of this world and even here the last one of the benefits that we are to receive one hundredfold "in this time" is "persecution".

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’

 24/05/2026

Whit Sunday

        Wisdom    Understanding    Counsel    Fortitude    Knowledge    Piety    Fear of the Lord 

The promised "helper" has arrived today and the "formation" of the first "Bishops" of the Church is complete. 

I was able to list the "Seven Gifts" not because I remember them but because the "click of a mouse" is not only the door to distraction but it can also be very helpful to those such as I who are aware that there is much that they should have remembered.

 At the moment I am avoiding facing the challenge that is posed by "tongues of fire" and "sound like a rushing wind".

Jesus is "true man and true God" and so "The resurrection" can show his wounds to his Apostles but he "breathes" onto them their spiritual authority to forgive sin. He does not hand over anything that is tangible.

The seventy-two were told that "if their peace were not accepted" they were to take it back. Simon Magus was ready to pay money to obtain "the Holy Spirit". Both incidents sound as if there were something tangible about "peace" and "Holy Spirit".

I know that I can raise my heart and mind towards God only with the unseen help that is Holy Spirit from IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and that we can only "know" God, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT but never understand him even when we accept and truly make use of the gifts with which we begin and also conclude these reflections which are my prayer for this Whit Sunday, the celebration of the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Helper. Amen

        Wisdom    Understanding    Counsel    Fortitude    Knowledge    Piety    Fear of the Lord 

 23/05/2026

7th Saturday in Eastertide

Many scholars have made their livings out of delving into the authorship of our scriptures.

The writer of the "Gospel According to St John" tells us that he is "The disciple whom Jesus loved".

Ever since I learnt the Penny Catechism I have tried to guide my life from childhood to "octogenarianhood" by "God made me to know, love and serve him in this world" and have had a waxing and waning interest in liturgy, scripture and theology. 

I have no illusions about the depth of my knowledge. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing". I do, however, find comfort in "No-one knows the Father except the Son and he  to whom the Son chooses to reveal him". 

In fact it is more than comfort that I find in those words of SON for Jesus thus assures us that when we  escape from the clutches of selfhood, this world, the flesh and the illusory non-being, evil that they create to deceive us, we become open to accept and return the Love of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT and thus prepare our souls in this world for the ALLINALL, the timeless and thus never ending perfection of ultimate worship.

All Scripture, Old and New Testaments are "texts", that over the centuries have been written by hand on scrolls and in books, printed by hand and rolling press and can now be brought to our screens by a click of a mouse. But just as with Jesus with the scriptures "there is always something greater here".

We have not been left alone in this vast but to us decipherable, that is why mankind becomes insufferably proud,  Universe. Those who wrote the scriptures lived in this world millennia ago but they are still beings and unequivocally know that it is the Spirit of Truth who guided their consciousnesses in this world and that we the living can still be guided by the work of their brains and hands into the way, truth and life. 

They who wrote the scriptures know that their personal identity is unimportant as the certain author of all Scripture is the WORD.

Our "Gospel" Mass Reading today concludes John's remembrances of the real time events in which he shared, that enable us to become the ones to whom Jesus chooses to reveal "IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT" to enable us to live our lives to the full.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

 22/05/2026

Friday Week 7 Easter

In this morning's Gospel, true man and true God, the Resurrection, has given his Apostles breakfast on the shore of Lake Galilee. 

True God, IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT knows in his timelessness how these chosen beloved friends will extend his mission into the future that is created by mankind and how we all will live up to the revelations made through them.

True Man, Jesus of Nazareth, the Resurrection, knows that they are all hungry so feeds their bodies first before reinforcing their souls.

I am sure that in the real-time of that historical event, Peter, whose authority is thus reconfirmed by being singled out to reaffirm his faith, was much more than "grieved" to be so questioned. In his consciousness  he must have been in turmoil for he knew that it was only a month previously that he had three times, very publicly, denied all knowledge of Jesus.

Three denials are cancelled by the three affirmations of love that are now made.

In the first reading Festus the Roman Tribune explains to Agrippa the legalities which had prompted him to keep Paul in Caesarea before sending him to fulfil the  appeal to Nero that had already been made. I have always been amazed how it was that Paul's "appeal to Caesar" was so honoured.

The  historical "this worldly troubles" in the Holy Land that resulted in the destruction of the Temple are about to begin and the martyrdom of both Peter and Paul in Rome and the efficiency of its communications, "all roads lead to Rome." begin the entanglement with the "things of this world" that continue to mar the "Cure of Souls" that was entrusted to St Peter and the other first friends of Jesus.

St John remembers that the Church founded on Peter has to be fuelled only by Love. He also knows by experience that "Church Love" is also the totally spiritual New Holy Family that he and Mary formed in obedience to "Woman behold your Son. Son behold your mother", the last words spoken to them before "It is finished" was witnessed on Calvary.

Dear Lord, you know how your disciples became separated from the unity that they had as the offspring of Abraham. We have continued to grow further apart from "The Jews". I know that all the evils that exist in this world are created by mankind and that at the world's end they will be nothing. Help me and all peoples of the world know that we have been created by Love, to Love one another in order that united in Love we can do your Will on earth as it is in Heaven. Come Lord, Jesus Come! Maranatha! Amen!

 

 21/05/2026

Thursday Week 7 Eastertide

We begin our Mass readings for today, still in Palestine with St Paul who has been accused by the same "Jews" who had instigated the execution of Jesus. As did Pilate, this Roman Tribune also knew that his "Jews" were up to something that he could not understand. 

He, however, did not wash his hands of the matter but set up a confrontation between Paul and his adversaries in an attempt to understand what it was that had caused the differences, the source of the  antagonism and riotous uproar.

Jesus did tell Pilate "My kingdom is not of this world" but this world, specifically the Roman Empire, still played  a huge role in the shaping of the institutional Church of the first centuries, both Byzantine and Roman, and thus began the break up of what John remembers in today's Gospel as Jesus' "prayer for unity."

John developed his Gospel during the fifty or so years that had passed since the Resurrection, when the first Christians had anticipated the return of Jesus to the extent that they had even given up their own private property and formed a worshipping commune, the first monastic community.

John's Gospel however is inspired to become "theology" which forms the framework in which we can learn how to live "in this world but not of it". 

We all have to live our lives learning that the SPIRIT of IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT is both the source and meaning of our lives. Jesus the Incarnate Son, teaches us that the temporal things  of this world are not a goal but only an opportunity for him to physically demonstrate the extent of Divine Love and for us to grasp that the real time  we are experiencing at this moment has only to be used, as did he, to fulfill the will of FATHER on earth as it is in Heaven. Mammon only has  temporal  existence even though counted in billions.

We are not left alone in this Universe to be overcome by the incomprehensible vastness of the spaces between the stars and infinitely small atomic particles, we are not confined by evolution, we are not at the mercy of time; we are known and loved by "Our Father" who created us and our spiritual home in this world, "of but not in it"; our Church of Love , God's New Holy Family.

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