31/07/2022

The words of scripture in today's mass continue to emphasise that we must put God foremost in our lives. All our successes in life, major or minor, will come to nothing if they are centred on created matter. St Paul makes it quite plain that we have to be centered on and targeted at heaven for it is in this infinite Christ that we will find happiness. God has not created us for hell. We are real beings with the opportunity to know total happiness.

Our bodies can find temporary happiness in fornication.Vanity! Our place in the world can bring us human respect.Vanity! Our diligence at work can fill our days with self-satisfaction.Vanity! Wealth can please us now but at the moment of death a hefty bank balance is revealed as nothing but empty vanity.

Our souls can find contentment in prayer. The liturgy of the Church can fill our time with holy joy. We can devote our lives to a cycle of prayer but if we tell ourselves and others lies, this religion too is vanity. The vanity of self-satisfying worship is the most dangerous of vanities for it mouths praises of the Lord but puts self before Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord help me to face you in truth. Purify my being with truth. Let me unravel the confusion of my thoughts to find and hold on to the thread that is your Love, the way, the truth, and the light. May your mother's prayers continue to bring help to the suffering and sick of this world and let the penance of those in purgatory soon become acceptable for you to welcome them into your presence.

 30/07/2022

All of us are living in the sight of God. Our wills are free. We have to use this freedom in the right way. If our hearts are pure then the words from our mouths are pure. If my soul is ruled by sin then my words and deeds will be sinful. The goldenwords of today's St Peter were guided by Father Son and Holy Spirit to counter the the false teaching that was strong in his day. His reknowned sermons were in no way verbiose but short and to the point.

Much can be said in few words, Our Apostles Creed contains all that our Faith teaches as the Word of God. In less than a minute the words that rule my life are said. The word "Credo" is a solid concentration of all that God asks of us in this world. That sentence in a word leaves me speechless for I know that its  pure truth  enables me to live in total peace through the millions of moments that makeup my life.

Throughout the world at this moments mass is being said by priests chosen by God to be our guides and teachers in this world. They are the successors of St Paul,  the Apostles and all the saints who have gone to their eternal reward. If our clergy  could focus their beings or their calling and take Jesus' life and death as their only aim in life we, the sheep, would be able to trust their words and liturgies.

We do not need "Goldenwords" but undefiled by hypocritical deeds words that really do come from God Our Father in heaven.

Dear Lord let me be aware of my true purpose in life. Let me bear witness to your Glory and and find the joy of your presnce to my soul in this life. I am still a sinful man bring me to the Grace won by the impossible pain of Calvary and let your dedicated servants be true to the words that they are face to face with every moment of their ministries. May Mary and all the Saints help me to face the reality that is your Word and let the Love of Father Son and Holy Spirit embrace the suffering of all the sick and wounded in this world.

 29/07/2022

I remember Martha mostly for her complaint about her sister not doing her share of the housework and just sitting. She wasn't just "sitting" she was listening to the words of Jesus and Jesus rejects the complaint for being with God is the very best we can do in this world and in the next where we will enjoy our humanity perfected by the incarnate Son. I don't remember being aware of her profession of Faith before today. 

Jeremiah warns us by his words to his contemporaries which are still true today even though we have had the grace of the presence of God with us in the flesh and sacramentally for more than 2000 years.There has got to be an end to the misuse of human freedom which is the characteristic of my generation in this world. Even in our churches words and deeds are directed against the revelations to the Old Tesatment prophets and against Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Martha was rebuked by Jesus but in her lifetime she would witness the restoration of life to her dead brother, the triumph of Palm Sunday and the torture and death of her Rabi. Most of all she, who already believed in the final judgement of God, would see the "first fruits of the resurrrecton" and after the death on Calvary would be able to greet the risen Lord. 

There were many others in Palestine who witnessed the birth of the Church. Am I one amongst the many who will witness its complete collapse?

Dear Lord, let me this day live without sin and know that the busyness of life has a better part. Let the Holy Spirit fill the hearts of those who have chosen to spend their time on earth in prayer and meditation so that they can hold onto the path of holiness for which they have been chosen. May Mary join with the prayers of Martha and the other saints to have the scandals that are littering the Way, the Truth and the Life revealed by the words and deeds of Jesus removed so that we the bewildered and suffering little ones can be well supported in this life and find the infinity of Love that is Life after death.

 27/07/2022

I hope that today I will be able to be more aware of the gift that has been given to me. I live and I am aware that I do so. I know that this "being" is a gift which has been given by my Creator. The Lord our God does not require anything more of me than to be wise in the midst of the cavalcade of temptation that the devil has produced in the world. Wisdom is not great intelligence. It is the search for truth and for knowledge of myself in the sight of God.

Wisdom is not clever words or wordy assessments of the posssible nature of God. It is the child who knows that his father will not harm him by word or deed. It is finding myself in the calm and cooling breeze as the prophet found God. It is every word and command that comes from Father Son and Holy Spirit and my acceptance of them.

Hiding the treasure and then buying the field without revealing it to the owner seems to be an act of dishonesty, very human but still dishonest. Buying the pearl is an honest and open transaction. It cannot be that Jesus is advocating the dishonesty of asset-stripping; the treasure in the field being the hidden value not realised by the present owners that is captured by the greed of Mamon re-named as "Private Equity".

Dear Lord let me pray this day and keep my mind away from stupid reminiscences; let me be mindful of sin and thus avoid it; let me know how to show love for my neighbour and avoid quarrels and confrontations. Let me know love and serve you in this life so that I can fulfill your plans for me. May Mary and all the Saints support the countless millions of your poor humanity for whom daily suffering is their way of life.

 26/07/2022

For two days I have not used this keyboard to record my prayers and declare my Hope in the Lord. I am still a child before my "Dad". Father, Son and Holy Spirit still know me even though I have not declared my faith and thanks for all the graces given to me.

The people of God witnessed and addressed by Jeremiah are suffering an abandonment that seems to them as total. I have never been near to that despair that Judas' understanding of himself brought about his self-eradication but for the last two days I cannot say that God has been my foremost concern.

My being is certainly a wheat field sowed with darnel. Sometimes the wheat flourishes. When the darnel begins to grow however I cannot be sure that the World with all its beauty and concerns, legitimate and otherwise is choking out the awareness of Grace and Love that feeds the wheat. Our Lord and Saviour warns us of this. When my soul is harvested it will be valued by the fruits of my life. I hope and pray that I am truly availing myself of the free gift of life and using it to know love and serve God.

Dear Lord you know what I am, let me return your loving creation of me by sincere devotion to your ways and by casting out the darnel become a harvest as fitting as possible to your Glory. Today we honour the parents of your mother. May Our Lady's perfect love and obedience so inspire our Church that true purpose and Faith return where it is so missing.

23/07/2022

I have not attended mass for the last 3 years. I am distrustful of all the Church structures which were once my mainstay in life. I truly believe that the Sacraments are the Grace of Jesus won by his Life Death and resurrection and instituted at the Last Supper. The Apostles became priests and passed this comission onto those who dedicated their lives to God. 

I am sitting here having read the mass readings of the day. The life of Faith becomes  the Life of Christ living in us. We cannot live without the roots and the vine which is the Living Jesus. I have to ask myself whether my devotion to Father Son and Holy Spirit is truly the mainstay of my life or has it been chosen by me as compensation for my lack of ability in the world. I have not been a success by the world's standards and for a long time my life was also morally corrupt punctuated with moments of piety. 

I have often been covetous of the success and wealth of others but when reading scriptures and thinking about life and how I should live mine I know that there is only one satisfactory answer to my disquiet. I must cling to my fragile link to the vine knowing that God knows me and that there can be nothing better than that. The world will pass away but the Word will stand.

Dear Lord I am only because you will it. You create us in Love and it is in the acceptance of your love that I can have my being. Seeking out and doing your will is the only way to live with justice in this world. I can only do good by putting you first then my neighbour. May my prayers join those of Our Lady and all the heavenly souls in thankful praise of your Glory and evergreater mercy.

 22/07/2022

Mary of Magdala is the first witness. Jesus revealed himself to her. She had stood at the foot of the cross with the Mother and the other Mary. She had held onto the lifeless corpse. She had helped in the preparation for burial. She had been in despair for Jesus the great hope of his disciples had gone from this world. At that moment she was truly calling out as  the dying Jesus had done.

She did not recognise  the "gardener" but in the same second Jesus announced to the world that there is life after death albeit in a different form than our present experience. Don't touch me! Go and announce my return. Tell it to all the disciples and spread the Good News.

Bewilderment was the first reaction. We knew that his life's blood had dripped out on Calvary. He had shouted out a familiar prayer. He had breathed his last breath. His being was now pure dross. The dust, the created matter which Father, Son and Holy Spirit had used to form our human bodies to house our souls, was his only existence.

The whole of the world has been presented with the truth. The reality of my being is guaranteed by the Creator who has given us life out of his own being for he is Love. In his greatness he has no need of anything but out of Love he has shared His joy of being with the Universe in which we pass our material lives. Our first experience of life is in this world which is wonderful  but what we are to become cannot be imagined for our God is the Evergreater and we will see him as he really is.

Dear Lord support me in my more than clouded experience of what it is to be like you in being. I need to be aware of you in all my moments of life. "Thanks,"gratitude" "belief" "worship" "obedience" need to be more than words but must fill my life with Truth. May Mary and the other Marys join my prayers with those of the other saints to strengthen the Church which is not living up to the Life Death and Resurrection of the Incarnate Jesus , our Lord and our God.