31/01/2023

We have to keep fighting against sin which sticks like velcro and ruins our souls also just like velcro ruins knitwear. We have to keep fighting against sin to the point of death by making Jesus our goal and our example. We have to tell future generations about the Lord and prepare them by making known the Love that is Father Son and Holy Spirit. I know that I have not done this during my lifetime and as I get closer to the end I become more aware of how easy it is to make excuses for my sins.

I have witnessed and been part of the collapse of  Christianity as the leader and setter of moral values in Europe. St Paul has stressed more than once the theme of competition. We have to run the race. We have to keep on fighting. We have to train. His congregations have to be teams composed of individuals all with different gifts and abilities who support each other in the quest for holiness which is the "power"that disabled woman felt when she touched the hem of Jesus' garment.

Our Church is the living body of which Jesus is the head. Jesus, the Son of God, the same substance as the Father, the Word who is there at the start of time to be together with the Father, the Holy Spirit one God. The Trinity of Persons is the Evergreater substance that is the Love first revealed in Eden and prepared in Gethsemane to be nailed on a cross to show for ever the power that is Eternal Love. 

This is what I believe and I pray that the institution can forget patrimony, disregard tradition and become truly the Church founded by Jesus, preached by the Apostles and loved to the point of death by the Holy Ones of God. Each of us past, present and future has been given the freedom along with the obligation to do this.

Dear Lord, let me not lose sight of these words with which I begin my day. I will, with your help let all whom I love know this Faith which I ask to be able to maintain with sincerity of purpose and integrity of being. May the prayerful support of Mary be with our leaders to turn them from the things of this world that they may be true to their vocations and seek holiness for themselves and their flock on earth and forgiveness for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 30/01/2023

The scribes and Pharisees knew of the nearness of God from their sacred scriptures. Paul lists the "saints" of whom he was aware but whose great deeds of Faith were nothing in comparison with Jesus who fulfills all that God has promised. I like Paul's style of clumping the deeds done by these faithful Jews all together giving an impression that  wonders were an everyday occurrence in  Palestine. This was true of the 33 years of  Jesus pre-resurrection life, however, and thus true Holiness again was given to the Holy land. Paul was, of course, a Resurrection Christian whose knowledge of the Jesus' mission on Earth had been learned from the eyewitnesses in the same way that ours has. 

Jesus preached not only to Jews but also to the mixed communities of the Decapolis and to the people of Lebanon around Tyre and Sidon. I cannot imagine how a herd of five-thousand head of pigs could ever have been controlled and was even needed as the population was not solely pagan. The numbers used in the New Testament to describe crowds are not to be relied on as literal truth but are of the nature of estimates, embellished for literary effect. Even the Evangelists not withstanding their guidance by the Holy Spirit are only humans recollecting their experiences of previous years.

The people who followed the man who had been restored to humanity to see Jesus were both afraid of and amazed by the wandering Rabbi who had restored this man, whom they knew as a violently dangerous maniac, to rationality. I wonder, did the cured one continue to spread the news of Jesus' power and authority? Was he present at the Crucifixion? 

On a different level I ask myself how I would  have felt if it had been my herd that had been driven over a cliff.

Dear Lord the psalm for today's reading was undoubtedly known and possibly sung by you during a Sabbath worship in a Synagogue. In it there is again another warning against pride. Truly self-love is the source of most that troubles our world at all times. Let me become true to your teaching and let the selflessness with which Mary responded to Gabriel's message and thus revealing Father, Son and Holy Spirit be the example that I must follow and the support that I need.

29/02/2023

If we all were to try to practise what is preached in all of the readings for today's Masses we would be living together on this earth in the peace and tranquility God wants for us. The Israelites didn't quite make it. At least, the ones we read about in the Old Testament didn't make it as the "Chosen People" although individuals and possibly some groups e.g.the Essenes did maintain an obedience to the spirit of the Law.

Love is never putting yourself first. The first family in Genesis are recorded as having produced the first killing, the first murder and since that time our race has maintained an unholy history of growth in wealth, in power, in knowledge. God knows this and could stop it but the freedom given to us  means that we have to choose for ourselves to become the creatures that God wants to be. All of creation is as it was created  , "and it is good" except for us who are continuing to destroy God's work both in ourselves and in our world.

One of Paul's first churches in Europe was soon at strife amongst themselves. The Corinthians dwelt in an anciently civilised community which meant that they had a rigidly hierarchical society and although converted to the Resurrection Faith by the charisma of Paul could not adapt to the love for each other that had been shown by our crucified Lord.

Preaching on a hillock in Galilee in the person of Incarnate Son,  Father, Son and Holy Spirit told us how we can bring ourselves to the holiness that would make us fulfill his will. The first of our kind failed even though the Hindu and Buddhist ancient texts show that they tried and are still trying. God even chose a group to especially favour, Jesus was preaching to their descendants, but they went so far in disobedience as to agitate the civil powers in Palestine to kill the Son of God.

Our own world today is nothing but strife. All organisations create their own versions of dissension rivalry and hate. It is only by each individual in the world trying to be in this life the human that we could all be if we treated the Word with the honour, devotion and obedience that his Evergreater being revealed in Galilee of the Nations.

Dear Lord, "I thank you for the wonder of my being" and pray that I can use your grace to increase my integrity and Faith. I am afraid that my being is too weak to escape from self-fixation and truly return the "Love lavished on all the World". May the prayers of Mary help us all to live in the words spoken on the Mount and may she and all the saints who even not present as she was at the "Sermon" implore the Holy Spirit to fill all our souls with the Love that comes from doing the will of God.

 28/01/2023

 As I read the first of this morning readings I could not but help to have in mind St Paul's warning that no matter what our good deeds, our wisdom, our understanding it is by love that we will be measured . In my day there have been in our Church very many theologians, men gifted with great intelligence. There have also been episodes that have totally disgraced our Church by their lack of anything but self-love.

This has also been true throughout history, where the leaders of our Church have become powerful rulers of territory challenging kingdoms and empires. It should never have been that there was such an entity as a Papal State. No wonder the Vatican today is a mess of vanities where there are struggles over wealth and power."My kingdom is not of this world" is as easy to understand as "Thou shalt not kill" or any other of God's ten gifts to Moses on Mount Sinai but seems to have been impossible to obey

Jesus, our Lord our God did not lie to us. His is another "world", another "kingdom" of the Spirit which is the reality that has been revealed by the prophets and in our final revelation by Father Son and Holy Spirit in the Incarnation, Life, Death and Glorious Resurrection.

Jesus knows what it is to be man, he knows that prideful very centre of my being that is the cause of any difficulties I might experience and he warns his closest friends, the first believers, to have no human ranks among themselves. What is it about "Call no man Father" that our Church has not understood. Wisdom  is not the ability to twist words and grow our ideas. It is the gift that enables us to live in Love, as did the Word of God. Jesus owned only his bare necessities for living and died even without those. How can an Archbishop clothe himself in enough cloth to dress the "five-thousand"when he is supposed to be the guardian of Christ's teaching and Sacraments here on earth.

Dear Lord help me keep myself from sin and know that our Father is in heaven and that those with the greatest spiritual gifts are still only feeble men if they do not with open hearts turn each day to the Wonder and Glory of God. He will be with his Church even in the travesty, the mummery symbolised by one of those whose gifts should have overcome his pride. May Mary who is Theotokos not only because she carried the Life of the World in her womb but you also held the bloodied, lifeless corpse after the crucifixion pray that the worldly riches of the Church be liquidated and just given directly to the poor. Let us pray for the Church that she  become the place where prideful prelates can understand Jesus who had nowhere to rest his head and not just soulessly repeat his words.

 27/01/2023

The persecution of the early Christians was first experienced in Jerusalem where Jesus had been the first victim, the High Priest and the Sacrifice, once and for all. Jesus was crucified and the way the truth and the life was opened for all and for ever. The Mass is the reflection of that once and for all, eternal event. 

Jesus the co-equal Son empties himself of the power of his divine being and freely accepts the abandonment by the Father. Even though Jesus knows what the outcome will be, the pain of this abandonment becomes real in his acceptance of human time and in the garden he pleads that it might pass and  the cry of the Son on the Cross is ultimate pain that we his creation have brought to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God cannot be understood. My words are confused lost in the mystery that I can worship but never understand. Mark tells us that the Apostles who lived and worked with Jesus had to have some of his sayings explained to them but he does not claim to have had secrets told to him and the other disciples that were not shared with all humanity.

God wants us all to turn to him of our own free will. In our humanity we share the instincts of the animals but we are much more than our pre-coded bodies which flinch from pain and can pursue pleasure. Each one of us at the moment of conception has our soul breathed into us by the Holy Spirit. 

The Incarnation has changed the nature of humanity both body and soul . Our Souls are a precious image of God's own nature and have to be protected from the rampaging evil that still fills the world. That is what the old penny catechism means by "know love and serve".

Jesus by emptying himself to become the seed smaller than the mustard seed and accepted by Mary has become the Resurrection, our protection from all evil but we have to make the choice for ourselves. God has created us to be free beings and it is in our free choice of Truth in which he delights and fills us with his love.

Dear Lord let my being be filled with your love and the wish to serve you during my life-time. You know what I am to become. May your Mother the source of your body help me and all her children to become the holy ones that you have created us all to be and may her prayers and those of the saints protect us from the devil and may your mercy continue to inspire the penitence of the Holy Souls.

 26/01/2023

The Apostolic Succession is not just a phrase to be trotted out in discussions about the True Faith and the validity of Sacraments but is the Holy Spirit, the Truth of Father Son and Holy Spirit present in all generations after the Resurrection. There is nothing in the tradition recorded in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches that is different from that preached by the Apostles.

The Worlds where that preaching is proclaimed are different only in their abilities to understand matter and to manipulate it. We are still dust and to dust we will all return. This is true of first century Jerusalem and also true for today. Jesus is the great light seen by the wise men and when we see the same light we have to share it for it is to all men that Father, Son and Holy Spirit made the last of his revelations with the founding on Peter of the Church that will be supported to the end of time by the Body broken and by the Blood shed for us on Calvary.

I have great love for my family but show my Faith to them with timidity which is not what has been given to us. I am now trying to justify this timidity in my head even as I type these words. It is basically that I am too weak to challenge their lack of faith and justify myself by these prayers and meditations recorded as this Blog which is known only to God as it has been read by nobody. My timidity is a fear compounded of seeming to be stupid and pride in what I write.With God's help I will this day try to find ways of opening this blog so that it can be accessed by anyone but especially by those whom I hold dear.

Dear Lord, I know that you are with me and that it is myself who does not take the step of proclaiming the Joy of Faith with the power of your love. Let the Prayers of Mary and all the Saints strengthen me to accept your grace and fulfill your will for me in sincere obedience.

 25/01/2023

St Paul's conversion on his way to Damascus is probably the third most staggering event in the history of mankind. It is also a result of God's direct intervention in the affairs of his creation, our world. There has never been anything greater than the Incarnation and the Resurrection, but the results of Paul's conversion have shaped both the Church, Christ's Body on Earth and the way of life that is followed by most of the world's population even if they profess to be non-Christians and even Atheists.

The first Christians who were convinced that Jesus would be returning on the "clouds of Heaven" in their lifetimes must have been disappointed that this did not happen but this disappointment is not recorded anywhere that I have read about. Modern Christians have tried to access the Holy Spirit by speaking in tongues. Snake handling has been part of some renewal movements. I have never heard of "poison drinking"being tried by any sect. The curing of the sick is what we still practise and their sacramental anointing  is still one of the functions of the Priesthood.

Reading these words of Jesus recorded by Mark, I feel the sort of pressure felt by our Bishops when forced by secular authorities to account for their cover ups  made to protect their abusing priests. The scandal of their coverups is as great a sin as the abuse inflicted on their victims but they felt forced to deny knowledge of wrong doing. We should all openly face up to our sins and trust to the mercy of our Father, "the Dad"of Jesus..

Denying the truth of part of the Gospel is truly gut-wrenching for me but I feel forced to say that Jesus is not recorded in the Gospels as ever having drunk poison or picked up snakes and the Incarnation is the proof that Father, Son and Holy Spirit never expect us to do anything beyond human capabilities. Jesus stretched his human body to the absolute limits on the cross before accepting death as the completion of his Father's will for him. It is death that leads to a new beginning before that Last Coming when God will be all in all and our present bodies will become like the body of the Resurrection.

Dear Lord, you know that I am sincerely trying to live as you have wanted us all to do from the days of Adam and Eve until now. Jesus is the template of perfection and he assures us that we can move mountains if our Faith is strong enough and similarly the snakes and poison of Mark are figures of speech rather than literal proofs of holiness. May the prayers of Mary our heavenly Mother be fruitful in the grace that pours forth from the blessed wounds of Jesus our Lord and our Saviour who is both truly man and with you and the Holy Spirit one God, Creator and Inspiration.