30/04/2023

God's revelation of himself to his favoured nation had been completed when Peter, his chosen rock on which to build his Church, addressed the crowd gathered in the Temple to celebrate Pentecost. 

I have been born into my Faith. All of those listening to Peter and he himself had been born into their Faith. Faith in God has been received into our beings at birth. My Faith has grown and been fed by religious practices and  Scriptures. I have never been argued out of my Faith by heretics or philosophers no matter how skillful. My readings from the Fathers and from modern theologians have only confirmed the Faith that is recorded in the Scriptures celebrated in the Liturgy.

There has to be something more than skilful words that convinced those who listened to Peter. His religion was the same as theirs but so terribly different. God had a son! The man executed for blasphemy by Crucifixion the previous month was alive again  and had been seen by these Apostles. Their wives sisters and daughters knew women who repeated the same words about the Resurrected Son as this man speaking in the Temple.

Father Son and Holy Spirit was clearly present with Peter and the others in those first days of the Church. There was no worldly power in their group, there were no great scholars, there were no doctors or golden mouths there were only, in the eyes of the world, unimportant men and women who had been gifted by God with the faith that knew that their lives would not end in their deaths and that the Creator /Saviour and Love asked only that they know, love and serve him in this world. They were not left alone to do this but were also promised the loving guidance of a Good Shepherd who was also their Spiritual Food.

Dear Lord let me be only sincere in my thoughts and faithful in my deeds. Let me stay with you at all times so that secure in your grace I can rebuff sin. May Mary who witnessed all of your life and the planting of the seeds of Faith continue to support the Church, teach sinners to seek forgiveness and implore you for the Mercy that is needed by all on Earth and in Purgatory.

 29/04/2023

If we live in the light revealed by the Scriptures it is possible to live without sin. The light of the Scriptures is the Truth and the sinless Way revealed by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We can as humans investigate the material  Universe. We have learnt many facts about Matter. We can cure disease, we can go to the moon, we can breath underwater. We can manipulate the genetic matter of our own bodies. These are scientific facts but they are not God's Truth.

If we live only in the Facts of Matter there is no Truth in us. All of our "Facts"can be completely destroyed as time passes. The abilities of the wonder of Artificial Intelligence can not last an assault by Atomic weapons for it too is a physical Fact. Only God is Truth. Father Son and Holy Spirit has no beginning or end. 

The Facts of our being are not only physical. God has created for us each a soul which has Freedom. A free will which can compare Facts and Truth. Our will is not only free but it is supported by God's revelation of himself. Jesus is a Fact of History. He and Mary are both Fact and Truth. The Eternal Word, the Truth, is incarnate in the flesh of Mary a created Fact. 

Adam, Eve, Mary and Jesus are the only Humans in whom there is no sin at birth. St. John is writing inspired by "The Holy Spirit" to stop us from sinning and to teach that when we do sin we must remember that Jesus died in bitter pain to open up the floodgates of God's Mercy. In St Mathew's Gospel we "the little children" are gathered in by the wounded and loving arms of the Fact of God on Earth and we are comforted by Truth.  

"Shoulder my yoke and learn from me for I am humble and gentle of heart. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Dear Lord let my being be always open to your Mercy. Let me not deceive myself for my sins are the nails that pierce your real body, a physical Fact as much as is my own. May Mary whose physical body nurtured the growth of your body in our world of matter, continue in the the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit to lead St Catherine and all the Saints in worship and in pleading for your Mercy to be showered down onto sinners both on earth and in Purgatory.

 28/04/2023

God's revelation of himself on the Road to Damascus brings about a conversion known as one of the most spectacular in the whole history of mankind. Saul having harried the nascent Church in Jerusalem was on his way to do the same in Damascus. Father, Son and Holy Spirit stops him and reveals himself as Jesus. Saul then experiences a total blackout for three days before sight returns to Paul.

Jesus was not seen until the third day of his entombment. Paul could not see until his sight returned on the third day of his blindness. The Jews had been the strongest monotheists of the ancient world. Saul had been dedicated to the study of the Scriptures of "IAMIAM". When his sight returned he began to preach. "Jesus is the Son of God". This is indeed speechless wonder!

When Mary Magdalen saw the "gardener" she saw the risen lord but was disturbed in her own being to the extent that she "knew" but did not recognise. All the first recollections of the Resurrection have this quality of "seeing" but not "knowing"until Thomas touches the wounds and Jesus not only eats with the Apostles and even cooks for them by the shores of Lake Galilee.

There is nothing but clarity in St John's memoir of Jesus' teaching at Capernaum. IAMIAM is the source of life. I am his Son. Life comes from the Father into the Son and the Son is the Bread from Heaven that is always available to ensure that all mankind can believe and thus accept the Holy Spirit the Loving Mercy that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, you know that accepting the holiness that your Church needs to be the vehicle of your Will on earth, has always been difficult. You have always tolerated the sinfulness of priests and prelates but we who sincerely try to know, love and serve are more than disappointed as we come to know more about the personal sins of clerics and the institutionalised perfidy of prelates. May Mary and all the saints pray that all priests act in accordance to the words they preach and not be satisfied with a glib, "I 'm a sinner too". We all need heartfelt repentance and to seek penance in this life before entering into the Spiritual purging of Purgatory.

 27/04/2023

Jesus is "the living bread that has come down from heaven". The pure "Life" and "Love" that is the "being" of God" was walking the roads of Palestine and revealing to the "crowd" how to understand the wonder of their beings and their history. The people who listened saw a man just as they were. 

Many who listened were familiar with the Scriptures and were fertile ground in which to plant new seed "Could this be the "Messiah" who had been promised? The fishermen had asked this of themselves when first called and no doubt this question was always in the minds of the Jews to whom Jesus had first preached.

Many of the non-Jews, those who had listened to his preaching and witnessed or heard of his miracles around Sidon and in the Decapolis would have been mystified by the concept of "Messiah"and asked for explanations from their Jewish neighbours. St Philip was sent to do this to the Ethiopian.

Jesus tells us all directly that we have to eat the Bread of Heaven if we are to know eternal life. He is the Bread of Heaven. With Jesus there is no guile. He is what we see and he says what he is. He is a man such as we are. He bleeds out his human flesh to become the ever present Sacrifice in the Sacrament of the Altar. 

The Evergreater Father, Son and Holy Spirit is ever present in the bread and wine of the mass just as the man Jesus was at the Last Supper and on the hill at Golgotha and this will be so until the end of earthly time. God's Eternity is known only to himself.

Dear Lord, you know that I believe your words but doubt the intentions of the corruption that has damaged your Church. May Mary's pleas for the water to be turned into wine once more be witnessed by a renewal of holiness that will overcome the damage to your Church done by my sins and those of the whole world. 

 

 26/04/2023

According to English Law today, Saul could have been prosecuted for murder as although his was a passive role, he had only guarded the clothes of those who killed St Stephen by stoning him to death, there was in effect a "Joint Enterprise" which resulted in the crime. 

St Paul was part of that crime and he emphasised his role in it by becoming a leading light in the first systematic campaign against the heretical sect that was disturbing the religious beliefs he had spent perfecting as a disciple of Gamliel.

The Resurrection is the Father uniquely acting in his created Universe. St Paul is Jesus acting uniquely on the road to Road to Damascus. St Paul's completed life is the  mission whereby The Holy Spirit uniquely spread the  Good News and thus founded the Church on the rock, St Peter.

Each one of us is also uniquely created by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have to use our beings "to cry out with joy" in unison with all the created Earth. We have to "see" Jesus i.e. know him in the Liturgy and in the Scriptures. We have to be sure that we are "saved" and ready to  enter into the Kingdom of Heaven for no matter how evil our sins, they can be and are forgiven ( remember how both St Peter and St Paul are both grave public sinners but forgiven), when we repent and open our hearts to receive the Mercy that is the Glory, that is the Love of God.

Dear Lord, the depth of my being is known only to you. Help me to stay repentant, open to your mercy and ready to do your Will. May Mary born without sin and Theotokos pray that all we sinners listen to our consciences and not bolster up our selves by finding excuses and false "gods", the many "isms"that plague our lives. May she and all the Saints implore your Mercy to accept the Penance being lived by the Holy Souls in Purgatory. May we all come to know the New Life at the end of time while we avoid Sin in all of our present "nows". Maranatha!

 25/04/2023

To be a Christian we have to know that we have a mission. Jesus' life on Earth was to do the will of his Father. That is also our mission. We have to show by our lives that we know that there is something greater than just being alive. We have to show that we can face any adversity. We have to be secure in the knowledge that God knows each of us and will not let us be tempted beyond  the limits of our strength.

Today I am having to force myself to respond to the readings at mass. I have not witnessed any of the "signs" listed by Mark. I have not witnessed the Resurrection but totally believe in the Incarnation, Life, Death and Resurrection of the Son of God and of his miracles done on Earth. For some reason I really don't want to believe in "Tongues", "Snake-handling", or "Poison-drinking".

Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead. He was never a carnival act. The Son of God never babbled, played with snakes or drank poison to gain attention. His person was enough to draw the crowds to him. His miracles were confirmation of the Love that is still his being. They were not the proof of supernatural powers of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We who see the immensity of the night sky, the beauty of the world, the wonder of our individual being and know the Love that comes from God have no need of useless tricks to help us turn each day, in thanks, and pray "Our Father ...

Dear Lord , the Jews needed signs, the Greeks wisdom; we their spiritual descendants need only loving Faith and humble contrite hearts. May Mary around whom has grown here on earth many false superstitions, lead all the saints in the reality of prayer that is Your Love for Mankind incarnated in her womb. May their pleas be heard and may all human souls living on Earth and waiting in Purgatory be totally open to the forgiveness that you shower down on us.

 

 24/04/2023

It seems that St George's feast has been transferred to today as yesterday was a Sunday. At the time of the Council there were a whole host of changes to the Calendar that had remained unchanged since the Council of Trent. Although a very popular saint, the legends around that "name" owed as much to paganism as to the knight of the red cross patron of Crusaders and patron of England.

 I seem to remember that at that time there was much agitation to drop saints about whom there was a lack of historical evidence, from the Universal Calendar. "Duplicate" feasts were also dropped which annoyed me as "St Peter's Chair in Rome" 18 January, my birthday was combined with "St Peter's Chair in Antioch".

At the time of Trent the Church had institutionalised itself to the extent that it had been putty in the hands of Roman aristocrats, French Royalty and Spanish degenerates for at least twelve hundred years. Jesus had reassured Pilate "My Kingdom is not of this world" but within four hundred years Bishops of Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Byzantium and Cyprus were squabbling about not only theology but also about the extent of their political authority.

The legacy of that disobedience to the Word of God is still with us. We are not making war against each other as did the Crusaders taking the words of Rome at their face-value and grabbing what they could  from Byzantium for there was no sin in killing either Muslims or Greek heretics, but the Mystical Body of Christ is still a scattered mosaic of churches, cults and sects lacking the unity in love and obedience that we all owe to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, help me to turn to the Church Triumphant with you in heaven for the support that my Faith needs here on Earth. May Mary and all the saints pray for all of us who are unable to believe that Sacramental Good can coexist within the sinful body for whom "ex opere operato" has become "going through the motions" and not the true intention to unite actions done here on Earth with yours in heaven and so care for our souls on earth.