31/05/2023

I wonder how Our Lady travelled from Nazareth to the hill country of Judea. Did she walk? She would not have been alone. Was she accompanied by St Joseph or by one of "Jesus' brothers" her in-laws or more likely by one of her own extended family as Elizabeth is her kinswoman? The New Testament covers a lot of historical time and as with all History Books much more is left out than is included. 

Zephaniah shouts for joy in anticipation of the Lord's presence in Israel. Mary literally, Theotokos, has walked  from Galilee into Judea carrying the incarnate Word, the three month embryonic Jesus. Jesus who has reduced himself from the Evergreater Son to the absolute powerless condition, shared not only by humans but by all earthly life-forms at their moment of conception, is present in the Promised Land and John leaps for joy in Elizabeth's womb.

Now, at the beginning of the New Testament, God has chosen to reveal more of the nature of the Being of IAMIAM. He is the "Glorious" one of Israel. Mary knows the purpose of God our Saviour as do none other of us. She knows that she is God's humblest servant, she knows that she is a created being living only to be God's first chosen and witness to the New Covenant. She knows that her child has been conceived by the Holy Spirit and that he is the Son of God. Through her God reveals his Trinity.

Her return journey back to Galilee must have been much more difficult as she was then six-months with child and must have been, even then, anticipating his birth at Christmas. The Gospel is not "based on a true story" it is the True Story which reveals the Way, the Truth and the Life and the Promise of what is to come.

Dear  Lord, keep me from the self-satisfaction that can destroy my soul. Let me empty myself of all pride and please show me how it is that I can remain devoted to you. May Mary who still cherishes all that she witnessed in her time on earth in her heart lead the Church both Heavenly and Militant in her struggle against the corruption that has contaminated the teaching of her Son and rocked the Sacramental Faith of so many of her adherents.

 30/05/2023

In the first reading we move away from the Old Testament as history of God's revelation but turn to it as  a source of "wisdom". It presents a human reflection on what we all experience as we live our lives. For the Jews the experience of being human in the real world has always been different but their progress as " civilised" humans has been no different than that of other civilised nations and so they have progressed along parallel lines with their near and far neighbours.

The difference between the writers of the "Wisdom Literature" and the sages and philosophers of the pre-Christian World is that not only did they develop their own ideas but they also had the support of God in their "Theo/Philo sophy". The Covenant was the focus of their consciousness and being virtuous in the sight of IAMIAM was their goal.

Jesus is the Son of God. He is not one of a Pantheon. He is not a philosophical concept. He is not a prisoner on the "Wheel of Life".  He is One with the non-consuming fire witnessed by Moses, with the Three at Mamre,"the still small voice" on Carmel. Jesus is the one accepted on our behalf by Mary, followed and deserted by the disciples, tortured and crucified by my sins.

This morning Jesus knows the human ambition that is hidden in the depths of Peter's question and tells us somewhat ambiguously ( does he mean that we will have success in the here and now as well as in heaven?) that we have to focus as did his Jewish forefathers solely on Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to use our freedom to practise virtue, follow the Good News and thus be sure of Eternal Life. 

Dear Lord, may my prayer be as sincerely in tune with your love as you have  made it possible for me to be. May I continue this day in closeness to you and in unity with your peoples alive and dead with the support of our Mother Mary may I and mine be protected from the snares of Evil until we find our true home with you.

 29/05/2023

Our Lady born without any shadow of sin is God's perfect human creation with which to complete his purpose for the total creation that is the reality in which we all know ourselves to be tiny specks but within our self-consciousness we also know that every finite thing within this creation can be known by the wonder that is each mite of humanity.

We are created out of nothing but we are composed of the same "matter" that we see in the reality of the Universe and are thus finite creatures who have been given the gift of approaching the "Most High" with the awareness that we can learn and fulfill the individual missions for which he has created us. Our individual beings are not imprinted with "Data" which is how mankind's  copy of Intelligence has been artificed. Our beings our way beyond the wonders that are to be found throughout  the Nature of Time and Space.

"I am" an extremely tiny "I am" created, not imprinted,  with the "image and likeness" to be free to choose to be part of the total reality of humanity created by the Father, completed by the Word sanctified by the Holy Spirit and accepted for us all by Mary, Mother of Jesus, our Heavenly Mother and celebrated today as "Mother of the Church".

Dear Lord, I thank you for my return to health this day.You know what and how I pray. Let me not become self-satisfied in my physically lonely adherence to you and let the love that grows in my heart be not only for you but also for the failing Church which is the only home for all us "little ones". May the Church listen especially today for the Spiritual Guidance of Your Mother who continues to lead all your brothers and sisters to do your will and may those who are still failing at the time of our deaths join the Holy Souls in Purgatory and thus be then taken into the Glory that you have prepared for us.

 28/05/2023

For several days now I have been unwell and have found that breathing  when it is constricted is very hard work. All the time I have also tried to keep my soul open to God, knowing that prayer should be as important as breath for all living souls. I now know that my time on this earth is limited and so I am trying not to be afraid. When all the quibbles of my mind are settled down I am not actually, I think, afraid for although I have succumbed to sin many times and cooperated with the Devil many times during my life I know that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are immeasurable Love and Mercy. I know that this Love and Mercy is for each of their created Souls and has been poured out to fill the whole world.

The lovely day of Pentecost when Jesus, Holy Ghost and Father shook the being of their Creation and allowed the whole world to know that there is a Way, Truth and Life that can be followed by us all. That the Creator, the Word and the Spirit are One that fills the whole world but know and listen to each "mite" that we are. Pentecost is indeed a lovely day but what has humanity done with that Glory, Wisdom and Truth.?

Dear Lord, just as always as has happened throughout Time your providence has been misused since that day when you gathered your family of believers with your human mother in the Light of your triune Being. I know how easy it is to sin but what has happened to the Mission that you consecrated in the Upper Room? Where can we find the heart of holiness within the sinful guardians of your Real Presence whom you commissioned today? May Mary who experienced a life with God as as no other and who must still be pierced by the "sword of Simeon" add her prayers to mine and to those of all sinners who repent and strive to do your will. Lord let my voice be heard and known by you. Let not the tongues of Pentecostal fire become for me the "babble of pagans" obscuring the direct line You to me-to-You that you have created for each one of us. Help us all Lord! Please!!

 26/05/2023

I have been unwell for sometime and avoided recording my feelings. Nothing I hear about the Church as Institution can make me feel hopeful for that Institution.The Holy Spirit is being shut-out all over the world . Electronic false-life fills up time with trivialities for most of us.The rewards of Mammon are so great that the pursuit of riches is winning the struggle with the world that Jesus left for us. 

I hope that I will be able to come back to my daily routine of following the Mass Readings for each day and opening myself to receive the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I hope that my efforts at worship can be accepted. I expect that the closer I get to death the weaker will become in mind and body.

My soul is for you, Lord, to take possession of,  even though I feel separated from the Church Militant which is too much like the world of Mammon I know that you guide our lives with justice. The good thing is that you do not need me to be perfect beyond my created abilities.

I know that my sins are a huge blot on my life but I turn to the Saints in Heaven and especially to your mother Mary and ask that their prayers  bring Mercy to all us undeserving sinners on earth and those enduring in penitence in Purgatory.

 17/05/2023

St Paul addresses the whole council of the Areopagus. Athens was still the intellectual centre of the Ancient World, although the political centre had shifted west to Rome. There was a Synagogue and as usual there were "God-Fearers". It is this group who arranged for Paul to make his address to the Council.

Paul, who by all accounts was not an immediately prepossessing individual, human beauty was one of the Greek idols, but he was so filled by the Holy Spirit that he was able to hold their attention until he came to "rising from the dead" which he was later to call "a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks" and he was scoffed at by the Court.

This scene of an "insignificant" person preaching the Gospel to a court of the rich and powerful was to be repeated in Egypt more than a millennium later by little St Francis' preaching to the Sultan. Neither Paul nor Francis had the effect of Daniel, Joseph and Moses in the Old Testament but they were not put to death as was their master the Carpenter's Son. It just occurred to me that Jesus was always treated seriously even to extent of execution, except, of course, by his own relatives.

If our minds are  focused on ourselves and have the self-love that loves self  to the point of Idolatry we have already made the choice to worship the "Prince of this World". If we are so proud of our "being" that we can occupy our life-times in doing the work of Mammon we are using our freedom to deny Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Dear Lord, I do not have tell you my needs but only for my own sake do I repeat my devotion to all that you have revealed to the whole world. You know how easy it is for me to slip away especially when not in the best of health. Many of your saints have suffered in this world much more than I can imagine. Not least of these was Little Saint Therese whose example was followed by so many in the last century. May Mary and all the Saints who know how difficult life was/is for some of us, especially St Therese implore your Mercy and keep us on earth safe from the wiles of Satan and bring the Holy Souls in Purgatory into the fulness of your grace in heaven.

 16/05/2023

The first centuries of the Church are characterised by the speed of its growth. Today we hear of the gaoler who was ready to "fall on his sword" but was saved from suicide by Paul's intervention. He and his whole family were baptised. I have to ask myself what it was he was converted to. 

There is no way that he could have been "baptised" into the whole of Paul's knowledge of the Old Testament, and his personal experience on the road to Damascus. Paul's mission is to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. He certainly did this. In today's reading he did this in a most spectacular way.

John's Gospel helps me to have a glimmering of how the amazing success of St Paul and the other Apostles came about. Jesus, the Incarnate Word, has finished the Mission he has accepted from the Father. God has been present in the World as a real human being for thirty-three years. 

Sins have been wiped-out and the road we are to follow to the joy of being in the unending  Love of the Father has been shown by the crucified/resurrected Way Truth and Life who with Father will fill the souls of those left behind and all who are to come with the Holy Spirit.

Paul prays preaches and writes. Peter prays preaches and writes. The evangelists pray listen, preach, reflect and write.The Church for the last 2000 years has been praying reflecting writing and teaching. But without the Holy Spirit we would all be lost for it is by seeking out and opening our souls to the Holy Spirit that we believe and obey Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit never change. Christ, today, yesterday and tomorrow  Why have so many of us abandoned our souls to the Prince of this world. Life in this world for many is a great happiness but it always ends. We all can come to the end of our lives secure in the knowledge that we are, even in this life, in the care of the Good Shepherd and we will know him in the next world just as, more importantly he will know us.

Dear Lord, you know what I am thinking. I have to be me but try to be for others as were you on Earth and on the Cross. You did so much for the early Church and we are thankful for your enlightenment. May true sanctity become again the hallmark of your pastors so that my faith in their ministry can become as secure as my faith in  you. May Mary's prayers bring comfort to all the suffering in this world and also to the sinners in Purgatory. All of us can only live by your Merciful sending of the Holy Spirit.  We it is who have to recognise what is usually the small quiet voice of conscience. Save us Lord by your almighty power. Amen