People on a bus, God on a bus.

This week I asked somebody what they liked to do?  Making conversation.  She replied that she liked people watching.  She liked to sit and watch people on the bus, trains and in waiting rooms.  I realised that I too like to people watch.

And what better thing is there to do?  Nothing can beat watching, nothing can be more interesting than God's handiwork.  Humans are frail and weak they do all kinds of funny and interesting things. Also given that mankind is made in the image of God, created by God.  We can see God in others, if only we have eyes to see.

When we watch we can see God, but we can also see our sister or brother in pain, hungry, lonely and broken.  Then we can be the hands of God, soothing the pain and the loneliness.  We have the ability to let God be God and work thorough our frail and sinful bodies.  You and I must let go and let God.

You and I must look at the people on the bus. in the waiting room, walking on the street and sitting at the desk near us.

Look and see God.
Let yourself be,  let yourself be the hands, mouth, eyes and ears of god.
Let God be God.

Hungry Caterpillars?

You and I live in a consumer world, eating everything about us, but unlike the hungry caterpillar most of us do not blossom into beauty. Most of our efforts and those of the people around us are vain, selfish and indulgent.  We strive for more, bigger and best. We walk over our brothers and sisters to get it.  All  humanity selfishly striving to have more, and at what cost.

This week I heard a captain of industry criticise some politicians for considering actions that would not maximise profits.  The politicians were considering prioritising people, and their needs.  Trade is important, it is part of life but profit should be for the people, people should come first.  We ought not to be working constantly to make profit,  more and more money.  We need to make profit so people benefit, society benefits.  Attempting to build a great tower off Babble, made off accumulative wealth and greed. 

In the same way as industry should be made by man for man, rather than man made for industry; you and I are made for God.  Creation was created for God's mysterious purposes, not to serve our appetites, we need to focus on God.  If we do God's will, not our will we will grow into something beautiful. You and I can recreate our sick and sickening society.

There is a lot a very good Christian media out there, for a variety of churches and denominations.  Check out Fr Barron whose preaching may help you.  And do not forget the Bible. Start now, start today, make a difference to your self and to society.

You and I are tools

Each of us, you and I included are tools.  As Christians each of us are the voice, hands and the true and only witnesses of God in the world.  It is often said, as the Apostle Paul wrote, that the church is the body of Christ in the world.  Unfortunately, most of us do not really take this on board.  We leave it to somebody else to do, and the result is nobody does it.

Buy virtue of our baptism we are all called to be priests, prophets and kings.  We are all called to minister.  If you are serious about winning souls for Christ, about making a difference.  You and I must act, allow Christ to act in the world through us.

Whether at home, when travelling, at work or in the market place, in bed or in church.  We MUST allow Christ to act through us, always and everywhere.  If we do not, then we are allowing the devil to win, and worse you and I are preventing Christ from healing souls.

Lets pray that God give you and I the grace, so to open our hearts to allow the spirit of God to act through us, now, today and every day.

Want to be loved? Then Love others.

You and I, each of us needs and wants to be loved.  At a very deep level we all have a selfish need to be loved.  When we are not loved, or at least, we do not see how we are loved, we feel abandoned and alone.  We misbehave in all sorts of ways, drink, drugs, sex, violence, anger.  Our so called ‘developed’ modern society, with all it’s technology, consumerism and busyness hides and does not serve our basic human needs, especially our need for company and love.

We will never find the solution in science or human cleverness.  We must return to a more natural way of life, a simpler way, an old fashioned or traditional, a time tested way.   I am not condemning the marvellous achievements of the medical profession or engineers, but building a better widget does not heal a broken heart or a lonely person.

You and I must eschew the world and focus on the things that are God’s.  We live in God’s creation, he know’s what we need.  We need to relax, let go and let God.  Trust God.

We must not be like Oliver Twist asking for more.  Whether, or not, we are asking for food, computers, cars, or more faith as in the gospel.  Where the apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith'. Luke 17:5

We are asked to  “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ... and to ...‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” Matthew 22:37

If you and I love a little, we will soon see the love showered on us by God, and all the love around us.  We would start to heal society.  This week Pope Francis said the Roman Catholic Church must strip itself of all "vanity, arrogance and pride" and humbly serve the poorest in society. Pope Francis

He also said "The Church, all of us should divest ourselves of worldliness. Worldliness is a murderer because it kills souls, kills people, kills the Church."
"Without divesting ourselves, we would become pastry-shop Christians, like beautiful cakes and sweet things but not real Christians,"

You and I can put aside our "vanity, arrogance and pride" and love a little, find more love in doing so and help heal this world we humans are destroying.  We can bring others to feel love too.

St Francis of Assisi

St Francis of Assisi (1181 - 1226)

Today we remember Francis was the son of a prosperous cloth merchant in Assisi. When his father objected to having his goods sold without his consent to pay for the restoration of a church, the bishop commanded Francis to repay the money. He did. He also renounced his father and gave back everything he had ever been given, even his garments. He began a life of perfect evangelical poverty, living by begging and even then only accepting the worst food that people had to give. He preached to all the love of God and the love of the created world; because, having renounced everything, he celebrated everything he received, or saw, or heard, as a gift. A rich man sold everything and joined him in living next to a leper colony; a canon from a neighbouring church gave up his position and joined them also. They looked into the Gospel and saw the story of the rich young man whom Jesus told to sell everything; they saw Jesus telling his disciples to take nothing with them on their journey; they saw Jesus saying that his followers must also carry his cross. And on that basis they founded an order. Francis went to Rome himself and persuaded the Pope to sanction it, though it must have seemed at once impractical and subversive, to set thousands of holy men wandering penniless round the towns and villages of Europe.

  Because Francis was wearing an old brown garment begged from a peasant, tied round the middle with string, that became the Franciscan habit. Ten years later 5,000 men were wearing it; a hundred years later Dante was buried in it because it was more glorious than cloth of gold.
  There is too much to say about Francis to fit here. He tried to convert the Muslims, or at least to attain martyrdom in doing so. He started the practice of setting up a crib in church to celebrate the Nativity.
  Francis died in 1226, having started a revolution. The Franciscans endure to this day.

Pray for the pope who has dedicated his papacy to Francis,  this his work have as much impact as Francis.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873 - 1897)

Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon, in France, on 2 January 1873. Her mother, who already had breast cancer, died when Thérèse was four, and the family moved to Lisieux. She became a nun at the Carmelite convent there at the age of 15, after a long battle against the superior, who insisted that 16, or even 21, would be a more sensible age. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 24, and that was that. Another forgotten nun: born, was good, died. Holy, no doubt; but nothing much to write home about.

In 1895 Mother Agnès of Jesus, the prioress, had commanded Thérèse to write her memoirs. Writing “not to produce a literary work, but under obedience,” Thérèse took a year to fill six exercise books. She presented them to the prioress, who put them in a drawer unread. A year after Thérèse’s death, the memoirs were published in a small edition of 2,000: the first spark that ignited a “storm of glory” that swept the world. Miracles started to happen: conversions, cures, even apparitions. “We must lose no time in crowning the little saint with glory,” said the Prefect of the Congregation of Rites, “if we do not want the voice of the people to anticipate us.” The beatification process opened thirteen years after Thérèse’s death. She was canonized in 1925, the Pope having suspended the rule that forbids canonization less than 50 years after someone’s death.
  When Thérèse was 17, she confided to a visiting Jesuit her hope of becoming a great saint and to love God as much as the Carmelite Saint Teresa of Ávila. The Jesuit thought he found traces of pride and presumption and advised her to moderate her desires. “Why, Father?” asked Thérèse, “since our Lord has said, Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 100 years after Thérèse’s death, Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church, joining St Catherine of Siena and St Teresa of Ávila.
  The very storm of glory that propelled Thérèse into sainthood makes her a difficult saint for many of us to stomach. The late 19th century was a highly sentimental period, and much of the literature about Thérèse has taken that quality and made it sweeter and sicklier still, to the point where you feel like brushing your teeth after reading every page. There are antidotes. One is raw Thérèse: The Story of a Soul is still in print in most languages. Another is a clear and astringent biography such as that by Guy Gaucher, Bishop of Meaux (which may be hard to find but is worth looking for).
  What makes St Thérèse so special?
  We have grown used to the idea that just as there are people with talents for sport or scholarship, and the rest of us can only admire them without trying to keep up, so there are people with a talent for holiness and heroic virtue, and the rest of us can only bumble along as best we can. We can’t do better because we’re not designed to do better, so there’s no point in trying. We sink into a consoling mediocrity.
  Thérèse wrecks this. She was physically weak and psychologically vulnerable. For her the great saints were giants, they were inaccessible mountains, and she was only an “obscure grain of sand;” but she was not discouraged. St John of the Cross taught her that God can never inspire desires that cannot be fulfilled. The Book of Proverbs told her, “If anyone is a very little one, let him come to me.” If you only look, Scripture is permeated with images of our littleness and weakness with respect to God, and of his care for us in our insignificance.
  Thérèse’s “Little Way” means taking God at his word and letting his love for us wash away our sins and imperfections. When a priest told her that her falling asleep during prayer was due to a want of fervour and fidelity and she should be desolate over it, she wrote “I am not desolate. I remember that little children are just as pleasing to their parents when they are asleep as when they are awake.”
  We can’t all hug lepers or go off and become missionaries and martyrs. But we all do have daily opportunities of grace. Some of them may be too small to see, but the more we love God, the more we will see them. If we can’t advance to Heaven in giant strides, we can do it in tiny little steps. Our weakness is no excuse for mediocrity.

More info on Therese

Please pray for Doctor Edward Fairley R.I.P.  who was devoted to Teresa

St Jerome

St Jerome (340 - 420)

Today we remember  Jerome,  whose actions by the grace of God bought us the scripture to the west. He was born in Strido, in Dalmatia. He studied in Rome and was baptized there. He was attracted by the ascetic life and travelled to the East, where he was (unwillingly) ordained a priest. He was recalled to Rome to act as secretary to Pope Damasus, but on the Pope’s death he returned to the East, to Bethlehem, where (with the aid of St Paula and others) he founded a monastery, a hospice, and a school, and settled down to the most important work of his life, the translation of the Bible into Latin, a translation which, with some revisions, is still in use today. 

He wrote many works of his own, including letters and commentaries on Holy Scripture. When a time of troubles came upon the world, through barbarian invasions, and to the Church, through internal dissension, he helped the refugees and those in need. He died at Bethlehem.

Thy will be done

Whilst at a bible study class the other day a friend expressed.  “ought we not set spiritual goals, and work and pray toward them” .  I had thought that David an educated and clever person was a grounded Christian with a grasp on his faith, but clearly he is missing a step or some understanding.

In human endeavour we do make plans and set targets, which we then achieve, if only in part.  This is not so in our spiritual life.

We must let go and let God be our guide, and on his terms and time scale.  If we wish to be proactive the most we can do is discern.  Review our skills, weaknesses, position and resources. We can listen to the voice of those around us and in the media.  We can study scripture, but the most important thing is too listen to our emotions.  We need to hold the whole body of evidence in prayer and see if God is there guiding us.  i.e.  Frustration at work may be an indication it is time to move on.  Empathy for another’s situation may be a call to action to help them.

You and I must listen, and let God’s will be done, not our contrived wills.

I have also realised that if David can be misguided, can I not be misguided too.

“Please God grace us with the gifts of wisdom and discernment, so we can do your will.”

The Church is bad?

This speech only came to my attention yesterday.

When I heard it I could not but feel Mr Fry has a real point.  He is in essence right, although I am not sure if he is correct on all the details.  The Catholic Church is not an influence for good in the world,  it is like a child at school whose report reads tries hard, but could do better, a lot better.

Unless we address our faults, as individuals and as a community we will continue to do Christ a disservice.  We must be more like Christ.  You and I MUST be and bring Christ into the world.

"...mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa..."

  I must change.  You must change.  Together we must change the world and the Church, so that when Christ walks through the door he does not weep, or suffer righteous indignation.

Let us pray for the Pope and all Christian ministers to help us ensure the Church reflects Christ's Love.

It seems his Holiness is addressing some of the issues Mr Fry talks about.
Pope Francis: Church too focused on gays and abortion

You are special

Each of us has the capacity, in this world as well as the next, to be Christ carriers.  Each of us can and does hold a piece of the divine. You and I are special, in fact everybody is special.  Everybody is valuable.  The Pope, the priest, but also the gutter snipe, the thief, the prostitute and the merchant banker. In fact all 7.2 billion souls on the planet are special and are made in God's image and hold or can hold a part of the divine.

It is because of this value that God came into the world, to reveal himself in the person of Christ, God gave us the possibility of salvation, the opportunity to be reunited with him.

The Gospel records the widows joy in finding the lost coin, the shepherd the joy at finding the lost sheep and the father's joy at receiving the prodigal son.  It reveals the joy of God over recovering just one soul to himself.

This is why Christians rejoice in the Cross something so terrible, yet it was transformed into a means of redemption for the whole human race.

In the Cross we can see that Christianity is not an abstract and spiritual religion. It springs from God’s direct intervention in the affairs of the world, a real historical event involving real people and, in the end, a real execution on a real cross. We may theorize and theologize all we like; but all our theorizings and theologizings are nothing without the history on which they are based. Take away that history – take away the Cross – and Christianity is nonsense.

Because our fallen brothers and sisters are special too, you and I are called, no obliged, to reach out and help them to redemption, draw them and society to Christ and to love.  Please God, give us the grace to do that.

Prayer for peace in Syria

O God of peace, who are peace itself

and whom a spirit of discord cannot grasp,
nor a violent mind receive,
grant that those who are one in heart
may persevere in what is good
and that those in conflict
may forget evil and so be healed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
one God, for ever and ever.

St John Damascene, pray for us.

The heart is willing but the flesh is weak.

The other day I was comforted when reading from A sermon of St Gregory the Great. He writes

“My mind is sundered and torn to pieces by the many and serious things I have to think about. When I try to concentrate and gather all my intellectual resources for preaching, how can I do justice to the sacred ministry of the word? I am often compelled by the nature of my position to associate with men of the world and sometimes I relax the discipline of my speech. If I preserved the rigorously inflexible mode of utterance that my conscience dictates, I know that the weaker sort of men would recoil from me and that I could never attract them to the goal I desire for them. So I must frequently listen patiently to their aimless chatter. Because I am weak myself I am drawn gradually into idle talk and I find myself saying the kind of thing that I didn’t even care to listen to before. I enjoy lying back where I once was loath to stumble.”

My mind is torn too, by the cares of life, the pressures placed on me by my employer, my family and my church. I find it hard to find time to pray or study. It was easy when living in a religious community, but it is a challenge when immersed in life. The people I meet in my daily life can be, coarse, rude, disrespectful to God. Although they appear godless, they are not, they too are made in his image. Unless I engage with their lives, meet them where they are, not put myself above them can I hope to carry Christ to them.

I pray that you and I have the grace despite the pressures on our time to give time to God and being in his presence. Also that we have large hearts to tolerate the weaknesses of others and allow Christ to come them through us.

St Gregory the Great

Pope St Gregory the Great (540 - 604) A man of humility and service, a deacon who became pope.

He was elected Pope on 3 September 590, the first monk to be elected to this office. 

He reformed the administration of the Church’s estates and devoted the resulting surplus to the assistance of the poor and the ransoming of prisoners. He negotiated treaties with the Lombard tribes who were ravaging northern Italy, and by cultivating good relations with these and other barbarians he was able to keep the Church’s position secure in areas where Roman rule had broken down. His works for the propagation of the faith include the sending of Augustine and his monks as missionaries to England in 596, providing them with continuing advice and support and (in 601) sending reinforcements. 

He wrote extensively on pastoral care, spirituality, and morals, and designated himself “servant of the servants of God.”

He founded a monastery in Rome and some others in Sicily, then became a monk himself. He was ordained deacon and sent as an envoy to Constantinople, on a mission that lasted five years.   He died on 12 March 604, but as this date always falls within Lent, his feast is celebrated on the date of his election as Pope.

Seven deadly sins, Pride

The first on the seven deadly sins is pride.  Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise.

We all know how proud we feel when we are praised, or some project we take part in succeeds.  It is the simplest of sins.  Murder, theft or inappropriate sexual habits may be easy to see to label and condemn, but pride is the one that condemns us all.  Pride strikes to the heart and we do not see it.

Jesus was anti pride and pro humility, in fact he was humility incarnate.  

Paul writes of his attitude although He existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men.…  

Our Lord washed the feet of his disciples, is washes our feet.

Repeatedly the Gospels record Jesus encouraging us to be humble.  In Luke 14:1,7-14 we are encouraged not to take the place of honour, but to take the lowest positions.

If we are to convert the world, fix our society you and I must be humble.  Trusting God and his will, not our ability.   We must encourage others by our good example.  I pray that I can put aside my vanity and pride and be more humble.

I pray that our leaders can put aside their arrogance and be more Christ like.  Realising that your cannot resolve a violent situation with ever more violence.  We must encourage justice, as without justice there is no peace.

The Beheading of St John the Baptist

John the Baptist is the only saint in the calendar (apart from St Joseph) who has two feasts to himself. One, in August, celebrates his death, and one, in June, celebrates his birth. And this is as it should be, for as Christ himself said, John was the greatest of the sons of men.

  The greatest, but also the most tragic. A prophet from before his birth, leaping in the womb to announce the coming of the incarnate God, his task was to proclaim the fulfilment of all prophecies – and thus his own obsolescence. And he did it: with unequalled courage he spread the news that he, the greatest of all men, was the least in the kingdom of heaven. His disciples, and the devil, would have preferred him to fight, to build his sect, to defeat this upstart whom he himself had baptised, to seize his place in history. But he did not – and so, rightly, he has his place, and he has glory in heaven.

  We envy the great and the talented, and sometimes we think that they themselves are beyond envy. But when they come across someone with greater gifts, as one day most of them will, they will see for the first time what it means to feel like us. Let us pray that they, like John the Baptist, may pass that test.  

Our Father

Pope Francis In a recent phone call to an Italian teenager shows a significant change in the Papacy, a return to Biblical roots and humility and a closeness to God.

The Pope’s famous phone call to an Italian teenager is more significant than we first thought “He said to me, do you think the Apostles would have used the polite form with Christ? “Would they have called him your excellency? They were friends, just as you and I are now, and with friends I’m accustomed to using ‘tu’.

The writers of the Gospels record that when Jesus’ followers ask him, how should we pray Jesus replies “Our Father….”

Scholars write the  English translation of abba (Greek: Αββα, Aramaic: אבא) are best captured by father, dad, daddy, in English

You and I ought to follow the Gospels and the Pope, in not making God distant.  We ought to be humble and familiar.  We need to reflect Christ in the world and not man’s image of Christ, not my image of Christ.  We ought to allow God’s Spirit to fill us, to study the scripture and live the gospels.  Each day we should examine out performance, apologise for our failings and ask for the grace to be more like Christ.

And we should pray

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Pope St Pius X, Good pope bad pope.

Everybody who dies in the faith of Christ is accepted into the presence of Christ in heaven. Virtually since it’s inception the church has named dead individuals as people who have gone to glory.  Examples of grace, love, piety and holiness good examples who we should follow and to whom offer up prayers of supplication, asking them to intercede on our behalves. I have often felt that canonising a pope, a bit wrong, unnecessary. Until recently I have not seen what good a pope can do.  I am so impressed with Pope Francis, it has changed my mind and now I look at the individuals rather than the incumbent of an office. Clearly some popes will appear more saintly than others. I have been horrified by Pope Innocent III, who was far from innocent and can be named alongside Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Papa Doc and Hitler. St Pius X (1835 - 1914) was death and entry into glory is celebrated today was truly a saintly individual and a pope. He was born in the village of Riese, near Venice, one of ten children of a very poor family. He was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 23. He was successively bishop of Mantua and of Venice, and was elected Pope, against his wishes, in 1903. In his time as Pope, he sought to “restore all things in Christ.” He insisted on the separation of Church and State, and banned the formation of political associations that claimed exclusive religious sanction for their political programme, whether of the Left or of the Right. He revised the code of Canon Law, founded an institute for scriptural studies, and initiated the revision of the Latin translation of the Bible (the Vulgate) and the reform of the liturgy. He lived in great poverty even when he was Pope, and preached sermons every Sunday in the courtyards of the Vatican, to any who would listen. In his simplicity and goodness of heart, he performed miracles even when he was alive, and the clamour for his canonization started immediately after his death, on 20th August 1914, broken-hearted at the outbreak of the First World War. I pray that I can be more like Pius.  If we all were more like him we would change society and draw the world to Christ.

Love thy neighbour

When I hear about the dreadful deaths in Egypt and the horrendous war in Syria, I cannot help but feel ever so grateful to live in leafy rural Britain.  I am well fed, warm, dry and at no risk of violence.  I may live in what some might call a post Christian society, but that is just the point.   Christian Society.  People may have lax morals, but the ethos of Love they neighbour is embedded in British society.

Sadly this tolerance and respect does not seem to exist in Egypt.  The behaviour of brother toward brother is awful.  It reminds me of the shameful crusades. God must cry. I do not know where this violence will end, but I pray that Egypt can discover love, forgiveness and the tolerance that comes from New Testament values.   South Africa and Northern Ireland found peace, but we must remember there is no peace without justice.

As individuals we must try to radiate these values to the world.

The Assumption?

The doctrine of The Assumption  teaches that at the end of her life, Mary, the mother of Christ, was taken body and soul into heaven. The church celebrates this feast today 15th August.

Personally, I have always found this teaching, this doctrine, hard to swallow. The empiricist in me questions the metaphysical nature of the Assumption.  The theologian in me believes that because the scriptures do not explicitly state that Mary the mother of our divine Lord died and was buried it does not mean she did not die, it just means the writers of scripture did not think that Mary’s post resurrection life was not important, or central to the purposes of the documents they were writing.  In their eyes the inclusion of details about her life was not necessary to spread the Good News.  Is there a record of Joseph’s death, or Mary Magdalene's?

However, I have no problem accepting, the existence of God, the virgin birth and the resurrection.  I have no problem believing that Mary had to be special to be graced as The Mother of our Divine Lord.  I glory in the communion of saints.  I have no issue with asking Mary or any of the saints in glory to intercede for us.  Yes I can petition God directly, but equally I can ask the saints in glory for assistance too.

Why then do I have an issue?  Perhaps I have no good reason, perhaps I have picked up others prejudice growing up in a protestant environment.  Maybe I just do not understand why in 1950 the then pope thought it necessary to make the doctrine of the Assumption a central tenant of the faith. Maybe my issue is that I see with the eyes and perspective of a man, and a little man at that.

God is God and he and his doings are beyond my understanding.  I can only hope to see and understand a little of the Divine, I am small, discrete and limited.  God is infinite.  Regards the Assumption perhaps I need to go on a little faith.

I do know that hundreds of thousands of souls have found their interface with the Divine through Mary and Marian devotions, asking Mary the Mother of God to intercede with Christ on their behalves.  They have received much consolation and comfort and I have no doubt found their way to Christ by this route.

I am arrogant, assuming I know best, that I am the font of knowledge, when the reverse is true, I know a little, a very little.  Perhaps I need to trust God and the leaders of his Church on earth.  I need to grow in humility and so pray:

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.

Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
—Deuteronomy 6:4-5

I am plagued with this commandment.  I hear it all the time, it is engraved on my heart,  repeatedly it comes back to me in the day.  With every sin it comes back to me.  Whenever I engage in vain thoughts or actions.  There it is in my head.

Love God with ALL your heart

But I am constantly distracted.
I can see an attractive young woman, be reminded of an old girlfriend, build castles in the sky, dream of winning the lottery, be distracted in work, TV or other entertainment, even when writing the blog.

I fail, I fall.  All I can do is strike my breast, apologise, say sorry and with God’s grace do better.

Unless I can turn my face from sex, drugs and rock and roll and truly Love God with ALL my heart  I will not be a truly effective evangelist.  You and I are called to be just that, to go out to all nations.  We must go out into the world and draw people back to Christ.   To do that we must love, or at least try to love God with all our heart.

Every day, Every hour every moment, not just on Sunday morning when the Minister and community are watching us.

With God’s grace I will put aside my impure and unfaithful thoughts and focus on Christ.

Practising the Examen every day, two or three times a day helps.
About the Examen

Saint Laurence

Today the Church remembers Laurence. We do not know much about Laurence, other than he was a deacon.  Laurence was one of the seven deacons of the Church of Rome and was executed on 10th August 258, four days after Sixtus II and his companions. By now, few of the facts of his life are known for certain: he was probably a Spaniard from Toledo. By the sixth century, it was one of the most important feasts throughout much of western Christendom. His name occurs (with Sixtus’s) in the Roman Canon of the Mass.

Acts 6:1-4, first mentions the deacon’s role:

In those days, as the number of disciples grew, the ones who spoke Greek complained that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food, as compared with the widows of those who spoke Hebrew. The Twelve assembled the community of the disciples and said, "It is not right for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.  Look around among your own number, brothers, for seven men acknowledged to be deeply spiritual and prudent, and we shall appoint them to this task.  This will permit us to concentrate on prayer and the ministry of the word." This proposal was unanimously accepted by the community.

A deacon, then, is a servant.  That's what the word means in Greek and that's what deacons are for: to serve.

Laurence must have excelled in his service and love.  As he was much loved by the community he left behind.

You and I are called to be deacons, we are called to serve, to be Our Lord’s body in society, to be on fire with love, salt and light, drawing people to Christ.

If we are to fix this world, we must be like Laurence, we must allow Christ to consume us, so we can be his servants.

The Transfiguration of the Lord

Today the Church celebrates and remembers the Transfiguration of the Lord

The Transfiguration of the Lord can sound embarrassingly magical. Jesus goes up onto a mountain and his clothes become dazzlingly white. Prophets appear and talk to him. And then it is all over and Jesus tells his disciples to say nothing.

  We should hold on to the absurdity of the incident. There is simply no reason for all this to have happened. In particular, there is no reason to put it into a gospel – the evangelist makes no capital out of it, it is simply there.

  And this is the strength of the Transfiguration as an historical incident. There is no reason for anyone to have invented it. It is not central to the Christian case. It is not used to win arguments. There is only one reason to put it into the Gospel, and that is because it happened. It is one of those cases of the evangelists writing things down without knowing why they were important, and their very puzzlement is what makes the story so convincing.

  Why, then, did it happen? Surely so that we could see and understand that Jesus is at once one of the prophets and the one that was prophesied by them; and that he is God, and lives for all eternity in a blaze of dazzling and unapproachable light.

  The true miracle of the Transfiguration is not the shining face or the white garments, but the fact that for the rest of the time Jesus hid his glory so well.

Rejecting Satan and all his works

If we are to win souls for Christ, if we are to re-fill our churches, if we are to turn society around we must reject Satan, and all his works.   It begins with you and I, we must reject Satan.  Our lives must become true reflections of Christ, we must become the loving reflection of Our Lord in this world.

Rejecting Satan and all his works is not just an act of will, a thing of a fixed moment in time, it is an ongoing act a process.  Few of us are born as saints, we are born sinners and become saints, through the grace of Christ.  We have to work at it, I have to work at it.  Like learning a musical instrument we have to practice, every day for an extended period of time.

Ignatius of Loyal amongst other things left us a useful tool in the struggle, 'The Examen'.  Built into the life of the pilgrim it helps us to progress, day by day, to being a truer reflection of Our Lord.

The Examen is a simple prayer system.  The key thing is that it is done regularly.
Once a day, twice a day, three times a day it does not mater, but regularly.  Each day you see where you are, and see where you ought to be and you strive to change.   Check out this video.

 Reject Satan and all his works, do this.

How Can I Pray the Examen?

1. Become aware of God’s presence. Look back on the events of the day in the company of the Holy Spirit. The day may seem confusing to you—a blur, a jumble, a muddle. Ask God to bring clarity and understanding.

2. Review the day with gratitude. Gratitude is the foundation of our relationship with God. Walk through your day in the presence of God and note its joys and delights. Focus on the day’s gifts. Look at the work you did, the people you interacted with. What did you receive from these people? What did you give them? Pay attention to small things—the food you ate, the sights you saw, and other seemingly small pleasures. God is in the details.
3. Pay attention to your emotions. One of St. Ignatius’s great insights was that we detect the presence of the Spirit of God in the movements of our emotions. Reflect on the feelings you experienced during the day. Boredom? Elation? Resentment? Compassion? Anger? Confidence? What is God saying through these feelings?
God will most likely show you some ways that you fell short. Make note of these sins and faults. But look deeply for other implications. Does a feeling of frustration perhaps mean that God wants you consider a new direction in some area of your work? Are you concerned about a friend? Perhaps you should reach out to her in some way.
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it. Ask the Holy Spirit to direct you to something during the day that God thinks is particularly important. It may involve a feeling—positive or negative. It may be a significant encounter with another person or a vivid moment of pleasure or peace. Or it may be something that seems rather insignificant. Look at it. Pray about it. Allow the prayer to arise spontaneously from your heart—whether intercession, praise, repentance, or gratitude.
5. Look toward tomorrow. Ask God to give you light for tomorrow’s challenges. Pay attention to the feelings that surface as you survey what’s coming up. Are you doubtful? Cheerful? Apprehensive? Full of delighted anticipation? Allow these feelings to turn into prayer. Seek God’s guidance. Ask him for help and understanding. Pray for hope.
St. Ignatius encouraged people to talk to Jesus like a friend. End the Daily Examen with a conversation with Jesus. Ask forgiveness for your sins. Ask for his protection and help. Ask for his wisdom about the questions you have and the problems you face. Do all this in the spirit of gratitude. Your life is a gift, and it is adorned with gifts from God. End the Daily Examen with the Our Father.

http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/how-can-i-pray/

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St Ignatius Loyola

St Ignatius Loyola (1491 - 1556)

Our current pope is a Jesuit.

Ignatius (or Iñigo) was born in Loyola in the Spanish Basque country. He was a soldier, but was wounded in the battle of Pamplona (against the French) at the age of 30. During a long convalescence he read a life of Christ and a collection of lives of the saints, and discovered that his true vocation was to devote his life wholly to God. He was as systematic about this as he had been about his military career: he spent a year’s retreat in a Dominican friary, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and then set about learning Latin.

  Such enthusiasm in a layman caused grave suspicion in the Spanish authorities, and he was questioned and imprisoned more than once. He moved to Paris in 1528 and continued his studies; and then in 1534 Ignatius and six companions bound themselves to become missionaries to the Muslims in Palestine. By the time they were ready to set out, war made the journey impossible and so the group (now numbering ten) offered their services to the Pope in any capacity he might choose. A number of them were duly ordained and they were all assigned to various tasks.

  Soon it was proposed that they should organise themselves into a regular religious order, and in 1540 the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) was formed. Ignatius was the first Superior General until his death. Soon after their foundation the Jesuits began to meet the challenge of the Reformation: a tough task, given the debilitated state into which the Church had fallen, but one which, as Ignatius said, had to be undertaken “without hard words or contempt for people’s errors”.

  Ignatius had a gift for inspiring friendship, and was the recipient of deep spiritual insight. Soon after his conversion Ignatius wrote the Spiritual Exercises, a systematic step-by-step retreat that can be followed by anyone – and has been followed by many, not all of them Catholics, ever since.

  See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia. One of our readers has also recommended this site for the Spiritual Exercises.

Today in the UK we celebrate a Day for life, which is a very good idea.

Day for Life

Day for Life is the day in the Church’s year dedicated to celebrating and upholding the dignity of human life. The Church teaches that life should be protected and nurtured from conception to natural death. This year's Day for Life in England and Wales falls on 28 July 2013. In Scotland, the Day is celebrated on 31 May. In Ireland, it will be celebrated on 6 October 2013. On this site, you will find this year's theme and topics covered in previous years. You can also read documents, released by the Catholic Church and her bishops on pro-life issues.

Check out
http://dayforlife.org/

But let us remember a life is for life, not for a day.  We ought to be pro life and pro God everyday.  We must learn to trust God all day every day.

Prayer

Holy Mary, Mother of Love,
holding in your arms, the fruit of your womb,
graciously look upon our earth and remove from it
all that hardens our hearts and dims our eyes
to the preciousness of human life,
from the moment of conception to natural death.
Through the example of your tenderness
teach us the ways of compassion and love
that we may build up the civilisation of love among us
and a society that is truly worthy of the human person.
Help us to reject all that contributes to a culture of death,
and to work with others of goodwill
in promoting the culture of life.
Bring us ever closer to your Son,
so that we may know the fullness of life that he offers us
and come to know that life more perfectly,
with you, and all the angels and saints,
in the eternal life of Heaven.

Amen

Overthrow the tables of the moneychangers,

We Christians need to get our houses in order.  Our churches which ought to be the home of sinners and communities of love and prayer have become dens of thieves.

It is clear that Pope Francis is addressing some of the financial irregularities in the Roman Church, no doubt he has a long way to go.  But I really felt of Justin Welby the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury.  He spoke out about pay day lenders and money lenders.  He backs small church backed saving and loans schemes only to discover to his embarrassment and irritation that his own church community had invested money with Wonga, a well advertised pay day loan company.

All four Gospels record Jesus rejecting the money lenders from the temple.  This shows that it did happen and that all the authors of the Gospels and their communities saw that this was very important.  Jesus got angry and upturned their tables.

We ought to follow Our Lord's example, get motivated and throw the money lenders out of our Churches.  We need to focus on God, on love not on money.

"And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."

—Matthew 21:12–13

"Let us pray that we and our church leaders can refocus our church on Christ, to reject worldly things, vain things and money."

Bishop rejects Wonga


http://news.sky.com/story/1120531/welby-defends-wonga-after-church-link-emerges

St Mary Magdalene

Mary of Magdala was healed of “seven devils” by Jesus. She ministered to him in Galilee and was present at his crucifixion. She was in the group of women who were the first to discover the empty tomb, and it was to her that the risen Jesus first appeared.

The Western tradition is that Mary Magdalene is also “the woman who was a sinner” and the sister of Martha and Lazarus of Bethany. There is no evidence either way, and the tradition is tenuous enough for even such authorities as St Ambrose to hold, with the East, that they are three different people. It seems, therefore, that although the Western tradition is to be respected and is a real inspiration, it may not necessarily be historical. This kind of ambiguity is inevitable in a religion such as Christianity, which is founded on definite historical events rather than myths which can be adjusted into logicality. We need not worry about it too much: if it had been harmful to us to celebrate the tradition of heroic penitence, the Holy Spirit would not have allowed it.

Even without the extra tradition, Mary Magdalene is a unique and important character in the story of the Resurrection, chosen by Christ as one of the first witnesses of the event that changed the world.

  See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

 

I have a lot in common with this woman, whoever she was.  Like the rest of us I too am a sinner, not deserving of forgiveness, but given it through the grace of Christ.  I too am a witness to the cross and the resurrection, but she was there.  I pray,

"Lord, give me her faith"

and 

"Lord, show others their need for you, your forgiveness and your love, so like Mary they turn to you."