31st October 2014

As I think more about the then and now of evangelisation, the less can I feel content with the way things are today. Is there any leader of our church who could write to us in the UK thanking God for us as St Paul and Timothy could do to the church of the Philppians? Are we in any way examples of the perseverance in the faith as are the Philippians in Paul's eyes. Our Pope frequently applauds and encourages joy in the variety and numbers of believers that exist throughout the world; but has anyone looked at us the Catholic Church in England and been able to praise and thank God for us.

Paul was probably in Rome when writing this, maybe actually in chains in prison. The evangelist Luke is said to be the founder of the Philippian church. Paul had previously worked there. Their closeness in time  to the Good News is undisputable. The "recent events in Jerusalem"had happened only 30 or so years before this letter of Paul. These people so well praised by Paul were close the time of the Lord and were, probably expecting the "end  of time" sooner than later. And yet here we can see an attempt to begin an intellectual understanding of Christ. Jesus is not just the man known to the apostles and disciple in Palestine but is treated as an understandable part of God's plan for mankind. To be truly human we need to see Christ as Paul portrayed him and to truly put our worship before all earthly things.

Sometimes I think it is easier for the first evangelists for they had the closeness to the living Christ both before and after the resurrection whereas we have to fill the 2 millennia between then and now with thought and teachings that can lead us away from the Gospel into a wonderland of thought and knowledge, which because it is knowable,  becomes more important than the essential teachings of Christ. And then when I read:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Words included in a  letter written about 1985 to translate the time-gap between it and Our Lord's time, into 2014 terms and I see that even then teachers of the church were ready to explore the depths and expound the heights of Christ's words in a way that has continued ever since. Oh that today to increase knowledge of Christ was foremost in the minds and actions of our prelates and not confused by a pandering to the needs of our  modern generation which is concerned with image and style but oblivious to that which was obvious to the Apostles and the disciples.

Taken in Philippi

27 October2014

Fiddling around on the computer I came across an illustration and article on the Human Genome. And everything there was tiny and in millions that I could not   grasp and I realised that  those who tell us  that it is blind faith and somehow stupidity that leads to a belief in God and the Truth that he has revealed to us, should ask themselves what  is it that enables them to believe these things that are not seen and numbers that  can only be held in the artificial memory of a machine. How can the   enormous scale of the tiny genome be witnessed without some sort of awe and doubt that such a thing could be the ultimate result of a random Big Bang.The question word "where" applied to the Big Bang does not seem to be answerable without resource to imaginative concepts such as Parallel Universes, Worm Holes and other constructs not far removed from the  Schoolmen's  "angels dancing on the end of pin". Where was/is/will it be that the Big Bang happened/ is happening /will happen?

Thank God for The Pope Emeritus . His words to the at the Pontifical Urban University remind us that   the early Christians those who knew our Lord were faced with all the enemies of belief that we face to day. They knew the fear of opening their hearts to strangers; they knew the scorn of the unbelievers; but they knew the "Truth" and everything they did as missionaries was to bear witness to the Truth and to spread the Good News that God had visited his people and purchased for us the reward of Eternal Life. We are not confined to a space created by a Mythic Big Bang but we are the product of the Infinite  Love of our infinite God.

This is the Truth and it is this that all evangelist whether new or old have to spread. Everything that is preached or read has to be measured by this yardstick of Truth. Distributing Holy Communion to those who are not under the proper dispositions is not an act of charity but a dismal disavowal of the Truth of the Sacrament.

Claiming that the Sacrament of Marriage can be imposed on each other by same-sex couples is a falsehood and if not recognised as such can only result in the loss of the chance of eternal life by those involved. At today's mass St Paul preached this Truth for today and always.

First reading

Ephesians 4:32-5:8

Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.

    Try, then, to imitate God as children of his that he loves and follow Christ loving as he loved you, giving himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. Among you there must be not even a mention of fornication or impurity in any of its forms, or promiscuity: this would hardly become the saints! There must be no coarseness, or salacious talk and jokes-all this is wrong for you; raise your voices in thanksgiving instead. For you can be quite certain that nobody who actually indulges in fornication or impurity or promiscuity-which is worshipping a false god-can inherit anything of the kingdom of God. Do not let anyone deceive you with empty arguments: it is for this loose living that God’s anger comes down on those who rebel against him. Make sure that you are not included with them. You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light.

23rd October 2014

Today St Luke's gospel gives us " Do you suppose that I am here to ........". And the reply guaranteed to wake the sleepiest listeners provokes mixed responses over the centuries. Of those collected in the Catena Aurea St Cyril's seems to be the only one questioning the Lord of Peace .

 What say you, O Lord? Did you not come to give peace, Who art made peace for us? making peace by your cross with things in earth and things in heaven; Who said, My peace I give to you. But it is plain that peace is indeed a good, but sometimes hurtful, and separating us from the love of God, that is, when by it we unite with those who keep away from God. And for this reason we e teach the faithful to avoid earthly bonds. Hence it follows, For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, &c.

My moslem friends have always been good at quoting this passage to show that our gospels cannot be authentic for it is peace that is the main desire of the people of God and the main gift of God to man. And if I am to point out that our Gospels and Our Lord do not shirk from confronting reality; and do not produce words from God whenever a situation faced in the reality of 7th century Mecca/ Medina is inconvenient to Mohammad the man, words that will resolve it in his favour. "Be careful Mr John ; be careful", say they then and wag their finger;  the peace of the tomb is easily granted to those who speak against the prophet and his god.

The Catholic Bloggers that I read are very much taken up with the results/nonresults of the Synod and none of this discussion helps me in my quandry as to what it is makes a new evangelist. What am I to do if I am to respond to our Lord's final command.

But the Church is still the Church regardless of the faults we find in her especially in Rome; and it is in Rome that we find our Pope Emeritus who talks as straight as anyone could wish and is still a German but not of the friendly ghost variety.

"The question of truth, which at the beginning of Christianity moved Christians more than anything else, in this mode of thinking is placed within parentheses. It presupposes that the authentic truth about God, in the last analysis, is unobtainable, and that at best one can make present what is ineffable only with a variety of symbols. This renunciation of truth seems convincing and useful for peace among the religions of the world.

This is, however, lethal to faith. In fact, faith loses its binding character and seriousness, if everything is reduced to symbols that are at the end interchangeable, capable of referring only from afar to the inaccessible mystery of the divine."

Of course we all used to know that we were members of the one true faith that comes from God and that the obligation placed on us was to ensure that we never departed from this faith and never gave up one iota of the teaching that comes from God. I pray that our leaders take note of these words of Pope Benedict and divest themselves of meaningless ecumenical forays and dialogues with those of other religions. What good can come of dialogue with a man who is certain that the Pope is the Antichrist or that belief in the Trinity constitutes polytheism.

The real 21 October 2014

How can it be true that we should expect nothing from a Pope? Is the Pope Christ's vicar on earth or is he not? Why is he the leader of our church? Is it because the connivers or contrivers, the Cardinals wished it so or is he really selected through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost? Are our Pope's morning homilies really full of barbs without any merit? Are we to believe that our Church is nothing more substantial than Quixotic Giants twisting and turning at the mercy of whichever wind of change or otherwise is blowing at the moment?

Not so; not so. All around there is permanent change. Ever since the sixties education has been run according to the Maoist principal of permanent revolution; we've all been affected by technology which used to be a word to suggest something less than science, but is now the driving force  and the results of our economy. But God is with us never changing; God is guarding his Church, Christ's Body on this earth; the Holy Ghost's inspiration can been seen and felt in our churches and the lessons from God are themselves changeless. And this is difficult for us as everyday does seem the same in our lack of inner growth and outward reach to the agnostics and atheists who self-confidently follow the primrose path that is now paved with diamonds to the end of their lives.

The world is full of good things and those who have them have had their reward. And we too, for in comparison to the possessions of 1st Century man we are indeed rich. Short life expectancy, fear from disease, hunger are far away from most of us. And where there is hunger disease and poverty we can by a little magic with paypal or a credit card close our minds to the suffering that is still the lot of many of our brothers and sisters. 

How did St Paul and the others spread the message so far in so short a time; 30 years after the resurrection the basic structure of our mass had been established and in another 30 years the basic structure that allowed the apostolic succession to happen was already in place.

The Holy Spirit came down on  all gathered in the upper room with Mary and the Church still in the care of Mary can turn us all to seek the Holy Spirit. I can do nothing but if the Church turns to the spirit of prayer and contemplation then we too have a chance to grow in the way of evangelization.

I earlier mentioned "barbs without teaching"  words used by a prominent Catholic blogger about Pope Francis' morning homilies. Here is an example from earlier this month---I can feel the teaching but the barbs have flown over my head; Thank God.

VATICAN CITY, October 08, 2014 (Zenit.org) - If we want to give glory to God, we must remember all He has done for us. But that also means remembering our sins. It means being honest with ourselves, said Pope Francis as he reflected on the Readings of the Day during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta.

The Lord "chose his people and accompanied them during their journey in the wilderness, throughout their lives", said Pope Francis commenting on the first reading in which St. Paul recalls his past life, without hiding his sins.

What "God did with His people - the Pope said - he has done and continues to do which each of us".  The Pope then asked "where we were chosen because Christian, and not that person over there, far away who has never even heard of Jesus Christ?". "It 'a grace," was the Pope’s answer: "A grace of love".

St. Paul’s  "concrete memory of this reality, is what makes Paul", who confesses to having ferociously persecuted the church.  Paul does not say "I am good, I am the son of this [family], I have a certain nobility ... ". No, Paul says, "I was a persecutor, I've been bad".  Pope Francis said that Paul remembers his journey, and he remembers it from the very beginning".

"This habit of remembering our life is not very common practice. We forget things, we live in the moment and then forget the past. And each of us has a story: a story of grace, a story of sin, a story of journey, so many things ... It is a good thing to pray with our history. [A prayer like] the one Paul does, where he tells a piece of his story, but in general says: 'He has chosen me! He called me! He saved me! He was my companion on the journey ... '.

Pope Francis continued : "[The act of ] remembering our own lives is to give glory to God. Remembering on our sins, by which the Lord has saved us, is to give glory to God”.  "Paul says that he has only two things: his sins, and the grace of the Crucified Lord, His grace”. Paul "remembered his sins, and boasted about them: 'I was a sinner, but Christ Crucified saved me' and he boasted about Christ. This was Paul’s memory. This is act of remembering that Jesus himself invites us to do ":

"When Jesus says to Martha: 'You are worried and troubled about many things, but you only need one thing. Mary has chosen the better part. 'What does he mean? [He means] Listening to the Lord and remembering. You cannot pray every day as if we did not have a story. Each of us has his or her own. And with this story in our heart we approach prayer, like Mary. Often we are distracted, like Martha, by work, by the day’s events, by those things that we have to do, and we forget this story".

Pope Francis said that our relationship with God, “does not begin on the day of Baptism: it is sealed there". [Our relationship] begins "when God, from eternity, looked upon us and chose us. It all begins in God’s heart:

"Remembering that we were chosen, chosen by God. Remembering our journey of covenant. Hve we respected this covenant, or not? No, we are sinners and we remember this, and we remember God’s promise to us which never disappoints, which is our hope. This is the true prayer”.

Pope Francis concluded his homily with an invitation to pray with Psalm 138: " LORD, you have probed me, you know me: you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar". “This is to pray, to pray is to remember in God's presence because our story is the story of His love for us".

21 October 2014

 A new evangelist has got to be surer that he is inspired by the Holy Spirit  and not by  pride in his own witticisms and display of archanish knowledge. Our priests and other clergy who fill their spare time with keeping up with diocesan gossip etc. do a great disservice to their flocks who do expect that the clergy can demonstrate a better way of life than their own. It is fair to expect those who have chosen /have been chosen for a life consecrated to the service of God and to their neighbour make all efforts to be seen to be earnestly striving towards holiness.

I am afraid that Father Tom, Dick or Harry may in his sweater and short sleeves appear to be "one of us" but there are already many of "us" and our priests have to stand out from the community that they serve;  they have to provide leadership in the faith. They, even if they can find well argued and well reasoned rejections of   this assertion, are the first glimpse of the faith that the world sees .

The world of the first evangelists saw Jews, who were not all unlettered fishermen of Galilee, who had devoutly followed and in some cases deeply explored the Law and knew the scriptures who had themselves been converted to seek a holiness that did not come from the Law but from the Living Lord. These first evangelists had witnessed Christ's death on the blood stained wood of the cross and had spoken to the Risen Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit were able to transmit this Spirit to those who would accept it.

We have been taught by our Church; we know more or less the historic Christ; the Christ of the Gospels and we know the lives of the Saints; we have been taught to pray and we have a vast resource of Christian writing and scholarship that is now available for us all Clergy or Laity to read and study. Everyday the Gospels and Readings chosen for the liturgy are read and in some cases pondered. We have a lot of paper and talk and thoughts and initiatives and meetings, but where are our holy men and women? Where are those who have seen the Lord?  Our first step as potential new evangelists is to convert our selves to the holiness that God demands; prayer and piety are not something to be shamefacedly admitted but to be shown and witnessed in our daily lives. And leading us the Lord has chosen priests who must be holy; please fathers put your prayers before anything; please pray first and then answer your e-mails; let your congregations see you praying privately in our churches and we too will learn that the Lord our God is indeed Holy.

First reading

Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the crimes and the sins in which you used to live when you were following the way of this world, obeying the ruler who governs the air, the spirit who is at work in the rebellious. We all were among them too in the past, living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas; so that by nature we were as much under God’s anger as the rest of the world. But God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

    This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.

First reading

Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the crimes and the sins in which you used to live when you were following the way of this world, obeying the ruler who governs the air, the spirit who is at work in the rebellious. We all were among them too in the past, living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas; so that by nature we were as much under God’s anger as the rest of the world. But God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

    This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.

First reading

Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the crimes and the sins in which you used to live when you were following the way of this world, obeying the ruler who governs the air, the spirit who is at work in the rebellious. We all were among them too in the past, living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas; so that by nature we were as much under God’s anger as the rest of the world. But God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

    This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.

18th October 2014

Yesterday I read the first letter in the Catholic Herald and realised, I wonder if the writer did, that the period of his priesthood has seen a decline in adherence to the institutional church never before witnessed. I also noticed that his claims for the welcoming table of fudgy forgiveness  was tinged with, I suppose, an unconscious irony when contrasted with the clarity of Our Lord's words quoted by St Matthew in the Gospel of last Sunday.

Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people, ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come. Next he sent some more servants. “Tell those who have been invited” he said “that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.” But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them. The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding.” So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’

I wonder how many of us have been lost by the refusal on the part of many clergy to evidence a real belief in God and the revelations of the Gospel. Do we have this fudgy welcoming table in so many churches as a result of our pastors inability to bear witness to the reality of the  sacrifice that is repeated through them by Our Lord on the altars of our churches. The fear of appearing "judgemental" paralyses  the conscience which should be ruled by truth constantly reinforced by prayed for wisdom. God does guard our consciences.

Of course we are a church of sinners ( and Cardinal Nichols please note that we  do not need members of the hierarchy to go around proving this to us ) and of course Our Lord welcomes us to his table; but miracles all need to be accompanied by going and sinning no more; if we do not recognise this we are doomed to repeat and repeat again until the permanent death that is, in the words of Our Lord, "weeping and grinding of teeth".

A new evangelisation needs to go to the gospels, the Church Fathers, the Saints,  the founders of religious orders and recapture the daily perserverence and growth  in faith that they witnessed. A daily discipline needs to be reimposed and the aberrations of Fransican "sweat baths" and  and Dominicans scampering around the lecture circuit in praise of anything rather than the God of the gospels needs to be removed. The orders are rich and the poverty of their members is only titular; they largely live as rich men and would well remember Our Lord's words on this subject. Francis our Pope has spoken about air-port bishops; it would be interesting to see how much of the orders expenses is air-tickets for  intercontinental travel. The wealth of the orders may be disputed or disbelieved. A quick check on the UK Charity Commissioners website immediately reveals the truth and for the skilful user also points to other funds that are not immediately obvious. Follow the trustees.

The Institutional Church has faced all these issues before, but is our present leadership and weakening congregations capable of facing up to and addressing them? Jesus' word's "I will be with you always even to the end of time" tells us that His Church is safeguarded but what strife believers are to face has yet to be revealed.

17th October 2014

We are supposed to be getting an earthquake from Rome and today's Catholic press is not going to let us forget it. It seems that Kasper, the unfriendly ghost, has blown himself away by his disastrous comments about homosexuality and Africans. I thought it was only our English hierarchy that had problems with their mouths and feet. I think he might actually know that dealing with disease and grinding poverty is a much more pressing problem than pandering to the perceived needs of those who cannot accept the results of their choice of sin. I think he must know that and I hope that his head hangs in shame. Our own prime (ex-primate ) example of foot and mouth disease appears to have been dining with a well known author at what is laughingly described as a gentleman's club. I think Groucho had something to say about those sorts of club, and probably someone else before him.

Those first bishops and priests who knew Our Lord, were insistent that what they taught was the truth that had come from the Word. They did have discussions and meetings that are recorded in the Acts etc. but they did journey and preach alone or with one or two companions. What did they say when they arrived in the strange city and walked to the synagogue? Did they discuss the place of their church in the modern world; did they think what could be done to provide care for those who broke the commandments "There, there"  This falseness of sympathy was not with them. They taught that we who wish to know and share the love that comes from God have to make right choices; and that their Good News was and is that the Father loves us all but we can only share that Love if we do keep his words and commandments ever as the governors of our lives.

I cannot receive  the Grace of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament if I am not already without Mortal Sin. There is a magnificent simplicity in this teaching of the Church. The Sacrament is not magic, although the words of consecration have been blasphemously parodied in the English Language, the real Body & Blood of Our Saviour feeds my soul; but my body and mind and soul need to be free from Mortal Sin before I can benefit. How can some Cardinal or Bishop or Priest or an infinite number of the same change this essence of our religious life. Its totally impossible and they were taught this as children (I hope) so why do they think it is possible today.

Today, 1900 years ago, St Ignatius pleaded with his disciples not to make eye-contact with him as he was taken away to die in the arena; he was afraid that his resolve to accept death as the gateway leading to Our Lord would be broken if he saw a possibility of help. Ignatius not only followed St Peter into the Church as a structured institution but was also a disciple of St John, who with Mary is the Apostle of Love.

Today's reading from Malachi warns us what The Lord thinks of those who divorce. Have the leaders of our Church taken note?

Maybe the new elevangelisation is not so different than the old. It seems that St Paul's fiercest opponents were his old colleagues of the synagogues.

The Crusader Facade fronting St Peter's Church in Antioch 

First Reading

Malachi 1:1-14,2:13-16

The word of the Lord to Israel through the ministration of Malachi.
    I have shown my love for you, says the Lord. But you ask, ‘How have you shown your love?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? – it is the Lord who speaks; yet I showed my love for Jacob and my hatred for Esau. I turned his towns into a wilderness and his heritage into desert pastures. Should Edom say, ‘We have been struck down but we will rebuild our ruins’, this is the reply of the Lord of Hosts: Let them build! I will pull down. They shall be known as Unholy Land and Nation-with-which-the Lord-is-angry-for-ever. Your eyes are going to see this and you will say, ‘The Lord is mighty beyond the borders of Israel.’
    The son honours his father, the slave respects his master. If I am indeed father, where is my honour? If I am indeed master, where is my respect? the Lord of Hosts asks this of you, priests, you who despise my name. You ask, ‘How have we despised your name?’ By putting polluted food on my altar. You ask, ‘How have we polluted it?’ By holding the table of the Lord in contempt. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you bring the lame and the diseased, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your high commissioner, and see if he is pleased with this or receives you graciously, says the Lord of Hosts. Now try pleading with God to take pity on us (this is your own fault); do you think he will receive you graciously? says the Lord of Hosts. Oh, is there no one among you who will shut the doors and stop you from lighting useless fires on my altar? I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of Hosts; from your hands I find no offerings acceptable. But from farthest east to farthest west my name is honoured among the nations and everywhere a sacrifice of incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering too, since my name is honoured among the nations, says the Lord of Hosts. But you, you profane it by thinking of the Lord’s table as defiled and by holding in contempt the food placed on it. ‘How tiresome it all is!’ you say; and you sniff disdainfully at me, says the Lord of Hosts. You bring a stolen, lame or diseased animal, you bring that as an offering! Am I to accept this from your hand? says the Lord of Hosts. Cursed be the rogue who owns a male which he has vowed to offer from his flock, and instead sacrifices a blemished animal to me! For I am a great king, says the Lord of Hosts, and my name is feared throughout the nations.
    And here is something else you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and wailing, because he now refuses to consider the offering or to accept it from your hands. And you ask, ‘Why?’ It is because the Lord stands as witness between you and the wife of your youth, the wife with whom you have broken faith, even though she was your partner and your wife by covenant. Did he not create a single being that has flesh and the breath of life? And what is this single being destined for? God-given offspring. Be careful for your own life, therefore, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord the God of Israel, and I hate people to parade their sins on their cloaks, says the Lord of Hosts. Respect your own life, therefore, and do not break faith like this.

15th October 2014

I am just playing with the keyboard again and thinking as I go on. I am really trying to follow the task of New Evangelisation as publicly as possible and also with my head down. This is the internet, simultaneously public and private. Going to church helping in church activities etc.  is preaching to the converted; but I cannot stand at a street corner shouting as some did in my youth.

The Pope is right to talk of this new effort that is required to bring people to God. But is it "new" is it not the same task that Jesus commissioned to his disciples. Do we not have an Institutional Church, the church of St Peter that now Pope Francis leads? Is this church aware that being right as the institute does not mean that it can forget to be  the guardian of  the Church of Love that is witnessed by St John and Our Lady?

It is this Church of Love that is let down by such as the following. 

Parliament in the UK passed a law making it illegal to not allow same sex partners to adopt  children. In other words, if  any Adoption Society refused to let a same-sex couple adopt one of the children in its care; then there would be the strong arm of the law dealing out punishment.

The law was promulgated, our Hierarchy complained and then I received a letter from our Bishop inviting me to attend a mass to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Local Catholic Adoption Society and inside that letter there was another closed envelope which on being opened informed all supporters of the society that as a result of the change in the law it was to wound up and closed. 

Where is the Church of Love in this? The Institute represented by the Hierarchy of England and Wales is present, dealing with the State of the UK and offering homage to the secular power! But where is the love that should have defended its right to care for the souls of the abandoned ones; where was this Love?

It reminds me of the Reformation in England when only one of the then hierarchy was able to offer resistance to the Government of the King. I have seen over the recent years only one open expression of regret for the deplorable abandonment of these parentless  children. Why were we not ready to stand up and be pilloried by the secular media for our illiberal wish to place the cure of souls of innocent children above the self-indulgent wishes of a group of people who define themselves by their pride in their devotion to sin. ( I say pilloried by the "secular media", but the  Catholic media I am abandoning,  is not much more trustworthy or truthful either.)

|St John Fisher of Beverley  Martyred Bishop of Rochester

Galatians 5:18-25

If you are led by the Spirit, no law can touch you. When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires.

Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit.

Yesterday I finished with the tomb of St Peter. Today his leadership descendants are meeting in Rome above his tomb discussing The Family. I wonder did they look at their Breviaries today did they notice how therein St Paul offers them firm guidance. Why do they want to sit around in lovely robes talking when their lives as clerics gives them the perfect opportunity to do what we all should do and dedicate our waking moments to prayer.

The Catholic hierarchy of this country (UK) seem to be more concerned to keep in with "the media" and have high profiles as semi-celebrities than in doing what they should do. A self-confessed "good bishop" left his flock recently because even he lacked the brassneck to continue "bishoping" when his adultery was made public; but still he insisted on his success as a bishop. A leader of our church! That many named  retired cardinal; many named and with even more blather; is going to unleash on the world his autobiography, just as he unleashed that paedophile on the repentant travellers of Gatwick. I am sure that he does not think that he has done anything wrong even when accepting the co-architect of the thousands of deaths of Iraq and the destruction of the Chaldean Christian community, into our Church without the slightest expression of grief or responsibility. He does not know what he has done! He can't do, for if he did his head would

permanently bowed with the shame and his mouth forever gagged except to repeat mea culpa.

Let us pray for him and for the others. Lord let those discussing in Rome understand the simplicity of your truth. Adultery, fornication whether with man, woman, animal or self is a sin. A sin is the breaking of your commandments. Fornication is a grievous sin that harms the perpetrator and if not acknowledged nor repented takes a soul to hell. Our Lord did not love us to lead us to this permanent death! The Love of God forgives us  in his mercy; but we must go and sin no more. The Love of God does not tell us to pretend that our sins are not sins. How can we dissemble before God? O Cardinals in your beautiful socks and shoes you have more than your own souls to lose; are you to be the rocks on which God's Church is built or the silvery sand that slips into Hell's silt? Doggerel, but  intentioned.

First reading

Galatians 5:1-6

When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. It is I, Paul, who tell you this: if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all. With all solemnity I repeat my warning: Everyone who accepts circumcision is obliged to keep the whole Law. But if you do look to the Law to make you justified, then you have separated yourselves from Christ, and have fallen from grace. Christians are told by the Spirit to look to faith for those rewards that righteousness hopes for, since in Christ Jesus whether you are circumcised or not makes no difference – what matters is faith that makes its power felt through love.

October 13 2014

That this can be anonymous Dear Lord I pray. Let these words be from a heart unconscious of self. Let me not feel anything but the wish to follow you and witness to your death and resurrection.  Why then this writing? I pray that what I write may be seen to be the words of a sincere soul getting closer to death, who everyday can only remember that his family is lost to God and that he and his generation are to blame for this loss.

The world, as is  usual, is filled with the stench and the sweetness of sin. Every waking moment offers us new opportunity. We mostly accept the sin and then dare to ask how it can be that an all-knowing, all-loving all-powerful God can allow such evils to flourish in our world.


First reading for October 13 2014
Galatians 4:22-24,26-27,31-5:1

The Law says, if you remember, that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl, and one by his free-born wife. The child of the slave-girl was born in the ordinary way; the child of the free woman was born as the result of a promise. This can be regarded as an allegory: the women stand for the two covenants. The first who comes from Mount Sinai, and whose children are slaves, is Hagar – The Jerusalem above, however, is free and is our mother, since scripture says: Shout for joy, you barren women who bore no children! Break into shouts of joy and gladness, you who were never in labour. For there are more sons of the forsaken one than sons of the wedded wife. So, my brothers, we are the children, not of the slave-girl, but of the free-born wife.
    When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

We have been baptised into the freedom of heaven but freely choose the yoke, the slavery of sin.