After that I saw a huge number.
Of people from every nation.
We do not know who now looks on God in wonder.
Or what now is their heavenly station

I dreamt of Mame , mere soul or saint, my grandma.
Dead these sixty years.
What joy it gave to meet her from afar.
Wiping away all bereavement’s tears.

Every time my thoughts half waking.
Turned to the world today worrying.
My heart started sinking
And then I felt my grandmother listening.

When we pray to the dead, we thrive.
For in our thoughts they are alive.

…..

We pray to the dead
For to us they are alive
Now and for ever

…….

See Wisdom 3 : 1-9

There are six days when work can be done.
Come and be healed on one of those days.
Not every day can we see the sun.
Or its resplendent rays.

It is good to keep one day special.
And so in our hearts Sunday has a place.
A holy vessel.
A day to imagine God’s face.

With relentless pressure.
Every day passes.
With no leisure.
And work never ceases.

But one day we can keep.
And salvation reap.

……..

Keep one day holy
Not all days need be the same
Take time, have a rest

…….

See Luke 13: 10-17

The Lord told the sons of Israel.
You must not molest or oppress the stranger.
This is the true vision of Israel.
For in the land of Egypt you lived as a stranger.

If you are harsh.
They will surely cry out to me.
You do not need to wade into this marsh.
You need to understand , forgive and see.

Be sure I shall hear their cry.
My anger will flare out.
Is there always a need for an eye for an eye.
Can we not listen rather than with violence shout.

Sometimes retribution  needs pausing.
Or we risk , hurting the innocent with warring.

…..

Oppress not the stranger
For once you were a stranger
Try to understand

….

See Exodus 22 : 20 26

When you see a cloud looming up in the west.
You say at once that rain is coming.
At some stage or other we are all put to the test.
And our chances of redemption are fleeting.

Sleepless during the long night,  I kept reciting.
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
But the effect, strong at first, became more fleeting.
Actually I came a bit bored.

It was as if rain had washed away faith’s flood defence
And then I realised it had become just mantra reciting.
I was forgetting the word trust in its sense.
I was just saying, not trusting.

In God I still do enough trust.
Faith dissolves into weary disbelieving dust.

……

It’s trust in the Lord
And the vital word is trust
That’s all that matters

…….

See Luke 12 : 54-59 and Psalm 1

Happy the man who has placed his trust .
In the Lord.
This is not just a may , it is a must.
To carve the way of truth as with an unwavering sword.

He is like a tree planted.
Beside the flowing waters.
Everything just needs to be accepted.
Despite trials from many quarters.

A tree that yields its fruit in due season.
And whose leaves shall never fade.
This is true reason.
Another unwavering blade.

All that he does shall prosper.
Although we say it only in a whisper.

……….

So shall we prosper
If we place trust in the Lord
It is just our choice

……..

See Psalm 1

You too must stand ready .
Because the son of man is coming.
Can we, despite all the stress of life, remain steady.
And we do not know the hour we should be expecting.

If the householder had known.
At which hour the burglar would come.
All would not have been blown.
He could have warned others, sounded the drum.

Happy that servant if the master’s arrival.
Finds him at his employment.
And so there is more than just our survival.
Or mere enjoyment.

We must stand ready.
And steady.

……..

When will he arrive
We do not know at what time
But arrive he will

……..

See Luke 12 : 39-48

See that you are dressed for action.
And have your lamps lit.
Whatever the reaction.
And however our future path is lit.

Be like men waiting.
For their master to return from the wedding feast.
Right comes in the giving not the taking.
It may be sent not from the greatest but the least .

Happy those servants .
Whom the master finds awake.
We may not be savants.
But we hopefully know how to give and not just take.

We do not know in which watch he will come .
But sometime he certainly will come.

……..

So when will he come
We do not know at what hour
But yes he will come

…….

See Luke 12 : 35-38

I will pull down my barns.
And build bigger ones.
He thought his happiness depended on more farms.
For his daughters and his sons.
Fool this very night.

The demand will be made for your soul.
For him everything soon will be out of sight.
And he will disappear down eternity’s hole.

So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself.
In place of making himself rich in the sight of God.
Any moment we can fall off this fragile shelf.
And then it will be nothingness or God.

So worry not about future saving.
But what is now, this minute, life enhancing.

…….

Save for tomorrow?
It might never come at all
Live then just for now

…….

See Luke 12 : 13-21

Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
And to God what belongs to God.
Too much interest in God lies in the freezer.
We are spiritually unshod.

More and more seems to belong to the state.
Less and less to the individual soul.
We search less for the Godly estate.
With  more and more  time in restless toil.

If we must ,give Caesar what he needs.
And leave plenty back for God’s needs.
Here are holy seeds.
And spiritual reeds.

Provide the state’s needs
For there is plenty for God
If we search to find

…….

See Matthew 22 : 15-21

If anyone declares for me in the presence of men.
The son of man will declare for him in the presence of angels.
We have to speak out again and again.
To be heard by the heavenly archangels.

I was walking in my parents steps in Bletchley Park.
Passing through the huts they worked in .
They were there eighty years ago making their mark.
To the allies’ ultimate win.

They never talked about it.
Sworn as they were to silence.
Here was wartime true grit.
Yet a place of knowledge not violence.

Thus the distant past still had echos.
The sound waves coming in highs and lows.

…….

Can we feel the past
Only in such faint echos
But it is still there.

….   ..

See Luke 12 : 8-12

A man is justified by faith.
And not by doing something that the law tells him to do.
Faith appears often in Paul but all that rhymes with it is wraith.
Indeed with faith again and again we have to renew.

Alas for you lawyers .
Who have taken away the key of knowledge.
Faith indeed comes in layers.
But we have to accept and acknowledge.

But with the Lord there is mercy .
And fullness of redemption.
Surviving all controversy
And all that tension.

But as we await our prize.
It may be a surprise.

………

We await our prize
It may be quite a surprise
But we do not know

……..

See Romans 3: 21-30 and Psalm 129

You clean the outside of cup and plate.
But inside you are filled with extortion and wickedness.
We are happy to berate.
Do we look within our own restful ness.

I was kept awake by a tiny problem unsolved
And by a big issue.
The first just by getting up early, easy to be  resolved.
The second a seemingly permanent fissure.

I tried mindfulness.
And was met only by anger.
I tried witness .
And then I realised other’s are actually in real danger.

Nothing seemed to be working.
So I just ended up sleeping.

……..

When we cannot sleep
We can turn to mindfulness
Does it always work

……

See Romans 1: 16-25

Through him we received grace.
And our mission to preach the obedience of faith.
We may not leave much trace.
We may be only a passing wraith.

I dreamt I was missing a meeting.
But it was all in my mind.
Such worries should be so fleeting.
We should learn to unwind.

The mind is our despot, shutting out light.
Refusing to leave us alone.
We should be a witness and get some respite.
Allowing us peace to rest and atone.

That meeting was merely a chimera.
Caught only in the mind’s camera.

………

Our dreams are not true
They’re just a trick of our mind
Coming and going

……..

See Romans1 : 1-7

Many are called.
But few are chosen.
Can a previous life be recalled.
Are our prospects pre ordained and frozen.

We are composed of many millions of atom parts.
That on death disperse and reform in another human.
Thus we are all composed of countless restarts.
Are we just a passing bus’s crewman.

But we all are completely unique.
An absolute one off in the history of the universe.
What is the answer , we do not know, we just seek.
Our thoughts move forward then go into reverse.

We really do not know the truth.
As old age and death chase all too quickly our youth.

We’re million parts
Forming reforming dying
But we are unique

….  …

See Matthew 22 : 1-14

Cloud and darkness are his raiment.
His throne , justice and right.
Do we always in our hearts have to be a complainant.
Can we not see this true piercing light.

There is no black or white.
Jew or Muslim or Christian.
We are all one race, that is the only right.
There should be no separate individuals in tension.

When will this hatred end.
We all have two ears and eyes and one heart.
Why do we destroy when we could mend.
When will try to make a true start.

We are all individual yet one.
Like the Trinity , three in one.

….   …

Individual
Yet all part of human whole
Surely we’re one race

…….

See Psalm 96

Day of darkness and gloom.
Day of cloud and blackness.
The end does loom.
Is there time for forgiveness.

This Saxon King.
Did he ever think he would be the last.
With him it is broken , the dynasty’s ring.
And the beginning of a long English fast.

With Edward came the end of his line.
He might be considered a failure.
Yet of all kings the Confessor is a noble sign.
So we ask what really is failure.

So we may think we fail.
But others may yet tell our tale.

…….

Did Edward fail
As the king he surely did
Not as Confessor

……..

See Joel 1 : 13-15 , 2 : 1-2

Search and you will find.
Knock and the door will be opened.
Sometimes we are anxious , at other times resigned.
A door closes and then is reopened.

I was at mass in the early morning.
It was in French , I was half asleep.
And then I started listening.
And here were words to treasure and keep.

For all my doubting.
I have to keep searching.
And maybe I will end up finding.
If I stop resisting.

No longer pleasure seeking .
But pausing, not away running.

……..

As the Buddha paused
Accepting experience
Not grasping at it

……

See Luke 11 : 5-18

I knew you were a God of tenderness and compassion.
Slow to anger, rich in graciousness.
Yet beyond all human comprehension.
A God of tenderness.

I approach Christianity with emotion.
And with joy.
But not really with reason
Although mere reason cannot a belief destroy.

I approach Buddhism with reason
Yet I feel no real joy.
And not really with emotion.
It’s not Christianity’s same alloy.

I pray for a God that is loving.
Rather than endless lives coming and going

………

What gives us most joy
Is it Christianity
I know the answer

…….

See Jonah 4 : 1-11

Martha, you worry and fret.
About so many things.
In reality nothing is set.
Without worries we can take wings.

I try everything during the long night.
Including only being a witness to thinking.
Before the first grey shafts of reluctant light.
But nothing is working.

I worry about  when the alarm will go off.
Is it ten or thirty minutes to  waking.
I seem stuck in a sleepless trough.
And finally dosing,it starts ringing.

Why are we so like Martha.
Why can we not do more laughter.

…….

Are we like Martha
Or can we be like Mary
Surely it’s our choice

….

See Luke 10: 38-42

The kingdom of heaven.
Is like a dragnet cast into the sea.
It is transformative leaven.
Going. Far beyond what we can see.

I am reading Robert Adams writing.
Free the mind from the slavery of thought.
Be the witness not the slave of thinking.
Do not allow yourself to be caught.

All is right.
The only reality is now
Transcendent light.
Think of what is, not how.

God is not somewhere.
He is everywhere.

…….

Know that all is right
We are not here or there now
We are everywhere

……

See Mathew 13 : 47-52