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Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof.
Just give the word and my servant will be cured.
From our destiny we cannot stand aloof.
And then ultimately we will receive our reward.

St John Damascene.
Lived under the Umayyad caliphate.
He worked to save icons on the screen.
He accepted hate from the iconoclasts as his fate.

Will we walk humbly like the centurion.
Or act bravely  like St John.
Or will we just carry on.
Until what we hold onto is gone.

The centurion’s servant was paralysed.
But by his master’s faith, he was cured.

…….

I am not worthy
To have you under my roof
Said at every mass

……..

See Matthew 8: 5-11

Heaven and earth will pass away.
But my words will never pass away.
A time will come with night and no more day.
And about this,  our fears we cannot allay.

I think prayers can do good.
But perhaps mainly for the dead.
For they inhabit a spiritual  sainthood.
Their physical beings are shed.

Their earth has passed away.
But the word remains.
They are just a transcendent ray.
They have forever broken our chains.

But we should pray for them.
So they become a heavenly gem.

………

Let’s pray for the dead
There is no consequence here
Only the spirit

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See Luke 21: 29 – 33

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Mene,  Mene, Tekel and Parsin.
God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it.
You have been weighed in the balance and found wantin.
Your kingdom has been divided , it is writ.

One day our own writing will be on the wall.
God has measured our life and will put an end to it.
We will have been weighed in the balance and will face the call.
When it comes to death our life will not be divided from it.

But there is no prophet Daniel.
To tell us all this.
We have to guess , there is no manuel.
But we will know when something is amiss.

We stare at the wall .
But it is blank, so we think we can walk tall.

…….

We stare at the wall
Of course we see no writing
But be sure it’s there

…….

See Daniel 5

All these things you are staring at now.
The time will come when not a single stone will be left on another.
We follow through life after our own plough.
But we feel we are only here to suffer.

A friend has had a stroke.
One minute we’re planning for the future.
We thought we were as strong as the proverbial oak.
And then our whole life is about some suture.

Daniel said to Nebuckadnezzar you had a vision.
O King, you saw a statue.
We wait for the final collision.
But there is always hope that there will be something anew.

The Kings statue had feet of earthenware.
So let us too beware.

…….

The great King’s statue
Made of gold, still fell apart
And so too will we

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See Daniel 2: 31-45

She from the little she had.
Has put in all she had to live.
If we give all we have we never will be sad.
Of course , we never do, we just carry on.

I dreamt last night that I met my father.
Dead nearly 30 years but every feature clear .
I introduced him to a by passer .
Then he was gone but he told me to appreciate every day, my dear .

In my dream I asked the Virgin Mary to help my wife.
To transfer her leg pain to me .
Next morning I went for a run, fell over, my leg in pain,  that’s life.
Be careful what you ask for , you see.

We may not have much to give.
But it’s in giving that we receive.

……..

I met my father
How clear are the dead in dreams
As if never gone

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See Luke 21: 1-4

 
Christus vincit.
Christus regnat, Christus imperat.
Christ conquers, and does acquit.
Christ rules, Christ reigns, stops us falling flat.

But how do we enter his kingdom.
He tells us plain.
It doesn’t take much wisdom.
But it is a narrow lane.

Insofar as you neglected to do to the least of these.
You neglected to do to me.
We fall short, we search for selfless keys.
We are taught again and again but we cannot see.

For truth we have to thirst.
We have to put others first.

…….

If the Christ does reign
If he conquers and does rule
Where does that leave us

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See Matthew 25: 31-46

Antiochus fell into a lethargy from acute disappointment.
Because things had not turned out for him as he had planned.
And yes we too sometimes are full of resentment.
Jealousy , anger , misery fanned.

I dreamt last night that I had missed a train.
Oh how I worried and raged.
But it was only a dream and it will come again , this or some other train.
But the merest setback runs us ragged.

The King remained for many days subject to melancholy.
Until he understood that he was dying.
Of course he had destroyed much that was holy.
But in his pride he had thought he was winning.

Why can’t we just see everything in perspective.
And remain happy, confident and active.

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All in perspective
That is all that we can do
To remain happy

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See 1 Maccabees 6 : 1-13

As Jesus drew near Jerusalem.
He shed tears over it.
Here was no strong aluminium.
It would be felled as in a pit.

I awoke in the night feeling really ill.
The flu had got to me .
Getting out of this pit is a question of will
Remember truth, hear and see.

Suffering is universal.

Because we feel we are a separate entity.

This sense of the anxious self is fatal.

And it all leads to futility.

Jerusalem did rise.

And we shall all of arise.

…….

Dear Jerusalem
You’re the eternal city
You are always there

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See Luke 19 : 41-44

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Down from the heavens, leapt your all powerful word.
Into the heart of the doomed land the stern warrior leapt.
Thus was our fear stirred.
And we wept.

Carrying your command like a sharp sword.
He stood and filled the universe with death.
But still  we hoped for our reward.
And new everlasting breath.

He touched the sky.
Yet trod the earth.
Dispelling any lie.
And giving creation new birth.

The Red Sea became an unimpeded way.
And for us too a God given partnership, a new way.

……..

Down from the heavens
Leapt your all powerful word
And it gave us hope

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See Wisdom 18

People were eating , marrying .
Right up to the day that Noah went into the ark.
Future worrying and planning.
Hoping to make their mark.

And the flood came .
And destroyed them all .
And we will be the same.
We will meet the final unclimbable wall.

We were in the All Souls chapel.
In this month of  November.
Praying for the dead in their purgatorial grapple.
And trying to remember.

And then I looked at the West wall.
And thought I. heard my mother’s call.

…..

This month remember
In this month of November
It’s all we can do

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See Luke 17: 26-37

Within wisdom is a spirit, intelligent , holy.
Unique , manifold ,subtle,incisive, unsullied. active.
Protecting us from all folly.
Objective and reflective.

I am looking at a seagull flying .
It has more sense than me.
It is totally mindful of its job, fish catching.
Not worrying about tomorrow, only what it can see.

We are so wrapped up in ourself.
Not realising tomorrow may not happen.
Soon we may just be a picture on a shelf.
Indeed perhaps soon now, tomorrow will not happen.

Focused on the present tense.
The seagull has more sense.

………

Focused on present
All the seagulls are mindful
They are unlike us

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See Wisdom 7: 22

Hear this those who have thousands under their rule.
He himself will probe your acts and scrutinise your intention.
If we think we will not be held to account we are a fool.
We will find soon ourself in a different dimension.

Intelligent life might only occur once in our galaxy
Of we are told, 200 billion stars .
We are probably alone in our complexity.
And therefore we should be wary of leaving environmental scars.

I always have wondered that with so many potential worlds.
A Jesus would come to just ours.
But if if there are so very few such worlds.
Maybe he has really just come to ours.

He has given sense to our existence.
Yet many doubt his divine existence.

……….

If we are alone
In this so vast galaxy
Should we not believe

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See Wisdom 6: 1-11

God made man imperishable.
He made him in his own nature.
Everything we worry about here is perishable.
But we believe there is another future.

The souls of the virtuous.
Are in the hands of God.
Well it is all arduous.
But we keep trying and remain awed.

In the eyes of the unwise .
Did they appear to die.
But they will eventually rise.
This is surely no lie.

Their going looked like disaster.
But they are surely in peace , they are with the master.

……..

Going disaster
Or it’s a new beginning
That is what we hope

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See Wisdom 2

Were your faith the size of a mustard seed.
You could say to this mulberry tree , be uprooted.
We do not know where all of this will lead.
And whether our faith will grow or be muted.

I was only half listening to the service recited.
The usual all too familiar words rolled by.
Then my eye caught the eye of Jesus painted.
Then I truly believed , I no longer had to ask why.

Thus just a picture behind the altar .
Turned everything round.
You don’t need prayer book or psalter.
For belief to be raised and to be sound.

I just had to look at Jesus’ last supper.
And faith cut through doubt like a knife through butter.

……..

Look at the picture
Jesus at the last supper
And start to believe

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See Luke 17 : 1-6