Love your enemies
Do good to those who hate you.
Search for remedies.
Act for him, her, and you.

Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye.
And never notice the plank in your own.
Are we living a lie.
Do we worry too much about we own.

Suddenly last night all was clear.
I woke to a great love of mankind.
At once I knew no fear .
It was enough to just be kind.

But these sublime moments pass.
As we move out of sleep’s pass.

……

Love your enemies
Do good to those who hate you
But do we do this

……

See Luke 6 : 39-42

How happy those who are poor.
Theirs is the kingdom of God
What do we really want to ask for.
What do we think is really right or odd.

I am looking at Van Gogh’s Olive Trees
The sun is a natural halo.
The disc hovers above the trees.
Art can take us anywhere , high or low.

Art can be spiritually expressive.
Without quoting from the bible.
It can send a strong missive.
In itself a religious fable.

I stood in the room alone with these pictures.
Here there seemed to be only light and no physical fixtures.

……..

Art spiritually
Expressive without bibles
As strong as the word

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See Luke 6 : 20-26

Everyone in the crowd.
Was trying to touch him.
Because the  power that cured the whole crowd.
Came out of him.

I suddenly felt the strength of these words.
As I listened to them in mass.
There is nothing more powerful than his words .
In any mass.

Now in Luke Jesus relies less on miracles.
And more on the power of teaching.
There is as much power in words as in  miracles.
And even greater and more powerful teaching.

The power of words hits you.
And you realise suddenly this is for you.

……..

Everyone touching
His power cured the whole crowd
And it will cure us

…….

See Luke 6 : 12-19

How can you be so proud of yourselves.
You should be in mourning.
Look first at ourselves.
Before we start condemning.

St Paul says a man who does a thing like that.
Ought to have been expelled from the community.
But was he, are we sure that he had done that.
Is this or that something that marks our unsuitability.

Better to be understanding.
Ready to forgive.
Not condemning.
Love and let live.

Are we sure what happened.
If indeed anything happened.

…….

Look first at ourselves
Before we start condemning
For are we honest

…….,

See 1 Corinthians 5 : 1-8

The eyes of the blind shall be  opened.
The ears of the deaf unsealed.
Faith like harvest wheat will be ripened.
And truth revealed.

The lame shall leap like a deer.
And the tongues of the dumb sing for joy.
We will know no fear.
And become the purest alloy.

For water gushes in the desert.
Streams in the wasteland.
We will be alert.
As we search for a new land.

All this Isaiah tells us will happen.
And our hearts will open.

……..

Eyes of blind opened
The ears of the deaf unsealed
Faith will be ripened

……..

See Isaiah 35 : 4-7

Remember the maxim.
Keep to what is written.
We can’t just obey every whim.
Have hope, our faith will quicken:

It is not for you so full of your importance.
To take sides.
Have some true sense.
Follow the scriptural guides.

In any case brother.
Has anybody given you some special right.
We need to hold on to our spiritual tether.
The better to approach the light.

You are influential , you are celebrities.
We are, St Paul tells us, nobodies.

…….

Remember maxim
And keep to what is written
Then you can’t go wrong

………

See 1 Corinthians 4: 6-15

Leaning over he rebuked the fever.
And it left her.
Love he could gather.
Because he was true and fair.

When daylight came he left.
And made his way to a lonely place.
Never with prayer  bereft.
Full of abiding grace.

At sunset all those who had friends.
Suffering from diseases.
Were given a loving care that mends.
A love that never freezes.

He will cure us.
Because he knows us.

……..

He rebuked fever
And it will leave us we hope
If we do believe

…….

See Luke 4: 38-44

ì

Well done good and faithful servant.
You have shown you can be faithful.
They suffered , they were fervent.
Of his grace mindful.

The 30 th August had passed.
They, the martyr’s are now in glory.
They died because they witnessed.
And we revere their story.

What was their death agony.
Something passing.
But now they are held in our memory.
Their tale never finishing.

Yet when we are gone.
We will be forgotten.

….  ..

Good faithful servant
And showing you are faithful
By your example

….

See Matthew 25 : 14-30

When Herod heard John speak.
He was greatly perplexed.
Do we after the truth seek.
Not caring if others are vexed.

Do we speak truth to power.
Or prefer to remain silent.
Do we hide our views and cower.
Retreat to our own mind’s tent.

John spoke  his mind.
He paid the price.
To agree is not always to be kind.
Better honest than always  nice.

We won’t anyway lose our head.
And we just might stay ahead.

…….

When John came to speak
King Herod was just perplexed
But he spoke the truth

……..

See Mark 6 : 17-29

Your faith is growing so wonderfully.
And the love that you bear for one another never stops increasing.
But I ask is that happening  really.
Our faith is weak , in adversity, not enduring.

We can take special pride in your constancy.
Under all the troubles you have to bear.
But I ask do we not more often follow our own fancy.
Too prone to give up and shed a tear.

It all shows that God’s judgment is just.
And the purpose of it is that you may be found worthy.
But again we ask , do we really trust.
Is our faith half full or half empty.

Thus we read St Paul’s teaching.
And find ourselves only half listening.

…….

Is our faith growing
Do we love each other more
Well perhaps, maybe

…..

See 2 Thesalonians 1

This, they said, is intolerable language.
How could anyone accept it.
But still we try and engage.
The lamp will not go out , it is for all time lit.

You have the message of eternal life.
And we believe.
Reading these words of Peter gives us new life.
Now at last we too can believe.

Peter could say .
You are the holy one.
And we too can say.
You are the holy one.

Give, we pray, us true belief.
So that we can have lasting relief.

……..

You have the message
It’s one of eternal life
Now we can believe

…….

See John 6 : 60-69

He showed me Jerusalem , the holy city.
It glittered like some crystal clear diamond.
A place here of love and pity .
And far beyond.

The walls of it were of great height.
And had twelve gates.
Giving us new sight.
And inspired new fates.

That city is not far away.
It is here now in our mind.
If we will allow the present to hold sway.
And to forget the daily memory grind.

There is a city on a nearby hill.
It is here and in a mind that is still.

…….

See Jerusalem
It is not so far away
It’s here in the mind

…….

See Apocalypse 21: 9-14

The Lord set me down in a valley.
A valley full of bones.
Does God exist really.
Is he master of all the thrones.

We enter a dark night.
The soul does not exist.
Nothing we were taught is right.
Truth , what is it , is hidden in mist.

Our bones will rot.
No one will remember.
This is our final lot.
It falls like the nighttime chill of November.

But deep somewhere.
Is hope , a spirit arising out of fear.

…….

We pass the valley
It is full of rotting bones
But surely there’s hope

…….

See Ezekiel 37 : 1-14

One man was not wearing a wedding garment.
How did you get in here, the King asked.
How do we prevent our own descent.
For our real future is masked.

But what is meant by the wedding garment.
Is it our original soul.

Have we forgotten what we were meant to be.
Have we rejected the truth, our soul.

Many are called.
But few are chosen.
We have been called
But will we be chosen.

Have we forgotten.
We are begotten.

……..

Our wedding garment
We are asked is it our soul
But we do not know

…….

See Matthew 22 : 1-14

If I should walk in the valley of darkness.
No evil should I fear.
Coming to mass, everything seemed less.
I shed an inward tear.

Then I listened to the twenty second psalm
Near restful waters he leads me.
To revive my drooping spirit, I was calm.
I was in a better place than me.

I sat in the small yard in London.
Looking at the new huge extension next door.
So I just changed the direction of the chair to no longer look on.
Every way, but that way, the sky, the wall, even the floor.

We can always lift the spirit, we say.
If we just start again and look away.

……

We walk in darkness
But he leads us by water
We have to look there

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See Psalm 22