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Thursday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time

Do good to those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who abuse you.
Offer the other cheek to one who strikes you.

From the one who takes away your cloak.
Do not withhold your tunic either.
View all as gentlefolk.
Break all of resentment’s tether.

Commandments so difficult.
To follow.
Maybe it’s our fault.
Our faith is so hollow.

But we will try.
And that is not a lie.

……

Bless those who curse you
Pray for those who abuse you
Well we will just try

….

See Luke 6 : 27-38

Wednesday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time

 

 

Blessed are those who weep now.
For you shall laugh.
I love this idea of hope in the future given now.
That whatever happens the Lord is there on our behalf.

Laughter is important.
We should enjoy this life.
So follow the hopeful spiritual scent.
Salvation is always there, rife.

Troubles come and go.
And usually they seem to come.
But of course they all eventually go.
They in retrospect are just another small bread crumb.

In heaven there is only laughter.
So there is no eternal disaster.

…….

Blessed those who weep
For they shall come soon to laugh
Or that’s what we hope

…..

See Luke 6 : 20-26

Tuesday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time

He called his disciples.
And he chose from them twelve.
Whom he called Apostles.
But who were these twelve.

They may not have been the brightest.
Or the most loyal .
Or the fittest.
Or the most royal.

They were like us.
Scared , fumbling
Doubting like us.
Even trembling.

They would all run away.
As we all too often turn away.

……

He called disciples
Out of them he chose just twelve
They are our first priests

……

See Luke 6: 12-19

Monday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time

 

I trust in your merciful love.
Let my heart rejoice in your salvation.
For you are pure love.
Removing all temptation.

I will sing to the Lord.
Who has been bountiful with me.
He is the one true Lord.
Eternally, we pray, looking after you and me.

I was in the Museum of Man.
Apparently we all just a part of spontaneous evolution.
Man has no soul, he is just the latest man.
So a bad moral choice is not a temptation

I don’t know , I need to know more.
I just feel in my heart there is more.

…….

I trust in your love
Rejoicing in salvation
I am not an ape

… ….

See psalm 13

24 th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

What human being can discern the counsel of God.
Or can discern what the Lord wills.
Indeed who or why or where is God.
Who knows apart from love what he wills.

For the reasoning of mortals is worthless.
And our designs are likely to fail.
But why ask, why be anxious.
The body yes, but the soul cannot fail.

For a perishable body weighs down the soul.
And this earthly tent burdens a mind full of thoughts.
There later is joy, here is merely full of toil.
There later , the reward of the cross, here just naughts.

Here there is endless thinking.
There finally understanding.

……

What is God’s counsel
Who can discern what he wills
Yet we will find out

……

See Wisdom 9 : 13-18

Saturday of Week 22 in Ordinary Time

 

 

You who were once alienated.
He has now reconciled.
No longer divided.
Nor resented.

He did this by his death.
In order to present you blameless.
To give you eternal breath.
Your soul perfect endless.

If you continue stable and steadfast.
Not shifting in the hope of the gospel.
You will last.
And all your fears dispel.

No longer fearful.
But hopeful.

…..

You once alienated
Now reconciled and hopeful
Now and for ever

……

See Colossians 1 : 21-23

Friday of Week 22 in Ordinary Time

 

The Pharisees said, the disciples of John fast.
But yours eat and drink.
But what will last.
Let us think.

Jesus said can you make wedding guests fast.
While the bridegroom is with them.
They had asked.
And the right answer was given them.

We do not need to fast.
Jesus is with us.
Our faith will last.
He will never leave us.

What matters is what you do.
Not what comes through you.

…..

John’s disciples fast
Those of Jesus eat and drink
That is the right way

…..

See Luke 5 : 33-39

Thursday of Week 22 in Ordinary Time

 

 

 

Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.
In all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
But we have just for a moment to be still.
Not fearing or worrying but hoping.

Master we toiled all night.
And took nothing.
Sometimes we just have to keep up the fight.
Even if time and again we receive nothing.

They enclosed a large number of fish.
And their nets were breaking.
If we keep trying we can get out wish,
And keep succeeding.

The Lord is not on the boat with us.
But he still is with us.

……

We toiled all the night
And yet still we caught nothing
But then the Lord came

……

See de Colossians 9 : 1-14 and Luke 5: 1–11

Wednesday of Week 22 in Ordinary Time

 

 

From the moment we heard.
We have not ceased to pray for you.
With nothing feared.
We will not forget you.

If we put God at the centre of everything.
All falls into true perspective.
There need be no fearing.
We know all is relative.

What does anything matter.
It’s a drop compared to that great truth,
We cast off every fetter.
From all fears we can stand aloof.

God is here.
Banish all fear.

….

For from this moment
We’ve not ceased to pray for you
That’s our destiny

….

See Colossians 1 : 9- 14

Tuesday of Week 22 in Ordinary Time

The Lord will come.
Like a thief in the night.
For all and not just for some.
Extinguishing this life’s paltry light.

We should not live this day.
As if it was the last.
We should live this day.
As if it was the first.

We do not know when we will be called.
So better live every day as if we might.
But one thing is clear , we will be sorted.
And perhaps not all will wake to transcendent light.

So be ready.
And remain steady.

…….

So the Lord will come
Just like a thief in the night
And will we be ready

…….

See 1 Thessalonians 5

Monday of Week 22 in Ordinary Time

 

 

 

 

The spirit of the Lord is upon me.
To proclaim good news to the poor.
To proclaim liberty to the captives he sent me.
To all of us even though we are in spirit all too poor.

And recovering of sight to the blind.
To set at liberty those who are oppressed.
But belief must be enshrined.
The truth must be faced.

To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
For all of us, whoever we are.
Our saviour.
Who is both close, personal and universally far.

Will we listen to the scroll.
Are we prepared to toil.

…….

Here’s the Lord’s spirit
It is upon our Jesus
And setting us free

….  ..

See Luke 4 : 16-30

22 nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Perform your tasks in meekness.
Then you will be loved by those whom God accepts.
Maybe we are just called to witness.
Even  if we are among the rejects.

I am at the Chapelle Notre Dame de Grace.
With long views over the Seine.
The priest in his sermon stands to the Virgin face to face.
Proclaiming her ever lasting reign.

He worships her so powerfully
With so much charity.
We are all rent spiritually.
Understanding our destiny.

She is the mother over all.
Of us all.

….

Perform tasks meekly
Loved by those whom God accepts
That is your witness

……,

See Sirach 3 : 17- 18

Saturday of Week 21 in Ordinary Time

 

 

 

From the one who had not.
Even what he had will be taken away.
How do we untie life’s difficult knot.
We ponder , we pray but who can say.

The feast day of Saint Jeanne Jugan
Is celebrated today.
The founder of the Little Sisters of the Poor Han a plan.
Caring for the poor and infirm wherever they lay.

I am at her Cancale Maison Natale.
In her day a tiny hovel.
Devoid of furniture but clean not “sale.”
Hardly anything level.

She started with nothing.
She gave away everything.

…..

The one who had not
What’s his is taken away
So we just must care

……

See Matthew 25: 14-30

Friday of Week 21 in Ordinary Time

 

 

The Lord is king.
Let earth rejoice.
Let us sing.
And find our true voice.

Let the many islands be glad.
Justice and right are the foundation of his throne.
There is no need to be sad.
Or indeed ever to be alone.

The mountains melt like wax.
Before the face of the Lord of all the earth.
We need only fear our faith being lax.
In God’s love there can be no dearth.

The skies proclaim his justice.
All peoples see his glory and fitness.

…..

The Lord is our King
The many islands are glad.
Mountains melt like wax

…….

See Psalm 97

Thursday of Week 21 in Ordinary Time

 

 

 

 

To your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday.
Come and gone like a watch in the night.
Let us be open to a new day.
And a new dawning light.

I am looking towards Mont St Michel.
Crystal clear across the estuary.
I almost feel I can hear it’s calling bell.
The evening is shades of pink and distant grey.

But what a monument to faith’s call.
Standing proud for much more than any century.
We will not lose heart if it does not fall.
A place of prayer and sanctuary.

This is not just a place for the tourist season .
It is a place of hope and reason.

…..

Just a thousand years
Are for you a nighttime watch
Come and gone so soon

….

See Psalm 90

Wednesday of Week 21 in Ordinary Time

 

 

If I take wings of the dawn.
Or dwell at the sea’s furthest end.
Even there your hand would lead me to a new dawn.
Your right hand would hold me fast to the end.

Dying is like walking into the sea over sharp pebbles.
And then deliciously floating weightless.
But a thousand times more as the dying body rebels.
Then the soul is set free at last bodyless.

I dread walking back from the sea.
Stumbling over an unseen rock.
But at death the soul is forever set free.
The gates of heaven unlock.

The night shall be as the day is bright.
All will be transcendent celestial light.

…….

I walk into sea.
Stumbling over hidden stones
Then sea sets me free

….

See Psalm 139

Tuesday of Week 21 in Ordinary Time

 

 

 

You blind Pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and the plate.
That the outside may also be clean.
At this spiritual feast are we going to be late.
Have we the truth through unknowing clouds seen.

As I sat through Mass wondering.
Nothing seemed believable.
Once again with this liturgy I was doubting.
I even questioned the bible.

We go through this dry period.
All seems exaggerated.
Human made.
Even manafactured.

But then I read at the back the explanation .
Mais qui Donc est Jesus? And  all seemed reason.

……

Clean the cup’s inside
The outside Will then come clean
That’s what we must do

……

See Matthew 23 : 23-26

Monday of Week 21 in Ordinary Time

 

 

 

Our gospel came to you not only in word.
But in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Do we listen even though we have heard.
And seek to ascend our spiritual turret.

We worry so much about death.
But it is just the freeing of the soul from the body.
A new galvanised spiritual breath.
We just enter heavens’s lobby.

Only our body dies.
It decays.
The soul flies.
Just the end of a passing phase.

No need to worry
Here is nothing scary.

….

The soul does not die
For it has nothing to die
It is just spirit

….

See 1 Thessalonians

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

 

All discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.
But later  it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
We just need to be here in this moment, present.
In a sense of mindful quietness.

I am reading Lewis’ Out of the Silent World.
Malacandra is a place of peace.
Wars and hatred are finished , furled.
And all races exist  together without cease.

I love it that at death they are simply unbodied.
That the soul just leaves the body.
The soul is immortalised.
Leaving just a dead body.

Only the body dies.
The soul flies.

….

So we do not die
We are simply unbodied
Our soul carries on

……

See Hebrews 12

Saturday of Week 20in Ordinary Time

 

 

 

 

And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi.
Let me go into the field and glean. among the ears of grain.
Ruth the truth, she could see.
The true lane.

Ruth the migrant.
Was more worthy.
This we can scent.
She was the least blameworthy.

Why, she asked, have I found favour.
Since I am a foreigner.
But she was a lifesaver.
And ultimately a redeemer.

We can learn from the past
That compassion must last.

……

Ruth was a migrant
Yet still she was more worthy
Perhaps we can learn

….

See Ruth 2

Friday of Week 20 in Ordinary Time

 

 

 

 

Teacher , which is the greatest commandment.
In the  law.
What will be our own testament
Have we obeyed the law.

You should love your God with all your heart.
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
The best way to start.
For myself and yourself.

This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it.
An arch with one pillar would be rent.
Two commandments are needed to make us fit.

Two essential pillars.
Too often forgotten pillars.

…….

Two great commandments
Both based on essential love
Both easily missed

…..

See Matthew 22: 34-40

Thursday of Week 20 in Ordinary Time

 

 

 

The wedding feast is ready.
But those invited were not worthy.
How do we keep our own faith steady.
Are we truly trustworthy.

Are we invited to the wedding feast.
Do we just make excuses.
Is our faith little by little decreased.
Do we obey our trustworthy spiritual muses.

The king saw there was a man.
With no wedding garment.
We too are under God’s scan.
In all seasons not just in Lent.

We are invited.
But have we resisted.

……

The wedding ready
And we are all invited
But do we then come

…….

See Matthew 22 : 1-14

Wednesday of Week 20 in Ordinary Time

The fig tree said , shall I leave my sweetness.
And hold sway over the trees.
We must settle for less.
Just pay our fees.

The vine said, shall I leave my wine.
That cheers and hold sway over the trees.
Will we hold the line.
Have we paid our fees.

And the bramble said to the trees.
Come and take refuge in my shade.
They will have paid their fees.
They can take rest in the holy glade.

So the first will be last.
And the last will be first.

…….

Why strive for first place
Be like the humble bramble
And just be the last

……

See Judges 9 : 6-15 and Matthew 20 : 1-16

Tuesday of Week 20 in Ordinary Time

Then Gideon built an altar there.
And called it the Lord is peace.
We need not fear.
If we pray without cease.Mercy and faithfulness have met.
Justice and peace have kissed.
Our path is set.
No effort for peace will be missed.

Faithfulness shall ring from the earth.
And justice look down from heaven.
We come from and return to the earth.
But our ultimate place is in heaven.

The Lord will bestow his bounty.
Not now but later, we will be given plenty.

…….

We just need not fear
If we just pray without cease
That is our mission

……

See Judges 6: 11-24 and Psalm 85

Monday of Week 20 in Ordinary Time

The young man went away sorrowful.
Because he was a man of great riches.
As I hear these words at mass I too often feel sorrowful.
Because I cannot give up even my modest riches.

We can only do just what we can.
We may not be a saint.
Our faith may be a trifle wan.
Our spiritual ardour rathe faint.

But we need not go away
sorrowful.
Jesus’ words may not apply to us.
He knows our hope is spiritually full.
And we are accepted just as us.

So we walk away hopefully.
Not always sorrowfully.

……

Are we sorrowful
We cannot give all away
But we keep trying

……

See Matthew 19 : 16-19