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

……

See Psalm 22

You are not to lament.
Not to weep , not to let your tears run down.
For the tree was my lament.
Its branches cut down.

So often had I looked through the west window.
Its branches gently swaying.
Now the machines had cut them low.
Were they still alive, growing.

Yes the tree will live.
Paired of the rotten branches.
It will now thrive.
Given in its long life new chances.

In our life if our hopes are pruned.
Somehow new life will be resumed.

……

Do not lament
Nor weep, not let tears run down
For you will survive

…..

See Ezekiel 24: 15-24

The fathers have eaten unripe grapes.
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.
We wander forgotten in distant landscapes.
Truth hidden by an impenetrable mental  hedge.

But by the light of the sea.
We can see a little further.
We may not hear or understand but we can see.
Here we are free , not some mere time server.

What is about the sea that frees us slaves.
That transports us to another country.
Is it the relentless, lapping, sound blessed waves.
We seem here to belong to no century.

Time here is not of  the essence.
Only our physical sense.

…..

We eat unripe grapes
And our teeth are set on edge
Yet we have the sea

…….

See Ezekiel 18 : 1-10, 13, 30-32

The last of the enemies to be destroyed is death.
For everything is to be put under his feet.
Our last on this earth may not be our last breath.
We may breathe again after we approach his seat.

Awake at night , of course I started worrying.
And then suddenly I thought of Blessed Richard Leigh.
Immediately I saw wonderful lights appearing.
And a joyful  sense of peace set me free.

Are the dead really living.
How strange that he seemed so present.
Over four hundred years of death defying.
Maybe I should truly believe his ascent.

But how wonderful was that vision.
With the distant past true union.

……

Death can be destroyed
It’s the last of enemies
But God has the key

…….

See 1 Corinthians 15 : 20-26

Whatever you bind on earth.
Shall be considered bound in heaven.
At our death we find our true worth.
Death is the true leaven.

We should think of Maximilian Kolbe not because of his death .
But of what  he had become.
His choice already made with every breath.
He had to save life even if death would thereby come.

When the final trial comes at last.
The choice, if we have prayed,  will be clear.
He had lived his true self as he breathed his last.
He was just a true man , no sear.

We are what we have become.
Which only may be clear to some.

….

What you bind on earth
Will now be bound in heaven
That is surely clear

.. ….

See Matthew 18: 15-20