O King , this man Daniel , one of the exiles.
Is at his prayers three times each day.
He was prepared to speak truth to lies.
His faith they could not easily gainsay.

Will they say the same of us men.
That we were at our prayers three times each day .
We certainly won’t be put in the lion’s den.
And if we want we can always have our say.

Daniel’s courage had his reward .
He is now immortalised.
When they cut our own life’s cord.
We can only hope we will not be despised.

It’s good to take just one thing from a reading.
Praying , giving not always needing.

…….

Pray three times a day
Who then will say that of us
Maybe nobody

………

See Daniel 6: 12-38

 
Mene Mene , Tekel and Parsin.
You have been weighed in the balance.
All of us are found out in our own sin.
Perhaps we have too much nonchalance .

The spirit of God most holy lives in you.
You are known for your perception and wisdom.
Said of Daniel but can it be said of our crew.
Sometimes our witness is silent, dumb.

Is the writing on the wall for us too.
Can we even read it properly .
Our payment for all we have done is due.
Have we have ever acted improperly.

All the Kings goods were divided.
One day we too will be derided.

………

Writing on the wall
Is it a saying for us
We just wait and see

……….

See Daniel 5

Stand erect , hold your heads high.
Because your liberation is near at hand.
When we die our friends, with loss, sigh.
As our life force vanishes in time’s sand.

I am at my friend David’s funeral.
A magnificent requiem high mass.
But it is his kindness that is the essential.
We live, we do not die, we hope we pass.
On a journey from the material to spiritual .

There is we pray no annihilation.
That death is not the end but a beginning.
I wish I was sure of the resurrection.
That ultimately there was no losing only winning.

As the coffin of our friend passes by.
There must be not loss but new life we sigh.

…….

Our friends may pass on
One day we will follow them
We wonder to what

……,,

See Today’s Gospel Acclamation

Daniel met only goodwill and sympathy.
He had the gift of interpreting every vision and  dream.
His courage unlocked his prison’s key.
Give me strength to join his courageous   team.

Daniel could have eaten forbidden meat.
But he ate only of the  vegetable.
But for all that it was  wholesome and sweet.
All was found to be acceptable .

I doubt I would I would ever have this courage
But if you stand firm you get results.
I do easily surrender to  all discourage.
But Daniel passed into glory from insults.

He was raised into the King’s confidence.
Give me strength to avoid fear’s reticence.

………

Speak truth to power
And you may achieve your ends
Or you might lose all

………..

See Daniel 1 :1-6, 8-20

On him was conferred sovereignty.
Glory and kingship.
We are his servants in perpetuity.
United we pray in fellowship .

Is Christ truly the king of everything.
Or is he just good man and preacher.
In our true hearts what tune do we sing.
Are we a genuine truth seeker.

Yes I am a king , I was born for this.
When I heard this at mass I believed.
It was a moment I could not miss .
Just for this instant , all was clear, I believed.

So is Christianity just another guide.
Or do we in all of scripture confide .

………..

We all have this choice
Do we believe in scripture
Or is it a guide

……..

See Daniel 7: 13-14 and John 18: 33-37

Sleep evades my eyes.
My heart is cowed by anxiety.
I cannot cut the world’s pressing ties.
I am wedded to demands of society.

I need to concentrate on the present.
Not dwell on the present or future.
To calm the mind I stop thinking on times spent .
Only this present moment should be my allure.

I say the Rosary’s joyful mysteries.
Then onto the sorrowful and glorious.
I need to divert the mind from histories.
And dwell in this moment on the victorious.

If the mind is taken up with others .
It has less space to fret about bothers.

………

You are not sleeping.
Go on repeating mantras.
And so calm the mind

………

See 1 Maccabees, 6: 1-13

It is full and lasting happiness.
To serve with constancy the author.
Deep in our heart is hopeless restlessness.
We cannot put confidence in our father.

I pray for thoughts of peace not affliction .
I pray that I will call and you will answer .
The long nights pass in agitation.
Worry and fear a gnawing cancer.

I fall asleep quickly and with ease .
Then I wake and cannot go back to sleep.
The hours pass in my head with buzzing bees.
Regrets I can sow , calm I cannot reap .

I say the rosary with mindfulness.
And eventually sleep comes with calmness.

………

I pray for deep sleep
But thinking too much stops that
So start mindfulness

………

See The Entrance Antiphon and Collect of the day.

They will leave not one stone standing.
All because you did not realise your opportunity.
Does this statement increase our understanding.
Will it further a sense of  more unity.

It relates of course to Jerusalem.
And it’s future under Roman occupation.
But it is as much about us as them .
In our day it deserves a reaction.

You must understand this message of peace.
Alas it is hidden from your eyes .
Do we ponder this  script without cease .
It encompasses all that lives and dies.

It does not just apply to bricks and mortar.
It reaches to our mind’s every quarter .

…….

Is the text for us
Of Jerusalem’s future
It must be for all

……..

See Luke 19: 41-44

To everyone who had will be given more.
But who has not, will be taken away.
I always find it difficult , this  tough law.
We are made of such soft malleable clay.

Must we give more than we are given.
We all just then have to try harder .
Even tough our lives may be riven.
And we may be lacking in ardour.

We spirit away our one pound’s worth.
When we should increase it with interest.
That is the only way to rid us of dearth.
And to avoid  future hope’s arrest.

We do not know when the king will return.
Soon he might call and it will be our turn.

……..

When will the call come
Have we invested our wealth
Or is it squandered

………

See Luke 19: 11-28

I shall prove myself worthy of my old age.
I shall have left the young a noble example.
Eleazar thus proved himself a sage .
His name remembered for ever in the temple.

He resolved to die with honour
Rather than live with his disgrace .
He ensured his own people’s future.
For him it was not enough to save face.

He could have taken an act of kindness.
Because of long standing friendship with him.
They all now questioned his stubbornness.
His fortitude great , his face grim.

I know I would not show such bravery.
But what if we too were forced into slavery.

……..

We may not be brave
But we can support belief
That is all we do

…….

See 2 Maccabees 6: 18-31

Jesus , son of David, have pity on me.
The people scolded him and told him, keep quiet.
The poor man’s misfortune , he could not see.
But he was cured , he refused to keep quiet.

We ourselves could learn from his loud shouting.
Never despair , never give up , keep calling.
Someone out there is always listening .
We just have determined to keep on praying.

But he had something else ,faith, in abundance.
This is what saved him from utter despair.
The one thing I don’t have in super abundance.
There’s a lot of praying but true faith is rare.

A little prayer can go a long way .
Better to do it before we pass away.

……….

If you keep calling
You may yet be heard by him
But you have to try

………

See Luke 18: 35-43

 
I think thoughts of peace not affliction.
You call upon me and I will answer .
I want to wish away all friction.
If you wish, you can cure all cancer .

I will lead back your captives to you .
They will come from every far place.
They wait in a hopeful eternal queue .
They are many , from every known race .

The constant gladness of being devoted .
To you is full, lasting happiness.
This feeling of joy is never sated.
It comes as overwhelming tenderness.

There is a good author of the all .
He is there to save us from our fall .

………

The author of all
Is listening if we pray
To prevent our fall

See Entrance Antiphon and Collect of the day ,

I must give this widow her just rights.
Or she will persist in coming.
So often the widow drops beneath our sights.
Our faith is not in love but in talking.

But we need to pray continually.
And never lose heart in the effort.
Someone up there is listening silently.
No real effort is ever put to naught.

Even the unjust judge took action.
How much more will the loving lord do.
Of course we hear no reaction.
That does not mean we are not in a queue.

When I pray I just meet profound silence.
That does not mean that it does not make sense.

……..

Prayer is silence
In giving and receiving
It’s still worth doing

…….

See Luke 18: 1-8

Stir up in the church the spirit.
That filled St Josaphat as he laid down life .
Where nowadays is the ear that hears it.
Freeing us from  soul destroying strife .

We ask for his holy intercession.
That we too might be strengthened.
And not be afraid to resist aggression.
And worry not if never mentioned .

Do we seek to discover him who is.
Do we recognise the articifer .
Do we accept that all this is his.
Do we reject all the works of Lucifer.

We cannot put out faith just in the stars .
We can say that all this is his not ours .

………

Who governs the world.
Is it just the sphere of stars
Or artificer

……..

See The Collect of the day ; Wisdom 13 : 1-9

 
Within wisdom is a spirit, holy.
Unique , manifold ,subtle , active .
Here is no irrational legend only.
This is something warming ,incisive.

Unsullied, lucid, invulnerable .
Benevolent , sharp, irresistible.
Making all lost things recoverable.
Steadfast, unperturbed, dependable .

Unperturbed ,almighty,  all surveying.
Penetrating ,all intelligent pure .
Wisdom is always seeing and moving .
Something we can calmly  in hope  endure .

But true wisdom is often spiritual.
Leading onwards towards renewal.

……….

Where is true wisdom
It lies within the sprit
Hidden but potent

…….. …

See Wisdom 7

Destroy this sanctuary .

And in three days I will raise it up.
We came to praise not bury.

In celebration we can drink a cup.

We were at a requiem mass of Malta.
For deceased members of our Order.
Not to mourn but celebrate lives well spent at the altar.
Some long , others too short , they enter safe harbour.

There are only two feasts every year.
When we celebrate something not someone.
For this Basilica shed no tear.
It speaks for all and the supreme one.

…………

The temple water
Is pure teeming with all life
And never ending

………….

See John 2: 13-22

‘
Increase our faith’, said the Apostles .
Were your faith the size of a mustard seed.
It could move trees , The lord said to his disciples.
Can we ever with our faith do this deed.

Listening to words at mass , I thought not .
Then I stood in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.
How could I ever I tie this spiritual knot.
With these doubts was I doomed to grapple .

And then in the quiet It came to me .
One just had to stop talking and listen.
Now out of darkness all was clear to see.
One needs to stand quite still not hasten .

Listening silence is the true answer.
Or we are the lost eternal dancer .

………..

How then to have faith
Is it listening silence
I suspect it is

…………

See Luke 17: 1-6

He sat down opposite the Treasury.
A widow came and put in two small coins.
Sometimes we are lost in our breviary.
Forgetting what really are useful joins.

This evening I could not remember .
what had been said at mass today .
Just other people as a recalled ember.
I could not keep irritation at bay.

We all think that we put in a lot.
But we only put in what we have to spare .
Others put in a lot more thought.
But fellow feeling is all too rare .

Let’s not what what others are doing.
And think more on what we are missing.

……….

Others do their thing
Just let them get on with it
It’s all to the best

……….

See Mark 12: 38-44

 
You pass yourself off as virtuous.
But God knows your hearts.
All our little vanities are ridiculous.
And no one will study our charts.

The distressed poet sits in the corner.
Oblivious to what’s happening .
The dog eating his dinner .
The milk maid , her bill demanding .

I dreamt that I was missing out.
Something had come and gone .
That particular hope put to rout.
Something just become a bygone.

No one will ever read the clever poet.
He should have concentrated on his suet .

………

Best to be present
Than ponder futures
It is all we have

………

See Luke 16: 9-15

Dig I am not strong enough.
Go begging , I should be too ashamed.
So we have to take the smooth with the rough.
We wonder if our true role has been reclaimed.

In my dream I had a decision.
Should I join the Royal Navy right now.
But I was not twenty one on a mission.
I’m seventy one and too old now.

But these dreams seem so real at the time.
Do they proclaim deep hidden regrets.
Is the subconscious the true I’m.
Are they actually our true assets.

………

Try and remember dreams however bizarre.
They may  yet reveal who we truly are.

………

We remember dreams
They may tell us who we are
Or are they mirage

………..

See Luke 16: 1-8

 
The life of each of us has influence on others.
You should never pass judgment on a brother.
What we burn is felt by all our brothers .
There is in this world no just another.

Their hope was rich with immortality.
I remembered these words as I dreamt badly .
They kept turning in my head incessantly .
Soon all began to look somewhat goodly .

All these present troubles will turn to dust.
Nothing can match hope in eternity.
Apart from this , all will turn to rust .
That’s all that gives some serenity .

Hope , immortality soothing words .
As at last I heard dawn’s song of birds.

…………

Immortality
Where we see it there is hope
But it’s far away ?

…………

See Wisdom 4: 1-9 , Romans : 14, 7-12

( picture by my granddaughter)

Love , the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour.
And why it is answer to the commandments.
But it can be the fruit of much hard labour.
Subject all the time to deep resentments.

So can we really avoid getting into debt.
Except ,we are told ,the debt of mutual love.
I suppose all this is a tremendous sweat .
But in the end it does come from above.

All the commandments, given to oneself.
Flow from this one hard injunction.
To love your neighbour as yourself .
Yet so difficult to do without interruption.

If we write that we love our fellow men .
Our obligations need no further pen.

……..

To love your neighbour
As you love always yourself
That is the answer

……….

See Romans 13: 8-10

Their hope was rich with immortality.
Slight their affliction , great their blessings.
I dread to be torn from this reality.
Soon something will cut these precious life strings.

So our going is no final disaster .
We are not facing annihilation.
To our end we run ever faster.
We will find peace not in retribution.

We are tested like gold in a furnace.
Accepted ourselves as a Holocaust.
In this we are truly one human race.
Eternally on cruel seas in vain tossed.

I pray this death will not be the final end.
But the beginning , and for me he will send.

……..

For mother ,father
I pray please be there for me
As you were in life

……….

See Wisdom 3 :1-9

How rich are the depths of God.
How deep are his wisdom and knowledge .
Take comfort even though we are flawed
It is surely something to acknowledge .

I was dreaming of the worst  event.
What if  I and my wife were parted  by death.
I felt I could not bear what this meant.
My dream went on , we still had breath.

I dreamt we entered heaven together.
Peace and beauty around us in view.
I felt so relieved  to be there as one forever.
You can laugh , but I felt it to be true.

So in night time dreams we find peace .
As we search for answers without cease.

…….

In dreams we find peace
Of worlds past reality
But then what is real

……..

See Romans 11:29-36

 
Wait till you do any damage on land.
Or at sea, or to the trees.
Time is running out like fine blown sand.
We have not paid our environment‘s fees.

We do not need the angels whose duty .
Is to devastate land and sea .
We ourselves destroy timeless beauty .
When we ourselves forget land and sea.

We cut down forests with abandon.
We burn warming coal without thought .
The earth in glory we hold to ransom.
We put all responsible care to naught.

So what of all the Saints who have gone before.
Gould we not listen more to their warning lore.

………

The trees are dying
The oceans are drying
Do we care or not

………..

See Apocalypse 7: 2-4, 9-14