Pardon what conscience dreads.
And give what prayer does not dare to ask.
Our life is weaved in delicate threads.
We hide our true nature behind a mask.

Surpass the desires of those who entreat you.
Pour out your mercy upon us.
Route out our sadness through and through.
Let us help others with prayer without any fuss.

In the abundance of your kindness.
Answer our prayers.
Cure our spiritual blindness.
And soothe away our many cares.

We can live in joy and hope .
If we can open the positive mind’s envelope.

……

Where is hopefulness
Is it here in mindfulness
Or in something else

….

See The Collect of the Day

Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for ruin.
And a household divided against itself collapses.
From Where comes our undoing.
Our life wanes and waxes.

I am at Rome for an anniversary mass.
It is for David Amess our murdered friend.
We are like cut grass.
We do not know whom innocently we offend.

A man you would think with no enemies.
With guileless charm and open friendship.
But we row our lives on turbulent seas.
Never knowing when we might lose our ship .

We salute David’s memory.
We know  he can  now see a greater glory.

……

We at Peter’s tomb
Say today mass for David
We will remember

……

See Luke 11: 15-26

Within your will , O Lord, all things are established.
And there is none that can resist your will.
Thus we are enriched.
Our destiny to fulfil.

I am watching Son et Lumiere on St Peter’s facade
It is Peter’s voice describing his mission.
I am truly awed .
Here is true ambition.

I do understand all the Italian.
The priest whispers the translation.
I feel I now understand I have joined Christ’s battalion.
A kind of enriched formation.

All senses invaded.
By music , light and story presented.

……

Then you are Peter
And on you I build my church
No need to hear more

…..

See The Entrance Antiphon of today’s mass

O God by whose gift St Francis was confirmed in poverty.
Grant that by walking in his footsteps.
Through joyful charity.
We may follow your son’s  distant steps.

But we cannot embrace poverty.
Something stands in our way.
I suppose it is property.
That’s why we remain lay.

But the example is there.
We make tiny steps forward.
Nothing is ever very clear.
But we have hopes henceforward.

Be content with what we have achieved.
Happy with what we have received.

….

St Francis’ example
Will always be before us
If we allow it

……

See The Collect of the day

Were your faith the size of a mustard seed.
You could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted.
Yet still we can from doubt be freed.
Even if conviction is muted.

Perhaps we should not despair of faith we do not have.
But rather rejoice in what we have found.
Despair laid and hope to calve.
To the foothills of the heights we are bound.

I think I will never have faith complete.
I will always have these doubts.
But there is always a new morn to greet.
Out of this barren soil there will be new sprouts.

I will never move the mulberry tree.
However much in prayer I make my plea.

….

Faith is never found
In its full entirety
But we can just try

…..

See Luke 17: 5-10

I have been holding forth on matters I cannot understand.
On marvels beyond me and my knowledge.
While my life seeps slowly into the sand.
Can I this sincerely acknowledge.

We, jealous of what others do , or how they look.
Was not the life of St Therese  of no consequence.
Her only parting gift an exercise book.
It became great by some strange providence.

Our life here just a first step.
Towards something greater.
We’re in a kind of provincial rep.
Before we have a chance to meet the creator.

And on this stage who are we anyway.
Do we exist beyond our mind and this day .

…….

An exercise book
Is all that she left to us
And love of small things

……

See Job 42

If any were so rash as to challenge him for reasons.
One in a thousand would be more than they could answer.
Are we men and women for all seasons.
Are we the dancer.

I was dreaming that everything was coming to an end.
I could increasingly feel nothing .
Nothing would this mend.
I was good for nothing.

But if this was death it was not worrying.
Indeed strangely reassuring.
An end to all hurrying.
At last a safe mooring.

Death may not be so bad.
Perhaps we should not be so sad.

…..

As we approach death
Then we may be reassured.
We do not know yet

……

See Job 9

May the day perish when I was born.
And the night that told of a boy conceived.
Like Job we often look back forlorn.
But we need  to have faith not stand aggrieved.

Everyone warms to my wife’s kindly smile.
Whereas I just go on my guestioning way.
She utterly lacking in any selfish guile.
Of me , well, I dread what they will say.

Clouds of angels will take her to heaven.
I shall plod my weary way into purgatory.
And they will be lucky in heaven.
From afar I will look at her glory .

But all is not lost, we all progress.
After a very long time to ultimate success.

……

You may have Job’s fate
But with faith you will progress
To glory at last

…….

See Job 3

Between us and you a great gulf has been fixed.
To stop anyone crossing from your side to ours.
By our past we stand transfixed.
We are as from from heaven as the stars.

This parable of the starving Lazarus is disturbing .

The only character in a parable named.
We are nameless in our banqueting.
And we know we are shamed.

How often we ignored him at our gate.
We never were actually unkind.
What then when we die will be our fate.
Are we to hell consigned.

Every year I read this parable.
Little do we change, but it is unbearable.

……

Lazarus’ fate
Was to rise up to heaven
And what will be ours

….

See Luke 16: 19-31

Grant we your pilgrim people rejoicing in her care.
May become a holy house fit for his dwelling.
This is our prayer.
There is no fate more compelling.

Trying to sleep at Walsingham.
For the first in a long time I felt such joy.
What is it about this place that breaks the spiritual dam.
And leads to the simple faith of girl and boy.

And then when feeling low and passed by.
The gift at confession of the litany of humility.
Is it mere coincidence that belief is not dry.
Or something else that gives such tranquility.

In such a place boundaries seem finer.
The barrier between heaven and earth narrower.

…….

Is heaven closer
In a place like Walsingham
I believe it is

……

See The Collect of the Day

A generation comes , a generation goes.
But the earth stands firm for ever.
We have our highs and then our lows.
But eternal spiritual truths last forever.

Looking at the engagement photo of my grandparents .
They sit there so young and beautiful in 1912.
So appealing in their loving appearance.
But into their true life, how now can I delve.

They are dead these fifty years.
And my great grandfather, who prays for this priest.
Their lives now forgotten with their hopes and fears.
Their span not a freehold, only  leased.

But these good people lived.
And they will have survived.

……

Our lives come and go
The earth goes on forever
We are forgotten

……

See Ecclesiastes 1: 2-11

He said to him , Follow me.
And he got up and followed him.
We have no place to flee.
Is it meant for us,  this hymn.

In Caravaggio’s painting.
We just see Christ’s hand and fingers.
To whom is it pointing.
Is it in our direction that it lingers.

Am I the old man looking away.
Which character do we represent.
What would do , we cannot say.
For whom is this call meant.

And he got up and followed.
Meanwhile, they will say of us,  we just wallowed.

……

To whom does it point
There are a few in the room
Is it meant for us

……

See Matthew 9: 9-13

The hard working man is thoughtful, and all is gain.
Too much haste and all that comes of it is want.
Nothing honestly tried is in vain.
Nor need anything us daunt.

As usual I was using the night to worry.
Than I concentrated on the concept of loving people.
The whole thought kept me steady.
As if I looking at a beautiful restored steeple.

Perhaps start with a grandchild.
Or spouse or son or daughter.
And let the thought be filed.
For resentment it’s a kind of blotter.

Love can be everywhere.
We just have to stare.

……

Love does conquer all
We have to ponder on it
And something happens

…..

See Proverbs 21

Lord who shall dwell on your holy mountain.
He who walks without fault.
There she shall walk, for on her was no stain.
Coming into her life’s work  only by default.

Yet she was the one who was  the faithful.
Her only thought that of service.
We who remember her are so grateful.
Truly she never did anyone any disservice.

Her guiding star , her Christianity.
Duty, everything stemmed from that.
Here was no vanity , only humanity.
To all that was required of her , she gave her fiat.

She kept her pledge, come what may.
Who can that gainsay.

….

Queen Elizabeth
Her guiding star was duty
To the very end

…..

See Psalm 14