What did you go out in the wilderness to see.
A reed swaying in the breeze?
Worse, I am a cork bobbing on the sea.
I am a leaf in wind swept trees.

We are a wanderer in our own wilderness.
We have to ask , what do we seek.
Are we thinking of others or our own wilfulness.
Are we for the strong or the weak .

I am going to send my messenger before you.
He will prepare the way before you.
So there is a path to follow through.
Before we even asked he ,John knew.

Somewhere there is a truth only we can know .
We need to follow it through high and low.

…….

Where is our pathway
In this endless wilderness
But John knew the way

….. …

Are you the one who is to come
Or must we wait for someone else.

 
Trouble is coming to the rebellious , the defiled.
The tryrannical, she would never listen to the call.
By our self will we are so often beguiled.
We look too often to the heart and not the soul.

You will cease to strut on my holy mountain.
In your midst I will leave a humble and lowly people .
One day we will drink from an ever flowing fountain.
One day we will climb to the loftiest steeple.

“I will not go”but he thought better of it and went.
The second answered “certainly sir“ but did not go.
How often are my good intentions rent and bent.
How often is it just easier to go with the flow.

It’s better to pause before saying yes.
Otherwise we might end up with a lot less.

……..

Often I say yes
I then just prevaricate
Better to say no

……….

See Zephaniah 3: 1-2, 9-13 and Matthew 21: 28-32

 
What authority have you for acting like this.
And who gave you this authority.
And what path do we take to reach bliss.
Where then is our own priority .

This is the question, did his authority come from God
Or was it all just man made.
If the first then we can be truly awed.
If the second he is just man it is said.

His questioners did not dare answer.
Either way they were caught .
So we too can no longer be the dancer.
We have to make a choice however fraught.

If Jesus was just a prophet in extremity.
Where does that leave our own eternity .

……..

Does authority
Come down truly from heaven
Or is it man made

……..

See Mathew 21: 23-27

I want you to be happy , always happy.
I repeat , what I want is your happiness.
Ah yes, but how to avoid being  so scrappy.
How to avoid sinking into  cloying sadness.

Let your tolerance be clear to everyone.
The Lord is very near.
That’s true but sometimes we feel so alone.
All to often we just need to shed a tear.

We know St Paul is right .
It’s just so hard to do .
So how can we be cherry and bright.
Sometimes I feel I haven’t a clue.

But there is no need to doubt the lamp is lit.
We just need to pray that we can light  it.

……..

How to be happy.
We can keep asking for it
Or we pray for it

……..

See Philippians 4: 4-7

Happy shall they be who see you.
And those who have fallen asleep in love.
Sitting in the church this feeling grew and  grew.
There was something coming from above .

I tell you that Elijah has come already.
But they treated him as they pleased.
How many times have I not held steady.
How many times have my doubts not been eased.

The son of man will suffer similarly at their hands.
The disciples thought he was talking of John the Baptist.
So knowledge drains into endless sands.
So we find the truth all too easy to resist.

But then the first lines came back to mind.
All that mattered was to believe and be kind.

……..

Believe and be kind
Is that too much to ask us
I hope it is not

………

See Ecclesiasticus 48: 1-4,9-12
Matthew 17 : 10-13

If only you had been alert to my commandments.
Your happiness would have been like a river.
How I was stuck by these sentiments.
Here was what should be my driver.

Your integrity like the waves of the sea.
Your children would have been numbered like the sand.
Reading these words I felt now I could see.
I could be happy if I didn’t stray from this land.

Your descendants as many as its grains.
Never would your name have been blotted out.
Nothing but these words remains.
Everything else , all compromise put to rout.

I just need slowly to read Isaiah .
And I feel I know my true messiah.

……….

Just read Isaiah
Come to know the messiah
He really is there

……….

See Isaiah 48: 17-19

 
I will make rivers well up on barren heights.
And fountains in the midst of valleys.
He leads us through darkness with lights.
Pointing the way through winding alleys.

In the wilderness I will put cedar trees.
Acacias, olives and myrtles .
He holds all the doors’ keys.
Helping us over all hurdles.

So that men may see and know.
May all observe and understand.
We may be ever ever so low.
But he points us towards a brighter land .

Such is the Lord of Israel.
Surely we must tell the tale.

……..

Is the redeemer
Here always present with us
Yes surely he is

……..

See Isaiah 41: 13-20

He has clothed me with a robe of salvation.
And wrapped me in a mantle of justice.
Breathless it waits , all of creation.
After this the world confronts injustice .

Like a bride adorned with her jewels.
In my God is the joy of my soul.
This, the  study of all the schools .
To relieve us of all weary toil.

Grant that through her intercession .
We may be admitted to your presence.
Pray that we may learn his lesson .
And come into his omnipresence .

All beauty and purity is here.
Casting away for all time every tear.

………

All immaculate
Spotless totally divine
Now and for ever

……….

See Entrance Antiphon and Collect of today’s mass

Will he be not leave the ninety nine on the hillside.
And will he not go in search of the stray.
Do we just swim with fashion’s tide.
Or are we prepared to have our say.

We can be the ninety nine.
Or we can be the only one.
We can follow the others or our own sign.
We can determinedly follow our own sun.

But we can be sure he will come after us.
As we stray , lost, he will seek us out.
He loves us as we are with no fuss.
He is there to put all our fears to rout.

So we are out there lost in the snow.
But we can be sure there is one in the know.

…….

We are just the stray
Hoping he will come for us
And he surely will

……..

See Matthew 18: 12-14

The crowd made it impossible to find a way.
Of getting him in ; they lowered him down .
How often do we ourselves help find a way .
How often do we let someone down.

Who is this man talking blasphemy.
Who can forgive sins but God alone.
How often do we just faith in our own alchemy.
How often do we ourselves set the wrong tone.

Which is easier to say your sins are forgiven.
Or to say get up and walk.
How often do we ask to be striven.
How often do we just do the talk.

We are happy to stand around and criticise.
Too slow to accept the evidence of our eyes.

……..

Others do lifting
We just stand aside waiting
For him to be helped

………

See Luke 5:17-26

Rorate Caeli desuper.
Et nubes pluant iustam.
Drop down ye heavens from above for ever.
And let the skies pour down righteousness like the lamb.

Be not wroth, very sore O Lord.
Neither remember iniquity for ever.
Take us , we pray, on board.
Fear’s gripping bonds may we sever.

We are as an unclean thing.
And we all do fade as a leaf .
But thou hold us in an eternity ring.
You provide us with lasting relief.

Comfort ye my people my salvation.
Until I come to you in final reunion.

……..

Iniquity ends
In your all loving embrace
Now and for ever

……..

See The Advent Prose for today’s mass

 
People of Zion, you will live in Jerusalem.
And weep no more , he will be gracious.
We will be forged into the strongest aluminium.
Now at last can our faith be truly audacious.

On every high mountain , on every high hill.
There will be streams and watercourses.
We follow his star through life’s grinding mill.
His love removes all lingering losses

He who is your teacher will hide no more.
You will see your teacher with your own eyes.
He will come into our inmost crying core.
He will wipe away all our weary sighs.

He will send rain for the seed you sow.
Following him we need never feel low.

……..

Often we are low
We look to him to raise us
He calls from the depths

………

See Isaiah 30: 19-21, 23-26

The deaf that day will hear the words of a book.
After shadow and darkness the blind will see.
All we have to do is to try and look.
In Isaiah we can always find the key.

The lowly will rejoice in the Lord even more.
For tyrants shall be no more and scoffers vanish.
His poetry strikes deep inside my very core.
He seems to answer every questioning wish.

Those who gossip to incriminate others.
Those who try at the gate to trip the arbitrator.
Isaiah helps us to cut the wrong tethers.
We seem to realise now what truly we are for.

How could such glorious poetry ever have been written.
Generation after generation is truly smitten .

…….

Isaiah’s writing
Will live down all the ages
A beacon of hope

……..

See Isaiah 29: 17-24

 
He has brought low those who lived in the citadel.
He brings it down, brings it down to the ground.
He brings us out of our mind’s brooding  cell.
Focussing us as we search around and around.

Mass was intimate in the crypt chapel.
The priest facing traditionally to the altar.
A timeless picture as he made his rappel.
All in Latin , his head deep in his psalter.

I felt a profound , intense spirituality.
This seemed truth , moved profoundly.
I seemed to have found a new vitality.
Peace can be found in emotion not mentally.

A service need not be a jumble of  mere words.
It can be a feeling , beautiful like soaring birds.

……..

Emotion soars
Not always with spoken words.
But in ritual

………

See Isaiah 26: 1-6

Look with goodness to the Lord.
Seek him with sincerity of heart .
Steer peacefully towards the last ford.
Follow the holy way in the chart.

Reading in the Chapel of Queens college.
Standing alone , the organ playing.
I took heart, I knew I could manage.
It seemed to encompass all, this saying.

You don’t have to have certainty.
You just need to ask with sincerity.
I do not know what lies beyond eternity.
I’m not sure you even need clarity.

I know not where this spiritual road will lead.
But I do know that somehow it lays a true seed.

……..

The road just leads on
I cannot see the future
But I’m sure it’s good

 
Beside the Sea of Galilee.
The Lord saw two brothers Peter and Andrew.
So Andrew was the first to see.
He was the harbinger of the new .

I dreamt of a friend now deceased.
Few now remember his courage and wit.
We ask now about the good he released.
Where now is he , where does he sit.

Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
And they left their nets at once and followed him.
Would we ever have the courage to leave our own pen.
To take new heart and pear over the celestial rim.

Andrew was above all humble and modest.
But he achieved more than the greatest.

……..,

My friend has achieved so much
But beside Andrew?
Who will say the same

……….

See Matthew 4 : 18-22

Lord I am not worthy.
To have you under my roof.
I do not think myself praiseworthy.
I feel I hold myself aloof.

But only say the word.
And my servant will be cured.
We hope our belief will soar like a bird.
And have our celestial future secured.

Every time we go to communion.
These words haunt the imagination.
Are we as trusting as the Centurion.
Are we ready to stay for the duration.

With me , he will not find faith like this.
If he did , I would find myself in bliss.

……..

I am not worthy
To have him under my roof
But cannot I try

………

See Matthew 8: 5-11

May the Lord make you love one another .
And the whole human race as we love you.
Truth can drift in the wind like a feather.
My truth can feel very different to you.

Should we allow the worlds poor to come here.
Is there any end to how many would leap the fence.
Are we compelled always to shed a tear.
Are we not entitled to common sense.

Weakness can lead to needless death.
There is a sense that in being strong we are kind.
Weakness can deny people their breath.
That doesn’t mean we should not care or mind.

Can we not ask that they reform their own country.
Rather than changing for ever our country.

……

This is our country
We are entitled to it
Not give it away

……

See 1 Thessalonians 3: 12-4 : 2

Watch yourself or your hearts will be coarsened.
With debauchery and the cares of life.
Our futures are even now ransomed.
Worries , cares , regrets, selfishness are rife.

That day will be sprung on you like a trap.
For it will come down on every living man.
Our life is known, now, laid out on a map.
We will walk, slow and stop as once we ran.

Stay awake praying for strength to survive.
All that is going to happen and to stand.
One day even after death we will revive.
The dawn will break over another new land.

Is the trap poised now to spring for me.
I hope to greet this day and finally see.

……..

Is the trap now set
Will we have time to see it
We can only pray

………

See Luke 21: 34-36

Mountains and Hills, everything that grows.
Springs of water, seas and rivers.
Bless the Lord, everything he sows.
Everything that lives in the waters .

Birds of heaven and sea beasts.
Animals wild and tame .
Bless the Lord for all that provides for feasts.
All that on lands do roam and are not tame .

Bless the Lord for all our lives.
For what is wonderful and difficult .
From him comes all that revives .
Towards his majesty all does tilt.

I ask to be submissive in all that he asks of me.
And to accept all that he permits to happen to me .

…….

For all this bless him
For all the lands and the seas
He the creator

…….

See Daniel 3: 75-81

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