Who proved to be a neighbour.
To the man who fell among the robbers.
Are we a Samaritan, what do we fear.
Are we one of the doubters.

The mass was in Italian.
I could not understand the sermon.
But Latin  resonates like Italian.
I did not need to understand the sermon

Again as the host was raised.
I felt such communion and joy.
Why do we always  feel amazed.
That here we find true joy.

We just have to listen .
And love and joy’s hasten.

…..

Not understanding
Is just not the real problem
It is just ourselves

……

See Luke 10 : 25-37

I thank you Lord that you have hidden.
These things from the wise and understanding.
But we are still bidden.
Hoping and praying.

What was St Francis’ secret.
It was embracing poverty.
Freed from life’s thicket.
Realising all this is empty.

To give everything away.
To live for God only.
Seeking his shadowy ray
Hopefully and fairly.

We ourselves may not be able to follow his way.
But we can certainly understand his way.

…….

To give all away
And just live for God only
For that we can pray

…….

See Luke 10 : 17-24

Unless you turn and become like children.
You will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
How we wonder can we gladden.
Can we be striven.

Children do not question.
They just accept.
Accepting every suggestion.
Faith in their hearts has leapt.

But are  they naive.
Too easily influenced.
Not needing to strive.
Their fate not yet announced.

Should we follow them.
We just must follow them.

…..

To be like children
It’s not difficult
But do we do it

….

See Matthew 18 : 1-5, 10

No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back.
Is fit for the Kingdom of God.
We are dispirited , we pause , we slack.
But we are looked on kindly by God.

When Therese had completed her six exercise books.
The prioress put them in a drawer unread.
So much that lies unread in so many books.
The vast majority of writers unread.

But these exercise books.
Took the world by storm.
Hundreds of thousands published of these books.
For here was a heart loving and warm.

Glory is found in love.
Humility is the profoundest love.

…

Glory found in love
Humility comes in love
Saint Therese’s gift

….

See Luke 9: 57-62

If they do not hear the prophets and Moses.
Neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.
We always seem satisfied with less.
Our faith too often is like lead.

But today in the Cathedral.
My heart leapt at the raising of the host.
Where this comes from who can tell.
But with this we never be lost.

And then at the end with the Salve Regina.
My heart warmed.
Here was my one and only true Regina.
Belief , gratitude swarmed.

And thus we are encouraged.
And enlightened.

……

The host is rising
The heart leaps with faithfulness
And this is belief

….

See Luke 16: 19-31

They were all marvelling.
At everything he was doing.
We too are wondering.
What really was happening.

It was this, the son of man.
Was about to be delivered into the hands of men.
We are not distant spectators who remember that man.
We are those men.

It is we who have delivered him.
We who have denounced him.
We who have tortured him.
We who have crucified him.

Yet he died for us.
And has redeemed us.

…….

Thus the son of man
Was delivered to mens’ hands
And we are those men

…….

See Luke 9 : 43-45

It happened as Jesus was praying.
The disciples were with him.
Are we praying.
Are we with him.

St Cosmas and Damian.
So renowned.
Yet virtually nothing known to our scan.
Famed but not framed.

Everything is known about us.
Everything spelt out on social media.
But everyone will forget us.
Drowned out by vast quantities of media.

All we know of these saints is their sacrifice.
And this quite rightly must suffice.

….

We know so little
About Saints Cosmas Damian
But that must suffice

……

See Mark 10 : 45

He has cast down the mighty from their throne.
And had exalted those who are lowly.
We must atone.
Perhaps move more purposely, humbly.

I am at the Rashtrapati  Bhavan
India’s Presidential Palace.
At 300 acres, beyond our scan.
Showing to the world, power’s face.

But once it was the Viceregal Lodge.
How all power and empires fade.
Fate, time, no one can dodge.
Our fate found wanting is weighed.

All the glory of this world comes and goes.
We all have to meet our highs and lows.

.. …

The mighty cast down
The lowly are exalted
And what about us

.. ..

See Luke 1 : 46- 53

My mother and my brothers
Are those who hear the word of God and do it.
And Jesus meant too his sisters.
And whether we do it.

We hear.
Do we listen to it.
We fear.
Do we find joy in it.

We hear.
Do we act on it.
We fear.
Do we find joy in it.

The word is given to us.
That we may act thus.

…..

Who is my brother
It’s he who hears the the Lord’s word
And then acts on it

……

See Luke 8 : 19-21

To the one who has more will be given.
And from the one who had not, even what he thinks he had will be taken away.
It is not enough to have striven.
We may still lose the way.

Standing in the tomb of Imam Zanin.
I wonder now what great power and wealth brings.
Is it enough to win.
Where now the gorgeous clothes , the costly rings.

We come, search and wonder.
And then we are utterly gone.
In another world to wander.
Lying we hope luxuriant on a celestial lawn.

We may or may not have a grand tomb.
But everyone in reality has the same tomb.

…….

A tomb is splendid
Another one just decays
Bodies just decay

…….

See Luke 8: 16-18

One who is faithful in a very little.
Is also faithful in much.
And one who is dishonest in a very little.
Is also dishonest in much.

Standing in the Sunder Burj.
I feel a sense of quiet welcoming.
A spiritual surge.
Joyous calming.

There is God existing.
The same for all of us.
Wanting to help , understanding.
In every continent and religion for all of us.

We are all of us,  all peoples, one.
Humanity is one at one with the one.

……

We are all of us
All peoples everywhere
At one with the one

……

See Luke 16 : 1-13

O God upon us.
Of all things creator and ruler.
From fear free us.
For you are our saviour.

That we may feel.
Your mercy working.
Be our rock and our seal.
Always our pleas answering.

Grant that we may serve you.
With all our heart.
We love you.
Within our soul , the beating heart.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Not someone of the past but here now our Christ.

… …

Upon us O God
Creator and our ruler
Our past and future

…..

See Collect of the day

Until I come devote yourself to the reading of scripture.
To exhortation , to teaching.
We seek the bigger more complex picture.
Always trying to understand, searching.

So we read every day.
To try and to be inspired
And this amazing book does so every day.
Our hope, our spirit is fired.

Do not neglect the gift you have.
Which was given to by prophesy.
This unique gift is our soul’s salve.
Launching us into spiritual immensity.

Practise these things .
Immerse yourself in these things.

….

Learn to read scripture
Understand exhortation
And also teaching

….

See 1 Timothy 4

Great Indeed.
We confess, is the mystery of his godliness.
In word and deed.
This thought, we can only bless.

This extraordinary mystery.
This unfathomable question.
Bestriding history.
Impossible of any expression.

What power
Or intent.
When will be the return’s hour
But he was and will be sent.

To redeem us.
To save us.

……

He is great indeed
Godliness mystery
We cannot fathom

….  ..

See 1 Timothy 3

I will walk.
With blameless heart.
It is not enough just to talk.
Praying is the start.

I sing of mercy.
And justice.
Overcoming all controversy.
Rebutting injustice.

I was at a service in the Abbey.
All this history passing by.
A distant stained glass sun ray.
The tourists walking by.

The host was raised.
A small moment of calm seized.

……

We sing of mercy
And with blameless heart we try
To say our p

…..

See Psalm 111

At that time standing by the cross.
Were his mother and his mother’s sister.
Now we in our dark dreams stand by the cross.
Thinking this man was my brother.

She is our mother.
Our sister
Our mother’s mother.
Our sister’s sister.

Her sorrow.
Her agony
Is our sorrow.
And our agony.

But she was yet to see her son live.
And one day we will know this for certain, he will for eternity live.

….

Standing by the cross
Was his sad mother weeping
We also are there

……

See John 19 : 25-27

Make a fiery serpent.
And put it on a pole.
Can we now repent.
To save our soul.

This hideous instrument of torture.
This blood stained cross.
Is now the intersection between past and future.
The beacon of hope, the end of loss.

On this piece of splintered wood.
The whole of history turns.
The repository of every questioning would or should.
The fire that eternally burns.

Did St Helena in 326 really find it.
But it really doesn’t matter if the splinter in the church is it.

……

Is it truly here
Is this splinter from the cross
A matter of faith

…….

See Numbers 21 : 4b-9

No good tree bears bad fruit
Or again does a bad tree bear good fruit.
Let our voice not be mute.
So that faith can take root.

The good person out of his heart’s treasure produces good.
And the bad person out of his evil treasure produces evil.
This is our spiritual food.
This is what we know and feel.

Perelandra is by CS Lewis written.
Here evil invades planet Venus’ paradise.
And the fruit of our own  downfall must not be there eaten.
Self Will and knowledge, we hope, will not suffice.

Does good win in the end.
We must read and like life persevere to the end.

……

If good trees produce
Good fruit and bad trees then
bad
Where does that leave us

.. ..

See Luke 6 : 43-49

Why do you see the speck that is in your brothers’s eye.
But do not notice the log that is your own eye.
How can you say , brother let me take the speck that is in your eye.
When you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye.

We are so judgmental.
So lacking in self awareness.
And all this is fatal.
To some sort of spiritual fitness.

The universe circles around us.
Instead of the next World.
Forgetting Jesus.
Locked into this World.

The beam remains in our eye.
The speck in the other’s eye.

……

The speck in his eye
Is noticed and our own beam
Remains unnoticed

……

See Luke 6 : 39-42