OF YOU MY HEART HAS SPOKEN

You will not hold You will not be held But briefly Thus spoke the Silence To the emptiness Not for you Such tender comfort Yours the desert thirst That will not be quenched The hunger that will not be satisfied The yearning unfulfilled Until you understand The meaning of all desire Separation being the path to Reparation being the door to Restoration of the soul to Paradise once more

  July 7 - Saba Saba in Tanzania. The Gospel for today is the call of Matthew and it comes a day after I signed up for a Divine Renovation course which is designed to kick-start priests into becoming more effective leaders in parish life, leading the parish itself to new life in the Holy Spirit. The course begins in September on the feast of St. Matthew. I told the young man who interviewed me on Zoom that I was doing it in obedience to a suggestion from a parishioner who sees that I am in need of renovation. And mutual obedience is a characteristic of the Christian life as we are told by Saint Paul - "give way to one another in obedience to Christ." Renovation is one of those odd words that are used in Church circles. Synod being another one that has no use in the language of the ordinary person. Renovation! It brings to mind a crumbling building that is in need of serious repair. But I am taking part in both the Renovation and the Synod. In the first, because I know how muc...

From within the Light The Light of Christ Inside me I gaze Upon the Father's Face Who first has gazed on mine And in the Spirit I pray That I may look upon The deepest darkness Of the world The darkness Still in me Remaining unperturbed For being at Peace The Peace of Christ The Light of Christ Within A Light that darkness Cannot overcome

  We held a Corpus Christ procession after the Saturday evening Mass. An experience that was beautiful, and joyful in ways that I would not have expected. I walked under the canopy carrying Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and He was my focus most of the way. By my side walked Deacon Duncan, singing his heart out and a line from one of the hymns registered strongly with me every time he sang it – “Truth itself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.” In the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist we encounter Truth in a very clear and liberating way and my favourite place of prayer is in front of the Tabernacle, mostly in the mornings where Truth reveals itself most in my inmost heart – “in the secret of my heart teach me…” (Psalm 51) The phrase “inmost heart” has come to me from various unconnected sources over the past week. It appears in the first reading Deuteronomy for the feast of Corpus Christi – the “remember” and “do not forget” that are central to the celebration of the Euchar...

Prayer is… A certain type of prayer is… A jumble of mumble In my head In my heart In my soul Like clothes in a tumble dryer Going from their spun-out dampness To a freshness fit for purpose Again, for a while It’s what Jesus does With all that we bring to Him In our sometimes fumbled, humble way. And peace returns Again, for a while Amen!

I believe in harmony I believe in kindness I believe in gentleness I believe in forgiving I believe in being forgiven At all times In every relationship And not just sometimes And not just with some Words that build up And not knock down I believe in Jesus The personification of all these I love Jesus who has loved first He who is Love I love You Jesus And I ask you to take me Into the very depths of my being Where You abide Into the deepest recesses Of Your most beautiful Sacred Heart Where I reside And seek to abide Where going inwards Meets with moving outwards Towards another Where falling and rising Embrace Where descending and ascending Are one in You Who are the wellspring Of salvation In whom I bathe And rise to live In heaven now Even while still on earth O my Jesus I love You so much More than I ever knew. "I am for peace but when I speak they are for fighting" (Psalm 120)

  In the back garden of my home in Mervue there’s a lilac tree that was planted by my Mother and it was once tall and beautiful when in full bloom. The winter after she died a storm uprooted and knocked the tree flat on the ground and we were all very sorry for it because it represented her. The tree lay there through the winter and into the spring. I left it like that because I felt it had something to say to me about what is fallen in life, even though people were urging me to get rid of it and then to my great surprise, the following May new lilac blossoms emerged from the fallen tree and when I went to look at the roots I noticed that one single slim root was still connected to the earth and by it the tree lives on. So, it rests there as a parable for me of the hope that abides in the fallen states of life, in times when things fall apart and out of place. A reminder of the line from the Book of Job,  " there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again,...