Peter Blog a few random thoughts

Feast of All Saints One of my friends recently told me this story about his Son. His Wife Angela was in the kitchen making the tea when their Son comes into the room and so Angela turns round and says “What have you been learning about at School today?” He says “We have been learning about Saints” “Oh and what are they?” So the Son gets the Stall that’s sitting in the kitchen and says “let me show you.” So he stands on the chair and raises his arm up and pretends to hold a shepherds crook. The image that he had of Saints is that of the statues in the Church. For him that is all they were. The saints were these statues of well know saints in the Church. Today we acknowledge all those people who are not named who have gone to their eternal reward and have lead a good life. These are the people that we have noticed and seen and have been known to us today. These people have tried to live a life in answer to the beatitudes that we hear today in the Gospel. We should strive j

29/10/2010 The Kingdom of God is within you. This phrase has struck me over the last few days. What exactly was Jesus talking about here? I was reflecting on it when it struck me that in order for the Kingdom of God to dwell we need to accept him and love him. IT is sometimes the hardest thing in the world to accept. " Think of the love the Father has lavished on us" it says in another part of the New Testament. This love is lavished upon us which is really quite strong language. It is something that it is given because we are His Children. Just like a Mothers love for here children that is the same love that God has for us. So when the Kingdom of God is within you. IT is the total love of God for us. A little thing that I like to do every now and then as a spiritual exercise is to take John 21:15-19 and apply it to yourself. W hen they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Y

30 th Sunday of the Year c If you go into Waterstones you will find a whole area dedicated to Self help books: Unlocking our hidden self. Realising our inner child, and exploring who we are. These books are ok in one way but they often miss out some very important points they miss out the need for spiritual things and prayer. They often focus so much on the self that they forget the other person. In some cases they even promote being better than anyone else YOU HAVE THE POWER. To become more assertive realise ourselves in the world is important but there is a danger we can become like the Pharisee in the Gospel who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else. We all have something of this man inside us. We may feel this and think it when we see a Homeless person or someone who we class as different in anyway. I strongly believe that the power to change must come through Grace from God must come through prayer The Gospel today shows us an interesting contrast b

29 th Sunday of the year C Facebook, Chat rooms, Skype, Email, text messaging, there are so many ways in our modern world where we can communicate with others we have never been more in touch with each other and yet in a recent report they say that more people are lonelier than ever. Maybe, and this is just a guess, that there is something missing. Maybe we have missed real communication there is nothing like going and speaking to someone face to face. To have real authentic communication takes time often persistence. In the Gospel today Jesus tells us to pray continually and never lose heart. We don’t have these modern ways of communication with God we have to in a sense we have to take time out and do it. We can’t text God what we want and he can’t text us a simple answer. So prayer takes time and we need to communicate with God by being in relationship with him by praying continually. But how does this work? Are we to be constantly in the Church praying? No I don’t think th

Homily for the 28 th Sunday of the year I wonder if you have ever had this sort of conversations with your Children. Child “Mum can I have a biscuit” Mother “What do you say?” Child “Now” Mother “No I need to hear the magic words?” A look of bemusement on the Childs face then a realisation that of what those magic words are and then the Child says Oh “ Please can I have a biscuit” and then the child takes the biscuit and the Mother waits patiently for the words “ Thank you” which sometimes comes and is usually said very quickly. In the readings we see that both Naaman and the Samaritan gave thanks to God for the wonders he had done for them. Naaman not only rejoiced in the gift if healing but also recognized the giver. In the story we are presented with in the Gospel we see that all the leapers experience the healing touch of Jesus but only one of them a Samaritan an outsider expresses his thanks to Jesus and return back to him to express it by face. Jesus seems slight