Peter Blog a few random thoughts

I think one of the things that I find very difficult is not to judge others. We don't mean to do it sometimes but it just happens. We may judge a person by their looks or by the way they act. Sometimes we list can't help ourselves doing it. We may use the words " I never do that" where in fact we know that we might. We may even get into a crowd and accuse the person almost safety in numbers. This is what happened in today's gospel. The people take it on themselves to condemn the woman and bring her to Jesus. What is the reaction of Jesus. He appears to be writing in the ground during their questions to catch him out. But, what does he write? We are not told but, because of the writing in the ground no one was able to cast the first stone. I like to think that Jesus was writing one of three things. Some say that he was writing their names on the ground as they were picking up their stones. Others say that he was writing the crowd sins on the ground and they f...

If there is one Gospel that seems to speak to me more than any else it is this one. But I have to admit that I have been reading the whole thing very wrong over the last 30 years. I have missed a great deal from this Gospel message. There is a simple statement that explain and helps us in the whole Gospel and this is it “There was a man who had two sons.” From this statement we can see that the whole story infringes on these words. IF we are constantly reminded of these words as we explore the story it comes alive. So there are three main characters in the story the younger Son the Elder Son and the Father. Let us look at these in characters in turn. The younger Son is described as wanting half of his inheritance and so in asking he goes off and spends all his money we are told on a life of debauchery. We are told that he then would have eating the food of the pigs. For the people hearing this it would have been the lowest thing to do.  He then “comes to his senses.” ...

Lent a joyful season Many people ask me why I call Lent a joyful season. There are many reasons for this nut I want to look at four reasons why I think Lent is joyful and these three reasons we see from the call to do three things, prayer, fasting, charity and repentance. Prayer: At the heart of every Christian is the notion of prayer: We as people are made for prayer and should take a serious part of the day. “Prayer should therefore be short and pure, unless perhaps it is prolonged under the inspiration of divine grace.” This is taken from the rule of St Benedict and I think a useful tool. When I was gone to Quarr abbey I have loved the idea that nothing takes anything longer than 30 minutes apart from prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Even a visit from my friend who is a monk never exceeds 30 minutes. So prayer should be central after all as we hear in the psalms we long for the lord. Our longing for a relationship with the Lord is vital. We need to spend time in our...

The first reading today from Exodus is that wonderful story of Moses and the burning bush. It tells us something of the relationship that we as human beings have with God. It is a familiar story and one that has been told time and time again. But, what does it tell us. It tells us a few things, first of all is tells us of the nature of God. Here is a very different God probably from maybe the pagan gods especially those of the Egyptian people. There was one God and he is not frightened to get himself involved. The history then of our relationship with God is one of love. This comes out very strongly in our psalm that the Lord is compassion and love he is slow to anger and rich in mercy. In the gospel we have a call to repentance to turn again to God who is compassion and love. Today we have that same call to repentance, in our minds we know that we have a God who is compassion and love. We have a God who loves us and wants the best for us. Intellectually we are th...