Peter Blog a few random thoughts

I wonder what our image of God is? Do we see God as a Judge, or as a loving Father or as a man with a long white beard, or someone to tell us off at all different times. Julian of Norwich one of the mystics of the middle ages saw God as Mother for she saw God as genderless. What ever our image and all of them are correct because our experience of God is very personal to us. Our search as human beings is a search for God. Phycologists talk about having a God gene where we have a natural desire to find a higher being our desire is for God and our desire is to find him.  When we have found God in our lives we then want to spend time and will do anything to be their. This is the experience of the Gospel parable their desire for God was they had to sell everything to be in the presence of God.  The parables in the Gospel today tell us of people who have been searching and in there search have found something very precious they have found God himself. In that desire for God the...

I t seems that we  live in a very judgemental age. We only have to look at some of the comments on social media to see this. Everyone seems to have an option about everything else. This week for example there has been a back lash about the New Doctor who being a woman. Weather we agree with the choice or not we should never be unkind in our natural judgements about any given situation or person. Some people just think that they are being clever or witty where in fact they are being dis respectful and hurtful.  This judgemental attitude can also be very strong in the Church. It can happen in all different ways. By the way someones liturgical or spiritual preference by what they do at Mass the way they are with others. There are those people who walk around doing a very good impersonation of a lemon. Pope Francis in one of his most memorial press conferences when asked about Homosexuality this is what he said: ”On that occasion I said this: If a person is gay and seeks out ...

So Friday Morning I came to write the homily and prepare myself for the weekend ahead and by mid afternoon I had the whole thing done. And then during a period of prayer with the Scriptures of the weekend I realised that I had fallen into the trap of trying to address the whole Gospel and its themes. So I want to re examine just one part of the Gospel this weekend. It is the part where Jesus describes what is the Parable. Lets listen again to what he says at the end of this passage  You listen and listen again, but do not understand, see and see again, but not perceive. For the heart of this nation has grown coarse their ears dull of hearing and they have shut their eyes for fear they should see with their eyes hear with their ears understand with their heart, and be converted and be healed by me.  Jesus was speaking about his own generation but it could so easily be apt for this present generation. For we now live in a very noisy society where we are bombarded by ima...

To make it possible for everyone to attend Church next Sunday, we are going to have a Special "No Excuse Sunday" Beds will be placed in the porch for those who say, " Sunday is my only day for a lie in" There will be a special area at the back of the Church with sofas for those who feel that the pews are two hard  Eye drops will be available for those with tired eyes from watching TV until late on Saturday evening Steel helmets will be provided for those who say "The roof will cave in if I ever attended Church" Blankets will be distributed to those who feel the Church is too cold; fans for those say it is too hot. Scorecards will be avalible for those who count the hypocrites present. Slow cookers will be available on loan (collect after Mass this weekend) for those who can't come to Church and cook lunch for their family. We will distribute "we're giving Enough" badges for those who feel the Church is always asking for...

When we have a problem or when something happens in our lives we turn to those whom we trust we listen to our friends and take advice from them because we both respect them and know that they have your best interests at heart. And a good friend we want to and desire to spend time with them. And when things go wrong we can find comfort and love with them.  We enter into relationship with them and many times we are able to acknowledge our failings and show who we really are. There is no bar when they ask to come we drop everything and try our best to be their for them. But, for many people our relationship with Jesus is very different. It is formal and we hold back we put up walls and hide behind different barriers. When he asks us to come to him in the sacrament of reconciliation for example we hide and do not go ashamed about what we might reveal if we were to put a Facebook status on the relationship I suspect that for many of us it would say that “Its Complicated.” And y...

The one thing that I often think about when I think of Dad is the word family. The family at home with my Mum brother and Sister and extended family which I am sure you will hear a little about from my Sister later and the family of the Church. I want to focus on this. What does it mean to belong to the family of the Church? It first of all means to be centred around a table the altar where we see Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. We receive the Bread of life the Body of Christ. Something that for Dad was important. All his life he remembered the first time that he received Jesus I am not sure if it was because he did not have to share the chocolate bar given to him by the priest but I suspect that it was the fact that he was receiving Jesus for the first time. The family gathers around the table of Jesus the altar both in good times and also times of sorrow. We do this today. Jesus says that I am the bread of life. I am the one who you eat and gives you eternal life. By rec...

T here are many reasons why people stop coming to Church. Maybe they have had a bad experience in the past or maybe it is something that they did when they were young but don't feel the need to come anymore. Maybe they have just stoped believing in God. I think though that a lot of people have stoped coming because they just do not feel that welcomed. I think that this last reason is why a lot of people have stoped coming. Maybe they were not spoken to when they arrived. They had no idea what was going on and felt lost and all at sea. Maybe they were asked to move because this is their seat. Something that I have experienced myself in a Church where I was celebrating Mass I was asked to move even though the Church was completely empty. The person explaining that they had always sat there for the last 40 years. I have seen a couple who came to the church one week and never saw again and when I asked why when I met them in town they said because someone asked us to move and felt it ...