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No matter how detailed an edict or constitution, it cannot foster true happiness or wisdom in a country or continent if there is no mention in it of God, or God's love. To fail to mention God is not to leave aside the question of belief, but to show that faith is irrelevant to those involved; and it demonstrates their ignorance of the importance of Christian history not only locally but also throughout the world.

A person who is careless and irreverent about private prayer, perhaps always lolling in bed to pray, half-watching television, and with his mind not on God but on his plans for the next day, is likely to be careless and irreverent in church, at Mass, unaware that God is holy as well as kind, and deserves the upmost reverence and respect. People without much love for God do not become His close friends.

Satan cannot bear to see Christ's faithful people happy and hopeful. When he cannot cause faithful people to break God's laws he stirs up discontent, or bouts of jealousy or anger, resentment and injured pride, to destroy the peace which is Christ's gift to His friends.

When people are taught about the Mass, the focus of the teaching should be on God, to Whom our prayers rise up like incense, and on what we can understand about our relationship with God the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Spirit. That is even more important that what is true about the Mass as a gathering of the Faithful.

There is often too much emphasis on the gathered people, in catechetical teaching about Mass. The smoke of incense rises towards the Godhead, as do the prayers of the People of God. The greatest prayer is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is Christ's prayer, offered from within our midst, from the altar, through the priest who offers the Holy Sacrifice. Teaching about the Mass, therefore, should be focused primarily on God. There should be vigilance, about childrens' textbooks.

St. John Vianney was not a great scholar, but he loved God with all his heart, and so did all he could to write interesting and powerful homilies in order to lead people to repentance, new life, and sincere love for Christ, and for their neighbour.

St. John Vianney was not afraid to preach the truth in the pulpit, sometimes weeping as he spoke, as he described the miserable state of souls who cared nothing for God and might never arrive in Heaven.

Marriage can bring tremendous joys, but there are dangers to avoid: sins to be avoided in order to lead holy married lives, to create a holy family, and to help one another, by God's grace, to be worthy of Heaven. The downward path which leads to darkness represents the way taken when people disobey God by contraceptive use, or deviant sex, or adultery, or other forms of grave betrayal or uncharity.

It is difficult to describe a sublime, holy Mystery. Some people describe the Blessed Trinity as a Community, but stress the unity of the Godhead. Others describe God as 'a family'. This is unwise, in that it can lead children to imagine three Persons who are not merely distinct but separate from One Another, each going His own way to do His own tasks, whereas the truth is that the Divine Persons act together, no matter what appropriation we attribute to One or the Other.

It is the Will of God that we have beautiful imagery in church to inspire us; but He also wants us to have beautiful altar frontals, furnishings, chalices, chasubles, and decorative motifs. Everything should give glory to God, Whose house of prayer we have entered, and should remind us that we are on the threshold of Heaven, with the Angels.

We need not worry if we have so many duties to fulfil that we cannot name every individual whom we hold up before God in prayer. If we intercede for them all at once, we can be sure that as we hold them before God it's as if we are bringing them into the sunlight. God's warm love falls upon each one, with graces according to their needs, because of the merits of Christ, and our faithful intercession.

All who love Christ, and trust in His love as they pray before Him Who is Present in the tabernacle, receive many graces. He is our Divine Saviour, Sacramentally Present; and He cannot be out-done in generosity. If we show reverence and love towards Him, how can He fail to reward us?

In having a 'clouded' understanding of the Mass, many Catholics feel themselves to be far from God. Many of these people are not content to develop a quiet interior life, in union with Jesus. They want drama, spiritual excitement, grand projects, and praise from others for their good works.

It is unfortunate that many Catholic school-children are led to practice acts of charity which always attract attention, draw applause, make those acting feel virtuous. Where are the instructions to engage in works of charity, simply for the love of God: to do good, and develop humility?

When a Government proposes that small children must learn about sex and reproduction, with no reference to God or morality, or chastity or marriage, they destroy the innocence of the young, impose an atheistic outlook, usurp the role of parents, who should teach children when they are older, and help, in effect, to destroy the school as surely (though in a different way) as if a gang of thugs were tearing down a wall.

It can seem as though our life's arrangements and relationships are destroyed in a moment, like a bombed out city from which we flee. But sometimes our crises have been permitted by God so that we can flee all that was worldly and sinful. Then we are freed to 'build' a new life of holiness and peace.

It is wrong, in God's sight, for us to deny God, in an attempt to be tolerant. A Government of a Christian country has a duty to tell people who wish to become citizens that the Christian Faith is the foundation of our country's institutions at large, that the greater proportion of the citizens claim to be Christian, and they they are expected to respect what is Christian, though no-one forces newcomers to become Christian.

God is not far away from us; however, a person who trusts in the Son of God, and tries to lead a good life, knows that only a veil separates people on earth from God and the Saints in Heaven. A person who lives for selfish aims, feels as if God is far away - if that person believes in God - and that between God and himself there is an impenetrable wall. This false impression is caused by his sins.

It can be hard for some priests as they grow old and frail, and step down from positions of influence, no longer able to preach and command a hearing. Some feel as though, in retirement, they are falling, helpless, towards oblivion; but they should believe that, underneath them, to hold them, are the 'everlasting arms' of God.

Just as a mathematician finds joys in his calculations, as he explores obscure aspects of his subject, so, some theologians like to make nuanced statements about obscure aspects of doctrine; yet theologians are unwise if they neglect basic principles of the Faith, or forget that, in essence, it is simple, consisting of truths about God's plan of salvation, and how we can be saved.