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If we live in a state of grace, having received Divine Life, in union with Christ, through Baptism, we pray in the Name of Christ, in the light of the Holy Spirit; we can pray in confidence that the Father hears every prayer. It's as though Christ is leaning from Heaven, lowering a pail, as if down a well, so that He can draw up our prayers, to read each one to the Father, telling the Father of our needs and desires.

A person who recognises the Catholic Church as the One Body founded by God Himself to lead us on the Way to Heaven is wise to come in. Christ, the Son of God, has given us authoritive teachings, and Divine power, so that faithful followers can persevere in the Faith, and lead holy lives, and spend Eternity at the heart of the Blessed Trinity, in Heaven.

During the Mass, the whole Church is united in praising God the Father, through, with and in Christ, in the Holy Spirit. All the Saints of Heaven are adoring the one true God Who has brought them to His heart, for all Eternity. We too can hope to enter Heaven if we receive the Sacrament of salvation, and remain faithful.

No matter how Satan is portrayed in art, through the ages, nor how silly some of the depictions seem to be, the truth is that he is a very dangerous fallen angel, far more intelligent than most human beings, and determined, by any means, to draw us away from God. Yet God is stronger, and we must trust in Him, His Son, and His Holy Spirit.

A call to the Sacred Priesthood is a call to a man, from the Most Blessed Trinity, to accept a way of life in a most exalted state, which no-one can deserve. This call is made in the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Archangels; and loving service as another Christ, in this world, however arduous, will be followed by a glorious welcome in the next.

Christ's saving work on earth was something that only He could do. As God-made-man, He enabled sinful human beings to know and love Him, and, through Him, the Father. We can neither free ourselves from our sins nor know, without Christ and His Revelation, exactly how to please the Father. Through His Spirit, given in Baptism, we receive power; and through His Church, in every age, Truth, to guide us.

Everyone receives a just judgement, at death. The Blessed Trinity, our God, is infinitely compassionate and merciful, but does not over-ride our freedom, by which we choose to follow the path to life, opened by Christ, or choose to walk away, to sin, and to end in the Abyss, in a disaster of our own making.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is dear to God the Father. Christ, Son of God and of Mary, loves His Mother and wants her to be loved and honoured. It is tragic, in His sight, that some Christians refuse to honour her. They discover, in Purgatory, the truth about their neglect of her, and they bewail the blindness of their earthly lives.

Every Mass is a triumph of grace, no matter how weak we are. When we unite our thanks and praises, our sorrow-for-sin, and our petitions and intercessions, with Christ's great sacrificial prayer in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we can be confident that our prayer is successful, for it is Christ Himself, from our altar, Who lifts up our prayer, with His, and presents them to our all-holy Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is the fervent wish of Christ our God, Who is the source of life, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, that every woman shown her unborn child will look at that image with gratitude and love. How terrible it is for Christ, whenever a woman sits in judgement on her child, planning to destroy him by abortion because he is 'inconvenient' or imperfect!

Will the 'gates of Paradise' open for you and me? Each of us should ponder the question from time to time, in order to refocus on our priorities. If we are true to Christ, on a journey of love, obedient to the Father's Will and loving our neighbour, we shall continue at death on the very same journey, to the heart of the Blessed Trinity, even if we need some purification before we enter our Home.

Christ's attitude is one of eternal surrender to the Father's Will; yet Father, Son and Holy Spirit have one single, loving purpose: by the lifting-up of Christ, in His Death and Resurrection, to make a Way in which weak people can follow: people who have also surrendered to God's plans and have become Christlike, loving, obedient and dutiful, relying on Divine Grace.

Our Blessed Lady, who is not Divine, was chosen for a special role. In consenting to conceive within her womb the very Son of God, she allowed Him to show out more clearly than ever His Divine nature: His love, compassion, willingness to share our lives from beginning to end, and His mercy and tenderness. Christ showed out, on earth, as man, what the Triune God is like: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one all-holy Creator and Redeemer.

If we are tired or despondent, or feel over-burdened by Crosses, we need to reflect on the love that surrounds us, if we have remained faithful, living 'in' God, the Blessed Trinity. What joy we give to the heart of Christ, as He turns to the Father Who sent Him to us, and to the Holy Spirit Who is making us holy, and says with delight: "She loves us!" - or "He loves us!"

It would be easy to say, of a view over a city, by night: "Oh, how beautiful - but how marvellous it must look in the daytime!" And so it is, with the Godhead. We have been given a glimpse, so to speak, from within the darkness of earthly life, through Jesus, and the sacraments and prayer; but all who enter Heaven are enthralled by the beauty of the glory of the Blessed Trinity, as are the people they have helped to bring there by their intercessions.

There are people all over the world who long to have some connection with God and Heaven. How marvellous it is, that through membership of the Catholic Church we can know that "we too rejoice with the Angels", in the praise of God, every day, even in a tiny church in a little village (in this case, Harpenden!) thousands of Angels pray with us, adoring the Blessed Trinity.

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.

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.

Christ's own people found it difficult to recognise, in a Person suffering pain and humiliation, the King or warrior they awaited as a Saviour. But in His Resurrection Christ performed a marvel greater than any achieved in a throne-room or a battlefield. Truly, He and God the Father are One, as Christ said.

A Christian in a state of grace is intimately united with the Triune God. By Baptism, all sin is washed away from the soul, the person is made a member of the Church; Baptism brings the life of God to shine within the soul through the presence there of the Blessed Trinity: called the Divine Indwelling. No longer need people go to a special Temple in order to pray - though we have churches for our public worship as the Body of Christ: consecrated places where Christ is Really Present, in the tabernacle, in the Blessed Sacrament.