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A wise person is aware of real intentions. We are not wrong to pray to God when we are comfortable, enjoying mood music and a hot drink. But the pleasant feelings developed are sense-pleasures, not indications of the presence of God. He is most reverently approached, for prayer, by those who kneel or stand, or otherwise indicate humility before Him, and who, during prayer, shun pleasure, in order to make room, so to speak, for whatever gifts and graces God might choose to give them.

All who travel by the Royal Road of the Cross, faithful in love and sacrifice, can reach Heaven, both in their prayers, and when they die. They will meet the Saviour Who placed His Cross as a bridge across the Abyss between earth and Heaven, and whose saving work is celebrated in our feast: 'The Triumph of the Cross".

Good Christians shine out a light into a troubled world; but there are many places where little or no light can be seen, in Christ's sight: places where many evils, cruelties, tortures, enslavements and acts against helpless women are perpetrated by people who want to remain in power.

Christian women who live and work in the world need not fear they are sinful if they take care of their appearance, and try to look attractive for their husbands. Sensible decisions about clothing and hair care are necessary; it is only vanity and extravagance that are unworthy of people bound for Heaven.

The Church is a Divine Institution composed of sinful human beings on earth as well as Saints in Heaven and Holy Souls in Purgatory. To refuse to believe in the Church or the Papacy because some Popes were very sinful is as strange as to refuse to believe that public transport should be abolished because some conductors are immoral or that all schools should be shut because a few head-teachers prove unfit to be in charge of children.

Christ came to earth, true God and true man, to dispel the clouds of ignorance of misunderstanding that clouded human minds on the subject of the Godhead. He came here, as a tiny child in the womb of the Virgin Mary, in order to Sacrifice His Life, out of love for us, to save sinners from Hell.

An altar is not a mere table. A priest is not just a leader. A priest who lives in dark times - whether interior darkness or external difficulties - should keep in mind the Heavenly realities. The priest who, on earth, has faithfully lived and offered Sacrifice as 'another Christ' will be served by Christ at the Banquet in Heaven; and his past earthly hardships will seem insignificant.

St. Therese can be seen, raptuously praising God in Heaven because her relics have been used to inspire devotion to God. People feel close to her, are reminded of her holy life, and have greater confidence in her intercessions for us who still struggle on earth.

From the life of Christ on earth, and from His death and Resurrection, has come a surging river of grace, which is the Church with her Sacraments. If we swim in that river, we can be carried to Heaven; but if we separate ourselves from her by our dissent and disbelief it's as if we climb out of that river - to sit on the banks, and then complain.

The Catechism is a precious resource for everyone in the Church. It is Christ Who has given it to us, through His Church, so that we need not be puzzled on any matter of importance for our earthly and spiritual lives.

It might seem as if a viper has leaped out from his lair, to wound us. If we work for Christ, spreading the Gospel, we are going to be opposed, by people on earth and by Satan. We are wise if we recognise the truth, that harsh words or actions which cause us to suffer are caused by people acting from their sinful nature, as we sometimes do; so we forgive them, and turn to God for the courage to go on.

When Christians talk together, discussing the meaning of 'Church' and 'Communion', Christ is on the edge of Heaven, gazing upon the earth, interceding for those people, praying for those who are out of Full Communion, so that they will come home, into Full Communion with the successor of St. Peter, the Pope, and with the other Catholic Bishops.

The Papacy is like the hearth at the centre of the home. As a family needs to be present together, if love is real, so a Church family needs to be in Communion with the Pope, if faith is real. All Christians are called to be in full Communion, even if they don't agree with everything in the home.

It is tragic, that a human being can arrive at great old age - as if on a pinnacle, after a lengthy life on earth - without having given any thought to God. What a shock such a person has, if she dies in such a state, having been devoted to her own pleasure, and sees that she has spent an entire life without praising or thanking God, or doing His Will.

Faith is a gift from God, but it comes when people who have heard the story of God's action proclaimed, accept the grace to believe it. That story or proclamation is about God's plan of Salvation. It includes His gradual Revelation of Himself to Abraham, Moses, and others, and His Revelation in His Son, Jesus Christ, who is God-made-man, and who lived on earth, and died, and rose from the dead, to conquer sin and death, to save sinners.

Christ resembles His Mother: His only human parent; yet the Blessed Virgin Mary resembles her own son, through having been made holy by Him in His Godhead at her Immaculate Conception, and through having carried the Divine Child in her womb until His birth in Bethlehem. She was a marvel of holiness in earthly life, through her extraordinary intimacy with her son, and her total surrender to the Father's Will. She radiated from within herself the holiness of which her son was the living embodiment. She was 'transparent', like a lamp.

By our Baptism we leap over a wall, it seems, that separates the holy from the unholy, no longer being stained by original sin. But the city beyond the wall represents earthly life, through which we should travel without being enslaved by sin. Heaven lies ahead, for the faithful, hence the importance of good preaching, as the clergy urge people not to grow weary, and never to betray Christ. Only the holy can enter Heaven.

Even in infancy, Jesus Christ set an example of trust, as He entrusted Himself to the care of human beings, when He had 'left behind His glory' as the Son of God. He came amongst us on earth, even though He knew He would be mocked and rejected by many. We give Him joy when we turn to Him with gratitude and gladness.

It was as if from the 'womb' of the Godhead, from the heart of the Mystery of the Godhead, was born love, embodied, when Jesus Christ took flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary. He came to earth to be our Saviour: to invite His beloved creatures to accept His free gift of salvation and joy.

We must not hold on to a slavish fear of God. The second Person of the Blessed Trinity took flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary, to be made man, able to suffer and die in earthly life, to save sinners. The gentle love in the heart of that Divine infant is the tender love at the heart of the Trinity.