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Everyone needs to be 'cleansed' of all sin. Christ asked me to picture people who never wash or clean their teeth, and who grow dirty and smelly, and often infected. People who refuse to repent or to confess their sins, He said, are deeply loved by the Father, but they stink, before Heaven, and would be wise to accept the help He offers for their transformation and joy.
As I praised the Father for the Mother of Christ, who acted to help a couple on their wedding day, I saw Christ reach out and lead His Mother down a little so that she could accept the honour I paid her, and hear my prayers - so great is His delight at seeing His Mother treated with honour and gratitude.
God never ceases to pour out His love and forgiveness towards us all; yet a person who hides behind His sins, by refusing to let go of them, stops that divine love and forgiveness reaching Him. His darkness and sadness are self-chosen; yet by repentance, he exchanges his filthy rags for a clean white garment, and his sins are banished.
From the 'whirlwind' of love which is the life of the Three Divine Persons in the Godhead, Christ descended to earth at His Incarnation, in the womb of the Virgin Mary; and it was always part of the Father's plan of salvation that Christ would continue to be found amongst us, by His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist.
If we persevere in fervent love of God and of our neighbour we can arrive at the top of the mountain of holiness, and enter Heaven as soon as we die. Those friends of Christ who grow luke-warm or careless are collected, at death, and taken to Purgatory, to be made fully-alive and joyful, ready for Heaven. People who have walked down the mountain, of their own free will, are heading towards the Abyss, and doom.
The Blessed Virgin Mary accepted God's Will, which was that she carry a child in her womb. She bore the gaze of amazed villagers, for love of God, unlike married people who refuse to do God's Will, as they deliberately make their married union sterile, by contraceptive use, and refuse the gift of life.
The sick can exercise great spiritual power, with Christ. Those who resolve to be patient and to accept a special vocation can work for God and the Church, in and through their sufferings. By God's grace they can accept without resentment their pains and humiliations, as a penance for themselves and to help save other souls, in union with Christ Who won salvation for us by His patient love, in accepting the Cross.
The Father's Love for us is tender, and very deep. Everything that comes to us from Him is good, and conveys what is good for us or brings about good later on. He is tremendously pleased by all we do and say out of love for Him, and with all we say about His love to other people.
Satan, the wicked Angel, imagined that death would defeat the 'Son of Man'. Yet Jesus conquered both death and Satan by rising from the dead. In private prayer, and at Mass where Jesus' Sacrifice is re-presented, we are right to praise and thank our Saviour for shedding His Blood on the Cross, for our sakes, and re-uniting Heaven and earth by his love and obedience.
Just as Christ is no longer a poor carpenter, but our Radiant Saviour, and King of Heaven, so His ever-Virgin Mother, Mary most holy, is no longer a lowly peasant woman but is the Queen of Heaven. There, everyone praises the Father not only for Christ's love and compassion, but also for the amazing purity-of-soul of Christ's Virgin Mother, and for her humility and courage.
A person who is on his way to Hell has taken that downward path only by a series of deliberate, freely-chosen acts or thoughts by which he defies God or disobeys His laws. Yet if he pauses, and regrets his choices, and simply calls out "O God, Help me" - he will be helped to move upwards towards the light: helped by God who loves Him.
It is usual to speak more about the love of God than the loss of God, to people of goodwill. But when sinful people are in danger of going astray, attracted by pornography, for example, the time has come to give stern warnings about the torments suffered in Hell by those who persist in mortal sin.
At every Mass we praise and adore Christ the God-Man Who is Present with us at Mass: Body, Blood, soul and Divinity. He was once a flesh-and-blood baby with a beating heart like those little babies whose lives end in the womb today, when they are killed because they are held to be inconvenient or imperfect. To kill a child is to act against God, Who loves every human being, and Who even chose to share our human nature.
At every Mass we praise and adore Christ the God-Man Who is Present with us at Mass: Body, Blood, soul and Divinity. He was once a flesh-and-blood baby with a beating heart like those little babies whose lives end in the womb today, when they are killed because they are held to be inconvenient or imperfect. To kill a child is to act against God, Who loves every human being, and Who even chose to share our human nature.
Even as we pray to Christ, offering our lives in His service and praying for help in our need, we can be certain that He is holding us, and all our concerns, close to His heart. Indeed, He is holding us in existence; and all that concerns us - life, family, work, friends, prayer, struggles, church - is of concern to Him too.
No-one dies and leaves earthly life at a moment that has occurred by accident. No-one leaves earthly life one second before or after the moment decreed by the Father, Who loves us all and governs our lives, and the whole Universe.
Just as the Titanic was lost, with many hundreds of lives, because of the decisions and actions of a small number of people, so the human race was 'lost' - deprived of supernatural life - because of the decisions and actions of a small number, who were our first parents. Yet Christ came to save us. The Father could not allow mankind to sink in hopelessness and sin.
Just as a loving Father, on holiday with his family, helps his disabled child to leave the water after only a short dip, so God the Father looks on lovingly if a sick or disabled person has to 'leave' prayer, through exhaustion; unable to concentrate. He is neither surprised nor offended; He looks on with sympathetic eyes.
We are right to pray for people who are torn between love of God, and selfish behaviour - and for everyone. There is a battle for souls going on, as Satan tries to influence us all, and our Guardian Angels act to protect us.
A great battle goes on when a person is torn between love of God and love of self. Satan attacks that heart and mind, while the Guardian Angel acts to restore that soul's peace. Someone like this desperately needs to pray in the name of Jesus.
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