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Christ wants us to avoid the ultimate disaster. Christ leads us by love, encouraging us to follow the Way to Heaven, helped by His guidelines and graces; but those who persist in disobedience and foolishness, ignoring His Commandments and decrees, or neglecting prayer, or corrupting others, or being irreverent towards His Sacred Ministers, or persisting, without repentance, in any grave sin, are allowed to follow their own paths. Alas, these lead to the great sewer which carries souls to Hell.

Just as a person who has a wondrous experience of flying through the air, by parachute, knows that such an experience, daily, would be joyful but never so exhilarating as during the first flight or two, so a person granted special spiritual experiences can become less awe-struck - though, it is to be hoped, no less reverent - when these have become part of her life of contemplative prayer.

There were people who hoped to cast off ancient beliefs, customs and disciplines, after the Second Vatican Council. For two generations, many Catholics have built a new 'road' for themselves to walk on, with their modernist ideas, and lack of reverence both for the Sacred Tradition and for the Real Presence of Christ amongst His People - and for the Pope, who leads us, by the Will of Christ.

Christ wants us to see this image, from Him, about the irreverence and silliness often seen in Church at what is a memorial of His Passion and Death! Those Catholics who wanted complete change in the Church after the Second Vatican Council tried to build a new road for everyone to follow, with changed doctrines and distorted attitudes; yet the one true Church continued to practice reverent worship, around them, and to teach truth in faith and morals.

The two forms of the Rite of Mass which have been given to us in the Western Church have both been given by Christ our God, Who wishes none of us to be partisan, despising what others prefer. Yet Christ, like many of His flock, sees the regrettable mistranslations in the older translation of the Novus Ordo; and the style of language in it that represents a different attitude towards the Godhead and the life of grace: not as reverent as the Extraordinary form suggests.

Christ asks all priests to treat one another as brothers in the Priesthood, united in love for Him and for the Mass, and never making life uncomfortable or more difficult for those of them who prefer one form of Mass to another. Christ shows us, through the Pope, that both the Novus Ordo and the 'Extraordinary Form' of the Mass are to be respected as valid, and offered with reverence and love.

Christ invites us to reflect upon the wearing of a chapel-veil or headscarf by women in past times, or in other parts of the world today. He wants us to know that it is a valuable, visible sign of reverence and humility, in accordance with Scriptural precept and long-standing custom: a sign which He asks us to persevere in.

Christ saw with dismay that many Catholics, after the last Council, were not content to be lowly, in church. Even at a time when these were forbidden, some insisted on presenting girls as altar-servers, or receiving Communion in the hand. Others wanted to preach the homily, or to introduce unauthorised dramas or prayers, or even dance troupes during the Mass, and some refused to kneel at the Consecration, and in other ways showed not education but pride.

God is at work, in His merciful love, in Purgatory. People who die, but who have not taken sufficient care in earthly life to conquer their faults, to be active in charity and reverent in prayer, need to be totally transformed before they can enter Heaven, to be as holy as the Saints. They are appalled at how luke-warm they have been, but grateful to God for His love, as He moves each one little by little towards the light, and prepares them for Eternal Life.

There exists in the Church widespread ignorance about reverence. It is a cause for sadness when a woman appears in church for the Sacred Liturgy whilst bare-shouldered, and showing no concern for the people who will be distracted by her appearance. She might not be entirely to blame; but in her immodesty she shows little respect for her all-holy Creator to Whom all worship is directed.

We should not stroll through church as if through a market. Every Catholic church is a holy temple for God, sanctified by having being consecrated by a Bishop as a place for solemn worship, and sanctified by the Real Presence there of Jesus Christ, in sacramental form. All who enter, therefore, should show respect both for God and fellow worshippers, so neither offending God by irreverence or immodest attire, nor distracting others.

An orthodox and fervent form of catechesis is badly needed. Things began to go wrong thirty years ago when many tabernacles were moved to unsuitable, make-shift chapels unworthy of our Divine Saviour. Christ's Real Presence is ignored or forgotten. Children were taught little about His Presence. Attention was paid, frequently, more to the community than to almighty God.

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.

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?

Christ is deeply touched whenever we show devotion to Him in the Blessed Sacrament - and especially when we search out the tabernacle whenever we enter a Catholic church away from home, and cannot see our way to it. Christ would like to show us more delight and gratitude, but would completely overwhelm us.

Carelessness can be the first step on a path that leads to terrible results. Carelessness about life leads to the deaths of innocent babies by abortion. Carelessness about our neighbour's welfare leads to silence when they are harmed by an evil regime. Carelessness in catechesis can lead to gross irreverence towards Christ our God and Saviour, and to uncharity towards the neighbour who prays - and even to carelessness about the moral law, and about sin and death.

What is the message given to us by those who allow children in baseball hats to stand between some priests, at the altar, during the Eucharistic prayer? It is that it is more important to make children feel involved than to allow the priests to be close to the altar, undisturbed, as they offer the Holy Sacrifice of Christ! This is a tragic piece of evidence of flawed attitudes, today, to the Mass and the Priesthood.

A loving person takes care in setting the table for a family meal, just as a person who loves God takes care in making the sign of the cross. To be careless in making that sign of our Faith is to be like a careless person, before a meal, who throws the cutlery onto the table.

Christ deserves to be shown the deepest honour at Mass. Christ is touched by the deep reverence which is shown out at every Mass where people who love Christ take care that every word and gesture is dignified and worthy of their Divine Saviour. We should not offer, at Mass, words, gifts or gestures that are introduced merely to make children, or other people, feel special.

Christ looks on with joy, with His Saints, His heart grateful that some of His flock revere the Traditional Mass - now called the Extraordinary form of the Rite - and that some priests offer it, and some of the laity assist because of their love for Christ, first of all;but also because of their desire to support and encourage priests who revere ancient ways.