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The very Spirit Who was with Christ in His Passion and Who raised Him up from the grave dwells - with the Father and Son - in the soul of every persecuted Christian; and each one who suffers for love of Christ should remember that whatever happens externally, that faithful soul is full of Divine Light.

Our Blessed Lady and Saint John were with Christ in His Passion not only to comfort Him by their presence. It was part of the Father's plan that they should be witnesses to Christ's last hours in order to share with all who love Him the last words He uttered, and the complete 'picture' of His dying and death.

The Catholic Faith is something simple enough for a child to understand, even though it also fascinates and satisfies the most profound souls and the greatest intellects. A child can grasp the truth about a loving, Divine Saviour, Whose family, the Church, hands on the truth about how to do good and prepare for Heaven.

It is God's intention that babies be conceived in the marriage act: in a lifelong union of love of a man and a woman. The baby is meant to be the 'fruit' of their loving union. It is not God's Will that tiny babies be created as the result of laboratory procedures, outside the womb; furthermore, each little person, however created, deserves to live and not to be thrown away as 'surplus' or 'imperfect'

Far above the City of God on earth, where people live who do God's Will, God the Father reigns, His hand held up in blessing, as He gazes upon all who love Him. God loves everyone; yet those who choose to live beyond the City, in the darkness of serious sin, did not receive that blessing; nor will they join the Saints in Heaven, unless they repent.

Those who love God and live according to His laws, following the Way made by Jesus, the Son of God, can rise up when they die to join the Father in Heaven, to share His glory, and to experience bliss at His heart, in the Communion of Saints. Those who rejected Him have rejected Heaven.

In the whole universe, or the whole of eternity, there is only one Heaven, which people can reach who follow Christ's Way, made by Him to overcome the alienation which followed the Original Sin. There is no alternative to Heaven, for those who refuse to love God, but only a great fall into the depths of the Abyss.

As Sacred Scripture tells us, we are certain to be attacked, as followers of the Crucified Christ. Whether we suffer verbal, physical or spiritual assaults, however, Christ sees what we undergo for love for Him; and He sometimes intervenes with Divine power, to banish the attackers and to bring refreshment and peace.

Through the free gift of Divine grace, all that Christ out God did for us in His earthly life has been given to the Church to dispense. It all stemmed from His being made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. As man, He preached the truth, suffered and died for our sins, rose up from the tomb, and by rising up to Heaven made a Way in which we can follow, by our union with Him in our Baptism: a union made stronger by prayer, sacraments, and good works.

When Christ was on earth as the God-man, suffering amongst sinners, and praying for us to be forgiven, it was as though His love for God the Father and for human beings was so great that His prayers could not fail to reach Heaven - thus ending the alienation of mankind. His prayers were heard and granted; and so it's as though He threw out a landline, so that not just He but all who trust in Him can follow His Way into glory.

The Father is like a great king, in Heaven; and whenever we pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ at our side, delivering our requests, it is as though the Father is so full of love for His Son that - as He declares to the Saints, Who surround the Father in Heaven - I can refuse nothing to my Son Jesus, nor can I refuse anything He asks for His friends.

Some Catholics ignore Christ; others look bored in His Presence; many take no notice of the teachings He gives through His Church. They scarcely believe that He is a real person - a Divine Person - Who is pleased to be shown love as well as to give it.

Christ asks us to picture a peaceful home, and what it is like to enter where there are no loud disagreements or resentments or disobedience. The soul of a person who really loves Christ, welcomes Him with reverence, believes in His Church's teachings, and puts them into practice, is like a 'peaceful home' for Him, when He enters in Holy Communion.

One of the darkest cellars in which people choose to live is the 'cellar' of disbelief which is atheism. A person who refuses to believe in the existence of God cannot therefore thank God for the gift of life, or turn to Him in sorrow-for-sin. By his own acts, he locks himself in a dark cellar, perhaps loses the key, and is unable to follow Christ when, at the end of his life, Christ calls to him.

If we wish we could give to a beloved relation all the wisdom and goodness that we have received from God in a life-time, the best means is by encouraging them to receive Christ with devotion in Holy Communion. In Christ is His Divinity, wisdom, power, beauty, and goodness: more than enough to fill our hearts, if we open our hearts fully to receive Him.

Christ showed me that the person who knows God best is the Christian mystic. She who has been drawn up to the heights of mystical union, in prayer, after her trial and purification, comes to know the Father and Christ, and the Holy Spirit; and she is able to inspire and encourage others to follow Christ's way of love and humility.

In Lisieux, St.Therese was grateful to God, in every circumstance. We cannot dictate to God about when we will experience His love, and His glory, in earthly life. What is important is that we do His Will; and He who is good always trains His friends - and rewards them. A person like St.Therese who lived much of her life in spiritual darkness had a special vocation to show out naked faith, as well as love.

The Lord has a plan for every life: an invitation which, when heard and accepted, enables each one to love and serve Him and to find true happiness, both in this world, even amidst differences, and in life after death.

God is loving, pure and wise; therefore God chooses, for intimate friendship, a person who loves Him and is reverent, prayerful, humble and obedient. That obedience includes loving his neighbour, and the Church. God cannot bring into close union with Himself those who hate fellow creatures, or believe Jesus was a liar, or hide away in sin, or despise the Church, or are self-important, or pray with little reverence, or despise popular devotions that lead people closer to Heaven, including honour to the Blessed Sacrament, and to the Virgin Mary and other Saints.

The Lord does not look upon each repentant 'child of God' as if classifying us by our past sins; as an ex-greedy banker, or as an ex-prostitute. He thinks of each one in a state of grace as being His glorious, delightful child, whom He loves, and with whom He shares His glory. We must not allow ourselves to be dragged down by our past lives.