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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.

The life of grace is like a journey up a mountain, round hairpin bends. Drivers need to know the highway code, and refrain from drink; so we must know about God's Will, and by prayer and other means be able to do it. In the life of grace, however - unlike mountain driving, where there are foolish drivers who might kill us - no-one loses his own soul and goes to Hell except through his own fault.

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.

Every day is a new day, in the life of a Christian, no matter how mundane or routine was the previous day. Each day stretches ahead like an area of countryside to be traversed - with no knowing what might happen. God can intervene in our quiet lives through people: through phone calls received, sermons heard, or through insights and requests offered by the Lord in prayer.

The great MIND of God, that made human DNA and the genome, cannot be understood by human beings; nor can the Godhead by pierced by thought alone. He should be adored; yet He has revealed Himself in and through His Son, God-made-man; and Christian mystics, through Christ, can see deep into the 'heart' of God.

The Church teaches the truth, in every age of our history, yet each of the mystics experiences it - for example, St Paul, St Teresa of Avila, St Thomas Aquinas. It is the Christian mystic who prays with trust, reverence and humility, who knows God better than anyone, through union with Christ in prayer. The mystics have produced the most lyrical and intellectually-coherent accounts of what they have learned of God - which knowledge echoes and confirms the truths taught by the Church, and illumines them.

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.

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.

There are people in many places who wrongly believe that we can earn Heaven by our repeated prayers and laborious religious practices. Heaven is a free gift, received in the end as a free gift, through faith in Jesus Christ Who Himself came down from Heaven to show us the Way, and to free us from our sins.

When a person deliberately commits grievous sin, it's as if he leaps out of the Kingdom or out of a state of grace, into a dark area which slopes steadily downwards into a deep pit. No-one gets out of that by his own power, but needs to pray for grace - or to be helped by the intercession of those who love Christ.

When a person deliberately commits grievous sin, it's as if he falls down upon ground which slopes steeply downwards towards a deep pit in the ground. No-one can get out of it by his own power; although the Divine help given through the prayer of friends, during this life, is like a rope by which the sinner can allow himself to be pulled up towards the life of grace.

The living God is a 'Holy Fire', blazing with love in our sanctuary, it seems, as we gather to offer Him honour and praise in His house of prayer, through the Holy Mysteries. Christ is Present; with His Angels and Saints, enfolded in the glory of the Father: glory into which we hope to plunge at death, having been purified in the Sacred Liturgy. Our reverent attention should be drawn towards God, for Whose glory this Church was built.

When we pause to pray by a statue of our Blessed Lady we are addressing the real person whom the statue represents. Our Lady is in Heaven, her arms out to welcome us in prayer. She is our Mother, who loves to see us confide in her, and show love for her.

Our Blessed Lady wants us to approach her in prayer, and to be confident that she will not be shocked by our sins and weaknesses, whether minor or major. She can bring us powerful comfort, and powerful help through her prayers.

The journey to union with God is only a slow journey, if a person is half-hearted in serving Him and fearful of His demands. The one who surrenders completely to God by obedience to Him in everyday life makes swift progress in prayer, as if travelling in a fast vehicle, not on foot.

In a hotel lobby, when an important person is surrounded by admirers, an onlooker must either push through them, to see him closely, or climb nearby stairs for a better view. Likewise, someone who wants to be closer to God must push forward to meet Him, in humility and trust, or take a careful look at His attributes, and see how he can please Him.

In contemplative prayer, in a state of grace, a soul can be lifted by God into new states of union as swiftly and directly as if that person were a child being borne aloft, flying towards Heaven on the back of an eagle.

In contemplative prayer, in a state of grace, a soul can be lifted by God into new states of union as swiftly and directly as if that person were a child being borne aloft, flying towards Heaven on the back of an eagle.

The Lord asks us to persevere in prayer for atheists. When we do so, it's as if He lets down a rope from Heaven, into the hole in the ground where they choose to live. They have blinded themselves to His existence by ignoring the glory of the natural world, the weight of human testimony, and the call of conscience.