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God looks upon abortion as being the worst of all sins so widespread today, because it includes the pride which makes people imagine that they have the right to destroy the life of an innocent person. The Creator looks upon someone who causes the death of an infant as being like a person who caused the death of His own Son, Jesus Christ, Who shares our humanity.

It is an offense against God and His law of love, to ill-treat a fellow human being; yet it is an even greater offense to spread heresy, and to mock the faith of fellow-Catholics; for if we endanger their spiritual lives and their immortal souls we risk bearing some blame for causing them to move towards Hell, not Heaven.

Each Catholic priest should be aware of what is necessary for renewal in the vocation which he freely accepted. His feet should be those of a person who brings Good News: of God's love, and forgiveness brought through Christ. His heart should be full of compassion for sinners. His mind should be fixed on Christ, and Heavenly things. His hands should be clean - as when they were anointed, for the offering of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

God looks upon the world, His Creation, with its vast plains, seas and mountain ranges - and great gatherings of people, many struggling against their sinful natures instead of giving in to selfishness. But only a few are using the most effective and available means, effected by the grace of God in repentance, prayer and penance.

If the evil one wishes to cause distress, he will attempt any number of ploys, whether spiritual assaults to cause fear, or false visions, or a flurry of images to annoy the soul during prayer, or new and vigorous temptations to sin, or other trials. Trust in God is essential, and holy water is very helpful, as is the Name of Jesus - and Our Lady's prayers.

Without trust in God, people turn away from Him, by a free choice. Millions of people have died with little faith or hope, and have left nothing good on earth. But the work of the Saints endures. Those self-centred people have had nowhere to go except on a single journey, chosen by them, away from God, to the depths of Hell. But the good that the Saints do lives after them, renews the Church, helps the needy, and changes attitudes across the world. The Gospel needs to be preached to the ends of the earth, to bring hope, and joy.

It is really true that God loves us. The message at Christmas is a personal invitation from Jesus Christ to each of us: to repent of sin, to believe that He has come down from Heaven, and to put our trust in Him. Then our lives will change! He gives us, through His Church, all that we need to become holy, to lead holy lives, and to reach Heaven - if we persevere.

Christ asks us to be bolder and braver, in direct proclamation of the Gospel message, that God loves us so much that He came from Heaven to live here as man, to save us from sin, and the fear of death. If we repent and trust in Him, we can be transformed, by the graces received in prayer, and through the Church. At present there is too much 'pre-evangelisation', which is not converting people, but causing some to think conversion is not important.

A Catholic who puts himself, by a deliberate act or choice, out of Communion with the Church, in mortal sin, is as if standing on a ladder, near the top of a huge pit, in danger of falling; if he dies before he repents and is reconciled he will certainly fall into Hell. He needs God's grace to take the wiser course: to repent, and so climb the ladder and stay on firm ground, out of danger.

A home where God's Will is believed and acted upon is like a lit cottage in a frozen landscape - so pleasing to God, but rare, in that there are few households even amongst Catholics where is found neither contraception nor abortion or pornography or adultery and where charitable speech and behaviour is the norm, by the grace of Christ. These bright households also care for their sick members if they can, including the elderly.

Our voices are made for speaking truth. When someone lies, it is as though a stream of filthy water pours out of her heart and through her mouth. Even so-called white lies produce a stream of polluted water: as do exaggerations, slander, blasphemy, boasting and innuendo.

When an angry and uncharitable person pours a torrent of abuse upon an innocent person, the effect upon that soul is as if a torrent of filthy water had surged into a home. It is important to sweep out that flood-water, which is the venomous phrases and insinuations causing distress, or they might stick in the mind, to fester, and cause spiritual sickness or self-pity.

Some people refuse to be helped towards salvation and joy. When we pray in the name of Jesus we should be confident that the Father will hear our prayers and grant many of our wishes: if they are in accordance with His Will; but it can happen that certain persons refuse to benefit from our intercessions. If they are people who insist on walking away from God, refusing to co-operate with His graces, we cannot raise them up to Heaven by our prayer. God has given them free will; and some condemn themselves.

If the evil one sees a fervent soul, he will go to great lengths to seduce, disturb, frighten or mislead her. If he cannot tempt her to sin, he will try to mislead her with false visions of Christ or the Saints, or to terrify her by horrible imagery or apparitions; or, if Christ has spoken in prayer to that soul, the evil one adds a few words, as if from Christ, to confuse her.

We must be kind to everyone, especially when a person is agonising over a major problem, knowing what to do, to please God, to act justly, and to correct his appalling behaviour. He is like a fish on a hook, wriggling, in torment. He dreads the humiliation involved, though he now wants to do right.

It can be distressining, to see people we know apparently taking the wrong road, away from Christ, and Heaven. Only God knows their final destination; and we are right to hope, and to intercede for them; however, some people use their gift of free-will deliberately to disobey Christ, act unjustly, or ignore the teachings of the Church about charity, and penance; and, like Christ, we must accept that they have made their own choices, even foolish ones.

Just as the one way by which a person can lose weight is by eating less food, so the one way in which to emerge from spiritual and emotional unease is doing what wise people in the Church have always done: by using the Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Penance ('Confession') and Mass with Holy Communion.

A person who feels trapped in bad habits and misery is like a man in a dark hut in the middle of a snow-field; but if he uses a generator to blast hot air at the snow he can make a pathway to a warm area - just as people who use the sacraments, and prayer, can make dramatic changes, by God's grace, to their sad, guilty lives.

As we pray in the name of Christ to God our Father, the most important thing about prayer is that we approach God with hearts open to His love, willing to learn from Him, and reverent, humble, contrite and grateful. Books can be useful, if they give us words in which to clothe our thoughts, for a sincere offering to God; but books are useless, if we read to God but do so without humility, without trust, or without willingness to love, forgive and serve our neighbour.

Just as there are insects who are at home in mud and filth, content to make their way across mucky roads, so there are people who are happiest when involved in unpleasant chatter or malicious gossip. It suits their uncharitable nature; but unless they change, by the grace of Christ, they will not be able to enter Heaven - and perhaps not even Purgatory.