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A person who goes his own way, ignoring God's laws, and not caring about committing mortal sin, is like a person in a lift which is hurtling towards destruction because the cable has snapped. Unless he accepts that he is in danger, and calls for help in time, he will perish.

We must not allow shame and embarrassment to keep us from experiencing the joy of being forgiven, after Confession. It can be embarrassing to realise how engrossed we once were in our sins, just as children are engrossed in their ecstasy at the funfair, unable to pay attention to ordinary concerns. The time has come to make a careful assessment of how we spend our time, no longer engrossed in selfish pleasures.

When abortion was always a crime in English law, it was sometimes judged compassionately by those who knew of a woman's difficult circumstances, yet it was true, all the same, that a death had occurred. It is an outrage, in God's sight, that some politicians today support the killing of unborn babies, and have made it easier to do, and are applauded for it.

A person who has successfully struggled against sin or temptation might expect to feel joyful, not tearful and half-dead. Yet he is like a man who is just leaving a battlefield, who only then sees his ragged uniform, and his wounds. It takes time to recover, and to regain equilibrium.

Christ sends down new life from Heaven: the living souls of babies, which are sometimes then rejected by their own mothers, and killed in the womb by Doctors who agree with this practice. Satan boasts, as he points towards parliament, that many of it's members are as guilty as those who do abortions, since legislators voted for it to be made legal.

Every time a baby is aborted - even one as tiny as six weeks gestation - a beating heart is stopped, a living human being is snuffed out, because he or she is inconvenient or unwanted. This is not a 'bunch of cells' or a blob of tissue, but a person, who was not allowed to enter this world alive.

What must it be like for people who die, and who finally realise that Jesus is indeed the Son of God: Jesus Christ, Whom they have ignored or contradicted in their earthly lives, perhaps from ignorance? Imagine their pain, realising that they could have spent a life-time on earth indwelt by the Blessed Trinity, and living in a loving union with God.

The Lord chooses all sorts of men, to serve as priests. They bring their own weaknesses with them. The sacraments they confer are valid, despite their sins; yet priests are sometimes mistaken in their personal opinions. The best priests are those who believe in all that the Church teaches, lead humble and chaste lives, fervent in love for the Saviour and His Church, and charitable towards everyone, though unafraid to speak the truth, in charity.

God is so great and good that He sometimes gives extraordinary gifts to people, in earthly life, so that they can do His Work in times of special difficulty, or undertake more swiftly a tremendous task. Just as an artist sees colours that others do not see, a person gifted by God can discern graces in souls, or evil forces, that others do not see.

God the Father is Law-Giver and Judge of all. With His Son and Spirit, He shines the light of Heaven upon earth. God will separate the good from the wicked at the end of time; wise people turn their hearts to God and ask Him to change and transform them now.

This is what Christ sees all the time, from Heaven above: people walking steadily towards Hell, people who have refused to listen to Him, refused to give up all their sins - particularly grave sexual sins which they could abandon, by His grace, if they were willing.

It pleases Christ whenever people make known the times of Mass - including the times of Masses in the Extraordinary Form, which are hugely esteemed by Christ for their phrasing, theology and reverence.

Christ wants His followers to go on retreats and pilgrimages, to set a good example to other people, to draw inspiration from the example and witness of other faithful followers of Christ, to enjoy their fellowship and other blessings, especially extra time for prayer.

We are engaged in spiritual warfare. When a general in the army chooses a soldier for a special mission he does not choose the tallest man, or the most handsome, but the one most likely to persevere through every difficulty; and Christ, in choosing a person for specially-needed tasks in different times, might choose not a theologian or a public-speaker, but a lay-person with experience in fighting a determined enemy.

What counts in a marriage is for each spouse to be willing to forgive the other, just as Christ has forgiven each of them - despite times when one is upset by the other's faults, or even outraged. By the grace of Christ, forgiveness is possible.

When people are poorly-instructed about reverence, and when a church has few signs and images that indicate it is a sacred place, the faithful sometimes act, for a Mass, as if at a rally or a pop-concert. Even if a few pictures of the Saints are then put up around the walls, this is as effective as sticking a small plaster in a big wound. Change comes from clear instruction; and from effective signs of decoration at the entrance.

Low-cut necklines are so common-place that Christian women are sometimes slow to realise the importance of modesty. This requires a careful and sensible attitude to clothing, so that no immodest garments make life more difficult for men to be chaste. All immodest clothing should be altered or thrown away - and certainly not given away, for other people to wear it.

Christ looks on with deepest sympathy and concern when He sees even Catholics failing sometimes to make arrangements so that disabled persons can be included in their outings. It is not possible to make every place accessible, but it is possible to keep people company, and not ignore them.

Wherever Catholics live out their faith with goodness and conviction, they have an effect upon their culture, as Catholics have since the earliest times. The Bishops hand on the truth from Jesus Christ, people are forgiven and transformed, freed from superstition, men and women are equal in marriage, the sick are cherished and not rejected, prisoners receive justice, little girls are educated, children are valued, even the unborn, the arts flourish - art, architecture, music and scholarship - and the Saints set an unparalleled example of goodness, in all sorts of ways.

We are on a long climb, as if up a rope, on a cliff-face, in our efforts to reach Heaven in a state of holiness. We sometimes grow weary. We are in pain, or tempted to let go of the rope to enjoy some freedom from our daily routine of service. If we really let go - by deliberate mortal sin - we are doomed, except for a miracle. By faith and prayer, we can persevere to the top.