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It is the Will of God that we have beautiful imagery in church to inspire us; but He also wants us to have beautiful altar frontals, furnishings, chalices, chasubles, and decorative motifs. Everything should give glory to God, Whose house of prayer we have entered, and should remind us that we are on the threshold of Heaven, with the Angels.

The problem at the heart of many modern tragedies is that a person refuses to love his neighbour. This is true, whether soldiers burn the crops of terrified people, or healthy people treat the sick as a nuisance, or someone sets out with deliberate plans to make a person miserable. People who do such things ignore God's wishes. We need to examine our true intentions.

Are we handing on the Faith? Christ asks us to teach the Faith to our children. If we do that, we share a priceless gift, but also strengthen the family, which is precious. A family replicates the life of God. It is important for us to know how to live, and how to love with Divine charity, so that we will all be saved.

Whenever we make new efforts to be more attentive to Christ's wishes, and more vigilant about our sins and failings, we come to prayer in a new closeness to Christ; even if we neither see nor feel this, it's as if the 'wall' that seems to separate Heaven from earth has been torn open, and Christ gazes down with joy and gratitude, because He is loved.

When people think about the subject of death, many speak about accidents. Yet God in His Providence decides the length of each person's life on earth. As a farmer sows the seed, and harvests the crop when it is ready, so God brings His friends home to Heaven when their work is done.

What counts above all, in our lives, is love: love for God, and for our neighbour for God's sake. As God the Father looks down from Heaven, it's as if He sees a light shining wherever a person lives to do the Will of God, which means to believe in Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, and to follow His Way. Whatever such a person does is pleasing to God, if it is not sinful; so, although that person is called to do one task not another, he should not be anxious as he tries to discern precisely what to do next. He gives joy to God by living in a state of grace.

The state of soul of a faithful person is peaceful at its heart - like that of a man who drifts along a calm river until he is lifted up by Christ at the moment of death. But one who had chosen to avoid Christ and His Will follows a stormy route, interiorly - as if on a raging river; and unless he repents, he is hurled, when he dies, into the Abyss.

A person who tries to do God's Will but who cannot see exactly where God is leading him must not give up hope. Even in semi-darkness he can still move forward. As long as he is surviving, his state must not worry him. All will be well, and will become clearer, at a time that God decrees.

It is tragic, that a human being can arrive at great old age - as if on a pinnacle, after a lengthy life on earth - without having given any thought to God. What a shock such a person has, if she dies in such a state, having been devoted to her own pleasure, and sees that she has spent an entire life without praising or thanking God, or doing His Will.

In our country, in a supposedly civilised part of the world, hundreds of babies a day are being slaughtered. That is what Christ has to watch, just as He watches those who want to defend the practice. Other people want to defend their clinics and their income; but Christ is determined to bring about change, and banish this horrible destruction.

If we lead a life free from sin, by co-operation with God's grace, and we avoid deliberate distractions in our prayer, it's as if we stand and pray before Heaven in a tunnel of light. Divine grace pours upon us, increasing both our desire for wisdom and understanding and our ability to do God's Will in every circumstance.

Christ resembles His Mother: His only human parent; yet the Blessed Virgin Mary resembles her own son, through having been made holy by Him in His Godhead at her Immaculate Conception, and through having carried the Divine Child in her womb until His birth in Bethlehem. She was a marvel of holiness in earthly life, through her extraordinary intimacy with her son, and her total surrender to the Father's Will. She radiated from within herself the holiness of which her son was the living embodiment. She was 'transparent', like a lamp.

There are people who lead outwardly respectable lives but who are half-way to Hell, God sees, because of their disbelief, and their deliberate refusal to lead good lives in obedience to His laws of morality. Unless they repent before they die, they will fall into the bottomless pit, which represents eternal alienation from God chosen by the wicked.

We learned that God's presence was experienced long ago amidst thunder and fire, on Sinai. People today who live in serious sin and are afraid of God, feel as though He is a God of terror and fire. All who have been purified in Baptism - or, later, in Reconciliation - can realise that God is love: a tender love, in which He enfolds those who trust in Him and strive to do His Will. Their souls are at peace.

By humility we can advance in holiness. No matter what way of life we believe the Lord calls us to, we sometimes act like the man in Christ's Gospel story. We might assure Christ that we will obey Him, yet then walk away, or we might refuse to serve - then regret our decision, and come back, contrite, like the man who returned, as Christ said, to do his father's will. Whoever returns like this gives joy to Christ, and follows the right path.

Everything that happens on earth has been planned, permitted or chosen by God. Yet God's gift to everyone in His plan of salvation, and to everyone on earth, is freedom. Whoever serves Him does so having freely chosen to do so. God coerces no-one, not even the Mother of His own Son, Jesus Christ. If we look past the figures of Christ and Our Lady, to whom we pray so often, and approach the Invisible Father, we can remember: a wise person is one who chooses Life.

All who do the Will of God will act justly. His Will has been made known fully through Jesus Christ Who was sent to us from Heaven. If we disobey the laws of God and the will of Christ in attempts to promote what we call 'justice' we in fact promote things that are unwise or unjust, even if doing so through ignorance or fear, for example, trying to cure poverty by offering abortions.

We must take care not to halt the action of God in our lives. When a person refuses to do the plain Will of God, shown out in the constant teaching of the Church, it's as though she places a cloth on the ground, saying to God: 'This little enclave is yours. Don't come into my life any more. The rest of this area is mine". It is impossible for God to use people for great works who refuse to do the ordinary works.

We are wasting time if we spend time grumbling instead of offering thanks. If we grumble, we feed our discontent, perhaps about our everyday duties, about the decisions of the priest, or about the dryness of our prayer. How can we pray without ceasing, with thankful hearts, if we cannot accept the Will of God in our lives (though this does not mean that we should be silent in the face of evil)?

We should try to do everything calmly, trusting in God. If we rush and fuss, as we go about our ordinary activities, we are likely to trip up and make mistakes; and so it is in the spiritual life. If we try to rush ahead, unwilling to do God's Will carefully, and with patience, we are liable to make mistakes, to trip up and make silly decisions.