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The Lord showed me His torn flesh, and said: It is the same work, beating a human being to a bloody pulp, and tearing an infant, limb from limb, in the womb. The same hard-heartedness enables people to do such things or allow someone else to do them - especially if they don't see the results of their actions.

The Lord showed me His torn flesh, and said: It is the same work, beating a human being to a bloody pulp, and tearing an infant, limb from limb, in the womb. The same hard-heartedness enables people to do such things or allow someone else to do them - especially if they don't see the results of their actions.

Even as we pray to Christ, offering our lives in His service and praying for help in our need, we can be certain that He is holding us, and all our concerns, close to His heart. Indeed, He is holding us in existence; and all that concerns us - life, family, work, friends, prayer, struggles, church - is of concern to Him too.

If we visit the sick, we please Christ. In the Gospel story, the King at the Last Judgement praised those who had visited the sick, visited people in prison, or had carried out other works of mercy.

Christians live in the light, knowing that the prayers offered by the Church - and individual Christians - are worthy of being heard, because they are offered with and through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Through our union with Christ, and the power of His saving Work, made present at every Mass, we can be confident that our praise is acceptable to the Father.

What a lot of work must be done by a newly-converted soul who wants to make progress in the spiritual life, and please God by every thought, word and deed. A convert's penances, prayers and mortifications are like the hard work a gardener does, who clears the ground around a new plant, and prunes it, to make it grow strong and true.

Here, now, today, we are present to Calvary's Sacrifice. Christ, Really Present, prays to the Father for sinners today, just as He did on Calvary; and we can unite our prayers and works and sufferings with His, to the Father.

When there has been a death, or a tragedy for the nation, it is important that all who mourn, or work for justice, or show sympathy for others, or demonstrate for change, open their hearts to the influence of the Holy Spirit, and refuse entry to the spirit of hatred, lies and malice which is Satan.

People who persist in sin, and 'drown', are doomed souls 'lost' in the ocean, and utterly lacking the grace of God which is life. Yet they will rise up at the end of time, for the Last Judgement, when the justice of God will be revealed, as well as His marvellous work of salvation.

If we are tempted to be proud or self-satisfied, seeing the good work we achieve for God, we need only remember Christ's Passion, by which He won for us all the graces we enjoy, and the blessings of the spiritual life, and we shall be able to serve Him as He deserves, in humility and gratitude.

There was a scene of horror in the film 'Zorro'; yet The Lord showed me that the horrors of Hell surpass all the horrors of those earthly mines, where brutal slave-drivers force the workers to dig and sweat in unbearable conditions, in deep caverns beneath the surface. The demons are the slave-drivers in Hell.

By offering up our pains and unavoidable sufferings in union with Christ in His Passion we join in His redeeming work in our generation and bring powerful help to needy souls caught in sin, sadness or near-despair.

It is sensible to prepare and plan before Sunday arrives. Christ asks us to remember that Sunday is a day of rest. We should remember that it is the Lord's Day: the Christian Sabbath. Praise and thanks should be foremost in our minds, but we are wise to have some leisure, refreshment, celebration, and rest, to show out our gratitude and to fulfil God's plans for our lives. He wants us to enjoy good things, as well as to be conscientious at work during the week.

It is the Will of Christ that we treat Sunday as a holy day and a day of rest. It delights Him to see us rest from our labours and to enjoy good things that we don't have time for on normal work-days.

Christ asks us not to allow ourselves to become distressed, whilst praying at Mass, about inaudible readings or the immodest clothing of ministers of Communion. We should rejoice in His Real Presence in the tabernacle and, later, on the altar; it is normally later that we should speak about or work to change whatever is unworthy of God's house.

Christ pointed out two groups of people who are unlikely to go to Heaven: those who commit serious sin, yet have no fear of death, no desire to change, and are blithely determined to stay the same; and those who would like to go to Heaven but make no effort to co-operate with Christ, or to pray or do works of charity.

When a person repents of serious sin, and is reconciled with God, his Father and Creator, it is as marvellous as a raising-from-the-dead miracle worked by Elijah and by Jesus. That soul, in an instant, can rise up by the Spirit's power, in prayer, in the freedom and joy of a fervent child of God.

We need to be 'washed' before we work for others. Christ's main message for His disciples to share, and for us to follow, is about repentance. Unless we are reconciled to God, we cannot do good work for God in the world. It is foolish to try to 'save the planet' if we have not taken steps to accept salvation from God. A cookery teacher who never washes her hands before class will probably poison as many pupils as she feeds.

To be beset by spiritual assaults in prayer or 'outside' it is like being in a war-zone, amidst sniper-fire, in a street littered with broken glass. We can retreat to a side-street for a few moments; but if we want to win the war we must be courageous, and trust God, and continue with our prayer and our work.

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.