Good afternoon from Bayswater (beside Notting Hill)!

At times I wonder how I have managed to blog now for so many years but life experience seems to provide the material!

This morning’s blog is no different!! A comedy!

I was walking to Bayswater when I saw what looked like a buddist monk (a bald asian guy dressed in orange!!). I’d seen a few of them the other day stopping people so I said ‘good morning’ with a cheaky enthusiasm!

Delighted he didn’t have to make any effort to attract this potential ‘follower’ he looked at me and said that he’d give me peace!!

Great I thought, and Our Lady will give you a good dose of my peace too when I pray for you!

So I proceeded to write my name down on his list of peace-lookers when and only then did I notice that his peace came with a price!! £20 seemed to be the price of peace!

You must me kidding!

“My peace is free” I said to him and he grabbed the notebook and went away furious! You could say that the poor devil lost his peace if he ever had any to start with!

Maybe now I better understand why Our Lady appears on mountains where everybody can go and where there is no charge.

Human beings have a terrible habit of charging for everything!

I guess if I threw a white rag over me and shaved my head I too could go about charging people for my prayers but the Jesus I know doesn’t charge and so instead I model ‘Primark’s’ finest fashions and am the world’s best camouflaged missionary!!

So let us keep praying, let us keep giving, let us keep trusting and let us not fall into the traps of the world that try to turn spirituality and church into a business!

Let us pray rather than pay and let us not be foolish with our money or be deceived by money grabbing tricksters eager to manipulate us and our vulnerabilities!

Our Lady Queen of peace, pray for us (cost free!!) and bring us to your son Jesus in the eucharist who again gives Himself fully and free of charge at every eucharist through the church!

And finally, thank God for the catholic church and all the priests and missionaries who serve us and pray for us free or charge all over the world. May we never take them for granted and may we truly believe in the power of our own christian faith and not be deceived by alternative spiritualities that really have nothing to offer in comparison!

Have a great Sunday!