Paul Spiers, a street cleaner from London, will get his donated holiday after all. The gift was recast as a competition that only he could win, so getting around the rules that forbade him to take a gift.

I know what you’re thinking. That is EXACTLY like Jesus. He was never a street sweeper who won a holiday abroad, nor did he have a passion for Elvis songs, but in every other respect the resemblance is uncanny.

https://mega.nz/file/4v8UnbbD#vhhTTOOBOSKgHq5mVgk2akGNEbr-IPfo7IIYQ2Jln5Q

And in the Big News today from a Faith Perspective, god. He’s back in fashion. For a while, the Invisible Magic Friend was relegated to the eccentric in the High Street with a billboard and a portable stereo. Or the even more eccentric who presented Thought For The Day. But now everyone is talking about the Invisible Magic Friend again. You no longer need to be embarrassed about believing in an invisible, ineffable, contrarian, contradictory, being.

Great authors, like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Camus, and me, have always stood on street corners shouting about the Invisible Magic Friend. From this privileged position I can indulge in a delicious word salad that sounds grammatically correct and is not at all gibberish. You may find its meaning ineffable, like the Invisible Magic Friend, but that is because it is so profound.

There is no other news today.

https://mega.nz/file/Q2lXyA6S#Pnzuxa7DtbqlEelRSoLyxp1PD3-WqmUk0QzzYldHqTg

And in the Big News today from a Faith Perspective, Happy Assumption of the Virgin Mary up into the sky everybody! In proper Catholic countries, like this used to be, this is celebrated properly. It definitely happened because Pope Pius XII said so in 1950.

Sceptics may question the scientific reality of this and think it’s incredible that grown ups should believe such profoundly transparent absurdities, much less go on national radio to talk seriously about it. But this is to misunderstand that it is a source of inspiration for all women. If you remain a virgin, give birth and then remain quietly in the background, then you too can be launched physically like a rocket into the sky.

There is no other news today.

https://mega.nz/file/ZqM2CZoY#5LXKnz-QYbVtqME6CO1TLlFf_46OvzkWLFoXPVCqr3k

Failings were responsible for the actions of Valdo Calocane. This is not an completely spiritual question, but it is a partially spiritual question.

Rioters using Christian imagery to promote intolerance, as if Christianity would ever be intolerant. That is a much more spiritual question.

“Christian spiritual practice INSISTS on holding everyday reality within the divine presence that eternally fills the universe with both dynamic love and seismic grief.”

My point is clear.

https://mega.nz/file/MnchzQLC#WCRKncuqi8MAYXw2fMi-GJJn93pLDKrCGmo7DsuyoVI

And in the Big News today from a Faith Perspective, Happy Anniversary of the destruction of the temple, twice, several millennia ago everybody! They were destroyed by people who worshiped the wrong god.

And Hamas and Hizbollah are just as bad. Oh and I suppose Palestinians are having a rotten time too. But they will insist on being places that were promised to the Jewish people by the Invisible Magic Friend.

In the meantime, let’s pray for peace. We’ve been praying for peace for thousands of years now, so it’s bound to come some day soon.

https://mega.nz/file/QzF2haJR#HuvZ4VIe22zpwP2g4hIALX606C9-NGu9IBElqQqhbdA