Daily Thoughts - 08/14/2013

Daily Thoughts: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20) Perhaps said a little differently by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Where a people prays, there is the church; and where the church is; there is never loneliness.”

The focus of the Gospel today (Matt. 18: 15-20) is church. It is a community gathered in God’s presence. In that presence we can seek help, we can deal with struggles, we can get to the truth. In that presence we are never along.

While some might hear the word church and think building or institution, church is really people, Church is community. Church is the presence of God made visible by the gathering of two or three in God’s name!

Daily Prayer:

Loving God, for this reason we come before you, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its name. We pray that out of your glorious riches you will strengthen us with power through your Spirit in our inner most being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. And we pray that we, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.

Now to you, our God, who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to your power that is at work within us, to you, our God, be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Adapted from the words of St. Paul Letter to the Ephesians)

Runner’s Thought: “Poetry, music, forests, oceans, solitude, [prayer]--they were what developed enormous spiritual strength. I came to realize that spirit, as much or more than physical conditioning, had to be stored up before a race.” (Herb Elliott) And we might add after “race” and “the living of life!”

Happy Hump Day everyone! My “Hump Day” camel friend is currently on vacation but we can celebrate mid-week day just the same. I hope your Wednesday has started out well. It is a beautiful day here in Pelham. What would make it a perfect day is if my Pirates could get back on track this evening with a victory!

Enjoy your “Hump Day” wherever you are and in whatever you are doing. And if things aren’t going so well today remember this, “every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing” (Mother Teresa). So just smile and share the gift you are! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul