You can hear Pope Francis’ voice in the
first reading for today’s mass (1Timothy 6: 2c-12). If fact we have been
hearing his voice through our reading of Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. Paul
and Pope Francis are telling us what it takes to be a good leader, a good
minister, a good person of faith. Today, Paul remains Timothy to be a person
that lives for something important and life giving. Paul also reminds Timothy
to always reflect on what is holding him back from living to the fullest.
In perhaps a similar way we hear Pope
Francis’ voice in the Gospel for today (Luke 8:1-3) also. We are reminded of
the importance of women in Jesus’ ministry. They were their supporting, taking
care of, helping Jesus with their resources, their gifts, their talents, their
faithfulness and their faith.
I don’t think hearing Pope Francis voice
in the scriptures is going to be all the unusual in the days, weeks, months and
years ahead. He speaks from the scriptures more than any other Pope I have
encountered and so each time we go to the Gospels, each time we hear the
scriptures read or read them for ourselves, we will hear God’s voice, Jesus’
voice, the Spirit’s voice and Pope Francis’ voice! Because of that I will
continue to look forward to the Word of God each day.
Make sure you know what you are living
for and what at time hold you back from living fully. Friday blessing everyone!
Daily Prayer: Loving God help
us to be grateful today. Help us to recognize your love in everything you have given
us, because we know, we believe that you have has given us everything. Every
breath we draw is a gift of your love, every moment of existence is a grace, because
it brings with it immense graces from you.
Gracious God, in gratitude we must never
take anything for granted. We must never be unresponsive to your love. We must constantly be awakening to new wonder
and giving praise for your awesome goodness. We want to be grateful people
because we know that a grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay
but by experience. And this is what makes all the difference. Amen!
(Adapted
from words by Thomas Merton)
Runner’s Thought: “Finally, I
could see with startling clarity that the time I had spent experiencing pain on
a run was outweighed by the amount of time that I felt good about it. I was
aglow. I was invincible. I was thinking I might be able to do it again.” (Alexandra Heminsley – Running Like a Girl)
Might we also say this about our faith,
our relationship with God? Yes, we do experience pain, struggle, doubt and
difficulty but they call can be outweighed by the grace, the blessings and the
joy we encounter with God. In the glow of God we become aglow, we become
invincible, we want to continue the journey. So if you are a runner think of
your runs as those times when we have a chance to get some clarity in our
relationship with God. When we have some time to pray, when we have a chance
even in the exhaustion of the end of a run to feel aglow in the presence of
God, to feel invincible and to continue our journey of faith!
Run strong…run with God!
Daily Blessing: TGIF everyone! I
hope your Friday has started off well and that today will be a somewhat easy
day for you. If not and you have many challenges and/or struggles ahead before
the day is done hang in there and know of my prayers for you. Remember it is
only a day there is a lifetime ahead!
For all of you I offer a prayer of blessing
as your journey through this day. May whatever kind of roads you take today be smooth
and not crowded for your journeys, may the wind be gentle and always helping
you along, may the sun shine warm upon your face helping you to smile, and if
it rains may it fall gentle as you journey and, until the sun rises again tomorrow,
may God hold you and all you whom you love in the palm of His hand so nothing will
harm you. Amen! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul
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