Daily Thoughts - 07/19/2013

Daily Thoughts: “Something greater than the temple is here.” A line from our Gospel today (Matt. 12:1-8) and we might be tempted to think it was mean only for those to whom Jesus is speaking. But it is meant for us here and now. We might not have Jesus standing in our midst but we have his Spirit with us and it is greater than any temple, any church or any cathedral. The challenge is the same for us as it was for those who gathered to listen to Jesus; we have to recognize the presence and the Spirit of God in our midst.

Jesus gives us a clue on how to make sure that we don’t miss the presence of God. The clue is to be people of mercy. People a tune to and compassionate towards the struggles, challenges, difficulties and failings of others and ourselves. People willing to help and not judge; people willing to be compassionate and not self-righteous. People willing to included not excluded.

Living life from a stance of compassion and mercy is not always easy; it can be difficult and challenging. However being a compassionate and merciful person does help us to be ready and open to encounter something greater than ourselves the presence and friendship of God.

Daily Prayer: Loving God, thank you for the abilities that you have placed in our life. Help us to acknowledge these gifts and give us the courage to develop and use them in helping to make your presence known. Help us to be merciful and compassionate people who are always aware of something greater in life. We pray this so that we may never miss the gift of your presence in our life and that we may share it with the world around us. Amen!

Runner’s Thought: When we run in a spiritual way, we are brought into the process of God-ing. Meaning as we run we are not moving toward God but interacting with God along the way. Our run becomes a direct physical, emotional and spiritual way of becoming who we are, our authentic selves. In the process we open up vast and unlimited opportunities to connect with God in new, life giving ways!

TGIF everyone! The heat is still on but here is Scranton we are weathering it as best we can. The novena continues to inspire as we make this ten day journey of faith.

I hope your week is coming to an end in a good way and that the weekend ahead will be one of fun, laughter, relaxation and rest. I know that not everyone is looking forward to the weekend, perhaps your weekend ahead looks to be a struggle. If so please know of my prayers for you. I am still taking prayers and petitions so if you haven’t sent yours in there is still time to do so.

Have a great Friday everyone, stay cool, put a smile on your face and trust that you are loved by God even in those moments of struggle. May God bless you today and always and thanks for being the person that you are because you certainly make this world a better place and life worth living! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 07/18/2013

Daily Thoughts: Sorry, I am a little late today it was a busy morning and this is the first opportunity I have had to sit down and reflect a little.

The theme of the novena here at St. Ann’s is faith and the two preachers over the first two days have asked those coming to the novena to look at their faith. The first preacher, Fr. Paul, (not me) talked about faith in terms of how important it is and the challenges that it presents to us. He focused on the difficulties people of faith have been challenged with over the years and that we continue to be challenged today. He talked about the obstacles to faith and sometimes even the harsh consequences of being a person of faith.

Our preacher today, Fr. Phil, focused more on the power of faith and even though there are obstacles, challenges and difficult consequences God is always with us, helping us even when we struggle with the obstacles and challenges.

His reflection on faith fit nicely with the Gospel today (Matt 11:28-30). Jesus reminds all of us that we should always come to him, to come to God, when we are troubled and find life burdensome and difficult. Jesus will give us comfort and rest. With Jesus, with God, the struggles, difficulties and burdens of life can easy. What makes them easy is having faith in our relationship with Jesus.

So my friends in the midst of all that the world throws at us, let us continue to walk by faith by trusting in our friendship with God!

Daily Prayer: Take, Lord, and receive all our liberty, our memory, our understanding, and our entire will, all we have and call our own. You have given all to us. To you, Lord, we return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give us only your love and your grace that is enough for us. (Adapted from St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Prayer)

Runner’s Thought: We need to always remember that there are different forms of prayer, of communication with God and that they are possible in everything we do, even when we run. So as I have often said, let us allow our run today to be a prayer – a prayer of thanksgiving, a prayer of petition or intercession, a prayer of praise, a prayer of struggle, or a prayer seeking help or perhaps just a prayer that says hello God how are you today?

Happy Thursday everyone and greetings from hot and steamy Scranton, Pa! The sun, heat and humidity are tough today. The heat and humidity was even tough last night as I went for a run around 8:30 pm. They are saying things will break sometime on Saturday but right now it is hot!

Some of you commented yesterday that you missed my usual Wednesday greeting about hump day; all I can say is that I am trying not to be so predictable. No worries we will visit with our friend the “Hump Day Camel” in the future!

Keep you petitions and prayer requests coming. I am writing them all down and bringing them with me as a wander through each day of the novena. If I haven’t responded back hang in there I will get to your comment or email. The novena is going well despite the heat, crowds are good throughout the day and the spirit is great!

Well, friends stay cool, have a great afternoon and evening. Please know as always you are in my prayers and may God bless the rest of you day, evening and night! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 07/17/2013

Daily Thoughts: Well friends the next ten days I will be coming to you from Scranton, Pa where I am helping with the St. Ann’s Solemn Novena. I was privileged today to begin the novena by celebrating the opening mass at 8:00 am. I am not preaching the novena but I preached at the mass and what follows are a few of the thoughts I shared with the faithful that gathered with us today.

I was struck by the first reading this morning (Exodus 3:1-6, 9-12). It is the story of the burning bush. What a fitting story to start the novena with. Moses encounters God and as he approaches God, God tells him that he is standing on holy ground. I thought of all the people who were in the church and out of the lawn, they had come to begin the novena, a novena that has been going on for 89 years. They like Moses had come to holy ground. Ground made holy by God’s presence.

What had they come to do on this holy ground? Well the Responsorial Psalm for mass today (Psalm 103) tells us, they came to “Bless the Lord!” They came to bless the Lord with all of their very selves. Why did they come to this holy ground to bless the Lord? Because God is merciful, compassionate, forgiving and loving. Because God offers healing and makes his ways know if we take the time to listen.

What will these people encounter because they have come to this holy ground, with the purpose of praising God with all their soul? They will encounter, they will come to know, the Father and the Son as Jesus tells us in the Gospel (Matt 11:25-27). They will come to know the loving, healing and forgiving presence of God.

These readings are not only for people in the midst of Central Pennsylvania who are beginning a journey of novena. This message is for all of us. We all stand like Moses on holy ground each day. Ground made holy by those we love. Ground made holy by people we meet. Ground made holy by us. Because we stand on holy ground we get the chance to encounter God. We get the chance to be healed, to be forgiven and to be loved. So as you journey through your day remember that where you stand is holy ground if you take the opportunity to let God speak to you, if you take the time to let God be part of your life!

Daily Prayer:  Loving God, create in us an ever-growing faith, with hearts open and centered in you. Awaken within us the fire of your Spirit, so that your love may fill us more fully, and flow throughout our lives.  

Increase within us a desire to reach out, to invite and to share, to welcome and accept. Awaken the faith of all your people, especially those who have grown distant from you, those ready to hear an invitation to the love you alone can bring.  

Awaken us, loving God, to see the fullness of your grace and peace. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Awakening Faith is a ministry of Paulist Evangelization Ministries)

Runner’s Thought: Mother Teresa saw Christ in the face of everyone she met, it is possible to conduct a run that models her behavior. So as we run, let’s place a smile on our face and thus offer a blessing to everyone we meet on our run today!

Happy Wednesday everyone! I trust were ever you are you are staying cool for the most part. They are saying at least here in Central Pennsylvania that things are going to change by Saturday with temps in the high 70’s and lows in the high 50’s. I will take that!

We are off to a good start here at the St. Ann’s Novena in Scranton, Pa. For those of you who don’t know what a novena is, it is ten days of prayer usually taking place to honor a saint of the Catholic Church. This novena is in honor of St. Ann the mother of Mar, our Blessed Mother. There are nine days of prayer before the feast day of the saint then the tenth day is the feast day. Thus we began today and we will end with the feast of St. Ann and St. Joachim on July 26^th. Now you might ask why would we have a novena to St. Ann and why do we leave out St. Joachim, her husband, until the feast day? Well that would be a very good question and my answer would be too long to put in these lines. Let’s just say that there is a long tradition of praying to God through the intercession of St. Ann here in Central Pennsylvania which dates back to the days of the coal mines.

As I said yesterday you are in my prayers in a special way during these ten days and if you have any special intentions please let me know. I have already received a few I am keeping Theresa in my prayers who is struggling with chronic back pain and Caleb a young baby who just had a heart transplant last night. He has got a long road ahead of him. Your prayers, needs, struggles and challenges are mine these days so let me know how my prayers might be of help!

Have a great day everyone! Stay cool and may this day be one of many blessings for you and those who are important in your life! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 07/16/2013

Daily Thoughts: We might say our scripture readings today are about missed opportunities. In the Gospel (Matt. 11:20-24) the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum have missed their opportunity to encounter the presence of God, they have missed their opportunity to be people of faith. In the first reading (Exodus 2:1-15a) Moses seems to miss his opportunity to play a role in God’s plan for his chosen people. Moses in placed in a great position to be able to help his people however his emotions get the best of him and he puts god’s plan in jeopardy.

I think if we all stop and think about our lives we can look at moments when we to missed opportunities. Perhaps we missed an opportunity to help another person, we missed an opportunity to be a compassionate friend, we missed an opportunity to help someone with their struggles or we missed a moment when God was truly present in our life. In looking back at our life we probably recognize many opportunities that we missed.

Now in looking back at our life we have two choices; we can choice to learn from our missed opportunities or not. In the Gospel today the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum chose not to learn from their missed opportunities. These three towns no longer exist; there are just piles of rock, archeological digs sitting in the hot sun wait for people to come and walk through them. There is no life in any of these towns today. On the other hand Moses chose to learn from his missed opportunity and he is brought back into God’s plan and the rest is history.

Our challenge today is to ask ourselves if we as individuals, as families, as communities, as Church, as cities, as nations, as a culture and society are willing to learn from our mistakes, our missed opportunities? If we chose not to our fate will be like the fate of the three towns in the Gospel. What choice will we make?

Daily Prayer: Loving God, strengthen us with the power to love through your Spirit in our inner most being. Fill our hearts with your presence and please do not leave us even when we seem to choose to go our own way. Help us to learn from our mistakes and missed opportunities so that we might grasp fully how wide and long and high and deep your love is for us. Above all, enable us to know this love that surpasses all knowledge so that we may share it with others. Amen!

Runner’s Thought: Shakespeare once wrote, “Now bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.” Jesus said, “…with God all things are possible.” Thus if we run with God then as we strive with things impossible they will become possible! Have a great run today and stay cool.

Happy Tuesday everyone! The heat is still on here in the northeast so if you are out and about be careful. A friend from Colorado posted on Facebook yesterday that it was 2:00 pm and 66 degrees where he lived. I commented that it was 4:00 pm here in New York and 94 degrees and that I was willing to send him a little of our heat. I also said I would take 66 degrees any day. So anyone out there want to trade to cool air for hot air? (Please no comments about where the hot air is coming from!)

I head to Scranton, Pa in a few hours and I will be at our Monastery and Parish there, St. Ann’s. Our long standing solemn novena to St. Ann will begin tomorrow and run ten days, nine days of novena and the celebration of St. Ann and St. Joachim’s feast on the tenth day, July 26^th. Please offer a prayer for our preachers this year Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. and Fr. Paul Wierichs, C.P., for all the Passionists who will gather to help throughout the ten day and for all the people who will come from far and near bringing their struggles, sorrows, hopes and joys. Please pray that it is a faith filled and graced time for all.

Have a great day everyone and please know as always you will be in my prayers but over the next ten days you will get special attention as I journey through the novena. If you have any specific needs or prayer requests let me know and I will include them in my daily prayers. Blessings upon all today and stay cool! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 07/15/2013

Daily Thoughts: Over the last week or so we have been reading a section of Matthew’s Gospel that seems to be a directive for discipleship. In the reading of this section of Matthew we have been told to trust in God by taking nothing with us, to depend of the hospitality of others, to offer peace and to proclaim the Kingdom. We have also been told that this journey of discipleship will not be easy. Jesus has told us we will be rejected and the peace offer will not be accepted. Today Jesus also tells us that the struggle of discipleship may even start within the family and friends that we love.

In a number of ways the picture Jesus paints of discipleship in Matthews Gospel today (Matt. 10:34-11:1) is one that seems impossible to embrace let alone live. The thought of being at odds with mother, father, sister and brother would make me wonder why I would want to journey down that road.

I think Jesus’ purpose for this instruction is simply to make it clear that if we get on broad it is not an easy ride. The journey of a disciple is not the journey of a fairy tale; it is not the journey of “happily ever after.” The journey of a disciple is a difficult road with many changes, many struggles and many difficulties. It is a journey of choices and decisions that are not always easy. Discipleship is the journey of the cross and Jesus wants those who take it up to understand the consequences along with the joys and hopes.

Today is the feast of St. Bonaventure, a doctor of the Church, a Franciscan, a philosopher, theologian and a mystic. He was a biographer of St. Francis, a contemporary of St. Thomas Aquinas, a teacher and a bishop. We might say Bonaventure was a man of many gifts and talents and what made him great was that he used these many gifts and talents to proclaim the kingdom.

Perhaps in the spirit of St. Bonaventure we might take of the challenge of discipleship focusing on the struggles and challenges that Jesus tells us in the Gospel not in a negative way but in a creative way by using our gifts and talents to proclaim the kingdom!

Daily Prayer: Compassionate God; bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, exploitation of people and the earth, so that we may strive for justice, equality and peace. Bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer, so that we will reach out our hands to comfort them and to change their pain into joy. Bless us with a foolishness to think that we can make a difference in the world, so that we will begin to do the things that others say cannot be done. Amen!

Runner’s Thought: Remember we can make our runs holy by bringing to our runs a sense of God’s presence in us.

Happy Monday everyone! I am back in Pelham for two day before heading to Scranton, PA for ten days. So today I am about doing wash, clearing my desk of paperwork that has piled up over the last week, celebrating mass for the Sisters of Charity on retreat and beginning to pack my bags once again. I am looking forward to my time in Scranton even though it will be a busy ten days.

I hope your weekend was a fruitful one and that you had some time to enjoy life. I pray that this new work week will be one gifted with many blessings. The heat seems to be on again here in the northeast. I just keep reminding myself how cold I felt last winter. I hope you have found some ways to cope with the heat and also enjoy these summer days.

I have been reflecting over the last day or so since the verdict in the Martin/Zimmerman trial came out about the many young women and men who have been killed in recent days, weeks, months and years especially by guns and yet their stories never reached the national news, their deaths were never protested, their fates never responded to be celebrities.  I pray for all young people who lives are cut short by violence. I pray for their families and friends who often must pick up the pieces by themselves. I pray for our world that somehow we will come to know that violence in not the answer.

May God’s peace be with all of you today and as Jesus tells us in the Gospel today it is a peace that we often must always look for in the midst of struggle.  Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul