Daily Thoughts - 08/17/2013

Daily Thought: In Aramaic, the word for child, servant, and slave is the same, which reflects the cultural attitude of first-century Palestine. But Jesus says “for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” What a switch! Jesus is turning the social structure upside down! What does Jesus see that the learned and clever cannot see?

Children are vulnerable and totally dependent. Because they lack power and control, they live in trust. Relying totally on their parents, they learn and grow. This is the stance that Jesus took when he taught his disciples to pray. We need to do the same. (From Living with Christ – August 17)

Daily Prayer: Loving God, help us today and always, as Jesus said, to become a child once again. Help us to know that we are loved by you. Help us to let go of pride and pretense. Help us to trust so that we can let go of all our futile and unnecessary attempts to prove that we are worthy of your love. Let us know the humble prayer of being your much loved child. Amen!

Runner’s Thought: “Struggling and suffering are the essence of a life worth living. If you're not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you're not demanding more from yourself - expanding and learning as you go - you're choosing a numb existence. You're denying yourself an extraordinary trip.” (Dean Karnazes)

Happy Saturday everyone! It is another beautiful day here in Pelham. Around noon I will be headed to Tobyhanna, Pa for 3:15 pm Confessions and 4:00 pm Saturday Evening Mass. It will be a 230 mile round trip but I am helping our Passionist Community in Scranton, Pa with one of their Sunday calls. They are a little short of priests this weekend. Tomorrow I will rise 4:45 am so that I can get to Central Park by 6:30 am and be ready to run 20 miles by 7:00 am. So as you can see I have an interesting life if not one bordering on crazy!

I hope your weekend will be a little less crazy and busy. I hope after a week of work you are getting some time to rest and relax. I also hope it is with people that will bless your life with laughter, smiles and fun. Don’t forget to give a little time to God this weekend. Remember one hour is not a lot of time and God will appreciate hearing from you!

Blessings to all today and throughout the weekend, be safe if you are traveling and don’t forget to smile. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 08/15/2013

Daily Thoughts: As we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary today perhaps we can turn to some words by Benedict our Pope Emeritus for some faith food for thought…

“Mary is a woman who loves. How could it be otherwise? As a believer who in faith thinks with God's thoughts and wills with God's will, she cannot fail to be a woman who loves. We sense this in her quiet gestures, as recounted by the infancy narratives in the Gospel. We see it in the delicacy with which she recognizes the need of the spouses at Cana and makes it known to Jesus. We see it in the humility with which she recedes into the background during Jesus' public life, knowing that the Son must establish a new family and that the Mother's hour will come only with the Cross, which will be Jesus' true hour (cf. Jn 2:4; 13:1). When the disciples flee, Mary will remain beneath the Cross (cf. Jn 19:25-27); later, at the hour of Pentecost, it will be they who gather around her as they wait for the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).”  (Pope Benedict XVI)

Happy Feast of the Assumption of Mary everyone and may the spirit of Mary enliven your journey of faith!

Daily Prayer:

Friends as we pause for prayer today let us turn to Mary and ask for the gift of her spirit to guide our journey of faith…

Dearest Mary who carried Christ in her womb and accompanied the first steps of the Church, may you help us to place Christ and his community called church always at the center of our life and our ministry.  O Mary, who was the first and the most perfect disciple of your Son, may your spirit help us to let ourselves be loved by Christ and to follow and serve Him in every situation. Loving Mary who responded to the announcement of the Angel with the most profound humility, may your spirit help us to recognize our own inadequateness within the treasure that has been entrusted to us and to always live humbly in the presence of God. Amen!

Runner’s Thought: Remember – “Last is just the slowest winner.” (C. Hunter Boyd)

Happy Thursday everyone! It is another nice day here in Pelham, the sun is our, the humidity is low and there is a lot of energy in the air. It is the kind of day that calls to you, “Come out and play!” I hope that same is true where you are today and that you will get a little chance to go out and if not play at least take a little walk and smell the flowers. Just don’t stay inside all day!

If you didn’t catch my post yesterday there is an article about me in Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s online newsletter called “Developments.” If you would like to read it click on the link and then scroll down the page until you see my picture and then click on the article. It is nicely written and will give you some insight into yours truly!

http://mskcc.convio.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=35161.0&dlv_id=0

Well, my Pirates righted the ship last night and so all is well with the world at least for the moment. Although for my New England friends there were some anxious moments yesterday and they are probably still not breathing too well just yet! Oh the ups and downs of sports fans!

Please pray for the people of Egypt, each day, each moment things seem to get worse. While there are many opinions on why things are happening, many reasons for what is happening and many solutions on how to stop what is happen innocent people still die or have their lives shattered. The Egyptian people are wonderful people at least in my experience of them many years ago so please prayer that they might soon find peace!

My prayer for all of you is that you too find peace today as you journey through life. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

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

Daily Thoughts - 08/13/2013

Daily Thoughts: I don’t often wander into the scandals of the Church but today’s Gospel (Matt. 18:1-5, 10, 12-14) gave me pause to ponder. In Jesus’ words today we are reminded why the sexual scandals of the Church were and are so wrong. Hurting children in any way goes against all that Jesus taught. The sin that we the hierarchy of the Church continues to carry, the sin of actions and in-actions, the sin of indifference, the sin of hurt and pain, the sin of stealing innocence, the sin of not protecting, of not responding should remain with us and never leave us.

When we hear the words of today’s Gospel they should always give us pause to ponder what has been done to children in our name. These words should give us pause to ponder how our actions and in-actions as priests, deacons, bishops, cardinals and popes have led to so much hurt, pain and the loss of God’s little ones!

These words of Jesus should never be far from our thoughts and our hearts so that we will be humble people and always receive God’s children as if we are receiving God. If this is not our attitude, if this is not what drives our ministry then we should not be priests, deacons, bishops, cardinals or popes. Humility will make us people who respect not arrogance. May God and the children we have hurt forgive us and may we never let this happen again.

Daily Prayer:

O God, be merciful to us, because of your constant love. Because of your great mercy forgive us of our sins! We recognize our faults; we need to always conscious of our sins so that none of your little ones are ever lost again.

O God, create a new and pure heart in us and put a new and loyal spirit in us. Do not expel us from your presence; do not take your Holy Spirit away from us. Give us the joy that comes from your love and help us to always make the right choices in life. Loving God, be kind to us and help us to rebuild your Church. Amen! (Adapted from Psalm 51)

Runner’s Thought: “There's one rule of thumb that suggests that you need one day of recovery for every mile run in a race. Another rule of thumb...suggests one day...for every kilometer run in anger.”  (Hal Higdon)

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope your day has gotten off to a good start! Here in Pelham the clouds are hanging low and little droplets of water continue to fall and I will head out to the dentist later today so you might say, “Not such a good day!” But as they say, “Into every life a little rain must fall!”

I would like to send a shout out to my friend Newell in Denver, today is his birthday! So Happy Birthday, Old Man, many blessings today and always, and be nice to your lovely wife and anyone who comes by to help you celebrate!

To the rest of you out there in Facebook land, have a great day, stay dry, keep a smile on your face and remember you are a gift and if you share your gift you will make it possible for others to a wonderful day too! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 08/12/2103

Daily Thought: “I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

The Gospel (Matt. 17:22-27) today for the most part is a confusing one, yet I think Bonhoeffer’s reflection on a life of faith touches the spirit of today’s Gospel. We are not exempt from life, it is part of who we are. Life asks us to participate and it by faith in God that we find the way to participate, to live in this world.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Grant us, O God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.”  (Adapted from a prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas)

Runner’s Thought: “As every runner knows, running is about more than just putting one foot in front of the other; it is about our lifestyle and who we are.” (Joan Benoit Samuelson) And everybody knows, praying is about more than just saying words; it is about our relationship with God, it is about our friendship with God. So let put our friendship with God into who we are today. Let’s pray as we run!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had an enjoyable weekend and that you got a little rest and relaxation.

As for me things are quiet here in Pelham. As of Saturday morning I am the only one home at least until Tuesday. Most are on vacation, one is away involved in ministry. The humidity is still with us though they are saying things will change tomorrow and I hope they are right.

I prayed at mass today for all of you, that you would have many blessing today and throughout this week. May you find today rich in God’s grace and may your moments of struggle and difficulty be short lived. Have a great day everyone! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul