Daily Thoughts - 01/18/2014

Daily Thoughts: Good Morning friends, I hope you are rising to a wonderful Saturday in your life! Today is a travel day for me as I am headed to San Antonio, TX via a very short say in Charlotte, NC. I will be in San Antonio from today until next Saturday. I will be giving a retreat to a group of Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate at the Oblate Renewal Center in San Antonio. The retreat runs from Monday until Friday. I am looking forward to the retreat but I am also very nervous – prayers would be appreciated!

You probably will only hear from me off and on this week as my full attention will be given to the retreat. When I get a chance to share a few thoughts or a prayer I will.

As I celebrate this week of retreat with the Oblates I will hold all of you in my prayers hoping that your week goes well and is filled with many graces and blessings that will help you and that you will also share with others!

Have a great Saturday everyone – I pray you will get a little time from the busyness of life to rest, relax and just enjoy life. May your team win this weekend and may you be rich in the gift of family and friends. Many blessing everyone and the next time you hear from me hopefully I will be in warm sunny San Antonio! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 01/16/2014

Daily Thoughts: In today’s Gospel (Mark 1: 40-45) Jesus encounters a person with leprosy and the following exchange takes place. "If you wish, you can make me clean. Jesus was moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched the leper and said to him, I do will it. Be made clean. And the leprosy left him immediately."

In my reflections on this Gospel I think the key elements of this story are the person's faith in Jesus and the willingness of Jesus to heal and to touch. Maybe the most important element is Jesus' touch, his willingness to be connected with someone who is unclean by the standards of culture, society and religion.

Today whether we are talking about our culture, society or even our church the usual response is to disconnect ourselves from someone defined as unclean. Yet, Jesus sought to be connected. He did not want to push them away from the community but to bring them into the community.

Jesus reaches out to one who has been pushed out of the community. It is a profound moment; it is a challenge to all of us who proclaim we believe. Do we wish – do we will – that all belong to the community no matter what? Jesus does and he was willing to step across a boundary to make sure that it happens. Are we?

Perhaps it is a commitment to prayer that will help us to, wish it and will it. It is through prayer, our conversation with God, that we will find the strength to walk with Jesus across the boundaries imposed and bring others to the community, to friendship with God!

Give a little time to God today – say a prayer – talk with God. Have a great Thursday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, help us today so that we will not be people with hardened hearts but people with compassionate hearts. Help us to be people willing to reach out across the boundaries of life that all might have the opportunity to be part of you community of faith. Enliven us that we will always hear your word with an open mind and an open heart! Amen!

Runner's Thought: Think of every run as an opportunity to be born again. Let each run refresh your body and renew your spirit and bring you into God's Presence once again!

Daily Blessing: Happy Thursday everyone! In my life this has been a rather quick week. On Saturday I will head out to San Antonio. It will be the beginning of a long stretch on ministry that will almost be continuous until Palm Sunday. Sometimes these days my life seems all or nothing. It would be nice to have a little more balance.

I hope your week is going well and that your life is in a little more balance than mine. I pray that you feel supported by God and have encountered the presence of God throughout your journey of life this week. As always I pray for God’s blessings upon all of us today that whether in balance or not we may find the gift of God’s touch in our lives; the touch of healing if we need it, but most importantly the touch of love to carry us through the day. Have a great day everyone. Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 01/15/2014

Daily Thoughts: There are two things that I draw from today’s readings, (Gospel Mark 1: 29-29 and First Reading 1 Samuel 3: 1-10, 19-20).

The first is that we never know when we will be called. At first we run to an obvious person, place or situation thinking that is where the call came from but if we really stop and listen often the call comes from God.

The second thought is about the need for healing. Healing and casting out demons, seem to be the work of the day for Jesus. I was thinking of another line in the Gospel as I read this Gospel passage at mass this morning. The line I thought of was, "The poor you will always have with you." (Matthew 26:11 and Mark 14:7) I thought Jesus could have easily said, "The sick and demons you will always have with you!"

There is always healing that needs to be done, people struggling physically, emotionally and spiritually. Sometimes when I am day dreaming I wish Jesus would walk into our midst and begin to heal or that he would give me the temporary power to heal because there are some many people who could use it!

And demons, they seem to be everywhere these days, if only Jesus were here to cast them out what a different place the world could be. It amazes me that the demons always seem to know Jesus and yet often the people in his presence don't.

Yet, there is another Gospel passage that also comes to mind, "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him." (Mark 11:23) In other words the power to heal and cast out demons is here we have just got to believe and not doubt.

So remember as you go through this day, God just might be calling so be listening and the "force," the power, the presence of Jesus is always with us to heal and to cast out demons we just have to believe!

I have a great Wednesday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, we are a struggling people, we want to believe, we want to hear and respond to your call. Help us to be your servant who listens and grace us with faith so that in our moments of unbelief we might truly bring your healing presence to all who need it in this world. Amen!

Runner's Thought: As you run today remember that running is something that only you can do, no one can do it for you.  So make it part of your faith take God with you!

Daily Blessing: Happy Hump Day everyone! I hope you have settled into the journey of this week and that things are going well. For me today is not so much “Hump Day” but “Fast Day” as I am fasting every Wednesday this year to keep me more aware of the people in our world that go without food each day. My “Fast Day” is a choice but many in our world have no choice and they suffer from and struggle with the pains of hunger. May we someday be a world who provides for all!

My simple prayer of blessing today is that God will bless all our endeavors, all our interactions, all of our challenges, all of our travels, all of our meetings, all of our ordinary tasks, all of our relationship, all whom we love and us. May we bring the gift of God to our world today! Have a great day everyone! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 01/14/2014

Daily Thoughts: That day in Capernaum, which we hear about in today's Gospel, (Mark 1: 21-28), Jesus taught as one having authority, in fact he taught every day that way. Perhaps that is the problem today that often those teaching really do not teach with authority. They think they do but they don't.

Authority comes from living an authentic life. We cannot say one thing and then do another and expect to have authority. We cannot say life is important and then only value life at the time of birth. We cannot say children, women and men are created in the image and likeness of God and then protect people who hurt them. We cannot talk about freedom and then limit it for certain people. We cannot talk about shepherding and service then live as one who is privileged and entitled. We cannot say human life is most important and then treat inanimate objects with more reverence than people. We cannot say community is important and then restrict the participation of the community.

In the Gospel we are reminded that Jesus lived an authentic life. A life focused on others, a life of authority! We long for teaching with authority today but everywhere we turn it seems to be missing. Jesus knew what he was talking about. He knew that people were more important than things. He knew that boundaries could be crossed if it meant life. He knew that people were more important than ritual, dress and mystery.  Jesus offered all who listened to him the chance to allow God to change and shape their hearts into a new way of life. If we listen to Jesus and follow his way we will come to know true authority, we will come to live an authentic life!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, your gift of courage is one of the greatest favors you have given us. It would be wrong for us to behave like cowards or to fear anything except not being true to you. So once again grant us the courage to live authentic lives that reflect your greatest gift to us, Love! Bestow on us this day your kindness and peace that we might bring them to all we meet! Amen!

(Note: I adapted part of this prayer from the words of St. Teresa of Avila)

Runner's Thought: As you run today take with you whatever image of God that is most important to you and allow that image to accompany you on your run.

Runner's Thought 2: As you run today look for goodness in everyone you encounter. Look for goodness in yourself!

Daily Blessing: Tuesday greetings to everyone. I hope your Tuesday has started off well and if not I pray that it will get better as the day goes on. We seem to have settled into, at least for the moment, uneventful winter days. Yet, I know these moderate temperatures will not go on forever and there will still be challenges ahead, however it is nice to just be in winter for a few moments! I hope you are making it through these winter days and finding a little calm and peace at the moment.

My prayer of blessing for us today is a simple litany asking God help us along the way – Loving God, we pray for your blessing today in the midst of our busy life. If we find ourselves under the weather touch us with your healing presence. If we are busy guide us to a moment of peace. If we are frustrated grace us with an acknowledgement of the gift that you are. If we find ourselves angry today help us to let it go. If we find ourselves alone embrace us so that we know that are not. O God, bless us with what we need to live our life this day! Have a great Tuesday everyone. Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 01/13/2014

Daily Thoughts: We have closed the Christmas Season with yesterday's celebration of the Baptism of the Lord and today we enter into Ordinary Time. We get a chance to take a breath and relax a little before entering the Season of Lent or do we?

Sometimes I think when it comes to our relationship with God, there is no relaxing, there is no taking a breath, it is always full steam ahead. There is always a new challenge, a new way to live life. We certainly see that in the Gospel today!

The fishermen from Galilee get no chance to rest, a new life awaits them. They think they are settled into the ordinary life but Jesus has something else planned for them. They think this is just another ordinary day but Jesus makes it special.

In the Gospel today, (Mark 1: 14-20), we witness the beginning of some wonderful friendships. Simon, soon to be called Peter, his brother Andrew, James and his brother John, the two sons of Zebedee, all begin the journey of friendship, discipleship, with Jesus today. They each receives a simple invitation to "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of [people]."  To follow Jesus and if they do he will change their life. The change is not simple going for fishers of fish to fishers of people; the change is becoming a friend of Jesus, which always changes life.

Each morning we arise, whether in ordinary or special time we are offered the same invitation to friendship with Jesus that Simon, Andrew, James and John are offered. We are offered the same opportunity to change our life. The question is like Simon, Andrew, James and John are we willing to accept it?

Have a great Monday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, grant us the grace to recognize you today as you pass by and the wisdom to say yes to your invitation to follow. May your invitation lead to friendship with you, newness of life and your gift of love. Help us with the strength to accept the challenge of conversion of heart and to believe in the Good News and proclaim it to all we meet by the living of life! Amen!

Runner's Thought: Make your run today a time of prayer, let go of the music, let go problems to be solved, let go of the decisions to be made and let God!

Daily Blessing: Greetings everyone, welcome to the first week of Ordinary Time! The Christmas Season is officially over at least liturgically. Hope you had a good weekend and that your team or teams won in various sports over the weekend. I hope your favorite actress, actor, television show and movie won a Golden Globe last night. We might say we had a busy weekend of sports and awards and just think the Olympics will be upon us soon!  

I pray that you are rested and ready for all this new week will bring into your life? If not I hope today will not be too difficult for you so that you can get your feet on the ground for the rest of the week. My prayers are will all who struggling with the flu and winter colds at this time may you find good health quickly. I pray for God’s Blessings upon all of us that we will have a great week! One that is rich in the presence and friendship of God. Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul