Daily Thoughts - 07/12/2014

Daily Thoughts: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Here I am, send me!” In today first reading we have the call of Isaiah the prophet and the all too familiar words, “Here I am!” Isaiah’s vision enlivened his spirit and strengthened his faith to the point of accepting God’s call to serve. He sensed his own sinfulness but also realized God’s presence in his life.

Isaiah embraced the spirit of Jesus’ words in the Gospel this morning that he was important to God. God knew everything about him, all the hairs on his head. Isaiah knew that God valued him far more than a couple of sparrows. With this understanding, with this knowledge of God Isaiah was able to move forward, to volunteer for the journey of a life time.

Perhaps the challenge of our scriptures today is to look at our own life, to acknowledge our own sinfulness but to trust in the presence, the care and the love of God and move forward, to volunteer for the journey of a life time with God.

Yes, there is an evil one lurking out there ready to calm our body and soul but we must trust in God’s care, concern and love to guide us through the challenges and the struggles that come our way. We need to trust that we, like Isaiah, are important to God.

As we journey through this day let is ask God for the strength to believe more deeply in God’s love for us so that we can live more peacefully in God’s presence around us!

Have a great day everyone and don’t forget to make a joyful noise with your life today!

Daily Prayer: O God, here I am, your child, at your disposal. Use me to continue your loving presence in the world, by giving Jesus to me and through me, to each person I meet and to the world. Let us pray for each other that we allow Jesus to love in us and through us with the love with which his Father loves us. Bless us with the Spirit’s grace in us and through us so that we may be your loving presence in the world today! Amen! (Adapted from a prayer by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “When you have the enthusiasm and the passion, you end up figuring how to excel.” (Deena Kastor)

So to in the spiritual life…

Daily Blessing: Saturday blessings to everyone! I hope your day has started off well. I am finishing up my week here at Sacred Heart in Mount Holly, NJ today and I will be heading home tomorrow but just for a few days. I will head out again on Wednesday for Scranton, PA. It was very nice being here this week and sharing these beautiful days of July with the faith community here at Sacred Heart. I pray that they may continue to grow is the Spirit of God that is so live here!

My prayer of blessing for all of you today is that your day will be blessed with the joy and peace of a summer’s day. That today will find you rich in family, friends and joy that they bring. That you will be graced with rest, relaxation, fun, laughter and peace. That you will notice God’s loving presence all around you and fine hope and joy within that presence. Have a great day everyone and don’t forget to give God a little time this weekend and as always make a joyful noise with your life today! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 07/11/2014

Daily Thoughts: “For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” There is great comfort in these words from the Gospel today especially for some like me, a preacher. However they are words that are also demanding. They demand dependence not independence. They demand dependence on God, a willingness to let go and let God.

This has been an ongoing theme in our scriptures this week. We have been reminded of God’s unrelenting, unconditional love for Israel through the prophet Hosea. We have been told of the great power that the disciples have been given in order to proclaim the Kingdom of God in the Gospel. And we have been directed in many different ways through the responsorial psalm that our focus in life should always be God.

Thomas Merton wrote, “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” Both Hosea and Jesus remind us today of exactly the same thing. It is through the courage of our friendship with God that we will always be able to bring the Kingdom of God to each moment of life.

So as we make our way through this day let us have the courage to let go and let God because we trust in God’s unrelenting love for us, a love that impels us to proclaim the Kingdom of God because the Spirit of God speaks through us!

Have a great day everyone and don’t forget to make a joyful noise with your life today!

Daily Prayer: Gracious and holy God, give us wisdom to perceive you, intelligence to understand you, diligence to seek you, patience to wait for you, eyes to behold you, a heart to meditate on you, and a life to proclaim you, through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen! (St. Benedict)

A Runner’s Thoughts: There is something magical about running; after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul.  (Kristin Armstrong)

So to in the spiritual life…

Daily Blessing: Happy Friday everyone! As we get near noon time I hope and pray everyone is having a good day.

If you are traveling today please travel safe. If you are working I hope it is a light and easy day for you. If you are at home I hope you are enjoying a little peace and quiet or the gift of family. If you are a mother waiting to bring life into the world (Sarah and Theresa), I hope it is not a too uncomfortable day and that all is going well. If you are a father waiting to bring life into the world (Dominick and Jason) relax your wife has it under control. If you are on vacation I hope it is a lazy day full of joy, fun and relaxation. If you are worried about others may those worries be held in God’s compassionate hands. If you are struggling with life may you find the strength to keep going. If you are find faith difficult may you know that God loves you. In other words I hope everyone is having a day richly blessed by God!

May God bless the gift that you are today wherever you share your gift, with whomever you share your gift. May you be blessed with faith, hope, joy and love throughout this day and always! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 07/10/2014

Daily Thoughts: I had two thoughts after spending some time with the readings for today. The first was that of God’s unconditional, unrelenting love. In the first reading from Hosea, God knows that the Israelites are not faithful and that they have chosen to buy into the culture around them. However, God is not going to give up on them. God is going to remain faith.

My second thought is that Jesus is also teaching his disciples about God’s unconditional and unrelenting love but in a different way. Jesus sends the disciples out to proclaim the Kingdom of God giving them great powers but also asking them to be dependent. They are not to take what a usual traveler should take. They are to be dependent on the people and place that they go. They are to let God take care of the problems that they may face. Jesus asks his disciple to depend on God in their ministry.

Our two reading remind us that God is in this journey of life for the long haul. God will be with us through the journey and if we are faithful God will take care of the struggles, not always in our time but in God’s time. All we have to do is trust in the presence and love of God. If we do this our presence life will give way to the fullness of a life that will never end!

The Kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the Gospel! Have a great afternoon and evening everyone and don’t forget to make a joyful noise with your life today!

Today’sreadings - http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071014.cfm

Daily Prayer: O God, thank you for your unconditional, your unrelenting love. Thank you for the people in our life. Thank you for those who care about us. Thank you for those we love. Thank you for the angels that touch our lives and help us to realize just how special life is. Thank you for the friends who make life so interesting. Thank you for the many extraordinary, wonderful, awesome and marvelous people, places and experiences that you have given us. Help us never to forget them and always to remember how gifted our life is because of your love for us! Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: Remember it is possible to begin a meditation run simply by stepping onto the pavement and putting one foot in front of the other. In fact, the simplicity of this is one of the great joys of running. No elaborate gear, accessories, or training are required. We can simply step into the run and see what unfold, see how God is present in our life today! (Adapted from Roger Joslin – Running the Spiritual Path)

Daily Blessing: Happy Thursday afternoon everyone! I hope your day and your week are going well, if not as always please know of my prayers for each for you. Hopefully they will be of a little help to whatever life is throwing at you these days. Remember if people, a place or an experience gives you trouble just shake their dust from your feet and God will take care of the rest.

My time here at Sacred Heart continues to go well. It is nice to spend a little time as a parish priest. It gives me great respect for what they do. I have been to the hospital a few times and it is nice to celebrate Eucharist with the same community of people each morning. I am also able to catch up on some paper work and prepare some things for later this summer.

My prayer of blessing for all of you this afternoon is that you are able to stay cool, dry and hopefully enjoy your day! May God bless all that you do, everyone you meet, and every place you go. May God bless you with the wisdom and grace to see the gift that you are! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 07/09/2014

Daily Thoughts: “A [person] knows when he [or she] has found his [or her] vocation when he [or she] stops thinking about how to live and begins to live.” (Thomas Merton)  I think this is a good quote for our Gospel reading today. The 12 apostles (Matt. 10:1-7) begin to live today and in doing so they find out what God has in store for them.

Isn’t this true for all of us? In living we uncover, we find, we experience, we become who God calls us to be. At mass this morning I told the people that a verse from John’s Gospel came to mind as I reflected upon the Gospel, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last” (John 15:16). The twelve were chosen by God and in the Gospel today they take their first step in living out that call, they bring the gift of God to the people that they encounter.

The challenge today for us is – Are we living out our call? And what gift are we offering the world today? Have a great Wednesday everyone and don’t forget to make a joyful noise with your life today!

Daily Prayer: O God, you have called us to serve you today. You have asked some work of us today that you have not asked of others. We have a mission, a call, a meaning to our life today and we may never know its fruit fully. We are a link in your chain of life, a bond of connection between your people. Help us today to do good, to do your work, to be an angel of peace, a preacher of the Good News in our own way. Grace us with the gift of hope that we can share with whomever we meet. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: Let’s run in a spirit of gratefulness today. Before we begin our run let’s declare our intention to look upon all we encounter with the freshness of the unexpected. Let us run with a sense of miraculous expectation and allow a feeling of gratitude for the extraordinary and the ordinary to flow through our being. As we run today let us be thankful to God for life! (Adapted from Roger Joslin – Running the Spiritual Path)

Daily Blessing: Guess what day it is? Guess what – day it is? It is Hump Day - Wednesday so Happy Hump Day and Wednesday blessings to all!

Things are going along just fine here in Mount Holly and I am staying out of trouble and this is a good thing. I hope your Hump Day is going well, if not and you are having a few bumps in the road please know of my prayers for you. I have had a lot of practice praying for bumps in the road! 

My prayer of blessing is that your afternoon and evening will be blessed with God’s peaceful presence and that your work, your encounters with others, your travel and your return home will be graced with a true sense of faith, hope, joy and love. Have a great Wednesday afternoon and evening everyone – enjoy the rest of the day as best you can and remember you are a gift and you make everyone’s day that you meet better! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 07/08/2014

Daily Thoughts: As I prepared for the 7:00 am mass very early this morning I had a couple of thoughts about our readings today. First off, I think we have all been where Jesus seems to be today. It might take place within family, friends, the place where we work, the neighborhood or our faith community, but we have been in those situations when we look at people and their struggles and our “hearts go out to them!” We see them overwhelmed by life and we wonder how they will survive, how they will make it. At time we even feel helpless because the struggle, the problem, the issue just seem so overwhelming.

In the midst of Jesus’ ministry, even though he is healing everyone in sight he looks around and it is overwhelming. He sees the struggles of life, of health, of emotions, of faith and he wonders how are they going to make it. His heart goes out to them!

However, Jesus also sees a great harvest. He sees possibilities, he sees gifts, talents, abilities. He sees hope and a future but he knows people cannot do it alone the whole community must work at it.  Sometimes we think this passage just refers to vocations. If we just get enough priests everything will be fine. Vocations are only a piece of the challenge that Jesus presents to us today. The challenge is for the whole community to be involved. The whole community needs to work together to bring in the harvest, not just a so called chosen few.

If the community does not work together we see the outcome in our first reading by Hosea, the harvest is lost. The harvest of faith, hope and love is the responsibility of the community. We are in the journey together and we all have something to add, to give so that the full rich harvest of God’s presence can be realized and make present.

Have a great day everyone and don’t forget to make a joyful noise with your life today!

(Daily Readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070814.cfm)

Daily Prayer: We give you heartfelt thanks, O Loving God, for the rest of the past night and for the gift of a new day, with all its opportunities of pleasing you. Grant that as we live the hours of this day we will do so with joy, faith, hope and love in service of you. So that when evening comes upon us we will again give thanks to you for your many gifts that enriched us throughout the day. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen! (Adapted from Daybreak prayer of the Eastern Church)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Every run is a work of art, a drawing on each day's canvas. Some runs are shouts and some runs are whispers. Some runs are eulogies and others celebrations. When you're angry, a run can be a sharp slap in the face. When happy, a run is your song. And when your running progresses enough to become the chrysalis through which your life is viewed, motivation is almost beside the point. Rather, it's running that motivates you for everything else the day holds.” (From the Runner’s World Daily Kick in the Butt by Dagny Scott Barrios)

And as a friend and brother in the Passion often says – “So to in the spiritual life!”

Daily Blessing: Tuesday blessing to all! I hope your day has gotten off to a good start and that you are prepared to face the heat that seems to be upon us at least here in Mount Holly, NJ.

My week is going well with early mornings, as I have a 7:00 am and 8:30 am mass each day, productive days that are helping me get caught up on paperwork and relaxing evenings with friends. It is a nice mix in which to celebrate these early July days of summer!

We are challenged in the Gospel today to help the harvest master to bring in the great harvest so my prayer of blessing for you today is that you will be blessed by God with the energy, enthusiasm, faith, hope and joy to work in the field of life today and bring the gift of God’s presence to all you meet. My you be blessed with the courage and strength to share your gift thus make a joyful noise in life today. Blessing upon all you do, every place you go and upon everyone you meet! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul