Daily Thoughts: Both Jesus and
Jeremiah find themselves in difficult situations today. For Jeremiah it is the
reality of being a prophet, the people do not like what God is calling them to
and so they are going to take it out on the prophet. For Jesus it is the
reality that people just will not accept him. He has done many good things but
people focus in on what they see as a problem, they look passed all the good,
they only see the negative.
Isn’t that often the case, wonderful
things can be happening yet people only focus on the negative. Whether we are
talking about faith, church, religion, culture or society there can be many
signs of hope, many actions that are good yet for some reason what is wrong,
the negative, becomes the focus. We tend to look for what is wrong with a
person, an experience or situation rather than what is right and good. At times
it seems like we can make every positive story, situation, experience or person
negative just give us time.
How can we overcome this? How can we be
a positive life giving person today? How can we find the good and the hope in
life? Well I think Jeremiah and Jesus give us the answer.
Jeremiah in the midst of his struggle
says, “But the Lord is with me….” Yes, life isn’t exactly the best at this
moment, things are not going so well, but God is with me! Jeremiah turns a
negative into a positive. Jeremiah finds hope in a struggling moment.
Jesus reminds the crowd to look for and
believe in good works. In other words find the goodness in the actions and
works of yourself and others. Find what is right with the world, not what is
wrong!
This is certainly a different way to
live life and living this way will be challenged every day. The media and I
realize that it is not just the media or all the media’s fault, but with its
twenty four hour a day focus, its need to create news, it has helped us to
constantly look for the negative. Let’s face it we like negative, we like
seeing people’s faults and failings, negative stories that sell. The stories
that most often seem to capture the attention of the viewers are those that
focus of the negatives of life. We search and hunt for all that is wrong. We
seem to take delight in pointing the finger, in bringing a person down rather
than finding the good and building up.
Perhaps our challenge today is to look
for the good work in ourselves and others and to believe that God is always
with us!
Have a blessed Friday everyone!
Daily Prayer: Loving God, we
thank you for this holy season of grace. Help us through your grace to see the
goodness in ourselves and in others. Give us the strength to believe that you
are always with us even when we struggle. Enliven our hearts with the gift of
hope, a gift that we through the living of life can bring to the world. May
your spirit of life, love, joy and hope always be within our hearts and help us
to celebrate each and every day of our lives! Amen!
A Runner’s Thoughts: If we become
meditative runners, prayerful runners, then we will be fortunate enough to find
ways that refresh our bodies, our minds and renew our spirits, thus we might
say we will be born again with every new run!
Daily Blessing: Friday
greetings and blessing to everyone! I hope you have had a good week. I am sure
you are ready for the weekend. Yesterday was a busy day for me but a good one.
I made my way down from Peterborough, NH and then prepared for the closing talk
at the Passionist Mission at St. Francis de Sales Parish in Manhattan last
night. I have to say I was a bit nervous because I had not been there the other
nights but all went well and it was a wonderful faith filled closing to the mission.
Thanks for all your prayers yesterday!
Today is a day of rest more or less. I
am going to get caught up on mail, paperwork and emails. It looks to be a rainy
day here in Pelham so hopefully I will get a lot done.
I pray today that God will bless all of
you in a special way not just today but throughout the coming week of Holy Week.
May this time be rich in the presence of God and that you will find time to
make today and the coming week holy in your life. May you be blessed today with
the joy, faith, hope and peace of our God who so loved the world that he gave
us his only Son and if we believe God will give us the gift of eternal life.
Blessings upon all today!
Be well everyone, have a great Friday
and a restful and peaceful weekend. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul
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