Daily Thoughts - 02/07/2015

Daily Thoughts: Before I reflected on our scriptures today I was checking my Facebook page and ran across a friend’s reflection on his morning. It went like this – “Warm sun, hot coffee, pipe, swing, dog by my side, geese on the lake.... Mornin y'all !” Now I know my friend to be a spiritual person but I am not sure he was thinking spiritually this morning when he wrote his post but I think he has grasped the essence of our readings today!

On the one hand the reading from Hebrews we encounter the closing of this letter. It seems to be a prayer and blessings that the writer wished to impart on all who would read or hear these words. It is a prayer and blessing with which to go forth into the journey of life.

The Gospel provides us with another insight into the life of Jesus and his disciples. Jesus knew that his time was short and his message was important. He knew that it was vital that his message should be spread as swiftly as possible. However Jesus knew it was also important to take time away from proclaiming the Good News. He knew it was important to rest. Even Jesus himself often took time to rest and pray. It was in these moments of rest and prayer that Jesus found the inspiration and wisdom to continue his journey to Calvary.

The message of our readings today is clear. We need to remember that we journey through this life with God’s blessing and we need to remind ourselves of this blessing each and every day and the best way to be reminded of God’s blessings in our life is to pause from the busyness of life – to take some time of rest and prayer. In other words we can discover the blessings of God when we spend some time in prayerful silence. It we don’t we can become overwhelmed by the busyness of life, the busyness of the world and miss the helping presence of God in our lives.

We are all well aware of how life can often overwhelm us. We have many responsibilities, family, friend, work, ministry, shopping, preparing meals; getting places we need to be through traffic, bad weather.  We face many pressures each and every day and sometimes they can be more than we bargained for.

Our Gospel today reminds us to pause in the midst of the busyness of our lives and take a break, rest a little, pray a little and stay connected with God. This can make all the difference!

Try and have a restful Saturday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, who are the light of the minds that know you, the joy of the hearts that love you, and the strength of the wills that serve you: grant us so to know you that we may truly love you, and so to love you that we may fully serve you, who to serve is perfect freedom, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen! (St. Augustine of Hippo)

A Runner's Thoughts: Try to transform your run today from just a run to a sacred experience by letting God run with you!

Daily Blessing: Saturday greetings and blessings to everyone! It is a cloudy, cold day here in Pelham. One of those days that doesn’t seem to produce much energy yet I have got a lot of things to do before I hit the road on Monday. So even though our Gospel today says don’t forget to rest that will have to wait until Monday afternoon and I need to find some energy now!

I pray your Saturday will go well and that you unlike me will have the chance to take a little time off and get away from the busyness of life. If you cannot I pray that you will have a chance to do so soon! I also pray that you are able to navigate through whatever Mother Nature and life are throwing your way these early days of February.

My prayer of blessing for you today is this wherever you are today, whomever you are with or will encounter and whatever you are doing or will do - I prayer that you will be blessed with the grace, love and presence of God. May the God of Peace, who shared with us the great Shepherd, Jesus, furnish all of us with all that is good, so that we may always do what God has created us to do. And may we always take some time to rest and enjoy life. May we find our own moment of – warm sun, hot coffee, pipe, swing, dog by my side, geese on the lake! May we remember to pause for a moment of prayer each day. Enjoy your day, think positive thoughts, wear a smile and trust that God journeys with you! Blessings to all on your journey through this Saturday and every day! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 02/06/2015

Daily Thoughts: The readings today are interesting on the one hand we have the famous story of Herod and John the Baptist. It is a rather gruesome story, it is hard sometimes to think of a young girl being presented with some one's head and then turning and giving it to her mother. Yet, I guess gruesome things happen in life every day, thankfully not in my life.

I am always struck in this story with the fact that Herod is moved by John, that he likes to listen to him, yet he gives in to the worldly pressure around him. I get the feeling Herod knows that John is right, but his power, his self-importance; his ego will not let him say yes. Herod has surrounded himself with people who push him in the wrong direction. We might say that he gives in to the peer pressure of his time!

There is a great line in the Letter to the Hebrews that says, "Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels." It is great advice! Perhaps it is advice that Herod should have heard or heeded. He certainly had one of God's angels, John the Baptist in his presence.

We need to be aware that God can come to us, be present to us in many ways. We need to trust that God is with us always. We need to remember that we are a community of faith not just individuals and we need to always be aware of the struggles and joys of others because they can often bring God into our midst.

Let us today live by the phrase – God is my light and my salvation, whom should we fear? Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Have a great Friday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, help us to always love and reverence your presence in ourselves and others. Keep us always trusting of your presence and love and help us to be hospitable to all we encounter especially the angels you send into our life! Set out life today on a firm foundation of your love so we may live with the hope and trust that you will never forsake or abandon us because you are with us always! Amen!

A Runner's Thoughts: Let's make our run today a God centered run. Let us honor the voice of God in nature, experiencing all the sounds and sights of nature as we run. We can let our breath join in the chorus and we look purposefully for all the signs of God in nature because if we do this we surely will not be running alone!

Daily Blessing: Happy Friday everyone! Well we have made it to the end of another week. For many it has been a long week of battling snow, rain, ice and cold and the forecast is for more of the snow and cold on Sunday and Monday, however we have survived and will continue to survive knowing each day brings us a little closer to spring!

I am up rather early this morning because I have a 7:30 am Mass at Mount St. Michael’s High School in the Bronx. It is a nice way to get the day started!

My prayer today is that God’s blessings will rest upon all of you wherever you are, wherever you go and in whatever you will encounter today. I pray you stay safe, warm, and have a faith filled day. May you find the richness of God’s presence in your life today and always. Also I pray that the end of this day will bring you home to those you love most and help you to the beginning of a restful and enjoyable weekend. Have a great Friday everyone! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 02/05/2015

Daily Thoughts: We come this morning to the Feast of St. Agatha, one of the early martyrs of the Church. What we know about her is mostly legend. We do know that she died in Sicily during the Decian persecution around the year 250. It is alleged that she was sent into a brothel to force her to give up her faith. But she refused and was then sent to prison where she was tortured and died. Her intervention was credited with stilling the eruption of Mount Etna the year after she was buried. Today we call upon her intersession and seek her strength in our own journey of faith.

Our readings today talk about trust, especially trust in the promises of God. In the Letter to the Hebrews the author reminds the community and us that a relationship with God can be a struggle. Down through our story of faith things have not always gone smoothly. The community has not always followed God invitation. We have often gone in our own direction. God has sent prophets to get us back on the right road but it hasn't always been easy.

It takes trust to make our relationship work. We have to learn to let go and let God. For us human beings that is not always easy. We want to be in control and yet as we have learned God's ways are not always our ways so faith demands trust in God. We need to trust that God is leading us down the right road!

Jesus in the Gospel today is trying to teach the twelve the value to trust. He sends them out to preach, teach and heal but they cannot take anything with them. The have to trust, trust the communities that they go to and trust that Jesus will be with them. The twelve find out that if they trust good things happen. They cast out demons, they heal, they are able to proclaim the Good News.

So as we journey through our day let us take each step today trusting in God so as we live this day good things will happen.

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, strengthen the gift of your hope within us so that we may trust in your presence as we live our life today. Graciously, enliven our faith with your presence that we bring you to everyone we meet. Help us with your grace to know that our faith is the beginning and you love is the end and that we bring to two together by living our life in hope! Amen!

A Runner's Thoughts: Remember our faith is like running the journey is rarely a straight line. There are often hills, valleys and bumps in the road but we must always make the choice to keep looking ahead because God is always right around the corner!

Daily Blessing: I hope everyone’s Thursday has started off well. I am off again in a few minutes to our community in Jamaica, NY to continue the process of reviewing candidates for the next group of Passionist International Volunteers. It is an interesting process and there seem to be a lot of very good candidates.

Many blessings on your Thursday, may it be a good one. As you wonder through this day keep the energy high and don't let the everyday struggles get you down. I pray today that God will bless us all with much hope, strong faith and many measures of love! Enjoy the day, stay warm, be safe and above all may you be graced with the presence of God throughout the your day. Have a great Thursday everyone! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 02/04/2015

Daily Thoughts: We hear in the Gospel (Mark 6: 1-6) about a town that doesn’t seem to have faith which perhaps gives us a little food for thought.

The people in Nazareth, Jesus' home town are so closed minded, so sure they know Jesus that they have very little faith. Their faith is so weak that the wonderful things Jesus does everywhere else could not happen in their town. They have put Jesus into a box and they are not open to the unpredictable answers, the unexplainable surprises and the unrelenting love that Jesus brings!

Our Gospel reminds us that faith is profoundly important but is not easy, that it takes work. We cannot always depend on what we know, or see. History is helpful but at times can get in the way. We need to be open to the possibilities of something new. We need to keep working at our faith. We need to not give up hope because we never know when the grace of God will be in our midst and we do not want to miss it!

So today let us live out our faith, let us not fear, because God's kindness is everlasting and God's grace in always right around the corner! Have a great day everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God of all strength, help us to hold on to the courage of faith as we live our life. Keep us from forming opinions about ourselves and others that cause us to miss your grace, your presence and your love. Keep our hearts open to the many ways you enter our lives so that in faith you might bring healing and love to our life and to all those we encounter this day. Amen!

A Runner's Thoughts: Remember it is possible to begin a meditation run simply by stepping on to the side walk, the street, the track, the path, a treadmill and putting one foot in front of the other. In fact, the simplicity of this is one of the great joys of running!

Daily Blessing: Happy Wednesday, Happy Hump Day everyone! Once again we are at the hump day of the week, thus in theory it should be all downhill from here! Well perhaps not but we can always hope!

Another cold, sloppy, day here in New York but with each new day we are that much closer to spring! In a little while I will be headed over to our community in Jamaica, NY to attend a meeting. These next two days I am helping out our Passionist International Volunteer Program as they evaluation the applicants for the new group that will start in July. Please if you get a chance please keep us in your prayers so that we can identify good, faith filled young people who want to offer their gifts to the poor of Jamaica, West Indies for a year!

My prayers are with all who died in the plane crash in Taiwan yesterday and the train accident here in New York last night and with all who are still dealing with difficult conditions because of the weather.

My prayer of blessing today is simple this… wherever you are, whatever this day has brought or will bring your way I pray in the hope you have found and will continue to find many blessings as you live this day! Enjoy your day, the people you meet, the things you do and the time you spend being the gift you are! Blessings to all! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul.

Daily Thoughts - 02/03/2015

Daily Thoughts: We celebrated a familiar feast today that of St. Blaise a bishop and martyr in the early fourth century. Legend has it that he cured a boy who was choking on a fish bone. St. Blaise has long been linked cures of ailments of the throat. In fact many will have their throats blessed today through the intercession of St. Blaise. The legend of St. Blaise’s power to heal flows from his faith as a church leader and a martyr. It is healing power of faith that our readings touch on today.

We heard in the Gospel (Mark 5: 21-43) about two women, one who is cured and the other who is brought back to life. The women in the Gospel story are different, one is just a child of twelve who faces death, and the other has lived many years but for the last twelve years has faced a great physical struggle. For one woman it is the faith of her family, in particular her father, that makes all the difference, for the other it is her own faith that makes the difference. This is what brings these women together, faith. Faith if lived out can give us the opportunity to be cured; faith can also give us life!

The focus of the Gospel is the thread of faith. The two women in our Gospel relied on faith to bring about comfort, relief and life. We, the community of faith, rely on the faith of those that journey with us, our own faith and the faith of those who have gone before us, "the cloud of witnesses" to keep us going, to support us on this journey of faith we call life.

Faith can be a comfort, faith is always a challenge but remember it can bring healing, it can bring support and it can bring life. Let us be faith filled people today and always so that we to can be a source of healing, comfort, support and life to all we meet!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, give strength to our faith, so that we can be a source of support, comfort, healing and life as we make our journey through this day to a new day tomorrow. Help us to draw upon the faith of all who have gone before us, trusting that they are always with us. Give us the courage to reach out and touch you when we most need it today. Make us aware of those in need of life today so that we may bring you to them. May we not grow weary or lose heart. Amen!

A Runner's Thoughts: Let us accept our next run for what it is, remembering that this is a spiritual practice that, like any exercise, requires persistence through experiences of success and what seems like failure.

Daily Blessing: Tuesday greetings and blessings everyone! We weathered the snow, sleet, rain and snow of yesterday and today we are just dealing with a cold cloudy day. I hope your Tuesday has started off well and that the weather is not playing too big a role in your journey through this day!

I tuned into a morning sports talk so for a few minutes and we are still dealing with “pass verses run.” I guess it will take a week or so before we move on from the mistakes of the Super Bowl. Oh the joy that is taken in other peoples misfortune!

On this feast of St. Blaise my prayer of blessing today for all is a simple one – Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other illness: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And even if you don’t struggle with any diseases of the throat or any illness for that matter may God bless you today with a day rich in God’s love! Have a great Tuesday everyone!  Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul