Daily Thoughts - 11/14/2015

Daily Thoughts: Early this morning as I spent some time in prayer I was struck by Jesus’ closing words in the Gospel today, "But when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:1-8)  Especially in light of the Paris attacks last night. I guess Jesus’ question in today’s Gospel is always the underlying question when it come to our human condition. There are so many experiences that seem to make faith difficult. That seem to direct our attention away from our relationship with God. In the Gospel today Jesus reminds us to pay attention and be persistent. In many ways it is these two qualities that will help keep our faith alive so that when Jesus does return he will find faith! ... Key thought for our journey of life today..."Being attentive to God especially through persistence in prayer!"

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, may your overabundance of mercy, patience and grace lead us through the many obstacles that we place in the way of your love today and always! (Adapted from St. Gertrude the Great)

A Runner's Thoughts: When we run with God we can expect surprises, missteps and great leaps toward our understanding and in our relationship with God but we will never be alone!

Daily Blessing: Saturday greetings and blessings to all. I hope your Saturday is off to a good start. My prayers today are for those who lost their lives yesterday in the Paris attacks and for their families and friends who now morn their loss. May God somehow bring us closer to peace!

I am off later today to Germantown, New York and the motherhouse of the Carmelite Sisters where I will begin a retreat this evening. We will celebrate retreat together until next Friday. So please keep the sisters who will be on retreat these next seven day in your prayers and if you could add a short prayer for their preacher it would be greatly appreciated.

May your day be blessed not with gun fire, terror and tragedy but with the warmth of the sun lighting up a beauty of God’s creation today and the warmth of many smiles greeting you and guiding you through the gift of all the experiences that this day will bring. May your day be rich in the blessings of God’s grace, mercy, hope, joy and love wherever you go and in and through whomever you meet. And may you always be blessed in finding God’s presence within yourself! Have a great Saturday with many blessings and much peace! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 11/13/2015

Daily Thoughts: I think the following quote from Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. touches on the message from the Book of Wisdom today (Wisdom 13:1-9). We certainly can learn a lot from nature, God’s creation however we have to be observant. We need to look around us and see the blue skies, the many colored leaves, the red, yellow and pink roses, the majestic trees, the soaring birds, the never ending oceans and wonderful night sky. St. Paul of the Cross once talked about stopping to hush the flowers because they were speaking to him of God too loudly. God is all around us, God is within us but we need to take the time to see and hear what nature, what God’s creation has to say to us!

“By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, when in fact we live steeped in its burning layers”

Stop and take it in today! Have a great Friday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, we join today with every creature, every plant, every rock and grain of sand to proclaims the glory of our Creator. We celebrate this day through color, shape, scent and form. It is our multi-sensory song of praise.

God creator of all, we join with the whole of your creation in praising you through the fragrance, melody, harmony and spirit of our lives. Amen!

(Adapted from a prayer found on Faith and Worship - Christian Prayers and Resources)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear the leaves and listen to the rain, and look to the day when it is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight.” (George Sheehan)

Daily Blessing: Friday greetings and blessing to all. Today will be a long day as it is the November taping day for the Sunday Mass. So I will be leaving short for St. Francis de Salles Parish in Manhattan for a long day of taping. So I would ask your prayers for the Sunday Mass crew, all those in front of the cameras and all those behind the cameras.

I think it is going to be a rather cold and windy Friday at least that was the report last night and as T ready myself to leave this morning I can hear the wind howling outside. I hope the weather is a bit better by you today.

I hope all you well have a good and productive Friday and that you are looking forward to a restful and relaxing weekend.

For my blessing prayer today I am going to use an old Irish Blessing and it is my prayer for all of you today – “Deep peace of the running wave to you.  Deep peace of the flowing air to you.  Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.  Deep peace of the shining stars to you.  Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.” Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 11/12/2015

Daily Thoughts: “The Kingdom of God is among you.” These are Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel (Luke 17:20-25). What do they mean?

On the one hand Jesus could be talking about himself. He is the Kingdom of God at that moment. The religious leaders are looking around for God and signs of God yet God is in their midst. The Kingdom of God is among them and they are missing it!

Another way of looking at Jesus’ words is that Jesus does not say that the Kingdom of God is in us or above us or around us; Jesus says the Kingdom is among us. Perhaps Jesus is saying that none of us alone possesses the Kingdom of God. Each of us shares in the Kingdom, thus we need each other for the Kingdom to be fully appreciated.

With this in these two understandings of Jesus’ words today our challenge is to be on the lookout for marks of the Kingdom. We need to be on the lookout for the presence of Jesus in our life. And what will help us not miss the marks of the Kingdom and the presence of Jesus? Well as the first reading tells us (Wisdom 7:22b-8:1) the gift of the spirit of wisdom and remember wisdom produces friends of God!

Have a wise and wonderful Thursday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God of all wisdom, hear our prayer today, as we call upon your spirit of wisdom, and grace us with your spirit of wisdom so that we may know and understand what things we ought to do and say. Touch us with your presence so that we may have grace and power to faithfully accomplish all that is put in front of us today. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ our loving Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

A Runner’s Thoughts: “I run because it's so symbolic of life. You have to drive yourself to overcome the obstacles. You might feel that you can't. But then you find your inner strength, and realize you're capable of so much more than you thought.” (Arthur Blank) So to in the spiritual life…

Daily Blessings: Thursday greetings and blessings to all! I hope your day has started off well? If not just remember you are in my prayers throughout the day in the hope by the end of this day you will have encounter the presence of God that will make all the difference.

It looks like another cloudy rainy day here in Pelham. I get the sense that we are not far from winter as there is a coolness to the air, most of the colors are gone and there are more cloudy gray days than not. Yes winter is not far away at least according to the Fr. Paul Seasons Meter!

My prayer of blessing for all us today is – Loving God, giver of all good gifts, bless us today with hearts that love you, so that by deepening our sense of respect and reverence for you we may nurture within ourselves and others only what is good. Bless us with your watchful care throughout this day so that wherever we go and whatever we do it will be for you. Bring us home safe to those we love that we might celebrate the gift of family, of friendship, of community, of your love so that our sleep will be restful and we will be energized to welcome you tomorrow! Blessings upon everyone as you journey through this day! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul