Daily Thoughts - 02/06/2016

Daily Thoughts: The Gospel provides us with an 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 Gospel 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: “To me, the runner’s high is a sensational reaction to a great run! It’s an exhilarating feeling of satisfaction and achievement.” (Sasha Azevedo) So 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 all. It looks like it is going to be a sunny day here in Pelham. I have got a lot of things to do before I hit the road this afternoon. So even though our Gospel today says don’t forget to rest that will have to wait as the busy season of Parish Missions in upon me.

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 pray 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 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 - 02/05/2016

Daily Thoughts: Today is 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. We call upon her intersession and seek her strength in our own journey of faith.

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!

In our first reading we recall the greatness of King David. We have just finished reading David’s story in the First Book of Kings and now in the Book of Sirach the greatness of David is remembered. While at the end of today’s passage the writer says that God forgave David his sins the focus of the passage is David’s faithfulness. We might say that our passage today not only focusses on David’s faithfulness but also God’s mercy.

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. We also need to be aware that when we do fail and sins that God’s mercy is there for us.

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: Friday greetings and blessings to all. Well we have made it to the end of another week. 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. I also have a mass at the Wartburg Home later this morning at 11:00 am so you might say it is a busy morning.

The rest of the day will be dedicated to getting things ready for my next mission which begin on Saturday at St. Anthony’s Parish in East Northport, New York. I hope your Friday journey will be a good one.

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 - 02/04/2016

Daily Thoughts: Our readings today talk about faithfulness and trust, especially in the promises of God. In our first reading from the First Book of Kings David reminds his son Solomon to be faithful to God. David is dying and he is handing over the kingdom to his son. If Solomon remain faithful to the statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees as they are written in the law of Moses then he will succeed in whatever he does. God will bless him and the kingdom.

David knows a things or two about faithfulness and trust on God. He knows that it takes faithfulness and trust to make the relationship work. He made a number of unfaithful choices throughout his kingship. At times he struggles in being faithful and trusting in God.

Being faithful and trusting is something we have to learn. 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 with faithfulness by 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 be faithful and 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, mercy and joy! 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 back in Pelham. It was a long rainy drive yesterday but I got home around 3:30 pm and got to bed on the early side so I am feeling pretty good this morning. I have a mass later this morning at the Wartburg Home and then I will be wait for the dishwasher repair person to come sometime this afternoon between 1 pm and 5 pm. We are to have another mild but cloudy day here in Pelham. I hope the weather by you is adding to the journey of your day in a positive way.

Many blessings on your Thursday, may it be a good one. As you wander 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, mercy and many measures of love! Enjoy the day, be safe and above all may you be graced with the presence of God throughout the day. Have a great Thursday everyone! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul