Daily Thoughts - 03/19/2016

Daily Thoughts: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.” (Pope Francis – Evangelii Gaudium – The Joy of the Gospel)

These are perhaps odd words from Pope Francis to use on this Feast of St. Joseph, yet I think they are words which reflect the life of Joseph. He was a laborer and he faced many challenges in his life especially when God came calling. St. Joseph was a person of life, an ordinary person who through faith did extraordinary things. St. Joseph is a wonderful image of the kind of Church Pope Francis wants, a compassionate, loving and joy filled Church.

Today we celebrate St. Joseph a person we know very little about but what we know can be an inspiration for all of us. He was a simple man skilled in the use of his hands to shape, form and build. He was an ordinary man placed in an extraordinary situation. He was a faith filled man who staked his life on the promises of God.

St. Joseph wanders into our life through a few verses of scripture and leaves a lasting impression. In every situation we find him he pursues the right thing to do. He is righteous man who cares about the people around him. He is a loving man who protects those he loves. He is a hope filled man who places his trust in his relationship with God.

Yes, in his ordinariness St. Joseph stands as an example for all of us and we live our lives of faith. He is a model of quiet faithfulness. He is the hopefulness that fathers bring to a family. He is an example of loving attention to God’s presence. He is the humble father who reminds us of the gift of family life and the challenge of living for others!

As we celebrate St. Joseph today as the husband of Mary let us honor his faithfulness, his hopefulness and his love by letting him be an example that helps us to live our life of faith caring for those around us.

Happy St. Joseph’s Day to all, and have a great Saturday!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, we honor your faithful servant, St. Joseph today. Help us with your grace to be your faith filled servants too. Enable us to be compassionate like Joseph to those around us. Give us the wisdom of Joseph so that we to will see your plan in every aspect of our lives. Gift us with a love like Joseph so that we to can make a difference with our lives. Touch us with the joy of Joseph so that we will always find the gift of God’s presence in everything we do. Good St. Joseph pray for us and watch over us. Help us to always find the value of family life no matter how difficult the world makes it. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement. (Steve Prefontaine)

Daily Blessing: Happy Feast of St. Joseph and Saturday greetings and greetings to all. I hope your day has started off well and that you are looking forward to a productive and life giving day.

The Carmelite Sisters and I had a very nice Day of Recollection yesterday and I had a quiet evening of reflection myself. Later this morning I will make my way back to Pelham. For me it will be a Saturday of catching up as I try to clear my desk of all the mail and messages that have crossed it during the last week. I will also begin my preparations for the week ahead.

I thought a storm was coming on Sunday but right now they are saying no or maybe so who knows! May your Saturday and Sunday be graced with good weather and an opportunity to relax and enjoy life a little.

My prayer of blessing today is that through the intercession of St. Joseph, all of us will remain focused on our faith, on our relationship with God and on all the wonderful things God has done for us. May we never give in to hopelessness and look elsewhere to a god the world creates. Many blessings to all today, success in your endeavors, safety in your travels and many experiences of God’s presence throughout the day! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 03/18/2016

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 messenger, 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 into a 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 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 great 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 all. I hope you have had a good week and a good celebration of St. Patrick’s Day yesterday. I would guess that you are now ready for the weekend.

Yesterday, I celebrated mass at the Wartburg Home and then made my way two hours north to Germantown, New York and the Carmelite Sisters. In a few hours I will begin a Day of Recollection with them. It is always a pleasure to come here and spend a little time along the Great Hudson River. My bedroom window looks out on the Great River. What a beautiful way to greet the morning! I am hoping for a nice weather day though there are some dark clouds over the river right now. Please keep the sisters and their preacher in your prayers today.

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

Daily Thoughts - 03/17/2016

Daily Thoughts: Once again in, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis writes, “I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction”.

Thanks solely to this encounter – or renewed encounter – with God’s love, which blossoms into an enriching friendship, we are liberated from our narrowness and self-absorption. We become fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being.”

These words from Pope Francis and Pope Benedict today touch on the theme of our scriptures. Who are we? What are we about? Seems to be the question asked in our readings (Genesis 17: 3-9 and John 8: 51-59). Abram is to become the father of a host of nations; his name is even changed from Abram to Abraham. He is redefined as a person because of his personal encounter with God. Abraham is now a friend of God.

Jesus does not make himself out to be just anybody; Jesus is “I AM” and if we believe we have the gift of eternal life. It is a hard pill for the religious leadership to swallow. Jesus is not able to break through their stony heart with this personal encounter, in fact they pick up stones to do away with him. They cannot be liberated from their narrowness or self-absorption.

Perhaps our challenge today is to renew ourselves in light of our personal encounter with Christ, to have faith in the covenant, to believe in Jesus as “I AM,” to trust in our friendship with God. We are challenged today to let God bring us beyond ourselves to attain the fullest truth of who we are so that we can live this day a God’s joy filled friends who share our joy with everyone we meet!

Have a great Thursday and a Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

Daily Prayer: As I arise today, may the strength of God pilot me, the power of God uphold me, the wisdom of God guide me.  May the eye of God look before me, the ear of God hear me, the word of God speak for me. May the hand of God protect me, the way of God lie before me, the shield of God defend me, the host of God save me. May Christ shield me today. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit, Christ when I stand, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me. Amen!

A Runner's Thoughts: As we run today let us choose the road less traveled: the road of awareness as we run, the road of revelation as we run, the road of intention as we run, the road of mindfulness as we run, the road of imagination as we run, the road of joy as we run, the road of prayer as we run. Today let's pick a road we have not traveled lately and let it make a difference in our life today!

Daily Blessing: Top o' the morn to all! Thursday greetings and blessings and Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone. I hope you are celebrating at least a little because you know there is a little Irish in everyone even if it is just your smile, so celebrate a little.

I hope this finds you well and enjoying the beginning of this St. Patrick’s Day. If that is too optimistic for you, I hope this finds you well and beginning a new day with the hope of a good day or at least a day that will get better than this moment!

Our mission at St. Joseph’s had a great ending last evening. As the days before, our closing was spirit filled and energizing. I made my way home last night and I am greeting you this morning from Pelham. I will be doing wash this morning and then I have an 11 am mass at the Wartburg. This afternoon I will head to Germantown, New York as I have a Day of Recollection for the Carmelite Sister of the Aged and Infirmed tomorrow. So even on St. Patrick’s Day no rest for the itinerant preacher.

My prayer of blessing today is that you will have a great St. Patrick’s Day, with many blessings. May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face, and the rain fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

If you are celebrating today may you do so safely and joyfully. May we all be blessed with the strength of God to guide us, the power of God to uphold us, and the wisdom of God to enlighten me. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 03/16/2016

Daily Thoughts: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Simple words of Jesus in today Gospel (John 8: 31-42) if only we could follow them. Sometimes the truth is the last thing we choose to speak. We think it complicates life. We think it causes more problems. We think it often hurts more than it helps. We think it should only be used as a last resort only when there are no other options. The truth seems anything but free at times to us!

Yet throughout his life and ministry Jesus only spoke the truth and every time we walk into a church or a Catholic home and see a crucifix on the wall we are reminded of where the truth got Jesus. We are reminded of the price he paid for coming into this world to speak the truth. We are reminded just how much God loves us.

Perhaps a different way of thinking about Jesus’ words in the Gospel today is that the truth has set us free. If only we would embrace it. If only we would follow the example of the three young men in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace (Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95). If only we would realize the freedom that living by the truth means for our lives, the gift that it can be to ourselves and the world and the hope that it brings to life.

May we have the courage to speak and live the truth like the three young men and may the truth truly set us free to be the people God has created us to be!

Have a great Wednesday.

Daily Prayer: O God of compassion, touch our hearts this day with the spirit of your truth. Grace us with strength so that we might stand in the midst of the fire of life with a faith based in your Word, a hope enlivened by your truth and freedom grounded in your love. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: “There is only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything.” (Vince Lombardi) Thus when we run in a spiritual way, we are brought into the process of God-ing. Meaning as we run we are not moving toward God but interacting with God along the way. Our run becomes a direct physical, emotional and spiritual way of becoming who we are, our authentic selves. In the process we open up vast and unlimited opportunities to connect with God in new, life giving ways!

Daily Blessing: Wednesday greetings and blessings to all. I hope as you read this that your Wednesday is or has started off well. With darkness still the order of the morning I am unsure what this day will bring weather wise but the experts say it will partly cloudy with rain in the evening and mild temperatures throughout the day. Hopefully the weather by you will help to make your day better.

I would like to send a shout out to the people in the Washington, DC area who might be starting a nightmare of a commuting day as their transportation system has been shut down for 24 hours or so. I am thinking specifically of my niece and nephew-in-law who commute each day from Fairfax to Washington. Hang in there and know your journey is in my prayers.

We will be finishing up the mission here at St. Joseph’s today both in the morning and evening. It has been a good mission and a faith filled mission. As we bring the mission to a close please keep the faith community here at St. Joseph’s in your prayers and if you have a little extra time please add a prayer for their preacher.

I hope and pray your day will not be too busy and that you get a little chance to just enjoy the gift of this day in some unique and life giving way.

My prayer of blessing as I await the rising of the sun this morning is that we may all encounter many good people today and have may good experiences that will be rich in the presence of God. I pray that God will bless us all with the grace to see, feel and experience the goodness and joy of life in what we do today, in who we meet and perhaps most importantly in ourselves as we live this day. May our day be rich in God’s blessings! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 03/15/2016

Daily Thoughts: Today’s readings (Numbers 21: 4-9 and John 8: 21-30) ask us to look at the nature and the power of our sin in our life.  It is only when we do this that we can be healed from sin and its effects in our lives and our world. 

In the first reading we have the familiar story of the people of the Exodus grumbling and complaining as they wander through the desert.  This grumbling comes from the very people that God rescued from horrific oppression in Egypt, under a Pharaoh who consumed their lives to feed his false god persona, is grossly ungrateful.  Not only had God rescued them from slavery but God also provided food to eat and a fresh stream of pure water to drink, (from a rock no less).  God is taking them to a land “flowing with milk and honey” where they will be God’s people, protected and loved. 

However, they are a whining group, who can’t seem to see their own dependence upon God and the need to be grateful for all that God has done for them.  Their sin of ingratitude is as twisting and venomous as a poison snake which kills with its bite, but it can’t be recognized until it is lifted up on a pole and each person has to look at it and see his or her own darkness of heart to be “cured” of its effect.

In John’s Gospel the serpent on a stick becomes an image for Jesus’ crucifixion.  When, battered and bleeding, he is “lifted up” in front of us. It then becomes possible for us thankless sinners to see, to know, to recognize, and to understand, through God’s grace, the nature and cost of our sin for ourselves, our world and to our loving God.  Jesus took our sin into his own human personhood in order to put it to death and be the instrument for our release from the sin that condemned him and all its death-dealing consequences.

Our challenge today and always as we live our lives in the pursuit the life of grace is each day to stand before the cross and ask Jesus three questions: “What have I done for you?  What am I now doing for you? What can I do for you?”

Have a blessed Tuesday everyone!

Daily Prayer:

We put between us and all evil, the Passion of Jesus Christ.
We put between us and all struggle, the Passion of Jesus Christ.
We put between us and all disappointment, the Passion of Jesus Christ.
We put between us and all loss, the Passion of Jesus Christ.
We put between us and all weakness, the Passion of Jesus Christ.
We put between us and all sinfulness, the Passion of Jesus Christ.
We put between us and all violence, the Passion of Jesus Christ.
We put between us and death, the Passion of Jesus Christ.
May the Passion of Jesus Christ Be Always in Our Hearts...Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” (Lou Holtz) Running can become a tool that helps us deal with the difficulties that we face. It can be a time to release the negative energies in our life. It can be a time to let go and let God!

Daily Blessing: Tuesday greetings and blessings to all. I hope your day is getting off to a good start. As the sun is not up yet I am not sure what this day will bring weather wise but I think it is to be a cloudy day with mild temperatures, not as much wind as yesterday and only a slight chance of rain. I hope your weather day will be a good one.

We had a good beginning to the mission here at St. Joseph’s Parish yesterday both in the morning and the evening. The community is enthusiastic and spirit filled which is what is most important. So please continue to keep the faith community of St. Joseph’s in your prayers and if you have the time please offer a short prayer for their preacher!

I pray that your day will be truly blessed with many good things and many encounters with God’s grace. If it hasn’t been a good start to the day I pray that your day will only get better and become rich in the presence of God.

May you have a faith filled day with many blessings and much peace. As always you are in my prayers. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 03/14/2016

Daily Thoughts: Jesus says in the Gospel (John 8:12-20) today, “You judge by appearances….” Often our judgments of people are just based on appearances. It is either the color of their skin, their ethnic background, the language they are speaking, the clothing they are wearing, the god they believe in, the part of the world they come from that we use to decide who people are. We have not bothered to stop and talk with them or listen to their story or understand what they believe and value. We just judge them, we put them into a box from which they will never escape.

Jesus seems always to be judged by appearance by the religious leaders of his time. He cannot escape the box they have placed him in no matter what he does and says or how hard he tries. The problem is when people are judged in this way, those who do the judging lose. The religious leaders lose because they missed the presence of God in their life. God was standing in their midst and they didn’t see God.  God can be standing in our midst, perhaps not as dramatically as Jesus, but God is still presence in others and if we judge them by only appearance we lose.

Susanna (Daniel 13: 1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62) was judged unfairly and what we learn from her story is that unfair judgments always catch up with those who do the judging. The truth always finds its way to the surface. It can be a difficult process and at times we need people like Daniel to point out the flaws in our judgment but truth will always win even though it may take time, sometimes a life time.

As we go about our day let us not judge by appearance. Let us look for the truth, look for the presence of God in all we meet. Let us be guided by the Light of the world.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, you are our light and life. Grace us with the wisdom to recognize the many works of your hands today. Help us to be your light in the world today by the way we live our life. Enable us to turn away from the desire to judge and to trust in your presence in everyone we meet. Make us instruments of your love, your joy and your peace so that we never walk in darkness but only in your light! Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: As we run today let us receive God’s blessings through every breath we take. We breathe in the presence of God and we exhale all our struggles, all our faults, all our failings. With each breath let us allow God to create something new within us as we run. Enlivening us with the breath of life, the breath of grace, the breath of God!

Daily Blessing: Monday greetings and blessings to all! I hope you had a great weekend or at least a good one! I pray that your new work week will start off well with a morning without any issues or problems. If that is not the case, I pray that God will bless you with a day that gets better as you go along!

We will begin the mission here at St. Joseph’s Parish this morning with the 9:00 am mass and with our evening service at 7:30 pm as always your prayers for the faith community here at St. Joseph’s and their preacher are greatly appreciated.

Blessings upon everyone today, may your day be productive, life-giving and gifted by God’s presence. And unlike the religious leaders of Jesus’ time may you recognize the presence of God in each moment of your day! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 03/13/2016

Daily Thoughts: For me the interesting thing about our Gospel story today has always been that it is only the woman who is brought before Jesus. She was caught in the act of adultery so there had to be a man there but only the woman is dragged before Jesus. It gives you a sense of the injustice that was present in society at that time. Women were pieces of property along with children, not treated in an equal way.

Jesus however has a different way of looking at life and society. Perhaps he sees the injustice and responds to it, or perhaps Jesus just sees every person as someone created in the image and likeness of God. Perhaps he sees someone who has made a mistake yet deserves another chance. Perhaps Jesus sees life were the crowd sees death. Perhaps Jesus sees the possibility for change and newness of life and the crowd sees only the law and punishment.

Pope Francis constantly challenges us to look at things differently by his words and actions. His picking of the name Francis reflects a different way of thinking about, seeing and living life. His humility and care for others reflects a different way of thinking about, seeing and living life. His putting of people first, his care for the poor, his desire for peace reflects a different way of thinking about, seeing and living life.

Our challenge as people of faith is to always see and live life through the lens of faith. We are to think of life not death. We are to see others first rather than just ourselves. We are to live compassionate lives of justice and peace.

Have a great Sunday!

Daily Prayer: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

A Runner’s Thought: As you run imagine God is at your side, running along with you. Imagine how God would look with kindness into the faces of all whom the two of you meet. Imagine how God would fine good in everyone you encounter. Look for good in everyone. Look for good in yourself! (From Roger Joslin – Running the Spiritual Path)

Daily Blessing: Sunday greetings and blessings to all. I hope you set your clocks ahead one-hour last night before heading to bed. If not chances are you are going to be late as you journey through your Sunday!

The weather people say that it is going to be a cloudy but mild day here in Garden City however I am not quite sure because the sun hasn’t risen just yet. Yes, I am reflecting and praying early today as it will be a busy day as I will be preaching at seven masses today. I hope you will have a great Sunday that isn’t quite as busy as mine.

I ask your prayers for the faith community here at St. Joseph’s Parish. My preaching got off to a good start last night and as I mentioned above I have a full day of preaching today in the hope that we will have a great mission this week. If you have a little chance to offer a prayer for the preacher it would be greatly appreciated.

I ask God’s blessing on all of us that as we journey through this Fifth Sunday of Lent it may be a peaceful, restful and life giving day. May God bless us with the richness of family, friends, and a day touched by God’s loving presence.  May God bless all of us as we ready ourselves to begin a new work week. May the week ahead be one that runs smoothly and peacefully with many graced moments! Have a wonderful graced filled day everyone. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul